People fall prey to conditioned responses unknowingly. As a result, their reactions to others become robotic. They can release themselves from this sad state of affairs through transcendence brought about by simple self-awareness towards inner freedom. That would lead to discovering natural spirituality.
The writer was exposed years ago to the matter of mental conditioning by the messages of a few Enlightened Masters. That brought in an inwardly directed self-awareness in him. As a result, some obsessive-compulsive reactions which tried to enslave him were washed away. One feels the value of the laid-back attitude while applying oneself to the mundane responsibilities whole-heartedly.
Inner freedom
Freedom from conditioning has many redeeming by-products. One of the most important of them is the release from a warped state of mind due to fears and disturbances in childhood. Conditioned responses can gradually push one into a rut from which it becomes very difficult to release oneself as years go by. Sensing this, one moves towards an inner freedom that augments vibrant living. Add to this the exposure to some spiritual paranormal phenomena, we have the joy of candid living with no psychological or physical addictions. The writer wishes to share such a joy with the readers.
Reflective people realize how human beings fall prey to a promised security through belonging to a religious system or similar organized activities. They also see that while religions can help, emotional attachment to a system makes for self-created prisons. Once settled in such a prison, people have a false sense of security – false because they are afraid to step out of the prison where insecurity awaits them! The resulting defensive attitude ends up in a conditioned state of mind leading to inward slavery. It also engenders violence because their false security stands threatened. Inner freedom cannot come through belonging to any prison.
Merely being against religions and moving over to the opposite grounds, such as atheism, agnosticism, rationalism etc, can only transport people to alternative prisons because emotional attachment to those fixities continues to govern the psychology. That is how they fall into the same syndrome as the religious people do. So, that brings us to the question: What place has religions or the other ‘ism’s have in one’s life? Earnest application to that question throws some light on natural spirituality and inner freedom.
Natural Spirituality
One proceeds with patient awareness and lets the intuition prevail in due course. Such people are neither for nor against any religion and so they can have pure relationship with various religions unsullied by emotional attachment to them and the associated fanaticism. They can read all scriptures without prejudice because their aim is to find out what lies beyond the apparent. It is this eagerness to discover the non-verbal truth that prevents them from falling into any psychological prison. Consequently, they can develop candid relationship with Divinity untouched by concepts and ego-satisfying thoughts about God.
The movement of quiet self-awareness in people brings up the native intelligence in them and so they do not get influenced by any religious propaganda that whirls around them. The ability to stand alone has a purity about it that helps one move towards the truth. Falsehood, no matter how ego-satisfying it may be, can only lead to intrinsic impropriety and so to fanaticism and mediocrity in life. The purity of aloneness is the very nature of a truly spiritual state, as it does not give room for the ego to play a role in it.
Such people as above effervesce and transcend the conventional state of mind to one of inner freedom. They do not get driven by society’s ways. Simultaneously, the unconditional love in them flows towards all beings. That sustains the zest for life per se. Emotional identification with a nation, religion etc does not play a role in their lives and so they have no enemies. They feel like citizens of the world and compassion pours out of them like an unobstructed fountain. Their relationship with the near and dear ones is permeated with true feeling for them and not governed by emotional attachment or utilitarian value. They sense sacredness in all relationships and let themselves be guided by it. There is a tendency to turn more toward the messages of Enlightened Masters rather than listen to religious preachers governed by their vested interest. Ideas of personal salvation and the associated self-centered activities no longer play a part in their lives. One gets attracted to esoteric issues in life, and also to some paranormal phenomena, as probable gateways to the ‘otherness’.
Anita Moorjani’s Near Death Experience
In her book “Dying To Be Me”, Anita Moorjani explains how her fascinating and moving near death experience in early 2006 tremendously changed her perspective on life. She sensed the fact that we are all one with the universal consciousness. That ravishing experience took her to the non-verbal understanding of esoteric and spiritual realms, beyond the ken of organized religions. Her presentation brings out the essence of Natural Spirituality. The following lines from her book give us a glimpse of the transformation that she underwent.
“Since my NDE, I don’t feel that I came back to accomplish anything; I only came back to be. Because of this, everything I do comes from love. I don’t worry anymore about trying to get things right or complying with rules or doctrines. I just follow my heart and know that I can’t go wrong when I do so. Ironically, I end up with pleasing more people than my old self ever did, just because I am so much happier and more liberated!”
The word ‘liberated’ indicates mental freedom – freedom from conformity to belief systems and the associated conditioning. Such a freedom augments inner peace and has a big impact on our health as well. Since we see ourselves as an infinite being, the physical takes care of itself because it is only a reflection of what is going on within one’s soul. Unconditional love increases our energy tremendously, and the universe responds accordingly. The associated inner freedom is unshakable.
In Conclusion
Those who feel drawn to the above kind of effervescence are the ones who are going to bring about a different world – a marvelous world of camaraderie and bonhomie and a humanity free of internecine conflicts. If these things ring a bell in you, it would be good to pay attention to them so that your own life becomes enriched and you act as a catalyst to others. Here, the website http://spirituality.yolasite.com can function as a wayside companion in your journey of discovery.
Gopalakrishnan T. Chandrasekaran was born in Madras (now Chennai), India. He received his doctoral degree in Coastal Engineering from the North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA in 1978; served on the research and teaching faculty of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India, the North Carolina State University and the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, Kuwait.
Aside from his professional involvements, he was interested in the philosophic issues of life for the last forty years or so. This led him to the messages of Ramana Maharishi, Lao Tzu, J Krishnamurthy, UG Krishnamurthy, Nisargadatta Maharaj, Eckhart Tolle, Marcus Aurelius and similar Masters. His book entitled “In Quest of the Deeper Self” is the outcome of his reflections on those and his wish to share the outcome with others.
Gopalakrishnan is a member of the International Association for Near Death Studies, Durham, NC, USA. He lives in Kodaikanal, a hill town in the southern part of India, with his wife Banumathy. Blog: http://nde-thedeeperself.blogspot.com