What was present yesterday may not exist today. What we believed yesterday may not be true today. This is a process of progress. This is jagat that moves or changes. Change in the right direction is a way of life and progress. Stagnation or a change in the wrong direction is decaying. Yet we always show resistance to any change. Why?

Spirituality and religion are perhaps the oldest concepts of life. Though most essential, yet they are, unfortunately, the most misunderstood subjects. The situation is further   worsened due to mushroom growth of ‘shops’ of spirituality with plenty of ‘material for meditation’ decorated in them. Religion, spirituality and meditation seem to have become   commodities for a profitable professional business today. A five-star culture seems to have taken deep roots in it.

Look at the number of religious TV channels and multiply them with the number of saints/gurus/swamis” appearing on each of them. Assess the financial potential of each of them. No doubt, quite a few of them are very beneficial. In spite of the use of such a powerful tool of electronic media for imparting information, are these telecasts serving the desired purpose of imparting peace and tranquility to human race? If the answer is NO, does the reason for it not lie in misunderstanding the meaning of spirituality and perhaps, also in the doping of such ventures with business and selfish motives?

Concept of GOD:     

The concept of GOD and spirituality is so simple that it needs no good health, education, investment or even physical space to study and understand it in its totality. Can you think of any other subject of modern education, which can be comprehended so easily and effortlessly? In spite of that, spirituality and religion are perhaps the only streams of learning in which numerous and voluminous books have been written to explain one or the other aspect of it and in various ways. A common man is thus thoroughly lost in the vast jungle of literature written on the subject.

The simplicity of this concept can be gauged from a simple fact that after meeting the basic need of food for the sustenance of body, the next thing that a man, present any where on the earth, looked around was to realize that there must be some invisible supreme power somewhere, which seemed to run the entire universe so systematically and harmoniously. That is why today, almost all religions, irrespective of the place of their origin in the world, do realize that ONE (and only ONE) Supreme Power exists. We call this Supreme Entity as GOD and by other various names

 NAMES & FORMS OF GOD

Although the existence of ONE GOD was realized by man but the exact nature of HIM was not understood. The exact perception and conceptualized form of HIM also differed from place to place and person to person. The unknown Supreme Entity, GOD was, therefore, associated with different names and forms by local habitants of different geographical locations, depending upon their own socio-economic environments and levels of their power of comprehension.

A most commonly accepted view is that GOD does not have any definite name or form. HE is an omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient unified energy field. HE is both cause and effect in HIMSELF.

DIVINE NORMS

With the advancement of human race a strong feeling for the need of mutual interaction and to frame rules for such interaction was realized. The wiser people (sages) of that time formulated certain norms for harmonious co-existence of the society. With good intentions and in order to achieve easy and faster acceptability among the masses, the sages attributed the origin of their norms to have flown directly or indirectly from the already accepted particular form of the Supreme Entity i.e. GOD. This effective modus operandi seems to have been adopted by almost all the sages and religious preceptors.  

The norms so formulated for harmonized living by the wiser people of yesteryears of all the religions are basically similar but some differences also do exist. This is so because of individual human intervention as stated above. Had all such norms and forms of GOD been revealed by ONE (and the ONLY ONE), i.e. HE HIMSELF, there would have been almost no differences in their conceptual perceptions as enumerated by each and every religion.

CREATION OF GOD

There are many schools of thoughts on the creation of the universe. These are basically dualistic/non-dualistic philosophies based on the views expressed by great thinkers like Madhvacharya, Ramanujacharya, and Shankracharya. Some of them are summarized as follows: -

(a)        The universe is unreal and is merely HIS dream.

(b)        The universe is merely an illusion over the real substratum, like illusion of snake over rope (Shankaracharya)

(c)        The universe is HIS DIVINE play.

(d)       GOD only existed. HE created Jiva (individual souls) and jagat (the universe) by HIS own supernatural powers. Jiva and jagat are independent of GOD (Vaishnava)                   

(e)        GOD and the universe (individual souls and maya) are two separate entities but the universe is dependent upon and is controlled by GOD      (Madhvacharya)

(f)     Jiva and jagat are manifestations of GOD HIMSELF into different forms and, therefore, actual transformation has taken place, like conversion of mud into mud-pot or of energy into matter. They ultimately merge back into the Source they have sprung from (Ramanujacharya)

(g)     The universe is an integral dependent part of GOD but appears different,                        just like hair are an integral part of the body.                 

(h)        Jiva (individual soul) is a tiny part of, and therefore, has proportionate properties similar to those of the WHOLE (Paramatma).

