Spiritual Poverty

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My perspective on poverty

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At the mention of the word “poverty”, what comes to most people’s mind is the obvious lack of material wealth. Though this is true in a generally accepted sense, poverty however is of different forms and in my mind’s eye, the most pathetic of them all is "Spiritual poverty".

We live in a society where so much energy is expended on pursuing and acquiring material wealth that not much attention is given to the spiritual growth of the being. To downplay the spiritual aspect of Man against his material part is to imply and deny the fact that without this material aspect, Man is nothing.

Poverty of thought, a state of mind that keeps most people down and stops them from rising above the social strata into which they are born, is child’s play when compared with poverty of the spirit. "Wealth does not a Godly man make". A spiritually bankrupt man had he all the gold of Midas or the wisdom of Solomon, would still amount to nothing in the hereafter.

Being spiritually wealthy has nothing to do with how many church services a man attends, how much tithes he coughs up and how many times he prays in a day. It has nothing to do with how well one knows the koran, the bible, the sutras or any other religious book known to Man. It has nothing to do with how well one is acquainted with the Buddha, Mohammed, Jesus, the holy spirit or the "Virgin mother", Mary. It has all to do with what is in your heart. It has all to do with how much love you have to give away. For truly I say unto you, you cannot truly love God, if you do not have love in your heart for your fellow human being.

Peter (one of the disciples of Jesus) said ‘’ Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God”. And the word that is prominent in the mouth of God, and is a song theme that runs through most religions and philosophies of the world, is “Love”.

Man, as is often said is made in God’s own image. If man is made in the image of God and God's word is love, a man who lacks the ability to show love lacks the innate ability to know God because the very essence of God is love.

How many of us truly in all honesty show love without really expecting something back in turn ? How many of us truly extend human kindness and warmth to others, not kin or kith ? We as humans have so much capacity to love because our very essence is love yet somehow, somewhere we have lost track and forgotten how. Through self imposed barriers that over time has given room to so much hate, we have forgotten that bidding " Love thy neighbor as you would thyself. A bidding that is truly not necessary if we listen to that still small voice that talks to us all.

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How do we show love?

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Not only to kin or kith but to others that are not? By being there for them, sometimes without being asked. By extending a hand out in friendship, showing human warmth and kindness, irrespective of color, tribe or any bias.

Bluntly put, a man who lacks the ability to render help or show any form of human kindness to his fellow being is a spiritually bankrupt man and all the wealth in the world cannot buy him redemption even if he deludes himself into thinking that it will.

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_{Image source: 1 - 2 - 3}

Thanks to @camzy for the photo animation.