MOVE AHEAD WITH SPIRITUALITY AND LEAVE DOGMA BEHIND
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"A religion or an "ism" is created in a certain age which itself is 
a product of the three factors of time, place and person. However, 
the religion does not recognize the necessity of adjustment with the 
change in social life. It refuses to realise that the old rules and 
regulations of the previous age are now only mere historical 
records, having lost their relevance in the present dynamic society.

To stifle the progress of humanity, the followers of these religions 
play on human sentiments and other weaknesses. They want to 
perpetuate the hold of the vested interests by infusing an 
inferiority complex into the human mind. While preaching their 
religious ideas, some claim that the social, economic and political 
systems were direct creations of God and hence destined to be 
observed in all ages and all times with equal veneration. They 
pronounce that those who refuse to follow this divine decree will be 
doomed to burn in the scorching heat of God's wrath, or dammed to 
suffer eternal hell-fire. To deny people the scope of verifying the 
rationality of different scriptures they declare that such-and-such 
scriptures are infallible and so nobody has the right to question 
their veracity. If the philosophical texts contradict the 
scriptures, then their propounders will be declared as atheists." 
(THE FIVE KINDS OF CONSCIENCE (VIVEKA), Subha's'ita Sam'graha Part 
6, 16 December 1957, Begusarai)

From this statement it is seen that it is inevitable that religious 
beliefs that divide humanity are doomed and destined to come to an 
end.  What sort of religious beliefs are being referred to?  Those 
that condemn, vilify and contain prejudice are certainly included.  
Examples of these are all faiths that violently condemn people to 
hell for not following their dogmas and faiths that are elitist by 
propagating notions of the chosen people and the like and faiths 
that discriminate between men and women in the social, economic, 
intellectual and spiritual spheres.

There are also leaders in the world today who make use of these 
religious sentiments for petty causes, be they nationalistic or 
personal.  These are the polished satans of the world, whose 
cunningness is the cause of misery to many.  They go by inflated 
ego, projections of themselves of being greater than they actually 
are, and self-glorification.

"Human beings are made of flesh and bones. If their heart or lungs 
stop functioning, then they will have no other option but to climb 
onto the funeral pyre. When this is the situation of human beings, 
where is the scope for self-glorification? Thus the spiritual 
aspirants say:

'Inflated ego is like drinking wine; to project oneself to be 
greater than one actually is leads one into the deepest hell, and 
self-glorification is like the excrement of a pig. Give up all these 
three and only sing the glories of the Lord.'

The most precious treasure of human beings is their intelligence, 
their wisdom, their discriminating judgement, and their conscience. 
False sense of vanity is as condemnable as drinking wine. In regard 
to projecting oneself to be greater than one actually is, what is 
the result of this self-glorification? This is the very crudest of 
all stages of existence. Obviously in that state human beings are no 
longer human beings: their minds, their intellects are reduced to 
extreme crudity, a stage of no return. Similarly when people start 
becoming degraded, a stage comes when they can no longer elevate 
themselves.  There projection becomes a hell.  All entities in this 
world merely come and go, nothing is fixed - everything is moving, 
and thus this universe is that which has the characteristic of 
ceaselessly moving on, that which constantly changes its place. When 
nothing ever ceases to move, then can you remain permanently in this 
world? Even the effort to establish oneself permanently in this 
world through self-glorification is unnatural, because this is as 
abominable as the stool of a sow." (TAKING THE OPPOSITE STANCE IN 
BATTLE, Subha's'ita Sam'graha Part 10, 29 November 1970, Calcutta)

Further, there are many preachers who work for self gain, self 
interest or for exploiting others.  The sexual crimes of the clergy 
is a recent example.

"Those who solicit the fruits of their actions are no better than 
merchants. He or she who acts for a gain is called a greedy person 
and acting under the influence of greed they are carried to the dark 
hell. I do not act for any fruit, rather I surrender all my actions 
unto God, should be the proper approach.

It is invariably true that the separate identity of the soul is 
completely dissolved by totally submitting the mind to God. As a 
consequence of this, human beings qualify for the attainment of 
spiritual liberation or spiritual salvation."  (ACTIONS AND THEIR 
RESULTS (KARMA AND KARMAPHALA), Subha's'ita Sam'graha Part 1, 
Ma'ghii Pu'rn'ima' 1955, Bhagalpur)

But this submission to God is a loving relationship, not a fearful 
one.

