THE SPIRITUAL JOURNEY CAN BE quite difficult for people with family responsibilities, but I have been blessed with an amazingly supportive family that has stood by me every step of the way. From childhood, I have always been an introspective thinker, and I approached this subject too, with a wide open mind, in the spirit of scientific curiosity, with the belief that the universe consists of more than what we can perceive with our five senses. It was backed by a stubborn purpose; that if there was something to be found, I would either find it or be proved wrong.
I have prayed in churches. I have undertaken pilgrimages to Sabarimala many times. Sometimes I went in a group, singing bhajans and songs. Other times I went alone, sitting in quiet places in prayer. I have visited local temples and sat in meditation. I briefly joined the Osho ashram. I have attended meditation camps, satsangs, watched online videos of various preachers and teachers, all in the spirit of inquiry and learning, without judgement.
I finally rejected the notion of an external entity, an intelligent God who controls our lives and decides our fate for us, and concluded the truth was within us. I became convinced that there is more to life than what we see and experience objectively, that the spiritual quest had to be internal. So I continued my search, but this time the search was within.
It has been a very long journey, but along the way, I had three major experiences that convinced me I was onto something.
I am not a religious person, but I am spiritual.
I don't believe in God, but I believe there is something out there. My scientific background does not allow me to believe in gods.
Who am I ?
What is the purpose of life?
HAVE YOU FELT LIKE THIS at any time in your life? You cannot shake the feeling that there is something more to life than the daily hustle and bustle, yet, as an educated person, you refuse to accept anything on faith, as demanded by most religions. You feel an emptiness in your life, the nagging thought that there has to be something more to life than an existence consisting of eating, sleeping and procreating. You want to turn to spirituality because you want more than this, and seek answers to the larger questions of life, its purpose, its meaning, and your place in the universe. But your education does not let you blindly accept anything on faith.
This book is for you. It explains the reasoning behind human spirituality from a Hindu perspective and describes how you can be a perfectly normal, rational individual and still hold spiritual beliefs that do not violate your scientific understanding, or require blind devotion. Neither does it require you to suspend critical thought. It tries to describe the higher purpose of human existence rationally and establish that science and spirituality do not have to be a mutually exclusive dichotomy.
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