Select Spiritual Writings of Yogi M.K. Spencer: The Harbinger of the New Age Spirituality

By Satya Pal Ruhela

Yogi Minocher K. Spencer (1888-1958) was a Zoroastrian spiritualist whose mission was of love, service and to spread enlightenment by writing books for the New Age of Spirituality. His wrote a number of great books like How I Found God, The Other World, Oneness with God and books of spiritual hymns, poems and songs.
This unique edited volume is collection of his following other three very important rare spiritual books which have remained out of print for over five decades.
Book I: Joyous mysticism in World Religions (1947)
Deals with Mysticism and Religion, Matter and Spirit, Occultism and, Mysticism in various religious traditions.
Book II Religion in life (1948)
Presents the essentials of world religions lucidly discusses the themes of Love, Faith, Prayers, Meditation, Asceticism and New Age.
Book III: Divine Discourses:
It provides a refreshing exposition of Liberation, Immortality, Birth and Death, Maya, Paths of Devotion, Wisdom and Meditation.

The editor Prof. S.P.Ruhela is an educationist and great admirer of Yogi Spencer.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing India
• Release date: Jul 14, 2015
• ISBN: 9781482845426

Satya Pal Ruhela

Prof.Satya Pal Ruhela (81) is an eminent Indian sociologist of education spiritualist and Sai devotee. He is the recipient of Sai Ratna and Maharishi Bhrigu Samman honors. He has contributed many books on sociology, education, Sai Baba incarnations and spirituality. He was professor of education in Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi.

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Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic Reference Bible, Copyright © 1983 by The Zondervan Corporation.

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Contents

Preface

BOOK I     Joyous Mysticism In World Religions (1947)

BOOK II     Religion In Life

BOOK III     Divine Discourses

Yogi Spencer’s Prayer For The New Era

Dedicated to

Spirit Master Rishi Ram Ram

and

his dedicated followers

Yogi M.K.Spencer (4.10.1888- 30.8.1958)

and

Sri K.S.D Aiyer (14.3.1889-24.10.1965)

and

A.Somasundaram (14.8.1912 -22.12.2005)

who

ignited in me interest in spirituality

Message

The new religion, the conglomeration of all religions extant, will become an active force for the enlistment of your world. It would root out poverty, disease, inequality and ignorance from the human soil and plant a vigorous growth of peace, prosperity,contentment and harmony. Man’s progress will reach its zenith with the foundation of religion for all.

Spirit Master Christ’s message to Yogi M.K.Spencer received

-  on 6 October,1956 (from How I Found God,2011,p.460)

Dedication

to God,

The idol and ideal of every human heart aspiring for Truth, Eternal, Infinite, the Absolute Spirit pervading through the universe, Transcendent and Immanent, Timeless, Space less, Causeless, Motionless, without beginning, without end, the Seed of Creation and Dissolution, The Acme of Perfection, The essence of Purity, the Be all the End-all of life, The Embodiment of Love and Truth, Beauty and Goodness in perfection, the Giver and Forgiver, the Ocean of Mercy and compassion, the Anchor of every human heart, the Goal of the traveler on the path, the Asylum and Shelter of the lonely and forlorn, the Citadel of the Righteous, the Dispenser of Justice, Omnipotent, Omnipresent, Omniscient, Indescribable, Incomprehensible, the One without Equal, the Supreme Thinker and the Sovereign Ruler, the King of the Cosmos, at whose feet bends down all the highest celestial dignitaries- the Seraphs, the Thrones, the Principalities, - the One whose praises are sung hourly by men and angels alike, the father of the orphaned world, whom we all long to hear and see, whose Love transcends everything and whose light is our greatest delight.- M.K.Spencer

God- realization

God-realization is not a possession, an article that can be purchased at a shop. It is not a possession like a motorcar or a house. It is only by giving up ourselves that God is realized. Just as a man cannot purchase sunshine at a grocers shop, but it peeps through his window when he rises from his bed in the morning in the same way it is when the soul hungers for God that he feels his light. To discern him we have to be lost in God like the arrow that completely pierces the target. In fact, God-realization is achieved only when it becomes the aim of the whole life. To think of him and to serve him consciously day in and day out, it is only then that we realize him. It is wrong to say that the infinite is beyond attainment. When the soul says, I do not want anything, when it is hungry only for the divine Light, attainment becomes as. Renunciation in the truest sense of the word is the only way for the realization of God.

God is a living reality. It is only by surrendering us to the will of God and not by trying to solve the problems of life by an intellectual process that God realization can ever be attained. God is spirit. God is love. He wants us to become like spirits, to love all, to surrender and the vision of God slowly enters into the arena of our life. Faith in God dispels fear. Faith in God gives courage and heroism. Faith triumphs where intellect fails.- M.K.Spencer

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Image of RISHI Ram Ram

(This rare image of Ram Ram was drawn by an artist on the, basis of the facial features described by a spirit Sunder in a séance session conducted by M.K.Spencer at Karachi and then that image was sent by Spencer to Spiritual Healing Centre)

Rishi Ram Ram, a great spirit master like Christ, was the guardian angel and the spiritual trainer of M.K Spencer throughout his life. In the 1940s he was installed as the Presiding Deity of the Spiritual Healing Centre, Coimbatore.

