Throughout the ages people have felt the need to believe in a Supreme Being or Power or God. They feel that life and all of nature are a mystery and cannot be understood by our rationality. Science has given us many answers about the physical aspects of the world, and is probing into the universe. But science has not answered the basic human urge to know or understand who we truly are, if we remove our labels of name, race, caste, culture, religion and professions. Once these are removed we do not have an identity, and cannot properly relate to others in a meaningful way. Yet we do exist. So who are we? It is to find answers to this and related questions that people have the need to turn to a Supreme Power that holds the secret of the universe with all of us in it.

Our senses are limited and our eyes can perceive only a small band of visible light in the huge electromagnetic spectrum. We cannot see beyond ultra-violet and infrared wavelengths, yet a large spectrum of wavelengths are on either side of visible light. The same limitation holds for the other sense organs. So how do we get knowledge of attributes such as the soul, the mind, God, Spirit, Self, Maya, Life Force, liberation, bondage, and similar questions relating to life and the cosmos? It is difficult or impossible for us to teach ourselves so that we can truly understand Reality in which everything else exists. But there is an inner unexpressed need to understand more of ourselves, and the world and the universe. Ultimately, we have a need to know God. To fill this need to know ourselves and have some inkling of what God is, spiritual masters have come in our midst over the ages to enlighten us.

We are made up of the body, mind, intellect and soul. The body is made up entirely of earthly material. From conception, the embryo takes up substances from the food and drink of the mother. The food and drink are of the earth. The embryo grows to the fetus, then to the newborn, all the time taking in earthly material. During the rest of life for growth and maintenance of the body, a person ingests things produced from the earth. At death the body returns to earth. Another being takes up the materials the same way, so there is a continuous recycling of earthly matter in all beings. So the body is not reality. The mind is both conscious and subconscious as is commonly known. The conscious mind functions from moment to moment and not continuously. The subconscious mind functions mostly as storage for memory, feelings, attitudes, hang-ups, and other personality traits. But the mind can be put to rest by a hypnotist, or in dreamless sleep, in coma or under surgical anaesthesia. Can the mind then be said to have reality? The same can be said of the intellect which cannot function under these circumstances. Both the mind and intellect can go haywire by the ego, and passions of anger, greed, lust and so forth. What then is the basis for our dear life and all of its attributes — both positive and negative? Do we deserve to seek further knowledge, or are we content to drift along the river of life, facing stresses, depressions, anxieties, violence, frustrations and all the other problems we are familiar with? Is there any way of understanding life so that we can enjoy love, peace, harmony, brotherhood, self-empowerment, and other positive attributes?

Answers to these pertinent questions are available if we truly seek. We need to find the basis or the “ground” on which existence depends, and how we can “adjust’ our thinking and understanding to make our life sublime. We need to free the mind from accumulated static dogmas, doctrines and practices, and be open to the Universal Spirit that has no boundaries.