Realisation

By Surinder Gill

One day, in the very distant future you will embark on a journey of such transition, that you have absolutely no idea what to really expect. You will undergo a complete transformation; you will have to leave this place, shed this body, bid farewell to life as you know it, and go somewhere you are not familiar with. Has that thought ever frightened you? You will have to leave behind everything that you love and everyone you adore, possibly forever! There wont be any occupation to keep you busy out there, because you dont need to earn a living to feed, clothe and shelter the body which you have left behind. You will no longer have the eyes to appreciate a beautiful sunset, the nose to smell the fragrance of a flower or the tongue to taste all the foods you once enjoyed. Have these thought ever entered your mind? Are you prepared for what is inevitable, or do you not believe in an afterlife so it is something that does not require any preparation?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris UK
• Release date: Oct 14, 2010
• ISBN: 9781453585214

Surinder Gill

I am a 38 year old of Indian origin, born and raised in Britain. I was born into a Hindu family and was brought up with liberal minded parents who were devoted to our religion and brought me up to have a firm faith in god. Having been brought up in this country I inevitably learnt a lot about Christianity and developed a love & respect for Jesus at an early age, but more importantly it gave me a good introduction to a multi-religious lifestyle.

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Copyright © 2010 by Surinder Gill.

ISBN:          Softcover                                 978-1-4535-8520-7

                   Ebook                                      978-1-4535-8521-4

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

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Contents

Preface

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter 1

In the Beginning

Chapter 2

The Human Condition

Chapter 3

Living in the Moment!

Chapter 4

Keep It Real!

Chapter 5

Why Do Bad Things Happen?

Chapter 6

What Is Success?

Chapter 7

Who Is God?

Chapter 8

Why Do We Exist?

Chapter 9

Is It Too Late?

Chapter 10

Conclusion

Bibliography

A series of notes on my thoughts

and observations compiled as a

result of the growing realization of

the state of mankind and our

relationship with our creator and his

creation.

To my kids—I hope that you will

enjoy reading this, and may it help in

taking you closer to knowing

‘yourself.’

Preface

The less one knows, the more one is certain,

The more one knows, the less certainty there is.

Build ye a strong foundation on knowledge,

Lest ignorance rob you of the chance of sight.

Why did I even attempt to write this book when there are already so many books out there on this subject? The world is full of so much literature on the many religions and philosophies; it appears as if I may be simply just adding to the list of work, perhaps just reinterpreting what is already out there. But my original concept was not to create a work for publication; it was to leave something behind for my children. My wish is for them to know everything that I know and, through this book, to know me better and just as importantly for them to know who they really are. At this time, they are yet too young to understand me and the complicated principles and concepts that I want to talk to them about. So I decided that a book was the ideal way of putting down everything I wanted to discuss with them. It also offered me the opportunity to write and refine this work whenever I felt like it, to make sure that I present myself to them in a way that is concise and well thought out. It was an efficient means to extract all the thought-provoking ideas that kept whirring around in my head, and I sincerely hope that this book will be an important part of their experience of life, providing a little illumination to eventually allow them to be able to unplug themselves from this world, just enough, to let a little light to enter their life and thinking. I wanted for them to develop their depth of thought to encompass a level of reality that is unknown to many. So this book is my gift to them. It is the culmination of my knowledge about life, the universe, and everything, as I understand it at this current moment in time.

But, as I said, I had never initially intended to publish this work; it was only ever intended for them. But as I progressed through the book, I realised how interesting and important this work could be and concluded that I would be quite justified in making it available to a wider audience. But I have to state that at this point in time, I feel that my reading of philosophy and religion is yet too limited for me to make any comments on the beliefs of others, which is why this book lacks detailed references. But as I continue to read other works, I am finding that my own depth of understanding is continually evolving also. So, even if this work is only ever considered a rehash of what has already been written before, I may at least claim that it’s a reinterpretation, a re-evaluation, from my own perspective. I wonder, if I were ever to go back and rewrite it, would it then go even deeper; but I do hope that as it stands, this book doesn’t look too immature against any other work of philosophy. I hope that it is received as an honest and thought-provoking piece of work.

