A Brief Introduction to spirituality
Spirituality and the purpose of life
"Spirituality is an enquiry into Truth, and its ideal is the knowledge and the realisation of Truth"; so it is written in the Bhagavatam, one of the ancient scriptures of India. This attainment of Truth, the Knowledge that all is one, is the sole purpose of life. To understand why this is so, it is necessary to understand the ultimate nature of both the macrocosm (the universe) and the microcosm (the embodied soul).
The Ultimate Nature of Reality...
...is like a sea of consciousness without limits. In the sea, there is only water, and there is only one water, not two or three or many. We (apparently individual beings) appear as bottles in this sea of consciousness, called Brahman in Sanskrit, but the water inside the bottle and the water outside are still the same. There is only one consciousness, not many. However, through ignorance, we identify ourselves not with Brahman, but with the bottles.
If all is One, why do we see a universe of multitudinous variety?
This is because of the influence of our minds. The goldsmith makes out of gold, rings, bracelets and necklaces. These trinkets are impermanent, as they are formed from gold and will disintegrate into gold. In truth, they are gold. Only gold exists, and the rings, bracelets and necklaces are merely names and forms superimposed by our own minds. We are distracted and confused by the novel forms of the phenomenal universe perceived by the mind and forget that all is ultimately just gold. If we know the nature of gold, we will very quickly understand the nature of all these different trinkets. This gold, Brahman, is Absolute Existence, Ultimate Truth. There is nothing higher that can be known, but it cannot be known by the senses and the mind, as they were designed to perceive the world of names and forms, not Brahman.
Knowledge, Universal Love and ethics
The highest knowledge, that of our true identity as Brahman, is called Knowledge as opposed to knowledge of worldly things like science and how to make money, as it is not merely intellectual, but transformational; it transforms you from an ordinary person into a sage. The practical result of this Knowledge is universal, selfless love for all, as you know that all beings are in truth, your very self. Herein lies the root of all ethics; those actions which are selfless, done with the consciousness of the sea of consciousness, the Supreme Self, are moral; those which are selfish, done with the consciousness of the bottle, the individual self, are immoral.
This Knowledge is not just intellectual speculation, nor is it the sentimentalism of weak, insecure minds; it is Truth, a Truth which has been seen by seers of every true spiritual path in every corner of the world, and which will continue to be seen by seers of countless generations to come.
How does a seer see Truth?
A person could be said to be not just one bottle, but three bottles, one inside the other, in the sea of consciousness. The outer body is the gross physical body. When this body dominates, we are in the waking state. At times, however, it drops off, as it were, so that the subtle body, containing the subtle energy system, the mind and the intellect, dominates, and we are in the state of sleeping with dreams. When the subtle body, too, falls away, the causal body dominates, and we are in the state of dreamless sleep. That is all an ordinary person normally experiences in his life. However, the advanced meditator can make the causal body, too, drop off so that the water in the bottles mixes with the water outside. This state is called samadhi in Sanskrit or looking towards the east in the Judaeo-Christian tradition. The sea of consciousness is all-pervading, and therefore all-knowing, so Knowledge mixes into the water that goes back into the bottle. When you come out of samadhi, this Knowledge constantly manifests within you, thus making you permanently a sage.
Why do you become a sage permanently instead of just when you are in samadhi?
It could be said that a person’s mind is like a jar full of mud at the bottom of a swimming pool. The mud is the ignorance in the person’s mind, and the water is the all-pervading Knowledge that is Brahman. The mud always remains in the jar, not allowing the Knowledge in. When you go into samadhi, a hole is made at a certain point in the jar, the mind, so a lot of mud falls out, and the Knowledge comes flooding in. When you come out of samadhi, the hole is patched up again, that is the mind comes back, but the Knowledge remains. If you experience the deepest kind of samadhi, called nirvikalpa samadhi, the hole made is right at the bottom of the jar, so all the mud falls out, leaving no ignorance about your true identity as Brahman at all in the mind.
What practices are done?
Spirituality is the study of mind, and as everyone's mind is different, the appropriate practices are different for each individual. Minds can be roughly divided into four different types. A mind may incline towards knowledge, devotion, performing selfless works, or yoga, or a mixture of two or more of the above. Numerous perfectly legitimate practices have been proffered by different spiritual paths and religions over the millennia. The important thing to understand is not exactly what the practices are, but what they are designed to do.
What are spiritual practices designed to do?
To understand this, we need to know about the structure of the mind-system, or inner organ. The inner organ is like a pond. We want to look through it to see a gold coin, the soul or consciousness, at the bottom. This is normally not possible as there are many waves, or thoughts, on the surface. In meditation, we still the waves, but we still cannot see the coin, because there is too much algae and bacteria in the water. However, when the water is still, the sun's rays have the opportunity to enter the water and burn up the impurities. When the inner organ is pure enough, and we peer through it with enough intensity, we will go into samadhi. Spiritual practices, therefore, aim at purifying the inner organ and peering through it to see the gold coin so that we get big realisations in samadhi.
What, then, is the role of philosophy?
Studying philosophy is an intellectual, not a spiritual discipline. The aim of the spiritual aspirant is to build a house. First, he must build a foundation, the philosophy. However, just having a foundation with no house affords no protection from the elements whatsoever, and likewise a philosophy is useless if it does not give rise to spirituality. We become spiritual people not through studying philosophy, but through spiritual practice. The purpose of the philosophy, therefore, is just to give us the faith and motivation to do the practices.
One reason why we do not do spiritual practices, or do them half-heartedly, is because the intellect is unsatisfied, and so the mind fills with doubts. An appropriate philosophy satisfies the intellect as quickly as possible. Everyone's mind is different, so for each mind a different amount or kind of philosophy is appropriate. Intellectual correctness is important for aspirants following the path of Knowledge, and non-dualism, which is the philosophy discussed in this article, is the most intellectually correct, but, ultimately, the correct philosophy for you personally is the one that motivates you to do the practices best, and so receive the Knowledge directly from your own heart as quickly as possible.
After realisation comes the second purpose of life
The first purpose of life is to gain the spiritual realisation, and not just the intellectual knowledge, that we are not merely a compilation of flesh and mind, but Brahman, the omniscient, omnipotent, all-pervading consciousness. When that has been achieved, comes the second purpose, namely to try to make everyone else realise that they are not merely bodies, but Brahman Itself. When we have attained to that realisation, we will regard all as our own self, we will automatically love all and sacrifice our all for the welfare of humanity, backed up by the wisdom of the Omniscient manifesting in our hearts. So rare is the opportunity to attain to this, the very highest form of life, that we must surely leap up and grab the opportunity with both hands, for Brahman is everything and the world is but a training ground designed to enable us to attain to that Brahman, enabling us to develop the strength and the will to undo the master-knot of life.