Do we know who God is?

This paper attempts to present a way of getting to know God and how to worship and love Him from a Yoga and Christian perspective.

The transcendent God is not a deity or energy or creator, not the wind, the sun nor the moon; not I or you; or the mind (intellect).

The transcendent God is without form and undivided; not made and without beginning or end. God is pure consciousness, ever Existing, ever conscious Bliss

It is He who is to be worshiped as the one who upholds the entire creation, who is beyond thoughts and description.

He is referred to as the transcendent God who is undivided and indivisible by space and time, whose light illumines all the objects, who is pure and absolute consciousness. He is that intelligence which is beyond all its parts, which is hidden in all that is, which is the Being in all that is and which veils the truth of the Self. This God is in the middle of being and non-being (as awareness). It is God, and the Truth that is indicated in yoga by 'Om'. It (awareness) exists everywhere.

It is pure consciousness that exists even after cosmic dissolution. All the mountains, the whole world, the firmament, the Self, the jiva (individual soul) and all the elements of which the world, have their origin in pure consciousness.

The bible states: ‘God is to be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth).

                                                                                  (John 4:24)

Here also, Spirit signifies the unmanifested absolute, where space, time and dimensions are nonexistent.

God implies the transcendent creator, beyond creation. Unless a devotee of God perceives the Father of creation as the unmanifest Absolute Spirit – pure, ever existing conscious bliss, he does not know the Truth.

Absolute Spirit is reflected as God’s guiding intelligence or Christ of God in macrocosmic creation.

In the microcosm of the body spirit is reflected as the soul, the individualized spirit in man. The worshipper who communes with God, who experiences His presence, knows the truth that his soul and the Christ of God, the Creator are reflections of Spirit.

This implies that God the Father of manifestation can be known by the soul either by perceptions of, or through oneness with any of His manifest attributes, however Spirit the unmanifested Absolute, can be known only by oneness with Spirit. (The Father and I are one, John 10:24:30).

God in relation to the soul presumes duality or the Object to be perceived.  

If one is unable to worship this consciousness, then he is encouraged to worship the form. The latter yields finite results, but the former (consciousness) bestows infinite bliss.

The external worship of form of a deity or a holy personage is for those whose understanding has not yet been fully awakened.

But he, who ignores the infinite and is devoted to the finite only, is wandering in delusion.

With regard to our personal awakening, wisdom, self-control and the perception of the Self in all beings are to be honoured at all times. The Self is consciousness.

The worship of God as (consciousness) is true worship, and by that worship one attains everything. Consciousness is undivided and indivisible, non-dual and neither fashioned nor created by activity; it is not attained by external efforts. It is the fountain or source of joy.

The consciousness which is in us is God. God is not distant from anyone, nor is he difficult to attain: since he is forever seated in the hearts of all and at the same time everywhere, like space.

His consciousness functions as space, as jiva the individual soul, somewhere as action, somewhere as substance; but without intending to do so. Even as all the different oceans are but one indivisible mass of water, His consciousness, though described in different ways, is but one cosmic mass of consciousness.

This consciousness is like a mirror which holds a reflection within itself, without undergoing any modification thereby. It appears as all these countless beings in this universe.

In one’s body, thoughts and notions generate action in the light of this very consciousness. Were it not for this consciousness even an object which is immediately in front of oneself could not be experienced? The body cannot function or exist without it. This consciousness creates and maintains all the movable and immovable beings in the universe. The infinite consciousness alone exists, nothing else exists. Consciousness alone has arisen in consciousness.

Consciousness does not undergo any modification nor does it become impure. The infinite consciousness which is unmodified and non-dual, can be realized by one in the self-luminous inner light (of awareness). It is pure and eternal.

Consciousness alone is the reality in all forms of existence and all experiences. Action springs from thought, thought is the function of the mind, mind is conditioned consciousness, but consciousness is unconditioned!

Since the omnipresent infinite consciousness alone is present at all times, diversity is absurd and impossible. Belief is what creates existence in diversity. When the non-dual existence is known, duality vanishes instantly.

That infinite consciousness alone is suitable to be adored and worshipped. However, there is no use in inviting it for worship since it is the omnipresent Self of all.

