MY JOURNEY FROM RELIGION TO SPIRITUALITY
For 48 years, I lived a life of ignorance. I was very religious, very devout and I loved my Lord very much, beyond anything else. My God was Lord Shiva, one of the Trinity of Hinduism. He is known as the destroyer, the God who has the third eye and can destroy the universe in a flash if He opens it.
My faith in Lord Shiva started when I was eight when my grandfather taught me to pray. He led me to believe that if we want to be happy and successful, then we must live a religious life. I followed his guidance and went to the temple every Monday, I even fasted for the sake of my God and hoped that Lord Shiva would answer my prayers. It is absolutely true that whatever I asked Lord Shiva in my prayers, they were all fulfilled.
My faith grew day by day as I continued to live with trust and enthusiasm, believing entirely in Lord Shiva. I used to celebrate Maha Shivratri, the annual festival of Lord Shiva every year with so much religious fervor, that it created vibrations in the entire community and more and more people started believing in Lord Shiva.
After two decades of my faith in my Lord, I had a vision one day to build a huge Temple that would become a place of Faith where dreams would come true. I had no money, no land, not even an architect, I just had a Divine spark of inspiration that came to me from Lord Shiva. With faith in my heart, I started the project and in a matter of two years the project was completed. It was a miracle because I had nothing to make this project happen, but He sent me everything that was needed.
A 65-foot statue of Lord Shiva stands at the Shivoham Shiva temple on Old Airport Road, Bangalore as a proof of my faith and God's benediction. His grace and kindness was upon me for making this dream come true. I can write a whole book on my religious experience, but what I would rather say is that it was a great foundation, an amazing kindergarten for my Spiritual evolution.
There's no doubt that my faith in Lord Shiva has been instrumental to receive His grace which helped me to realize the Truth. This goes on to mean that anybody who wants to realize God should not underestimate the importance of Religion because Religion is the foundation for our Spiritual Evolution. We cannot be liberated from this world and from misery and sorrow without the grace of God.
What is of more significance is my transformation. I realized that I wanted my God, Lord Shiva so badly, that I visited all the pilgrimages. I realized what Religion had taught me was just a myth, it was not true that Lord Shiva lived in Kailash or he lived in Amarnath or Kedarnath. My Faith continued till I was 48 years old. I blindly believed in the scriptures and what the pujaris or priests told me. I must admit that many religious people made a fool of me many a time. I realize it now that it was my foolish ignorance that made me accept it.
One day, my mother told me to go and perform some Pooja because my business was not doing very well and my family life was also experiencing some stress. Based on her request, I went and met a religious saint who told me that my problem was that I had killed a cow in my previous life! He told me that I must perform some prayers and that I must donate a golden cow to undo the bad karma of my last life. I agreed to do it and I asked him how I could make this golden cow. He told me not to worry and that he will do everything. I just had to go for the prayers which I did the following month. When I asked him where the golden cow was, which we were supposed to be offering to the Lord so that I could be forgiven for my sin, he said that it was buried under the rice used for the prayer that was kept on the table. He had already prepared it for me so that there would be no waste of time. I did the Pooja and humbly paid him 20,000 Rupees for making the gold cow which I did not even get to see.
It was only later that I realized how foolish I was to get carried away by the priest’s fairy tale! I was living a life of myth and ignorance like millions of others around the world who were being taken for a ride by certain unscrupulous people. By participating in the ritual, I was facing a bigger problem - beyond losing money, I was losing sight of God.
The one whom I loved so much and so deeply was being sacrificed by my belief in mythology, superstition and rituals. I was a victim of religious dogmas and I realized my foolishness now. My foolishness lasted for 40 years until one day my Spiritual Master Dada J. P. Vaswani asked me to go on a quest to realize the Truth. He had guided me for over 25 years, holding my hand and building my faith in my Lord Shiva. He never advised me to leave Religion and he knew that eventually my belief and faith in God would lead me to the truth. He was the one who guided me to start a quest, to investigate, to ask questions and to realize the Truth. He did not discourage diverse views and he often visited the Shivoham Shiva temple where we prayed and sang bhajans or Spiritual songs. However, he knew that I was meant to realize the Truth and God and he guided and helped me to do so.
