Nurturing The Soul

“Nurture your soul and your life will be happy and peaceful” said a wiseman. What is nurturing our soul? How do we do that? Why is it important? Many questions come out of these wonderful words of wisdom. Nurturing soul is giving what it is looking for. Imagine you do actions to satisfy everyone in this world except your spouse. How peacefully you would be in that situation?

We are all a poor peasant with a pair of hands to do action. We know how to nurture the field, plant the seeds, apply nutrients to make it grow, remove the weeds, water it regularly until it grows to its life size. Once it matures, we know how to harvest. We perform our actions throughout the life cycle but fail to ask what the owner wants from us. We are married to the princess, and we are ready to shower her with gifts, wealth and are ready for the pomp and show but what she expects from us is sheer love and nothing else as she had been showered with all that we feel like offering already.

Imagine a vessel that gets filled only when we think, see, love, listen and seek the content in it. There is a famous movie song in Tamil that says, "We are holding a begging bowl consist of flesh, bones, etc." As long as we remain aloof to the content of this vessel, our body performs actions at its free will with the help of the Life Force. We are better of seeking this sweet nectar (the content) that satiates our hunger once and for all as opposed to seeking something in the world that gives only a temperary satisfaction.

The base or foundation of our soul is our lifeforce that gives us energy to think, talk and do our actions. Once we nourish the soul, it will begin to feed us and guide us. As the soul grows stronger it begins blessing us with wider vision. The greatest gift of the Life Force to us is the power to act, to rise above our own paralysis and to transform intention to achievement.

The delusion that we are a separate being alone in the world has grown into unbelievable proportion while the soul remains stranded, unfed, and unheard, waiting for us to notice and to listen. Once we begin noticing the soul, give love and nourishment, it will begin feeding us with high level of wisdom and secrets of oneness. It will make us believe that the blessings we seek are closer than we know it.

We must begin looking at the agitation that happens in our mind. Why is it happening? It is happening because we are operating outside the scope of our soul and fail to sync with the unwritten code that is practiced by most lives outside of our specie. Ignoring the soul can lead to a life of confusion and unwise decisions. Without the soul’s voice to guide us, we may begin making poor choices. We seek out false comforts, destructive habits. We can fool ourselves into believing all is well for a while. Lost in the dark without a map, we stagger aimlessly, we bump into things and cling to them even though they are not suited for us. The true extent of the problem may not become clear to us until we experience a full-blown crisis. These are moments when the soul’s anguished voice pierces through our certainties. We drag our shaken selves to the therapist’s office, where we begin to see that the choices, we made did not save us, did not satisfy us, did not nourish us on the deepest levels of our being.

It is unsettling to know that marginalized soul (Eternal) leads a life of a recluse completely detached from the actions and at some point, makes a hard decision to leave us and be with is source in the supernal realm. That is experiencing death before we leave our mortal coil. It means our spiritual being left us unattended and guided by anyone. We do come across situations like that in real life and claim a person is without a soul when he does things ruthlessly. Is it possible to get back the runaway soul?

Healing the soul begins with heeding the soul. We must begin feeding it, tending it and shower our love to it. Some may say that to heal the soul, one must extinguish the ego that has taken over. But the ego is here for a reason. The ego gives us our drive and our character. It would be unwise to crush it. We do, however, need to teach the ego to listen so that it would be more productive while obedient to the soul. The moto is not to nourish the delusion but to try to overcome it.

 

A great question Gowri. Let me divide what you asked into two separate questions:

1) Is the soul synonymous with the mind or the conscience, or is it a separate entity?
Jeevatma (a life) is created by spinning this off as an individual entity. Generally, it is divided into Body, Mind and Atma (Soul) and when others divide Body, Mind, Intelelct and Atma. Most part of this life is created out of 5 elements life the world we see consist of Ether, Air, Fire, Water and Earth. The first two elements are subtler than the last three and what we see in subtler form in us evolves from the sublter elements. However, there is one part of our life that doesn't evolve from 5 elements which actually ties them all together. It is unaffected by the 5 elements. This has an enormous potential and can be pursued vigorously. It has the potential to make a life reach its highest potential, and help everyone around to their higest potential.