The realization of this infinite consciousness (which is totally effortless) is the best form of worship.

The Supreme Being is formless, and yet the following five are its aspects: will, space, time, order (or destiny) and the cosmic unmanifest nature. It has countless powers or energies. Chief among them are knowledge, dynamics, action and non-action. All these are but pure consciousness; because they are called the potencies of consciousness, they are apparently regarded as distinct from consciousness, though in fact they are not.

This entire creation is like a stage on which all these potencies of consciousness dance to the tune of time.

The foremost among these is known as 'order' (the natural order of things and sequences). It is also known as action, desire or will-to-do. It is this potency that ordains that each thing should have a certain characteristic from the blade of grass to the Creator. This natural order is free from excitement but not purified of its limitation: that (natural order) is what dances a dance-drama known as the world-appearance.

It portrays various moods (compassion, anger and so on), it produces and removes various seasons and epochs, it is accompanied by the celestial music and the roaring of the oceans, its stage is illumined by the sun and the moon and the stars, its actors and actresses are the living beings in all the worlds - such is the dance of the natural order.

The Lord who is infinite consciousness is the silent but alert witness of this cosmic dance. Yet He is not different from the dancer (the cosmic natural order) and the dance (the happenings).

Realizing this brings renewed wonder into our daily lives.

Egoless action frees one from nature's duality and the bondage of karma

Many people identify themselves to a large part with activities they perform in their lives.

Others identify themselves with the specific role they play at the moment.

I’m a teacher, a father, a mother, I am Canadian etc.

  

They also think they are the architect of their future, not knowing, that in fact there activities are instigated by the attributes of their very nature.

We don’t like to admit, that we are not in control.

Paramahansa Yogananda:

“Primordial Prakriti is the cause of man’s individualized existence, and governs by the operation of cosmic laws his ability to act in and respond to his material environment”.

God created nature. It manifests the attributes of the Creator, but under a camouflage of delusion.

What does this mean?

Mankind is the product of an invisible God and visible nature;

he is dual.

Pure spirit hidden in a physical body and brain whose functions are governed by the attributes of nature, the gunas,  (the three modes of prakriti – sattva, rajas and tamas whose activating power works on the 24 creative principles of nature).

In previous sessions mention was made, that by now we are above the influence of nature, but are we?

The four kingdoms of creation – man, animal, plants, and the inorganic substances – possess fixed and characteristic actions and reactions that differentiate them.

All are guided by the gunas (attributes of nature).

Humankind dwells on the apparent differences of himself and the rest of creation.

He is generally ignorant of the truth that his activities and that of all other manifestations spring from a common source, Spirit.

We must be clear in this, that the individualized residing in every form and working through nature’s attributes, is the doer of things.

A Yogi, by disengaging his mind from the senses (though Kriya, or any other form), and who identifies himself with the soul, rather than the ego (as the doer) knows that the soul not the ego is the conscious life in the body that activates and sustains the creative attributes.

An intrinsic quality of the soul is free will.

The fully illumined yogi is a person of free will.

The ordinary individual is bound to his/her intrinsic or unthinking material habits born out of nature. 

The higher an individual rises on the scale of evolution, the more one exercises one’s free will.

An awakened person realizes that all his human qualities are created by God.

Initiated in his individualized body by his soul and governed by the confining attributes of nature; he therefore refuses to let his body identified ego credit itself to be the doer of actions.

Humankind however, by the exercise of its free will, wrongly or rightly creates specific personal karma.

By one’s good karma (in accord with his nature that is natural living), and meditation on the perfect God, one ascends toward perfection.

In contrast by wrong action, the body identified egoist, devoid of true wisdom, descends and becomes trapped in the meshes of material desires.

Each devotee should analyze him/herself, to find out whether he/she is living according to the upward evolutional influence of nature, or, by the even higher soul impulses; or, only by his/her human nature, distorted by prenatal and postnatal effects of actions that manifest through moods, habits and ordinary inclinations in life.

Soul, mind, body, brain, senses, the world, the cosmos – all are creation of Spirit.

Therefore, the wise person does not conceive him/herself as the architect of anything, not even his/her own destiny.

