SPIRITUALITY
-- What it is

VIII
THE ORIGIN OF RELIGION









    The quest for the Immanent and All-powerful Entity began when self-consciousness dawned on living creatures. The endless limitations with which the Spirit finds itself surrounded, the insufficiency and incompleteness on all sides, the utter helplessness in the face of death, and in illness and suffering, all combine to stir up in man a longing to find out the source of all life, all light, all happiness and all Bliss. He seeks a power with which to combat all evil, fight the dark forces of the negative power, chase away pain and misery, and be established with unchangeable permanence in this ever-changing universe. He wants to find the central permanent point, around which the eternal dance of creation and destruction goes on ceaselessly.
    The roots of all religions are to be found in the attempt of man, from age to age, to solve this mystery of duality: life and death, light and darkness, truth and untruth, opulence and poverty. Dissatisfied with his surroundings, he begins the eternal search anew and turns to the why and wherefore of things.
    He now tries to find the substratum of life itself, the source from which the creative life-principle springs, which enlivens the body and the bodily adjuncts and activates everything around him. Once this question takes hold of a person, it never leaves him, and he plunges himself headlong into the problem and seeks to solve the mystery in whatever way he can. He begins his search first of all in the creeds and beliefs of the age and the surroundings in which he lives. But when all these fail to satisfy him and he discovers himself in the wilderness of different ideologies, conflicting theories, heterogeneous postulates and conclusions, he feels bewildered and helpless to chalk out for himself the Way-out. Next, he turns to the scriptures and religious texts for the solace of his mind, but here, too, he is confronted with insurmountable difficulties: want of knowledge of the archaic languages in which they are written, the subtlety of the subject, lack of practical men of realisation to give him their correct and true import.
    The momentous quest now takes another turn. He breaks through all the barriers of age-old traditions and customs, social and ritualistic observances and accepted codes of conduct, so that he may discover the hidden light and the Power of God - the lost Word - something greater and more powerful than what he has experienced hitherto in the outer world. From the search without, he gradually withdraws his attention and begins to concentrate on the thought of self within. In this way he comes to distinguish between Religion and religiosity, or religious beliefs and practices, all of which are connected with the sensory plane only. The seeds of life lie in the depths of life itself--the spirit or the soul-- in every living thing, even plants and flowers.
     Spirituality is concerned with the most vital problems of the Spirit alone-what it is, where it dwells, how it works, how it can be concentrated to dwell upon itself, how it can be separated from the folds of the body and mind, where it goes after death, how it can voluntarily be withdrawn from the sensory plane of the body, the specific journey that lies ahead, the various spiritual planes that it has to traverse, its ultimate goal, and many other topics of an allied nature connected with its well-being. This, then, is the religion of the soul, quite distinct and apart from the social and moral well-being of an individual, both of which depend on his spiritual well-being. A sound mind in a sound body is a well known aphorism, but a sound soul at the back of them both is of paramount importance, because mind and body live by the soul, the great dynamo or motor power, in the life and light of which both these adjuncts work.
     This search for the true self, though full of mysteries, and with untold possibilities and immense spiritual treasures within (of which the saints sing in glorious terms), now attracts the attention of the seeker. It is purely a subjective matter and lies beyond the pale of reasoning and imagination. It is a 'Wisdom of the Beyond' (Para Vidya) and can be experienced by the soul in its pure nakedness, released from all the enshrouding sheaths.
     We cannot but repeat the memorable words of Guru Nanak, in this context:

One cannot comprehend Him through reason, even if one reasoned for ages.
One cannot achieve inner peace by outward silence, though one sat dumb for ages;
One cannot buy contentment with all the riches of the world, nor reach Him
  with all mental ingenuity:
How may one know the Truth and break through the cloud of falsehood?
