’RELIGIO’, THE Latin word for ’religion’ means ‘to bind’. Now, the word can be interpreted in two ways: One, to dedicate one’s life under monastic vows to a particular system of faith and worship; another, a bond that unites all under one common objective. Notice that in the former, it is an individual choice and in the latter, bound collectively by some dictum we call religion. Individual choice is at least some form of freedom. But if you think of it deeply, religion too, then, becomes a form of bondage. No, I am not denigrating religion. All that I am saying is that the true goal of religion should be to make man free. Religion, therefore, should be only a mean to attain spirituality. Religions are man-made, and all that is of the ’spirit’, is god-created. This is a significant difference, and once we understand this, the whole gestalt of mankind undergoes a revolution.
Man has always been agitated with limitations. Limitation is a form of bondage, and, as humans, it is our innate desire to be free. We all want independence – be it an atheist, theist, a thief, a sinner or virtuous – freedom is our ultimate goal. Whether it is religion that provides freedom, or science provides it, does not matter at all. What is freedom, and if it is there somewhere, what is the process to find it?
One thing to be kept in mind is that only the ultimate, call it god, the absolute, the super-soul – call it by whatever name you will - unless it is known, nothing less can give us satiation, because there will always be something left as residual, which will not let us rest in peace. Science has one major limitation - that it never allows us to see beyond our mind, a preconception has to be there; without an objective priori it does not have a beginning, nor can it ever claim ’here ends all search and nothing more is left to know’. Therefore, the only ‘logical’ inference where mind can find rest would be to go beyond – beyond what we can conceive of.
Anything that can be known beyond the human capacity farther than our own eyes can see, or our mind can reach, is possible from a state of no-mind. It may be difficult to digest the idea, and an even more difficult one to prove, because how does one know that this knowing is not, at best, anything more than a mere intuition? All that we call eternal, immortal, immutable and luminous, are to be experienced within, otherwise they remain plain words conveying a hollow image.
Experience is the first teacher we have as proof. One can ask, “How do you perceive if you remove the mind? Perception is our only real knowledge.” While agreeing that ultimately, perception has to come to the knowledge of the senses, but then the senses no longer remain the senses as of the old, they become utterly sensitive, anewed. That is what Jesus means when he says, “Except one be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of heaven.” The agnostics say that they cannot know god, and rightly so, for they have exhausted the limits of their senses and yet get no further knowledge of god. Therefore, the knowledge of the soul, your centre, your god, your religion, is not, and can never be, in the field of intellect. Intellectual reasoning is based on facts evident to the senses, and religion has nothing to do with the senses. Sir William Hamilton has said at the end of a philosophical work, “Here philosophy ends, here religion begins.”
Logic may seem perfectly logical, syllogistic; but it is not existential. Thus there is no difference between theories and atheism. In fact, the atheist is the truer man; he does not believe blindly. He seeks. At least there is a possibility for him to find truth one day. Similarly, we have to see for ourselves. Teachers can only ’bring the food’, we must eat it to be nourished. Argument can never prove god, save as a logical conclusion. It is impossible to find god outside of ourselves.
Each one of us contains an infinite space within, in fact, bigger than the one outside. This vastness equates with eternity. The question is how to become one with it? Concentration of the powers of the mind or the mind studying mind itself, is our only tool to help us experience the eternal. The concentrated mind is like a lamp that illumines all the dark recesses of the mind; all the shadows of falsities drop one after another. In other words, it is coming to realise the self. Once known, a satiation descends where all quests come to a rest. We call it enlightenment or Samadhi, ’the solution’.
Enlightenment is the very opposite of deep sleep. Deep sleep is an unconscious state without body consciousness. Enlightenment is awareness alone, without the body and mind consciousness. The mind, liberated of agitations, becomes limitless, free; no bondages can exist then. Meditation has the effect of first, calming the mind by reducing your thought traffic, until it slowly and gradually reaches you to the fourth dimension called ’Turiya’. Turiya is, as it were, not a state; it is your being, it is the real you, it is your home where rest is possible. The three states are - awake, dream and deep sleep. They are like stations from where you pass; you may stop, get down and take a walk for a while, but stations are not your destination. And when you have arrived, you discard the railway carriage. After all, it was only a means. All religions too, are but just a means to be cast off, once they usher you into the realm of freedom.
In the like manner, all techniques, all tools are to be discarded when you are one with you. With patience, faith, and a firm resolve of the will, and with regular practice will you get this portal to open through accumulating the power in silence and become a dynamo of spirituality. The ‘I’ is ever freed from the clutches of slavery. You become existential. You qualify to dwell in the abode of Brahman.
