Neutral thinking

I am interested in spirituality or the soul science, since ten years from now. I had been browsing a lot of books from different schools of thought, and could by this time arrive at a conclusion (though I could hear some one telling that this is a very short period to conclude..) that unless one realises by himself it is difficult to understand the essence of the Ultimate. So many books are there to throw light on the Reality and the ways to reach thereupon, but nothing is of help unless one finds it out by himself.
Most of the existing, popular religions tell us that there is one God. I hope all agree for the above mentioned fact. Keeping this in mind I would suggest that you consider the below mentioned facts as well.
Every body would have noticed that there are
a)Number of religion, castes, sects, sub sects, sub sub sects.
b)Religious leaders who are considered to be the Son of God (Jesus), incarnation of Shiv, Vishnu, Vayu, Agni, Indra, and others like Mahavir, Buddha, Chaitanya.
c)Innumerable miracles they performed to prove that they are the incarnation of the respective gods and also for increasing the faith of their followers.
d)Interestingly many philosophies came up from the messengers of the same God which are quite contrary to each other. For example, Vishistadvaita is expounded by Sri Ramanuja (believed to be an incarnation of the Shesh nag or the Serpent bed on which Vishnu sleeps)and Dvaita by Sri Madwacharya (beleived to be an incarnation of Vayu or the Wind god). Some religions suggest that God has all qualities (Satguna), some tell that God is without qualities (Nirguna), some conclude that God is Zero. Every theory has got its own proof and hence it is surviving the irrevocable effects of Time. So what is God? Not all beleivers of the above mentioned religions with contradictory thoughts about Gods are Fools.
So I think that one interested in exploring the Spiritual Sea should set asail oneself. I do not mean that one should come up with one's own philosophy adding to the existing very many!!! What I want to tell is, one should be free and independent to decide one path, which will suit his nature the most, (for ex: devotion, karma, Gyan, Raja yoga, Kriya yoga, mantra japa etc.. etc..)and regulate one's life to practise the method earnestly and meticulously in his daily life, devoting a sincere amount of time everyday in contemplation. Without this daily practise, no religion or method is of any help in bringing up the striving/starving soul. But with this daily practise, I strongly beleive that in due course of time, you will definetely get a Guru to guide you to your Goal knowing the nature of the method your soul requires.
As for me, I am an abhyasi of Sahaj Marg, which again emphasises the daily routine of meditation/cleaning/prayer. I am able to perceive things clearly now though I know that I have to go a long way through

For sincere seekers...

There are few who may be interested in spirituality in its real sense. According to them, the term spirituality means the intense longing of the soul to be united to the Supreme Cause of this universe and beyond. They are very clear between the two terms religion and spirituality. For such people, religion is a relatively insignificant term, which after following for a long time and may be for many lives cannot satisfy or feed enough, the severe longing of the soul. They beleive that religion is good upto a certain stage in the evolution of the soul, till they are able to discriminate what is the righteous mode of living. Once they are through with this basic way of conducting their life, they are not ready to make their soul stagnate at that state, depriving its evolution.
They want 1. something more to pursue in their daily life without renouncing their family and material life, 2. they need a spiritually evolved personality to lead them on to that path, 3. they like to meet and interact with spiritually inclined (like minded) people, which would enable them to follow the path and evolve with a greater pace.
For such sincere spiritual seekers, I would like to suggest a system called as Sahaj Marg (The Natural Path) also called as Sri Ram Chandra Mission. This system falls under the category of Raja Yoga system of Meditation, simplified for the modern man. This is a non-profit organization, spread throughout the world. Sahaj Marg does not see any differences between religion as they beleive firmly that spirituality begins where religion ends. They do not force you to change your existing religious practise, because they beleive that change within you should occur naturally without any force. This system is mainly for the Grihastas and so there is no need for renunciation of your beloved family, on the contrary they insist that you need to love your spouse, family and children in a balanced way.
To know more about Sahaj Marg, please visit, http://www.srcm.org/ and http://www.sahajmarg.org/. I have been practising this system for the past two and half years and could find it very efficient. I hope all sincere seekers will benefit by joining the mission and make your life more meaningful.