This can be done through spiritual development but we need to use our instruments such as body and mind consist of the 5 elements. Body can be nurtured well through Yogas, dietary control, healthy habits, good actions, etc. whereas the Mind can be nurtured well through sharpening thoughts, influencing the subconscious mind with healthy habits, removal of impediments such as trivial desires, anger, greed, arrogance, delusion, and jealousy. Our intellect is the closest to the Soul as it has the discrimination faculty to determine right from wrong. Mind has four parts known as Manas, Buddhi, Chitta and Ahamkara. Manas is the lowest end of this spectrum and handles mostly emotions and feelings whereas Chitta is the datawarehouse. Buddhi is the discriminating faculty whereas Ahamkara (Ego) is the one that fulfills the passions at the same time gives us a feeling that the entire Mind is independent. Once all these four work in unison for the growth and development, One becomes a spiritually realized soul. The internal instruments are the ones that we need to develop first before we focus our attention to the external forces. This step is knowns as spiritual development.

2) Is it through the pursuit of spirituality or is there something we can do through our everyday actions that would accomplish it?

Yes. But it is not possible to nurture the soul unless we refine our instruments such as body, mind and intellect. These are the instruments through which we have to pursue our Soul. When we refine our instruments through spirituality, we automatically reach out to the Soul and nurture it. The Soul can be a silent witness to the freewill of a life and can get encrypted by the consequences of the actions performed by a life. Our goal is to nurture the Soul to get liberated from this encryption through our good habits and actions. Our lives are nothing but the perceptions of the mind and by altering our mind, we can change our lives. We begin our effort remaining independent in these instruments until we recognize we are this universal wisdom (height of knowledge). At some point, where the knower, known and knowledge would become one without the second. Spirituality is not independent and it is our day to day actions and how we change our perception step by step by atlering the mind.

 

Dear Thyagarajan Sir,

When questions like that comes from the mind, it shows the level of eagerness and tendency to accomplish great heights. What is not visible to plain sight is always hard to pursue. That is why I mentioned about subtle elements such as ether and air which are not visible to our eyes but fire, water and earth are visible.

When we begin our search through spiritual development, we are doing soul searching whereas when we realize the potential of the soul, we begin soul nourishing. The instruments we have known as BMI (Body, Mind and intellect) should be refined to recognize the soul and it is possible only through best practices. Even though Soul is all pervasive, without the instruments we can't pursue it. Who am I remains just a question until we find who we really are. Inquiry leads to information, information turns into knowledge, knowledge turns into actions, actions turns into transformation, transformation turns into wisdom and the wisdom recognizes all pervasive soul. When we place ourselves in a seat where nothing needs to be known further is the place of complete Self-realization which Paramahansa Yogananda calles as Self-actualization. Ramana Maharishi said, "Go where you came from" and "Doubt the doubter". Adi Sankara explains this phenomenon in Viveka Choodamani (Crown Jewel of Wisdom). The four Mahavakyas reveal our true identity and we have to begin first with the faith that we are truly a divine being having a human experience.

 

Nurturing the Soul - Continuation

Maya takes us to the dream world that consist of all our passions where only the future world is visible and not the way to that future world. Mind has the capability to take us backwards under the pretext of our experience either to feel good or to make a point or move forward to see our future dream materialized or doomed. Neither of them is present. The present moves one moment at a time and relishing it is hard as the mind has a tendence to freeze it and make it like an ice cube in hand or move forward and make it into a fire.

Nourishing the soul is important because it knows the past, present and future like a crystal ball and can find the path to the outcome for a life. It knows why the life is created, sustained and to where it is traveling. The life travels at a set speed towards its end and how it is being used is in direct proportion to how we use every moment of life. Destination is not visible when we board the vehicle but we know it would reach the destination at a set time not visible at that moment.

Only the life can draw the full potential by utilizing the best of its resources inside. How life would unfold everyday is unknown to our mind but all it can do is to budget and how best time can be used. Grid can receive and transmit electricity and a life is just a vehicle receiving and spending energy. The energy is what makes everything work. Taping into life's full potential and achieve optimum satisfaction of leading a fulfilling life is the best way to conduct life.

Ego can take us to places ridiculing what one does now as it doesn't see the path to its destiny. A conductor can become the world famous actor, a school dropout can become one of the world's wealthiest individuals, a person born in a modest family can become world's greatest spiritual teacher eventually. Mostly in life, we are caught in confusion, doubt, and fear that we can't even see which way to turn or where to go. We can't even see the path before us when it is right here and all we need to do is to take the first step and start somwhere. And sometimes, we get so fixed on the end of the road, on some plan the ego has for us, we don't even take the time to ask ourselves if we still even want to go where are heading. It is entirely possible much more is in store for us.