"When there is fear or feeling of crude propensities in the mind, 
there cannot be pure attraction to the Supreme or devotion. Devotion 
generated through fear is no devotion at all, rather it is but a 
lamentable state of mental crudeness. Some pray to the Lord for fear 
of hell and some for fear of torture and retribution in the next 
life. They hunger for emancipation from these fears. This betrays a 
lack of knowledge of the truth and you should not give encouragement 
to this inferiority complex. Those who accept or know the Lord as 
their own self have no reason to entertain any fear of Him. This 
fearless movement towards the Lord is termed Love.

When the mind attains Supreme serenity and a feeling of affection is 
developed for all beings then this is eternal peace and the sages 
call it love. Love cannot be developed for anything mean or finite.

Love and passion are mutually antagonistic tendencies. The 
attachment for a finite thing is an expression of extroverted 
energy, whereas the attraction for the Infinite is an expression of 
the introverted energy. That is why these two can never co-exist. 
Therefore the spiritual aspirant has to skilfully transform passion 
into love. Do you love your son? No, no you don't love your son. You 
love God in the form of your son. By loving your son as a son, you 
cannot love the Lord. Where there is the feeling of son, there is no 
Lord and where there is the Lord, there is no son. Where you exist 
God does not and where God exists you are no more." (BHAKTITATTVA, 
Subha's'ita Sam'graha Part 1, A's'a'r'hii Pu'rn'ima' 1955, Bhagalpur)

This is the real sense of oneness or non-duality when one loves the 
Lord.  It means that a person is never alone or helpless.

"Those who are very advanced, who have ascended to the zenith point 
of human progress, are also not alone: the Supreme Consciousness - 
God - is always with them. Even if God would like to ignore certain, 
people, He cannot, since everything is within His mind. He is bound 
to stay with everyone whether He likes them or not. We may say to a 
person, 'Hey, you. Clear off !' but God cannot, because nothing is 
outside His mind ; everything is within. He cannot order anyone 
to 'clear off'. If He instructs a sinner to go away, that sinner 
will say, 'Alright I'll go, but where ?' God will have no answer 
since nothing is outside His mind. One can easily challenge God by 
saying, 'You are driving me away but where shall I go? Nothing is 
outside you. Oh Lord, if there is another entity besides you, you 
are no longer the endless, infinite entity - you will be one of two 
entities.' Some people mistakenly believe that this second entity is 
Satan, but there is no such entity. If God and Satan both existed, 
we would have to acknowledge two Gods. Satan would be a second God. 
But that cannot be ; there is no Satan. The force of ignorance, the 
propensity which tricks one into doing an evil act, can be called 
Satan. Other than this, there is no Satan.

God is bound to stay with those who live in hell. Similarly, those 
who have reached the zenith point of existence and attained infinite 
bliss, are bound to have God with them. If they think that, having 
progressed so far, God need not stay with them any more, they are 
wrong. He stays with all, be they the virtuous or the sinners. The 
virtuous He must love, the sinners He must rebuke and correct. In 
both cases, God is obliged to stay with them.

There is no entity to supervise or administer God because nothing 
exists outside Him. That is why He is the only adorable object for 
humanity. No other object can fulfil that role." (THE DIVINE DRAMA, 
A'nanda Vacana'mrtam Part 7 25 December 1978, Kalika'ta')

This should be the proper approach of the spiritualist, the seeker 
and knower of God.  There cannot be any condemnation, vilification 
and prejudice in the name of religion.  And one cannot act with 
inflated ego, project oneself to be greater than one actually is or 
seek self-glorification.

For the spiritual life one needs to understand that God is 
witnessing everything.  

"Outside God there is nothing, therefore subjectivization of the 
external objectivity does not arise in His case -- because 
everything is internal for Him, everything is based on Him. He is 
the basis of everything, so He does not have to learn anything from 
books!

It is not in some heaven where one will find God. No, God exists 
everywhere -- if He is in heaven, then for that matter He is in hell 
also -- He is omnipresent. There is no object in which He does not 
exist. In order to preserve one's existence, His closeness is 
necessary and required.