There is a Way, O Nanak! to make His Will our own,
His Will which is already wrought in our existence. - Jap Ji, St.1
    Once convinced of the futility of all outer knowledge and wisdom, performances and observances, the search within becomes a passion with the sincere seeker after Truth, for self-realisation is a key to God-realisation. St. Augustine, once sitting on the seashore with his great work 'De Trinitate,' saw a child taking the sea water into a shell and pouring it into a hole he had made in the sand. Asked what he was doing, the child naively replied that he was trying to empty the ocean. The great sage explained to him the futility of all his endeavours, since it was an impossibility. Exactly the same is the position in the case of God-knowledge, for He, the Infinite, cannot be known by the finite individual trying to grasp Him at the level of the intellect. How can a part know the whole? Self, the basis of all conscious life, cannot be cognised by the conscious mind or intellect. A thing not based on Realities, cannot be real and cannot know the real. Even of the yogic methods as means to still the mind for self-realisation, Gaudpada, the famous forerunner of Patanjali (author of the yoga systems, thousands of years before), spoke about such efforts as strivings of a person to empty the ocean drop by drop with the tip of a blade of grass.
    From the above, it would be abundantly clear that the germs of all religions are located in self-questionings and self-communings of the great souls. Here all religious philosophies end and true religion begins. By degrees this inner search proceeds, and, one by one, the koshas or the coverings of the spirit are analysed, pierced through and discarded. They are peeled off layer by layer in the deep inner silence of the mind, until the mental apparatus itself also drops off like a tattered garment, leaving the soul free and resplendent in its pristine luminosity, more lustrous than the light of several suns put together. This is called evolution of the Spirit or unfoldment of the Reality, shrouded as it is in innumerable coverings to start with. Self-knowledge (or Atma Sidhi) precedes God-knowledge (or Paramatma Sidhi).
     It is only when the spirit comes into its own and is freed from all the earthly ties and the bodily trappings, physical, astral and causal, that it is in a position to apprehend, appreciate or feel the presence of God or Reality. The senses, the mind and the intellect, in their gross nature, ever fail to know and understand the Reality by means of logic, philosophy and metaphysics. It is the spirit in its original purity, when disengaged and disentangled from the various trappings, that can contact Godhood. Spirituality in its true sense, as described above, can neither be bought, nor taught, but may be caught, as if it were an infection, from some God-man. All learning through books, lectures or philosophic disputations cannot make a person spiritual.
     The love of God may be seen in the love laden eyes of the Son-of-God. His liquid eyes betray the Divine intoxication within them. They are cups bubbling over with God's life, love and light. Herein lies the hiatus between sectarianism, the great scriptures of the world, the so-called religions, as confined and cramped in the pages of sacred and monumental works of the ancients, in languages too ancient, too archaic and too technical to be understood, on the one hand - and spirituality, the science of the Soul or true religion of the spirit, on the other. The latter is the common heritage of the entire humanity, catholic in its approach, unlimited in its scope and unfettered by anyone's professed belief, faith and religious notions. It is an inner process of the spirit; and all saints preach of nothing but spirituality in its pure, undiluted and unalloyed form.
    God is the Divine Ground on which life, mind and matter make their play, and all these cannot possibly know the very Life of their life. Saints, therefore, emphasise that this Divine Ground can only be felt by intuition when directly experienced by realisation, which is possible only by the sixth sense or the inner eye. That center is also known as Nukta-i-Swaida, the Third Eye, the Divine Vision, the Single Eye. Christ says that it "shall fill the whole body with light"- light uncreated, perennial and everlasting, light which is self-existent and shadowless, light that never is on land or sea. This is why Jesus, the Prophet, asks us to beware lest the light in the body turn into darkness: "The light shineth in the darkness and the darkness comprehendeth it not." The outer symbol of this we see nowadays in the lighted candles at church altars, the earthen lamps in temples and gurdwaras (now of course replaced by electric light), and the ever-burning fires in Zoroastrian homes.
    Akin to the Single Eye is also the Voice of God (the Kalma of the Muslims, the Word of Christ, the Sruti of the Vedas, Udgit of the Upanishads, Sarosha of the Zoroastrians, Elan Vital or the Life Current of the Western philosophers, and Voice of the Silence of the Theosophists) within the body which we cannot hear, as our spiritual ears have been waxed and sealed. This great truth is symbolized in outer life by the conches in the temples, the gongs in the gurdwaras and Buddhist temples, the bells in church belfries and Jaras (Big bell) of the Sufis. The saints in all climes and in all times have made frequent references to this phenomenon in all their teachings and writings.
