During the course of my conversation with a colleague, I was asked to define success and one thing led to another and soon the subject turned out to be spirituality more as a corollary. That’s when this quote created the buzz in my head and became busy like a bee. I sat down and jotted: Beyond fear, there’s victory Beyond victory, success Beyond success, simplicity Beyond simplicity, spirituality. Expectedly, the colleague was taken aback and questioned the “spiritual aspect”, as a digression from a professional insight to something very personal. Well, the opinions are mine, just like the quote and it’s the freedom of expression of my colleague to concur or combat my view and guess, he chose the latter. So I made a case for the quote and decided to defend. My mentor always assesses that it’s a question that triggers my thought process. And quite rightly so. In truth, human nature is a social nature with natural instincts for social responsibility -the ‘social instincts’. These must be cultivated through a process of moral or spiritual growth or ‘ socialization’. Human socialization is a function of consciousness of the moral values for living… ‘knowledge’ as compassionate wisdom, ‘love’ as universal love or ‘loving kindness’, ‘truth’ as freedom from dogma, ‘justice’ as social responsibility, ‘peace’ as understanding , beauty … the core values of moral consciousness or ‘morality’ of rational conscience of the ‘authentic self’, ‘higher self’ or ‘Self’ . -extracts from http://www.holisticeducator.com/ The New Age (also referred to as the New Age movement, New Age spirituality, and Cosmic Humanism) is a decentralized Western social and spiritual movement that seeks “Universal Truth” and the attainment of the highest individual human potential. It includes aspects of Occultism, astrology, esotericism, metaphysics, alternative medicine, music, collectivism, sustainability, and nature. New Age spirituality is characterized by an individual approach to spiritual practices and philosophies. -courtesy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Age The above quotes are about the self and spirituality. Maslow couldn’t have been more correct in coming out with his theory of “when one need is met, another crops up” and goes to list 4 needs, in which self-actualization is the ultimate need and hence seated right at the peak of the pyramid. self-actualization, in other words, is the attainment of the highest individual human potential. Fear is something inherent that impedes any initiative and it’s a progressive mind that can overcome fear, and overcome is the connotation for victory. And a string of these victories spell success. Success and simplicity go hand in hand though simplicity is one rung above. Reminds me of the famous quote ‘Never take Success to your Head and Failure to your Heart’. And when you scale simplicity, it’s the spiritual realm. Well, things happens when they are least expected. It was a dull day until now – not anymore. It was an uneventful evening – well, till the point I had that discussion and no sooner we were debating and deliberating. It turns out to be an exciting session. That’s the beauty and brilliance of moments. While, I wrap up my case, and look towards my colleague wondering ‘did I make one?’, and he thoughtfully smiled as if to say, ‘Yeah, you did.’ We walk out a lot wiser. Life, indeed, is the progressive discovery of our own ignorance as quoted by Will Durant, and I remain thankful of the session for the progressive discovery of my own. image courtesy: www.myholisticlife.com