spiritual study
Lessons From Nature Bring Light To The Soul
I recently had the privilege to attend a virtual seminar on a sublime spiritual book titled Light of the Bhāgavata. The experience powerfully reminded me of the incredible wonder of nature’s divine design, and how it relates to our spiritual purpose in this lifetime. With its beautiful metaphors from nature, Light of the Bhāgavata brings light to the soul in the darkness of this age of strife and quarrel.
The book is a unique spiritual text written in 1961 for a presentation at a world conference of the Congress of Cultivating the Human Spirit, held in Japan. At the time, the author, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, was living in a small, sparsely furnished room in the humble village of Vrindavan, India, where Lord Krishna had appeared 5,000 years ago.
The swami received an invitation to participate as a speaker at the conference and thus conceived Light of the Bhagavata for this purpose. Within just a few months, he wrote an inspired manuscript based on the timeless teachings of the Srimad Bhagawatam. Written over 5,000 years ago, the original Bhagavatam is a voluminous book composed of 18,000 verses.
The swami realized that it would not be practical for him to try and share all of its teachings with the conference attendees in one presentation. He therefore decided to only focus on the tenth canto, twentieth chapter of Srimad-Bhagavatam for his presentation, drawing spiritual lessons of life from nature. The twentieth chapter is a description of the autumn season in Vrindavan, the place of Lord Krishna’s appearance. He composed 48 commentaries to accompany each of the verses of that chapter.
Faith As A Spiritual Science
It is generally assumed that all forms of ‘faith’ is merely matter of ‘belief.’ In other words, to have faith is seen as having belief that is blind; it is a belief without reason, evidence, or experience. However, there is another kind of faith that develops through a reciprocal relationship.
According to the Vedic teachings and the practices of Krishna Bhakti (awareness of, and affection for Krishna, the Supreme Person) faith begins with hearing spiritual knowledge from a liberated soul, who is beyond the four defects of material conditioning.
Ordinary people (or conditioned souls) have four defects due to their contact with material existence. These defects are:
- The tendency to make mistakes.
- To be illusioned.
- The propensity to cheat others.
- To have imperfect senses.
At the initial phase of faith, there is an appeal to the intelligence of the conditioned soul that evokes exploration of knowledge through hearing deeper spiritual insights, which in turn appeals to their intelligence to apply it.
From the experiment of applying it, comes observable experiential results that corroborate the truth of what was initially heard from the transcendental authority (liberated soul).
This confirming experience not only yields faith in the knowledge and process applied, but it also forms an evidential knowing beyond a mere baseless, ‘blind’ belief. Therefore, developing a relationship with God through Bhakti-Yoga or Krishna Consciousness is a spiritual science.
Signs That You Have A High Vibration
Spiritually aware people know that it is important to achieve and maintain a high energy frequency to live a truly conscious, empowered life. Diverse spiritual practices, metaphysical techniques and lifestyle activities can be pursued to achieve this elevated state of ‘beingness’ and higher consciousness.
But how does one know for sure that all your efforts to raise your vibration are indeed successful? How do you recognize an elevated ‘vibe’ in yourself and others? Are there clear signs of someone having a high energy vibration?
Yes, there are indeed certain traits and indicators one can look out for to identify people with a high vibration:
Empowered. When a person with a high energy vibration walks into a room, everybody immediately takes notice of them. They have a powerful presence. Everyone will instantly light up and suddenly become more relaxed, friendly, happy, and joyful.
Healing. People seek you out others who have a higher vibration when they are feeling sad, depressed, anxious, or just need someone to talk to. High vibration people therefore often find themselves in the role of teacher, nurturer, caregiver, healer, or peacemaker.
Trusted. People with a raised vibration are often more easily and spontaneously trusted by others. Animals and children especially are naturally drawn to those who have a high vibration. Animals and children are sensitive to negative, low energies and tend to avoid it at any cost. If a crying baby or scared pet vehemently refuses to have anything to do with someone, chances are something is off with that person’s energy. Kids and animals prefer and only trust ‘light and love’ vibes.
The Supreme Source Of All Healing
Spiritual practice is unique for every individual. I have been drinking from the well of wisdom in the Vedas for the past 35 years, especially the Srimad-Bhagavatam, also known as the Bhagavata Purana, one of Hinduism’s eighteen great puranas.
The Vedas are the original Sanskrit texts of India’s ancient spiritual culture featuring a vast body of wisdom in every field of human life, to help the soul navigate this world and reach the ultimate destination beyond.
This ancient manual of life was compiled by Srila Vyasadeva, who is revered by great saints and seers as a literary incarnation of God. In Sanskrit, he is called a saktyavesa-avatara, which means one who is empowered with energy of Divinity to fulfill a distinct purpose. In the case of Vyasa, his Divine purpose was the writing of everything that humans need to know to fulfill their aims and completely awaken spiritually.
Although Vyasadeva was an avatar, and therefore not an ordinary person, he felt despondent after composing all the Vedas. His guru, Narada Muni, the great sage among the demigods, then appeared to him and explained that the cause of his despondency was that he had not yet fully glorified the personal feature of the Absolute Truth.
Taking this to heart, Vyasadeva then meditated deeply on the Supreme Personality of Godhead and wrote Srimad-Bhagavatam from his matured and purified realization.
In Vyasadeva’s own estimation, the most profound of all spiritual wisdom within the Vedas is found within the Srimad-Bhagavatam. And the cream of that cream he describes as bhakti, devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Modern Misunderstanding Of The Occult
I recently had an interesting conversation with a casual acquaintance about spirituality and the occult. She is new to metaphysics and mysticism, but since these topics are of great interest and intrigue to me, I needed no convincing to dive into it with her.
It soon became obvious that she had some misunderstandings, and even a few misgivings regarding these matters. For example, she believes a ‘spiritual person’ is someone who engages in some form of religion or spiritual practice, such as meditation or prayer. She also believes spirituality is the exclusive domain of humans, as animals do not practice any religion or spirituality – they merely exist in nature.
Many people confuse ‘being religious’ with ‘being spiritual’ – one does not necessarily imply the other. Living a spiritually aware or conscious life simply means ‘living in the truth’ of who you are – a spirit being in human form. One can be religious, but it is not a prerequisite to living your true spiritual identity.
I also explained to her that the creatures of this earth may appear to be ‘soulless,’ but all living, sentient beings, as well as nature at large, are all expression of Spirit, God, Source, Universe, the Divine. How the animals operate and survive in this world is what is inherently true of the inner being of who they truly are. The entire universe is an expression of its sacred origins. In fact, in my opinion animals live with much greater alignment to higher consciousness than most modern humans do!
It took her some time to evaluate these concepts, but she did eventually come to a conclusion that there must be some truth to it. However, the real fun began when I mentioned my life-long interest in the occult. She vehemently protested that everything relating to the occult is “evil and demonic.” I asked her what facts or personal experience she based this opinion on, but her only justification was that this is “what most people believe.”
