Early Years of My Spirituality
I discovered Spirituality when I was a little boy. Currently I am around 27 years old Electrical Engineer. I always felt a deep interest and attraction towards Spirituality from my childhood.
Being born in a Hindu family, I came in contact with various Sadhus, Spiritual persons from early years of my life. Also my grandfather used to organize various religious ceremony in our home which was located on a small hill top. I used to observe people of all ages coming to these ceremonies. They were all happy an jolly fellow. Along with them, me and all my family members used to sit together in the courtyard and sang Bhajan Kirtan (Hindu religious songs).
Our home was a beautiful home. It was surrounded by trees and flowers. I used to wake up early in the morning just to watch bees collecting honey from the flowers and all those beautiful birds used to visit our home was mesmerizing. I loved to watch them. Among the seasons Monsoon and Spring is my most favorite. Sometimes during monsoon when it rained continuously, I used to sit on our courtyard in the rain and play with rain water. Those were the best days of my life. As I look back to my childhood these golden days fill my heart with joy and nostalgia.
Entering the Vast Ocean of Spirituality
As I grew up I came across various books about spirituality mostly written in my native language Bengali. I was a bookworm from my childhood, I always had a curiosity whenever I came across a book. So during my teenage years I discovered the treasures of knowledge books have inside them.
Slowly I began to read more and more books not just spiritual, philosophical books but books of all genres. During going down the rabbit hole of books I came across various kind of religious believes and and their spiritual ways. And I was amazed to find the beauty and love in each of them.
I discovered spirituality of Sufism, Christian Monks, Buddhist Monks, Hindu Gurus etc. I was amazed to realize that although these various kind of spiritual orders are different from each other but the core teachings are the same, which is universal love. Love for every thing on this planet and beyond, in other words love for the whole universe. We are all interconnected with each other. As the scientist say we are all made of the same star dust which made this universe and our beloved planet. We all are part of a great community, The Human Community.
Self realizations
As I steadily continued my journey through the ocean of Spirituality, I came to a realization that Spirituality is nothing but love. The main core of Spiritualism belongs to love, universal love.
In my spiritual journey I was most influenced by a Sufi Saint Rumi. His spiritual poems influenced me a lot.Know more abour Rumi I love one of his quote the most
"The only lasting beauty is the beauty of the heart"-- Rumi.
You can clearly see and understand from this line that Sufi Saint Rumi emphasized on the purity of one's heart and soul. If your inner-self is pure and free from hatred, jealousy and other sins like lust etc. you will feel a divine blessings in your heart and love for all other beings. If you closely follow the poems of Rumi, you will realize how much he valued love.
For me when you aim to be a spiritual person you need to start with cleaning your inner-self and heart first. I used to notice faults in people's behavior and used to gossip about it. But as I started to realize the true essence of spirituality I discarded these bad habits of mine. In place of finding faults in others we should look within to find faults in ourselves and we should strive to be the best version of ourselves. No matter how small the progress is, we should at least try to be better. Before finding faults in others, we should ask ourselves is this necessary? Will this do any good to others and society? If not we should refrain ourselves from doing so.
Conclusion
Spirituality is a discipline and life long journey. Nobody knows will they ever find spiritual enlightenment or not. All we can do is to do what is in our control. We do not know what fate has in store for us, we cannot control outside events. But we have control over ourselves, we have the power of making a choice. And our choices makes us who we are. If we want to be a spiritual person, a better person we have to make the right choices with our life.
Thanks for reading.
Author: Joshada Nondan Chanda.
