Spiritual Pathways

All of us would have noted that our life changes over weeks, months and years so that things now are quite different from how they were before. Different experiences of life provide us different types of learning and we tend to learn most in times we characterize as bad. However, every period of life has something good to appreciate and something bad to feel sorry about. Even in the worst of times in our lives, there is something good that is happening. We must appreciate and be grateful for that good while being patient with the bad to pass. It surely will and all shall be well. If we organize our life in a disciplined manner rather than an ad-hoc and random sort of life some lead, work towards improving our life as well as of those we encounter in our journey through life, then any present difficulties shall pass away sooner rather than later and times ahead shall be brighter. If we harm anyone in our journey through life, even plants, animals and the

Although we take much pride in our physical bodies, it is a fragile thing. A small injury, even an attack by a tiny virus can cause huge damage to it or even bring its life to an end. However, while this body is fragile within it dwells a durable soul. It does not die when this body dies. Weapons cannot cut it, fire cannot burn it. When this physical body is destroyed or worn out with age, it goes on to acquire a new body, just as it had acquired the present one. A soul changes bodies just as bodies change clothes. The soul is our essential self from which our feelings, desires and aversions emerge. Our conscious mind may not remember past lives but the soul does. Impressions of our past lives are imprinted upon it. Attached to the soul is consciousness, which is in fact a part of the infinite consciousness that pervades the universe. However, focused on the activities of the mind and inputs of the senses of the body to which it is attached, the individual consciousness

Many persons will tell you that it is good to have dreams in life and to pursue them. However, there is an age to dream and an age not to. When one is still an infant or just a child, it is not a time to dream but to enjoy each day as it unfolds in watchful care of parents and elders. Similarly when one is past fifty, human physical energies begin to reduce rapidly and with that dreams must come to an end. Old age is time to reflect on one’s past, resolve any emotional conflicts and traumas of life, guide and help younger persons with one’s experience, meditate so as to come close to God or universal consciousness, aside from looking after one’s immediate needs. One may at the most do a little part time work besides to keep busy and earn a little extra income if one needs to. One may still be as young as a child at heart but physical abilities reduce rapidly as one ages. Any dreams at this stage must be for the Lord to give a life lovelier than the present one. This woul