Practical Spirituality - Overview

Practical Spirituality – Overview 

 

This blog is a layman introduction to Spirituality and why it's essential in our everyday life. Spirituality is an eternal concept and not just a temporary phenomenon. This blog is based on my experiences in learning Dhamma (Vipassana) and ISKCON's Bhakti way of life. Any human being's core desire of leading a peaceful and healthy life, doing good to oneself and society can be achieved only by practicing spirituality in the right way. For this, the human being has to understand what is spirituality and how it can be practiced in our day to day life and then apply it gradually which will start fetching the right rewards.   

 

What is the end goal of Spirituality? 

 

The end goal is to achieve Moksha/Nirvana, Mukti/Nibbanic peace, Heaven, Jannat as various religions put it. This is a very tough concept to understand.  

At the cost of over simplification, let me explain this way. Mukti/Nibbanic peace means a mental state where that particular human being is liberated from sufferings. It’s a state where the realized human being will devote his time, efforts and energy to 'only' think good, speak good and do good. This goodness can be anything but the important thing to understand is that the mind of such an 'awakened' person is pure and is passionless. He does good without any expectations of outcomes. Hence, there is no ego but pure bliss. 

When such an 'awakened' person dies, he frees himself from the cycle of birth and death and merges into the infinite energy. This is called Moksha/Nirvana. 

  

A brief summary of the path to achieve Nirvana/Moksha is that 

1) We should lead a life ideally without passions. Practically this means reduce your passions as they lead to Cravings and Aversions which make the mind impure and out of balance.  

2) We should spend more and more time in good thoughts, good words and good actions. It's fine if we think of 1000 good thoughts that translates to 100 good words which may translate to one good action.  

 

Following the right path is Dhamma as Buddhist call it or Dharma as Hindus call it.  

 

To start on this long path which might take several lives/'Janmas' (i.e several births and deaths) to achieve the end goal, I strongly recommend you to go to a 10 day course of Vipassana which is a free course with centers all over the world. You don’t need to convert from your existing religion and hence, it's just a way to understand spirituality in a practical way.  

If time does not permit you to get 10 days out of your busy life immediately or if you wanted a theoretical overview, this blog will help. But, understand that practically experience and validation helps your mind to remain committed to Dhamma/Dharma path.  

 

One has to understand that the law of nature (law of Dhamma/Dharma) is eternal and it acts on every human being to provide mental clarity to that person. Hence, following Dharmic practices (good habits, good thoughts) is at most important leading to mental calm and peace which is the default nature of the mind. Without Dharma, mind becomes impure, engaged in too many passion activities and is the root of all diseases as Buddhism/Hinduism explain.  

 

There are 3 sections/parts below –  

1) In Part 1 , What is passion and why we need to reduce it? is explained.

2) In Part 2 , has explanation of What is Dhamma/Dharma? , and the point that it is universal and eternal and not just an optional interest in human life.  

3) Finally, Part 3 , details men who led a Dharmic life. This will help understand that recognition in society is not the ultimate goal (which we always think as success) but our own mental purity which helps us be mentally calm and peaceful thus leading a healthy and peaceful life.  

 

• Part 1 - Reducing Passions  link 

• Part 2 - Dharma  link 

• Part 3 - Men who lead Dharmic life  link

 

Wellness Sense - Combining Ayurveda, Yoga and Tantra by Om Swami - Summary

https://www.amazon.in/Wellness-Sense-Practical-Emotional-Ayurvedic/dp/9351772624

Wellness Sense is a extremely well written book and derives upon Om Swami's learnings and experience with 

1) Ayurveda 

2) Yoga 

3) Tantra 

I present some snippets/notes that can evoke reader's interest and tell him what the book covers/summarizes: 

In one line – The more you are in harmony with nature, the more peaceful and healthy you will be. 

Bliss is a natural state of your mind. Health is the natural state of the body. 