Duel over Dualism

Few people have shallow knowledge inspite of having extensive reading habits, whereas on the contrary few others possess true knowledge based on their intellectual depths and acumen. Being honest to my conscience, I fit myself in the first category and Anand in the second category.
I could conclude this only a few days back when Anand and myself had a duel over the trueness and genuinity of the philosophies Monism and Dualism. Though I am by birth a follower of Dualism (Madhwacharya), I was beleiving that the philosophy of Dualism was propagated as a part of Divine play, because many people who followed Monism (Advaita philosophy founded by Adi Sankaracharya) misinterpreted the core thought and became egoistic. To curb this, God sent Madwacharya on earth to propagate strongly the philosophy of Dualism which states that the God, Individual Soul and Matter are different from each other and that through true devotion to God only one can attain liberation. Also I was thinking that the Dualism philosophy is only for layman who is egoistic and thinks/boasts himself to be God by understanding Monism in the wrong sense
My thought that Monism is the true philosophy may be due to the very many books I have read, including many Ramakrishna/Vivekanands books, Sahaj marg (Sri Ram Chandra Mission) literature, Aurobindo and to top it, Vivekachudamani by Adi Sankara himself. Whereas, I have not read any books which deeply explains the Dvaita/Dualism philosophy.
Anand on the other hand, who had not given himself much reading, incidentally had gone through a few pages over net regarding the Dualism philosophy.
The controversy was whether after liberation, the individual soul will merge with the Supreme losing its identity or will the individual even afer attaining liberation still maintain its identity? Anand supported Dualism firmly and told the even after liberation, individuality of souls remain intact and are still servants of God, which I denied. I felt very bad that I could not convince him. Suddenly I remembered the Book AY (refer my previous post on Scientific Miracles..) where Chapter 43 explains the resurrection of Yukteshwar. I opened the chapter and searched for evidence to strengthen my viewpoint. But alas... Anand won the duel and to quote what exactly is given in the book, "When a soul finally gets out of the three jars of bodily delusions," Master continued, "it becomes one with the Infinite without any loss of individuality. Christ had won this final freedom even before he was born as Jesus". The phrase without loss of any individuality indicates strongly that the soul after becoming one with the infinite also (like a wavelet in a ocean) will maintain its individuality. It doesn't mean that these words are the sole authority for judging the toughest philosophies, yet at that point of time, the words from this neutral book, on which I beleive firmly has given me an answer, totally convincing me.
Further, Anand told me the following practical points. Chronologically speaking Dualism was expounded by Madwachar (13th century) at a later date when compared to Monism (10th century). While coming up with a new philosophy, Madwachar would have faced lots of trials and setbacks to assert the same, when he interpreted all the Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas, Gita, etc, in support of Dualism. But as for Adi Sankara, it would have been relatively easier to just interpret the old works in the view of Monism. So I understood that the Dualism concept is not for layman but also for the highly educated lot.

Scientific Miracles/Resurrection

It is a great mystery for all on earth about the life after death principle. Though majority of the people are apparently disinterested to know what happens after death, all the activities of their life, esp. for god fearing people, are mainly based on their assumption that their good deeds will harvest them with good/reasonably decent status after death. So they try to be good and do good to others, which in a way is good to the society. I also consider myself one among this abovesaid group, and more recently when I was going through an excellent book by name "Autobiography of a Yogi" (AY) of Shri Paramahansa Yogananda (PY), I was engrossed totally by the content and the spirit of the work.
I am interested to know about many ways of attaining the Supreme and in the course of my reading, this book caught my attention. I started reading this book very lightly but slowly the heaviness of the subject matter made me dumbfounded. PY is a saint of last century and the book deals with the spiritual richness of our country. I would many times ponder why India is talked high for its spiritualism, when I think of the present day fake/perverted lot of saints. But AY shattered all my doubts of the spiritual richness of the nation as it depicts in detail the many highly devoted, spiirtual souls stayed in India, the miracles they were able to perform because of the spiritual power they possessed and yet how humble they presented themselves before others, the scientific basis of performing miracles (Chapter 30: The Law of Miracles), the vast scope given to common people about their spiritual growth, and above all, the chapter (43) called Resurrection of Yukteshwar, elaborately explains what happens to the soul after death. One has to but admit the genuinity of the work while reading the chapter. It gives detail of each and every minute aspect of the astral world and the causal world, the lives there, lifespan, food, sleep, disease, growth, death etc.. etc.
The book is available free online at http://www.crystalclarity.com/yogananda/.. Going through the entire book will definitely navigate your thoughts in the positive direction and also make you be proud of our spiritually rich mother land.