THE INDISPENSABLE SPIRITUAL INTIMACY

People often wonder about the effect of spirituality upon married life. Often it happens that one partner in a marriage starts moving deeper into spirituality, and this causes anxiety in the other partner. So how far do a normal marriage and Spirituality go together?

Spirituality is a movement into the unseen depths of one’s own mind. It helps one discover a lot about oneself and the world, and you change for the better.

That which used to frighten you, does not appear so very frightening. That which would easily disturb you, appears a bit childish now. The tendency to lose equilibrium reduces; you do not easily go off-centre. And even if you do, you return comparatively sooner. An urge to explore new things and life in its fullness, arises.

And there are many other changes.

Sometimes even your language change. Sometimes even before you can realise that there is a change, outsiders begin telling you that there is a change. And I have often seen that upon spiritual advancement, even one’s face and eyes do not remain what they used to be. And as you soak in those changes, your appetite to revel in them further increases. That’s all very auspicious! But these changes in one partner in the marriage can temporarily create a psychological distance from the other partner.

How to empathetically approach such a situation?

First of all, it must be realised that the persons in a marriage are individuals first, and a husband or a wife later. Fundamentally the two are human beings, both with an innate urge towards the Truth; though that same urge manifests itself differently in the two. So the husband and the wife as individuals, and the arrangement of their relationship, must be understood.

Spiritual Togetherness

Without spiritual intimacy, the socio-physical arrangement of marriage can often be a recipe for disaster.

But when the social arrangement is purified, consecrated by the spiritual touch, then the poison in it is neutralised.

In fact, there is only one antidote to the poison that marriage unfortunately often is, and that is a spiritual association between the man and the woman.

If the two persons in this social…