How do we respond if someone says I am satisfied in my material life and am not spiritually ambitious?
Transcript
Disclaimer: This transcript was generated using AI and may contain occasional errors or inaccuracies.
Question, how should we respond if someone says that I'm quite happy in life where I am and I don't have any spiritual ambitions? Answer, in such a case it may well be that a safety net is becoming a trap net for such a person. You know when people walk on a tight road there is a safety net below that is meant to protect them if they fall down but eventually one cannot live on the tire, we cannot build a house or live on a tight rope forever and the purpose of the safety net is to help a person cross over the rope without too much fear. So, similarly the material world is basically a place for us to journey across and when we all of us strive to get a more materially comfortable, secure and happy situation in life and to the extent we are successful in this, to that extent we get a security net below us but ultimately none of us can stay in material existence forever and if we don't recognize that the material world is a temporary place then we cheat ourselves, we deprive ourselves of the eternal result that is possible for us if we live this material, our material existence in a spiritually harmonious way.
So, in that case our material security which could have boosted us in our journey across to spirituality, if that distracts, tempts and allures us away from recognizing the need to practice spiritual life then it becomes a trap net for us. We may feel that ultimately there is no need for any spiritual life because I'm happy here but we cannot live happily forever and this may seem to be like a truism but planning for the future is the sign of intelligence just as children forever want to play and the parents tell them in the future you can become a famous person, you will be respected in society, you will become a oh I'm not ambitious enough, I guess I'm satisfied the way I am, let me just play on. If children say like that, normally the parents, the adults will not take that very seriously, they will gently but firmly prod their children to do their study so that they can have a bright career in the future.
Now, because they are children, they don't have adequate foresight and they don't realize that playing may be enjoyable presently but it's not something that they can do lifelong and they need to focus on more constructive activities even if they don't feel ambitious about those activities right now. Similarly, from the spiritual perspective, all of us stay for far too long in a childlike stage of naivety and myopia. A naivety means that we just don't think long term and we gullibly believe that the way I am right now is going to be the way I am forever.
Although we all know that we're going to grow old and die eventually, we don't think about it very seriously, we think as if that's very far away and myopia because if we just looked a little ahead, we would see that that is not very far away for us. So, when we recognize, when we grow up emotionally, intellectually, spiritually, then we recognize that there is a future and I need to prepare for that future. So, it is not very difficult for us to understand that we are not the body, we are the soul because we can see that every single cell in the body is changing and not one of the cell of the body is conscious.
Yet, we are conscious and we stay, we stay the same one person despite all the changes that happen in our body. So, who is that unchanging conscious being within the changing and unconscious body? That is the soul and the body changes constantly but the soul remains same. This happens within this body and this will happen beyond the next body also.
So, sometimes another reason that dissuades us from the practice of spiritual life is that we think that I'll have to make too many compromises or too many sacrifices rather in my material pursuits and material enjoyment if I have to practice spiritual life. That is an unwarranted apprehension because within the Vedic culture, there is the facility for orienting one's spiritual life according to one's pace. That means that once we recognize that I have a life beyond this life and I have to prepare for it, then how much one wants to prepare for it, that will vary according to person to person.
So, some people who feel that I want to end my spiritual journey and in this very life itself and I want to go back to God in this very lifetime, such people will take up very seriously. Others may not take it so seriously, they may take it a little more slowly but still they're also preparing. It's just something like somebody wants to do a course very fast, so they may have to study more.
Some PhD may normally take five years, somebody may want to do it in two and a half years, so they will work very hard and they have to focus exclusively. Others may feel that I want to do a PhD but I want to do a graduate, that may take 10 years. But the point is that everybody is going towards the PhD.
So, like that the Vedic culture encourages everybody to prepare for their future life. Nobody should just live ignorantly and code disaster in the life after the present life by not preparing for it at all and one can prepare slowly also and that one may require many lifetimes to attain God. But we need to remember that it is not that spiritual life is extremely difficult, it is just that getting the intelligence and the inspiration to practice spiritual life may be difficult but once we get that in proper association, then spiritual life brings a joy of its own that makes the practices that may seem externally difficult as easy and even relishable over a period of time.