    The true religion or spirituality consists in linking the soul with Oversoul in its manifested play of light and sound in the God-made temple of the human body. The more the spirit withdraws from without and transcends its limitations -- physical, astral, and causal -- the more experience it gets of the spiritual phenomena, with the Grace of the Master. Such is vouchsafed to one who has prepared for death in life at will - for unless one learns to die daily, one cannot have life ever-lasting. Bergson, the great philosopher, calls it "open religion" as contra-distinguished from "closed religions," that is, religions sealed down in ancient and "immutable" scriptures, spoken of and taken to be the last word.
    Religions have now been reduced to the mere performance of charitable deeds, observance of rites, rituals and ceremonies like fasts and pilgrimages; wearing of particular apparel; white, yellow, blue, flame-coloured or ochre robes; keeping peculiar marks on the body like a tuft of hair on the head, sacred thread across the shoulder, circumcision or the five Kakas; all of
which have no substantial bearing, however remote, on the advancement of the soul towards self-realisation and God-realisation.
    The prime need of the age is a living Reality, a dip in the ocean of life, a sip of the elixir of life, a vision of the Divine Light that may bestow immortality and lead to efflorescence of the spirit into Godhood. This is what Sri Aurobindo says: "Contact the Super-mind and draw it down to make divine all life, mind and matter. It is the common birthright of all created beings and not the monopoly of any nation or class of individuals professing this or that faith or belief."
    Man by nature is a composite being - the component parts being body, mind and soul. God made man after His own image and so the saints ordain: "Be thou as perfect as thy Father in Heaven is perfect." Thrice blessed is man on account of the immense and immeasurable possibilities that have been lodged in him by the Maker. The very Divinity, with holy light, life and love, is the very soul of his soul. But alas, what man has made of man - and worse still, of himself - no better than a beast, or even worse than that."
    It behooves man as man to be rich, abundantly rich, in all the three aspects of his life- as distinguished from the mutilated, maimed and moth-eaten existence that he now has through ignorance of self-knowledge. This creation is a double process: involution with evolution. The Divinity involved in the very nature of the spirit, mind and matter has to be evolved, enlarged and developed, until it completely and fully coincides with the Divine ground, the substratum on which, in sheer ignorance, it now plays its limited and restricted part unmindful of its Godhood.
    The physical self of the soul is endowed with ten instruments: five karam indrias or motor powers, and five Jnana indrias or powers of perception, all of which help the body in its worldly dealings. The mind has been gifted with four facets: mana (mind-stuff), chit (consciousness), buddhi (intellect), and ahankar (ego), all of which operate in the world of senses and help the psyche in thinking and discriminating in the light of reason. Next in the ascending scale comes soul, the great rider in the vehicle of the mind-driven body. Its instrument of action is surat (self-consciousness or attention born of the great consciousness ). This attention, if properly helped and guided, brings about singleness of purpose and fixity in aim; it collects and gathers up the wandering faculties of the mind from the sense as identified with objects and immersed in
their enjoyment.
    While the body works, the mind discriminates and the psyche craves happiness. Should the three component parts, body, mind and attention (soul), be brought into harmony at one common center, the life on earth of the poor, limited and bound psyche, becomes a real blessing, eternal and everlasting, possessing all the attributes of the supramental consciousness: namely, Sat-Chit-Anand (existence, consciousness and bliss).
    A person who devotes his attention to the body-building process grows in physical strength with muscles fully developed and well knit; he is looked upon as an embodiment of radiant health, and is admired by hundreds of people who see him. A person who devotes his attention to the development of his mental powers acquires a keen and sharp intellect, grows into an intellectual giant and inspires thousands of persons by his powerful speeches and writings. Again, one who takes to the development of the self or spirit in him, becomes divine and in course of time becomes a God-man and Godhood shines in him through and through. He sheds heavenly lustre among great gatherings and audiences that come into his fold and as a tower of spirituality he serves as a beacon light to all and sundry in the stormy sea of life. This is the yoga of hand, heart and head combined into one, and makes a person an integrated whole, perfect as the Father in Heaven is. All this and still more comes to him by communion with and practice of the Word (the Music of the Soul or Song of the Pranva), which reverberates ceaselessly in and around him. This is the true religion, a religion of the living spirit (Truth), the "open religion" of Bergson. There is, in fact, no religion higher than this, giving life and light alike to one and all, and making man thrice blessed -- blessed in body, mind and soul -- fit to be worshipped and adored not only by his fellow beings but even by the angels, as ordained by God, when He makes man after His own image.
