When to Begin…

Other day, while sipping a cup of tea in office canteen, I overheard a discussion of some junior colleague. I was surprised and was equally impressed, over the fact that the point of discussion was related to spirituality. The young colleagues that I am taking about, are fresh college graduates in their early 20’s. Not that I approve, to their idea of spirituality, but the fact that they were discussing spirituality at such a young age fascinated me a lot. My understanding of spirituality, is quite different from theirs, but their curiosity of the subject got me hooked. In fact, I spent good amount of time in the canteen and sipped two extra cups of tea, just to listen to their conversation. (Hope my boss is not reading this J

After the introduction blog, I was searching for the topic of my first real blog and here I am with my first topic… When to begin???

One question that generally surfaces when we talk of Spiritual path is that, what is the right age to get on to this path??? Frankly, there is no particular age to lead a spiritual life. But as per the concept of Ashrama in Hinduism, Life is divided into four age-based life stages Brahmacharya (student), Grihastha (householder), Vanaprastha (retired) and Sannyasa (renunciate). And it is general practice to get on to Spiritual path in the last stage ‘Sannyasa’ or at best sometime during ‘Vanaprastha’. However, Shri Kaka Maharaj emphasis, that there is nothing like right time to get on to this path. In fact, as said in last blog, he does not like to differentiate between, material life and spiritual life. According to him, both should go hand in hand to lead a happy life.

Do we decide when to be happy??? If not, then there is no right age to get on to the spiritual path. One needs to understand that spirituality leads to ultimate (real) happiness. And that is what everyone strives for throughout their life time. However, the problem is that, one tries to get happiness from material pleasures of life which are temporary. Happiness derived from material belongings are always going to be short lived and more importantly, going to ultimately lead to unhappiness. Thus, it is important to understand that if we really want to be happy, we need to get on to Spiritual path as early as possible. Most of you, who are reading this, must have left their childhood behind, some must be in their youth, some middle aged and some old looking at the dusk of life. No matter at what stage of life you are, I sincerely request you to get on to the spiritual path, and try to realise the real meaning of existence and real happiness, which is right there inside all of us.

If we look in the past/history, we have thousands of examples of spiritual leaders, Gurus, Saints, Awakened souls, whatever one wants to call them, have started this journey at different phases of their life.

One of the greatest saint of Maharashtra, Sant Dnyaneshwar also referred as Dnyandev or Mauli not only, got on to this path at a tender age but finished his journey at the age of 21 years by attaining Sanjeewan (alive) samadhi. In his short life of 21 years, he authored Dnyaneshwari (a commentary on the Bhagavad Gita), which has made it possible for people from all walks of life, taste the nectar in the form of Bhagavad Gita.

Many miracles came to be associated with Sant Dnyaneshwar’s life, one of making the buffalo repeat Vedas and the other of making the wall fly. A few more can be narrated here, but they need not be, as miracles is not the ultimate aim of Spiritual life. What is important is the work of Sant Dnyaneshwar that he accomplished at young age and his worship in which instead for asking for anything for himself, Sant Dnyaneshwar asked for happiness for all.

दुरितांचे तिमिर जावो | विश्व स्वधर्मसूर्ये पाहो | 
जो जे वांछील तो ते लाहो | प्राणिजात ||

We can look at life of Sage Valmiki, celebrated as the harbinger-poet in Sanskrit literature. Believed to be a hunter, who took to robbery and started looting people to feed his family, got on to the spiritual path, very late in his life after meeting Sage Narada. Moved by Narada’s words, he began to perform penance and chanted the word “Mara” reverse of word ‘Rama’ (Lord Ram). It is believed that he kept sitting in a meditative posture for years, during which his body got completely covered by an anthill, and thus he was called Maharshi Valmiki (ant-hill). He got on to this path very late in his life and after committing lot of sin and still he became sort of immortal due to spiritual life that he led.

Why to look far, my Shri Sadguru, P. Pu. Shri Kaka Maharaj got on to the path of spirituality in his youth just couple of years after marriage. A young engineering graduate, Ranji player from Maharashtra working in a reputed engineering firm, after meeting his Shri Sadguru, P. Pu. Shri Gadbole Maharaj, decided to get on to this path. No doubt, he made some sacrifices by deciding to quit his Job and stop playing Cricket, sport which he loved the most. But the urge of self-discovery was so strong that he didn’t waited for ‘Sannyasa’ ashram, to get on to this path. By leading spiritual life, in close to 50 years, Shri Kaka Maharaj has helped thousands of needy people from all castes and sects overcome their problems and brought them back in life by inculcating positive vibes and inclined them to the path of spirituality in its true meaning.

All the three saint above are from different time zone in history, from different parts of India and might be at different level in spirituality, but by looking at these 3 examples, one thing is clear that there is no specific time to get on to the spiritual path. Sant Dyaneshwar, started the journey in childhood, Shri Kaka Maharaj at the peak of his youth and Sage Valmiki little late in life, but one thing that is common in all the three, is that they created happiness, for lakhs of people around them, and generations to come.

If we analyse closely, the idea of spirituality for all the three is quite different, but that would be another topic for my future blog.

Before I sign off, Just think about it and get on to this path.

Path! Is there a specific path???

No, just spare 5 minutes and begin by chanting a holy name (Naam) of the God that you love.

Jai Sairam!