He/she does not laugh or cry or are disturb with themselves with the ups and downs of duality, whereas, the egoist is never satisfied, whether he/she is rich or poor.

 The wise person performs action to please God, known to him as the sole Creator and Genesis of all activities, and tunes in with the wishes of God, who guides him to his proper activities.

He does not try to frustrate the divine plan by selfish will, nor impede its fulfillment by non action.

The true devotee says:” Lord steer my boat of activity and meditation to the shore of Thy presence.”

The Lord does not ask humankind to be without divine ambition, divine desires, or divine activities that lead to liberation, but rather to stop working under the influence of the manipulative ego, which casts the soul into delusion.

 In order for us to be Self Realized, we must endeavor at all times to live a soul centered life. At times we must take stock of our attitudes and behaviors to see whether they are in deed in line with the teachings of the masters. Above all we must be clear of who we really are and live from that perspective.

I am certain, that we all can make improvements in our lives and by doing so, have an effect on those around us.

We all can be more generous, more kind to those in distress, more loving, be a better husband, wife, companion, friend, father, mother, neighbor.

We must rise to the divinity within us and giving it expression in our daily lives.

Knowing, that we are children of the one God, we can bring that message to the forth and let it shine through all that we do.

The Lord created the Universe for Himself. As his children, his true reflection, we share it with Him and serve Him with our love.

Glory be to God. 

Discourse on samadhi

In meditation when we focus on an object or subject to the exclusion of anything else and then experience oneness with the object or subject, this is called savikalpa samadhi.

Patanjali tells us, that even that impression which is made on the mind by savikalpa samadhi must finally be removed. By doing so we remove any potential thought seeds that may sprout in the future.

When this final wave is removed, we enter into the highest samadhi, which is called nirvikalpa samadhi. Nirvikalpa samadhi is undifferentiated consciousness. In that state we are no longer ourselves, we are said to be one with God.

Nirvikalpa samadhi has been described by Shankara as follows:

“There is a continuous consciousness of the unity of the Self and Brahman (God). There is no longer identification of the Self with its covering. All sense of duality is obliterated. There is pure, unified consciousness. The one who is established in this consciousness is said to be illumined”.

Yoga postulates that, one is said to be free even in this life when he is established in illumination. His bliss is limitless. He almost forgets this world of appearance.

Even though the mind is dissolved in the Infinite, he is fully awake, free from the ignorance of the waking life. He is fully conscious, but free from any craving. Such a one is said to be free even in this life.

For him, the sorrows of this world are over. Though he possesses a finite body, he remains united with the Infinite. His heart knows no anxiety. Such a one is said to be free even in this life.

Once nirvikalpa samadhi has been achieved, it is possible to pass in and out of it repeatedly at will.

Yoga and its Practice

Patanjali describes Kriya Yoga to mean, work toward Yoga. The works imply austerity, self discipline, study, dedication, surrendering of self consciousness to God consciousness.

It also means conserving vital energy and directing it toward the goal of yoga, or the union with the Self.   

Whatever activity one endeavors to engage in, he should always ask himself; does this add to or diminish the obstacles to enlightenment?

An obstacle to yoga is false identification.

We tend to confuse the ego with the Self.

The experiencer is the Self, our true nature. The object of experience is the totality of the apparent world, including the mind and the senses.

In reality, the Self alone exists, as the One without a second, eternally free.

When we mistake the Self for the ego in which all the thought waves and troubles arise, we mistakenly think, that we are unhappy, angry and all the other things.

The Bhagavad Gita reminds us, that we are not these things.

“The illumined soul thinks always:”I am doing nothing”.

No matter what it sees, hears, touches, smells, eats. ..

This it knows always:

“I am not seeing, I am not hearing:

It is the senses that see, hear and touch things.”

So long as the experiencer is falsely identified with the object of experience, he cannot know the Self. He remains in bondage, believing himself to be the slave of his experience.

The story from Swami Vivekananda:

“The king of gods, Indra once became a pig wallowing in mud. He had a she pig and was very happy. Then some god saw his plight and told him: “You are the king of gods, why are you here?”

