How do we balance spiritual development with our earthly profession?

The answer to this is simple: by giving spiritual development absolute priority in one's life, everything else falls into place without any gaps whatsoever. The problem today is that everyone wants to attend to all their material needs first and then use whatever time is left over for their spiritual development. Alas, all that is material is bound to take up most of their time, because in any case, they give it far too much importance anyway, leaving very little, if any time for spiritual things.

The Creator has put us on this world so that we can benefit spiritually from these short lives on earth. There is nothing that God gives us that is without spiritual benefit in some form or another. And since that is the case, He could never put us in a position whereby we would be prevented from striving spiritually, just because of our purely mundane materialistic commitments, which are mostly without spiritual benefit. That most - if not all - of us are in this situation today is solely because we have allowed it to develop that way.

But it is still possible for everyone, even the busiest corporate executives, who live by work-intensive schedules, to spare some time for their spiritual development. And their earthly work will not suffer in the process, if they strive aright, but on the contrary, it will become even more greatly enhanced, because it is then permeated by their spiritual volition.

Everyone can achieve it, if only they will to do so. Deep inside all persons, the potential stands in its full measure. But as people become increasingly materialistic, as they drown themselves further in their everyday cares, trivialities, and spiritually unfulfilling professions, they make it only increasingly difficult for them to eventually find the time to concentrate on their spiritual development. Sooner or later, a certain threshold is crossed, beyond which a turning back becomes possible only via a "psychic shock" of some kind. This can be through a totally unexpected event such as a sudden illness or accident, and the various manifestations can be extremely different in their nature. But in all cases, it provides the opportunity for people to wake up and examine what really is of importance to them in life, so that they can make a fresh start if they wish to.

The Divine Laws are our greatest friends in all things. It is sad that in our world today, we are solely focussed on amassing wealth and power so that we can stay ahead of the pack. It is sad that even the good people among us want to first take care of their material needs, and do not know where to draw the line in that, thus wasting away all their energies in trivial pursuits, whereas the greater, more important spiritual development remains unattended to.

We do not see these Laws operating in their complete perfection and thus miss the whole point of this very short earth-life. When we then lay aside these gross material cloaks, we will not have advanced even a single step, having squandered our entire lives in mundane activity which is of extremely little value for our true spiritual existence.