Spiritual Thinking is an excellent way for self-improvement,
God created man in his image and likeness; He intended man to reflect himself in God’s image. However, man, when he learned that he could think for himself, deviated from God’s intent and developed ego and pride and cultivated all undesirable qualities such as selfishness, envy, jealousy, hatred, domination over others, etc, and consequently started feeling miserable and low and started hurting others because of his low self-esteem. Since God always stayed inside man as a Divine Mind, driving the engine of life until death, God was always available to help. To seek God’s help, man must, however, remember that God is all in all and is the only power. To focus on that truth, man could pray, meditate, or affirm it until it gets into his consciousness and synchronizes his thoughts with the God inside, the Divine Mind. This synchronization termed Spiritual Thinking, enables man to self-improve and attain self-realization and salvation.
SpiritualThinking is the Ultimate Way to Humility to Personified.
Philippians 2:3-11
Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. (Read More…)
James 4:6
But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
Luke 14:11
Whosoever exalteth himself shall be humbled, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
Proverbs 22:4
By humility and the fear of the LORD are riches, honor, and life.
1 Peter 5:6
Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:
Matthew 23:12
And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased, and he that shall humble himself shall be promoted.
Romans 12:3
For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
Colossians 3:12
Put on, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;
John 3:30
He must increase, but I must decrease.
Proverbs 11:2
When pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom.
Bhagwat Gita
The Bhagavad-gita (13.08) lists humility as a laudable virtue integral to knowledge.
The absence of self-importance is a divine quality.
When God created man in His image and likeness, He intended man to think for himself, make his own decisions, and love all his fellow God-created human beings. Since God knew that man would veer away, like Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit, God is present in each of his creations as Divine Mind, always ready and willing to help if a man so wanted and desired. But man, driven by his ego and pride, wanted to conquer others, subjugate them, become greedy for worldly material wealth and possessions, and grab others’ share of God’s intended wealth. The more he went astray, the more he became proud, developed a big ego, became inconsiderate of others, and developed narcissistic qualities. As man went farther away from good grades, the balance between good and evil got perturbed, resulting in many false manifestations such as the pandemic, sickness, poverty, crimes, global warming, etc. Men started fighting against each other in unfair competition for the available resources. It did not have to be that way since God always has plenty for everyone, but this needed man to step aside and reach out to God. A simple way of reaching out to God is through meditation and prayer. But to be effective, man must first acknowledge and understand that God is all in all and is present inside each of us as a divine mind. Once we know that, we start melting away our human ego, and our human thoughts can open up the channels of communication with the Divine Mind inside, and soon, we start getting God’s input on our human mind. It begins with a humble understanding that God is inside us, ready to help, and He is the only Power. That is what humility is—recognizing that without God, we are nothing and humble ourselves before Him. Unfortunately, humanly egoistic people think of themselves as all-powerful, and it will be hard for them to practice Spiritual Thinking. This is discussed in an earlier post: Eternal Conflict of the human ego and Divine Mind:
Human systems and authoritarian individuals frequently mistake humility for total submission to them. That is absolute vanity. A humble person bows and fears only God; all other human beings, whether presidents, high officials, or janitors, are equal human beings. A janitor with a high moral character and integrity is higher in God’s eyes than an arrogant and mighty king. God can make a janitor out of a king and a king out of a janitor. This is to be borne in mind before judging people with human eyes and egoistic minds. Any selfish person can never grow spiritually. The essential requirement for spirituality is selfless nature and respect for other God-created human beings. A soft-spoken, humble person is considered a wimp in the modern world. Frequently, these people are more intelligent and spiritual, with high self-esteem, compared to aggressive, self-righteous, loudmouth, and boisterous people with shallow intellect and intelligence. Soft-spoken individuals have much respect for others, and because they respect themselves, they also respect others. That is wisdom in action. That is what humility personified.
Spiritual Thinking is simple, out-of-the-box thinking exemplified.
Ephesians 2:10
For we are his artistry, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Genesis 1:27
So God created man in his image; in the image of God, he created him; male and female, he created them.
Genesis 1:1
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
Colossians 3:23
Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.
Proverbs 22:29
Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men.
1 Timothy 4:14
Please do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you.
Genesis 2:7
Then, the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living creature.
Isaiah 40:28
Have you not known? Have you yet to hear? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.
Isaiah 42:5
Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it.
Isaiah 45:9
“Woe to him who strives with him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots! Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ or ‘Your work has no handles?’”