Never mind Indra said, I am fine here; I do not care for heaven while I have this sow and these little pigs.

The poor gods were at their wits’ end. After a time they decided to slay all the pigs. When all were dead, Indra began to weep. Then the gods ripped his pig body open and he came out of it and began to laugh when he realized what crazy dream he had had”.

The Self, when it identifies with nature, forgets that it is pure and infinite.

The Self does not love, for it is love itself. It does not exist, it is existence itself. It does not know, for it is the knower.

Stages by which knowledge of the Self is known:

The realization that all spiritual wisdom is within oneself

The kingdom of God is within

Mental pain is caused by one’s attachment to aversion. When he turns the mind toward the Self, the attachment loses its power.

Samadhi is the complete realization and union with the Self. When being in that state, the objective universe disappears.

When coming out of samadhi, the awareness of the universe re-appears, but one’s consciousness has changed.

One realizes that the external world is merely an appearance, more like a dream.

This leads to the acknowledgement that the mind and the objective world have both ended their services.

Now the stored up impressions within the mind and the gunas themselves fall away forever.

The final stage, the eternal existence in union with the Self has been reached. Now there is no more returning from samadhi to partial sense consciousness, no more identification with the mind. The goal of yoga, knowing ones true nature, has been reached.

Discourse on matters of Spirit III

Jesus. “I am in the Father and the Father is in me”.

He who has, by ecstasy, contacted the Christ consciousness in me, my true Self, has automatically also contacted the Cosmic Consciousness whose reflection I am.

Jesus often stated that the words of wisdom do not come from himself, but from the vibrations of Cosmic Consciousness to which his consciousness was attuned.

Most human beings are guided by their ego; but Jesus recognized that the cosmic Father dwelling behind his Christ consciousness was the soul doer working through his body and Christ (pure) mind.

Then – by the totality of the present, past and future truth which Jesus perceived in himself – he prophesied to his disciples, that any devotee who, by deep meditation, realizes the presence of the omnipresent Christ Consciousness in himself, as it was in Jesus, shall be able to perform the miraculous acts of healing, raising the dead and every manner of good works that were manifested through the body called Jesus.

This prophesy included future devotees, for he meant that all who were (and are now or will be) in tune with Christ Consciousness would perform what he had done.

“ The eight principle divine powers, which can be manifested by the incarnate being who has attained mastery over the forces of creation mentioned in Swami Shri Yukteswar’s Holy Science are:

 1) as small as desired (anima),

2) as large as desired (mahima),

3) as light in weight as desired (laghima) and

4) as heavy as desired (garima); the power

5) to obtain anything desired (prapti),

6) to bring anything under his control (vashitva),

7) to satisfy all desires by the force of his will (prakamya),

8) to become Isha, Lord over everything.

 In the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, other powers (siddhis) are also discussed.

The attainment of mastery over phenomenal creation is not a goal of the enlightened man, but is a natural endowment of the omnipotent, omniscient soul – the immortal Self, which becomes manifest, as it gradually sheds its coverings of delusions.

Emerson’s address to Harvard Divinity School in 1838

“Jesus Christ belongs to the great race of prophets. He saw with open eye the mystery of the soul… Ravished with its beauty, he lived in it, and had his being there… One man was true to what is in you and me. He saw that God incarnates in man, and evermore goes forth to take possession of His world. He said, in his jubilee of sublime emotion, “ I am divine. Through me, God acts; through me, God speaks. Would you see God, see me; or see thee, when though also thinkest as I now think.”  

The message for us is, we must first realize the Grand Price, Seek the kingdom with discipline and humility. Never stray from the path and all will be revealed to us.

Discourse on matters of Spirit II

Let us talk about feeling, the Shakti influence in our body and the mind stuff, chitta.

We can feel peace, joy, calmness and oneness. These feelings are close to the soul.

Shakti can be described as cosmic creative force which enlivens nature. It is also the aspect of kundalini which, when aroused, vitalizes the body and contributes to psychological transformation, physical vitalization, progressive spiritual awakening and personal growth.

