Further,. . .

    Further, it is 'spirituality', not philosophy, that helps the jiva in living a very happy, joyful, peaceful life, especially, in old age. Philosophical discussions often end in confusion, generate ill will and strife due to the ego factor involved in it. Philosophy is just philo sophia, mere love of words and we find most of the university professors of philosophy are just that! In fact, Philosophy departments in Universities all over the world are on the verge of closing down for want of students. Spirituality? Yes. Philosophy? No.
 When we mean philosophy, it is not about the Bharatiya darshana shastra. Western philosophy is different from the Indian Philosophy in the sense that the latter has a different perspective, different concept of God, creation (srushti), sustenance (sthiti) and dissolution (laya), and merger (vilaya) altogether in a perspective different from that of the West. 
    We do not use the term God, instead, we deal with the Devi-devata, Vedic elements that are Shakti, Forces, like the sun, fire, water, air, earth, vegetation, etc truly in the scientific way the physicists deal with!* We do not think because we exist. Or, for that matter, we do exist to think, inquire into the reality of our existence. We think about how and why we exist. Also we think what next and where we go from here after death. Before that we try to know where we come from. Hitherto, what we thought was only about life as something "from dust unto dust". But, now we know it is a journey 'from stardust to stardust". 
 The whole life is a journey,     payana, adhvaryu (Rk Veda). It is just a flow of consciousness. This eternal flow of consciousness in all manifest forms is the world. There is no existence without consciousness. Hence, 'Chit' is conscious of itself (as Shiva) and "conscious of the other" (jagat). This is exemplified in all the six forms of Bharatiya darshana shastra- sankhya, yoga, nyaya, vaisheshika, purva mimamsa adn Vedanta (uttara mimamsa). We do not consider Western thoughts about creation, God, death, etc. here.
   This is also the reason why some of our great spiritualists like Yogananda, Maharishi Mahesha Yogi, Swami Vivekananda went to Western Countries to talk about the Indian spiritual heritage,
  Who are the spiritualists? Great scientists, poets (like Wordsworth, Keats, Tennyson, or Kalidasa and Purandhara Dasa and Kanaka Das), artists- musicians, painters, sculptors, etc are all spiritualists. In fact, all are spiritualists at birth, but take to some avocation by force of circumstances, but for which they would remain great spiritualists like Sage Ramana Maharshi or Sri Ramakrishna.  

  Spiritual development is a gift of the supreme Lord, 'anugraha', carryover of the past good actions purvapunya, and the blessings of the Guru and elders. In a way, this is due to discovering the inner strength and weaknesses of the embedded elemental jivatman. The jivatman, meaning, an Atma embedded in elemental body (panchabhuta shareera), realizes the fact that it is not the elemental body but the Atman, the core of its substance and the quality of the Atma has no attributes and it only reflects the nature of the the elements (bhuta) only! The moment the jiva realizes this, it stops judging other people and start showering unconditional love. This is the divine aspect that manifests from knowledge, jnyan, Atma sakshatkara. A wise person knows that all jivas have come here as the manifest forms of brahman, an attributeless one, only, and as such, have no attributes of its own. This knowledge of the self, by itself, brings immense peace, joy, and happiness to jivas.
   We have seen such great people in our midst. They are rich and famous, unassuming, kind and affable, exemplary! Such persons are evolved souls and spiritually attained ones in the strict sense of the term. One need not run to a forest to achieve this in ones life. A little bit of contemplation, meditation, will do the trick! Upanishads are full of stories that help the students understand this principle.
   But, then,why sadhana for spiritual development? It is by quirk of fate, destiny, that some take to spiritual sadhana. Most of the people are not interested in the spiritual aspects since their desire, dreams and ambitions, their karma klesha or prarabhda will not allow them to even think of this sacred path. Bhagavan Sri Krishna advises Arjuna "not to neglect the Atman". He also says, "There is no other way but to take the help of Atman only to attain Atman (Atma sakshatkara). Buddhi, manas, and Indriyas will not help in this regard.
* Today Scientists also speak the way we, as spiritualists, speak. See for instance:  

    Leading Scientist Says "Everything, Including Our World, Is An Illusion "

   The world that humans see around them is nothing more than a very convincing illusion, according to one of the world’s leading cognitive scientists. 

     Donald Hoffman, a scientist at the University of California, claims that people are being tricked into believing their own reality, and what they see around them is nothing more than a facade that enables humans to get through their daily lives without having to deal with the “hidden matrix” that lurks behind everything.

    Hoffman says that when you see something that you think is solid, such as a red tomato, you cannot be sure that when you close your eyes that it still exists. He says what you are actually seeing is entirely constructed inside your mind. The tomato doesn’t actually exist.

Dailymail.co.uk reports:

Galileo once wrote: ‘I think that tastes, odors, colors, and so on reside in consciousness.

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‘Hence if the living creature were removed, all these qualities would be annihilated.’

And Hoffman says, in some ways, he agrees with this statement.

‘Neuroscientists tell us that they are creating, in real time, all the shapes, objects, colours, and motions that we see,’ he said in a Ted Talk.

‘It feels like we’re just taking a snapshot of this room the way it is, but in fact, we’re constructing everything that we see.

‘We don’t construct the whole world at once. We construct what we need in the moment.’

Neuroscientists believe our perceptions of the world are an evolutionary trait that gave our ancestors the advantage when having to make quick decisions with little information.

[Posted on April 25, 2016 by Sean Adl-Tabatabai in Sci/Environment]. 

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