Mental Serenity through Athma Vichara – The Soul Search

Life on this planet is fraught with many difficulties.  Amidst all that turbulence, bringing about mental serenity is not easy.  People take recourse to religious and meditative approaches to overcome the difficulties and find peace. These things can surely help but cannot go very far.

The reason why religious practices can help only to a limited extent is that, even though the person is well meaning, his ego takes over at some point to use the religion to the ego's own end and so the causes for mental disturbance are sustained.  That is how a person gets very disturbed, even after many years of practicing the religion, when his or her religion is criticized.  If the ego is not involved, there can be no disturbance.  As long as the ego is in charge, there can be no stability to the mental serenity brought about by the practices.  Self-deception in the form of chasing a shadow becomes inevitable.

So, the question is: Can anything help at all towards bringing about inner serenity without overtly or covertly feeding the ego in the process?  This is an interesting challenge for those who understand the limitations of conventional  religious and meditative practices.  So, they move into an investigative process that can be called Athma Vichara or Soul Search.  Such an approach begins an inward journey of understanding how the mind brings about its own trap – the prison it builds around itself that keeps the ego intact.  Obviously, understanding the prison is necessary before a movement towards freedom can take place.  

 As of now, only a small percentage of human beings recognizes this matter of inner evolution as a precursor to stable mental peace.  Even though of a small minority, those human beings are already aiding the process of planetary transformation towards collective harmony and wholesome life on this planet.  If you feel drawn to this matter, you will also be able, in your own unique way, to bring about mental serenity for you and your family.  In the process, you will augment the planetary transformation.  You may contact me at gopal.tc@gmail.com for mutual discussions.  Please visit the site http://spirituality.yolasite.com for additional information.

The Test on Spiritual Transformation

Many people who have sworn allegiance to some religious system talk of religion and spirituality as though they are the same thing.  It would be a pity if it were to be so because, while religions are sectarian in practice, true spirituality is universal.  It cannot be the monopoly of any group nor can it have anything to do with events in history because it is beyond time.  Unfortunately, the religious people want to wrap up spirituality into their fold not knowing that sectarian religious practices are essentially a matter of conditioned response while spirituality is beyond all that.  It is rather obvious that sectarian religions and spirituality are mutually exclusive.

Sectarian approaches are inevitably tied up with beliefs and system-oriented practices.  Except in the cases of philosophically oriented religions, the system expects rigid conformity and no questioning is allowed.  If somebody were to point out any inconsistency in the system, he or she will be ostracized from that community.  Emotional attachment to the system is expected. For that very reason, creating enemies of the other groups becomes inevitable.  Can all these be ever part of a true spirituality which can move us towards the Truth? 

The spiritually oriented person understands the corruption that thought plays in one's attempt to find shelter in a system which promises grandiose things through conformity.  He or she moves away from looking for a psychologically comforting system and applies oneself to understanding the hidden harmony behind the apparent chaos.  That is what moves them towards sensing Truth, Divinity or what one may call the Ultimate.  Beliefs and disbelief do not attract them because they see the meaning behind the adage "One believes what one wants to believe."           

Sectarian religious practices do not bring about any transformation in the psychology of the adherents.  Practicing the religion for 30 or 40 years only increases their dependence on and expectation from God, so the 'I' remains intact.  If their religion is criticized, they would feel hurt and may even react violently to the criticism, indicating that the practice has only served to intensify their ego.  If such practices are truly spiritual, the opposite would be the case.  These are elementary facts, but millions upon millions of people do not want to acknowledge those facts, because they fall a prey to the two essential demands of the ego: satisfaction and security.  The sectarian religious practices provide them.  The adherents would rather be with satisfying illusions than question their own conditioned response and the harm it does to themselves and humanity.             

Inner freedom is possible only for those who are willing to move away from dogmatic religious practices and the egoism they support.  Then, there is the possibility of imbibing pure self-awareness untouched by man-made influences.  There lies the greatness of the pristine spirituality and its transformation.  You may visit the website http://spirituality.yolasite.com