In his past, birth about 2500 years back he was a Buddhist monk and an expert healer of poisoning case and minister in the court of emperor Ashoka.

He was the harbinger of the new age Spirituality in the modern world and was working through some of his highly devoted followers.

He died early at the age of 44 while saving in his village some of his relations who had in greed of gold entered a vault full of poisonous gases in his ancestral home in Sagiri village (Odisha).

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‘The Altar Rishi Ram Ram in the Spiritual Healing Centre, Coimbatore (closed since 1968)’

K.S.D.Aiyer an earnest spiritual seeker was the Founder, Hon.Secretary, publisher, backbond andthe wholesole of the Spiritual Healing Centre,Coimbatore.,The Centre became defunct immediately on his death in 1965.

In his past life he also was a minister and colleague of Nandrpa (who later became knwn as Spirit Master Rishi Ram) in the court of Emperor Asoka about 2450 years ago.

DSC_0005.jpg

(Late) A.Somnasundaram ,Founder and Secretary of ‘Divine Centre’, Markapur (Andhra Pradesh) till 2006

He was an earnest spiritual seeker, close friend of K.S.D. Aiyer. a great admirer of the Spirit Master Rishi Ram Ram, and Yogi Spencer, Founder and Secretary of ‘the Divine Centre’, Markapur (Andhra Pradesh) and the spiritual Guru of S,P,Ruhela. He had created in him deep interest in the Spiritual Master Rishi Ram Ram and the renowned spiritualist Yogi M.K.Spencer. In 1997 he initiated him in the New Age Spirituality and passed on the baton of K.S.,D.Aiyer and him for spreading the mission of the Spiritual Healing Centre, Coimbatore with whom all of them had been associated.

A Somasundaram had authored four important books – The Dawn of a New Age: The Message of Master Rishi Ram And Need for Universal Religion (1970), The Dawn of A New Era And the Vision of Master Rishi Ram Ram 1970’, Fragrant Spiritual Memories of a Karma yogi and ‘The Future is in Our Hand’.

Preface

Yogi M.K.Spencer (1858-1958) - a Zoroastrian born in Poona (now known as Pune) was a resident of Karachi (Pakistan) where he spent his youth and was a metal merchant. He was an advanced spiritualist, spirit medium, spiritual healer, social worker serving the lepers, spiritual writer and poet. He was closely associated with the ‘Spiritual Healing Centre’ of Coimbatore (defunct since 1950s) whose Founder and Presiding Deity was the great Spirit Master Rishi Ram Ram.

Actually Rishi Rishi Ram had been appointed as the Spirit Guide of M.K.Spencer    (Minocher K. Spencer or Minoo)    right from his birth to guard him and help his rare soul, which had taken only three human births, to achieve its long cherished desire of God-realization. God had revealed to Spencer about his past two human lives by dictating him their main facts which were later published by Spiritual Healing Centre, Coimbatore in his small booklet ‘Romance of a Soul’(1954)

In the first life the soul became the famous Italian Christian iterant monks Patricio (1213-1349) who founded the Holy Order of Friars whom the Christian world still remembers with great veneration as he was canonized as a great saint of Christianity 30 years after his death. Despite all his zeal, sacrifices and efforts to propagate Christianity his soul failed to achieve God-realization only because of his religious bigotry - he decried other religions with the consequence that the soul had to take another human birth.

God gave the soul another chance to earn God-realization by taking birth as a poor South Indian Hindu girl who was forced to marry a cruel husband twice her age. Her married life was not a bed of roses but a bed of thorns. She bore some children and was greatly attached to them. She selflessly rendered a lot of social service and was looked upon virtually as an avatar (incarnation of God) in her slum. Despite all her sufferings, genuine love and social service all her life, she could not achieve God-realization as she was too much attached to her children and that came as a hindrance.

The same soul had to take birth in as a boy in a Zoroastrian family in Poona and he was named Minoo (Minocher K. Spencer). He was born on 4th October,19888 at 00.26 A.M. at Pune. His father was Kalkhbushru Nanabhoy Spencer and his mother was Nalibai. His father was an Army doctor and captain of the Parsi Cricket team in 1800.

