From Sensation to Sensibility - A Spiritual Journey

February 12, 2024 | Mohd Ishaq Shah

THE letter ‘S’ has a significant meaning and relevance in the moral and spiritual sphere of a man. Beginning with the initial “S” and ending with the final “S” where the former stands for sensuousness and sensitivity while as the latter stands for sensibility, seriousness, salvation. In the beginning of life a man tends to be dragged by the forces like sexuality, licentiousness, lust, pulse and sensation of flesh. But in the end ,the same man shows his tendency towards logic, reasoning, sensibility, seriousness, maturity , moralism and more divine qualities.

Biological and psychological studies reveal that the life of man undergoes various changes in physical and mental domain. The bodily features change with the variation in stages of life and same is the case with man's psychological and mental development. And both the aspects of a human being are interconnected and inter -related. Starting from the infancy to maturity a human being passers through various stages and each stage gives him a chance to some new experience which is directly or indirectly connected to spiritualism. Childhood is full of purity and innocence while as Teen-Age is the age of stress and strain where we often stumble due to non-coordinating situation between mind and heart and overpowering of reason by emotion leads to imbalance in the human being. We often tend to fall victim to a dragging force of flesh and bone that is release of sex hormones shakes the whole metabolism and mind passes though a tormenting sort of state. And at many times , we lose the balance to such extend that we violate the natural laws and norms and start exhibiting animal like behaviour.
Adulthood reflects the maturity towards social concerns and gradually we become victim of social bondage which sometimes hamper us from moral development and spiritual concerns get adversely impacted by thees social interaction . This is the stage where we get trapped in the taboo. Socioeconomic concerns like marriage , building own house, educating the children, then getting them adjusted in the jobs fields and finally marrying them become the natters of prime importance and there remains no difference between legal and illegal material achievements.
And comes the old age when we become all irrelevant with regard to matrimonial- social issues and at once realize that we had been wandering in some dream world and the reality of life is that it is very short.We become conscious of spiritual world and the dooms day. We start repenting our sins and weeping on our faults in past . ultimately, a man becomes closer to God and God is always considerate and forgiving one. The repentance is accepted and we become salavant one.
The matter of introspection being that does this all happen miraculously? No, never! It is evident form the history of universe that the Godly persons like prophets, saints ,Rishis , Muni’s , Mahatmas etc have passed through the tough time and only then they could attain such an elevated position in spiritual world.
Hence , the study of the life of some great spiritualized becomes relent and full of scope to get the clear view of the matter.
Starting from prophet Mohammad (PBUH), let me put that he was raised in the family of Queresh in Mecca of Saudi Arabia. Lost both the parents in his very child hood. And his Grandfather became his care taker. After his death, the uncle played the role of taking care of Prophet. After some time he also left this mortal world and ultimately the chosen prophet was raised by the agency of nature. He had to resort to raring of sheep and goats . he to trade in a sociable way. After reaching the maturity ,they had to fight the evil on moral as well as defensive level/ they fought so many wars to to overthrow the rules /lords who claimed to be the deputy of God and claimed the divine right on earth to do whatever they would like to. Ultimately he became the worlds best leader in terms of socio-political matters and the institution of justice and accountability.
Almost same was the case with all the prophets who proceeded him beginning from Adam to Christ-the last before Muhammad (SAW).
Talking of other religions like Hinduism, Sikhs ism , Jainism etc. All the great saints have exhibited their gravity and sensibility to reach the spiritual heights. Lord Rama had to pass the Ban-Bass of 14 years to kill the ego and that killing of ego combined with the sincerity and devotion to the commitment made him the avatar of Hindu religion. Guru Nanak was one of the great saints of world and the founder of Sikhism.
Confession with pure heart and full dedication is one of the ways to convince God that you are his real devotee. Lets quote a great saintly philosopher here:
Confessions (Latin: Confessiones) is an autobiographical work by Augustine of Hippo, consisting of 13 books written in Latin between AD 397 and 400. The work outlines Augustine's sinful youth and his conversion to Christianity. Modern English translations of it are sometimes published under the title The Confessions of Saint Augustine in order to distinguish the book from other books with similar titles. Its original title was Confessions in Thirteen Books, and it was composed to be read out loud with each book being a complete unit.
