Divine Soul Qualities

Lord Krishna has given mankind 26 soul qualities in the chapter XVI of Holy Geeta. I thought International Yoga Day is the right day to share the following with you! These have been taken from Gurudeva Paramahansa Yogananda’s commentary on Holy Geeta, called – God Talks With Arjuna! That is such a soul uplifting and divine work. Sri Paramahansa Yogananda has also written a commentary on Holy Bible – Second Coming of Christ. He had concluded that in their essence both these holy books give the same message!! Both these books are available online at the book store of : Yogananda.org outside India and yssofindia.org in India. You may also like to pick up a copy of Autobiography of a Yogi, which has been hailed as one of the most influential spiritual books of the last century.

Yoga means union – Union of soul with Spirit, with God! Yoga is not merely about body fitness, it is more about creating harmony and peace in body, mind and soul. I sincerely believe that absorbing these soul qualities in our hearts and minds would give us the peace, harmony, and God realisation we are seeking!!

SQ1: Fearlessness: The foundation of spiritual life: having faith in God’s protection, justice, wisdom, mercy, love and omnipresence.

SQ2: Purity of Heart: Transparency to truth. Freedom from attachment and repulsion to sense objects. “Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God”

SQ3: Steadfastness: in seeking wisdom and practicing raj yoga. Applying scriptural wisdom and immersing oneself in the growing peace born of regular meditation.

SQ4: ALMSGIVING: Unselfishness and generosity to those in need and worthy

SQ5: SELF RESTRAINT: Repetition of unwise sense experiences creates strong and destructive bad habits.

SQ6: Religious Rites: One’s whole life should be a sacred rite, with every thought and act purified by reverence and offered to the divine.

SQ7: Right Study of Scriptures: Redemption comes not from intellectual knowledge but from what one becomes by integrating that knowledge.

SQ8: Self Discipline – Restraint of appetite, including celibacy; training the body to withstand bodily discomfort. Transmuting material desires into spiritual aspirations.

SQ9: Straightforwardness – A quality of honorable men. Striving to be sincere, free from deceit and guile, and open and candid.

SQ10: Non Injury – The avoidance of harm to any living creature in thought or deed, except when obstructing evil or upholding righteousness.

SQ11: Truth – Honesty: is the foundation stone of the universe. Honoring truth in thought, speech and action. Words should always be sweet, healing and beneficial to others.

SQ12: Absence of Wrath – The quickest way to peace of mind: being free from rage, animosity and resentment.

SQ13: Renunciation – Willingly give up passing sense pleasures for the sake of eternal joys. Living for truth without being emotionally attached in the drama of creation.

SQ14: Peace – is a divine quality. Tranquility is the nature of God and each soul.

SQ15: Non-Condemnation (Absence of Fault Finding) Not concentrating on the weakness of others and focusing on bettering oneself.

SQ16: Compassion Towards all Beings – The Divine Mother aspect of God is overflowing with this quality – Feeling the suffering of others and trying to alleviate it.

SQ17: Absence of Greed and Envy– Non-covetousness. Mastery of one’s senses, without desire for gross pleasures. Turning the mind to inner joys.

SQ18: Gentleness – Kind, forbearing, patient. Without ill will towards anyone. The Universal Spirit is ever gentle with Her erring children.

SQ19: Modesty – Feeling shame at wrong doing and correcting oneself. The purity of modesty attracts its own virtuous kinds.

SQ20: Absence of Restlessness– enables one to avoid physical and mental roamings and useless activities.

SQ21: Radiance of Character– comes from the cosmic fire of God’s supreme consciousness, the flame of awareness, within man and other sentient creatures.

SQ 22: FORGIVENESS (kshama) – in the man of God is not inflicting, or wishing to inflict, punishment on those who harm or wrong him.

SQ 23: PATIENCE, or fortitude (dhriti) – enables the devotee to bear misfortunes and insults with equilibrium.

SQ 24: CLEANNESS OF BODY AND PURITY OF MIND – is respect for the indwelling Taintless Spirit. It has been said that cleanliness is next to godliness.

SQ25: NONHATRED – should be practiced by everyone. A devotee who feels malice towards others loses the power to see God in all.

SQ26: LACK OF CONCEIT – signifies absence of excessive pride. The Lord doesn’t harbour pride, though His cosmic possession and powers are infinite.

Three years back I had worked on these 26 soul qualities for one whole year – two weeks on each quality. I had realised that even if we pick up one of these qualities and become that quality, the rest would fall in place easily and on their own!!

But Maya, Delusion, Satan too is very strong and tempts us away from our holy aspirations! I think it is time for me to revisit these and the Notes to Myself, I had written about a week or so ago! It is time to go within!!

So I intend taking a break from WordPress for sometime. If you start to miss me 😊 do get in touch with an email at ashokwahi2@gmail.com

Love, hugs and blessings 🤗🤗

Ashok