Spiritual Materialism
There is a danger and flipside to spiritual quest. Some men and women who go into so called spiritual study, practices and thoughts often create around us a pseudo cocoon. We derive pseudo spiritual satisfaction with our selfish study, self centered personal enlightenment seeking.Intellectualization is good but only to a certain degree. Imbalance in any thing including spiritual and religious study is unwanted. One of the major problems of spiritual attachment is that it is very often amount to mere talk and personal self pride. Without real work in this world for real people all quest for religious and spiritual knowledge is fueling the ego with pride.
Unless through action we start manifesting goodness, kindness, compassion and love to other human being we fail our purpose in this world. As God manifest his will through creating this creation; human being as image of God as Khaifatullah [vicegerent of Allah] must learn to manifest the essential quality in service, in action.
Religious and spiritual learning is nothing but our preparation for the service to humanity. From Krishna to Buddha , Jesus to Mohammad you will find not a single human being whom humanity adore ... a great soul, who didn't serve the humanity, who didn't come out to heal the world. If so many spiritual text, so many religious books and verses doesn't inspire us to go out and give our services, our wealth, our time for the less fortunate, I am sorry to say our reading, our study reach nowhere. God doesn't need our praise, but His praise was supposed to help us realize our praise worthy ability to serve others & to work for others.
:: during the tour to India, on way to Darjeeling. Feb, 2007
Related
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Labels: buddha, creative thoughts, spiritual, spiritual materials, thought
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| posted by Sadiq Alam @ 11:45 AM
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16 Comments:
really great thought!!! one has to serve...
otherwise we can go back to our caves in remote places and enjoy our spirituality alone..but this makes no sense today.
we haveto bring ourb spirituality into action!
Thank you, Sadiq!
Really great thought!!! one has to serve...
Owe can go back to our caves in remote places and enjoy our spirituality alone.. but this makes no sense today.
we have to bring our spirituality into action!
Thank you, Sadiq!
Alhamdu-lillah, you speak so eloquently brother Sadiq.
May Allah shower blessings upon you.
Andrea
Salaams Brother Sadiq,
Alhamdulillah! Words of wisdom!
'Spiritual calling really means Service' - Most Beneficial advice indeed!
If the element of 'Time' is included, it resonates with this all-encompassing verse in which God himself says:
By the token of time,
Verily Man is in loss,
Except such as have Faith, and do righteous deeds, and (join together) in the mutual enjoining of Truth, and of Patience and Constancy. ( The Qur’an 103)
By faith and righteous deeds man attains self-perfection; and by “recommending others to the Truth” he attains perfection to his community.
May God shower His blessings and reward you immeasurably for this crucial reminder. Ameen
sf
Many thanks dear friends on the path.
May every sign around us inspire us to serve others. there is no other greater cause for which we are here.
thanks dear sister SF for reminder of the one of the most favorite quranic verse. thats says it all.
How right you are, dear Brother Sadiq. Without service to others, all our vaunted spiritual striving is nothing but ego. My Master tells this anecdote of Abu Sa'id Abi'l-Khayr:
One day in addressing the assembly of Sufis in his khanaqah in the city of Nashipur, the master said, “The length and breadth of the khanaqah is strewn with gems. Why don’t you pick any up?” Everyone looked around to see if the floor was covered with jewels. Not seeing any precious stones lying around they turned back to the master with puzzled looks.
“O Master,” they cried, “where are these gems which we do not see?”
“Service!”, cried the master, “Service!”
~Selected from Dr. Javad Nurbakhsh's discourse "Serving Others" [Sufi Journal 43]
Ya Haqq!
Your words are thought evoking. It is how we put it all into practice. In other words Practice what you Preach.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
:o)
Reshad Feild, The Last Barrier:
Serving God - what more beautiful thing is there to do! The only real joy is to be a servant of God, and that means being awake all the time to the needs of the moment…. We cannot have any preconceived ideas of what service means. We never know from one moment to the next, what will be asked of us.
Stephen and Ondrea Levine, Embracing the Beloved:
The only service you can do for anyone is to remind them of their true nature.
These couple of quotes I feel are quite fitting to your post.
hugs4u. :o)
Knowledge and religious studies is good like said when one utilizes it. Simple. True ? alhamdulillah was salaamu,
Jamal
What about the other way around? There are more than one sides to the story. So what if one is not religious as we seem to understand it here but is in service to humanity to other beings? What if he/she abhors religion and spiritual yet seem to be an angel of self sacrifice?
Which way is it?
br Irving,
mashallah! service, yes.
dear trinity, what lovely quotes. true indeed.
wasaalam jamaal.
sneez,
there are as many way to God as the numbers of human breath. so even if someone in a context of non-religious motive do the serving, God willing, surely he or she will be rewarded. there are many famous examples in the tradition of prophet where service is done selflessly even by prostitute was sure enough cause to grant them forgiveness and accepted in eternal bliss. so though it seems other way around, they are basically the same.
Thank you for nice answer. I wish one day all official religions acknowledged that.
you are welcome dear sneez.
blessings be with you as you go on with your life. may they manifest now and forever in front of your inner eye.
dear sadiq bhai:
sometime i try to read your posts in blogspot. this time i could not resist myself from writing comment. this is surely one of the excellent thoughts i have ever read. your write ups are motivating me to study on religions. best wishes!
dear shimul,
i was so glad to see ur comment here. it would be even more beautiful if it would help you realize the truth which is all around and out there.
my deep appreciation for your kind visit and words! best wishes to you as well.
Marianne Williamson said,"Success means we go to sleep at night knowing that our talents and abilities were used in a way that served others."
There is no other decent way to live. Beautiful post.
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