How can we set spiritual goals that harmonize with our material goals?

Answer Podcast:

Transcript

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so, how can we set spiritual goals? we are habituated to having material goals in our life but how can we also have spiritual goals and how can they go in parallel? yes your goals give us a sense of progress and success when we are setting a goal then we can observe, am I moving in that direction? am I moving in that direction? and then success, yes I have come there I just came from a flight from India so, nowadays in the airplanes they have this where is your airport? where is your airplane? now it has come over Africa, now it has come over the Middle East now it has come over the ocean it has come to America, like that so, in general if we set now, for in our material life it is more or less society that sets goals for us you get this degree, then you get this pass this exam, you do this, you do that in spiritual life it’s more of an inner change which is not exactly mathematical you can’t mathematically quantify it it’s more a change of heart matters of the heart are not mathematically quantifiable if you say I am angry how angry are you? you can’t have a Richter scale of anger so, like that it is not quantifiable but still there are external activities which stimulate inner change so just like there are physical markers of health so say how much is the weight how much is the blood pressure now these in themselves are not health but they are markers of health so if people overall adopt a healthy routine and then they may check these markers am I improving on the scores in these markers and that means I am on the path to health similarly ultimately spiritual progress is a matter of inner change but there are externals which stimulate the inner change and which express the inner change so if we pursue those in a consistent way then that itself can give us a sense of spiritual progress and success so for example the Bhagavad Gita is the foundational book for spiritual wisdom so if we want to progress on the spiritual path we regularly read the Bhagavad Gita so we make a goal depending on how much time we have we decide that I can read read maybe 15 minutes of the Bhagavad Gita everyday half an hour everyday just one verse everyday it will just take a few minutes but even if you read one verse per day the Bhagavad Gita is 700 verses so in less than 2 years you will have read the full Gita if you read 7 verses everyday in just 3 and a half months you will have read the full Gita so this is a simple way this is one aspect to it regular reading another aspect is that spirituality is not just about certain religious activities in terms of say reading books or going to temple this is an important part of it but there is a whole culture associated with spirituality so you will see here where is Ananya she is so young and she sings so nicely so there are various skills which we can use in devotional service there is music there are various other skills which are there which we can learn and that is also going to contribute to our growth so we can well looking at the spiritual circle that is around us find out what are the things that inspire us and try to progress in that direction so it can be scriptural study, it can be singing, it can be music it can be doing various other forms of services that are there these are all tangible ways in which we can offer our heart to God so that way we can move closer and these goals can also change that means we may feel inspired to do one thing for some time so we said ok for the next three months I will focus, I don’t have so much time next three months I will focus on scriptural study next three months ok maybe I will focus on something else, I will focus on music maybe I will focus on doing some other service so like that we may also change according to time, but we shouldn’t just change according to the mind’s moves we can change according to plans and we will find that if we have this sort of sort of trajectory for our even our external spiritual activities that will give us a sense of direction and a sense of completion so usually goals are very helpful in helping us move forward and we can see especially if you have other devotees around, you can check with them discuss with them and then plan certain goals for yourself and with respect to their going harmoniously with our material goals in general the disharmony is caused more in our mind than in reality that means when we think that oh if I am say now we have this kind of program if we decide that ok I want to try this out seriously, I will come for the next three months and I will see whether it helps me in some way, whether I learn something valuable but then as soon as we decide like this, the mind will start saying hey but I have this also, I have this work also I have this studies also, I have this assignment also I have this also and that way we start thinking no this is not practical for me but in real life if you see we, our time gets dissipated in so many things what are the problems so the conflict is more in we think that I won’t have time to do these things I have so many material goals which I have to achieve but such a conflict is more in the mind in the sense that we think of time being consumed only by activities ok I have to do this at one o’clock I have to do this at two o’clock, I have to do this at five o’clock we think of our time in terms of activities but our time is consumed also by our thoughts our time is consumed often in a invisible but in a very voracious way by thoughts, suppose you know somebody speaks something that hurts us and somebody is disrespectful or insulting that person, that sound vibration just comes out within maybe 10 seconds but after that for 10 hours we are not able to think about anything else so we may be externally going for a class we are doing this work, that work but we are not doing it at all most often we will have to probably do all those things again because we just not, we are not there so thoughts consume our time quite a bit and if we don’t have the power to control our thoughts then so much of our time is consumed by our thoughts and we don’t even realize it so now worry is like a constant background noise which goes on in us if you ask someone what is your worry time what is your worry time no one is going to say oh morning 6 to 6.30 no one has a worry time but if you think about it worry takes away so much of our time it sucks our energy sucks our thoughts and yes there can be actual causes which are worrying but quite often the internal worry is is not really connected with finding any solution to the problem it is just an inner insecurity so researchers have found that in the third world where people are relatively poorer and the material things are much lesser, people have greater reason for anxiety greater reasons for worry and in the first world relatively things are much more easily available, much more luxurious comfortable so people have lesser reasons to worry but paradoxically people in the first world are more worried than people in the third world and not only that people from the third world when they move to the first world they become more worried than they were before so why is this external comforts are there but the more when people from the third world move to the first world or people in the first world the first world is largely dominated by a materialistic world view and materialism as I said it makes us dependent on the externals which are not in our control and that causes greater uncertainty even if we seem to have more control but internally there is greater uncertainty so anxiety is caused by a materialistic world view and that consumes our thoughts, that consumes our time so if we invest time in spirituality that will give us control over our thoughts and not just control but also especially with respect to worry when we have a higher connection with God when we know that God exists and God cares that itself gives us a substantial relief from worry and that enables us to deal with things much more maturely in Hindi don’t worry focus on Hari don’t worry focus on Hari so that way the spiritual goals won’t take away the time from the material goals rather the spiritual goals if they are pursued they will give a tangible connection with God and they will give a higher sense of stability by which even the material goals can be pursued more effectively does it answer your question?