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- Four Steps to Purify Your Soul to Achieve Divine Bliss - By Awdhesh Singh
Four Steps to Purify Your Soul to Achieve Divine Bliss - By Awdhesh Singh
- By Wan Ibrahim
- Published 07/4/2008
- Spiritual Development
- Unrated
Wan Ibrahim
Wan Ibrahim is the owner of MySpiritualSelfHelp.com, a website that was created to share the wisdom for spiritual living. He also shares his insights, tips and stories about happiness, relationship and success from a different point of view at his Blog - Detached, and in the context of spirituality at Personal Blog Section.
Indian scriptures state that the individual soul of man is same as God. The soul is called Atman while God is called Param-atman (Universal Soul). It is said that God resides in the heart of every person. This principle is broadly agreed in other religions also where everything in this world is attributed to God and it is said that nothing exists except God and that God is omnipresent i.e. present everywhere. It is therefore, said in the Indian scriptures of Upanishads., " I am the God" (Aham Brahmiashmi).
However, comparing man with God is quite perplexing and confusing. How can we accept that a person who commits numerous crimes, kills innocent people and cause damage to this world is same as God? God is considered to be the source of all virtues and embodiment of love, compassion, charity and good. To compare a criminal to God seems totally absurd and illogical.
Christianity, therefore, have the concept of Devil or Satan who is the source of all evils in this world. He is just the opposite of God and powerful enough to attract and entice the man to do evil acts. No person, however powerful he may be, can ever fight devil unless he take the help of God. Thus total surrender to God is the only solution to rise above evil and become good as God is the basic principle of Christianity and Islam.
Divergent religions have different believes about the existence of good and evil in this world. Yet all agree that all the good in this world is only due to God while the evil is due to the "inherent nature" of the man who always tends to follow the path of evil. In the Indian philosophy same thing is explained in a different way. It is said that though all people are born with pure soul, which is divine, yet it becomes impure in course of its living in the body of the man due to its interaction with the worldly vices.
The Pollution of Soul
In Mandukya Upanishad, it is said that this Atman is indeed Brahman (God). Compare the atman as the space trapped in a house and the Brahman as the entire space of the world. The two spaces were one before the walls of the house were erected. However, once the walls are constructed the space inside the house becomes different than that of the atmosphere. It will again become one, if the walls of the house are demolished. The room space is merely an illusion created by the four walls of the room and the flooring.
Now imagine that you keep the doors of the house closed for a few days. The space within the house will get polluted and it will start stinking. Imagine coming to your closed house after many years and opening the doors of the house. Perhaps the foul smell would be so strong that one would faint inhaling the same air that was once as pure as nature. Why the air inside has become so foul and polluted?
The reason for the foul smell is easy to explain. All material things react to the gases present in the air particularly the life-giving oxygen and produce "a harmful gaseous substance". This gas can not be absorbed or purified by anything that is present in the room, hence it continue to increase in a closed room. Gradually all oxygen of the air inside the room get converted to the harmful gases till no oxygen is left in the room.
The chemical reaction of oxygen with the matter present in this world is nothing new. We all inhale oxygen which reacts with the carbonic substances that are present in our body and continuously produce carbon-dioxide. Yet this carbon dioxide does not produce any pollution as it is naturally absorbed by the green plants, which converts the carbon dioxide again to oxygen. Hence the nature is designed in such a way that everything in this world complements everything in such a way that continuity and purity is maintained forever.
Soul like air in the room is initially same as that of the natural air outside. Yet when the doors of the house were closed from the source, it became impure. In the modern world, most people close the doors of their soul to God thereby removing the flow of the purity of Spirit that can remove the impurities of the soul. If only the person opens the doors of his soul or house to the divine God or nature, its impurities can be regularly removed by the influx of fresh air and outflow of the polluted air.
The pollution is created in the room not only from the walls of the room but from everything that is kept in the room. Every furniture, electronic equipment and garment does produce the gases that cause pollution in the room. Since no man-made device or substance can ever absorb these cases and purify them to its original form, there is no alternative but to open the doors of your house to connect it with the God or the Atmosphere.
Four Steps to Purify Your Soul?
Once the reasons for the pollution of the soul is understood by an example of the closed room, the solution for purification of the soul can be discovered. The four steps suggested in the following paragraphs can help a person in not only making his soul as pure as Spirit of God, but also maintain it forever in his life.