Patanjali includes feelings in his description of chitta. He states that chitta or mind stuff is composed of intuitive feeling, the aggregate of consciousness, inherent in which is ahamkara (ego) buddhi (intelligence), and manas (mind or sense consciousness). Chitta is the warehouse of past memories, images, thoughts, feelings, desires and emotions which create samskaras, or mental impressions on the mind. I modern psychology, chitta represents the subconscious mind. One of the principle aims of yoga is the quieting of the mind. The yogi can become a witness to his thoughts and memories which arise from the depth of his mind. Through further meditation he can bring subconscious impressions to the surface of his conscious mind and in this manner neutralize their potential influence.  

Yoga chitta, vritti, nirodha

Yoga is for the purpose of calming the fluctuations of the mind.

It is the fluctuations that need to be stilled.

Union with God is only possible by stilling the restlessness of the heart or chitta, the feeling faculty of consciousness.

Restlessness disturbs man’s perception of the real Self, the soul-image of God within through its likes and dislikes of the body bound ego.

When the mind is made restless by the attraction and repulsion the soul appears imperfect, but the soul being an individualized reflection of Spirit, is ever perfect.

Souls are sent to earth to watch Gods cosmic motion picture with a calm non attached consciousness, like befitting souls made in the image of His divine image.

All truth seekers are advised, even though they go through trials, fortunes and misfortunes, to strive for righteousness with an undisturbed heart, as a way of attaining salvation and liberation from matter bound consciousness.

Jesus stated, that unless one attains Cosmic Consciousness, there are many mansions in his Father’s house; many planes of existence were souls go in accordance with their merits and de merits.

Christ Consciousness.

Christ consciousness is the projected consciousness of God immanent in all creation. In Christian terms, it is the “only begotten son,” the pure reflection in creation of God the Father; in Hindu scriptures, it is Kutastha Chaitanya or Tat, the universal consciousness, or cosmic intelligence, of Spirit everywhere present in creation.

Great saints and yogis experience this state of consciousness in samadhi meditation where their consciousness has become identified with the divine intelligence in every particle of creation; they feel the entire universe as their own body.

As previously stated, Christ consciousness is present in all vibratory creation and phenomena. It represents the primary substance and essence of life of everything.

No human being who is part of vibratory creation can take his consciousness to Cosmic Consciousness which lies beyond vibratory creation and the immanent Christ Consciousness – without first

Experiencing the Christ-imbued Cosmic Vibration, or Holy Ghost, that manifests vibratory creation.

In other words, to come to the Father every human being has to attain to Christ Consciousness first before he can attain Cosmic Consciousness, or God consciousness. “I am the way, no one can come to the Father but through me (the consciousness that is in me)”. John 14:6).

         

Discourse on matters of spirit.

From God Immanent and God Transcendent,

From Personal God to Impersonal God,

From Duality to Oneness and from oneness to Duality

Chant through the chakras.

Lam, Vam, Ram Yam, HAM, OM

In spirit, THE Transcendent aspect of God), there is neither past nor future, there is only the Eternal NOW or the everlasting present.

When we view the world under the influence of maya, eternity appears fragmented as past, present and future.

God always is, and His immortal consciousness is not compartmentalized by the dimension of time and space, He beholds everything in His Being now.

How do we get where we want to go? Assuming we know where we want to go?

This consciousness of Eternal Presence is not reachable by people with ordinary consciousness. Only the advanced devotee is able to feel the ever existing nature of God.

Past and future vanish from within him. He realizes he is forever, NOT that he was and will be existing forever.

How do we feel the existing nature of God?

In Joy, in Peace and eventual Bliss.

When we lift our consciousness beyond time and space in meditation, we know that we are eternal.

If we are not convinced of this, we ought to contemplate this matter to reach a point of knowing.

We come from the mighty ocean of Cosmic Consciousness, Spirit, the ever Existing, ever Conscious, ever new Bliss that transcends creation, descending into creation, into every particle of thought, life energy and matter that constitute the causal, astral and physical realms.  

Cosmic Consciousness becomes Christ Consciousness or (Kutastha Chaitanya).

Christ Consciousness flowing into the soul and PURE mind of man, it is called superconsciousness. However, when it is

carried on the current of life energy, down through the subtle astral centres the chakras, it loses its divine awareness in body identification, we call it subconsciousness.