The soul of Minoo was determined to achieve God in this birth itself. God appointed Spirit Master Rishi Ram Ram to protect, guide and help him in this task, and later God (Ahur Mazda as the Zoroastrians call Him) Himself assuming the Spirit form of Sai Baba, who had incarnated as the Sai Baba at Shirdi (India) - a village not very far from Spencer’s birth place Poona, and who is now known and universally venerated as ‘Shirdi Sai Baba’ (the great incarnations of Lord Shiva) and is considered to be the first One in the ‘Triple Incarnations of Sai Baba) to spiritually train him in order to fulfill his soul’s long cherished desire to achieve God-realization since the soul’s first birth as a human being in 1213 in Italy.

Later on the Supreme Spirit Ahur Mazda (God) assuming the spirit form of (Shirdi) Sai Baba all of a suddenly appeared before M.K. Spencer in his meditation on 11 May,1949 and told him: Yes, I am Sai Baba. I was with you all the time while you were sitting in silence. I have come to tell you that I have taken your charge from Rishi Ram Ram and you will now have to follow me completely. Concentrate your attention on my picture and I shall reward you with joy. Spencer had been keeping on a table in his Samadhi (meditation) room in Karachi the picture of Shirdi Sai Baba sitting on a big stone in his typical pose – putting his left leg on his right leg. Sai Baba then started giving a most unusual sort of spiritual training to Spencer, imposing all sorts of restrictions and rigid austerities on him although Spencer was acutely suffering from a lot of physical illness and pain due to piles, abscess in stomach and loss of weight for many years till his death on 30th August,1958 at Karachi.

On 3 November, 1949, a new phase of intensive spiritual training started.He was asked to begin his daily meditation sitting from 2.00 A.M. It was about this time that he was told by God to start writing his spiritual memoirs in a book ‘How I Found God" which could be completed at a snail’s speed in nine long years and finally in 1958 it was published in parts by the Spiritual Healing Centre, Coimbatore (South India) which had been founded with the inspiration and blessings of great Spirit Master Rishi Ram,who was Spencer’s Spirit Guide appointed by God from the moment of his birth in 1888 till the last monument of his departure from the earthly plane.

Spencer wrote about 2000 page foolscap size typed manuscript "How I Found God.(957).The title of that great spiritual book had been given to him by God Himself. During this period,God had dictated to him the biography of his soul that was published as his book ‘Romance of A Soul’.

Since the full manuscript of ‘How I Found God’ was very big one – about 2000 typed foolscap pages, Yogi M.K. Spencer’s closest friend and mentor K.S.D.AIyer, the Founder, Secretary, the very backbone and virtually the whole and sole of the Healing Centre and publisher of all books of Yogi Spencer, published only 100 copies of ‘How I Found God’ in proof form by 1957. The printed book ran to 1396 pages and was loosely bound in four volumes.

I have abridged it, made it a concise and just 500 page book and edited it rigorously deleting all repetitions and non-spiritual and now irrelevant political happenings. It has been published in 2011 as a paperback (price Rs.495/-) bearing ISBN 978-81-7822-352-0 by India’s leading publisher of spiritual books – New Age Books, A-44, Naraina Phase- I, New Delhi-110028 (E Mail:[e-mail]) The Web site of New Age Books is : wwww/.newagebooksindia,com

How I Found God is a unique chronological record of all the trials and tribulations of Yogi Spencer and his spiritual experiences, It contains many frequently received messages of his Spirit Guide Rishi Ram Ram and God who were giving him day to day spiritual instructions, and 77 rarest of the rare spiritual discourses of Sai Baba as God delivered to Yogi Spencer in his meditation room during the period from 3 Nov,1952 to 18 February,1953. Also recorded therein are the occasional rare messages of Spirit Masters - Zoroaster, Krishna. Christ, Buddha, Raman Maharishi, Meher Baba, Madam Blatvatsky, Lord Maitriya, and rare divine welcome songs sung by celestial singers for Yogi Spencer. Also included therein are some spiritual poems spontaneously composed by Spencer and the true copies of some of his typed letters and some letters of his close acquaintances.

This major unique spiritual work ‘How I Found God’ was very much appreciated by God and Spirit Masters in the following rarest of the rare divine messages which are included at the proper places in the text of the book.:

• Finding God is your mission and after finding your mission continues –the mission of saving mankind from the path of sin and sorrow and bringing in your world brightness and joy

– God’s message received on 6 Dec.,1953.

• ‘Your book will be hailed as a new chapter in the history of man’s progress –progress towards unification as opposed to separatism. A new cult will speedily gain in the support of your world and to the co-ordination of all religions extant into ONE RELIGION to be followed by all people…."

Lord Christ’s message on 6 October 1957.

• "I am God. I am going to save your world from destruction. Before I call you away, you will have the happiness to see the fruition of your mission establishment of pace throughout the world and laying down of the foundation stone of a mighty edifice of World Government and One Religion which is a mighty work that requires not one but many Bodhisattvas."

God’ message received on13 December 1957.

• Your book when published will play a dominant part and your mission will be recognized in the world as forerunner of a great religious revolution not only in India but all over the world

God’s message received on 8 March,1957.