Isaiah 64:8
But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.
When we get stuck on a problem, we all try to think outside the box. What is this box thinking? When we feel using our human brain driven by our ego And pride, we become fixated on some old ideas, and we keep searching for something new in the same plane, like getting stuck in a traffic jam and not moving, especially on a freeway. You want to get out, take an exit, and try a different route. Frequently, that might get even worse than the jam you got in the first place. When God created us in His image and likeness, He also allowed us to think independently. He was well aware that we might wander away, and He stayed inside us 24/7 to help us when we needed help. One simple way we can seek help from God, the Divine Mind inside us, is by Spiritual Thinking. When we synchronize our brain-derived human thoughts with the Divine Mind, we open communication channels between human studies and God. God, the Divine mind, then passes His thoughts back to us. If we have a receptive attitude, we can hear His thoughts clearly and intuitively, and by faith, if we follow those ideas, we will have easily solved the problem. We will illustrate with a few examples.
The first example is when the Israelites crossed the Red Sea and wandered. They got hungry, and there was no food. When Moses prayed, Manna started falling from the sky so they could all eat until satisfied. When they ran out of water to drink, God instructed Moses to strike a rock with his stick, and water began to flow until their thirsts were quenched.
From Wikipedia
from PIXTA
When Elisha was the chief prophet, the wife of a fellow prophet was widowed. She was penniless, and the lenders lending her husband’s money grabbed her two young sons in bondage until the money was paid. Prophet Elisha asked her what does she have at home. She said a little container of olive oil. Elisha asked her to borrow all the vessels that she could borrow from the neighbors and fill them with the oil. She did just as Elisha had told her. She filled all the containers with oil and had some leftovers. Elisha told her to sell all the oil, pay the lender with that money, and have her release her sons from bondage. She could do that and had enough money to live with her sons independently. Picture from Pinterest:
From Pinterest.
In the Hindu Epic Mahabharatha, the Pandavas lost a chess game with the Kauravas. Pandava’s oldest brother, Yudhishtira, had bet their part of the Kingdom and had to live in exile for twelve years. Lord Krishna had provided a copper vessel containing Food that could never be exhausted. It will remain whole, no matter how much you will take out. It was termed Akshayapatra and was a big help to the Pandavas in the wilderness. Yudhishtira had also bet their common wife Draupadi, and the Kauravas wanted to disrobe her to humiliate them. Lord Krishna kept stretching her saree until Kauravas got tired and stopped undressing her.
Bhagvad Gita Art Gallery
I will add two examples of my own.
About three decades ago, when my career was blocked in all directions, I had to do several different jobs to help my sick wife. I was driving a limousine, taking executives to the Airport for travel and bringing back others from their trips. One time, the Limousine company I worked for suddenly asked me to drive a bus to the Airport, ferrying about 25 German citizens who had come for some sales training. I was in Norwalk, Connecticut, then, and we had to go to JFK Airport. This was way before all the TSA requirements. Etc., and as long as we got to the Airport 30 minutes before departure, it was ok since there were no security checks. Since I was given two and a half hours for a fifty-mile trip, I gladly accepted without ever having driven a bus. Unfortunately, as soon as we got onto the New England Highway, Interstate 95, we heard that about 25 miles ahead, a tractor-trailer had jackknifed and toppled over to the side, blocking all three lanes of the Highway going toward the Airport. Since that was the only way, especially for buses and trailers, we stuck on the Highway for about twenty miles until we entered the State of New York. Since the traffic had stopped, we were allowed to go on the shoulder to the next exit. We took the door and moved over to Hutchinson Parkway, which was meant only for cars because of the low clearance on underpasses. I took that anyway, exiting and entering the parkway to avoid the low tunnels. It led to Throgsneck Bridge, heading to Long Island. The traffic was hefty since it was a Friday afternoon. And I had never traveled this way to the Airport. However, purely on instinct, I kept driving in the Direction of JFK Airport while the Germans were cursing and yelling. Fortunately, since I did not know German well, I could not figure out what they were saying, and I kept my focus. Suddenly, out of nowhere, I saw a green sign saying, JFK Airport next exit. I took that exit, took the Germans about twenty minutes before the flight, and explained to the Airways what had happened. They were accommodating and got them all into the Plane in time, and off they went, thanks to Divine Mind holding our hands all the way.