Step1. Open the Doors of your House: Connect Your Soul to God
We all know how to purify the air of a closed room. It is very simple. We always do it when we come back to our house after long absence. Just open all the doors. Once the doors of the room are opened and the fresh air starts circulating in the room, it takes away all the impure air from the room and gradually the room is filled with the fresh air of the nature.
The process of purification of soul is also very simple. One has to simply open the door of his soul to the atmosphere or the God. Many people
simply close all their connections with God and breath only in the closed air of the room or their body. The result is that soon they absorb all the oxygen of the air and fill the room with harmful and poisonous carbon dioxide. Same is true for the man who has broken all connection with God or the Supreme Spirit.
The best method to connect the soul with God is "prayer". Prayers are prescribed in all religions and scriptures. When a prayer is said with sincerely from the soul, the soul gets connected with God and gradually become pure like God. There are other methods to connect God too like reading of the scriptures, charity and practicing kindness and service to people. All these methods connect the soul with God and purify it.
Step 2. Reduce the Possessions: Shun the Worldly Possessions and Pleasures
While, opening the door can help the purification of air to some extent, yet if the room is filled with worldly possessions like furniture and fixtures, shoes etc, it becomes home to harmful fungus and bacteria. Hence they continuously spoil the fresh air of the room. The moment you close the door, the foul smell returns in the room. So if you want lasting purity in the room, you must have minimum possession in the room. The lesser are the possessions, the lesser is the pollution of the air in the room. It is for this reason that all religion asks people to shun wealth and sensual pleasures, which are all source of impurity of the soul. Though, some minimum possessions may be necessary for reasonable comfortable living of the person, yet the accumulation of them can only harm the soul. It is for this reason that all spiritual persons like Buddha and Jesus avoided wealth and pleasure, so that they can keep their soul pure and divine.
Step 3. Mind Your Company: Choose Noble Souls
Just imagine that you have removed all your belongings from the room and also opened the door of the room. Yet if your room is located in a polluted area, there is no possibility to inhale fresh air, despite of all your effort. Same is the case with the soul of the person.
If you are in the company of the people having impure souls, there is no way that you can have pure soul. Every person gets influenced by the company of the people. One needs not to be a smoker to suffer from the harmful effects of the smoking. The harm is same, if others smoke in your room. Most of the people in fact suffer not from the smoke which is their creation but from the smoke that is created by others. Hence living in the company of the people with impure soul is as dangerous as living in the closed room.
Hence one needs to change his company and friends. One has to get into the company of noble and good people to imbibe goodness. Just like living in a forest can automatically fill you with fresh and pure air naturally, same is true with the company of spiritual people. Hence in Indian philosophy the Satasang (Company to Truthful people) has been given highest place in life. If one can find a noble soul and make him or her, his teacher or companion, the journey of life become extremely simple and easy.
Step 4. Clean Your House Regularly: Purify Your Body
After you have taken all steps to purify your soul, you have to also ensure that it remains pure forever. Again taking the simile of the house, we know that the house has to be cleaned daily to make the air in it clean and fresh. One has to clean the house and all its things by dusting, washing and often disinfecting. Same is true with soul. You can not have fresh air in dirty house. Similarly no one can have pure soul in an impure body.
The purity of body makes it fit to house pure soul and only a pure soul can connect with the God or the universal Spirit. This process is called in Indian philosophy as Yoga or Union. By following the exercises and practices of Yoga, one can create union of body, soul and God. Yoga requires the discipline of body by eating proper food and practicing various postures and exercises including breathing exercises (Pranayam). Similar methods for cleaning of the body have been prescribed in other religions and spiritual methods as well. These methods include the practice of meditation, fasting, eating of fresh and clean vegetarian foods etc. In order to keep the body clean and pure, scriptures also advice people to avoid all animal products, intoxicants, drugs and meats.
Purify Your Soul to Achieve Divine Life
Man can achieve happiness only if he can keep his body and soul pure. The pleasures of the body are temporary and recurring. Only a pure soul can connect with the divine soul, the Holy Spirit or God. Devil or Satan as described in scriptures is all pervasive to fill your body and soul with toxic thoughts and deeds and impure it. No human being by himself can ever purify himself just like no man-made chemical can ever convert the impure air of your room to pure air. Creation of impurity is a natural process in this world like that of weeds. One has to continuously work to remove this impurity by purifying his or her soul by following the steps given in this article. The task is simple but the benefits are tremendous as man can achieve permanent peace and happiness only by making his body and soul pure.
Mr. Awdhesh K Singh is an Engineer by education and philosopher by passion. He has published several papers in International Journals and Conferences on the subject of E-governance, Artificial Intelligence , Fuzzy Logic and Expert Systems .
