How to make the best of Jewellery’s contribution to wearer’s spiritual journey ?

You have probably heard about ‘Diamonds are a girl’s best friend’ – a song made famous by Marilyn Monroe’s performance.

This song gives us an inkling of the deep emotional relationship women have with jewellery. This is a universal truth – true across all cultures.

1. Jewellery from the viewpoint of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

Somewhere in the middle of the 20^th Century the famous American psychologist Abraham Maslow created a popular framework to study what motivates people to fulfil their innate needs. The framework was known as ‘Maslow’s hierarchy of needs’. The diagram above shows some of the needs jewellery fulfils as per this hierarchy of needs.

If we look at jewellery from the viewpoint of pyramid of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, jewellery would be between the stage of psychological needs of ‘Love and belonging’ and ‘Esteem’. These are, basically, the needs to do with instant gratification. These are not as essential as physiological well-being (such as food or water), nor are they the needs to attain something as profound as self-actualisation – realisation of one’s full potential, or self-transcendence, which is the desire to reach the infinite spiritual state.

2. The four Purusharthas

Ancient Sanskrut Scriptures talk of human goals and the purpose of human life. These elaborated upon the 4 Purusharthas – the 4 pursuits of human life – Dharma (Righteousness), Artha (Wealth), Kama (Desires) and Moksha (Final Liberation). As per the science of Spirituality, Moksha or the merging with the infinite or the God Principle is the true and ultimate purpose of human life.

3. The true purpose of jewellery

As per the science of Spirituality, the true purpose of jewellery is to provide spiritual benefit. It is meant to assist a wearer’s spiritual journey towards the Divine, besides enhancing the beauty of the wearer. This means that jewellery as per Maslow’s hierarchy of needs fulfils their ‘Transcendence’ needs as well. However, the sad part is that vast majority of women are ignorant of this noble purpose of jewellery, let alone understanding it and selecting the jewellery accordingly. Consequently, they don’t buy spiritually significant jewellery that fulfils this need.

4. Experiment to study the subtle vibrations emitting from 3 different necklaces

Two women participated in this experiment. One was suffering from negative energy distress while the other was not. During the experiment, we asked them to wear each of the 3 necklaces one-by-one, whose pictures are shown ahead. Then we studied the subtle effect each necklace had on the subtle energy and aura of the two women. Necklace ‘A’ can be termed ‘fashion or costume jewellery’. It is made of silver and black onyx stones. Necklaces ‘B’ and ‘C’ are made of 22 karat gold.

Both the women wore each necklace for 30 minutes. We used the Universal Aura Scanner (UAS) to measure the positive and negative subtle energy and the total measured aura of the 2 women before and after wearing the necklaces. UAS is an instrument that has been invented by Dr. Mannem Murthy, a former nuclear scientist of India.

4A. Subtle effect of the 3 necklaces on the women
The table ahead summarises the effect of each necklace on the women.

Necklace type	Women suffering from negative energy distress	Women not suffering from negative energy distress
Necklace A	Negative aura increased by 47%	Complete reduction in positive aura
Necklace B	Negative aura increased by 21%	Total measured aura reduced by 25%
Necklace C	Negative aura reduced completely	Gained positive aura

Necklace A, which is a costume jewellery necklace, had the worst effect on the women. It increased the negativity in one of the women by almost 50%. Necklace B had a negative effect on the women despite being made of gold. Necklace C had a positive effect on the women. The experiment clearly shows that jewellery has a significant effect on an individual.

5. Spiritual contribution of jewellery

Women wear jewellery to enhance their beauty. Spiritual research conducted by the ‘Maharshi Adhyatma Vishwavidyalay’ shows that besides enhancing the beauty in a woman, there are spiritual benefits of wearing spiritually positive (Sattvik) jewellery. These benefits are :

Sattvik jewellery imbibes and transmits positive spiritual energy.
Gold increases the Absolute Fire Principle around the wearer.
Sattvik jewellery acts as a protective sheath and armour to protect against negative energies. Even if the ornaments get attacked at the subtle level they can be purified spiritually. In fact, it is recommended that ornaments be purified periodically.
Wearing ornaments results in purification and activation of the Kundalini chakras. (Chakras are subtle energy centres in an individual’s body.)
Ornaments unknowingly exert pressure on the acupressure points on the associated part of the body resulting in Acupressure remedy.

6. Subtle experiment to identify sattvik jewellery

‘Subtle’ is that which is beyond the understanding of our 5 senses, mind and intellect. Subtle can only be perceived through the sixth sense (Extra sensory perception or ESP). A subtle experiment is a means of testing and training ourselves to use our sixth sense.

6A. How does participation in the subtle experiment help ?

We get first-hand experience about the existence of the subtle dimension. We begin to understand that something exists that is beyond the perception of our 5 senses, mind and intellect.
We get an idea of our ability to perceive the subtle dimension.
We train ourselves to use our sixth sense.
We get to learn more and more about the subtle dimension.

