Page 12 - NAMAH-Jan-2024

Namah Vol. 31, Issue 4, 15th January 2024

Truth. We may call it God, or by whatever It may be necessary to point out here that the
name or no name. We can be drawn towards dogmatic assertions of a materialistic Science,
this something truer and greater and vaster illegitimately applying itself in every field,
through this form or that form or even call almost with an evangelist fervour to convert
it Formless. We may believe It is a Being all others into its fold has done as much harm
of infinite divine qualities or a state of to the expansion of man’s soul or the human
consciousness without any qualities or both spirit as religions with fixed beliefs have.
at once. As is our basic belief so is our first One traps them in the cage of matter, the
contact with this Reality that transcends other holds it captive in the prison of the
both our senses and our mind. The Divine mind. One locks the prison with doubt and
is One but being infinite, He or She or It or scepticism guarded by the sentry Reason
That, or very simply the true Self, the Self of and the bars of senses that can hardly notice
self has infinite facets, infinite aspects, even all that enters and leaves, trying to capture
infinite moods and ways of working. But since truth in its limited formulas. Perhaps it
human beings are limited and finite they come gets the body but the soul escapes, a dead
in contact with just one or few aspects of the corpse dissected by its scalpel of analytical
Divine. reason it’s only gain. The other locks the
prison with fear, guarded by the sentries
Thus, even though the fundamental of reward and punishment and the bars of
experience of the contact with the Divine belief, while keeping out the truth of things.
Reality is identical everywhere yet it takes It tries to bind Truth by chains of formulas
so many shades and expresses it in so many and perhaps gets a hurried glimpse of the
ways, blossoms and develops in so many garment while the Person escapes its eyes.
diverse directions. It is this variety that has Both miss the essence and hold the dried
led to the great divergence in beliefs about flower in their hands, — one admiring its
the Divine, in the evolution of so many ways petals, the other counting them.
and paths and techniques and processes
and methods which is only natural and The roads and degrees of freedom
inevitable. Sanaatana Dharma, recognising
this inherent unity and complexity, has
always accepted and accommodated this
diversity of cults and sects and religious
beliefs and approaches. On the other hand,
there are extremely narrow and rigid cults
that remain stuck in a single formula or a
single approach and a single book. It is this
extreme exclusivity that has turned religion
from a book to a bane as indeed all things,
whether ideological or scientific when
followed passionately and in an exclusive But Yoga is utter freedom. It is also the
dogmatic, one-sided manner, lead to. royal road to Truth in all its complexity

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