The seeds of spirituality
Many of us have probably wondered what exactly is spirituality ? And what is a spiritual person ? Those are solid questions and there will be many answers coming from different quarters. What seems like reasonable common ground to start with is an acknowledgment of the Spirit itself - a pure and subtle entity - and its presence within the material world. A presence that can be felt at least by some and the consequences of which may be recognized over time by a larger number. And a general attitude of inquiry towards the Spirit, at the very least, up to full immersion into and enjoyment of that presence, at best, can maybe define some of the frontiers of spirituality. Mirroring that, the understanding about a spiritual person has ranged from being the follower of a system of practices for cultivating the awareness of the Spirit or at least readiness for it up to the great Divine personalities that walked the Earth and continue to be our ideals.
Historically, this crucial conversation has been started by Shri Krishna. Around 6000 years ago in India (exact dates are still subject to debate) Shri Krishna represented the ideal of enlightenment and lived a life with an incredible number of facets. One aspect of which was holding an immortal discourse on spirituality to one single disciple, and in the middle of a giant battlefield at that ! That discourse - the Bhagavat Geeta - has “officially” become one of the central texts of spirituality in India. But it belongs to no single tradition as such, as it speaks about the universal human nature and the relationship with the Divine and how somebody whose Spirit is awakened and thus has become a “Stitha Pragnya” (literally in state of enlightenment) looks at the world and acts in a pure witness state.
In exceptionally concentrated form, Shri Krishna delivered essential definitions of devotion and ritual offerings - that which is done after being united with the Divinity that is worshipped; of the ideal of action - full commitment to action with no attachment to its fruits; and of knowledge - realizing the true Divine nature through the power of enlightenment. This essentially covers the activity of our 3 energy channels and describes the aim of spiritual achievement on all 3 sides. He also touched on the equality of human beings in the eyes of the Divine as we all have the Spirit reflected in our heart. At that time, even for Shri Krishna, it was not possible to go beyond depicting those great truths and stating the ideals of our evolution. He did directly advise a small number of very good people on the virtuous path of action in different circumstances but those people wouldn't have been in a position to spontaneously feel and apply the essence of those teachings by themselves.
This becomes possible only after Self - Realization and Shri Krishna sowed the seeds of spirituality at that time for the trunk to grow slowly through the ages until the “blossom time” as described by Shri Mataji. This is our current era with the advent of en-masse Self Realization as achieved in Sahaja Yoga together with its system of inner balancing, healing, purification and spiritual evolution that follows. Thus the beautiful arc of our transformation into real spiritual beings has crossed through millennia and on His birthday it is most befitting to remember that it is Shri Krishna who built its beginnings.