    This human body is a veritable temple of God, wherein the spirit or the soul can be attuned to listen to the Divine Music within. It can be made to witness and enjoy the Divine Light, and enabled to get Divine revelations like the prophets of old. When once it experiences the Supreme Bliss, all attachments of the world fall off by themselves, lose their glamour and charm. The psyche, freed from oblivion, blossoms forth into a new life-the life of the spirit as distinguished from the life of the senses. This is spirituality, this is the true religion, into the mysteries of which only a Saint or a Master-soul initiates a true seeker and aspirant by unlocking the door leading to the Kingdom of God, which is right within us. About this door Christ says: "Knock and it shall be opened unto thee."
 
 

RELIGION: OUTER AND INNER

    While physical sciences deal with and impart knowledge of the physical, sensate world, ethical codes of conduct are concerned with an individual as a member of society, and these codes lay down rules of social relationship between the two. Spirituality, or science of the spirit, tells us about the soul's evolution or unfoldment (a process of liberating it from the various sheaths or coverings in which it is clothed): its identical nature with God, and how it can be linked with the Divine Reality, its very Source and Fountainhead, and achieve its Godhood and be blessed forever.
    The science of the Masters is an experimental science and, like any physical science, is capable of yielding results with mathematical accuracy. These results can very well be verified from the transformations that one can witness in the life of a man of sadhan (or one who practices spiritual discipline). It does not mean book-learning or accumulation of knowledge, but it means the coming into its own of the spirit, and its taking a new birth in cosmic awareness and rising into supramental or Super Consciousness. This realisation brings with it a blessed calmness and thereafter the immanence of God is always felt and the actual working of the Divine Will becomes manifest. Reason and intellect fail to comprehend the infinite Reality. Even after realisation, words but beggar one's attempt to describe the indescribable. This experimentation in Godhood can only be attempted and achieved in utter silence and stillness, both of the mind and the intellect, when like a revelation, His Light and Sound dawn upon the soul.
    The knowledge of the world is far different from that of God. We are wholly engrossed in Apravidya and are totally ignorant of Paravidya (or knowledge of the Beyond). We make all possible efforts to rid ourselves of physical ailments, but have never even thought of the subtle maladies that afflict the inner self, or how low we are in the scale of human values, and how helplessly we drift along the current of life whether we wish it or not. We spend our entire life-span in eating, drinking and dozing, but care not a bit to know the substratum of the very life itself. Ever engaged as we are in the objective world, we cannot introvert and witness the glories of the world within.
    A person who for seeing depends on his outer eyes, for hearing, on his ears, for talking, on his tongue, is in reality, not a living person but a dead one, a breathing bellows with no life in it. As God abides within, we must peep inside if we want to meet Him, to experience Him, and to have His blessings. God pervades everything in the form of Naam or Shabd, but we cannot hear His voice unless we turn away from the turmoil of the world and enter into the deep inner silence of the soul. As we go in and recede, we walk without feet, work without hands, see without eyes and hear without ears. Guru Nanak therefore said in this context: "There one sees, hears, walks, works and talks without outer physical organs, viz., eyes, ears, legs, hands and tongue, provided he learns to die while living. O Nanak, know His Will and meet the Beloved." (Majh War M.2). Gosain Tulsi Das in the Bal Kand of the Ramayana also affirmed the same thing.
    To know God, one must first know himself. Self-knowledge is possible only with inversion, or turning the attention from outer pursuits and directing it within into the deep silence of the mind- technically called the Divine Ground, behind the center of the two eyebrows. It is then only that the spirit experiences Naam, the Over-spirit, or God-in-action, which is the summum bonum of all religious quests after the Great Unknown. Buddha asserts that it is possible to ascend to the greatest heights of Godhood only within ourselves. Schopenhauer, a great German philosopher, declared that the fountainhead of all peace and blessed calm can be experienced within oneself. Christ emphatically declared: "The kingdom of God is within you." In the Sikh Scriptures it is stated: "The precious waters of Immortality surge within one's very soul."