When components like Dosha, Dhatu, Pancha Bhootas are in equilibrium, you are healthy.  

Physical and mental wellness: 

Yogis/Rishis classified wellness into physical and mental aspects.  

Physical aspects are mainly covered by Ayurveda. This includes 

1) Pancha Bhootas – Five elements of nature – Earth, Water, Air, Fire and Space.  

2) Sapta Dhatus – Rasa (Taste in food, fluid from food), Rakta (Blood), Mamsa (Muscle), Meda (Fat), Asthi (Bones), Majja (Marrow), Shukra (Semen).  

3) Tri Dosha – Vata, Pitta and Kapha 

4) Chatus Agni – Sama, Tikshna, Manda, Vishama Agni.  

Mental aspects are mainly covered by Yoga.  

1) Pancha Kosha – Annamaya, Pranamaya, Monomaya, Vignanamaya, Anandamaya Kosha – Static body, Kinetic elements in body like energy flow etc, Mind, Intellect and Bliss. 

2) Tri Guna – Sattva, Rajas, Tamas – Goodness, Passion, Ignorance.  

3) Tri Kaya – Stula sharira, Shukshma sharira and Karana Sharira – Physical body, Phychological body (energy flows, blood flows etc) and Psychic body (mind), Soul.  

4) Dasa Vayu – 5 of them are pimary – Prana Vayu, Apana, Udana, Samana, Vyana – Air, Downwards (bowel movements), Upwards (voice), Stomach or metabolic energy and Circulatory energy.  

Tri Dosha: 

Ayurveda is not one solution fits all. 

It tries to classify the imbalance based on symptoms as Vata Dosha or Kapha or Pitta or a combination of these. That means the person has an imbalance in that bucket (Vata, Pitta or Kapha) and hence has to be re balanced to gain health. 

Vata – Wind + Space. Controls the kinetic aspects of the body.  

Pitta – Fire + Water. Controls the enzymes, hormones and metabolic activities. It also affects the mental health and can lead to anger/aggression.  

Kapha – Earth + Water. Heaviness in body and mind. 

One aspect that leads to confusion is though it is called 'Dosha' or fault, its also indicative of the nature of the body of the person. So, person can be of Vata, Pitta or Kapha nature or a combination of them.  

So, as a person, you can be of Vata, Pitta or Kapha nature (humour is the term used in book) and every individual can have a different nature (Hence, one person's medicine can be another person's poison).  

When the person is having an illness, he can have an imbalance of Vata, Pitta or Kapha (Doshas or illness) based on his natural constitution or his equilibrium state w.r.t Vata, Pitta and Kapha nature. 

Physical and mental constituitions: 

 Based on the nature of the individual as Vata, Pitta and Kapha, author explains the physical attributes in terms of body frame, joints/muscles, temperature, weight, hair, forehead, eyes, lips, skin, hands, voice, perspiration, Appetite, sleep pattern, etc. 

Author explains the mental attributes of these natures or humours. He also explains the tri gunas – Sattva, Rajas and Tamas indicating goodness, passion and ignorance. He also explains chatus Agni – 4 digestive fires.  

We are what we eat: 

Food we eat has to be both aligned with our nature (Vata, Pitta and Kapha) and food we eat should be as Sattvic as possible. We should carefully choose Rajasic foods as these induce passions. We should try avoiding Tamasic foods.  

Scientifically, Most Sattvic foods are alkaline in nature and hence we should choose alkaline foods.  

Alkaline foods are anti oxidants and removes free radicals in the body whereas tamasic foods promote free radicals.  

Food heals: 

Six tastes – Eat in moderation all six tastes and the thresholds are specific to the individual – Sweet, Sour, Salty, Pungent, Bitter and Astringent.  

Four stages of food is taste (rasa), potency (virya), maturity (vipaka), effect (prabhava). Interesting thing is lime/lemon which is acidic in the tasting stage is alkaline in the vipaka stage and hence is considered alkaline.  

