Life is not like mathematics where you can add one and one to make it two. Life is a mystery. If you thought life was like mathematics and you lived it by adding a few more millions to the treasure that you have for a bigger position or more power, then you have missed it. Man goes on missing life birth after birth every time he writes on a new slate that is swept away by the next birth. Man is the most primitive being on earth and keeps going around in circles. He keeps thinking of expanding his life with a bigger house, a bigger car, a bigger bank balance and so on. But he misses the point.
Man is born as a mystery and dies as a mystery. In between he leads a life full of mystery, but he tries to catch the mystery in his hand and finds nothing caught. He keeps on thinking about the truth of the mystery but gets nowhere. He keeps on going to jungles and mountains, exploring the whole world, but reaches nowhere.
In fact, you are born with that mystery. You are the mystery. That is your truth. But you keep on looking for gurus to give you the truth, which is an absurdity. Truth cannot be transferred or told by a guru. The Master can shed some light on it by drawing the light out of you. The Master knows that you are in a deep state of slumber. You are like dead wood. The truth that lays buried deep inside you will be up for awakening one day. Therefore, the Master jolts you to wake you up, to be ready to let the right soil awaken the seed of truth hidden inside you.
The truth is that the mystery in you can be awakened in you, but no one else can awaken it, not even the Master. Only you yourself will be able to awaken it. That is your deep innate nature. The Master can jolt you to tell you to be more aware of yourself. And when you begin the right journey, he presents himself as a witness so you don’t get marooned. The Master simply brings more light to you so that the mystical truth that you are comes out through you and you come out of the dead. Being there, the Master ignites a spark in you to make the truth of your being come forth and be revealed to you.
You are the seed that will become the tree. The seed cannot become a tree by knowing about the tree. The seed can become the tree by being the seed and in becoming the seed, sprout the code of the tree that is buried inside the seed.
The true Master has to liberate you from the bondage. He does not ask you to read religious books. He throws you into a deep well and asks you to be there with your being in your beingness. He guides you on how to ground you into the soil of That-Which-Is not just by getting lost in religious philosophies or verses written in religious books, but by being the truth.
The problem with the dead is that we always keep on knowing about God, knowing about things. If a seed thought about how it can become a tree, it would never become a tree. If a fish thought about how to swim, she would be drowned. If a rose thought about how to bloom, it would get snapped. Knowing about God is always about not knowing but acknowledging that which makes you more lifeless. Therefore, we go on chanting mantras and parroting religious books, but that does not make us divine. The acquired knowledge from books is like dead wood. Knowing is the door to the divine.
Religious initiation ceremonies like baptism or initiations by sprinkling water or taking baths in holy water are meant to jolt or shake you up so that your truth comes out alive in you. Hindus wear orange clothes which are a sign of being out of the slumber. But we keep on holding ceremonies and dressing like an ascetic without a trace of awakening.
Religious people often tell us stories of heaven and hell and propagate God as a fear mongering agent of the heavens and hells, espousing several thousand hells. This acquired knowledge makes us ignorant of God because the one espousing it does not know God but knows about God. He has abundant information about God like a computer disk, but it may or may not be true because he has not come face to face with it. The most knowledgeable one remains the most ignorant because the dharma that he preaches does not help him flower in any way. All that he evinces is cultivated and acquired knowledge and thoughts of religion.
God is not a hypothesis or philosophical thought that can be verified or unsubstantiated. God is not an idea that can be corroborated. God is not a fear mongering agent. God is not the beastly Tiger-God that will devour us. God is not some accountant keeping track of the good or bad we do. God is not like the one explained in the verses of religious books. God is not someone who is waiting to send us to hells or heavens.
Everyone fears God because everyone fears death. God is someone who will end life. Therefore, people throng temples, churches and mosques to make God happy. They offer prayers, offerings and ask favours. God becomes a profession. Remember someone who is giving you the truth or the God or transferring the truth is exploiting your fear of God. You are living under constant fear of death. You always say, I am God fearing. But you should say ‘God loving’. Sufis know this trick. They keep on transferring love from one heart to another – they call it ‘silsila’. You have to relate to God by love, not by fear.
Nietzsche has aptly said that ‘God is dead’ and it is so true. To live life you have to be free of the fear of God and know God as the experience in you being the experiencer.
When you will experience God you will know that he is not like your assumptions, beliefs, thoughts, ideas, understanding. He is much beyond all that. He is beyond your intellect. Intellect cannot fathom it. Intellect cannot trace it. When the truth will dawn upon you, you will stand totally mesmerized and speechless.
In the sun, he is like the light. In the night, he is like darkness. In the songs of birds, he is the singer. In the dance of the tree-leaf, he is the dancer. In flowers, he is the bloom. He is the orange of the setting sun and the blue of the vast ocean. He is the one speaking in me and the one listening in you. That-Which-Is is the one and without That-Which-Is, there is nothing and will be nothing. You can know him by experience but you will miss it by thinking about it.
The author is a spiritual coach and an independent advisor on policy, governance and leadership. He can be reached at arunavlokitta@gmail.com
