We must realize that the single most important factor in spiritual growth is our mentality. If we want something material, we attain it through dry material means such as money or a particular service and if we want something spiritual, we can only attain it through action from a more subtle platform. If our objective is spiritual, it only makes sense that the means by which we attain that objective are also rooted in the subtle level.
God already has everything that you could think of to offer to him. He is the Supreme controller and enjoyer of everything that our 5 senses may come to perceive. By his energies, he manages and sanctions everything that takes place in our universe. How then can we hope to advance in spiritual consciousness simply by offering to him a flower, fruit or some type of charitable service? The answer is simple, there is one exception to God's supreme control. The one and only thing that we have which God has no control over is our free will. Anything at anytime in this world can be taken away from us in an instant, anything. Yet we will always retain the ability to think what we want to think and act based on those thoughts, regardless of our circumstances. We have been endowed with this minute sense of independence of God's will for one reason that has been established by fully enlightened spiritual masters as the entire purpose of our existence. This ability that we have to discriminate between things that we give our energy to facilitates the exchange of perfect love. If God were to force us to be affectionate towards him, there would be no real intimacy or excitement. The real deep feelings of love originate in knowing that this person is choosing to utterly give them self to you despite all other possible engagements. Despite the millions of varieties of things or people that they could give their most deep rooted, confidential energy to, they feel confident that their heart belongs intertwined with yours.
The reason why this love is so powerful is because when it is pure, both parties experience ever-lasting and ever-increasing feelings of union, bliss, comfort and satisfaction. The best example of this is given in the relationship of the Divine Couple, Krishna and Radharani. Let's say Radharadi cooks Krishna a meal. If Radha sees that Krishna is enjoying the meal, because of her unalloyed devotion and pure love for him she becomes happy and smiles. Next Krishna, seeing Radharani smile becomes enchanted by her beauty and love for him so he smiles. Next, Radharani seeing her beloved Krishna smiling at her with affection becomes even more joyful and may blush and giggle, Krishna hearing His cherished Radha's sweet laughter becomes even more ecstatic... This process goes on eternally in the spiritual realm which is only pure love however here in the material world it is usually impeded by one or both of the party's eventual feeling of "I'm not enjoying enough". In pure love, this feeling never arises because pure love is selfless. It is constant consciousness of the other person, not yourself. These feelings of selfishness are eternally tied to the material platform and so if we want to make spiritual advancement we must eradicate these selfish tendencies immediately. Pure love is completely spiritual and thus acting from such a platform quickly elevates us to higher levels of consciousness.
It is impractical to cease all material activities as buddhists suggest. Becoming static is against the nature of the soul which is active, going against our nature leads to frustration and dismay. The opposite of poor is not no money, it is wealthy, similarly, the opposite of materialistic activity is not inactivity but is spiritual activity or activity performed in spiritual consciousness, for an eternal spiritual goal rather than a temporary material one. One man may work with the motif of acquiring money so that he may gain some illusory sense of power and control over his surroundings while another may work with the motif of acquiring money so that he may donate it to a temple, church or spiritual cause. Both can be doing the same exact work but the mentality is completely different and thus the resultant impressions left on their consciousnesses are polar opposites. Lust, being eternally unsatisfiable will leave the selfish man despondent no matter how much he gains while the man who acted with love for a spiritual objective not only generates good karma but also feels that sense of satisfaction, comfort, happiness and union with something spiritual. Because love is reciprocation, the more the man puts his heart into his work, the more he will feel these transcendental externalities of love while simultaneously purifying his consciousness.
If we want to make advancement in consciousness we must focus not as much on what it is were doing but more so on how much love we are doing it with. If you are not interested in advancing in consciousness you will never be happy. Basing happiness on the world conforming to your desires is insanity because the world will always move in ways that we don't want it to. Thus if happiness came from things going your way then it could only be temporary, you would be bound to suffer. This means happiness actually must come from our perception of the world around us not, the world around us, (because the world around us sucks). So whether you want to advance in spirituality or you just want to be happy, become determined to act from the heart, with love. This is ultimately the only practical way of acting as it actually benefits you in every way imaginable. Remember the science of this eternal love, making it the most powerful and unimaginably marvelous force in existence. And realize it doesn't matter how small the action is, even if it's just the offering of a flower or fruit, because the moment we do it out of pure love, it becomes infinite.
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