• Your book will go on world record. It is a signal record of your submission to God’s will. What better record and proof your world would ask for when it comes to know of the manner in which it was started and completed.’

Spirit Master Rishi Ram Ram’s message on 18 January,1957.

• ‘Your book will be hailed as a new chapter in the history of man’s progress –progress towards unification as op[posed to separatism. A new cult will speedily gain in the support of your world and to the co-ordination of all religions extant into ONE RELIGION to be followed by all people…."

Lord Christ’s message on 6 October 1957

• …It is a lovely book and it will make a landmark in your world. It is it is a book of revelations not written by you but by God. It is God’s book not yours and you should be extremely careful not taking the least credit for it."

Lord Buddha’s message received on 31 May 1957.

On August 10,1957 Yogi Spencer was given a shock treatment by a surprising message from Ahura Mazda (God) ordering him to ask K.S.D. Aiyer to burn all the copies of ‘How I Found God’ at once and asking Spencer also to burn immediately all the printed copies of the book which he had just received from him as publisher and secretary of the ‘Spiritual Healing Centre immediately on publication. But later at night, God sent him another stunning message telling him that it was only a test and the destruction of the book was not really meant by Ahura Mazda." You have given Me a positive proof of your absolute egoless-ness. It is immaterial for you whether your book ‘How I Found God’ is published or not. Will you kindly write a letter at once to Doraiswamy (KSD Iyer) that he must not put the copies to flames.". God had t Yogi Spencer after his death, his HIFG and other books would be scrutinized by scholars and later published.

God had given him the mission of writing spiritual books and through them spread the knowledge of Spirituality in the world. Accordingly, M.K.Spencer wrote as many as nine important books besides some booklets of hymns and spiritual songs in praise of God.

Despite his being awfully busy in daily long meditation, receiving and carefully recording very frequent and sudden messages from God and Rishi Ram Ram and also some times messages from the great Spirit Masters like Zoroaster, Buddha, Christ, Maitriya, Raman Maharishi, Meher Baba, Gandhi, and deeply studying a lot of literature on major religions, spirituality and great mystics and saints of the world, he was most zealouly performing all these multi tasks relentlessly and courageously as a God intoxicated spiritual seeker. He had been suffering grat pain due his stomach cancer for many years but he ever allowed to doctors to treat mim,he left it to the will of God, and this led to his death in on 30 August,1958.

Yogi M.K.Spencer wrot tten the following books. All of them were originallyl published the Spiritual Healing Centre (which unfortunately became extinct :due to the untimely demise of Aiyer on 24 October,1965):

1. The Other World,(p.224)

2. Oneness with God

3. Joyous Mysticism in World Religions (1948)

4. Divine Discourses and Poems (1956,p. 156)

5. Understanding Divine Secrets (1957)

6. Reincarnation in the Gathas. the Holy Bible and the Holy Koran (p.14)

7. Romance of A Soul (p.94)

8. How I Found God (1957)

9. Religion in Life (1948)

10. Talks on Spiritual Philosophy (p.70)

11. Mysteries of God in the Universe (72)

12. Rishi Ram Ram (1941)

13. Raman Maharishi-The Sage of Arunachala

14. Poems of the Heart (1956,p. 120)

15. Esoteric Poems of Devotion (p.150)

16. Hymns

In 1997, I had heard from and was persuaded by two totally strangers (who I later learnt that they were very great and old ardent devotees of Shirdi Sai Baba) – T.R. Naidu from Hyderabad and UmaMaheswar Rao of Guntur) to contact the very old spiritualist and Karmayogi A. Somasundaram, Founder and Secretary of a small ‘Divine Centre’ in his house in a small interior town Markapur (Andhra Pradesh State) who, they informed me, possessed Yogi M.K.Spencer’s unique spiritual work’ How I Found God’ which I being Shirdi Sai devotee, author and committed spiritual researcher, must any how procure from him and seek his permission and invaluable guidance to bring it to the notice of Sai devotees and all spiritual aspirants in the world.I was greatly motivated by them to accept their very inspiring suggestion.

Some months after my recovery from a serious heart attack, I travelled to A.Somasundaram’s about 2000 kms distant small town by train and bus. I. was welcomed, very kindly treated by him and allowed to stay for some days and read all the four volumes of ‘How I Found God; and whichever Yogi’s other books were there and so many rare spiritual books, diaries in his dusty. packed personal library of rare spiritual books in the big room on the roof of his house-cum- Divine Centre.

I found him to be very a cordial, knowledgeable spiritualist, ardent admirer and worshipper of (Late) Yogi M.K.Spencer about whom he knew many things since both had been very closely associated for most yars of their lives with the erstwhile Spiritual Healing Centre, Coimbatore.

