Spiritualism for the plebeians' - I

I have often wondered, how come when there are so many books written on stress management, personality development etc.. people still do experience stress. Even i used to read a lot of such books, some willingly ,others' out of curiosity, but would at the end feel there is something lacking in it. Ofcourse am not taking stands here. Itz just that i hear frequently,spiritualism is the best medicine at times of stress. So decided to blog something on that.

Am not going to start by defining wats spiritualism.It is a personal feeling, unique to ones' self. Some may say it is the path to reach god,gain salvation or the means to lead a healthy life. Well at any case my observations are purely based on the Karma Yoga defined in Bhagavat Gita.

So how do we correlate Karma Yoga, Acts of Arjuna and our daily life. Firstly Karma Yoga mandates that
"Pay Heed to the means than to the fruit". Many rishis have forfeited their material pleasures and took salvage in the distant mountains far away from humanity. This they did because of the simple logic that admist humanity is close to materialism than to spiritualism. By sacrificing all their material needs they were able to focus on the supreme form of energy or God. Their mind, body,thoughts were cleansed and they transcended ordinary and entered the realms of extrordinary. They sacrificed everything and expected nothing. This is the method of reaching god,told in his own words.

Now saying this, not everyone of us can do such a sacrifice. We cannot do this, becasue we are not meant to do this. For understanding the principles of Karma Yoga, we have to believe and trust the tenet that there is a supreme power or energy that transends our system. Our life has already been preordained, yet in our system we are left with the concept of choice which deludes us into thinking that we are the decission makers of our own lives.

Ofcourse this is a very flimsy thought and can be negated with a number of examples. And yet, the conclusion would be, both are correct. If god doesn't decide our future then he is not all powerful. If he decides then choice is a delusion.

After contemplating a bit on this and discussing it with my friends, i concurred that
Humans have certain limitations. Whatever we can do, we have to do within this limits. Hence we cannot compare gods deeds with man, basically across systems. In our system we have a choice, outside the system it is just an illusion. So let me progress by discussing possibilities only within our system.

If everyone can do everything then there is nothing called as a choice. But that is not the case, we are constrained by the results of choice. This is where Karma Yoga fits in.

... To be continued..