He is the founding member of The Aatmic Science Foundation, (The Science of Soul Foundation). His interest is in creating synthesis between all religions and sciences for the benefit of the mankind.
Many of his articles are published on the website of Aatmic Science Forum http://www.aatmicscience.com and Science of Soul http://www.scienceofsoul.com
He can be contacted at his email address aksinghirs [a] yahoo.com
Article Source: EzineArticles.com/
However, comparing man with God is quite perplexing and confusing. How can we accept that a person who commits numerous crimes, kills innocent people and cause damage to this world is same as God? God is considered to be the source of all virtues and embodiment of love, compassion, charity and good. To compare a criminal to God seems totally absurd and illogical.
Christianity, therefore, have the concept of Devil or Satan who is the source of all evils in this world. He is just the opposite of God and powerful enough to attract and entice the man to do evil acts. No person, however powerful he may be, can ever fight devil unless he take the help of God. Thus total surrender to God is the only solution to rise above evil and become good as God is the basic principle of Christianity and Islam.
Divergent religions have different believes about the existence of good and evil in this world. Yet all agree that all the good in this world is only due to God while the evil is due to the "inherent nature" of the man who always tends to follow the path of evil. In the Indian philosophy same thing is explained in a different way. It is said that though all people are born with pure soul, which is divine, yet it becomes impure in course of its living in the body of the man due to its interaction with the worldly vices.
The Pollution of Soul
In Mandukya Upanishad, it is said that this Atman is indeed Brahman (God). Compare the atman as the space trapped in a house and the Brahman as the entire space of the world. The two spaces were one before the walls of the house were erected. However, once the walls are constructed the space inside the house becomes different than that of the atmosphere. It will again become one, if the walls of the house are demolished. The room space is merely an illusion created by the four walls of the room and the flooring.
Now imagine that you keep the doors of the house closed for a few days. The space within the house will get polluted and it will start stinking. Imagine coming to your closed house after many years and opening the doors of the house. Perhaps the foul smell would be so strong that one would faint inhaling the same air that was once as pure as nature. Why the air inside has become so foul and polluted?
The reason for the foul smell is easy to explain. All material things react to the gases present in the air particularly the life-giving oxygen and produce "a harmful gaseous substance". This gas can not be absorbed or purified by anything that is present in the room, hence it continue to increase in a closed room. Gradually all oxygen of the air inside the room get converted to the harmful gases till no oxygen is left in the room.
The chemical reaction of oxygen with the matter present in this world is nothing new. We all inhale oxygen which reacts with the carbonic substances that are present in our body and continuously produce carbon-dioxide. Yet this carbon dioxide does not produce any pollution as it is naturally absorbed by the green plants, which converts the carbon dioxide again to oxygen. Hence the nature is designed in such a way that everything in this world complements everything in such a way that continuity and purity is maintained forever.
Soul like air in the room is initially same as that of the natural air outside. Yet when the doors of the house were closed from the source, it became impure. In the modern world, most people close the doors of their soul to God thereby removing the flow of the purity of Spirit that can remove the impurities of the soul. If only the person opens the doors of his soul or house to the divine God or nature, its impurities can be regularly removed by the influx of fresh air and outflow of the polluted air.
The pollution is created in the room not only from the walls of the room but from everything that is kept in the room. Every furniture, electronic equipment and garment does produce the gases that cause pollution in the room. Since no man-made device or substance can ever absorb these cases and purify them to its original form, there is no alternative but to open the doors of your house to connect it with the God or the Atmosphere.
Four Steps to Purify Your Soul?
Once the reasons for the pollution of the soul is understood by an example of the closed room, the solution for purification of the soul can be discovered. The four steps suggested in the following paragraphs can help a person in not only making his soul as pure as Spirit of God, but also maintain it forever in his life.
Step1. Open the Doors of your House: Connect Your Soul to God
We all know how to purify the air of a closed room. It is very simple. We always do it when we come back to our house after long absence. Just open all the doors. Once the doors of the room are opened and the fresh air starts circulating in the room, it takes away all the impure air from the room and gradually the room is filled with the fresh air of the nature.
The process of purification of soul is also very simple. One has to simply open the door of his soul to the atmosphere or the God. Many people
The best method to connect the soul with God is "prayer". Prayers are prescribed in all religions and scriptures. When a prayer is said with sincerely from the soul, the soul gets connected with God and gradually become pure like God. There are other methods to connect God too like reading of the scriptures, charity and practicing kindness and service to people. All these methods connect the soul with God and purify it.