On very second day of my visit to him Somasundaram got an intuition or inner voice in course of his daily meditation in the Divine Centre in his house which revealed our close association in one of our past lives - that I had been his most loving and obedient disciple in his ashram somewhere in India, and by my coming to him in this birth, the snapped bond of our loving kinship from earlier birth was immediately united. I was thrilled to hear it from him and I instantly accepted him as my ‘Spiritual Father’, ‘Guru’ and mentor. He gladly gifted to me the whole four volume original set of Yogi Spencer’s rare major spiritual book ‘How I Found God’ (1957) and some of his other books each of whose more than one copy he had in his personal collection of old books.

He gladly transferred their copyrights to me, which Late K.S.D Aiyer dad given him.He had been carrying on the missionary work of the Spirit Master Rishi Ram,the founder and presiding deity of the Spiritual Healing Centre,Coimbator through his own Divine Centre at Markapur and was had been very close to K.S.D.Aiyer. and all the co-associates and spiritual seekers there and he was deeply influenced by Rishi Ram Ram and his illustrious disciples Yogi M.K.Spencer., KSD Iyer., He greatly motivated me to join and carry forward the flame of their great spiritual mission for the uplifeof of mankind in the New Era as envisioned by the Spirit Master Rishi Ram Ram and Yogi Spencer. He bound me by a commitment to him as his spiritual son that I would carry forward their great spiritual mission by editing them and getting them published. But no funds and any sort of help were ever made available to me by him or anybody and so I have been doing all this on my own.

In fulfillment of my commitment given to my spiritual father and mentor (Late) A. Somasundaram (1915 – 2005) I have edited and abridged a number of books of Yogi Spencer by spending most of my retirement time and own limited funds till now when I have reached 78 years of age and I am physically ill and weak and most of the time beddden since I had a serious attack of paralysis in 2007 which has rendered me unable to walk,speak coherently and do any strenuous physical activity. The Divine Masters and the blesingsd ogh my Spiritual father andf Yogi Dpencdr have been protecting, sustaining and helping me to completed the mission gien by them in this birth,

Since 2007 I have been suffering from, indescribable financial stringency and very crushing family problems and burdens. No organization, body, trust, association, financier, friend or helper has ever given any kind of help or support – financial,physical or moral - to me in this missionary work have been engaged in since 1898.

Unfortunatlyn all the four Indian publishers, to whom I had gven gavin Yogi Spencer’s books after editing by me by putting in enormous amount of time, energy and money, proved to be dishonest; they cheated, oppressed and disappointed me beyond anybody’s imagination by paying no royalty on them in the last 15 years. I could not find a reliable and honest publisher to publish them.

In 2008 I learned about an honest publishing firm and I contacted them. They agreed to publish ‘How I Found God’ abridged and edited by me, only on the condition that I must give them Rs. 75,000/- as half of the publication cost which was to be paid to him in advance as publishing subsidy in June 2009 itself so that they would then publish the book within two years,ie., by June 2010. I had to agree to their difficult condition but I immediately paid this huge amount by ending my Fixed Deposit just then in June 2008 in spite of my serious illness due to a sudden serious attack of paralysis and heavy medical expenses and no income other than modest monthly pension income. After a very long wait and a lot of persuasion the publisher finally published it in April 2011, i.e., 2 years and 9 months after the agreement and the above mentiomned payemt, and this greatly relived me of my mental tension for inordinate delay in publishing. I consoled my self. by recalling the provrb ‘Better late than never.’

The present book ‘Select Spiritual Writings of Yogi M.K.Spencer, which is a collection of his other three important books namely ‘Mysticism in World Religions’ (1947), ‘Religion in Life’ (1948) and ‘Divine Discourses ‘(1959) is now being published by the Partridge India Publishing Co. of USA under their Self Publishing Amethyst package by my paying its cost from my meager monthly pension, so that it may reach the interested spiritual seekers throughout the world and they may be benefited by the radiant and most useful Spiritual ideas of Yogi Spencer whom God hailed as His ‘Missionary like Christ’, ‘Emissary’, ‘Prophet of the New Age of Mankind’.

I earnestly hope that the spiritual seekers all over the world would be greatly befitted, inspired, enlightened and guided by Yogi Spencer’s ideas in the 21st century.

With its publication, I feel I have fulfilled my commitment given to my spiritual father (been able to do so before leaving this world.

I am grateful to Sri Shirdi Sai Baba, Spirit Master Rishi Ram Ram, (Late)Yogi M.K.Spencer, (Late K.S.D.Aiyer and (Late) A.Somasundram for enabling me to succeed in this task despite innumerable problems in which I have been neck- deep submerged for the last ten years. I owe a lot to my wife Mrs.Sushila Devi Ruhela who despite her own ill health and so many problems andwrries has been serving me as a silent and ever ready angel of sacrifice and service without ever complaining about and interfering in what I have beendoing all the time on my computer and with books in spite of my ill health and serious limitations. I am reminded of Milton’s words They also serve who only stand and wait.