But the soul has an uncanny navigational system. It sees, past, present and future at once. It is timeless and is sensitive and open to the present even as it is alive to the past and the future. Our egos, however, can get so stuck on a plan that we lose sight of the happenings around us. We become blind to the openings that can change our lives if we let them in. Let the soul drive our vehicle to its destination.

 

Dear Thyagarajan's Sir,

Ramana Maharishi's quote, "Summa Iru" is very famous because of this factor. Our tools such as body and mind need to be silenced and be an instrument to the supreme consciousness. As I had mentioned in my note, it knows why a life came into existence and where it was going. It is the energy that empowers every being and not bound by the space limits of the body nor time that runs everything transient in this world.

Many times we say we grabbed this opportunity pursue my career or I missed this great opportunity that came my way and hence lost everything. Whatever is the life's purpose, such opportunities unfold and with the guidance from the consciousness, it can be grabbed and utilized. The Soul is indestructible, all-knowing, all-pervading, immortal and indivisible. That is the highest Sankhya philosophy that Lord Krishna taught His friend Arjuna. When Bheema and Arjuna were directed to go and pray in the forest to get the strategy to strengthen their skills, Bheema prayed to Anjaneya to get mental strength and Arjuna prayed to Lord Shiva for a weapon that could be used in a difficult situation in the war. But all of that was possible only because they let their consciousness to drive their lives guided by Yudhistra who led a righteous life.

It is like praying for right thing to happen out of our actions as opposed to asking for a specific thing to happen. When we meditate, do yoga, recite a Sloka, and pray, we are letting our consciousness to take over the mind and function in a way to lead us towards what is right. When Arjuna was in Dwaraka, Lord Krishna told a story to Arjuna that "when there was no way for a river to flow in the ground, it went underground" and Arjuna didn't understand the significance of this story and left Dwaraka only to use that strategy to escape from the fire in the Wax Palace. When Draupadi was helpless in the Hasthanapura Court, she prayed, "Krishna, my Hrudhaya Vasa" to get help and when Rishi Durvasa was visiting her when she ran out of rice, she prayed and Lord Krishna by eating one rice satisfied the hunger of Durvasa and his disciples.

Communion of our body and mind with the Consciousness is essential for the fulfillment of our lives.

 

Nurturing the soul - Part 3

Choosing the acts of kindness - The greatest happiness in life is achieved by not taking but giving something. It is important to be kind to others, in a world that doesn't give kindness and compassion. When one demonstrate kindness to others, it gives energy and vitality to the soul. Mother Teressa said, "Not all of us can do great things, but we can do small things with great love". The habit of giving is not necessarily linked to materialistic things but it is our inherent feeling to share our love with others. A simple act of smile can do a world of good to someone who lacks love.

Practice meditation - The mind is always filled with enormous amount of thoughts causing a severe traffic jam and the feeling of fullness and stress. In order to declutter these thoughts, engaging in silencing the mind gives back the sense of control and peace to the mind. Silencing the mind is like having a traffic light at a junction where too many vehicles cross each other. Like prioritizing work, one needs to practice prioritizing thoughts that would help growth and development with a conducive mind.

Take care of the body - Health is the top most wealth without which no amount of effort for growth and development will succeed. Physical activity is the best way to nourish the soul. Sometimes, some of the routine activities don't need fully engaged mind as they are repetitive in nature. It gives rest to the mind. But if one focuses the attention to the work being carried out without engaging in judging it but just observe it, it is as good as meditation while working. Being present in the present is a great way to train the mind to calm down even when the body is engaged in work.

Listen to music that helps calming the mind - Sometimes listening to the music gives the needed soothing effect to the mind when one lives in a world of chaos. Many companies practice providing a comforting music to the employees in order to give them a conducive work environment where they thrive providing productive work. Confused mind will not provide a platform to make right decisions.

Connect with the nature - Going for a brisk walk outside is a great way to nourish the soul. One of Ramana Maharishi's disciple suggested to walk on the grass that has drops of dues in it with bear feet that helps us feel connected to the nature. Watching Sunrise or Sunset, gazing at the stars, watching the birds chirping and their activities in their respective nests, engrossed in activities with the plants and animals, watching the waves in the Ocean, etc. provides inherent feeling that one is part of this whole.

- Will continue