A CONTINUOUS NEED FOR SPIRITUALITY

Therefore it is only spiritual achievement that can give you a sense of fulfilment. Material fulfilment is seldom achievable, but spiritual fulfilment is achievable to the ultimate extent. When one takes a conscious decision to live as a spiritual person, one must train oneself to this end. Tokens of spirituality are scattered all over the world. In fact, every part of nature, great or small, is invested with spiritual content. People see the signs, but pass them by without detecting them. One who has a prepared mind, however, is able to recognize them and then turn them into objects of contemplation. It is ‘discovery plus contemplation’ that adds up to spirituality. One who has neglected to prepare himself will never be able to draw spiritual nourishment from life’s experiences. In the midst of spiritual abundance, he will continue to remain spiritually starved. What is preparation? Preparation cannot be achieved by means of taking some external course. It is an exercise in selftraining through contemplation. Only those who are ready to engage in self-training can enjoy spirituality. Those who do not, can never develop themselves as spiritual persons. There are many aspects of self-preparation, for instance, the capacity to discern the relevant and the irrelevant aspects of any event, so that an appropriate course of action may be taken; an acute sense of what is significant and what is not is essential, for, without it, man can never experience spirituality. To train oneself spiritually, in the arena of materialism one should live as per needs and not as per desires. The simple principle to adopt is ‘simple living and high thinking’. One of the teachings of the Prophet is “Simplicity is a part of faith”. On a close examination of this Hadith, one can question the wisdom behind considering simplicity as a part of faith itself; that is a part of the belief in God. Let us first consider, what is the absence of simplicity? Absence of simplicity is characterized by the complex methods which require greater resources, time and effort that we adopt in conducting our daily lives to satiate our superficial pursuits. Such complex methods require the use of our intellectual faculties only for material benefit, while they could have been rightly used instead in the pursuit of knowledge, personality development, spiritual growth and the promotion of global peace. Man is considered the ‘crown of creation’ by virtue of being endowed with the power of thinking. This blessing of God can be used either for High thinking is the result of simple living. This is an essential ingredient in our endeavour to be spiritual.