Spiritual-Science is a perfect science of the mind that helps spiritual seekers in de-conditioning their minds, that is, erasing the imbedded sanskars of many lifetimes and finally getting liberated from the repetitive cycles of life and death. Spiritual living means: living with an endowed mind, that is, a mind enriched with satisfaction, peace and cheerfulness which together constitute Bliss. It is important to realise that satisfaction is the very basis or foundation for peace of mind. A dissatisfied person will never be able to have peace of mind. On the contrary, excessive dissatisfaction can even lead to suicide.

If we reflect a little, we will realise that we ordinarily think almost non-stop from the moment we wake up till we go to sleep. In fact, our mind is like a chatterbox and 80-85% of our thoughts are futile. Thus, a large part of the day gets wasted in such futile thinking. Then, why do we accord so much importance to such trifling thoughts? Research on the brain has shown that its weight is only 5% of the entire body but still uses up 20% of the body’s energy and most of this 20% energy gets used up in futile thinking. Besides, more energy is consumed by the tension caused by our thinking.

Living conditions in the world today are such that everyone is afflicted with some form of tension. The well-being of a nation depends on the physical, mental and intellectual well-being of its youth. However, the youth of today tends to be stricken by despair and at the same time is becoming criminal minded. Both these trends are harmful for society. We have the power to reverse this vicious cycle of time. And, as the saying goes, better late than never!

Due to scientific progress, the efficiency and productivity of machines has increased tremendously. One person can now produce the output of 10 persons. The number of unemployed persons is, therefore, rising. Multinational companies pay fat salaries to young persons and buy their youth and intellect. These young persons work 24/7 under tremendous tension and pledge their entire life to the companies employing them. However, if such a person’s productivity declines a bit the employers have no hesitation in giving him the ‘pink slip’ and employing another person. The young persons of today are drawn by such fat salaries but get alienated from the pure bliss of life due to tremendous work pressures. They have no alternative than to be content with the show of wealth and with sensory pleasures. Rising incomes and standards of living make people more and more sophisticated. Day by day, these people consider themselves to be modern and progressive and lose their open-mindedness. According to Spiritual-Science, “Sophistication is suffocation of the mind”.

A second category of youth is that of young persons who have no goal or aim in life. They dream about becoming rich quickly with easy money and are on the look out for such means. Such persons are easily drawn towards the underworld because of their excessive greed for money, sharp intellect, organisational ability, tolerance for gruelling, sub-standard living conditions and mental tenacity. However, if these persons get proper guidance at the right time, then these same persons can certainly become competent citizens of the country.

The third kind of young persons is those who have no self-confidence and who are always afflicted with mental tension. These young persons queue up in front of temples and hermitages, make vows and the like and expect that their chosen deity will bless them with success. As the conditions in the world are becoming more and more uncertain and difficult, the number of such young persons is increasing at a fast pace.

Since Spiritual-Science is a perfect science of the mind, it imparts the seeker with an appropriate Vision towards oneself, our life in general, (i.e. Professional as well as Personal) and the world at large. Apparently, a person’s way of thinking, his actions and his behaviour depend on his vision.

Faith is a power of the mind. Actually, atheists who do not believe in God or any Supreme Power, have faith in themselves and strong belief in their own capability. It is not important in whom you have faith. However, faith provides you with mental freedom and support and thereby augments the strength and power of your mind. So much so that success is almost assured if we have faith in any work or mission that we have undertaken.

Let us now consider how we begin to have faith in a person. To start with, we only have confidence or ‘belief’ in that person. As our confidence in what that person says or does increases, our ‘belief’ transforms into ‘strong belief’. When we begin to consider that person’s guidance as our mainstay, then the ‘strong belief’ transforms into ‘faith’. When we connect ourselves to that person through our thoughts, actions and mission, then we develop ‘loyalty’. When we are fully convinced that only that person will help us in attaining salvation, then we have single-minded loyalty.

If faith is so powerful, then a question arises as to why I am annoyed with those who queue up so faithfully in front of temples and hermitages. The reason is very important. These persons go to temples with some or the other expectation and often they have selfish, worldly expectations. Such conditional faith in a deity is, indeed, ‘blind faith’. On the other hand, people with true, unconditional faith, perform their duties and discharge their responsibilities with sincerity and confidence without any expectations from their deity.

Atheists don’t believe in the existence of God and believe that ‘I am the doer as well the director’. They have immense self-confidence. However, their arrogance is clearly seen from the way they behave and talk. On the other hand, those with conditional or blind faith believe that God is both a doer and a director and as such, abdicate all their responsibility. Such a mental attitude gradually tends to decrease their capability. Persons of the third kind believe that while they are the doers inasmuch as they perform various actions and deeds, they have the backing of a Director. Such persons accept responsibility for their failures and believe that their failures were caused by their own shortcomings. They are proud of their success but do not become arrogant. This is the golden middle path.