The life energy in us operates the body through the physical brain, spine, and viscera as stomach, lungs, heart and intestines etc.

Descending further, out into the muscles and senses, consciousness settles in the level of the ordinary waking state, enlivening the muscular and sensory activities of the body, and creating desires for attachment to material experiences.

Consciousness has fallen from the pristine fountain of Spirit to the lowlands of physical consciousness in the out-flowing energy of the three lower chakras. Man tries in vain to quench his thirst of desires in sensory experience. But worldly pleasure is more like salt water, instead of quenching desires, it creates a greater thirst.

If we are maddened with desire and have not found peace, we had better find a way to peace through insightful consciousness and meditation.

We must raise the son of man to the son of God.

From the 3 lower chakras to the 4^th Heart chakra, the Anahata, to compassion, selfless love, service and nurturance, to the 5^th chakra Vishuddha, devotion, surrender, trust, to the 6^th chakra Ajna, introspective, discriminative, intelligence, higher intuitive knowledge, to the 7^th chakra, sahasrara, pure consciousness.

The person that masters yoga meditation knows, that when concentration become interiorized he finds his life force and attention withdrawn from the senses and accumulates it in the subtle astral centre in the coccygeal region of the spine.

Then during deep meditation this accumulated life force floats its consciousness upward through the sacral, lumbar. dorsal, cervical and medulla centres to the highest centre of divine perception, the abode of Spirit in the thousand petaled lotus of light and consciousness in the higher brain.

The downward flowing astral life energy and consciousness in the three lower chakras (lumbar, sacral and coccygeal) feed the spine, brain and organs of the physical body with sensory and motor power, which under the influence of delusion promoters worldly consciousness.

But through meditation when consciousness is withdrawn from the senses up the astral spine through the chakras to the ocean of light, in the crown chakra, the devotee obtains liberation from material consciousness.

It is important for us to internalize the process which leads to the liberation of consciousness and be totally aware of it when doing Kriya Pranayama.

Prayer

O Lord, resurrect us from the bondage of delusion, karma, ignorance, and reincarnation to inspire us with thine invisible omnipresent wisdom, that we may know how to resurrect the divine image within us from the bodily confinement of sense lures. From doubt resurrect our vision into the region of invincible understanding. From the atmosphere of mental smallness teach us to resurrect our large heartedness in the kingdom of love for all.

Teach us to resurrect our spirit of brotherhood in the oneness of universal union.

Bless us, that from this moment we use our inner sense of intuition to follow all the mental, moral, and spiritual laws by which we can resurrect our soul from cosmic delusion into everlasting freedom in God contact.

Difference between religion and spirituality.

We live in times where spirituality is the new buzzword and religion is seen by many as losing ground, yet at the same time, it is not clear what the differences between the two are. 

The religious approach can be summed up as a combination of desire for structure in life, respect for authority and the avoidance of ambiguity.  The spiritual path is based on the desire to discover the Truth for oneself by using certain teachings and practices.

All religions have a similar story, of the coming of a great teacher who is the incarnation of Divine Truth. This affords men the opportunity to make an organization of it, with its creeds, dogmas, its rules and regulations and a primitive concept of rewards and punishments. 

In the religious approach, God always remains external, a great power that must be feared, respected and obeyed, in the more modern teachings loved. In contrast, on the spiritual path, one engages in a selected set of mind body practices such as Yoga to realize the Divine inside as well as outside of our self.

All paths to the Divine require that one has faith, but in the religious approach, this faith often turns into the firm conviction that God is on our side and that whatever one is doing is part of “God’s plan for us”. If one succeeds, he proclaims, God’s grace is with me. 

This is a very simplistic view of life because the reality is much more complicated, since the choices that we make in daily life can lead us to an alternate future.

 Is there room for doubt on the spiritual path?

The path of Yoga requires a steady faith with a healthy self-doubt.  This attitude is quite different from the one advocated by traditional religions. 

