Every person is unique and different. There is a cosmic influence on who we are today. I am no exception to that. Despite climbing the corporate ladder with many accomplishments and the blessings of a happy family, I frequently experienced a sense of emptiness within me. I started to wonder what is the purpose of my life. The events in my life guided me towards the path of spirituality. I exercised my free choice to devote more time to learning and practising spirituality. Today, at least intellectually, I understand the purpose of my life. I feel responsible to share my experience with others.
School education makes us intelligent and prepares us for the future job. Contributions of school education towards the development of the world are invaluable. We cannot imagine the world where we are today without the developments in the education system across the world. Despite that, something is missing in our education to prepare us for life. No doubt there are poor and sick people, but even those who are rich and healthy lack happiness and fulfilment in life. Lack of moral values and crimes are not uncommon in this developed world. Though we have learned how to use our intelligence at work, the same intelligence is not helping us to understand our life.
There are many resources from where we can learn spirituality and many of them are from truly enlightened beings. Still, I see some value in my sharing because of two reasons. The first reason is, that spirituality did not appeal to me for almost fifty years of my life despite so many resources to learn from. I did not consider it useful in my life and I did not have the motivation to learn deeply. I was too busy with my life !! I am sure there are many more like me busy living an automated way of life without any time to think about it’s purpose. I wish to tell them how spirituality can make a difference and bring meaning to our life. The second reason is, that spirituality should be learned early in life to benefit from it. However, most of the resources talking about true spiritual knowledge are for adult people. It is hard for a child to understand them. I hope I can make some difference in the life of younger generations.
The following quote from Swami Vivekananda summarises my motivation –
“The miseries of the world cannot be cured by physical help only. Until man’s nature changes, these physical needs will always arise, miseries will always be felt, and no amount of physical help will cure them completely. The only solution to this problem is to make mankind pure. Ignorance is the mother of all the evil and all the misery we see. Let men have light, let them be pure and spiritually strong and educated, then alone will misery cease in the world, not before. We may convert every house in the country into a charity asylum, and we may fill the land with hospitals, but the misery of man will continue to exist until man’s character changes.“