Want to become full of energy, excited about life, and serve the world in the best way you possibly can? Want to lose the weight of confusion and gain the muscle of wisdom? Want to be able to make the right choice every time and not have any regrets? This is what spiritual knowledge brings to us.
We generally think that knowledge is gained by study. The below list shows us that spiritual knowledge is also (and mostly) gained through thoughtful action and activity. We can say this is applied knowledge, when we actually live the teachings. We are all very good at lip service, and showing up at the right time in the right spiritual gathering. But how do we live?
The below 18 ‘one shoulds’ help us live in ways that produce knowledge. Keep it close and use it as a quick reference sheet. Am I following some of them? Missing out on others? Where can I improve? We can reflect on them through journaling and study, discuss them with friends and family, notice which ones are easy for us and the ones that we don’t like or don’t agree with. Invite them into your life and spend a little time with them. They are good guides and good teachers.
(1) One should become a perfect gentleman (or lady) and learn to give proper respect to others.
(2) One should not pose himself as a religionist simply for name and fame.
(3) One should not become a source of anxiety to others by the actions of his body, by the thoughts of his mind, or by his words.
(4) One should learn forbearance even in the face of provocation from others.
(5) One should learn to avoid duplicity in his dealings with others.
(6) One should search out a bona fide spiritual master who can lead him gradually to the stage of spiritual realization, and one must submit himself to such a spiritual master, render him service and ask relevant questions.
(7) In order to approach the platform of self-realization, one must follow the regulative principles enjoined in the revealed scriptures.
(8) One must be fixed in the tenets of the revealed scriptures.
(9) One should completely refrain from practices which are detrimental to the interest of self-realization.
(10) One should not accept more than he requires for the maintenance of the body.
(11) One should not falsely identify himself with the gross material body, nor should one consider those who are related to his body to be his own.
(12) One should always remember that as long as he has a material body he must face the miseries of repeated birth, old age, disease and death. There is no use in making plans to get rid of these miseries of the material body. The best course is to find out the means by which one may regain his spiritual identity.
(13) One should not be attached to more than the necessities of life required for spiritual advancement.
(14) One should not be more attached to wife, children and home than the revealed scriptures ordain.
(15) One should not be happy or distressed over desirables and undesirables, knowing that such feelings are just created by the mind.
(16) One should become an unalloyed devotee of the Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, and serve Him with rapt attention.
(17) One should develop a liking for residence in a secluded place with a calm and quiet atmosphere favorable for spiritual culture, and one should avoid congested places where non spiritually minded people congregate.
(18) One should become a scientist or philosopher and conduct research into spiritual knowledge, recognizing that spiritual knowledge is permanent whereas material knowledge ends with the death of the body.
Sri Isopanishad, Mantra 10
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