    One can undertake this inward journey without leaving one's hearth and home, forsaking kith and kin, or abandoning one's calling and avocation in life. This grand pilgrimage of the soul can be performed in spite of worldly pursuits. All that is necessary is to get instruction from some living Master who holds the key to the Kingdom of God.

    "O Nanak! follow strictly the injunctions of a perfect Master of putting you on the right Path, You shall then gain salvation happily while living the life of a householder in the midst of your family and friends" -- Gujri War M 5
    One need not leave the world and retire into the deep recesses of the forests to achieve this goal. The entire mystery can be resolved in the solitude of the mind.
"There is no greater sanctuary than that of one's soul." -- Basant Ramanamd M.5
    An aspirant can, by practice, still the mind, even in the midst of the hustle and bustle of life, and can, at will, retire into the silent chamber of the Divine Ground. Unless the mind is stilled, an abode in a forest or by the side of a stream cannot be of any avail.
    Every religion has two aspects or divisions: one is social and the other is spiritual. The social side consists in making ethical rules of conduct, which aim at rectifying social evils, developing society on healthy lines, observing certain rites and rituals and performing charitable deeds. By such means, one may best prepare the ground for higher spiritual life. The spiritual aspect of religions deals solely and primarily with the spirit, an investigation into its nature, its relation with body and mind, the way it can be detached from both these appendages, and how it can be linked up with Naam or Word, leading to realisation of and identification with the Great Ocean of Consciousness.
    Man is no doubt a social being, but society can rest safely only on the bedrock of spirituality. Just as spirit enlivens the human body, so does spirituality give life and sustenance to society, without which all types of social evils, such as narrow-mindedness, petty prejudices, selfish aggrandisement, clash and conflict, gradually creep into its very vitals and make it enervated, gangrenous and septic.
    In these days there is no dearth of social reform, but what we woefully lack is self-reform. Society has no doubt made a tremendous advance in the realms of science and art, politics and philosophy, and has not only unraveled the mysteries of Nature but has actually harnessed most of the forces of Nature and pressed them into its service in various ways. All this, however, has been achieved at a great cost and a mighty sacrifice- sacrifice of one's own spirit or soul. The natural result, therefore, is that with all this material advancement and multiplicity of material comforts, we are as far removed from happiness as we were before. "What is a man profited, If he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" (Matt. 16:26).
    Man must, in the fitness of things, first know himself and have the experience of the Reality. Once this is achieved, it matters not whether a person remains a householder or renounces the world and becomes an anchorite. The path of the Masters is purely spiritual. The Masters, of course, have to remain in one or the other of the social orders, but their only mission is to bring home the ultimate truth to embodied souls, who are steeped in darkness. This they do by means of the Surat Shabd Yoga.
    The Masters enjoin all to join the army of God, and take the various social religions as the recruiting centres therefor. They, therefore, continue to stand aloof from social squabbles, racial wrangles and religious recriminations. They do not come to destroy the existing religious orders or to raise new orders, but to purify and elevate the existing ones, restore them to their original pristine glory in which they were set up by their founders. They try to remove the mass of useless accretions that gather around them through the ages, and pull them out of the morass into which they sink, and also strengthen them by transfusion of the blood of spirituality into their decaying veins.
    At the core of all religions there is the age-old Truth and the tradition of Spirituality, both of which have, by lapse of time, almost been lost. Religion is now nothing but an outer husk of rites and rituals. But the Masters actually experience the same Reality which is described in the sacred scriptures by the rishis and munis who came in the past. As such, their teachings are not based on any sacred scriptures nor are they held fast and tight in the rigours of religiosity. They are concerned with Paravidya alone (the science of the spirit which is beyond the realm of thought, reason and intellect). This knowledge, experience and realisation can neither be learnt nor taught but may be caught, like any other infection, from a person infected with it.
    Men enter the Path by coming into contact with Mastersouls, listening to their words of wisdom, attending their discourses and following their teachings both in letter and spirit. In this way the Masters attract, magnetize and make divine the spirit, thereby removing all vacillations of the mind and rendering it immune forever from the onslaughts of matter and the material world. The spirit, thus freed from all the shackles that bind her to the material plane, is enabled to take up unfettered flights to higher regions that lie beyond the human ken. Such travels are a matter of experience by the soul alone, apart from mind and intellect. These outgoing faculties remain helpless, far down in the abyss below, with nothing to sustain and enliven them so long as the spirit is absorbed in higher spiritual experiences.