If a sinner laments that God is not looking at him, he is making a 
mistake. God is with everybody. As soon as one will cry and 
shout, "Oh God, take me on your lap", God will then and there take 
the person up on His lap, rub off the dust, and say, "Come, I am 
taking off the dust of your sins".  So under no circumstances should 
human beings think that they are staying away from the Supreme 
Entity. Because staying away from His children is against the nature 
of God. I have repeatedly said that it is not befitting for anyone 
to say that God showers compassion on some particular persons only 
and not on oneself. One who says this has an umbrella of ego spread 
over his or her head. That person is receiving God's compassion all 
right, but the compassion is not touching or drenching the person 
because of the barrier of that egoistic umbrella. To feel the love 
of God, throw away that umbrella of pride by doing spiritual 
practices.

So in conclusion what do we get? The main formula is that we came 
from the same source -- we came from the same unit -- and that unit 
is the Supreme Consciousness - God. So between human and human no 
difference, no distinction, can be accepted. Acceptance of such 
discrimination would be like going against the wish of God -- would 
be to act like demons. Such demons should not be tolerated by human 
beings. God is the shelter and existence of everybody, so it is the 
duty of humankind to utilize properly and collectively all the 
things that the Supreme Consciousness has provided for human 
beings." (A'NANDA VACANA'MRTAM, PART 31, THE COSMIC INHERITANCE AND 
THE COSMIC DESIDERATA) 

"This Supreme Consciousness knows all the three phases of time: the 
past, the present and the future.  Nothing is beyond the periphery 
of His supramundane knowledge.  Suppose you are thinking 
internally, 'Let me quickly finish my meditation, for I have some 
important work to attend to.  Tomorrow I will devote more time to 
meditation.'  The moment you think thus, God immediately knows your 
thought.  Suppose you eat something on the fasting day of 4 days 
before the new or full moon, thinking that perhaps God will not know 
it.  Certainly He will know about your secret eating, and He feels 
amused at what His little child is thinking.  Not only the boys - 
the girls also make the same mistake.  Perhaps on fasting day they 
eat chocolates and think, 'I am eating secretly - no one can see 
it.'  This is defective thinking, because God knows everything - 
nothing is hidden from Him.

This is why in the spiritual world, the most important thing is 
taking shelter in the Supreme Entity. How can you deal with an 
Entity who knows all about you?  What you can only do is to totally 
surrender to Him  'Oh Lord, what can I offer unto You?  I can only 
offer my existential "I" feeling.  Please take it.'

Mean-minded people often think, 'I am a sinner, and God is far from 
me'.  Such persons should bear in mind that the tiniest creature in 
hell, or the greatest entity of heaven, are both equal for God - He 
is the Lord of both.  If the Supreme Entity says, 'I am only for the 
saints of heaven, and I have nothing to do with the creatures of 
hell', it should be said that as saints do not go to hell and as He 
has no love for the creatures of hell, then He is not omnipresent.  
In that case God is certainly not beyond measurement.  He is 
something less than infinite.  Thus in order to maintain His 
prestige He will have to remain with the creatures of hell also.

That is why no one should ever think internally, 'I am a sinner, God 
hates me, He is far away from me'.  The fact is that God  is always 
with you, very close to you - not at all separate from you.  While 
walking on the road, if your clothes are soiled with dirt, He will 
never hate you and keep you away from Him.  This is the essence of 
spirituality or dharma." (THE SECRET OF DHARMA LIES HIDDEN IN THE 
MIND, Subha's'ita Sam'graha Part 12, 9 July 1979, Ludhiana)

It is vital to understand this essence and this essence is the 
distinction between spirituality and religiosity.

"Today there is a domineering influence of religion on the human 
mind. You know that religions are based on dogmas. The propagators 
of religion never cared to preach the universally applicable human 
dharma or spirituality free from all narrowness -- rather they 
always feared and avoided it. What have they preached instead? They 
have always declared, 'I am not speaking with my own voice, I am 
speaking with the voice of heaven. I am the messenger of God. Don't 
take these words to be mine -- they are the message of God, and so 
you will have to accept them. You must not question whether they are 
right or wrong; to question is a sin. If you question, your tongue 
will fall off!' They have tightened the noose of dogma around the 
people, so that they fear to take a single step over the line, 
thinking, 'How terrible! If I do so I will be burnt in hellfire for 
eternity!' 

