Man is a strange animal. Like any other animal he has basic instinct and the desires for food, sex and shelter. Most people in today's' world do not have much problem in fulfilling such desires. There are millions in this world, who have earned so much wealth that they can easily satisfy all these basic needs.
Yet there is something that makes a man unhappy due to the needs that remain unsatisfied and a man always craves for it.
We do not know what it is but what we know for sure is that it is not related to body. It is, therefore, not materialistic.
Scriptures called such non-material entity as Spirit.
The Spiritual Self
In order to understand the mystery of spirit, let is hypothetically assume ourselves to be made of two selves. One is the PHYSICAL SELF i.e. the body which is made of material particles, which can be seen and measured. It has a desire that is physical in nature and needs material tings for its fulfilment.
Now, imagine that there is another self of man called SPIRITUAL SELF. The spiritual self is not material hence can not have any shape or size. Yet for the sake of simplicity, let us assume it to look like the physical self that is same the body of the person.
The physical and spiritual self of the person lives together in same person. One follows the law of this world while the other follows the law of the Spiritual World. They are quite identical and may be considered to be mirror image of each other.
The Spiritual Self is not visible to the world as it is not material. It is part of the Spiritual World which lies hidden to the eyes of the senses.
However, the physical self knows and understand its twin (Spiritual Self) intuitively as like a twin, it feels the emotions of the twin.
The Physical Needs of Man
We know that the body of the person needs regular nourishment for its survival. We need to eat food, drink water and inhale air to live. If any of the supplies are cut, the physical body can't live any longer.
The food is needed by the body, as it provides energy and nourishment to body. There are billions of cells in the body that are dying every day. These have to be removed and replaced by new cells. These cells are formed only from the food we eat when combined with water and oxygen. If we stop eating or drinking, the body craves for the food and water and we feel hungry and thirsty. When a man is hungry, his mind is focused in fulfilling these desires. Most of the animals get into action only when they are hungry. They desperately look for food that satisfies their hunger. Once their hunger is satisfied, they feel filled till such time they get the pain of hunger again.
The needs of the different material things vary. For example, air is needed every few second. No one can live if air supply is disconnected even for a few minutes. Man can however, live for days without the supply of food. However, he would not survive for more than few days without water. Man also has the sexual need that is necessary for the reproduction of the species.
All the physical needs of the body are cyclic in nature. Once they are satisfied, the body is happy. However, after sometime the needs come back once the material supplied is consumed by the physical body.
If the physical body has the physical needs, shouldn't the spiritual self also have the spiritual needs?
The Spiritual Needs of Man
Just like the physical body needs nourishment from the physical matters found in the world, the spiritual self also needs spiritual nourishment.
What are these spiritual nourishments?
The spiritual needs of the person can be understood from the analogy of body itself. The spiritual self of the person can be considered to be a part of the Spirit (Holy Spirit) whom we often call God. Thus rough this spiritual self, man is connected with every other creation of the universe just like a thread connects all beads together in a garland.
Thus for understanding the Spiritual Self, let us imagine the whole world as the body of the Spirit and the man like a cell in the body. Like a cell, he experiences the pains and pleasures of any cell or organ of the body.
When eyes see a beautiful object, the whole body (hence every cell) feels happy.
When the stomach is filled, the whole body gets satisfied.
When the man get pain in his head or limb, the pain is felt by the whole body.
Thus the Spiritual Self being part of the Spirit gets affected by the feelings of the Spirit. It gets happiness in the happiness in others, while pain from the pain of others.
The spiritual self, like the physical self, does not live in isolation and disconnected with other people in this world but it is connected with everything and everybody else just like a cell is connected with all cells of the body directly or indirectly. It needs nourishment from the Holy Spirit just like a cell needs nourishment.
These nourishments may be termed as the spiritual needs of the person.
If physical self is the twin of the spiritual self then the spiritual needs to be fulfilled at regular interval else his spiritual self would become weaker and remain no more. In such situation, man will have only the physical self alive and he would become just an animal.
Spiritual Needs Are for Real
We may think that the spiritual needs are only a figment of imagination of the author. After all, most people do not consider themselves to be spiritual at all. Yet most people live their life and also enjoy it.
Are we taking the spiritual nourishment for granted as it is provided automatically by the system or the civilization developed by the mankind?
Is it not true that all animals have their physical needs satisfied even without any knowledge of it?
A dog or a cat or a cow or a lion knows very well how to satisfy its physical needs. It comes to him by as basic instinct. Initially, they all satisfy these needs from their mother, when they are little or just born. The milk of the mother provides the nourishment in their childhood. As the animal grows up, it gradually develops the strength to satisfy these needs themselves.
