REALIZATION LEADS TO LIBERATION
Why is it so important to realize the Truth?
Realization leads to Liberation. Once we realize the Truth about Spirituality, we will be liberated not just from all misery and sorrow in this life, we will also escape from possible rebirth and be unified with the Divine. How can we be liberated?
We suffer due to ignorance.
Because we continue to be in the kindergarten of Religion all our life, we live a life of ignorance. We suffer due to this ignorance. We believe in the myth and we don’t realize the Truth. It’s sad but we human beings, although gifted with an intellect, get carried away by our mind and suffer from our ignorance. It is only when we go on a quest to realize the Truth, it is only when we transcend Religion and move upwards to graduate to Spirituality, that we will overcome our ignorance and will be blessed with realization. This realization will liberate us from our ignorance. Meanwhile, we would live in a prison of misery and sorrow, but post realization we will be liberated and experience a life of true bliss peace and joy. But first, we need to overcome our ignorance and for this realization is not enough. Once we realize the Truth, we need to destroy our ignorance through our intellect. That is the key to Liberation, otherwise, we will continue to suffer all through life.
Our Religion imprisons us
What is the cause of our suffering? It is ignorance no doubt, but who causes this ignorance? The one who reads this for the first time may be shocked that it is our own Religion that causes us to be imprisoned in misery and sorrow. In the guise of connecting us with God, we trust the myth that we are taught by Religion and we do everything for our God, not knowing who God truly is. We go to a God in our religious institution, not realizing that God lives within the temple of our own heart. We thus remain prisoners of our own ignorance and stay far away from our Lord. We are searching for God outside when in reality, God is inside.
It is not that Religion intends to do this. It’s most unfortunate that Religion is only a kindergarten and we continue to be in this kindergarten all our life. It is for us to realize the Truth and make a progress from Kindergarten to University. We need to leave the kindergarten and get admitted into a university. Because we are staunch believers in our God, we don’t doubt our belief one bit. We blindly believe and this blind faith imprisons us. Our Religion remains as a silent spectator. It does not raise an alarm that we are suffering due to our ignorance. It continues advocating the myth about God and this is sad.
Sure, we need to pass through the kindergarten of Religion but to be in the kindergarten all our life is just not practical. Religion must help us get relieved from our mythological beliefs and to be introduced to a new thought process, a new quest in search of God. As long as we are imprisoned in our Religion, we will never realize the Truth and never achieve
Liberation. Even post realization, we need to transcend our religion and not feel bad in going beyond Religion to reach God.
Do we truly love God?
If we truly love God, we won’t let Religion stop us. We will move on. We don’t need to leave our Religion, but with it being our basic foundation, we will go in quest of our God, our Lord whom we love so much. If we truly love God, then we will not believe the myth to be the Truth. We will passionately search for God till we realize the Truth. This is our Life Goal, our ultimate challenge of life.
As long as our love for God is mediocre, we will just follow our Religion and live and die in ignorance just like most of humanity does. But if we are among those few fortunate ones who are passionately in love with God, then we won’t take these fairy tales as real. We will question each and every ritual and object to superstitions and dogmas because we are so much in love with our Lord. We want God, we seek God and we will not rest till we find God. That is the Spirit of a true seeker who wants God and nothing else in life. Such a seeker does not accept answers that are not logical, does not believe in myth. Such a true seeker goes on a quest for God and does not stop till he realizes God and is ultimately liberated from the myth that Religion advocates.
Be passionate to seek God
We human beings are so passionate when it comes to worldly things. Have we not seen people passionate about their love? They do anything, they even kill themselves for the sake of the beloved. Don’t we see passion in the world’s successful people? They can do anything to succeed - they will go to the extent of using foul means to achieve success. It is their passion, their obsession to achieve success in their field of endeavour.
But what about God? Are we passionate and obsessed about God? Is God our priority? Is God the goal of our life? If so, then we will change our passion from seeking worldly things to seeking God. We will make God a priority in our life. We will make God our obsession and we will start a quest with all our passion to seek God. When we realize the Truth that God is not a statue or a saint, but rather a power that dwells within, we will not stop at our realization.
Although our Religion does not agree to this, we will pass by our Religion because we are so passionate to find God. We will go beyond our faith and belief, a task so difficult, but because of our passion for God, we will sacrifice everything and go on an advanced journey towards God. Only this time, the journey is not outward but rather inward, for God dwells within. When our passion is very strong, then we will turn inward to realize God within.
