Who runs the universe

Here is a piece from my forthcoming novel involving spiritualists of all backgrounds of all religions. I will be posting more of these extracts regularly

Proposed name of the work–’Secret Realm’

One of the masters, a handsome middle aged man of Indian origin started his discourse. It was a huge gathering of men and women eager to listen to the master holding them spell-bound every time he spoke.

   “Any discussion on spirituality has to take off from a point that shows that it is some thing that is capable of being felt or experienced. For a start it could be a traditional belief about inner space named ‘the kingdom of God’ that is within us as declared by Jesus. If you have faith in Jesus you will naturally consider this to be true and all further action to explore that kingdom becomes easy as you have no doubt about its presence within you. It does not matter to you whether this inner space is there or not in other humans or in non-human species inhabiting our world.”

“What about God and our concept of him or her?” asked a member in the audience.

The master started speaking of God:

 “Another traditional concept is about God. Not being given the power to distinguish between a hallucination and a so called divine spiritual experience, one is forced to fall back on the concept of God which is a faith oriented issue rather than an intellect-logic oriented one. Jesus Christ said he was the son and that his father had sent him and that the kingdom of God is within us.

We thus have two concepts namely of ‘God’ and of ‘his kingdom within us’. Both are based on faith. Several others revered as prophets or Avatars have also spoken of God. Scriptures of most religions have asserted God’s status as the creator of the universe as also the one who is full of unconditional love and most forgiving but rather a strict and punishing father-mother figure.  Perhaps the Buddhist lore is the only one that does not define God in any way and has no concept of such a phenomenon. Some of the subtler religions declare God to be the un-seeable, un-understandable, un-definable, omnipotent, all pervading entity with no beginning middle or end, ever present in the smallest of the small and the biggest of the big and so on. In other words our exploration concerning spiritual phenomena is flawed since we are forced to accept the existence of something or some one called God with no proof and no structured logic at least as understood by our mind stuff to be able to proceed further in the matter. Yet another belief system does not mention the creation of the universe or attribute it to the one that it considers to be the Supreme Being that dispenses reward and punishment in each case. It only mentions the Supreme Being as the dispenser of justice by way of reward or punishment that too after death. ”

 

“We have the word of many exalted personages describing their interaction with God. Do you consider them to be valid proof of God’s existence?” asked another member of the audience.

 “Our Himalayan seers from the East declare that one can experience God when one’s ego is obliterated leading to a merger of one’s self with the universal self which is called God, the self becoming a sub-part of that God. There is also the primary concept of peace, happiness, joy or bliss one is capable of experiencing in stages of greater and greater intensity by a process of a structured effort that includes meditation and chanting among other things. Mention is also made of energy infusion techniques that activate certain nodal centres of the human body leading to transcendental experiences of bliss. How far these are authentic and not merely the result of a rearrangement of the brain’s chemical composition is a point to ponder. The need to establish the fact that no external chemical substance is taken into the body to produce such a feeling of bliss becomes important and the inducement of a chemical reaction in one’s mind purely by an action of one’s mind, intellect or the vibration generated by elements of one’s own body, border on the bizarre or the miraculous,’ said the master.

“What about those god-men who though illiterate and or uneducated had risen to the very pinnacle of spiritual greatness without ever studying the scriptures or philosophy?” asked a member from the congregation?

“It is a very valid question. Man is only said to be discovering whatever there already is and knowledge is one of the things that already exist and can be tapped into by anyone who through his mind attains a state of receptivity. It then becomes a matter of switching the brain to the right frequency that could be done either by meditation or by some other technique. These great men perhaps know an alternate way of switching.” The master said.

Suddenly there was a commotion and some members of the audience got up and started moving towards an approaching woman dressed in yellow robes. Apparently she was someone known and respected by many.

The master smiled at the woman.  Pointing to a chair next to him, he Said “Sister Uma, May I request you to please join me here”

“It will be an honor far beyond what I deserve” said the woman and walked towards the master.

 

“Please listen carefully” said the master addressing the audience after the woman sat on the chair. “Sister Uma is a person that has attained a position in the realm of spirituality that you may call mind blowing”

The master then turned towards her and said “Please explain to them the meaning of de-materialization of the five- sheathed human body” 

Uma got up and started addressing the gathering “I am indeed grateful to the master for his kind words of introduction. I owe my spiritual progress to the master’s kind guidance and instruction.  Let me now give you an over-view of what the human body comprises of. One’s gross body sheathed in skin is the form with a given name that one normally identifies with his or her personality. The fact is that this gross body is called as the ‘food nurtured’ sheath. There are four other finer and subtler sheaths that shroud the body which are called ‘The mind nurtured sheath’ ‘the life nurtured sheath’ ‘the mind nurtured sheath’, ‘the knowledge nurtured sheath’ and finally ‘the joy or bliss nurtured sheath’. Sometimes two or three of the sheaths are considered as one namely the mind, life and the knowledge related ones thus reducing the sheaths to three. They are not visible to the human eye. Yoga teaches us the way to access these sheaths to transport one to wherever one wishes in one of these sheaths. Each sheath has a corresponding mind stuff that comes into play as we access the sheaths.”

“How does the mind work as one goes into meditation? Does one experience each of these minds associated with the five sheaths one after the other?” asked a person from the audience.

“Yes indeed. That is the purpose of their presence. As one progresses away from the first mind associated with the gross body, the other minds take over at each stage and the final stage is bliss or Ananda.  A person returns to the gross mind when the bliss stage is consciously ended” said Uma replying to the query.

“The scientists tell us that we humans normally use only a very little portion of our brain. That is correct. The other parts come into play when we enter the finer sheaths. “Said the master.

 

Suddenly the place became hazy and Uma disappeared. The master said “Let us prepare our minds to accept a fact that defies ‘Physical laws’ as we understand them. Uma wanted to show us as to how it is possible for one to de-materialize one’s body stuff to disappear from view. Uma is very much here but in a different dimension from the dimension in which we exist. She cannot communicate with any of us except through the mind. She has the power however to create whatever she wishes in our dimension before materializing herself back to be with us.”

 The silence that greeted this statement was total. The audience was in a state of shock and disbelief.

The next moment Uma reappeared and started speaking. “I know how unreal all this will look to most of you. The master is yet to reveal some other important detail about my disappearance. I now request him to speak to us about it.”

The master spoke “Uma is right. There are various ways in which true yogis can act if they wish to. Physical disappearance is the first and basic act of leaving our dimension as demonstrated by sister Uma. A yogi who attains the power called ‘swa-drisya’ can stay in his body while at the same time manifest himself in any manner or form in a place of his choice using one of the sheaths other than his food nurtured sheath namely his body. He can then be in more than one place at any given time.”

A long and interesting session of questions and answers followed. The master explained many of the concepts concerning the world as it exists for us the humanoids. The master stopped his interactive session as something else apparently gained his attention, perhaps a telepathic message.