Those who sought to confine different groups within the bondage of 
dogma in the aforesaid ways are the so-called religious leaders or 
gurus; they have done enormous harm to the human society. The 
various religious groups have fought many bloody battles, because 
their dogmas were totally contradictory; if one group turned to pray 
towards the north, the other turned towards the south. Their 
leaders, meanwhile, fulfilled their own petty, selfish interests, 
saying, 'These are God's commands.'

In this way one group has tried to capture another group to be its 
arena of exploitation. As in the socio-economico-political field, so 
in the religious field. They have tried to create satellite groups. 
For instance, an affluent group tries to utilize a less-developed 
group as its satellite group. That is, they want to obtain their raw 
materials and force them to buy the finished products, which they 
produce in their own factories. It occurs just this way in the 
religious field also. And, being supported by the money of those who 
want to create satellites, the propagators of religious faiths idle 
away their days. Most of these propagators of religion are not even 
aware of the fact that they are helping the exploiters create 
satellite groups; but some are doing it consciously. 

You must awaken those religious people who are not aware of what 
they are doing, and make them aware. Let the ideals of Neohumanism 
reach their ears and be implanted in the core of their hearts. With 
their liberated intellects they will throw all their illusions into 
the dustbin.

But those who are deliberately propagating dogmas as the agents of 
injustice, will become furious and violent when they hear the 
propagation of truth. Let them so become -- let them fill their cup 
of sins to the brim. Their destruction is inevitable -- their 
annihilation is the inexorable decree of fate.

So in the sphere of religion also, if you look carefully, you will 
see that behind those who have been knowingly or unknowingly 
operating the machinery of exploitation, there are certain wealthy 
parties. Those parties want to create their satellites. In every 
sphere of life you will find such wealthy people in the background." 
(THE LIBERATION OF INTELLECT, DISCOURSE 7, EXPLOITATION AND PSEUDO-
CULTURE, Religious Exploitation, 21 March 1982, Calcutta)

Spirituality is the science of understanding one's own self and the 
Supreme Entity.

"This Supreme Conscious Entity beyond the veil of cimmerian darkness 
is called the Immutable Entity. He is the One to be adored by all. 
He is the Universal Father. Out of His Infinite Cognition emerges 
everything.

To realise the all-pervasive Supreme Entity the static darkness has 
got to be dispelled from one's mind - there is no other way. Those 
who grope in the darkness of staticity are bound to differentiate 
between various objects, and will certainly be goaded to worship 
various finite objects. When one develops real love for the Supreme 
through unflinching sincerity and intense spiritual practice, the 
bondages of inertness gradually loosen and finally snap open. Those 
who take the finite to be the infinite, and ascribe Godhood to 
finite objects, ultimately degenerate into inert matter. They are 
psychologically unable to transcend the bondages of lineage, caste, 
community and state. They may deliver noble-sounding speeches, but 
in reality they look upon this world through the spectacles of 
meanness. To fulfil their selfish group interests they utilise their 
intellectual power and physical energy for internecine feuds and 
battles, mutual slandering and jealousy, and thereby vitiate the 
atmosphere of the entire universe.

Some intellectuals are in favour of respecting all religions. Such 
people cannot do anything to promote the solidarity of the human 
race, for most religions demand blind faith rather than rationality 
from their followers. 'Don't argue', they proclaim. 'Accept the 
teachings of the scriptures for they are the direct word of God'. 
The cunning intellectuals of the past imposed the importance of 
blind faith on the minds of their gullible followers. They told them 
to obey the teachings, rational or irrational, otherwise there would 
be no respite from the endless suffering of human life, no other 
path to take them to the eternal bliss of heaven.

In most cases religions took advantage of human weaknesses, crippled 
the people's rationality, and sapped their strength, thus 
facilitating their exploitation by the religious traders. When the 
vitality and strength of the masses remains unexpressed, the 
exploiters will be able to exploit them in the economic and other 
spheres of life for along time with relative ease. In the annals of 
human history it can be seen in all ages that the various exploiters 
were the patrons and the preachers of religion.