Step 2. Reduce the Possessions: Shun the Worldly Possessions and Pleasures
While, opening the door can help the purification of air to some extent, yet if the room is filled with worldly possessions like furniture and fixtures, shoes etc, it becomes home to harmful fungus and bacteria. Hence they continuously spoil the fresh air of the room. The moment you close the door, the foul smell returns in the room. So if you want lasting purity in the room, you must have minimum possession in the room. The lesser are the possessions, the lesser is the pollution of the air in the room. It is for this reason that all religion asks people to shun wealth and sensual pleasures, which are all source of impurity of the soul. Though, some minimum possessions may be necessary for reasonable comfortable living of the person, yet the accumulation of them can only harm the soul. It is for this reason that all spiritual persons like Buddha and Jesus avoided wealth and pleasure, so that they can keep their soul pure and divine.
Step 3. Mind Your Company: Choose Noble Souls
Just imagine that you have removed all your belongings from the room and also opened the door of the room. Yet if your room is located in a polluted area, there is no possibility to inhale fresh air, despite of all your effort. Same is the case with the soul of the person.
If you are in the company of the people having impure souls, there is no way that you can have pure soul. Every person gets influenced by the company of the people. One needs not to be a smoker to suffer from the harmful effects of the smoking. The harm is same, if others smoke in your room. Most of the people in fact suffer not from the smoke which is their creation but from the smoke that is created by others. Hence living in the company of the people with impure soul is as dangerous as living in the closed room.
Hence one needs to change his company and friends. One has to get into the company of noble and good people to imbibe goodness. Just like living in a forest can automatically fill you with fresh and pure air naturally, same is true with the company of spiritual people. Hence in Indian philosophy the Satasang (Company to Truthful people) has been given highest place in life. If one can find a noble soul and make him or her, his teacher or companion, the journey of life become extremely simple and easy.
Step 4. Clean Your House Regularly: Purify Your Body
After you have taken all steps to purify your soul, you have to also ensure that it remains pure forever. Again taking the simile of the house, we know that the house has to be cleaned daily to make the air in it clean and fresh. One has to clean the house and all its things by dusting, washing and often disinfecting. Same is true with soul. You can not have fresh air in dirty house. Similarly no one can have pure soul in an impure body.
The purity of body makes it fit to house pure soul and only a pure soul can connect with the God or the universal Spirit. This process is called in Indian philosophy as Yoga or Union. By following the exercises and practices of Yoga, one can create union of body, soul and God. Yoga requires the discipline of body by eating proper food and practicing various postures and exercises including breathing exercises (Pranayam). Similar methods for cleaning of the body have been prescribed in other religions and spiritual methods as well. These methods include the practice of meditation, fasting, eating of fresh and clean vegetarian foods etc. In order to keep the body clean and pure, scriptures also advice people to avoid all animal products, intoxicants, drugs and meats.
Purify Your Soul to Achieve Divine Life
Man can achieve happiness only if he can keep his body and soul pure. The pleasures of the body are temporary and recurring. Only a pure soul can connect with the divine soul, the Holy Spirit or God. Devil or Satan as described in scriptures is all pervasive to fill your body and soul with toxic thoughts and deeds and impure it. No human being by himself can ever purify himself just like no man-made chemical can ever convert the impure air of your room to pure air. Creation of impurity is a natural process in this world like that of weeds. One has to continuously work to remove this impurity by purifying his or her soul by following the steps given in this article. The task is simple but the benefits are tremendous as man can achieve permanent peace and happiness only by making his body and soul pure.
Mr. Awdhesh K Singh is an Engineer by education and philosopher by passion. He has published several papers in International Journals and Conferences on the subject of E-governance, Artificial Intelligence , Fuzzy Logic and Expert Systems .
He is the founding member of The Aatmic Science Foundation, (The Science of Soul Foundation). His interest is in creating synthesis between all religions and sciences for the benefit of the mankind.
Many of his articles are published on the website of Aatmic Science Forum http://www.aatmicscience.com and Science of Soul http://www.scienceofsoul.com
He can be contacted at his email address aksinghirs [a] yahoo.com
Article Source: EzineArticles.com/
Wan Ibrahim
Wan Ibrahim is the owner of MySpiritualSelfHelp.com, a website that was created to share the wisdom for spiritual living. He also shares his insights, tips and stories about happiness, relationship and success from a different point of view at his Blog - Detached, and in the context of spirituality at Personal Blog Section.
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