Spirituality is the science of the spirit, the atman or the soul which helps us overcome our ignorance and realise the reality about life, God, who we’re and about this world. It sets us free from the shackles of myths, superstitions and lies and experts imagine that if we proceed to walk on the trail of spirituality, we are going to attain enlightenment and be liberated from all suffering and misery.
Spirituality helps us realize our goal — to appreciate we’re the divine soul and never what we look like — the body, mind and ego. Experts insist that spirituality is the solution to everlasting bliss, peace and joy, to the state of Satchitananda — where we live with consciousness of the reality and experience seamless, divine bliss.
They assert that spirituality cannot only ease depression and anxiety but completely eliminate it if we stay committed, evolve and grow on our path. How? In an interview with HT Lifestyle, AiR Atman in Ravi, Spiritual leader and Founding father of AiR Institute of Realization and AiR Center of Enlightenment, listed 4 powerful ways spirituality can ease anxiety and depression:
1. Spirituality helps us realise the reality about our true self. We realise who we’re. We will not be the the body, mind and ego that we appear to be. We’re the divine soul, we’re a component of the supreme immortal power we call God. We’re the very power that we seek. We realise that God isn’t God but an influence, the supreme immortal power that’s all over the place and in the whole lot, in you and me, within the flowers and the trees, the mountains and the seas. We feel a way of oneness, universal love and brotherhood. This realisation paves the way in which for peace and bliss. How can we be anxious if we realize that we’re a component of God? That we’re a component of the divine that we seek?
2. It helps us realise that the world is a cosmic drama. Contemplate— we get too involved in life. We cry, we turn into anxious, stressed, upset, indignant over the smallest of things. We suffer the pain of the body, the misery of the mind and the agony of the go. Spirituality helps us realize that this world is only a drama. The earth is a stage for this Leela of God. We are only actors who come and go. We only have a job to play. What is occurring isn’t real. It’s an illusion. Identical to we enjoy a show, we must learn to enjoy life! Why take things so seriously? We realize that nothing belongs to us. So subsequently why are we running behind wealth, success, name and fame? We don’t let our need turn into our greed.
3. It helps us discipline the mind. Unlike what most individuals think and imagine, our mind isn’t king, it’s our biggest enemy. It makes us stressed and fills us with misery and anxiety. Meditation is an integral a part of spirituality, it helps us control the mind, make it silent and still. We tame the monkey mind in order that it becomes a monk. We learn to manage our thoughts. The mind produces 50 thoughts a minute, which involves about 50,000 thoughts a day. The mind takes us into the regrets of the past and the concerns of the longer term. The result — depression and anxiety. Meditation helps us brings down the variety of thoughts. We learn to watch the mind. We turn into the witness. We watch it, catch it and latch it. On this state of thoughtlessness, we experience peace and bliss.
4. It helps us live with acceptance and give up. Spirituality helps us to appreciate that whatever is occurring in our life or around us is due to Karma. Our own actions, our deeds. It’s not because God is cruel. Not only will we accept and give up to the Divine law of Karma, but we rejoice! Why? Because we all know our negative Karma is being settled. We give up. If we attain Enlightenment, we transcend the law of Karma. We drop all our karma like a pebble within the ocean – we’re free from Karma!
Spirituality helps us in greater than these ways but we now have to be a real spiritual seeker to experience the ability and magic of spirituality.