TO THE HONEST SEEKER The term ‘spirituality ‘ is hard to define. The
scope and extent of the subject is so vast and varied in its many aspects that
it can hardly be put into so many words. Suffice it to say that it deals with
the immutable and eternal facts of life-the active principles that are
enlivening the entire creation. The quest for the ‘Spirit’ and for the ‘Laws of
Spirituality’ has ever been in the human breast from the dawn of consciousness
in man; yet with all its hoary antiquity, the subject retains its freshness as
ever before and shall continue to do so. The Spirit or Soul is the vital flame
in man, in the light and life of which he lives and has his being, and no
wonder that in every clime and in every age, the leaders of spiritual thought-
the sages and seers, the saints and sadhus-have attempted to solve the mystery
of life. The subject of Spirituality is concerned purely
with problems connected with the Spirit or Soul-to wit, its origin or source,
what it is, its seat in the body and its relation thereto, how it functions in
the physical world; whether it is possible to separate it all will from the
body and bodily adjuncts, the mind and the senses, and if so, the various
processes connected there with. It deals with the spiritual journey through
different spiritual planes and the spirit’s capability of traversing the same,
the ultimate goal or destination to which this journey leads, and other allied
topics, such as the welfare of the spirit, how to feed it and with what, for on
its health depends the health of the body, These are some of the vital question
that fall within the purview of our inquiry. God is in the soul and the soul is in
God, as the see is in the
fish and the fish is in the
sea, -St.Catherine- Spirituality is more a practical science than a
mere the critical dissertation. The various scriptures of the different
religions of the world provide us with the theoretical aspect only and cannot
give us a demonstrative experience of the Reality in the laboratory of the human
body. Writings like the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Avestu of the Zoroastrians, the Tripatakas
of the Buddhists, the Gospels,
the Quran, the Adi Granth, Triratans of the Jains, and other canonical literature
and extra-canonical works, with their commentaries, etc., medieval and modern
(the Mahabhasyas, the Angas and Upangas, etc), all might point the Way but have no power to take us
there. Their chief merit lies in the spadework they do in creating an interest
in the aspirants for Paravidya or the knowledge of the Beyond. But the
Transcendental Experience can be gained only from a Living Master, a Murshid-I-Kamil, well versed and
competent in the practical aspects of Spirituality. Life and Light can come
only from the Living-impulse of a Master Saint, whose glance of grace is more
than enough to quicken higher life in the disciple. The greatest teachers of humanity make use, according to the individual needs of the disciple, of all three methods: (i) Anva or gross, that is, imparting spiritual instructions by word of mouth; (ii) Shakta or subtle, that is, instilling higher spiritual consciousness in the disciple without his having to go through the external, that is, raising the disciple, in infinite mercy, to the highest stage of Realization without his having to do anything at all. As an unerring guide on the inner spiritual Path, he appears in his Radiant Form [Guru Dev] and accompanies the spirit when it transcends the body consciousness while living or at the time of death, and as a veritable Master of Truth [Satguru] he works out the Divine Plan. The need for such a Master soul who can at once work on the various lanes, as Guru, Guru-Dev and Satguru, cannot be over-emphasized. In a nutshell ‘Spirituality’ contents itself only with ‘Self Realization’ and ‘God-Realization’. It has, therefore, nothing to do with institutionalized religions or religiosity, the out-ward show of religion that we mostly make nowadays. Spirituality may be distinguished from sectarianism. While most of the great religions of the world tend to become more and more sectarian in their outlook, Spirituality ever remains universal, with its appeal to people of all religions who can come to and join this Stadium Generale or Universal Mystery School for practical training. As opposed to the sealed or codified religions, Spirituality is an open book of God, with the living touch of the Masters who present it from age to age in the spirit of the age. In this scientific age, it is presented as any other science, with mathematical precision and results verifiable on scientific lines. The term ‘Spirituality’ is not to be confused with: [i] Spiritism, or belief in the existence of spirits apart from matter, which, when disembodied, haunt the nether regions as ghosts, or the lower planes of the astral regions as angler. [ii] Spiritualism, or belief in the survival of the human personality and in communication between the living and those who have ‘passed on’, in the form of spirit rapping, planchette writing, etc. [iii] Mesmerism, or producing a state of trance by the consciously exerted ‘animal magnetism’ of the operator so as to subordinate the will power of his subject. [iv] Hypnotism, which produces a kind of deep sleep in which the consciousness is suspended and the patient is made susceptible to the suggestions of the hypnotist. Spirituality, on the contrary, is the science of developing Higher Consciousness in Man on the level of the soul, and making one transcend from mere body consciousness into Cosmic Consciousness and further on into Super Consciousness, so as to enable one to understand the working of the Divine Plan. With these few words, I would request the seeker after Truth to carefully pursue and study the pages that follow, so as to understand the true significance of the most important and yet mostly neglected subject, the subject of Spirituality. |