THE SPIRITUAL DIMENSION TO LIFE

THE SPIRITUAL DIMENSION TO LIFE

A man who bows down to nothing can never bear the burden of himself. That only
which we have within, can we see without. If we meet no gods, it is because we harbor none.
Thoughts are universally and not individually noted; a truth cannot be created but only
perceived. Any erroneous thought of man is a result of an imperfection, large or small, in his
discernment. The goal of yoga science is to calm the mind, that without distortion it may mirror
the Divine Vision immanent in the universe.
The wise man defeats his planets that is to say his past by transferring his allegiance
from the creation to the creator. Man is a soul and has a body. The soul is ever free; it is
deathless because birth less. It cannot be regimented by stars. But there is a warning to wouldbe seekers of Truth. It is only when a traveler has reached his goal that he is justified in
discarding his maps. During the journey, he takes advantage of any short cut. All human ills
arise from some transgression of universal law. The scriptures point out that man must satisfy
the laws of nature, while not discrediting the divine omnipotence. By a number of means by
prayer, by will power, by yoga meditation, by consultation with saints the adverse effects of
past wrongs can be minimized or nullified. The mystery of life is certainly the most persistent
problem ever placed before the thought of man. The sacred books of Hinduism comprise four
classes of scriptures: The Shruti, the Smriti, the Puranas and the Agamas or Tantras. These
comprehensive treatises cover every aspect of religious and social life, and the fields of music,
medicine, architecture, art etc. the shrutis are the directly heard or revealed scriptures, the
Vedas. The smritis or remembered lore was finally written down in a remote past as the
worlds longest epic poems, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. Puranas are literally ancient
allegories. The Agamas or Tantras literally mean traditions that are sacred or sacred rituals.
These treatises convey profound truths under a veil of detailed symbolism. The puranas are
treasures of mythology, inspiring Indias poets and dramatists.
A human being falsely identifies himself with his physical form because the life
currents from the soul are breath conveyed into the flesh with such intense power that man
mistakes the effect for a cause, and idolatrously imagines the body to have a life of its own
this is the accumulated wisdom of the sage in Hindu yoga science. When the breath-link
between soul and body is severed by evolutionary karma, the abrupt transition called death
ensues when the physical cells revert to their natural powerlessness. The yogi, however, severs
the breath link at will by scientific wisdom and not by the rude intrusion of karmic necessity.
He is a master of life and death; master of mind and body; master of his destiny!
Gross man seldom or never realizes that his body is a kingdom governed by Emperor
Soul on the home of the cranium, with subsidiary regents in the six spinal centres or spheres of
consciousness. This rule extends over a throng of obedient subjects: 27000 billion cells with
seemingly automatic activity; 50 million substratal thoughts, and emotions in mans
consciousness in an average life of sixty years. The obedient human heart pumps annually
650,000 gallons of blood. Identifying himself with a shallow ego, man takes for granted that it
is he who thinks, wills, feels, digests meals and keeps himself alive, never admitting, through
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THE SPIRITUAL DIMENSION TO LIFE

reflection, that he is nothing but a puppet of past actions (Karma), and of nature or environment.
Each mans intellectual reactions, feelings, moods and habits are circumscribed by effects of
past causes whether of this or a prior life. The perception of Truth is often burnt, along with
the incense, in outward sacrificial rites but the yogi uses his internal purifying fires to acquire
eternal illumination.
The yogi, withholding all his mind, will, and feeling from false identification with
bodily desires, uniting his mind with superconscious forces in the spinal shrines, thus lives in
this world as God has planned, impelled neither by impulses from the past nor by new witless
nesses of fresh human motivations. Such a yogi receives fulfilment of his Supreme Desire, safe
in the final haven of inexhaustibly blissful spirit.
Mahasamadhi is a yogis final conscious exit from the body which, in most cases,
remains without decay for long periods of time with the face shining with the divine luster of
incorruptibility. The ignorant man sees only unsurmountable wall of death, hiding, seemingly
forever his cherished friends. But the man of unattachment, he who loves others as expressions
of the Lord understands that at death the dear ones have only returned for the breathing space
of joy in Him. The realized man knows that death comes only to the body that is shed while
the soul continues its journey towards god. Striving, striving, one day behold the Divine goal.
The journey of a thousand miles begins with step realization comes after several lives. But
begin right here and now.
The god of death, yama, is a symbol of Dharma, Law. Death and indeed sleep, the
little death, are a mortal necessity, freeing the unenlightened human being temporarily from
sense trammels. As mans essential nature is spirit, he receives in sleep and in death certain
revivifying reminders of his incorporeity. The universal of karma is that of action and reaction,
cause and effect, sowing and reaping. In the course of natural righteousness, man by his
thoughts and actions becomes the orbits of his destiny. Whatever energies he himself has set
in motion must return to him as their activator. An understanding of karma as the law of justice
underlying lifes inequalities serves to free the human mind from resentment against god and
man.
[Extract from the book Finding Fulfilment Published by London Meikandaar Aadheenam]