I left Kerala, India, at 17 years of age after the Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) which in those days involved 11 years of primary, middle, and high school education. I left moved by what I considered to be a call from God to save my soul and those of others. I lived in different parts of India; I lived 35 years in the USA. After 53 years of intense search, studies in philosophy, education, theology, and psychology, and after as many years of training in spirituality as well as avid reading and studies in history, comparative religion, and models of spirit-life, I arrived at what I consider to be the most important signs of spiritual health. I am going to list them below in order of importance without elaborating them.
• Purity of being, intention, and means
• Holy indifference/affective detachment
• Self-transparence as a mode of conscious being
• Decision-making as a result of continuous discernment
• On-going experience of inner freedom/glorious liberty of God’s children
• A continuous, relentless search for truth
• Acceptance of one’s strengths as well as weaknesses or limitations
• Levelling-up: No one is more important or less important as a human being
• A deep awareness that physical and emotional pain are part of one’s life, growth, and development
• An unlimited, unconditional, and ever-increasing capacity to forgive hurts, injustice, discrimination, and unfair treatment
• Non-exploitative human relationships that are mutual and infinitely respectful of the other person/s
• A deep awareness of the spirituality of sexuality
• Nutritional eating, appropriate clothing, and proper hygiene
• Continuous effort at integrating being, doing, and having
• Mindfulness as conscious presence to the unity of humanity; a deep respect for the entire universe
• Realistic acceptance of death as an inevitable end to life.
Signs of spiritual life can come under a unifying philosophy of life one develops for oneself. I hope to write on these signs in the future.