    The spiritual teachings of all Masters in all ages and in all countries are one and the same, though described in the different words and languages prevailing at a particular time in a particular country. They come with the message of spirituality, and their sole object is to spiritualise human beings by linking them in the process of spiritual evolution and unfoldment. Their teachings are therefore termed Ilm-i-Seena or Ilm-i-Laduni (knowledge of the inner man or soul, the knowledge of Reality), which is the inner experience of the soul without any outer aids. It is the very core of all knowledge, and by it everything else becomes known. It is the most natural science, and like other natural, gifts - light, air and water - costs nothing. It is the common heritage of the entire humanity and can be claimed as such, by one and all alike, without any obligation, from any Master-soul. Saints are the children of Light and they come to diffuse Light into the universe.
"I am the Light of the world, and he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness
  but shall have the Light of Life." - John 8:12
 
SCIENCE AND RELIGION

     Scientists think that religion is just a bundle of superstitious beliefs, and that a person without religion can be as contented, peaceful and happy as one with religion. Atheists, or those who do not believe in God, assert that religion is the opiate of the people. Religious people, on the other hand, maintain that science has, by the invention of deadly and diabolical instruments of destruction and devastation, sown in the world dragons' teeth of discord, discontent and disruption. Scientists admit that a person is a complex of body and mind, and if one were to take care of the mind, the spirit, if any, would take care of itself. They are skeptical, both of spirit and of God.
     For the Master-Souls, spirit alone is the real entity, but it is entangled in the prison-house of body and mind. Their mission is to liberate the spirit from the various sheaths in which it is enshrouded and to link it up with the Word, or God-in-action (Holy Ghost), about which they have personal experiences. This evolution of the spirit is real salvation, but very few understand the true significance of it. Some feel that it consists just in petrifaction, while others think that it amounts to nihilism or atheism, i.e., denial of all existence and rejection of all moral and religious beliefs. But each of these conceptions is far from the truth. In fact, mind stands as a connecting link between body and bodily relations, and this linking up is bondage; while breaking asunder of this relationship is called salvation. The primary step in this direction is Gurbhakti, or devotion to a living Master, and the next, is practice of Naam or Word, which ultimately leads to Sach Khand or Muqam-i-Haq (the abode of Truth). "O Hafiz! the Paradise or Heaven is our birthright and a heritage."
     If one were to consider deeply and earnestly the advantages and limitations of both science and religion, one would find a close connection between the two. Environments exert a two-fold influence on all living objects, external as well as internal, both of which are universal in character. Man is endowed with intellect, reason and discrimination (which thee rest of the creation lacks), by which he is able to control his environment. A person remains happy so long as there is harmony between his internal and external relations. If things shape themselves as one wishes, one feels contented and happy. Experience shows that this state of harmony between the ever-wishful man and his environment is not static and does not last long. On the contrary, both of these are ever-changing.
     It has ever been the endeavour of man to find a way that may assure a state of perfect and unchangeable harmony between himself and his environment. One way is to control the conditions without to an extent that may satisfy the needs of a person, whatever these may be. The other way is to regulate one's inner urges and inborn instincts in such a Way as to develop an utter indifference to the ever shifting environment without, so that one does not react to the influx of changing conditions in which all things are. The former effort is scientific in nature, while the latter is purely religious.
     The realm of science extends from electrons to the stars. It embraces in its fold all objects of the world that can influence human feelings and emotions; in fact everything that is capable of being, comprehended by the senses. The inner world, on the other hand, is entirely different and unique in character. Our motor and sensory organs, which work so admirably in the material world, cannot invert easily and take stock of the mental world within. This inner, world is full of immense possibilities and untold treasures of spirituality, all of which lie within one's reach and grasp, if one could but know how to enter into one's own self.