The second example was when we lived in Madison, Wisconsin, and my daughter Jyoti was applying to all Graduate schools. She was being considered for a prestigious Jacob Javits scholarship and had to attend an interview in Ann Arbor, Michigan. So I took her and my wife and drove to Arbor on a Friday in January. The weather was fine going in. We stayed at a motel in Ann Arbor and attended the interview on Saturday afternoon. The interview went well, and we left early in the evening for Wisconsin. They predicted hefty snow that night, and we thought we would beat it since it was only a seven-hour journey. Unfortunately, we were caught in a snow blizzard two hours into the trip, and the visibility was practically zero. We exited, thinking we would check into a Motel for the night. But as we got off the highway, we were almost stuck on a foot of snow, forcing us to get back on the Highway. We kept praying and driving slowly until we saw the snow heading toward Ann Arbor behind us. After another 10 miles, it was raining briefly, and then everything was obvious. They had already plowed the highway, and we headed into Indiana with clear weather. The rest of the way was straightforward until we reached Madison at about 1:00 AM. This is a clear example of God; the Divine Mind corrected the course, holding our hands. The two examples above demonstrate the power of Spiritual Thinking in pointing us to the correct decisions.
If you practice Spiritual Thinking by synchronizing your mortal thoughts with the Divine Mind, which has become habitual, you will be guided automatically to the right decisions. That will be outside-the-box thinking exemplified.
Spiritual Thinking Is the Ultimate Way to Salvation.
Bhagavad Gita- Chap 18(Part-3)
Moksha Sannyaasa Yogah- Yoga of Liberation by Renunciation. Thus, Sri Krishna helps out Arjuna, indicating what is good for him, i.e., to rise above this world of perception, emotion, and thought and reach the Supreme Being. What does Gita say about moksha?
The Gita maintains that liberation is supreme and the highest bliss springs from union with god. Liberation or Moksha in the Gita is a delight in the self, contentment with the self, self-realization, and self-fulfillment.
Krishna Teaching Arjuna on Bhagwad Gita
Mundaka Upanishad 3.2. 9
Moksha is Jnana
One who knows Brahman becomes Brahman (Mundaka Upanishad 3.2. 9). Moksha is nothing but realizing what is one’s true self. Therefore, there is nothing more to be done for Moksha other than knowing that one’s essential nature (Swaroopa) is Brahman.
Isaiah 33:22
For the Lord is our judge; the Lord is our lawgiver; the Lord is our king; he will save us.
Psalm 34:22
The Lord redeems the life of his servants; none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.
Psalm 103:12
As far as the East is from the West, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
Isaiah 44:22
I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you.
When God created man in His image and likeness, He had a vision of each of us and a purpose for each of us. He was available 24/7 to each of us to help us achieve that purpose. Since God gave each of us our thinking capacity, it was up to us to use our thoughts. Just as God had expected, though He had warned Adam and Eve not to eat the forbidden fruit from the garden, they disobeyed, and as soon as they ate the apple, they felt like covering themselves. After that, the man started wandering in material thoughts and developed his ego and pride, which caused him to drift away from what God had intended. Soon, a man immersed himself in materialistic illusions of this world and slowly forgot about his origins and God’s presence in him as the Divine Mind or Brahman. Now, with technologies developing as rapidly as they are, man is so self-absorbed that he needs to be reminded of his obligations to the creator inside him. Part of that can be accomplished by encouraging them to think spiritually. Spiritual Thinking is the synchronization of our human ego-derived thoughts with the Divine Mind, Brahman, and Christ inside us so that our thoughts become refined by having God’s input on our human studies. As we practice Spiritual Thinking through affirmations and prayers as often as possible, and it becomes second nature habitually, we will enjoy peace, prosperity, happiness, and bliss. This is discussed in an early post:
As we get more proficient in Spiritual Thinking through constant practice, our personality will also change slowly, and our trust in God and God-created fellow human beings and we start understanding our true spiritual nature. This is also discussed in an earlier post:
Spiritual thinking helps man to recognize his spiritual nature
When he starts understanding his spiritual nature, he begins to understand his true self, and this is discussed in another earlier post:
This understanding leads not only to self-actualization but ultimately to self-realization. Lord Krishna calls this Gnana, and it is the actual state of man created by God. In everyone’s life, this state must be the goal to be attained to be ready for Liberation, Salvation, Moksha, or Mukti. Krishna emphasizes that one does not have to wait until death for liberation, and it is frequently possible to attain this state in our lives and enjoy the bliss associated with it, independently of our status in society, title, wealth, etc., and is a blissful state to be in in a self-contented way. This absorption in the Divine Self is opposite to the material self-absorption in egoistic individuals who are obnoxiously selfish. Our primary goal is to attain this self-realization, a liberation state free from all materialistic world. This does not mean that we have to be isolated from everyone else. On the contrary, this is a state where you interact pleasantly with everyone and can help others achieve this goal.