(Dr.) Satya Pal Ruhela

‘Sai Kripa’

126,Sector 37,

Faridbad -121003 (India).

E Mail [e-mail]

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BOOK I

Joyous Mysticism In World

Religions (1947)

Contents

Introduction

1     Mysticism and Religion

2     Matter and Spirit

3     The Reality: Occultism

4     The Mystic and the Magician

5     Mysticism in Zoroastrianism

6     Egyptian Mysteries

7     Mysticism in the Vedas

8     Mysticism in the Bible

9     Mysticism in Buddhism

10     Greek Mysteries

11     Tibetan Mystics

12     Jewish Mysticism

13     Sufism

14     Spiritualism

15     Mysticism in Theosophy

16     Nature Mysticism

17     The Spirit’s Final Triumph

Appendix

Introduction

As we sit in a secluded corner. and behold nature, the thought that arises in our mind is, There is nothing in this world, but life. The whole universerse from the atom to the sky is pulsating with life. And this life is one, though the forms are many. God is one though He manifests Himself in diverse ways. He is the only Reality. The mystic knows this truth by actual experience. There is within him an awareness of God -’ God who is both transcendental and immanent in nature, It is all radiant light that he sees. His vision takes him to the starry avenue. He climbs the starry ladder step by step till he reaches the abode of the Cosmic Spiiit - God.

Mystics have existed for ages past. They have marched through the corridor

of time. Their mysticism helped this world to go forward in endless ways.Life is like an endless stream ever flowing from the Unmanifest and going back to the ocean of its origin - God. The mystics understand the secrets of nature. Christsaid, I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world. (St,,. Matthew 13:35). But it is a question whether Christ was, really the first to give a new message. What He taught and what demonstrations He gave of His yogic and super-normal powers were no new revelations at all. The yogis and mystics of the ages long before Christ had known the secrets of nature.

Readers will kindly pardon me for making somepersonal references in regard to the writing of this book. A message was got from Coimbatore in 1946, that Rishi Ram Ram had selected two of the members of the Spiritual Healing Centre to write books on behalf of the Centre. One of the two selected was myself. I therefore, invoked Rishi Ram Ram on 15th September, 1946, to suggest a title for the book and He gave the following long title: "Joyous Mysticism to lighten mankind into the worship of God and I was further told: Write when I inspire you."

This humble work is the result of patient labor. It will be evident that it has not the mark of scholarship, though I was fortunately, in a position to read and studya good number of books, chiefly from the libraries of the local Theosophical Society and the Spiritual Healing Centre, Coimbatore. A fair study of the subject was necessary before Rishi Ram Ram could undertake to inspire me. This book is entirely the result of the Master’s inspiration - only the blemishes are mine.

I express my gratitude to my friend in Bombay, who refuses to allow me to disclose his name, for reading the manuscript as usual and for making his observations. I am also grateful to Mr. Phillipowsky, a member of the editorial staff of The Daily Gazette, Karachi, for making certain corrections. I am greatly indebted to my dear friend, Mr. Doraswami Iyer, the indefatigable secretary of the Spiritual Healing Centre, Coimbatore, for undertaking to get the book published on behalf of the Centre.

24th June, 1947

1

Mysticism and Religion

What is metaphysics? It is an attempt to conceive and explain the world as a whole, by means of observations and inward feelings. There are people who are rationally minded. To them nothing appeals so much as scientific thought. Newton and Darwin, not to speak of various other scientists, made great scientific discoveries. Their zone of observation was the world, in its outer expression. They subjected everything to rigid classification. They analyzed and probed things to their very depths and ultimately derived satisfaction by proclaiming to the world, certain physical laws like gravitation, electricity, material evolution and so forth. But these laws, however applicable they be to forms, fail in their purpose when applied to life. Physical knowledge thus is a limited nature.

Burnett Hillman Street, in his book ‘Reality’’ which is a synthesis, of religion and science and a fine critical study of the problems of life says, As we ascend in the scale of life, any generalizations we can make, any laws we can observe, will necessarily be, not less true, but less complete and exhaustive statements of truth; and the higher we ascend, the more does the relative importance of what they leave unstated to what they succeed in Stating continually increase. In the realm of Physics and Chemistry, the generalizations of science fit the facts as exactly as spare parts fit a standard bicycle. When we go to Psychology, though we can still make classifications and discover general laws, they fit the individual case only approximately like a pair of boots ready made. Just as the boot manufacturer tries to secure a better fit by continually producing fresh intermediate sizes, so science is always refining and perfecting its earlier classifications. But to this process there is a necessary limit; at the point where an individual becomes the sole member of his class, the purpose of classification has disappeared." -(Pages 86 and 87)

We reiterate, physical knowledge is incomplete. Its limitation is inherent. Life is not a substance that can be classified or analyzed or seen under a microscope: Life cannot become an object of knowledge. It is not an entity, that we can compare it to an electron or a molecule. It is a process. It is a ceaseless evolution. Mere scientific knowledge is therefore incomplete: Life is both architect and workman, planner and laborer combined.

