Spirituality is the science of soul
The purpose of human existence is to explore this science and evolve from humanity to divinity. Given that the change is inevitable - if it occurs slowly and consciously our transformation turns into an enjoyable experience. Human mind, trained for earthly survival, often fails to appreciate the need to evolve spiritually. However, a guided tour by the Master, helps overcome the ignorance threshold, experience the Self in her purest form and appreciate the infinity of process and space. At the crossroads of this Great transformation, questions that usually arise are:
Why do I need to transform? Is transformation inevitable ? Am I already transforming without my conscious participation? Can I control my own evolution and destiny? What if I become enlightened ? How will it be more useful than my default state ? Is the process of transformation cost effective ?
After several iterations of thought experiments and deeper understanding of life - questions usually switch to: Which path is best for me? What are comparative merits of guided spirituality versus an independent effort? Given that the end point of spiritual process is an unconditional independence from the centripetal forces of karma, why so much of dependence on philosophy, mythology, rituals, and above all - The Master ?
Answer to all these and many more questions that arise during transformation from turbulence to tranquility emerge from our own life experiences. In my opinion, expansion is the default nature of the soul. It is just that we don’t notice the process because the expansion occurs in tiny imperceptible increments below our resolution. To see beyond the obvious one needs a different set of tools and strategies - just like a microscope that shows finer elements of cellular existence an unaided human eye cannot visualize.
Therefore, the first step in spiritual evolution is to run a diagnostic test on mind, debug ourselves of superfluous materialistic baggage and carve out an optimum evolutionary path best suited to our habits, beliefs and needs. Although mind cleansing and reformatting can be performed independent of any instruction manual, a guided approach is generally more effective. Just as a catalyst accelerates the rate of a chemical reaction, The Spiritual Teacher speeds up the expansion process, by showing a glimpse of what lies ahead, by fine tuning our thought process, by demonstrating unconditional love, by persuasion, by gentle admonishment or by a combination of all these and many more.
I have been very fortunate to enjoy the enormous Bliss and Grace of my Guru Sri Papasai ji (a Kashmiri Siddhayogi also addressed as Bhagwan Nityanand) who has demonstrated highest intensity of spirituality while firmly retaining focus on family, job and society. More on this later...
Realisation through Dreams
A dream is a "Personal Virtual Reality Technology". What looks real during sleep turns out virtual on wakefulness.
Let us then examine dreams in little more detail.
1. Elimination of external sensory input noise is
a pre-requisite for the emergence of dreams
2. Once the mind canvas is still, our life energies
display computations in the form of "emotional visuals"
3. These visuals occur in both monochrome and color
4. Events in the dream always unfold in a serial order.
We do not see two unconnected events at the same time
This observation implies that, in theory, if we prevent noise input into our system during wakeful state itself, we should be able to see new "life-energy visuals" without closing our eyes ! Is that how -- continuous and deep silence, meditation and intense prayer lead to deeper levels of experiences ? Are super-conscious experiences actually our own life energy forms that just assemble outside the dream state ?
5. Between sleeping and waking up, we do not know the time spent
6. During sleep, we cannot keep track of our geographical location or anything in the neighbourhood
Given that during sleep (a) we are beyond space and time, (b) we create, preserve and destroy thoughts in the form of dreams -- aren't we close to the traditional description of God ? Isn't that the key evidence that God exists in all of us ? When we go to temples, are we praying in front of "one of our forms" ? When we say God is beyond time and space… are we referring to our own life energies in an enclosed form?
Sometimes we do not see dreams but are deep asleep. Our life energy is not projecting emotional visuals at that time. What remains is a state of nothingness in a background of awareness. In the dream-less state, the canvas of dream projection is dissolved. There is absolute stillness. This is a state of pure nirakar (state of nothingness). Logically the state of no-dream (nothingness) must be deeper than the state of dreams (somethingness). The question is: What happened to "us" at the time of no-dreams ? Frankly, we still existed in the form of pure awareness. Does it mean that "nothingness our true nature" ? Is somethingness projected periodically as a wave that rises in the ocean and merges back again ? Is that the true definition of life as we know it ?
The question is: What is the purpose of staying in the state of nothingness that is beyond time and space ?
"Nothing", in my opinion. In the space of nothingness (i.e., deep sleep when dreams do not form) there is no purpose, no goal, no ambition. We just exist.