     Again, there are the relative values and measures of quantity in material objects. For instance, two halves of a loaf of bread go to make one whole loaf, but two half-wits cannot make one wise man. Further, we have instruments and implements that help us in material investigations, and the conclusions arrived at in the course of our experiments are verifiable in actual practice. These are some of the facts that contribute to the importance of scientific truths. Every day scientific experiments are being performed, and will continue to be performed indefinitely. What is true today may not be so tomorrow. But that is not the case with religion. Truth is Truth, ever the same, and shall be Truth always. It guarantees perpetual happiness and everlasting bliss by regulating the inborn instincts and the native urges of the mind, rendering it unmindful of the changing conditions without.
      The path of religion is strewn with many impediments. All persons, including saints, are mortal, and after they leave the physical plane, their followers, in their blind enthusiasm, introduce and interpolate into their teachings things which they never uttered or, at least, they never meant. So-called philosophical treatises are so full of distortions and apparent conflict with each other that one feels as though lost in a wilderness.
      In order that one may reach the spiritual heights of a Master-soul, one must, according to his instructions, enter into the laboratory of one's own body and carry on the experiments therein. Again, the results achieved may differ from one individual to another, owing to the separate make-up and background in each case. The conclusions thus reached and the time taken in each are therefore, of a purely personal nature and not of a universal kind, as in science. It is because of this that we cannot possibly have an experience of spiritual life, from the different types of worship conducted in temples and mosques, churches and synagogues, or from the sacred scriptures of various religions. A living Master, who has successfully transcended the body and the mind, and who has an actual experience of the naked Reality beyond all limitations and barriers, can tell us something solid of the Great Truth. By personal guidance and instruction, He can help in the withdrawal of the spirit from the physical and mental shackles and bring within one's actual experience that which He has experienced.
       What a man has done, a man can do, with, of course,  proper guidance and help. The Master's personal contact, His thought transference, His charged words and magnetized personality, all go a long way in the transformation of individual souls. Whoever comes and remains within the personal aura of a Master, is electrified and attuned to the Infinite Energy with which He is possessed and which He emits, transmits and injects into the aspirants. This benefit can also be had even from thousands of miles, if one develops receptivity with such a Master.
     Life-impulse comes from life, and light from light, both in the physical and spiritual worlds alike. The technique of religion, too, is subject to certain fundamental laws, the same as is the technique of science, but with this difference only, that we are as yet unaware of the former, as we have paid but scant attention to it and cannot therefore harness it to our advantage. Purity of life and highly ethical conduct in thoughts, words and deeds is the prerequisite for a sadhu or an aspirant for the spiritual path. Mind has to be stilled, after freeing it from all kinds of outer disturbances, inner lures and urges, and environmental glamour or worries. Just as in the case of a scientific experiment, one has to enter a laboratory and see that all the instruments are thoroughly neat and clean, and properly sterilized. And again, before beginning the operation, all the doors and windows are closed, so that he may carry on his work undisturbed from outer influences, and with undivided attention.
     It is a matter of common experience that people take pride in scrupulously following age-old customs and keeping up ancient traditions blindly, little knowing that out-of-date coins, however precious and of historical importance and archeological interest they may be, have to be melted in the red-hot furnace, minted afresh, before passing them as current coins for fresh circulation in the market. In the twentieth century, it is of paramount importance to prune off the unnecessary accretions that have, in course of time, gathered around the eternal spiritual truths. We should free them from the encrusted dust of ages that has settled on them, and present them afresh to the public in a positive and readily acceptable form as current coins of the time.
      The present-day prejudices, internecine jealousies and narrow-minded bigotries that we see in the various religious bodies, were never intended by their founders. Such evils are purely of a later growth, due to extraneous influences of the zealous exponents, fierce commentators and controversialists, who twist and torture simple fundamental truths to suit their own ends and gain cheap peshwarship (leadership) that may bring them name, fame, pelf and power. The ancient wine of spirituality has, therefore, to be delved out from the old forgotten cellars and presented to tipplers in new bottles that may appeal to their imagination, so that they take it readily and willingly to quench their spiritual thirst, without any labels or brands.
