According to the vedic tradition, life is guided by impressions which are known as samskaras. It is stated in the vedic scriptures that when we are born, it is in the realm of ignorance. This material world, the senses, the sense objects which we crave in this material world represent ignorance as we begin to think that our satisfaction is due to the objects that we acquire.
Our needs are being fulfilled by the things that we acquire. Our mind becomes gross and materialistic. The more we are under the hypnosis of a materialistic nature and behaviour, we lose inner balance, peace and contentment.
When we come out of the materialistic hypnotic state, we open our eyes, this time not to the material, but to the spiritual world. That is known as the second birth of the individual. The first birth happens in the body and the second birth happens in knowledge, in spiritual life.
The second birth is important for each one of us, for it opens the doors of wisdom and experience. It opens the way to inculcate the positive, benevolent, auspicious and creative in life. These auspicious, benevolent, positive and creative qualities make us into true human beings.
The qualities which we live and which we experience do not make us true human beings, rather they bring out the animalistic nature in us. What are the qualities that we live day in and day out? Hatred, anger, jealousy, repulsion, attraction, infatuation. These are the common behaviours of every individual.
Are these common behaviours humanistic behaviour? Or are they animalistic behaviour? If you feel that these common behaviours are human, then, live them to the fullest.
If you feel that it is better to develop positivity, creativity and harmony in life by inculcating positive virtues and qualities, then that is the beginning of your spiritual journey. Meditation does not represent the beginning of the spiritual journey. It is only a process which connects you with your inner self.
The spiritual journey begins when you begin to reduce the negatives and increase the positives in life. This entire life is a journey into positive samskaras and nothing else. The whole life is a journey into development of positive samskaras.
In the material life, you need wealth, therefore, everybody is infatuated and attracted to wealth and how to attain it. Without wealth people realize that it is impossible to live in the material dimension. For anything and everything you need wealth, you need resources. Even for food, for travel we need resources, money and wealth.
In spiritual life it is the positive qualities which uplift you, and not your bank balance. We are all poor in our positive qualities. We all live our egos. We all live our ambitions. We all live our expectations. We all live our demands. There is no peace in life. There is no happiness, joy and no contentment in life.
Our ancestors, the rishis and seers, who thought about life have come to the conclusion that there has to be balance between the material and spiritual. There has to be harmony and integration 22 between the material and the spiritual. To develop and build up the material, you need to undergo a process of discipline; and to cultivate spiritual awareness, you also need to undergo a process of discipline and training.
8 September 2019, Sannyasa Peeth, Paduka Darshan, Munger
From the book “Dharma in Life”, pg. 20-22, Sw. Niranjanananda Saras