The Meaning of Winter Solstice in Life & Spirituality

People are trying to understand the connection between the Winter Solstice, and Life and Spirituality. The winter solstice happens twice yearly, once in each hemisphere, Northern and Southern. For that hemisphere, the winter solstice marks the day with the shortest period of daylight and the longest night of the year. Gradually going forward, the days start to slowly grow longer. Many ancient religions and cultural traditions have described the winter solstice as the time of greatest darkness and encouraged people to gather and celebrate the return to the light. Many religions celebrate this day as a holy day when people focus on 'purification' by performing customs such as bathing in holy rivers or sprinkling holy water on the body. This is another myth, that we have grown up with. It is just like we used to imagine that the earth is static and the sun was moving, till we scientifically realized that the sun was static and the earth was revolving around it. People have been following various myths. In a spiritual sense, no matter what our tradition is, there is no ideal time to realize the self and reflect on who we are and why we are here.

We live in the darkness of ignorance, not knowing the light of truth. We believe that God is somebody who lives up in the skies. These are a pack of lies! God is no God, God is SIP, a Supreme Immortal Power that exists everywhere and in everything. We must realize God in the temple of our heart. When will we realize the truth that the winter solstice and the summer solstice are a part of the natural phenomena of the universe? Phenomena like these are based on natural universal laws like the Law of Gravity, the Law of Cycles, the Law of Seasons and similar universal laws. Is it magic that when we throw an apple up in the sky, it doesn't fly away into the clouds? No, it is a simple law.

One such law is the Law of Karma – What we do, comes back to us. Sprinkling holy water on a holy day will not liberate us from our bad Karma. To bear the fruit of our good or bad actions, we have to come back to earth in a rebirth. To transcend Karma and attain liberation from the cycle of death and rebirth, we need unification with the Divine.

Spiritually, 'purification' is the first step on the path of attaining 'unification' with the Divine. It is transcending the five senses through the power of discrimination - by disciplining the mind using our intellect which shines only in the state of consciousness. We need purification of the mind to remain in a state of consciousness by reducing the MTR- Mental Thought Rate which is almost fifty thoughts per minute to just one thought.

Then we move to the next step, 'illumination' - when we start seeing the truth that we are not the body, mind and ego but the Divine Soul. Then happens 'realization' of the truth which leads to 'liberation' from worldly desires and sufferings. When we live a life ever-connected with the Divine, being conscious of the Supreme Immortal Power that is everywhere and in everything, then we are enlightened and attain the final state of 'unification' with the Divine while alive.

This paves the way to Moksha or 'unification' with the Divine at death. This is a spiritual way to live life to be ultimately free from the cycle of death and rebirth rather than believing in myths that keep us in ignorance, by making us follow meaningless rituals. When will we learn to accept the universal laws that govern the universe? When will we put our foot down in not believing the fairy tales and open our real eyes to realize the truth?