The pluralistic world created by the diffusion of understanding of world’s major faith-traditions has made religion a vital resource in the task of building a good society, a world where all can live freely and pursue visions of the highest values.
The different spiritual paths lead to the same human heart.The vast spiritual heritage is actually the common treasure of all mankind. Our civilization’s spiritual prism provides a kaleidoscopic canvas of shimmering stars of wisdom. The blazing radiance exuded by this constellation is what keeps the darkness of carnal impulses from overwhelming us. We face a constant struggle with the moral, material, social, cultural and political complexities and oddities of an ever rapidly changing society. Spiritualism is truly a way of setting out and travelling the paths of the heart, mind and the imaginary, in a world that is full of different viewpoints.
The spiritual quest is an internal journey, it is a psychic path. Very often, priests, rabbis, imams, and shamans are just as consumed by worldly ambition as regular seekers of material possessions. But all this is generally seen as an abuse of a sacred ideal. These power struggles are not what religion is really about, but an unworthy distraction from the life of the spirit, which is conducted far from the madding crowd, unseen, silent and unobtrusive.
“Life has meaning,” as Browning reminds us, and “to find its meaning is my meat and drink”. We are like Mitya in The Brothers Karamazov. “One of those who doesn’t want millions, but an answer to his questions.” The daily mart of economic strife keeps pulling us down from our philosophic perches. We keep reinforcing our ideals with Nietzsche’s words, “He who has a why to live for can bear almost anyhow.”
One of the great thinkers of the last century who articulated the human dilemma very succinctly was Jiddu Krishnamurthi. Mr Krishnamurthi did not expound any philosophy or religion. He dwelt on the things that concern all of us in our everyday lives, of the problems of living in the corrupt modern society, of the individual’s search for security and happiness. He explained with great precision the subtle workings of the human mind, and emphasized the need for bringing to our daily life a deeply meditative and spiritual quality. The core of Mr Krishnamurthi’s teaching is contained in the famous statement, “Truth is a pathless land”. Man cannot come to it through any organization, through any creed, through any dogma, priest or ritual, not through any philosophical knowledge or psychological technique. He has to find it through the mirror of relationship, through the understanding of the contents of his own mind, through his own keen observation and not through intellectual analysis.
Modern man has erected images in his mind — political, personal, that manifest in the form of symbols, ideas and beliefs. These images dominate man’s thinking, his relationships, his daily life; they divide man from man. Man’s perception of life is shaped by the concepts already established. The content of his consciousness is his entire existence. The individuality of man is just his name which is formal identity, but his larger persona is contoured by the culture he acquires from his traditions and his social environment. The uniqueness of man will dissipate if the mind is not in a position to enjoy full autonomy and complete freedom from the content of his consciousness, which is common to all humanity.