I think it’s important for me to give you some background on me and my upbringing to enable you to better understand how I have arrived at my way of seeing things. When you read this book, you will also be making a journey of realization, and hopefully, it will unfold for you as it did for me. Whenever you read any book, you are actually travelling through the author’s psyche; you are not disconnected from him. You are experiencing the world through the author, even if it is only a fictional piece of work, in which case you may be looking at the author’s deepest fantasies. But this book is like a mirror of my mind—it is me. There will be some old concepts that I will be tackling and many new concepts which I am introducing. So let’s set out on this journey together and see what you make of my way of looking at things. This next bit is a little introduction into my life and how I became interested in philosophy and religion.

I am a thirty-seven-year-old of Indian origin, born in Britain. I was born on the 13 July 1972 at 6.00 p.m. at Hillingdon Hospital in Middlesex, West London. I was born into a Hindu family and was brought up by liberal-minded parents who were devoted to our religion and brought me up to have a firm faith in God. Having been brought up in this country, I inevitably learnt a lot about Christianity and developed a love and respect for Jesus at an early age, which was also reflected in my parents. At my primary school, I learnt Christian hymns and the Lord’s Prayer. In our assemblies, we were taught about the life of Jesus, and I couldn’t help but be impressed by him. I think that for me, and my Indian friends, we benefitted growing up learning about two religions. Primary school was my best introduction to Christianity I could have had. But by the age of twelve as I moved onto high school, the only place I would have any contact with Christian theology was through the TV. But I soon forgot about religion as my studies took precedence, and I left it there for a long while.

The majority of my teenage years were spent in the fashion most teenagers would behave, not really giving much importance to religion or God until I reached the age of about eighteen when I started to become interested in the spooky supernatural world. I read a lot of suspect books about ghosts and supernatural phenomena, but found that I had a thirst for deeper knowledge. I started to read various books on religion until finally I read a book in my parents’ library entitled Path of the Masters by Dr Julian P. Johnson. My parents, although Hindus, had been initiated (baptised) by a spiritual teacher in India of Sikh origin. It is quite common in India to maintain your religious birth identity but to refine your beliefs by a teacher who may be of a different caste or even religious background altogether.

Anyway, for the first time I felt like a different world had opened up to me. It was unlike any of the sermons I was used to as a child, or books that I had read up to this point. Instead of listening about the greatness of some chap who lived many years ago, or about interesting stories about people who lived long ago, this was a book that seemed more gritty, earthy, and contemporary to my way of thinking. This philosophy perceived itself as a science, a science of the soul. This appealed to me instantly as it seemed to be filled with a lot more logic than I was used to. It was written in such a way that I found an instant connection with the author. It was an eye-opening experience that totally transformed my view of my place in the universe, and it showed me what was required of me to make positive changes to my life to benefit from the experience of being given this human opportunity. I started to read more of the books from this philosophical path until I had realised that for me, my search had ended. But I never gave up reading about other religions; it was always a fascinating experience to learn about the beliefs of others.

I think that, in my life, having access to many religions has given me a much broader perspective to belief and made sure I didn’t keep my way of thinking narrow, with any one way of thinking. I don’t want to divulge any of the teachings of my philosophy here, but they do form the basis of my own beliefs, and I have tried to put them aside for this book as I want to approach this work from as rational and unbiased an angle as I can. The reason for this, as I have mentioned earlier, is that primarily I am writing this book for my children, so I want to approach every concept from basic principles; to try to discard the concept that the world is right, and to start from an unbiased angle, as much as I possibly can. But having said this, it is practically impossible to be completely unbiased, but I have tried my best to analyse current concepts with an impartial mind and to introduce new concepts which arise from the rational need of my own thinking.