In 2012, Dada made me start my Talaash, my quest or my search for God. He knew me for 25 years and he knew my love for God was very genuine. He had also encouraged me to do humanitarian work and we opened several orphanages and served thousands of people in the name of God. The Shivoham Shiva Temple had become a big religious tourist destination. My business went through ups and downs, but ultimately, we made huge sums of money. He advised me to shut down the business and use the rest of my life for living a meaningful and purposeful life.
With that guidance, I went in search of God, that being my passion and obsession. I must admit that all my life, whatever I had dreamed of, I had achieved, whether it was because of my faith or hard work or just the Divine grace. I had never missed any goal in my life. Either the goal was achieved or transcended into something bigger.
Now was the time for the biggest goal of my life. I went in search of God and the Truth, by shutting down my business. I had by then become an author, an inspirational speaker doing HIS work - Humanitarian, Inspirational and Spiritual work.
My Spiritual Master guided me and told me that Ultimate Happiness came from Enlightenment and realization of the Truth. This was Greek to me as I understood nothing about it. Being religious for 40 years, I had no idea about Spirituality. It was when I was 48 that my Master led me on a journey that changed my life completely. I had experienced one transformation, from a businessman to a philanthropist. This was the second - it was a metamorphosis!
To put it all together, my life from the age of 8 to 48 was a life of success and of religious blessings. I was the happiest man in the world and I had travelled to over a hundred countries, having enough financial backing and security. I needed nothing else. I could have continued living, enjoying every moment of my life, if my Master had not asked me to go on a quest to realize the true purpose of life. I, like any innocent believer, believed that God was Divinely present in the temple and that I needed to go to the temple to pray and I encouraged all others to do so. Even though I was so religious and it seemed like I was so blessed, I did not realize that I was living a life of complete ignorance not knowing the Truth about God.
As I was enjoying life traveling from country to country. I went and showed my Spiritual Master pictures of Antarctica and the Penguins. Then he asked me, “Are you just going to live like this until you die or are you going to find out the purpose of life?” I didn't know what he was talking about but I knew that I was looking for something deeper. I wanted more happiness and I wanted my God. I also wanted purpose and I did not know that he was sending me on a quest that would lead me to everything that I was seeking.
I left everything and I went on a Retreat into the mountains with every possible scripture, Spiritual book and philosophical text I could lay my hands on. For two years I studied all the possible Religions as well as the books of all the famous Spiritual philosophers. I covered all Religions - Christianity, Islam, Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainism, Hinduism and every other “ism” that exists in the world. I studied Confucianism, Taoism, Shintoism and I did not leave anything. But after studying everything, I was flabbergasted to realize all this was just mythology. So, I went back to prehistoric times, I studied all the civilizations of the world and I tried to find what the Spiritual Masters had said 5000 years ago. I then eliminated all the things that did not make sense and I continued my quest and my search to find the true meaning of God. I set aside 9 questions that I wanted my quest to answer.
My search essentially focused on nine questions:
With these 9 questions in my mind and nothing else to stop me, I went deep into my quest. I used to meet my Spiritual Master, Dada Vaswani every month without fail and ask him hundreds of questions and he would patiently answer every question and explain to me the Truth. I realized that some of the things that he was explaining to me is what he had told me 20 years back, but it seems I had turned a deaf ear to it then or I was so Spiritually blind that I had not realized it.
When I went on a quest to find out answers to these nine questions, I was shocked to know that I was living a life of ignorance for the last 40 years. Although I had believed in God, I had not even started my Spiritual journey and I realized that most of humanity, about 99% of the world’s population, doesn’t even know anything about this subject. After I realized the Truth, I made this my life mission - to help people realize the Truth and to fulfill this purpose, I am writing this book.
I cannot explain every single thing that I did in my quest but what I can do is to list answers that I found to the questions that I was in search of
1. We all know how a child is conceived and born, but how is a life created in the womb?
I realized that we were not the body or the mind that we seem to be. We are the Divine Soul. We think that we are created by our parents and that is quite right. But it is not the entire Truth. The Truth is that we come alive as a zygote when two cells of our parents are fertilized, but the life that comes inside that tiny fertilized cell is the Soul and that only happens with the grace of God. Man is incapable of creating life. Life is a gift from God.
2. What happens after death? The body dies but what happens to the one who was alive?
The body dies, but we are not the body. We are the ME - mind and ego. Due to our ignorance, we continue to be reborn again and again because we don't realize we are the Divine Soul. If we realize this, then we will not be reborn as we will be liberated and we will be united with the Divine.
