A very important measuring meter of life which we forget to use in our daily routine is the spiritual power meter. This means that in any difficult situation of life, how good I was in using a spiritual power in overcoming that situation. The eight main spiritual powers are the power to tolerate, power to accommodate, power to face, power to pack up, power to discriminate, power to judge, power to withdraw and power to co-operate.
E.g. I am driving my car on a crowded road and all of a sudden my car is banged by another driver from behind leaving a big dent on my car. Very often and a lot of people in such situations, as we see in big cities, will get out of the car and confront the opposite car driver. Then they will demand a few thousand rupees from him. Sometimes, there can be a war of words and even a fight and sometimes when the anger is at its highest, it overflows and results in an injury or even death. Another person in a similar situation, on the other hand, will remain calm and instead of becoming angry, will forgive the other driver and instead of fighting, will quietly drive away. Which power does the first person lack and the other person has because of which the reactions are so different? In this situation, the power to tolerate and the power to accommodate the other person’s actions are the two main powers out of the above mentioned eight powers, which are required. Of course, the other six powers are also required but the two mentioned are required more than the rest. This is an example of a common situation, where anger and ego are the two main negative forces. The two spiritual powers – the power to tolerate and the power to accommodate have to gain victory over these negative forces. Also, a very important point to note that all four of them – the two powers as well as the two negative forces are sanskaras inside the soul which can be changed. This means that the power can be filled or increased and the negative force can be removed or reduced.

(To be continued tomorrow …)