But before we start the book proper, I feel compelled to say something. My book is not the result of any scientific process or investigation nor is it a conventional religious book either, based on the teachings of some past sage or saint. It is not a book based on facts, but is a work of theoretical philosophy. It is solely a dialogue of reasoning within me, as my perception of the world has altered with age, experience, and reading. Ostensibly a work emerging out of my own developing faith or philosophy. I definitely do not want to add to the mass of misdirection out there. There are far too many charlatans already in existence; I don’t want to be on that list. So the reader is most welcome to disagree with anything and everything that I say or conceptualise; I don’t make any claim to be more correct than any other person. I truly believe that without an alternative point of view, we won’t progress in the path of real spiritual knowledge. So if you disagree with me, then it may force me to re-evaluate my position and, thereby, help me to further refine my own theories. I think that being flexible definitely increases the potential of growth in a person’s intellect, whereas inflexibility always leads to conflict in one form or another.

So we have a lot to get through in this book. There’s a lot to discuss and conceptualise. But we will take it step by step, and I hope that I have achieved what I set out to do—to write this book as an unfolding story of realisation, to start a thinking process for the reader that leads them to re-evaluate the very fundamental taught beliefs of life. This I believe is an essential part of our learning because we cannot stay here indefinitely, and the journey we will eventually have to make, we make on our own. I also hope that the book is not too difficult to follow. And as I regard myself as being quite simple minded, I can only understand things put in a very simple way. I hope that this is reflected in the way I write this book. This work, I would hope, is not the end of anyone’s own research but part of a much wider reading, enabling the reader to free himself from all the common misconceptions that general narrow-mindedness normally trap people into. I hope that the reader is on the path of freeing his mind from the worldly way of thinking and to really understand that this life is just a temporary experience and that something far more real awaits him.

Acknowledgements

I would very much like to thank the authors of all the books that I have ever read, and to all the writers who will pen their philosophy in the future. Without their diligence in the documenting of their own understanding of things, it would have been impossible for me to have written this book. I also thank my master for being there for all those deserved souls who seek from life a deeper meaning.

Introduction

When we are born, we bring nothing into this world,

We spend a whole lifetime learning to love this world,

When we leave, we can take not even a grain of sand.

Mankind, we were not given this life to fall in love with the world,

Rather we were given this life to realize our love for god.

Who am I? Why are we here? Is there anything after death? If so, can I prove it to myself while living? Was I created? Was the universe created? Who created the one that created us and the universe? Who created that creator? And so on and so on . . . Now I think I must have covered the basic biggest questions in life. I don’t think I have left anything out. I don’t actually think there are any bigger questions than these worth asking. Can these questions ever be satisfactorily answered? Or is it simply just a matter of accepting the explanation offered by one group over the other, and that is the best we can have?

One day, in the very distant future, you will undergo a complete transformation. You will have to leave this place, shed this body, bid farewell to life as you know it, and go somewhere you are not familiar with. Has that thought ever crossed your mind? You will have to leave behind everything you love and everyone you adore, possibly, forever! Has that thought ever frightened you? Are you prepared for what is inevitable, or do you not believe in an afterlife so it is something that does not require any preparation? Is it something too far off into the future to worry about yet? Or are you one of those lucky immortals who are going to hang around here forever! Or have you invested some time in thinking about deeper things? Have you pondered about the why and wherefore of it all? What’s it all about then? Is this it? Is there anything more than raising a family, being successful in your profession or relationships, or doing something else that is regarded as being creative or contributory to your life and surroundings? Or taking a more cynical angle, we can ask ‘Is the next twenty-four hours I am going to spend be a mere repetition of the last twenty-four hours I spent, or will it have something more to it? Is this what the whole universe was created for, so that I can merely repeat the same mundane tasks over and over again until I retire or die, whichever comes first?

Or if approached more philosophically, is there nothing more than what I can physically perceive? Surely, there is something far more precious to experience here—this can’t be all there is! And if there is something more to this, then it probably looks like I have missed it! Have