What does that mean? Science gives us the knowledge of the mechanism of the universe or things in life. But that which unveils the mystery of nature is man’s own intuition or the inward perception. The mystic is the architect, who gives us the design of life’s goal and purpose. He unveils to us, God’s plan; the nature of the soul, the laws of the spirit, and the relationship of man with the universe and gives us a picture of the journey after death.

Prophets have come to the world and have given their messages from time to time, revealing God’s plan and the spiritual heritage of mankind. They have shown the way. Zoroaster Lord Krishna, Buddha, Moses, Jesus, Mohamed and others have spoken to men the same truths though in different garbs. Religion is man’s best safeguard. It is his greatest consolation in life. It is the pillar, the anchor, the life-buoy in the stormy sea of life’s journey. But religion to the ordinary man is based on mere tradition. It is a matter of faith, not experience.

How many are tempted therefore to discard religious truths, owing to the absence of any tangible, provable existence ? If there is a God and a life hereafter; what is the proof of it? Mysticism supplies the place. It is religion in practice. God to the mystic is not an entity, that is merely philosophized and talked about by theologians and philosophers. He is a living entity, who can be felt, seen and understood by everyone, only if he or she wishes to do it. Mysticism is the science of the soul, by means of which God can be realized and understood in this very mortal body of flesh and blood.

It is very curious, that though God is infinitely high and measureless, He can become so small as to occupy the small cave of a human heart. It is the heart that is the seat and source of all divinity. It is the seed of divine inspiration: When the heart’s strings are strung, a symphony of music is created, the vibrations of which fill the universe. When we are seized with an intense feeling and desire for God, when we think of God and God alone and intensely desire His presence, His guidance and His inspiration, we realize Him. We have only to open the portals of love and the Great Being floods our heart and mind and soul and spirit, with the infinite waves of His holy joy, transforming us into, as if it were, celestial beings. It is through the way of the heart, that we are led to the unveiled world, the hill of the Lord.

God is Eternal Bliss. The Vedas call Him "Sat-Chit-Ananda" (Absolute Existence, Consciousness, Bliss).

I am the Goal, the Sustained, the Lord of Witness, the Abode, the Shelter and t11e Friend, the’ Origin, Dissolution and Stay, the Tre35ure house, the Seed Imperishable. (Bhagavad Gita. Chapter IX-18)

Just as a man does not become a musician by merely studying the history of the musical instrument but only when he uses it, no one can become an occultist or a mystic by merely reading books 00 occult literature. God has given to man, a most wondrous instrument-his body-and the human soul, is the musician, the composer, who has to work this instrument and create music out of it. It is the mystified not the theologian, who through this profound love of God, can unveil the hidden mysteries of Nature and realize God. Spiritual evolution can not be attained by the mere studying of religious books.

God is infinite love. Love is the omnipotence of the’ Ideal. "To love is to live, to love is to know, to love is to be able, to love is to pray, to love is to be the Man

God." This is what Eliphas Levi in his beautiful book, ‘The Paradoxes of the Highest Sciences’ says: Love is the very essence of religion. It is the pillar and arch of the mystic’s heart.

We can not define God. To define Him is to dethrone Him. Faith without understanding is weakness. We only comprehend religion and its vital significance when we practice it, by introspective methods of the mystic. To believe because one knows, is power. To believe without knowledge or understanding, is fruitless and faulty thing.

Jesus said; And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. (St. John Chapter 8-32) Where there is the Spirit of God there is liberty. But we can only achieve truth and liberty by following the mystic’s oath.

There are potentialities and powers latent in us. We can rise to transcendental heights by the application of our own consciousness or the divinity within us.

The mystic does not rely upon any outside authority. He relies upon his own efforts to reach the transcendental. The burning love for God, the great, deep longing for the Infinite, the intense desire for the Eternal-this is what the mystic feels.

The Dean of St. Paul considers mysticism to be a scientific form of religion.

Religion for the ordinary man as we have said, is based on mere faith. But in the mystic, this faith is transformed into knowledge. Mysticism is based on the testimony of consciousness. Mere teaching of religion by word of mouth can give no assurance of the existence of God or lead to the transcendental knowledge. The mystic’s mind is so full of God, that he feels His presence. Ordinarily, there are three kinds of consciousness, which prove the existence of the external world-the bodily, the emotional and the mental consciousness. But in the mystic, there is the fourth consciousness, -the consciousness of the divine within him. He is as if it were enrapt .rt with the Divine, which fills his mind, heart and soul with a sublime feeling of joy.

The realm of mysticism is the realm of the Spirit: Religions give us only, a part of spiritual knowledge, But the mystic, when he realizes God and thus obtains immortality, finds the door open to the portal of all knowledge. The hidden book of spiritual lore opens out to him. He realizes the unity of life. He gets Cosmic Consciousness.