Confessions is generally considered one of Augustine's most important texts. It is widely seen as the first Western autobiography ever written[citation needed] (Ovid had invented the genre at the start of the first century AD with his Tristia) and was an influential model for Christian writers throughout the Middle Ages. Henry Chadwick wrote that Confessions will "always rank among the great masterpieces of western literature".
The work is not a complete autobiography, as it was written during Augustine's early 40s and he lived long afterwards, producing another important work, The City of God. Nonetheless, it does provide an unbroken record of his development of thought and is the most complete record of any single person from the 4th and 5th centuries. It is a significant theological work, featuring spiritual meditations and insights.
In the work, Augustine writes about how he regrets having led a sinful and immoral life. He discusses his regrets for following the Manichaean religion and believing in astrology. He writes about his friend Nebridius's role in helping to persuade him that astrology was not only incorrect but evil, and Saint Ambrose's role in his conversion to Christianity. The first nine books are autobiographical and the last four are commentary and significantly more philosophical. He shows intense sorrow for his sexual sins and writes on the importance of sexual morality. The books were written as prayers to God, thus the title, based on the Psalms of David; and it begins with "For Thou hast made us for Thyself and our hearts are restless till they rest in Thee."[4] The work is thought to be divisible into books which symbolize various aspects of the Trinity and trinitarian belief.
His infancy, and boyhood up to age 14. Starting with his infancy, Saint Augustine reflects on his personal childhood in order to draw universal conclusions about the nature of infancy: the child is inherently violent if left to its own devices because of Original Sin. Later, he reflects on choosing pleasure and reading secular literature over studying Scripture, choices which he later comes to understand as ones for which he deserved the punishment of his teachers, although he did not recognize that during his childhood.
Augustine continues to reflect on his adolescence during which he recounts two examples of his grave sins that he committed as a sixteen-year-old: the development of his God-less lust and the theft of a pear from his neighbor's orchard, despite never wanting for food. In this book, he explores the question of why he and his friends stole pears when he had many better pears of his own. He explains the feelings he experienced as he ate the pears and threw the rest away to the pigs. Augustine argues that he most likely would not have stolen anything had he not been in the company of others who could share in his sin.
He begins the study of rhetoric at Carthage, where he develops a love of wisdom through his exposure to Cicero's Hortensius. He blames his pride for lacking faith in Scripture, so he finds a way to seek truth regarding good and evil through Manichaeism. At the end of this book, his mother, Monica, dreams about her son's re-conversion to Catholic doctrine.
Between the ages of 19 and 28, Augustine forms a relationship with an unnamed woman who, though faithful, is not his lawfully wedded wife, with whom he has a son, Adeodatus. At the same time that he returned to Tagaste, his hometown, to teach, a friend fell sick, was baptized in the Catholic Church, recovered slightly, then died. The death of his friend depresses Augustine, who then reflects on the meaning of love of a friend in a mortal sense versus love of a friend in God; he concludes that his friend's death affected him severely because of his lack of love in God. Things he used to love become hateful to him because everything reminds him of what was lost. Augustine then suggests that he began to love his life of sorrow more than his fallen friend. He closes this book with his reflection that he had attempted to find truth through the Manicheans and astrology, yet devout Church members, who he claims are far less intellectual and prideful, have found truth through greater faith in God.
While Augustine is aged 29, he begins to lose faith in Manichean teachings, a process that starts when the Manichean bishop Faustus visits Carthage. Augustine is unimpressed with the substance of Manichean, but he has not yet found something to replace it. He feels a sense of resigned acceptance to these fables as he has not yet formed a spiritual core to prove their falsity. He moves to teach in Rome where the education system is more disciplined. He does not stay in Rome for long because his teaching is requested in Milan, where he encounters the bishop Ambrose. He appreciates Ambrose style and attitude, and Ambrose exposes him to a more spiritual, figurative perspective of God, which leads him into a position as catechumen of the Church.
This is what we say in Islamic terminology : Taubatun- Nasooha that leads to ultimate salvation and we become the chosen to God. The case of St. Augustine seems to be relevant in Toto with regard to the philosophy touched in the topic and the analogy drawn in this connection serves the purpose of pressing Godly concept through the prism of philosophy.
Hence, the ordinary avoidance of initial ‘S’ which refers to sensation, sex, sensitivity and selfishness leads to the final ‘S’ which refers to sensibility, seriousness, selflessness and salvation at the end.