Liberation is our Ultimate Goal
We human beings at the outset don’t realize that we have a purpose in life. Our life has a meaning, a goal, an objective to fulfill - that is to realize first, who we are and then, to go beyond and be liberated so that we can be unified with the Divine. That is our Ultimate Goal of life. Our Ultimate Goal is not just to be happy nor to just make others happy. Sure, it is good to do that, but how can we be happy without realization of the Truth and without Liberation? The only way to eternal peace and joy is Liberation that comes post realization. Thus, it becomes so important to transcend the kindergarten Religion and move on. We need to go beyond our simple faith in God. We must be ready to give up anything, to renounce everything for the sake of finding our God and being unified with the Divine.
For this, we need to graduate Spiritually. We need to take the help of our Spiritual Master. We need to yearn for God, even shed tears in entreaty for the sake of our lord. It’s not just by blindly following myth, rituals and superstitions that we will find God. There is no way for this body to go to heaven. We all know that. We must use our intellect to firmly realize the Truth and then once done, we will be liberated to unify with the Divine.
The reward is Ultimate Bliss and Peace
Why should we do all this? Why should we first go on a quest then realize the Truth and finally be liberated? Because Liberation means a lot, it takes away all our misery, our pain and sorrow. It eliminates our lifelong suffering as we realize the Truth. And this is only possible if we graduate Spiritually. We cannot be in the kindergarten all our life and then be liberated. Throughout life, we experience both joy and sorrow but once we realize and are liberated, there is no more sorrow in our life. Misery comes to an end with Liberation. We don’t suffer as the body. We transcend the misery of the mind and we don’t experience the agony of the ego because we realize we are none of these. We are the Soul, the Spirit, the Divine Life Energy. This realization liberates us from all suffering of the ego, mind, and body and this is Ultimate Ananda, Bliss, and Peace.
If we have the courage to go beyond the kindergarten of Religion, then we finally graduate in our Spirituality and realize the Truth. As we overcome all the stress, worry, fear anger, frustration, anxiety, jealousy, hate, revenge that most mortals experience, we are blessed with a life without all these negative emotions as these toxins disappear on realization. Once we graduate Spiritually, then we move from realization to Liberation as we leave behind all these negative emotions.
Our enemy is ME
However, if we want to experience this Ultimate Peace and Bliss, we need to destroy ME, our own Mind and Ego. It is this ME that makes us prisoners of our own ignorance. It makes us live in the kindergarten of Religion all our life. Although we have an intellect and we know the Truth, we don’t realize it. We will only realize it when we open our “real eyes”, our real Spiritual eyes. This will lead us to Liberation from the myth and with it, all the sorrow and suffering will cease.
What should we do? We must realize that we are the Divine Soul and the body, mind, and ego are fetters, prison bars that stop us from escaping from the prison of ignorance and suffering. We need to break free from this prison and be liberated.
We must first realize we are not the body that craves and desires. We must then be free from the mind, the illusory rascal that we cannot find. But it still exists as an illusion only to make us fear and worry and then suffer. We need to eliminate this suffering by transcending the mind. We then need to destroy the ego. We can’t as long as we are alive, but we can go beyond it, we can transcend it. Once we transcend the ME, the mind and ego, then we can be liberated. Otherwise, even though we have realized the Truth, we will still have to keep fighting the battle within and ultimately, we may not be free and liberated. So, we must be conscious of this enemy, ME and we must fight it before it defeats us.
Living as a liberated Soul
Finally, our challenge is to live as a liberated Soul. This occurs after several stages in life. First, we realize that Religion is just a kindergarten of Spirituality. We check out of Religion and check into Spirituality. Slowly but surely, we realize the Truth, but this is not the end. We need to then transcend ego, mind and body and be liberated, living not as the ego, mind or body but as the Soul.
What does it mean to live as a liberated Soul? Although we are imprisoned in this physical body till death, we live as a Jivanmukta, one who is liberated while alive. We live as a Stithpragya, one who lives with a steady intellect. This is our challenge - to be liberated when alive.
Most people believe it is not possible to be liberated when alive, but this is the only way to be liberated after death. There is no way to do so after we die. We have to be liberated before we die and to finally unify with the Divine at death. This is our ultimate challenge of life.
In this journey from kindergarten to university, from Religion to Spirituality, we need to overcome ignorance at every step, just like in our education. We did not know but education is to educate us, to make us know. So is our quest for the Truth - to know the Truth about God and ultimately to let our realization liberate us till we are finally unified with the Divine.
When we realize the Truth, we are free,
From myth and superstition, we can forever flee!
Then we are liberated from misery and pain,
We can live with Peace and Happiness again!