3. We all believe in God. What is the reality? Who is God? Where is God? What is God?
Of course, God exists. But God is not a statue and God is not a saint. God is a power, a power beyond human comprehension – an omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient Power - knows everything, is all-powerful and present everywhere. God is the Creator of the universe. It is with His universal laws that the cosmos continues to exist in a perfect manner.
4. Most people believe in heaven or hell. But where are they located? Can we go there?
Heaven and hell are not physical locations that exist somewhere in outer space. They are just mythological religious concepts that make us believe in God and make us live a moral and ethical life by stopping us from committing sin and get us to do good so that we will receive good.
5. Does the Law of Karma actually exist? A law that states that the actions of this life will be the cause of our rebirth.
Of course, the Law of Karma exists, the law of the boomerang which states that what you give is what you get. However, our goal is to transcend this by realizing that we are not the ego, the doer of the action. If we do not realize the Truth, then we will be reborn again and again based on our karma. But if we realize the Truth that we are the Divine Soul, at death we will be liberated and we will unite with the Divine. However, most people live with ignorance and die only to be reborn as per their Karma.
6. Is rebirth or reincarnation real? Are we really reborn after we die?
Of course, we will take another birth if we do not get liberated. Our mind and ego, ME, will reappear in another body to redeem our past actions and Karma. At death one of the two things happens, the physical body returns to dust and the ME (Mind+ Ego), based on its Karma, will be reborn in a new body. If however, we realize that we are not the ego, mind or body, then we will be liberated from the cycle of death and rebirth.
7. We talk of a Soul. But what exactly is the Soul?
The Soul is nothing but God manifesting as the Spirit, the Life Energy within. It is God itself. But because of ignorance, we do not realize this Truth. The Soul is also known as the Spirit, the Atman, the Life Energy, the Chi or the Prana. It is the cause of our life and when it departs there is death and no breath.
8. What is the purpose of life for us human beings who live on earth?
The purpose of human beings’ life is to realize that we are the Divine Soul, not the body that we wear. We are not even the mind. Our goal is Liberation from the cycle of death and rebirth and for the Divine Soul or Atman to be United with the Supreme, and escape from the cycle of continuous rebirth and suffering.
9. What is Enlightenment, Salvation, Liberation, Mukti, Moksha or Nirvana? All Religions talk of this being our Ultimate Goal, but what exactly is this?
All these terms mean one and the same thing. These terms speak of the goal of all the Religions of the world. But it looks like they are different when in reality they are one and the same thing. The ultimate objective is to overcome ignorance, to realize the Truth and to be liberated so that we can be united with the Divine. As long as we live and die in this world as the body, mind, and ego, we will suffer physical pain, emotional turmoil and agony of the ego. This is what we must overcome and we call this Enlightenment or Liberation, Moksha and Nirvana. This is the Ultimate Goal of our life.
When I was on a flight from Paris to Bangalore on the 31st of August 2014 flight AF 192, I got the answers to these 9 questions that I was in search of. It was a moment of “Aha!” for me, a great moment of Spiritual exhilaration. My search for the Truth had come to an end. I had found answers to all the questions that I was seeking and I had realized the Truth about myself and about God. It was not that I did not know about all these facts but I had not realized the Truth. It was like a big Jigsaw Puzzle and suddenly it seemed that I put the pieces together and could see the entire picture clearly.
What did I realize after my quest? There are many profound realizations that have helped me live a life without fear, worry, and anxiety. I live a life of peace and Bliss being conscious of the Divine at all times. The most essential realizations of my life were that I am nothing, I am just a manifestation of the Divine. Science declares that our body is made up of about 37 trillion cells and I realized that each cell has the presence of the Divine energy which is God. We live in ignorance and we think we are the bodymind complex, but this is the biggest lie that we believe in and this is what makes us suffer.
I realized that this world is nothing more than a cosmic drama with this Earth being a humongous stage. We are about 8 billion people who are acting on this stage along with many other special effects, animals, birds, insects and sea creatures. Actually, all this is not real! It is Mithya, an illusion. Everything is a manifestation of the Divine. Everything is energy appearing as matter including this whole earth and the universe. Even science agrees that matter and energy are interconvertible and in reality, what we think as matter is actually energy. This realization transformed my life and my thinking completely changed.
Because we think this world to be real, we suffer. We believe that all possessions are ours and our relationships will be forever. Although we see the truth unfolding at death, we do not want to face the reality.
