How can I be more spiritual in my interactions in the material world?
A couple of weeks ago, an acquaintance was expressing his frustration with me over how his company was responding to the COVID situation. The company has sent most of their staff on unpaid leave and the remaining few have taken significant salary cuts as a result of ‘a downturn in business’. He strongly felt that this was only a short temporary set-back compared to the recurring profits that the company had made in the more than three decades it had been operating. He talked about how difficult it was to meet his daily needs and could not get his head around why the company was could not go the extra mile to look after its employees who had sacrificed so much of their lives working with the company. He further said he was at a loss on what to do as he was fully dependent on his work income to support his family and lifestyle without having any alternative means of income.
“Why!?” he asked.
ACCEPTING LIFE AS IT IS
As I listened to him, I was reminded of a spiritual discourse from Paramahamsa Vishwananda where He teaches us about accepting situations that we come across in life. If we don’t accept the situations that come our way, we will most likely try to avoid facing them. He further says that we should go through life looking at what comes our way as neither good or bad, but as learning experiences which transform us or purify our minds and make us wiser. If we don’t learn what we need to learn from the situation, it will keep repeating itself until the time when the lesson is learned.
MONETARY VERSUS DIVINE RESOURCE
More often than not we separate our material and spiritual life and have a very clear line and the distinction between the two. When we focus too much on the monetary or material resources, we forget about our Divine resource – the one we all have deep within ourselves upon which we should fully depend upon all the time. The most beautiful part of our Divine resource is that it’s inexhaustible, always available as much as we choose to draw upon it and continuously open 24/7.
Drawing upon our Divine resource
What are some of the ways we able to more easily draw upon this infinite source within us? Here are six simple ways.
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Cultivate daily gratitude by beginning your day thanking God for the gift of life, for what He has provided you with, and what He will provide today. Starting the day on a positive note will influence and make way for the rest of the day to also be that way.
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Cultivate a personal relationship with God by consistently showing up for your chosen spiritual practice (could be Atma Kriya Yoga, Simply Meditation, Japa, Project Mantra, or any other you are close to), giving it your best from the depth of your heart. More often than not, we only remember God when we have difficulties and only offer a business proposition to God at the last minute to make the problem go away. When we build a relationship we work on strengthening ourselves even before the challenge arrives.
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Cultivate a habit of regularly donating a portion of your income to any charitable activity and to the society in which you live but without shouting about it. This will allow you to let go of your unhealthy and emotional attachment to material things.
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Cultivate a reliance on God. This doesn’t mean to sit back or get lazy and do nothing about your present situation or ignore your jobs and families. It means that you should carry out your responsibilities in your material day-to-day life and at the same time depend on someone (God) much greater than any of us can ever know.
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Cultivate making God the center of all your daily actions. Every action can be dedicated to Him, for example, when we cook food we cook for Him, when we speak to someone we speak like we are speaking to Him, when we clean our house we do it like we are cleaning God’s house, when we work in the office we work like we are working in God’s office, and so on.
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Cultivate a practice of daily introspection. Analyze all your actions at the end of each day to see what you did and how you can change and improve within. Before going to bed, you can offer all your daily actions to God and ask for His help in transforming yourself.
Challenges may continue to come our way, but if we practice these simple things we will definitely tap into divine energy and strength every single day, allowing us to deal with life in a more peaceful and centered disposition.
Khilan Shah is a devotee, husband, father, working professional and an Atma Kriya Yoga teacher. He was initiated into the 5000 year old ancient kriya lineage as a teacher in 2014 by his Satguru and Kriya Yoga Master Paramahamsa Vishwananda.
Great article. I love the way you separate monetary & material resources from spiritual resources. Most of us rely too much on the former while we should find our support in the latter. Thanks @Khilan