If we have started spiritual practice, we can use these tests as a measure to check our spiritual progress. One of the effects of spiritual practice is the activation of our sixth sense. The more the spiritual growth or spiritual level, the higher the ability to perceive the subtle dimension.

6B. Steps of the experiment

6B 1. Step 1 : Focus the mind

Try to concentrate before the experiment. You can achieve this by either –

Closing your eyes and concentrating on the flow of your breath
Focusing either on chanting God’s Name as per your religion or praying
Do this for about 2-3 minutes.

6B 2. Step 2 : Concentrate on ‘Figure A’ (An earring) for 2 minutes : Study how the figure or object affects you. While concentrating on the figure, it is important to note that this feeling should not be one that is influenced by what you see but what you feel from within or how your body and subtle senses react to it.

Note whether you feel pleasant, unpleasant or neutral.

The feeling being discussed is more about vibrations that the object or the individual emits. For example, you may have met someone for the first time who may be well-dressed and good looking; yet you may get bad vibrations from him. Conversely, someone dressed simply and one who is not that good looking may emit good vibrations, his company may make you feel good. It is this vibe that we are asking you to notice while concentrating on the figure.

Examples of pleasant sensation or vibes could be – reduction in thoughts, increase in the quality of chanting, slowing down of breathing, pleasant coolness, a nice warm feeling, pleasant pressure, feeling of peace, contentment or happiness, seeing white light or a mental image of white light, etc. No matter what the specific experience, the underlying feeling has to be one of pleasantness or positivity, a feeling of wanting the experience to continue.

Examples of unpleasant sensation or vibes could be – difficulty in breathing, nausea, negative thoughts, vision of strange or creepy figures, distressing cold, heat, headache, constricting or distressing pressure, pain, a vision of the object in dark, black tones, etc. Here, the underlying feeling is one of unpleasantness or negativity, and one gets the feeling of not wanting to continue with that experience.

A neutral experience would be where one does not experience any change in the present feeling while concentrating on the figure.
Please note your reading.

6B 3. Step 3 : As explained above, concentrate on Figure ‘B’ for 2 minutes. Please note your reading.
6B 4. Step 4 : Compare Figure ‘A’ with Figure ‘B’

6C. Answer : Figure ‘A’ is Tama predominant to a greater extent, whereas Figure ‘B’ is Sattva predominant to a greater extent.

7. Subtle effect of sattvik jewellery

The true measure and analysis of subtle vibrations can only be done through the medium of the sixth sense. We have seekers in our spiritual research team who can perceive vibrations emitted by an object or an individual. After studying these vibrations they make sketches on paper that depict these vibrations and are called ‘subtle pictures’. These serve as spiritual X-rays (pictures) and provide clarity about the true subtle nature of the object or individual. The readings are then confirmed or corrected by Paratpar Guru (Dr.) Athavale. Given here are some subtle pictures depicting the actual effect of sattvik jewellery on the individual who wears it.

7A. Subtle effects of wearing a sattvik gold necklace (Look at picture 1) : This picture of a sattvik gold necklace shows how the necklace attracts positive energy and then emits it around the wearer.

7B. Subtle effects of wearing sattvik dangling earrings (Look at picture 2) : The interesting thing about this design of sattvik gold dangling earrings is that while it attracts and gives rise to positive energies and vibrations of Anand (Bliss), which is a superlative form of happiness, it is the movement of the dangling part that helps spread positive energy.

7C. Subtle effects of wearing a sattvik gold ring on the ring finger : (Look at picture 3) : The sattvik gold ring when worn on the ring finger has the ability to attract positive energy and emit it into the environment.

8. Understand and utilise the true potential of jewellery to obtain positivity

As is apparent from these subtle pictures, sattvik jewellery (like Necklace ‘C’ in Point 4) imparts spiritual positivity to the individual as to the adjacent environment of the individual. Conversely, if an individual wears Tama predominant (Tamasik) jewellery (like Necklace ‘A’ in Point 4), it will affect her and her adjacent environment adversely. Keeping this in mind, make it a point to always wear positivity imparting jewellery.

However, finding sattvik jewellery is not easy. We find a variety of ornaments displayed in jewellery shops. At times, we are even shown catalogues containing different varieties. Unfortunately, of the hundreds of varieties, only 4-5 are sattvik, the rest are tamasik. We are often fascinated by the aesthetic appearance of the ornaments and end up selecting the tamasik ones, thus depriving ourselves of the possible spiritual gains. To identify sattvik jewellery try to develop your sixth sense. Continued spiritual practice is a sure way to develop it, thus, obtaining the ability to utilise jewellery for its true purpose – assisting the wearer’s spiritual journey towards the Divine !

Authors : Paratpar Guru (Dr.) Athavale, Founder, Maharshi Adhyatma Vishwavidyalay (Maharshi Spiritual University) and
Mr. Sean Clarke, Maharshi Adhyatma Vishwavidyalay Research Team Member
and Editor of SSRF.org (Spiritual Science Research Foundation)