What is this cosmic consciousness? It is not a mere passing dreaming state, which is awakened in us at some time or the other, by reflection on certain objects, so beautifully described by Tennyson in the following verses:

Moreover, something is seen or seems, That touches one with mystic gleams Like glimpses of forgotten dreams of something felt, like something here Of something done, I know not where; Such as no language may declare.

Sometimes, even by mechanical means the state of joyous self-forgetfulness is obtained, such as when man is intoxicated with wine or he is given some drug like nitrous oxide and ether sufficiently diluted with air. But such experiences should not be mistaken for the mystic’s true state of inward joyousness. They are degraded type of consciousness.

There are some records of mystical experiences with chloroform. The following statement of experience by a patient would be of some interest:

All the choking and stifling had passed away. I seemed at first in a state of utter blankness; then came flashes of intense light, alternating with blankness arid with a keen vision of what was going on in the room around me,. but no sensation of touch. I thought I was near death, when suddenly my soul became aware of God, who was manifestly dealing with me, so to speak, in the intense personal present reality. I felt Him streaming in like light upon me - I can not describe the ecstasy I felt. Then as I gradually awoke from the influence of the anesthetic, the old sense of my relation to the world began to return, the new sense of my relation to God began to fade. I suddenly leapt to my feet on the chair where I was sitting and shrieked out, It is too horrible, it is too horrible, it is too horrible - meaning that I not bear this disillusion. Then I flung myself on the ground and at last awoke covered with blood, calling to the two surgeons (who were frightened). Why did you not kill me? Why did you not let me die? Only think of it. To have felt for that long dateless ecstasy of vision the very God. in all purity and tenderness and truth and absolute love and then to find that I had after all no revelation but that I had been tricked by the abnormal excitement of the brain. (The Varieties of Religious Experiences by William James -page 391)

The above experience of the patient should not be considered as the result of any abnormal excitement of the brain. In fact, the patient himself corrects this mistake, by further proceeding to say: `Yes, this question remains-Is it possible that the inner sense of reality which -succeeded, when my flesh was dead to impressions from without to the ordinary sense of physical relations, was not a delusion but an actual experience? Is it possible that in that moment I felt what some of the saints have said they always felt, the indemonstrable but irrefragable certainty of God. (William James. The Varieties of Religious Experiences, page 392)

What we feel is, that in the anesthetic stage, as in sleep, the soul leaves the body rid makes an excursion into the Other Worlds. Generally the impressions of such excursions are forgotten when the soul returns to the body, in its waking state. But in some extraordinary cases the impressions are not forgotten and the above case quoted is of that latter category. The patient was able to remember his excursion into the astral world and was naturally sorry to have come back to this physical, mundane plane.

But such types of anaesthic revelations should not be mixed up with cosmic consciousness which is of the superb type and which leaves a permanent impression on the -mind and creates a feeling of mystical j6y of a transcendental order.

Cosmic consciousness is not merely an expansion or extension of the conscious mind. It is consciousness of the cosmos, of the life of the universe. It elevates the soul and places it on an exalted level. It fills the mind with an inexpressible feeling of delight. It enhances intellectual powers. It brings a sense of immortality - a consciousness of eternal life. It gives a feeling of unity of life-the oneness of God with His entire’ creation.

God is absolute transcendence and mysticism is an Endeavour of the human mind to grasp the ultimate Reality, to probe the essence and secrets of the cosmos and to enjoy transcendental bliss even when in physical life.

Let us explain mysticism.

The first is its affability. The mystic state is one, which defies definition. It is a state of consciousness which can not be transferred, reported or explained. It has to be felt, just like a lover knows what love is, when he is in love with his beloved. It is a direct experience, the contents of which can not be imparted or explained to any one. Intellect seems to swoon away in the highest states of ecstasy. The man loses all consciousness of time, space and causality. Everything seems to be absorbed in one Reality that is God, which is all Light transcendental Light of the Highest radiance and all joy the mystic’s attitude is that of self-surrender. The,would appears to him as a fleeting fantasy. All is unreal except God, who is the only Reality.

The second distinctive mark of mysticism is its poetic quality. Mysticism is not only a state of emotion; it is at length the distinctive marks of also a state of mind. Love and Thought-these are the keys of the mystic’s realm. Will James, a famous lecturer on Religion and the, author of The Varieties of Religious Experiences says, Although so similar to states of feeling, mystical states seem to those who experience them to be also states of knowledge. They are states of insight into depths of truth unplumbed by the discursive intellect. They are illuminations, revelations, full of significance and importance, all inarticulate though they remain; and as a rule they carry with them a curious sense of authority for after-time. (pages 380 and 381)

The third characteristic is that the state of ecstatic bliss does not last long.

Half an hour, an hour or, at most, two hours is generally the limit, though we know of certain Indian yogis, who