 Eating sense:  

How we eat is as important as what we eat.  

Eat with gratitude.  

Eat like a lion (analogy to eating it with a calm mind and relishing the food).  

Do not eat like dog (too fast) or like cow (too slow).  

Five aspects of eating sense: mindfulness, water (no water 0.5 hour before food and 1 hour after food), Quantity (80% full), Gratitude, Time (leave 2 hours gap between dinner and sleep etc).  

What to eat:  

Eat Alkaline food.  

In Ayurveda there are 5 terms related to the nutrients – fat (sneha), protein (snigdha), tasty (rasya), agreeable (hridya) and carbohydrates (madhura).  

Acidic foods – amla – poison.  

Alkaline foods – kshara. 

Note the alkalinity is in the vipaka stage (I.e after digestion). So, lime, dairy products are vipaka kshara in nature.  

Scientifically, pH between 7 to 8 is optimal for body.  

The 3 primary organs that maintain acid alkali balance are – lungs, kidney and skin.  

So deep breathing is effective, eating healthy alkaline food helps kidneys process uric acid effectively, a glowing skin can be permanently achieved only by eating right.  

Imbalance leads to acidosis or alkalosis.  

Life cycle of a disease: 

Disease is a force and not matter. Disease is what disrupts health equilibrium – physical, mental, emotional or spiritual.  

Primary seat of inner spring of vitality is called purusha, when it leaves, we are dead.  

5 causes of disease at the root or inner being: 

Unwholesome thoughts and actions. 

Unwholesome diet.  

Time. (Change of seasons etc).   

Ageing.  

Fate.  

Four killers that we should avoid: 

Ama – Toxins.  

Indigestion.  

Excess Sugar.  

Excess Stress.  

Mental Afflictions:  

Vritti refers to mental tendency or temperament.  

We should avoid these five mental afflictions: 

Fear, Anger (Reactive or toxic), Hatred, Jealousy, Greed.  

Physical Cleansing: 

Colon therapy (Enema), Conch cleaning (Shankh Prakshalan), Oesophageal cleansing (Kunjala or dhauti).  

Respiratory cleansing – Simple deep breathing, alternate breathing (Nadi shodhana, anulom vilom), Bellows Breathing (bhastrika), Sinus cleansing (through neti lota or thread neti).  

Fasting and Pancha Karma 

Fasting - Light fasting, fruits and vegetables fasting, liquid fasting, complete fasting.  

Pancha Karma – 3 days preparatory treatment (snehana) and 1-2 days main treatment (svedhana). 

Emission therapy (Vamana), Purgation therapy (Virechana) and Enema (Vasti or basti).  

Nasal therapy (nasyama) - medicated nasal drops is administered.  

Shiro – dhara – Warm medicated oil is poured on head in unbroken flow for 45 minutes.  

   

Mental detoxification: 

Visualization for physical health.  

Erasing phychic imprints through yogic method or intellectual method.  

Witness meditation – for mental health (similar to Aana Paana).  

Mindfulness – journal for emotional health.  

  

Summary: 

Eat wholesome foods - alkaline.  

Avoid processed and canned foods.  

Half a lemon in glass of water everyday.  

Avoid fried foods.  

Chew well, eat in moderation, 80% full rule, give time between dinner and sleep, eat fresh fruits and veggies.  

Pandemic Scam - Government fear propoganda Versus the understated reality

Government fear propoganda Versus the understated reality part 1:

The Government is spreading a fear propoganda that there is a single virus out of 380 trillion viruses responsible for the current crisis.
Further,

1) Government is blaming common man that he is not following 'Covid' protocols.

