Making Each And Every Moment Spiritual

Arup Mitra





We are usually so busy in our daily lives that we have no time to even think about spiritualism, let alone practise it! Our mind is our enemy, so to speak. As Gautama Buddha said, “Your worst enemy cannot harm you as much your own unguarded thoughts“. The challenge is, how to convert the mind from enemy to friend. If we accept our daily work as a part of prayer or spiritual sadhana, there will be no contradiction or feeling of remorse left in us. And this task has to be performed, remembering eternity in each and every moment. This could be difficult in the initial stages.
If one is awake all the while, and remains strong and humble, there can be no deviation from the path of spiritualism. Even mundane activity such as eating and washing becomes an indispensable part of spiritual activity if we remember while doing them, as Tagore writes, that `thy living touch is upon all our limbs'. If every moment's work is dedicated to Him, anger and jealousy disappear and peace prevails. All our unguarded thoughts become disciplined.Controlling the mind without suppressing it is the biggest task, and that comes about effortlessly with practice.
Once a young person joined a spiritual organisation thinking that he would dedicate all his time to spiritualism. When he was given office work, he was wondering how he would then perform spiritual activity. When he met his guru the latter explained to him that one who is worshipping the deity and the one who is doing file work are equally engaged in spiritualism. One has to convince oneself, what he is doing every moment is nothing but worship provided eternity is connected with it. One way of actualising it is to do nirantara japa, smarana and manana while doing one's job.
This enables one not to get attached with what one is doing. If you make full efforts then naturally there is a possibility that you get so attached to it that you expect cent per cent success. This desire then can make you unhappy in course of time.But when we pursue something as a service, we are able to give our full effort without expecting any gain. In an argument if you carry the feeling of victory then the feeling of defeat will also remain in you, and vice versa. But if you remain detached after you have made your point thoughtfully ­ as if you have uttered a mantra in the process of your worship ­ you remain in peace and ethereal joy . When you work in a group, not everyone can be equally efficient or guided by sincerity or dedication forgetting narrow politicking and possibility of personal gains. As a result criticisms for the group are inevitable. But then if you start feeling hurt saying that you had given your full effort, it is your foolishness.
You forgot the sense of detachment and that is the reason why you are in pain. The sense that `I have done my job, my worship is over now' can never get you into any emotional turmoil and make you volatile in the process of which you lose your sanity and make more mistakes. So work is worship and it has to be performed not just with sincerity but also by remembering eternity every moment.