The children of man are far more protected. Their physical needs are satisfied by their parents even till their late adulthood. They not only get the milk from their mother but also food, shelter and clothing till they are quite grown up.
The spiritual needs of the child are similarly satisfied by their parents and elders since their early childhood. Every child gets the love of their parents particularly the mother since the time it is born. He feels important as when he cries, the whole world (his family) runs to fulfill his needs.
As he grows up he gets love, affection, importance from his siblings, cousins, and friends automatically. A person is always surrounded by other people who fill his life with love and compassion. Thus most of the people fail to understand that love is so important in their lives.
We take love for granted just like we take the air for granted as it is available to every person freely.
However, like air, we feel the pain of spiritual suffocation, when this supply is disconnected from us.
A Life without Spiritual Nourishment
Imagine that you get up in the morning and find that nobody in this world except you have survived some disaster. You go out and find everyone dead. Not even an animal is surviving.
What would you do?
How would you feel?
Will you feel happy because the whole world now belongs to you?
Or you feel sad because none is there to share your emotions.
We know intuitively that we can never feel happy in such situation even if the whole world is given to us with all its gold, diamonds, palaces and everything.
We need people and other lives to make us happy.
This of course is an extreme example which perhaps can never happen to us. But consider another hypothetical situation which is not so strange and impossible.
Consider that in one morning, you find that everyone has left you. You have no friend, no family, no connection with the people by any means like TV, mobile phones or internet. Everyone hates you and no one wants to see you or speak to you. However, you have everything material wealth available in your house that can take care of all your physical needs.
This situation is not impossible as many dictators and autocrats suffered such fate in their lives.
Most of us fear sometime in our lives that such situation is probable unless we take care of the emotions of others.
Lot of our good deeds happens in this world because people can't imagine themselves falling in such situation.
Many people in their old age in fact pass through such phases and situation.
You can well imagine what you would do in such situation?
Perhaps you will get up in the morning, prepare food, eat and then see outside world, walk for sometime and sleep. This may continue for few days. Yet we will perhaps start feeling a vacuum in our life which can only be fulfilled if we are connected with other people.
What are we missing when we are disconnected with rest of the world?
We are surely not missing anything material. These needs are well taken care of.
These non-material needs are the spiritual needs. If these needs are not fulfilled, the spiritual self would remains no more after sometime and the man would either become an animal or become mad and die by ending his physical self.
Take Your Daily Dose of Spiritual Nourishment
Fortunately, the human society is developed in such a way that most of us have their spiritual needs satisfied every day.
When you get up in the morning and see you spouse, parents, friends , children in your house whom you love, you get the first dose of spiritual nourishment. Then you go to work, school or business where you meet friends and many other people. When you make them happy, you too get spiritual nourishment from their happiness.
Even when you are physically disconnected with your loved ones due to travel or business, you talk to them on phone and get connected through emails and letters which provide nourishment. When you see news or other favourite program you empathies with many people and that fills you spiritually. You feel happy at their happiness and cry at their pain. This connection provides the much needed nourishment.
When a man has no company, he can still find nourishment in the company of other animals like their pet dogs. Some people find these nourishments in the service of the nature by planting trees and by brining goodness in this life.
Every person does find spiritual nourishment by loving others and serving others just like their own selves. Every selfless service to others provides nourishment to the spiritual self just like every intake of food provides nourishment to the body.
The Key to Happiness
Just like the body can not survive for long without the physical nourishment, the spiritual self can not survive for long without the regular dose of spiritual nourishment. This nourishment comes from selfless service to others which come automatically to a person once he loves others like his own self. The importance of spiritual nourishment must be understood by every person as without a healthy spiritual self, man can become an animal or a brute. A man can live happily and joyfully only if both his selves i.e. the physical self and the spiritual self are healthy due to their regular nourishment.
A Brief Profile of Dr Awdhesh K Singh
I am an Engineer by education, a public officer by profession and a spiritual person by intuition. I hold my PhD degree in the field of E-Governance. I am a founding member of The Aatmic Science Foundation (The Science of Soul Foundation) that is working for the synthesis between all religions, spirituality and sciences.
The website of the foundation is [http://www.scienceofsoul.com]. My main area of study and research is to use religions, spirituality and scientific methods of investigations to understand and solve the real life problems of human beings. I have published hundreds of articles and research papers on this topic on various websites and journals.
Please contact me on my email aksinghirs [a] yahoo.com for any help, suggestions or feedback.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Dr_Awdhesh_Singh/122045