2) Government is using RT PCR test/Rapid antigen test for testing Covid 19. Further they are forcing people to take it which is a violation of natural justice. The RT PCR test is not approved by any medical agency around the world. No true scientist will accept this as there are several flaws in the testing procedure. You can read this for more details - link.
RT PCR tests are so unreliable that you can compare it with a toss of a coin - If the coin returns 'heads' - Its positive and if it returns 'tails' - Its negative. If you want to understand all the details about why I am saying so - please read this article about when a tool like RT PCR should be used and what does it actually detect? RT PCR details .
One other important thing to understand here is that Covid RT PCR positive does not mean you are infectious. No scientific inference can be meaningfully made between presence of RNA/DNA segments of Sars-Cov-2 and infections. To understand the implication of this, test out if animals have Covid-19 using these tests. Test if fruits, vegetables have Covid-19 using these tests. Lot of these samples in animals, fruits, vegetables will return positive. Hence, its no indicator of infections.

3) Based on the huge approximations of RT PCR test/Rapid antigen test, there is one more bigger scam. The scam is that the Government is controlling the threshold cycle at which a positive or negative result is declared. This is the reason why they are not reporting the cycle threshold for a negative test, the cases are being inflated by the Government. 99.5% of people are asymptomatic which means they are healthy. No where in medical history were healthy people counted as 'cases' and number of cases inflated like covid-19 crisis.

4) I emphasize that Symptomatic patients do need care, hospitilization if necessary. There are people dying due to the FLU. So, don’t get me wrong here. There are plenty of ways Government can help - by opening up Ayurvedic and other holistic methods for treatments. They can also put up statistics on how many overall deaths are happening and are there excess deaths and infections? They can put up lots of positive message and home treatment care as FLU can be treated at home itself with right amount of rest, fluids and home remedies. Unfortunately, Government cares only about lockdowns, quarantines, masks and of course the experimental vaccines - Their solutions are no where related to helping the people but restricting their freedom.

5) The scam does not end just at the cycle threshold control using which the Government can artificially inflate or deflate the number of active cases. The biggest scam is that deaths are being misclassified as Covid-19 deaths to drive the propoganda that only Covid-19 virus is leading to substantial deaths in our society. Please digest this alternate narrative that the deaths are being misclassified as Covid deaths. For any scientific data oriented system - If you want to attribute a death to a certain cause, you need to do a post mortem and identify unique patterns based on which you can confirm that the death is due to a perticular cause. For example, there are procedures to identify if a person committed suicide or if he was murdered. Further, to prove that the covid-19 virus only leads to certain unique changes within a healthy cell, you need to conduct control experiments that inject covid-19 into healthy cells and establish conclusively that the cell is getting 'infected' and dying and producing the unique pattern that can be used in post mortems. But, The Government has conveniently instructed through their regulatory organization called ICMR that no such scientific evidence in post mortem is necessary. Any doctor can report a death as Covid death if they are RT PCR +ve in the last 2 months or could have died with 'any' respiratory problems. THIS IS THE BIGGEST MEDICAL FRAUD OF THIS CENTURY. Based on this, the number of Covid deaths is being highly inflated and the media is doing a fear based propoganda that one out of 380 trillion virus is making people get sick and die. Please note that the number of deaths in 2019 and 2020 have been almost identical in the world (~60 million) and hence there is no 'pandemic'. The deaths in 2021 may be marginally higher due to vaccine side effects and this is also being attributed as Covid deaths.

6) Solutions proposed by Government are arbitrary and no collateral damage is being studied. Mandatory masks, social distancing fines, Quarantines, Lockdowns have their own side effects. It was heart wrenching to see millions of daily labourers and their family walk 100s of kms and several die when lockdown was arbitrarily announced on 25 Mar 2020. This is crime against humanity. The top leadership in media, politicians and the judiciary has been given lakhs of crores to keep silent about all the corruption and not report the truth.
Same thing is happening in India in Wave 2 (Apr 2021) and lots of poor people and daily wage labourers are being imposed lockdown and there is no one to report on how many of these families are dying due to hunger/lack of money.

