Humanize, Equalize, Spiritualize - Part 3
Sushama Joag‘Humanize, Equalize, Spiritualize‘ is the mission of Pune Prarthana Samaj. Spiritualization is not just a step but a life-long journey leading to self-furtherance. Humanization and equalization are prerequisites of spiritualization.
What is Spirituality?
Everyone is habituated from childhood to take one’s body for the self. The question ‘Who am I? ‘ (कोऽहम् ?) put to the self kindles a torch, and the journey on the path of spirituality begins. Incessant quest after the questions ‘Who am I? What is soul? What is spirit?’ keeps oneself progressing on the path of spirituality.
Revelation that the same principle flows through you and every part of the universe, connects you to the entire universe. It is this connection which breaks down barriers of all the natural and man-made discriminations. It encompasses the whole environment. The supreme, all pervading principle that connects all the components of the universe is called ‘Brahma‘ in Upanishads and is commonly referred to as God. It is formless (निराकार) but full of virtues (सगुण). It is epitome of the virtues which include truth, knowledge, bliss, love, peace and purity. It is infinite and expresses itself in the form of all the movable and immovable things in the universe. The omnipresent Brahma has oneness with everything in the universe. Spirit (आत्मा) in you is part of the infinite Brahma (परमात्मा).
Fostering virtues of the formless and omnipresent Brahma is spirituality. Endeavor to become truthful and peaceful, gaining, creating and disseminating knowledge, nourishing love for all and no hatred towards anyone, helping the needy and underprivileged people to progress, working for cleanliness and conservation of the environment are various ways of practising spirituality. All these deeds, however, can lead to ego and ultimately result in downfall of the doer. Devotion towards the omnipresent, formless and virtueful God infuses humility in the doer and spirituality in all these deeds. This in turn leads to self furtherance of the doer and subsequent social furtherance.
Fostering virtues of the formless and omnipresent Brahma is meaningful when it is based on humanization and equalization. Any act that ignores or contradicts humanization and equalization can not lead to spirituality in the true sense. The mission to Spiritualize, therefore, includes Humanize and Equalize.
Nice exposition….If everybody follows these three principles then this world will become heaven!
‘Humanize, Equalize, Spiritualize‘ हे जे प्रार्थना समाजाचे mission statement आहे ते खूप परिपूर्ण आहे. त्याची खूप विस्तृत आणि नेमकी मांडणी सुषमा जोग यांनी तीन भागांमधून केली आहे.
मला ते सर्व वाचत असतांना,
आजच्या घडीला समाजाला याची खूप आवश्यकता आहे असं वाटलं.
हे जर समाजापर्यंत पोहचवायच असेल तर काय कराव लागेल, कसं करता येईल असे प्रश्न मनात आले.
Nurturing humility in oneself is a clear path to spirituality- truth, knowledge, bliss,love,peace and purity .To achieve such humility I will need to constantly observe myself from the perspective of “am I being humane,am I being equal ?
Namaskar. Very Nicely written…By following the three principles one can align themselves with the will of God. Such a person will see the truth, speak the truth, hear the truth and know the truth. In practicing life as it is really meant to be lived…he/she will ultimately know God with all the unconditional love.
A nice revelation of a road map for sustaining societal values of highest quality by way of humanizing, equalizing and spiritualizing the human behaviour.
Each of the elements of the Samaj Motto are explained beautifully and logically, yet in a simple way. It is interesting to understand that “humanize” and “equalize” are a pre-requisite of “spiritualize” and once this is understood, it becomes easy to relate with the motto in its complete sense.
It will be useful to further dwell on and explain / qualify the statement “All these deeds, however, can lead to ego and ultimately result in downfall of the doer”. Inadequate understanding of the underlying aspects of this statement can lead one to a confusion in mind.
Thank you Suhas for the compliment and also for raising a subtle point regarding ego.
As per the Indian Philosophy six vices or enemies that come in the way of self furtherance or good deed of a person are : desire, anger, greed, lure, ego and envy. To be proud of doing a good deed is quite common and natural. But appearance of ego in one’s mind results in degradation of the good deed in a number of possible ways. No-one in this world is perfect. When left uncontrolled ego results in loss of one’s ability to recognize or accept one’s own mistakes which ultimately results in some or other kind of downfall of the person. Several such examples are seen around. Devotion to the Almighty helps to nurture a mindset to relinquish the fruit of the deed, and thereby does not allow ego to come in the way of persistent good deeds.
Very well written. Obviously the writer is an excellent teacher who is able to explain even profound things in such way that they appear to be simple.