Pariprasna Srimat Swami Tapasyananda Ji (1904 – 1991), was one of the Vice-Presidents of the Ramakrishna Order. His deeply convincing answers to devotees’ questions raised in spiritual retreats and in personal letters have been published in book form as Spiritual Quest: Questions & Answers. Pariprasna is a selection from this book.
A person whose ideas of God, soul and the hereafter remain at the mere conventional level cannot attach to these the same importance and put forth the same earnestness in his striving for them as he will attach and put forth towards questions relating to his property, relatives and other worldly concerns. But in one in whom Sraddha has dawned, the attitude changes and gets reversed completely. He is ready to devote his time, service, efforts and resources and also to risk dangers and suffer worldly losses, for the sake of his cherished spiritual values. The intensity of our spiritual life will depend upon the depth and sincerity of our Sraddha. On it too depend our application to spiritual practices and our success in them. Sraddha itself is established in the mind through contacts with persons who lead a really holy life, through reflection and discrimination and through lessons taught by intense sufferings in life. Of all these factors, contact with holy men, i.e., persons who live their lives taking God as the pivot of their lives, is the source of all spiritual inspiration. A spiritual aspirant who has work to do as a part of his duty, should look upon them as a trust from the Supreme Being and then discharge them with Him in view. Only thus can the sense of opposition or discord that one feels between his work and spiritual life be overcome and an integrated spiritual life built up. Sri Ramakrishna advises all aspirants engaged in various activities in the outside world to take a holiday for a day or two once in a while and go into some solitary place, where one can be in congenial surroundings away from one’s usual environment and spend one’s time at a stretch for spiritual practices. It is maintained that this will refresh the spirit, and help one maintain an attitude of detachment.
January 2020
MAHARAJ: In the intensification of spiritual life, whether we are at work or not is not a very important matter. It comes to be of importance only at a later stage of spiritual life. The most important point is whether we have spiritual aspiration or not, and how intense it is. To what extent do we feel life to be utterly meaningless without the thought of, and striving towards, the Lord coming into it? This is what determines the intensity of our spiritual life. To the extent that ambitions and pleasures prove satisfying to us, to that extent our spiritual aspiration will not gain strength. As long as these worldly values continue to give us meaning for our life and our strivings, our spiritual life remains at the mere conventional level. The cessation of this state of mind is called the dawn of Sraddha—the state when we take God and spiritual life as very serious concerns in our life.
51 The Vedanta Kesari
PA G E S P O N S O R : S R I M O H A N M . V. , C H E N N A I
QUESTION: How can we intensify our spiritual life even when we are engaged in work?
