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Logical Understanding and Applications of Spirituality

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There is another factor to the spirituality of a person other than nature of the person. It is the environment. Those who are naturally spiritual can have their spiritual nature obscured by overwhelming force of environment. This happens mainly in the time of Kali yuga,
 
The power to handle mental force is real power and gradually it enables you to be immune to and control the physical forces. That is where the real power of a spiritually gifted person comes from - the great capacity to handle any mental force.
 
The approach to people who incurably use mental force can be broadly divided into two:

1. Physical
2. Spiritual

In the former one uses greater mental force than the person who invariably uses mental force. In the latter, one rises above the mental force, not be affected by it and so respond very aptly. I will focus on the second approach.
 
Those who are naturally spiritual generally do the right thing. But there is the massive effect of environment in our times. so their spirituality does not come out. In what ways do others thwart the spirituality of a person?
 
The first and foremost is by sheer numbers. when almost everybody around you is selfish and not empathetic, you are forced to change your own ways too for the worse. This is how even naturally deeply spiritual persons also get changed.

What do these majority selfish people do to sustain their agenda? They attack the very foundation of the beliefs of the spiritual people, They attack their faith as irrational and false. They take recourse to science to prove their point. Because of the overwhelming success of science and technology they sound credible.
 
I am not saying pursuing science is not correct. It helps us find truths and gain knowledge that help us in understanding the world and also in being of practical use. But what I am saying is that its scope is limited unless of course it extends its philosophy to include the subtle forms of existence.
 
The best way to counter this irrationality argument is to show that spirituality works at mundane level too in a clearly perceptible and measurable way. This is necessary for even the naturally spiritual people to get back the self conviction.
 
Proof along with logical explanations will help in a big way in making people accept spiritual knowledge as one based on logic.
 
So the very first step in mastering emotions is to believe in the truth of spiritual knowledge. That helps one genuinely and firmly believe in higher values and therefore give them the ability to hold on to them. At the very least people should be able to maintain that faith internally though at the external level they may have to adapt. It will be a slow and difficult process but one that will be more and more rewarding. It will reach a level where their inner faith will become strong enough to help them enact what they think, with confidence.
 
But real techniques are required to support our belief in spiritual knowledge if we are to master our emotions. There are different levels of spiritual responses that can be used to counter mental force. These are in the order of increasing spirituality:

1. Attacking back by humour
2. Pity or feel sorry for the person for his ignorance
3. Show positive feelings towards the person in spite of his negative actions
4. Be totally unaffected

Each of the above represents a particular level of spiritual development and will help us in reacting the appropriate way.
 
But real techniques are required to support our belief in spiritual knowledge if we are to master our emotions. There are different levels of spiritual responses that can be used to counter mental force. These are in the order of increasing spirituality:

1. Attacking back by humour
2. Pity or feel sorry for the person for his ignorance
3. Show positive feelings towards the person in spite of his negative actions
4. Be totally unaffected

Each of the above represents a particular level of spiritual development and will help us in reacting the appropriate way.
Well Sravna..I applied each step of what you wrote recently before that I am not too proud to say this but recently I made a preacher of another religion get angry with me in 5 mins!LOL

Ok..this person wanted to see me to give me some reading material for patients to overcome anger issues and depression etc and invited me to attend Church.

Well..I liked the material but it was a bit too much of Bible in there and also Homophobic cos it was suggesting Homosexuality is a sin...so I suggested to her to make new prints by removing the Bible quotes and anti homosexual lines to make it user friendly neutral for people of all religions.

Then I saw her temper rising..she started to say "You are entitled to your opinion but you have no right to ask me to remove word of God"

I asked her 'Is God judgmental?"

She said loudly "NO!"

I told her in that case this can't be word of God..it has to be word of man cos the article is judgmental.

That was it..she started raising her voice and scolding me.

Then I told her "hey why get angry...your articles are about anger management..I feel sad and sorry for you that you are losing control"

She started saying "Nothing can affect me....I am not losing control"

I told her extreme anger leads to denial and I smiled at her.

She left angrily and said "I have never been like this..I don't know why this is happening to me" and she stared at me angrily.

Then I handed her back her books...'Well may be you should read this..anger management"


Well to a great extent I was testing her limits..got to know most preachers are fake..they fake niceness..when challenged they start to shout and show that they only want you to believe them but you have no right to question them and we need to accept everything as the truth.

