Spiritual Poverty VS Material Wealth

Materialism Can Not Feed The Soul

Glorious morning!

Today I want to expand on a quote from Paramahansa Yogananda.

“ It is spiritual poverty, not material lack, that lies at the core of all human suffering. “

  Most people know who Yoganada is, but for those who don’t, he was a yogi and kriya yoga guru born in India in 1893. He was the

one who brought yoga to America just a hundred years ago. Yoga itself was created over 5,000 years ago, although some argue over 10,000 years ago. Personally, I think it’s even more than that.

To me, this quote means, if you don't form a relationship with the divine, everything you own, no matter how much, will eventually leave your soul empty. The only thing that can fill the void in our being, is God. I can say this with certainty for me. Growing up I was taught about who God was from going to church. I learned to kneel and pray. I was not taught how to connect intimately, so a good portion of my life was praying a bit each day before bed, going to church here and there, and that was about it. Oh and of course when something tragic or bad happened, I prayed.

It was not until I spent years, well, decades,  experiencing the same dissatisfactions over and over again, despite my 2 minute prayers each night. Like most of us, I would keep myself busy with distractions. Buying clothes was a big one for me. The feeling I got from buying something new was great. I chased that fleeting feeling over and over again, filling my closets and my kids' closets with clothes. No amount of new clothes could have replaced the spot in my soul that was waiting to be filled by God, I just didn't know that yet. I even went into debt with my credit cards two separate times throughout the years. It took the covid horror and the reality of the human sex trafficking on this planet to make me stop and actually question my existence , and question God. I started demanding some answers from the divine in a sort of show down. I basically demanded that he reveal to me, why the hell am I on this planet and did I even choose this??

If he wasn't going to eventually reveal it to me, I'm sure I would have lost any joyful motivation to move forward in any hopes and dreams I had for myself.  Lord knows how my path would have gone. Well , ask and you shall receive! Shortly after,  I discovered a spiritual teacher that suggested a daily prayer/meditation and some slow moving yoga with conscious breathing and a walk in nature regularly. I started doing it. The time I was dedicating ( yes, more than 2 minutes a day ) everyday started to yield some pretty amazing results, like feelings of peace and a grounding in my life that I had never felt before. The more I continued, the stronger my connection grew to the peace I was receiving, and before you knew it, I was making big overdue changes in my life, with a strength I had never known before.

The material things in my life just could not deliver what the daily connection was delivering. It has been almost four years of this deliberate and dedicated connection and now my life is amazing. Wild horses ( or a million dollar wardrobe ) could never drag me away from this natural connection that we all have free access to. All of humanity needs this to be happy and peaceful, in my humble opinion. I didn't have to go to a church to connect, I didn't have to have a middle man connect me, I simply started to put all distractions away and get quiet. I asked for guidance and I gave gratitude for all of the things in my life that was sustaining me. When I started to pull myself away from the outward world of distractions and focused my attention inward, there I found what was waiting patiently for me my whole life. God's never ending, always available, love. I do believe all of the suffering that kept showing up in my life could have easily been avoided and resolved quickly, had I had the strong, trusting and intimate bond with my creator that I have today. The disciplined time that I now put aside every single day has become the fuel that powers my will to create a peaceful and joy filled existence. Sharing this peace with others is the icing on the cake.

Do you or anyone you know have a dismal outlook on the world and future? I once did also. My backpack therapy can help get you started on a beautiful path. Make the free discovery call today. Peace be with you, Dawn DeAngelo

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