Bhupinder Kumar
What is spirituality? What is religion? Who am I? Why am I here? What is the purpose of my life? What is success? And so on.. These are some of the questions which have been keeping many disciples including me, engaged . I would like to say that these questions are not modern ‘mysteries’ as there are many wise saints who have contemplated on these ‘mysteries’ since ages and have passed on to us both riveting replies and fascinating questions. I have no idea what the readers of the article do for their living , but I would be surely interested in knowing..’Do they dare to meet their heart’s longings’? It doesn’t matter to me how old they are but I would surely look for.. ‘Will they risk looking like a fool for the love and adventure of being alive?’.. I am not interested in what planets are squaring their horoscopes. It doesn’t interest me, where do they live and how much money they have. But I am certainly interested in knowing whether they can get up after the night of grief, despair and do what needs to be done and show up? I would be most curious to know … ‘Will you as a seeker, stand in the centre of the fire with me and not withdraw? ..I want to know what sustains you from the inside, when everything else falls apart. I want to know if you can be ‘alone’ with yourself; and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.
Such thoughts have been gently prodding my mind since I started this journey. The most important part of the process which bothers me is, why some people are so die hard ‘spiritual seeker’ type and some people just don’t pay any attention to these thoughts and just laugh at it. Being a seeker I started digging more and more into it and realized that we do have Intelligence Quotient, which deals with our logical thinking and strategic problems and as the mind develops our emotional dimensions develops too – which, is of equal importance. EQ (Emotional Quotient) gives us our awareness of our own and other people’s emotions and feelings. It gives us empathy, compassion, motivation and the ability to respond appropriately to pain or pleasure. I realized EQ is a basic requirement for the effective use of IQ. This realization changed the way I used to think and look at my relationships with fellow humans.
Full picture of human ‘intelligence’ can be more meaningfully understood if we understand our Spiritual Intelligence .This is the intelligence with which we address and solve problems of meaning and value, the intelligence with which we can place our actions and our lives in a wider, richer, meaning-giving context, the intelligence with which we can assess that a particular course of action or that a specific life-path is more meaningful than another. Spiritual Intelligence is the necessary foundation for the effective functioning of both IQ and EQ. It is our ultimate intelligence.
When I could connect the relationship between IQ,EQ and SQ , I realized that We-Human beings are essentially spiritual creatures because we are driven by a need to ask ‘fundamental’ or ‘ultimate’ questions. Why was I born? What is the meaning of my life? Why should I go on when I am tired, or depressed, or feel beaten? What makes it all worthwhile? We are driven, by a specifically human longing to find meaning and value in what we do and experience.
It is the transformative power of Spiritual Intelligence which differentiates us from animals and understanding of this area of our life deeply impacts our behavior towards others in a qualitative way. This understanding has helped me to deal with the situation rather than situation overwhelming me and pushing me to respond to the situation.
Now I feel more comfortable in playing with pushing the boundaries of the situation rather than working within the boundaries. Understanding my SQ has helped me to be more imaginative and creative. Now I can play ‘infinite’ games with my responses. I have started using SQ to wrestle with questions of good and evil and to envision unrealized possibilities – to dream, to aspire, to raise ourselves out of any crisis.
My emotional intelligence allows me to judge what situation I am in and then to behave appropriately within it. This is working within the boundaries of the situation, allowing the situation to guide me. But my spiritual intelligence allows me to ask if I want to be in this particular situation in the first place. Would I rather change the situation, creating a better one? This is working with the boundaries of my situation, allowing me to guide the situation.
I could connect all three types of quotients in a more meaningful way and when I look at the deeper level of SQ ( spiritual Quotient), it literally operates out of the soul’s centre – from the soul’s unifying functions – it integrates all types of intelligences and my thought process. Realization of my own SQ has made me feel that I need to integrate my IQ EQ, & SQ in a more effective way to bring my best out of me.
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