The Essence of Spirituality

I hope you enjoyed the LDS General Conference as much as I did. I especially enjoyed it because of the research I've been doing on words and the power of words. As the Lectures on Faith teach us, "Faith works by words." And hearing the words of prophets always increases my faith.

But there was something more this conference. I was making some connections that I've never made before. The Hindu holy book, the Vedas, is believed by its followers to be divinely revealed. Many of the writings in the Vedas obviously correspond to our Biblical teachings, but others have indirect correspondence and can enlighten our own understanding of what is meant.

One of these is the Vedic teaching that “Speech is the essence of humanity.” According to this all of what humanity thinks and becomes is determined by the words that are spoken. In other words, everything has its birth in words. You cannot do something until you have first thought it and formed it into words. When we connect this idea to the teachings of John in the New Testament it expands our understanding of what John means in his gospel when he writes, "In the beginning was The Word. And the Word was with God and the Word was God..."

By the same token, our words determine who and what God is to us. He is born in us by the words we choose to think and speak. We can create Him in our own image by thinking of Him as someone who acts and reacts like we do, or we can let Him give us the words of love and peace that allow Him to unfold His divine nature within us. It is then that we are changed to be like Him.

Speech is not only the essence of humanity, it is the essence of spirituality.