The Pathless PathHis teaching

All chapters5 of 19
  1. The Pathless Path
  2. The Goal of Human Life
  3. Turn to Reality
  4. The Change Must Be Within
  5. Religion is a Matter of Experience
  6. The Touch of Saints and Guru’s Grace
  7. The Divine Name as the Ladder
  8. Faith and Surrender
  9. Hints on Sadhana
  10. Meditation
  11. Samadhi
  12. After Reaching the Height
  13. The Attributes of Man Endowed with Cosmic Vision
  14. Inner Voice
  15. Jivanmukta
  16. Recapitulation
  17. The Path of God-Realisation
  18. One Universal God
  19. Conclusion of “Gita-Sandesh”

Religion is a Matter of Experience

The path to the source of your and the world’s being is not without. You have to go within yourself. You must go past your senses, mind and intellect; you must traverse beyond all your ideas and ideals; you must transcend all limits, conditions and tastes, and then alone will you have the fullest vision and realisation of your immortal root. This immortal root is also the root of all that exists – the visible and the invisible worlds and all beings and creatures in them.

Religion is a matter of experience. Merely by becoming a member of a church, creed or sect, a person cannot be entitled to this experience. By reading any amount of scriptures and sacred books he cannot obtain this experience. By the observance of rites, ceremonies, or worship a man cannot come by this experience. Spiritual realisation is a question of individual effort and struggle. The man of true religion when he is on the path, is mainly concerned with his own internal struggle for liberation and peace.

A steady, persevering and concentrated effort and struggle alone can lead the aspirant to the realisation of God. So long as a man is hankering after the pleasures of the senses, his progress on the path is slow and erratic. He must be undaunted in his endeavour and determined in his purpose. He must leave no stone unturned to subdue and eventually eradicate the impure passions of his heart and mind. A purified and enlightened Buddhi alone can entitle the Sadhaka to enter the kingdom of eternity.

What is required principally is the withdrawal of the mind from without to within, which means that the restless and roaming nature of the mind must be totally curbed by right thought, right contemplation and right meditation. The mind has to settle down and its uncontrolled dynamics must be brought under subjection. Perseverance and an unflagging endeavour are the qualities of a true aspirant or seeker of Truth. Lassitude, idleness and heedlessness are the enemies of spiritual progress. Awareness, watchfulness and effort are the true qualities of a Sadhaka.

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