Let us now consider how we can become tension-free and live with an endowed mind. We have already seen that while pride about one’s success is all right, arrogance leads to rudeness. Both these are states of mind. Temptation is an inborn passion. Passions such as greed, jealousy and egoism arise as a result of environmental conditioning while lust is a result of hormonal changes on reaching puberty. The sixth passion namely, anger is the result of non-fulfilment of desires associated with the remaining five passions.

Human mind and passions have a remarkable bearing on human life. These passions are ordinarily considered to be drawbacks or taints of the mind that should be totally shunned by a sadhak. However, according to Spiritual-Science these passions are very essential for persons who are householders or are pursuing a vocation. What is equally important is that one should avoid overindulgence in them. Therefore, Spiritual-Science put forth the Line of Restraint or Laxmanresha for the passions. If we do not cross the Line of Restraint in our daily household life or vocation we can save ourselves from mental agony and tension.

Our life is like a game of chess. When you play chess, your King is always under the direct or indirect attacks of your opponent’s pieces such as the queen, rooks, bishops, knights and pawns. You have a two-fold aim of preventing your King from getting checkmated and also to checkmate your opponent’s King. In our daily lives, our peace of mind is like the King in a game of chess! All the people whom we meet in our daily lives such as friends, relatives, subordinates, peers and superiors have one common goal and that is to fulfil their own desires and expectations. No one is obliged to make and keep us happy at their own expense! Moreover, different persons have different natures or dispositions. Some are sarcastic, some are blunt, some are unpredictable, and some are cunning and so on. It is up to us how to safeguard our King, that is, peace of mind from their repeated onslaught. However, in life it should never be our aim to hurt others and rob them of their peace of mind. In short, life is like a game of chess but it can be a win-win game!

Suppose you get check-mated and lose a game of chess, then you start a new game and play with equal enthusiasm. Likewise, in life too, there will be ups and downs, some victories and some defeats. It is definitely a great thing to win but it requires a lot of humility and guts to accept a defeat graciously. Spiritual-Science imparts a proper vision for facing hardships in life. In this context, the following maxim of Spiritual-Science is very much helpful: “Accept the situation, adjust with the situation and then overcome the situation”. We have to first accept the difficult situations and circumstances that we encounter in life without grumbling. We have to live in such situations and circumstances and adjust ourselves with a flexible and open mind. This 3-step formula helps to restore our mental equilibrium. We can then overcome the situation as a calm and quiet mind is capable of finding a remedy.

Avoid stressful thoughts

Spiritual-Science has found that our thoughts that cause mental agony, anxiety, stress and tension are the result of:

• Giving undue importance to minor irritants and making a mountain of a molehill!
• Making unfair comparisons with our friends and relatives who are far more well-to-do or intelligent leading to frustration, diffidence and sometimes even hatred for them. And, hatred is a cancer of the mind!
• Having unrealistic expectations from others that invariably end in disappointments.

Spiritual-Science offers a ‘Spiritual Trident’ for reducing 80% of our mental tension and anguish. Mental tension and agony will never allow a person to live with an endowed mind i.e. with satisfaction, peace and cheerfulness. Importance, comparison and expectation are the three spikes of this trident. Just remember the acronym ICE where ‘I’ stands for Importance, ‘C’ stands for Comparison and ‘E’ stands for Expectation. Whenever your head tingles because of mental tension, keep this ICE on your head.

We have seen briefly the worldly conditions that are getting more and more adverse, the unbearable mental tension arising due to such conditions and the deadly diseases that afflict people as a result. There is nothing more unfortunate than the fact that the Japanese youth which have endeavoured to advance their nation to the forefront of technological progress, have also come to the point of committing suicide in large numbers. As technological progress reached the corners of the world, the affluent Western world also popularised and marketed the gadgets and instruments of pleasure made available by technology. Consequently, the young persons became hedonists. Needs and wants became unlimited. On the other hand, in the name of industrialisation, young persons got fully exploited and squeezed today. That minority of youth who are hedonists should also bear in mind that sooner or later they will also get sucked into this vicious cycle of time.

Spiritual-Science has the power of imparting a healthy vision that is needed to live with an endowed mind even in such adverse conditions. Since a majority of the diseases are psychosomatic, if the mind is endowed i.e. satisfied, peaceful and cheerful, then the body will also be healthy. Thus, Spiritual-Science is a need of the present times.