 (i)        GOD (Paramatma), jiva (individual soul) and the universe (Maya) are independently ever- exiting entities.

These thoughts were projected by different holy sages/rishis/gurus/prophets, in good faith, from time to time as perceived by them. They had their own reasonably convincing logics behind their perceptions. Efforts have been made, again with noble intentions, to reconcile the apparent major/minor differences and generate an impression that all these perceptions ultimately lead to one and the same Reality. But differences in perceptions do exist. We, therefore, truly speaking, do not know with certainty the absolute reality.

A bigger reality is that we actually are incapable of deciphering the details of the nature of GOD and HIS creation due to the limitations of instruments of knowledge available to us. Any creation can never surpass or know all about its Creator. Therefore, we should have no hesitation to accept that we can never comprehend, with certainty, either GOD or His creation in totality. At best we can only realize HIS EXISTANCE and have a feel of the extent of His Powers.

We are just a small part of the WHOLE, designed to perform a certain role and to work within limited parameters depending upon the physical body associated with us to work through.

SPIRITUALITY

A question may arise here: If we do not clearly know GOD or the purpose of HIS creation, what are we suppose to do? There is no confusion. One thing is certain that GOD exists. If that faith is firm then we need not bother much about the precise purpose for which HE created this universe. We should sincerely perform our sattvic actions as directed by HIM from time to time. For a simple prudent mind, it is not difficult to differentiate between proper (sattvic) and improper actions. This will bring PEACE, a long cherished desire of all human beings, and which was also the ultimate earnest aim of all sages.

PURPOSE OF CREATION

There are many views regarding the purpose of Creation. But there can be no difference of opinion that, if GOD is at the helm of the affairs of Creation and its management, then in spite of the working of any number of negative powers (like ‘maya’), it is the Will of GOD that should prevail and decide the net direction in which the universe should change or progress.

Let us have a look at some salient features of the ancient past and compare them with their corresponding present status. If we examine our progress in the fields of morality and spirituality, the topic may become debatable. But certainly nobody can claim any betterment in these aspects. In the case of materialistic progress, can any one deny that there has been tremendous advancement in this field? Can such changes take place against HIS wish or desire? If that is HIS WISH, why should we shy off to work towards material progress i.e. from performing our worldly duties as per directions received from HIM from time to time. While performing such duties, HE should always be kept in mind and the principles of spirituality should clearly be reflected in our actions? We have not come into existence just to do japa/puja or to gather knowledge

FIVE ‘EVILS’

 The five evils i.e. ‘kama’ (desire), ‘krodha’ (anger), ‘lobh’ (greed), ‘moha’ (attachment) and ‘ahankar’ (pride) are parts of our daily life. They are also closely associated with our spiritual progress. Generally it is believed that they are to be curbed or annihilated because they are regarded to be the retarding forces to our spiritual progress. 

We have been gifted this body so that HE can express HIMSELF through it and also that Atman can exhaust its accumulated tendencies. All the five ‘evils’ have very wide connotations. But even in their limited meanings, without ‘kama’, can you think of procreation and acquiring a physical body? If ‘kama’ is absent in totality, then the entire present process of creation ceases. The whole world of animate, inanimate world and perhaps of vegetation would collapse. Consequently, the process of expression of GOD through the universe comes to a stand-still. Should we go against HIS will? 

After the creation of physical bodies, ‘lobh’ is the motivating force to initiate further ventures. ‘Krodha’ is one of the basic tools to correct elementary wrongs in a social set-up. ‘Moha’ is required to generate a sense of cohesiveness through attachment. Pride in positive sense is desirable to feel a sense of achievement. It provides impetus and motivation for further actions in order to make the world moving (jagat).

All the five so-called ‘evils’ are GOD-gifted tools to us for specific purposes in furtherance of His desires. None of them is without a useful purpose. Each one of them is required to be used intelligently in varying degree at various stages of our life. The problem lies only in improper use of them. A balanced use of any one of them for ‘sattvic’ purposes is not against spirituality. They are not vices but are GOD-gifted to be used wisely. Any attempt to annihilate them will go against the WILL of GOD.

Conclusion

Spirituality is not merely a practice of age old rituals or ‘asanas’. It is neither an emotion nor a drug-induced experience. It is also not the running away from our duties in the world. Performing our worldly duties with equanimity and as per HIS desires is what is required. The motto of the spiritual world is, ‘To live and let live’ whereas that of the material world is ‘To kill or get killed’.

(The author is a retired Indian Air Force Officer with an engineering background. Has held important posts in the private sector, too. Deeply spiritual, he has keen interest in social activities)