7) Government is propogating a single solution - Vaccine. The current focus is to make sure all 8 billion people in the world keep receiving vaccines every year and it’s a pure commercial model. Even with vaccines, your own immunity only protects you. Hence, vaccine or no vaccine is insignificant for a healthy person. For the immune compromised, both Vaccines and Viral infections can have side effects. Its not too difficult to understand that the Wave 2 is leading to a lot of sick people and hospitilizations and this is directly overlapping with the so called 'vaccine' (Chimapanzee Adeno virus) injected into the population.

Government fear propoganda Versus the understated reality part 2:

Once you have understand part 1, let me explain how Government can spread a fear propoganda that combines facts and lies. This is just a simple example and if you take time to analyze, you can find 1000s of such contradictions in the Government promoted 'solutions'.

The background in this example is that huge apartment complexes where rich people have enough money, the Government is making testing mandatory (which is anyway useless). This is done in apartments like Shree Prakriti Apartments, Godrej apartments in Hebbal etc.
Now, there is a slum very close to Shree Prakriti as indicated in the google maps above. Equal number of families live in this slum as Shree Prakriti residents.
For the people living in the slum, the virus problem (that one out of 380 trillion one) is insignificant.
Why? The residents cant wear a mask and don’t wear a mask. They have to bring water for cooking and sanitary purposes from a water source 1/2 kms away towards the lake everyday. Small children take their cycles and bring 4-5 buckets of water. If they start wearing masks and do this kind of physical activity, they will faint.
The residents cant practice social distancing. The tent that they live in is 6 ft by 6 ft and 4-5 members stay. So, there is not space.
Of course they don’t get access to any of the basic requirements - electricity, land, roads, etc. Your friendly Governement both at central and state dont want to solve or talk about these and they are 'only' interested in protecting the 'elderly' through lockdowns!
BBMP will not test the slum dwellers.
Why? Even if they are positive, they don’t have money. They dont have access to hospitals (can they pay 3 lakhs to 1 crore? Can they pay 1000/- INR for a experimental PCR test valid for 72 hours?).

What I am summarizing is - Virus or no virus - Its not significant for the slum dwellers. Understand the politics played by the Government. They will have restriction orders only on gullible population like Apartment complex where they know that money is available and people will accept any order without questions.

Government fear propoganda Versus the understated reality part 3:

Please read part 1 and 2 before reading this.

Whats the solution?
In the Government fear propoganda, separate out the facts and lies.

As I have been repeating, prolonged use of masks will lead to bacterial pneumonia in lungs. The WHO themselves have clarified that masks should NOT be worn even in covid prevelant areas if you doing rigourous physical exercise. Reference link. Don’t believe anything in the face of it. Do your own research and insist on transparency. For example the same WHO has been caught by European Parliament Committee for over hyping the swine flu pandemic in 2010.
Reference link1,
Reference link2.

If you are asymptomatic, treat that as healthy. Don’t 'introduce' a covid case based on the useless PCR tests.

If you are symptomatic, rest, drink lot of fluids, have good vitamin C, be mentally positive. Seek help from hospitals but with the fear thats going on, no hospital is admitting patients.

Understand that lockdowns, quarantines, etc have disastrous side effects/collateral damage on economy. Think about the daily wage employees. 90% of India depend on everyday activities to go on.

Look within you for answers. Soul has amazing healing powers that can energize the mind and the body in tough times.

I know several of you will challenge this alternate narrative. I am fine. I feel its worth following the truth as it gives you mental peace and satisfaction. The world will oppose, that’s ok! Once, you also start following the truth narrative by open mindedly questioning the process and science, you will realize the solutions.
I am ready to work in any ICUs, Covid care centres or quarantined families to prove the point that once your mind is positive and energized by the soul, you will not pay attention to the negative and fear based Government propoganda.

Good day and Good Life!
Hari OM Tat Sat!