Hansaji on ‘Are We Spiritual?’

“We are unable to separate materialism and spiritualism in our lives. We have to live in this material world yet not be affected by it either positively or negatively. We shall be able to progress spiritually if we are able to lead our lives ourselves instead of being lead by other things / people. It is our duty to live our life independently and be self reliant at all times. We may depend on someone else temporarily, e.g. for health reasons but never for our entire life. We should understand and accept our physical limitations and then strive to strengthen them. Mentally, we should make our mind strong and sharp, improve our power of tolerance to such a level that we do not get disturbed by anything / anyone, that we are able to see things as they are and be neutral to it. Such developments within ourselves means that we are growing spiritually. It is very easy and normal to be happy in good times and sad in sad times. We should be able to rule our mind and not the other way around.

We do not have to dress spiritually for, e.g. wearing orange robes / a beaded necklace / a red dot on the forehead. External adornments are not important. We need not discuss matters of god or religion or other spiritual topics. Spirituality is an internal thing. Make contact with your own self and do this repeatedly… sit quietly, watch your breath, make an effort to be thoughtless… by doing these things, gradually over a period of time, our mind will become strong, balanced and peaceful. Perform all your duties in such a state and progress is bound to happen. Let’s work on ourselves and not give up… let’s internalize our learning’s by maintaining a balanced state of mind at all times.”