To live life is to be related, and in every relationship there are three factors, the subject, the object and the connection between the subject and the object. If the relationship is harmonious, life is harmonious, and if the relationship is disharmonious life is disharmonious. The art of wisely relating is the context of a spiritual life. Also to heighten the spirit is being spiritual.

To heighten the spirit involves what? Is it not true that our spirit sometimes is low and sometimes high? What causes such variations?

If the content of consciousness is low, life is low, and if the content of consciousness is high, life is high. To check and be alert to the content of consciousness is an indispensable part of spiritual health. If the content of consciousness is hurt, jealousy, anger, ego, it pulls us down. If the content of consciousness is love, gratitude, compassion, then life will be high.

Reflect on this story.


A washer-man in India was going along with his donkey. In the dark, the donkey fell in a pit. So the washer-man could not stand the noise and cry of the donkey and decided to bury it. He started to put mud to cover the pit. After some time, the washer man was shocked to see the donkey coming out of the pit. What had happened was - whenever the mud was put, it used to shake it off, and the mud became steps from which it came out. In the same way if people throw muck at you, shake it off and go up. Therefore, if the content of consciousness is superior, every difficulty will be an opportunity for you to grow. If the content of consciousness is poor, every opportunity will be a difficulty.

The next dimension one has to see is whether one is restless or restful in one’s daily activities of life? Being restful, being calm, being inwardly silent and not noisy is an indispensable quality of a spiritual health. If one is restless inwardly, mind pollutes the perception. If the mind is calm, one sees situations objectively. If the mind is disturbed, one sees things in a distorted way. Hence, it is said, we don’t live in the objective world, but we live in our subjective world. We don’t live in God’s world, but we live in our private world of hurts, upsets etcetera.

Can we look at a flower, without wording a flower? Can we experience anything without the experiencer? When we look at the flower, we word it, we silently say, I like it or don’t like it and by that inner language, we are not in touch with the flower. We are in touch with our version of the flower which is polluted by our internal words of likes and dislikes.

There is a spiritual way of looking. When I see an object without wording it, then I am in touch with the object in a different level. If my boss scolds me, I listen to him without any internal words and get objectively what he is saying. But when he scolds me, and I am crowded with my thoughts, with my internal words, then the overtone is louder than what is said.

There are sensations happening. Can I be alert to the sensations and keep it bright in my awareness? But when I interpret the sensation in a particular way that I want, say “I like” it, “Dislike it”, etcetera, then my sensations become dimmer and my internal words become louder. I am disconnected to “what is” and caught up in what should be. “What should be” is a non-fact and the fact is the present sensations. Be with the fact and not with the non-fact.

To live a life of gratitude is an enlightened way of living. Be grateful and not greedy. If one is grateful, one is sensitive to life, and if one is not grateful, one is sentimental to life. Being grateful, one will not be egoistic and being sentimental, one becomes egoistic. Sensitive is experiencing what is, and sentimental is reacting to what is. To drop the arrogant self is truly being spiritual.

When you are successful be grateful and see that success, is not due to “me” (“I”), but caused by some higher operating force. So work towards lessening this egoistic “I” and see greater force operating. Then one will be grateful and not arrogant.