ONE IS SPIRITUAL IF HE IS AWARE............

Awareness is said to be the screen or stage on which is played the whole drama of creation. Though awareness is beyond the physical i.e. the creation which we can see but at the same time everything arises from awareness; survives and thrives in and around the awareness and upon dissolution everything sinks back into the awareness. The whole universe is just that i.e. sat – chit – ananda – being - consciousness -bliss.

Awareness means one has become an observer, sakshi or witness to everything. Spirituality is not what we normally understand like going to religious places or following certain religious beliefs or reading scriptures and religious books. Being spiritual means to be aware. In fact it would not be wrong to say that the other name for spirituality is awareness. Awareness is spirituality and spirituality is awareness. One is said to be spiritual when he begins to follow the path of awareness i.e. living life consciously in full awareness. The only difference whether one is spiritual or a materialist is to be seen in the fact if one is living his life consciously or not. One can be spiritual while living in the world and one can be materialist while being a sanyasi – difference is only of being conscious or unconscious. An enlightened master is one who has become pure awareness and is able to maintain and sustain his awareness all the time.

Why should one become spiritual or follow the path of awareness? Only if we can raise our awareness to the level that we become a witness or observer to everything then only can we live in complete freedom i.e. be free from suffering while we are alive and be liberated from the cycle of birth and re-birth post this life also known as LIBERATION or MUKTI or MOKSHA. In Indian tradition MUKTI is also considered to be the sole objective of every human being. In fact this human potential makes us unique and different from other creatures in the sense that we can become conscious of our existence which no other creature is capable of becoming.

The fact is that most of the times except for few moments of awareness we are living our life unconsciously which means that our current actions are influenced by the information which we accumulated in the past, commonly known as karmas. We are generally ruled and guided by our karmas in the form of past conditioning, past memory, opinions ideas etc. All our vasanas (traces of past karmas in the form of desires and habits) are rooted in our sub-conscious mind which find expression unconsciously and thus feeding on each other and thus strengthening our subconscious and unconscious mind. Though the subconscious mind is there which is a product of memory of many births but this continues to rule and guide our life and hence the suffering. Suffering means to move in circles or doing the same things again and again. Reaction i.e. action which is guided by our past conditioning is unconscious and hence makes us to suffer. Also reaction binds us and we end up accumulating more karmas in the process but on the other hand an action which is conscious not only does not lead to new karmas but also frees us from the past karmas and thus help us achieve our goal of LIBERATION. The reason one of the great Indian saints said dukhia sab sansar (the whole world is suffering) is because of this reason that mostly our living is unconscious i.e. ruled and influenced by our past karmas. Since we continue living unconsciously and thus accumulating more karmas as well, not only our suffering persists but we also continue moving from one life to another because we now need more life times to settle the backlog of these past karmas also known as sanchit karmas. 

However the good thing to know is that if we want we can become free from this suffering and this is possible only by following the path of awareness i.e. becoming more n more aware and not to be ruled by our past karmas. Also if we can maintain this awareness to the last moment of our life then LIBERATION (MUKTI) becomes a certainty because awareness is liberation and liberation is awareness. Now question arises as what should we do to become spiritual i.e. to strengthen our sense of being observer or witness? In fact to be spiritual we do not have to do anything specific like renouncing the world but live our daily life with full awareness i.e. without being ruled by our past memory or karmas. If we watch the things as it is or do the things as needed but without being influenced by past karmas then it means that we are spiritual and thus becoming aware. This though appears to be simple in saying but difficult in practice because all along we have been living our life in unawareness. No sooner we try to bring in awareness than the same is hijacked by our mind and the same old game continues. Hence what is needed is practicing awareness. Beginning to meditate is the step in this direction which will definitely help us raise our awareness over a period of time. The whole purpose of meditation is to strengthen one’s awareness. In fact one can safely say that meditation is awareness and awareness is meditation. This awareness which we practice during the meditation sessions then starts spilling over to our other daily activities of the day and thus becoming still more aware. A moment comes when we become meditative all the time i.e. pure awareness. Awareness thus is the key to one’s becoming free from suffering and also to one’s liberation…..BeAware