Spiritual Thinking is a simple way to transcend illusions.
Mundaka Upanishad
‘Satyameva Jayate’ which means – Truth alone triumphs, not the illusions ( Maya)
Bhagavad Gita Chapter 7, verse 14
My divine energy, Maya, which consists of the three modes of nature, is challenging to overcome. But those who surrender unto Me cross over it quickly.
1 John 5:4
“For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.”
Romans 12:21
“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
Luke 1:37
“For every promise from God shall surely come true.”
1 John 4:4
“Little children, you are of God and have overcome them. For greater is he that is in you than in the world.”
Jeremiah 29:11
For I know my plans for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not evil, to give you a future and hope.
We all go through events that look so real, but we know they are only transient and will disappear. Frequent examples are various diseases or illnesses we overcome by believing good lies ahead. A more complex example of this is the global pandemic that we all went through. As we go through these events, we experience some fear, and our faith helps us go through that. In this age of ever-changing technologies and convenience, it is no wonder that there is more uncertainty than during older days when progress was much slower. Maintaining our focus with intense competition for resources is becoming more challenging, mind-boggling new variations of diseases, ever-worsening global warming, unpredictable weather patterns, etc. Do we ignore all these situations that we will have to deal with and deny or accept them, or try to adapt to them no matter how difficult they will be? Additionally, the global economic system depends on people believing in these illusions. Medical Doctors earn their living by people imagining that they are sick and doctors can introduce them to new ones when the patients visit them; medical companies encourage doctors to prescribe their brand of medications, and diagnostic companies invent new technologies to detect new existing and non-existent diseases, lawyers and insurers make money by exploiting people’s fears about losing their material possessions, fashion, cosmetics ad jewelry companies use peoples wanting to look good, the politicians exploit people with lies and false promises. This list can keep going on and on. We must maintain our sanity in knowing what is real and what is imagination. This is where Spiritual Thinking, involving synchronizing our human thoughts with the ever-present Divine Mind, Brahman, and God inside us, lets us perceive the truth and get a handle on all the events as they happen. We must transcend these illusions and other illusions as we go through them.
In the epic Ramayana. Prince Rama had to go into exile with his young wife, Sita, for 14 years. His father, King Dasaratha, had promised his second wife, Kaikeyi, to help him with his chariot during an earlier war, and he would give her anything she wanted. She had deferred that wish until Rama was to ascend to the throne because she wanted her son Bharatha to climb. Though King Dasaratha could not verbally grant Kaikeyi her wish, Rama volunteered to give her wish on behalf of his father and was exiled to the forests for 14 years, enduring all the obstacles and demons he had to fight.
In Hindu mythology, he and Krishna were later reincarnations of God Vishnu, the protector of this universe. Nevertheless, being born human, he had to endure all the difficulties we all go through. While Rama, his brother Lakshman, and Rama’s wife Sita, Sita was abducted by Ravana and was in isolation at the Ashoka Vana.
He ascended to the throne when he came back after fourteen years because his step-brother Bharatha wanted to take care of the Kingdom with Rama’s shoes placed on the throne. To endure all the hardships as we go through them, we need much faith that there is good at the end of the ordeal. When we go through a long tunnel, we need religion and the belief that there is light at the other end of the tunnel, just as we have to know that the dawn is on the horizon in the middle of the night.
There is a similar story in the Bible, and it is reproduced verbatim from the internal reference given below:
https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/143035/jewish/The-Story-of-Joseph-in-the-Bible.htm
Joseph was one of Jacob’s sons, along with his wife, Rachel. Known as “the righteous one,” he was favored by his father (who gave him a particular colored coat) and sold by his brothers to Egypt, where he ultimately became ruler of the land, second only to King Pharaoh.
oseph1 was born in the Mesopotamian town of Haran to his parents Jacob and Rachel. At six, he left Haran with his family and journeyed to Canaan, eventually settling in Hebron.