So, these two are the primary apprehensions. One is Krishna talks about these three apprehensions in the Bhagavad Gita 4.20, the Raga, Bhaya, Krodha. So, Raga is you feel that this life itself is comfortable enough and Bhaya is you may feel that oh I have to give up too much to practice spiritual life but actually we can find our own individualized pace at which we can want to practice spiritual life.
But if we don't practice any spiritual life at all then it's not a matter of not having spiritual ambition, it's a matter of being spiritually without any eyes, without any visions, being spiritually blind and that can lead to disaster because life is a journey through which we have to go whether we like it or not. So, if someone doesn't see that the road that one is taking is actually going to take one straight off a cliff down into a valley and if somebody tries to warn such a person and the person says oh I don't have much ambition about these things. It's not a matter of ambition, it's a matter of simple plain vision that this life is going to end and we are going to have a future life.
Now, if we feel that there is no future life at all then at the very least we need to use our intelligence to inquire seriously. Can we be so sure about that conclusion? If we look at it philosophically, logically, scientifically there is adequate evidence for that. Scientifically there are past life memories, there's a phenomenon of consciousness, there are experiences.
Philosophically the concept of an unchanging observer makes no sense without in a changing body unless there is something different from the body. So, in this way if we explore the spiritual dimension that is not just something which is a matter of ambition but that is just a simple matter of perception and when we especially open-mindedly associate those who practice in spiritual life then this perception awakens and then we can practice spiritual life and then we will realize that it's not a matter of great difficulty or great sacrifice. It is offering a higher joy and this higher joy doesn't necessarily detract from our material life.
The spiritual life helps us to become more peaceful, more focused, more productive even materially because we get greater mastery over our mind and senses, we develop greater sensitivity and foresight and thoughtfulness all of which help us even in our material life. So, we may have to sacrifice some pleasures which are anti-devotional but as far as utilizing our talents and achieving our ambitions we can still do that while practicing spiritual life. So, I'll conclude with the last example.
If a student gets into IIT, IIT is the premier colleges in India and in IIT a student just thinks about where can I get good food, the food in my mess is not good enough. So, every day all that the student does is spend time searching which is the best hotel in the vicinity of the IIT campus and then if he doesn't study at all well then people will say come to IIT, why are you not studying? No, I'm not ambitious enough. Food is something which can be got anywhere.
The person has already got admission in IIT and the person should use that precious opportunity to build a glorious career and certainly a person wants needs good food and within the pursuit of a career in IIT while doing the proper studies, whatever one can do to get good food one should do that but just to think that because I am getting good food to eat right now, I don't need to study and prepare and use my IIT seat properly. That would be not a lack of ambition, that would be tragic even suicidal for me. So, from the spiritual perspective, all of us who have a human form of life have entered into spiritual IIT.
There are so many species of life and all these species do not offer the capacity for spiritual inquiry, do not offer the advanced intelligence for seeing what lies beyond the present body and the present life. So, just as IIT can offer a person a very bright career if that person studies diligently, similarly the human life can offer us not just a bright career but an eternal career. It can offer us eternal life if we just apply ourselves diligently but after having got the human form of life, if we stay satisfied with just the basic bodily necessities or bodily comforts, material accomplishments which all ultimately center around eating, sleeping, mating, defending, then there is not much difference between us and the IIT student who just spends time searching for good food and so that's why the scriptures consider a person within the human form of life who doesn't practice spiritual life as a killer of the soul, Atmaha and this is spoken not in a condemnatory way but in a sad compassionate way which conveys the tragedy of losing such a precious opportunity.
So, when we already have the spiritual IIT chance why should we deprive ourselves of this chance and deprive ourselves therefore of a glorious eternal future. Thank you.