I realized that we, human beings are unhappy because we want more and more achievements. We do not live a life of contentment and fulfillment. More so, we are miserable because we are ignorant of the fact that we are not the body, mind, and ego, but we are in fact, the Divine Soul.
My biggest realization was that the Ultimate Goal of life was Liberation which came from realization of the Truth and then unification with the Divine. We human beings do not realize this and we behave like a body-mind-ego complex. Because of our Karma, we are reborn again and again to redeem our past actions. When will we be liberated from this constant cycle of death and rebirth? It is only when we realize the Truth and we are liberated that we can escape from this world called samsara. We will unite with the Divine and we will live a life of Eternal peace, bliss and joy overcoming all misery and sorrow.
What does all this indicate? This shows that I too lived a life and I was religiously bound for 40 years. I too was in a kindergarten for 40 years until I realized the Truth when I went on a quest. Then I realized the Truth about life. Unless we human beings go on such a quest, we will live and die in ignorance. I was lucky that I had a Spiritual Master who made me start my Talaash, my search or quest. If not, I would have lived and died in myth and superstition, believing in Religion and being in kindergarten till my death.
31st of August 2014 was a turning point in my life. Now I live a completely different life, not as Ravi Melwani that I was for 48 years, but as AiR, the Atman in Ravi or the Soul in Ravi. I realized that I was not the body that I wore, but rather the one who wore the body. I was the Soul, the Divine Soul. In fact, what this meant was that I am nothing, the Divine Soul was everything. I was living in ignorance, till I realized the Truth. I was like a caterpillar crawling through life and my realization made me into a beautiful butterfly, free to fly in the sky. I would, ultimately, if it is the grace of God, be United with the Divine when the body would die. It is not as easy as it seems because the Journey of realization is tough. Our biggest enemy is ME, our own Mind and Ego which stops us from realizing the Truth. The Mind and Ego cease to exist once we realize the Truth and so they oppose such a realization. But because I had the grace of the Divine and I was passionate in my quest and because of my love for God, I realized that I myself was a manifestation of the Divine. God lived in the temple of my heart. God was in everything that I could see. I realize that everything beautiful in this world is not created by God but rather it is a manifestation of the Divine. This was because of my Spiritual realization. I was not who I thought I was for 48 years. I had many more realizations about death and about life, about God and about heaven, and I could see so very clearly the reality of life. This entire world is Maya or a cosmic illusion. Everything is a projection in God’s Theatre known as His Leela. This is His play and only He knows why He has done this. We are just actors, we come and we go. Our goal is realization and Liberation and ultimately unification with the Divine.
I am so grateful to the Divine for helping me pass through the kindergarten of Religion and evolve to the graduation of Spirituality where I have realized that I am nothing. I'm just an instrument of the Divine and I act on His behalf. I believe my mission of helping people to realize the Truth is also something that the Divine does. I am just like a flute, the music is being played by the Divine. I try to remain in Divine Union called Yoga, trying to help people realize the Truth by writing books, recording videos and giving talks. I sing Spiritual songs called bhajans through which I try to make people realize that we are the Atman or the Soul. We are not the body that we wear and this is an illusion which we must overcome. Unfortunately, we cannot overcome this illusion until we go beyond the kindergarten of Religion and get admitted in the University of Spirituality. This is essential for us to realize the Truth about our self and about God.
Buddha realized this about 2500 years ago. He overcame the myth and the superstitions that people believed during his time but unfortunately, after his lifetime, it is a Religion named after him that has created so many myths. All Religions have myths and it is for us to be able to overcome the myth and realize the Truth. We must go beyond Religion and Spiritually evolve to know that we are the Divine Soul and our goal is to become one with the Divine.
May this book, ‘Religion! A Kindergarten to Spirituality!!’ inspire you to seek God, to go deeper into the Truth and to realize that you are the Divine Soul. After reading this book, I hope you will question all the myths and the superstitions that you believed in all these years. May you overcome the dogmas that you have been following, till you ultimately reach destination God and you realize Him within the Temple of your heart. This is the Ultimate Goal of life and I hope and wish that this book triggers in you a spark to start a Quest to help you realize the Truth. Realization is the first step of Liberation. We need the Divine Grace to be liberated and finally to be united and achieve the Ultimate Goal of life, becoming one with the Divine.
My journey to God started when I was eight,
I had blind belief, I just stood at His gate.
But it must be due to His Divine Grace…
That I now see God in every face.