 
 

IDOL-WORSHIP AND GOD-WORSHIP

    Man is a compound of body and soul. To the extent that a person has a material body, he is governed by the laws of matter (e.g., gravity, cohesion, impermeability, conductivity, etc.); and to the extent that he is an animal being he is governed by organic laws (e.g., nutrition, growth, development, self-propagation, etc.). Again, he is a conscious entity or a sentient being and, as such, the laws of consciousness (e.g., producing a sense of hunger, thirst, discomfort and self development) are also applicable to him, and he works for a happy, carefree and comfortable living. So long as a person is attached to material things and material comforts, he is subject to suffering and pain; but when he submits himself to the organic laws of the soul, he becomes blessed and happy. Kabir Sahib, there, says: "The embodied soul is never restful and blessed. For man, wheresoever he may be, there is ever discomfort and distress." Lord Buddha also declared that the physical life is all misery. Nanak saw the entire world writhing invisible flames.
    Idolatry consists in paying all attention to the nourishment and ornamentation of the physical body; but beautifying the soul and linking it with God is God-worship indeed. Woe be to us who are utterly ignorant of the living spirit in the body and how it can be decked, dressed and embellished. The physical body is the veritable home, and spirit is the indweller therein. In the fitness of things, one must first unearth the spirit and purify it, before cleansing the body. What does it profit a person to sweep the house, keep it neat and clean and embellish it with all sorts of decorations, only to keep the indweller, or the soul, famine-stricken?
    Having forgotten our innate nature of God-hood, we have completely identified our self with the body, and always think, speak and act in terms of the body and bodily conditions and relations. When the very existence of the body depends on the spirit (or the life spark) in it, we must take care of the latter, think of It, and give It timely food to keep It healthy and strong, for on Its health and strength depend the glory and dignity of the body. The ever-changing body, which is subject to decay and death, may be looked after, just to keep it fit and going, as with any other vehicle of self-expression. But it should not be pampered and doted upon, so as to lose all thought of the self-enlivening life-flame in the body, the motor force that quickens the inert matter with life. Without that power it has no value at all and is considered fit to be consigned either to the flames or to the graveyard.
    We must not forget that we are in reality sparks of Godhood, quite distinct from the material house in which we sojourn for the time being. It behooves us all to learn all about this Life Impulse surging through the entire creation, the Fountainhead or the Source of this life stream, and how we can reach the same and attain eternal peace and happiness, which is our heritage and our birthright. The great lesson of life can only be learnt from a Master-soul. Its alpha and beta begin with the voluntary withdrawal of the sensory current in the body, until a state of detachment is achieved by concentration at the seat of the soul; behind the center of the two eyebrows, called eye-focus or TiI. All this can be done only through the Grace of some perfect living Master-an adept, not only in the theory but also in the practice of the Science of Soul, who is capable of bringing the soul above the body consciousness and making others share His own experiences.

"Some Godly person may link us with God." -Jaitsari M,5
    When once the spirit is linked with divinity and engrafted in God, it gradually takes roots in its Native Soil, acquires and develops its natural attributes from the Divine Ground on which it grows and thrives from day to day. This is called by all the sages in the East and the West, taking a second birth, or being born anew, as Christ puts it. The incorruptible seeds of this spiritual birth are sown by some God-man when we live up to him and scrupulously follow his instructions, which in technical parlance is called Satsang, or company with Sat, the great Unchangeable Permanence in the midst of ever changing panorama of life and the kaleidoscopic universe in which we live.
     Handsome is the body in which the soul is attuned with God. All beauty, including the physical beauty, depends on the beauty of the spirit, which in turn rests on Union with the Divine Beauty.
 "Blessed is the body in which the spirit dwells in union with her divine current;
  The true Beloved grants her eternal life, and one always lives in communion
      with the Master's Word." --Suhi M.3
Again:
"A Master's devotee delves deep into the body and regards all else
   as a mere delusion;
 He alone finds the crest jewel who has been so ordained, for cleverness
   is of no avail,
 Blessed is the body that engages in the service of the Master,
   the True One having made it,
 Without communion with Word, there is no freedom from the wiles of Kal,
 O Nanak! he glorifies the Word, on whom God showers His mercy and grace."
   - Suhi M.3
    Once a spirit becomes aware of its native Godhood, and is dyed in the Divine colour, it becomes freed from the bondage of the world and forever escapes from the cycle of births and deaths. But all this comes not from learning, knowledge or cunning devices, but only from the grace of some Master-soul or God-man, who is competent to give an ingress into the Beyond by practical self-analysis.


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