How do you differentiate between the two, and who differentiates it? What is sacred and what is mundane?
Deriving from Latin sacrare, meaning “to make sacred” or “to sanctify”, the word “sacred” implies that nothing is sacred until and unless it is made such, until and unless it is sanctified.
In other words…
Until and unless something is made sacred, until and unless something is sanctified, it remains mundane, earthly.
Sanctity is Associated with Spirituality
It is associated with heaven, nay, heavens, and with God, the Godly… But, who decides it? It is you who decide what must be sanctified and made sacred, and what must remain mundane.
So, the apparent reality is mundane, earthly – temporal. The apparent reality is what you can see, what you can touch, what you can feel, what you can smell, what you can taste, what you can hear, and what you can think and talk about.
But, when this apparent reality, this mundane, earthly, and temporal reality is joined by another reality, similarly mundane, earthly, and temporal – You – then, following the rule of mathematics, emerges another reality: the spiritual, the heavenly, the Godly…
In the mathematics, a negative or minus times a negative or minus is always a positive or plus. It cannot be otherwise. So also, when two temporal meet, the result is spiritual. It cannot be otherwise.
I want you to ponder on this…
“When Two Temporal Meet”
There is a catch here, “when two temporal meet”. Meaning, you must first realize your “temporal” nature. You must first realize your mundane-ness. You must first be well established as earthling. If you approach the mundane in any other way, as non-mundane and non-temporal, then, once again following the law of mathematics, a positive or plus times a negative or minus is a negative – minus.
What I am trying to say is this…
If you approach the mundane as a superior – I am immortal, immaterial, and eternal; I am chosen – then, you actually remain mundane.
Pinch your arm.
Do you feel the pain?
So, are you the immortal, immaterial, and eternal soul that is said to be above the dualities of pain and pleasure; joy and sorrow; cold and heat; victory and loss – or, the mortal, material, and temporal body that feels the pain?
I am Not Rejecting the Immortal, Immaterial, and Eternal Soul…
No.
That consciousness, that Soul-Consciousness, that Spiritual Consciousness, that Christ, Krishna, or whatever state of Consciousness you call it – is the result of the realization of your mortality.
That is the first step to spirituality: Realize your mortality. Realize your temporal nature. And, approach the world around you with the same consciousness – I am mortal, you are mortal, this world is temporal, all experiences are of ever changing and transient nature – nothing is permanent.
Feel oneness with the temporal, the material, the transient, the ever changing, impermanent… Feel oneness with the nature, the flora and the fauna around you; with the farthest star and nearest blade of grass under your feet… Nothing is permanent… This is the first step to awareness. This is the meeting between two temporal. This is the life mathematics of a negative, a minus times a negative. Now, you cannot, but “become” a positive, plus. You cannot defy the rule of mathematics.
Whereas, if You Start with Assumptions, that:
“I am soul, infinite, eternal…” and so on and so forth, then your interaction with the temporal around you shall only result in negativity – minus.
You may ask: “What if I approach the temporal not as the temporal, but as the spiritual? Wont two positives result in a positive?”
Good guesswork.
Yes, you are right… But, then, you shall not be asking the question. You shall already have the answer. Then, you “are” the answer. In that realm of positivity, you shall no longer see the negative as the negative. Indeed, the positive too evaporates, what remains is You, You, You… Then, reading this essay – or any other writing by whosoever – shall no longer give rise to any dispute, any question… You shall be diving in the sea of the great understanding.
But, It’s Time for Landing Now…
We have been flying high, long, and non-stop. It’s time to ask now: How relevant is this flying experience to my day-to-day life?
It is only when you realize oneness with all things temporal around you that you become compassionate, you truly become compassionate. Such realization makes you one of them, one with them. Such realization can never ever place you in opposition to nature, and more importantly, the natural. You become nature-friendly – wholesale, all things in and of nature – not just this-friendly, and not that-friendly.
I have seen the advocates of global warming smoking away their lives. I have seen the promoters of non-violence dinning on steak. I have seen the recipient of world peace awards unable to make peace with their neighbors.
Why is it so?
The reason is that your oneness-awareness is not complete, not total, not whole, not holistic. Advocacy of global warming and climate change is reduced to a profession, a paid activism. And, it’s the same about advocacy for any other issue, be it interfaith harmony, world peace, nuclear free world, or whatever…
Whereas,
Smoking is your passion, its your personal right, something very private, individual – and has nothing to do with your profession as the advocate for global warming and climate changing.
Similarly, interfaith harmony is reduced to an issue to apply for funding… While extending your begging bowl for some change or some attention overseas, you can speak very highly about pluralism, but when it comes to holding on your status at home, you can sign a decree against pluralism. You are not one. You are two, three, or perhaps more. You suffer from split personality.
Don’t Separate the Worldly Matters from God…
Fixing the matters of this world is the way to God. Realizing oneness with the mundane is the first step to spirituality.
If you do so, if you realize oneness with the mundane, you realize oneness with the Muslims, the Hindus, the Christians, the Confucians, the Buddhists, the Bahais, the Zoroastrians, the Jews, the Sikhs, the Animists, and the so-called Atheists… Then, at that very moment, when your oneness is complete, and not a mere lip service, something happens…. God.
You shall no longer be looking for God, for Soul-Consciousness, or for any Spiritual Experience. When your oneness is complete, You become That. That, o friend, Thou Art.