Jacob displayed extra affection to Joseph, who was born to his father’s old age, presenting him with a specially crafted garment. This prompted jealousy among his brothers, especially the sons of Jacob’s other wife, Leah. These ill feelings were exacerbated when Joseph repeated two of his dreams to them, portraying him as ruling over his brethren. In the first, the brothers gathered wheat in the field, and the brothers’ bundles bowed to Joseph’s. In the second, Joseph envisioned the sun, the moon, and eleven stars (symbolizing his parents and brothers) turning to him.
Soon enough, the tension came to a head when Joseph was seventeen.
One day, Jacob instructed Joseph to visit his brothers in Shechem, where they were tending their sheep. Little did he know that this would be the last time he would see his dear son until their reunion a long twenty-two years later.
Seizing their chance, the brothers threw the unsuspecting Joseph into a pit. A short while later, they spotted an Arab caravan passing the scene, and the brothers sold Joseph to the traders. He was eventually brought to Egypt, where he was traded to Potiphar, one of King Pharaoh’s ministers.
For a while, things started to look up for young Joseph. Divine success enabled him to find favor in his master’s eyes, and he was appointed head of Potiphar’s estate. However, this would not last for long.
Attracted by his handsome looks, Potiphar’s wife desired to be intimate with him. To her dismay, Joseph continuously refused. One day, when no one was home except the two of them, the mistress grasped Joseph’s garment, demanding that he consent. Thinking quickly, Joseph slid out of his cloak and ran outside. This self-control earned him the appellation “Joseph the Righteous.”3
But Potiphar’s wife turned the tables on Joseph, telling her husband that Joseph had tried to entice her. The angry master reacted by placing his trustworthy assistant in prison.
Joseph’s charisma followed him to prison, and the warden appointed him as his right-hand man. In time, his unique qualities expressed themselves in an additional area. When the king’s royal cupbearer and baker were imprisoned, Joseph successfully interpreted their dreams, correctly predicting that the cupbearer would be released and the baker hanged.
King Pharaoh envisioned two dreams two years later, which none of his advisors could explain. Remembering the Hebrew youth from his prison days, the cupbearer suggested that Joseph be summoned. Joseph, then thirty, interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams as being a Divine prediction for seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine and advised Pharaoh to prepare by storing grain during the first seven years. Impressed by Joseph’s wisdom, Pharaoh appointed him as his viceroy, second only to the king himself, and tasked him with readying the nation for the years of famine.
Meanwhile, the effects of the famine were felt in nearby Canaan. Hearing that there was grain in Egypt, Joseph’s brothers journeyed there to buy precious food from the ruler, not realizing he was their brother.
Joseph used this opportunity to observe whether his brothers truly regretted selling him. Using dramatic maneuvers, Joseph tested his brothers’ determination to save their youngest brother, Benjamin—Joseph’s only maternal brother—from the plot he set up for him. Once he saw their devotion toward Benjamin, Joseph finally revealed his identity to his astonished siblings.
Following this heartfelt reunion, Jacob and his family settled in the Goshen section of Egypt. This series of events served as the backdrop for Israel’s ultimate enslavement in Egypt and the subsequent Exodus.
After appointing Joseph as viceroy, Pharaoh gave him as a wife Asenath, daughter of Potiphera, priest of On. Midrashic sources identify Potiphera as none other than Potiphar, Joseph’s previous master.
Joseph and Asenath had two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, born during the seven years of plenty. Before Jacob’s death, he gave Joseph a gift: his children would be the only ones among Jacob’s grandsons to be treated as independent tribes. Indeed, throughout the Jews’ journey in the desert, the tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim received equal status to the other tribes, and they inherited individual portions of the Land of Israel.
Joseph ruled Egypt for eighty years until he died in 110. Before his passing, he made his brothers promise to take his coffin with them when they eventually left Egypt for the Promised Land. After his death, he was embalmed and laid to rest in Egypt. Indeed, when the Jews left Egypt many years later, Moses found Joseph’s tomb and carried his remains to the Land of Israel.
Joseph was subsequently buried in Shechem (known today as Nablus), and his resting place is visited today.
Spiritual thinking, by synchronizing our human thoughts with the Divine Mind, God inside us enables us to transcend all illusions.
You can read more in the author’s book: Think Spiritually – Spiritual Thinking For Life. Available at Amazon.com
https://www.amazon.com/author/sivaraman_raghu/
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