Soul Sustenance

Success In Your Stride (Part 1) 

Reaching milestones or arriving at significant turning points in life bring with them praise and respect from different people whom we are connected with. Life does not remain the same as a fresh flavor of a pure pride based on what we have achieved is added to life. If spiritually defined, a pride based on soul-consciousness can be defined as being in the positive consciousness of the qualities, powers and skills of the soul. These are non-physical capabilities and are given a physical face by karmas, which involve words, actions and relationships. This pride is called self-esteem. On the other hand, a pride based on the physical body consciousness, which is called ego, can be defined as attaching yourself to your role. Also, the non-physical aspect is forgotten completely, forgetting that the qualities and the talents which are responsible for success are not exactly mine. They are a gift of my past actions, which were inspired by the remembrance of the Supreme. 

We might argue that the skills are mine and are the only reason behind the success story of my life. But we do forget that all good actions performed by us over many previous births are the reason why we are gifted with specialties today (as a result of those actions). These actions were directly or indirectly related to the remembrance of God and performing pure actions or punya karmas in the name of God. Both were an absolutely common part of our lives just about 100-150 years ago. Do you know that all of us, even the most advanced personalities amongst us presently, remembered God everyday for quite some time till a few hundred years ago in different physical costumes or bodies? We did that not only in the form of prayers but also thanking him many times each day for everything he gave us. It’s only after the advancement of science and technology that we starting remaining away from the Supreme. Also, instead of taking success in our stride as a God-given gift, we start taking it as only my destiny, with no role of God to play in the same. That’s when self-esteem starting changing to ego. 

(To be continued tomorrow …)