Dharma or spirituality is altogether different from religion for it 
teaches human beings to advance while mercilessly smashing all 
obstacles that thwart human progress. Its inherent qualities are 
subtle analysis, ideological strength and the brilliance of valour. 
That's why the vested interests cannot tolerate it and use all their 
strength and machinery to oppose it. They claim they are protecting 
religion. The greater the conflict between person and person, 
between community and community, between state and state, the 
greater is their advantage. But when many people form a collective 
mind through sincere sacrifice and ardent practice while advancing 
towards the realisation of oneness with the Supreme, it will be 
difficult to continue exploiting people on any pretext.

In fact the ignorance of intuitional or spiritual science and dharma 
(spirituality) has done enormous harm to the human race. In the 
modern civilised society the same thing should not be allowed to be 
repeated. By accepting the all pervasive and all-permeating Supreme 
Entity - God - as the primordial factor for the crude, subtle and 
causal worlds; by realising God as the nucleus of the enjoyer, the 
enjoyed and the enjoyment; and by keeping the Supreme Cognition 
fixed before the mind, human life should be rebuilt on a strong 
foundation. All spheres of life should be completely restructured. 
All feelings of differentiation - his god, her god, the Hindu's Hari 
and the Moslem's A'lla'h - should be abandoned and that Supreme 
Entity accepted from the core of one's heart. That Supreme 
Imperishable Entity is the final desideratum, the culminating point 
of all entities. We should not bother the least who addresses Him as 
Hari or who addresses Him as A'lla'h.

Those whose existence is filled with cosmic ideation do not and 
cannot support any discrimination regarding the Supreme 
Consciousness - God - and His creation. But those who have not 
properly understood the concept of the Absolute Entity confine Him 
within the bonds of limitation by petty squabbling (over such 
insignificant arguments as to whether Hari is greater than A'lla'h, 
or A'lla'h greater than Hari), or claiming that He resides in 
certain holy places of pilgrimage. Some of them raise their hands 
and proclaim, 'God is listening to everything from above'. Others 
believe that the Supreme Entity remains within the confines of 
temples, mosques and churches and hands out His favours to all. Now 
can you ever keep that Infinite Entity confined to a limited place 
or idea? Leave aside the temples, mosques and churches; even a 
continent, a solar system or the entire universe cannot confine Him. 
Dull-witted people, due to the influence of the static principle, 
wrongly ascribe Godhood to finite objects, and worship them. They 
present logical arguments to attempt and justify their support of 
superstition due to their reactions in their minds from past actions 
accumulated over many times.

Those who say that the all-pervasive God resides above are wrong. No 
doubt He remains above, but His remaining in that state is a partial 
and spatial expression, and not His full manifestation. Had He any 
replica, He would have been confined to a particular space, but He 
has none." (FORM AND FORMLESS, Subha's'ita Sam'graha Part 5, Caetra 
Pu'rn'ima' 1957, Na'thnagar, Bhagalpur)

Those leaders or good people who understand this spirituality can be 
your guides in the social sphere.  Carefully assess any leader and 
consider how disciplined they are in spiritual practices and 
morality.  Mere praying to God for boons is not sufficient as an 
indicator of one's sincerity.

"'That which disciplines human beings, that which inspires human 
beings to follow the path of spirituality, the path of supreme 
benevolence, that is scripture.'

Anything else is not scripture at all. Religions create undue fear 
complex in the human mind. Utilising the lure of heaven and the 
dread of hell they destroy rationality and humanity. Motivated by 
their own petty interests they create artificial divisions in the 
human society. Should intelligent people be bound by the serpentine 
nooses of such religions? No, they should not; they must not. If at 
all people allow themselves to be bound by nooses, it should be 
understood that they are intellectually bankrupt. In all countries 
of the world such people form separate communities. Perhaps religion 
has done the most damage to humanity. After all, it is in the name 
of religion that most human conflicts have occurred. Now the time 
has come to put an end to the conflict over religion forever." 
(HUMAN SOCIETY IS ONE AND INDIVISIBLE - 3, A Few Problems Solved 
Part 3, Neohumanism in a Nutshell Part 2, 17 June 1979, Calcutta)

So move ahead with spirituality and be the vanguard.



All above extracts from the works of Shrii Shrii Anandamurti

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