Before she left my place..she uttered to my staff that she felt I(Renuka) am the devil!LOL

Thats all one can say when they have no answers.

So Sravna...can you make out that I applied all steps you mentioned?

I guess you and I do have something in common after all!LOL
 
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Dear Renuka,

You make a good point. Practicing something is a totally different ball game than preaching it. That is where almost everyone fails. That also brings us to the essence of spirituality which is practice and personal experieneces than just possessing knowledge.
 
Dear Renuka,

You make a good point. Practicing something is a totally different ball game than preaching it. That is where almost everyone fails. That also brings us to the essence of spirituality which is practice and personal experieneces than just possessing knowledge.

To be frank Sravna...I did not feel good after that episode even though I felt preachers need to know we can not be forced to accept their faith and beliefs.

In fact I was wondering how come so many Hindus succumb to these preachers when within 5 mins I made her yell at me and lose control.

I guess she has never met anyone like me hence she called me the Devil.

But did I gain anything from this episode..answer is NO..I had a sense of regret that I upset someone but may be she will change her Modus Operandi in the future to get more converts!LOL
 
To be frank Sravna...I did not feel good after that episode even though I felt preachers need to know we can not be forced to accept their faith and beliefs.

In fact I was wondering how come so many Hindus succumb to these preachers when within 5 mins I made her yell at me and lose control.

I guess she has never met anyone like me hence she called me the Devil.

But did I gain anything from this episode..answer is NO..I had a sense of regret that I upset someone but may be she will change her Modus Operandi in the future to get more converts!LOL

Dear Renuka,

I believe people respond favorably to reason but you should first be able to clear their mind of prejudices. Of course there are converts for reasons other than conviction. That I think is not true conversion of faith. You cannot force people to believe something. The steps should be remove their prejudice and then reason logically.
 
The more and more conviction you have of the spiritual truths and the more and more you believe that the physical world is only a relative one and not the ultimate one , the greater and greater success you have in your efforts to handle emotions.
 
Mental force primarily tries to make you conform. One who conforms to the norm is predictable and easy to handle. Even if you are a celebrity you are expected to conform to a norm though a different one. So it is very difficult to deviate from the norm set for you.
 
One of the most important ways to not succumb to pressure is to develop a positive view of others. Believe that others inherently are also positive. It is with this fundamental belief that you have to work on your strategies and tactics to control emotions.
 
At the strategic level, you may succumb to the following pressures:

You are made to think

1. you are irrational
2. You are outdated
3. You are the odd man out
4. you are a perpetrator of something wrong

Several tactics are also used to drive home the above points.
 
You have to use your own counter strategies and tactics to be on top and to be in freedom.
 
I mentioned about the various stages of spiritual development which makes you respond to mental force in certain ways such as by humour and sarcasm and so on. The tactics you use can be consciously developed and practiced which can help you guard your nature and also make you progress spiritually.
 
Responding intelligently or even better in a witty way is a good start to a spiritual response. But it is not easy to be intelligent in response. It generally comes in a natural way and you may not be able to force it.

A tactic that can be used here is do not feel bad if you think your response is not intelligent. It is very difficult to be intelligent in response especially when a strong mental force is being used.

So use the, maintain your composure tactic. It is almost always better not to use an equivalent mental force. If possible it is better to walk away from the conversation. Remember insults don't have indelible effects. It is on the spur of the moment that you get mostly affected.

Even it is in front of others the above approach will not show you in bad light if you are able to maintain your composure. Understand it is the one who is shouting who is imprisoned by emotions and being controlled. That is enough control. By being calm you are being in control. Take it as a good opportunity to start showing your real intelligence If you ingrain this philosophy in mind you will be better able to use the tactic.
 
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So to start off the spiritual response,

Tactic 1 - Just maintain your composure in face of mental force
Rationale that props this up- You are really beginning to be free from influences and beginning to use real intelligence.
 
Practice the tactic for a sufficient duration of time until intelligent responses automatically happen
 
Spiritual response proper begins when you begin to show concern for the person using mental force. It goes beyond being intelligent in response. It shows that you are beginning to see the whole, not only your self interest. That is a even greater exclusive quality

Tactic 2 - Try to ensure the composure of one using the mental force.

Rationale that props this up - The one using mental force is ignorantly allowing emotions to control him and needs help

After enough practice it is possible to be really empathetic .
 
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