VIII / (ii)

Science and Religion

Scientists think that religion is just a bundle of superstitious beliefs, and that a person without religion can be as contented, peaceful and happy as one with religion. Atheists, or those who do not believe in God, assert that religion is the opiate of the people. Religious people, on the other hand, maintain that science has, by the invention of deadly and diabolical instruments of destruction and devastation, sown in the world dragons' teeth of discord, discontent and disruption. Scientists admit that a person is a complex of body and mind, and if one were to take care of the mind, the spirit, if any, would take care of itself. They are sceptical, both of spirit and of God.

For the Master-Souls, spirit alone is the real entity, but it is entangled in the prison-house of body and mind. Their mission is to liberate the spirit from the various sheaths in which it is enshrouded and to link it up with the Word, or God-in-action, Holy Ghost, about which They have personal experiences. This evolution of the spirit is real salvation, but very few understand the true significance of it. Some feel that it consists just in petrification, while others think that it amounts to nihilism or atheism, i.e., denial of all existence and rejection of all moral and religious beliefs. 

But each of these conceptions is far from the Truth. In fact, mind stands as a connecting link between body and bodily relations, and this linking up is bondage; while breaking asunder of this relationship is called salvation. The primary step in this direction is Gurubhakti, or devotion to a Living Master, and the next, is practice of Naam or Word, which ultimately leads to Sach Khand or Muqam-i-Haq (the abode of Truth). 

Oh Hafiz! the Paradise or Heaven is our birthright and a heritage.

If one were to consider deeply and earnestly the advantages and limitations of both science and religion, one would find a close connection between the two. Environments exert a two-fold influence on all living objects, external as well as internal, both of which are universal in character. Man is endowed with intellect, reason and discrimination (which thee rest of the creation lacks), by which he is able to control his environment. A person remains happy so long as there is harmony between his internal and external relations. If things shape themselves as one wishes, one feels contented and happy. Experience shows that this state of harmony between the ever-wishful man and his environment is not static and does not last long. On the contrary, both of these are ever-changing.

It has ever been the endeavour of man to find a way that may assure a state of perfect and unchangeable harmony between himself and his environment. One way is to control the conditions without to an extent that may satisfy the needs of a person, whatever these may be. The other way is to regulate one's inner urges and inborn instincts in such a Way as to develop an utter indifference to the ever shifting environment without, so that one does not react to the influx of changing conditions in which all things are. The former effort is scientific in nature, while the latter is purely religious. 

The realm of science extends from electrons to the stars. It embraces in its fold all objects of the world that can influence human feelings and emotions; in fact everything that is capable of being comprehended by the senses. The inner world, on the other hand, is entirely different and unique in character. Our motor and sensory organs, which work so admirably in the material world, cannot invert easily and take stock of the mental world within. This inner world is full of immense possibilities and untold Treasures of Spirituality, all of which lies within one's reach and grasp, if one could but know how to enter into one's own self.

Again, there are the relative values and measures of quantity in material objects. For instance, two halves of a loaf of bread go to make one whole loaf, but two half-wits cannot make one wise man. Further, we have instruments and implements that help us in material investigations, and the conclusions arrived at in the course of our experiments are verifiable in actual practice. These are some of the facts that contribute to the importance of scientific truths. Every day scientific experiments are being performed, and will continue to be performed indefinitely. What is true today may not be so tomorrow. But that is not the case with religion. Truth is Truth, ever the same, and shall be Truth always. It guarantees perpetual happiness and everlasting bliss by regulating the inborn instincts and the native urges of the mind, rendering it unmindful of the changing conditions without.

The path of religion is strewn with many impediments. All persons, including Saints, are mortal, and after They leave the physical plane, Their followers, in their blind enthusiasm, introduce and interpolate into Their teachings things which They never uttered or, at least, They never meant. So-called philosophical treatises are so full of distortions and apparent conflict with each other that one feels as though lost in a wilderness. 

In order that one may reach the spiritual heights of a Master-Soul, one must, according to His instructions, enter into the laboratory of one's own body and carry on the experiments therein. Again, the results achieved may differ from one individual to another, owing to the separate make-up and background in each case. The conclusions thus reached and the time taken in each are, therefore, of a purely personal nature and not of a universal kind, as in science. It is because of this that we cannot possibly have an experience of spiritual life, from the different types of worship conducted in temples and mosques, churches and synagogues, or from the sacred scriptures of various religions. A Living Master, Who has successfully transcended the body and the mind, and who has an actual experience of the naked Reality beyond all limitations and barriers, can tell us something solid of the Great Truth. By personal guidance and instruction, He can help in the withdrawal of the spirit from the physical and mental shackles and bring within one´s actual experience that which He has experienced.

What a man has done, a man can do, with, of course,  proper guidance and help. The Master's personal contact, His thought transference, His charged words and magnetized personality, all go a long way in the transformation of individual souls. Whoever comes and remains within the personal aura of a Master, is electrified and attuned to the Infinite Energy with which He is possessed and which He emits, transmits and injects into the aspirants. This benefit can also be had even from thousands of miles, if one develops receptivity with such a Master.

Life-impulse comes from life, and light from light, both in the physical and spiritual worlds alike. The technique of religion, too, is subject to certain fundamental laws, the same as is the technique of science, but with this difference only, that we are as yet unaware of the former, as we have paid but scant attention to it and cannot therefore harness it to our advantage. Purity of life and highly ethical conduct in thoughts, words and deeds is the prerequisite for a sadhu or an aspirant for the Spiritual Path. Mind has to be stilled, after freeing it from all kinds of outer disturbances, inner lures and urges, and environmental glamour or worries. Just as in the case of a scientific experiment, one has to enter a laboratory and see that all the instruments are thoroughly neat and clean, and properly sterilized. And again, before beginning the operation, all the doors and windows are closed, so that he may carry on his work undisturbed from outer influences, and with undivided attention.

It is a matter of common experience that people take pride in scrupulously following age-old customs and keeping up ancient traditions blindly, little knowing that out-of-date coins, however precious and of historical importance and archeological interest they may be, have to be melted in the red-hot furnace, minted afresh, before passing them as current coins for fresh circulation in the market. In the twentieth century, it is of paramount importance to prune off the unnecessary accretions that have, in course of time, gathered around the Eternal Spiritual Truths. We should free them from the encrusted dust of ages that has settled on them, and present them afresh to the public in a positive and readily acceptable form as current coins of the time.

The present-day prejudices, internecine jealousies and narrow-minded bigotries that we see in the various religious bodies, were never intended by their founders. Such evils are purely of a later growth, due to extraneous influences of the zealous exponents, fierce commentators and controversialists, who twist and torture simple fundamental truths to suit their own ends and gain cheap peshwarship (leadership) that may bring them name, fame, pelf and power. The ancient Wine of Spirituality has, therefore, to be delved out from the old forgotten cellars and presented to tipplers in new bottles that may appeal to their imagination, so that they take it readily and willingly to quench their spiritual thirst, without any labels or brands.