The religious definition of faith is a belief in some Supreme Entity which will take care of us as long as one believes.  One is expected to hold this belief constantly and with intensity

The path of Yoga functions differently from the path of traditional religions.  Yoga begins with mental silence, progresses to an opening to the higher consciousness through the awakening of subtle centers of consciousness (i.e. Chakras) followed by a submersion into ones inner being, which will lead to a change of personality as one becomes established in the Divine consciousness within. 

The type of faith practiced in traditional religions can actually be harmful, since rigid beliefs, which are just consistently held thoughts on the outcome of some desired result can, if not realized, lead to doubt and in extreme cases hallucination.

What then is this faith required in Yoga? 

Faith is the ability of one to persist in spite of obstacles.

Faith in the existence of the Divine, although one may not initially know how this Divine Power acts or how to recognize it.

Faith in the principles and techniques of yoga that can be compared to the scientist who continues the experiments in the faith that the method he uses will eventually produce results.

This faith is not self-confidence or based on self importance, arrogance and ego. It is also not the belief of religion which is often rigid. Faith in the spiritual sense is a subtle and passive feeling of assurance, a sense of knowing.

In conjunction with this faith, one must also be willing to entertain a healthy self-doubt and questioning, for the practice of Yoga begins with an imperfect mental understanding which gradually changes as the mind itself becomes luminous. During the practice of Yoga, as the inner consciousness develops, one might have various inner visions, all such intermediate visions must not lead to excitement or pride, nor attachment, because a partially transformed personality can interfere and distort the experience with its own longings, (like a measurement errors in science) it can prevent one from reaching the goal of yoga, which is samadhi, oneness.   On the other hand, entertaining too many doubts can also create difficulties because the path of Yoga is like a walk across the desert wherein spiritual practice has to be rigorous and where one gets validation of progress in the form of visions and experiences only intermittently.   Effort has to be constant but it must be coupled with the understanding that with the Grace of the Divine one can open the path of the inner and higher consciousness.  

There are times when one wonders whether he is progressing at all or whether one is on the right path. All such doubts have to be reflected in the mirror of our faith in the Divine.  

In summary, doubts may arise from within oneself. Understanding may be necessary to overcome ignorance, but doubt in ones lack of progress should be avoided as one is encouraged to steadfastly move toward the goal of Self realization.

This interplay of faith and doubt has been outlined very neatly by Sri Aurobindo in the following passage:

“In the Yoga as in life, it is the man who persists unwearied to the last in the face of every defeat and disillusionment and of all confronting, hostile and contradicting events and powers who conquers in the end and finds his faith justified, because to the soul and shakti (soul energy) in man nothing is impossible”.

In the religious approach, the entire holy book is taken to be holy and has to be accepted in totality. This is known as literalism.

“Who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills and the Spirit gives life”.

                                                                           (Corinthians 3:6)

A related problem is the belief, born primarily out of religious pride that everything science has discovered today already exists in the ancient scriptures of one’s particular faith.

The spiritual approach to reading holy books calls for a fine blend of critical thinking and interpretive insight, with the objective on how one must live and attain Divine union. One should view all proclamations as hypothesis which will be proved later by personal spiritual experience.  Many verses make sense only after experiencing a different reality through a change in consciousness. One begins to connect the dots only after one rediscovers the Truth. 

In reading holy books one should apply the yoga method of reading a text, which has three stages called hearing or reading, reflection and contemplation. 

The rationale behind this method is that texts which have been written by a person who has attained enlightenment carry a powerful vibratory message, which can be helpful in inducing a state of contemplation, improving attention and creating harmony within oneself. 

With an understanding of the differences between religion and spirituality and an insight into the objective and subjective meaning of the scriptures, one can realize inner harmony and peace.

“Persons who do not believe in the immanence of the Absolute in the relative world tend to become either sceptical or dogmatic, because in both cases religion is a matter of blind beliefs. Unable to reconcile the idea of a good God with the seeming evil in creation, the sceptics reject religious belief as stubbornly as the dogmatist clings to it. Belief is an initial stage of spiritual progress necessary to receive the concept of God. But that concept has to be transposed into conviction, into personal experience. Belief is the precursor of conviction; one has to believe a thing in order to investigate it; but if one is satisfied only with belief, it becomes dogma, a hindrance to truth and spiritual progress.”

                                                                      Paramahansa Yogananda