In the Garden of Spiritual Life - Swamy Shraddhananda

Travelers come to a crossroad on their journey. To one side of the road is a barren plot, full of weeds and thistles. Travelers look at that barren place and frown. But on the other side of the road is a beautiful garden — full of trees, shrubs, and fragrant flowers. In the spring, in the summer, even in the winter, varieties of flowers bloom there. Travelers look at the plot, so beautiful and fragrant, and praise the owner of that garden.

Our life can be compared to a piece of land. If we are careless, our life becomes just as that barren plot — full of thistles and unwelcome growth; a Godless life; a life in which there is no peace, no harmony; a life which has cultivated only material pleasures and harvested egotism, vanity, greed, and hate. But if we have dedicated our life to spiritual and moral values, it becomes like the fragrant flower garden – a life grounded in faith in God; a life in which the character has been freed from greed and unwelcome passions. A person of such character will be known by his behavior: He will have cultivated sweetness, compassion, kindness, understanding, and patience.

Spiritual life is indeed a flower garden. Sometimes we are afraid of living a spiritual life. We think that if we travel too far in this direction, we will be deprived of many things. There will not be any emotion, any love, any action. We will become like stone; our life will be like a desert. That is a wrong idea. On the contrary, if spiritual life is rightly understood and rightly lived, it becomes a wonderful flower garden. A flower garden is not simply dear to the person who works in that garden; it is dear and appealing to any onlooker. So too with a spiritual life; it is very dear and precious not only to the person who is living that life but also to all those who come in contact with it.

Swami Sivananda

© `The Choice Is Yours’ by Lilia Lender published (1987) by Central Chinmaya Mission Trust, Sandeepany Sadhanalaya, Powai Park Drive, Powai, Mumbai 400 072.

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