The Atma Jyoti Blog

A letter written to someone seeking a spiritual “home.”

Dear Friend,

“And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20). There are many interpretation of these words, all viable since the words spoken by a person of infinite consciousness can have infinite meanings. But one I feel is legitimate is the idea that those of lesser evolution (“foxes” and “birds”) can find a home on earth, but a true, awakened, human being cannot.

Please do not look for a spiritual home, or a place where you belong, on this earth–and that includes churches, spiritual groups, or ashrams. You are not even a human being–you are a god within God. And only God is your home. Disappointment and frustration, not to mention pain and grief, can only result from trying to find a resting place anywhere but in Infinity. That is a tough thing to face, but if we are to be spiritual adults the bullet must be faced and bitten.

Many people’s lives are a chain of “home at lasts,” none of which really are home at all, as they eventually discover. They were spiritually beneficial and worthy of gratitude and respect, necessary steps–but that is just it: steps leading to something higher. If we come to rest on any of them we will stagnate and die.

Growth is change–keep on changing! The spiritual stick-in-the-muds will look at you and cluck and shake their heads and talk about instability and being “out of tune with Master” and other tripe. They like stagnancy and, as Jesus said, they have their reward. But you be different.

Go forward!

Sri Ramakrishna told the parable of a woodcutter who met a sadhu in the forest that told him: “Go further.” He did, and discovered a sandalwood grove. He started to cut it but remembered he had been told Go Further, so he went on. He found an iron deposit, then a copper deposit, then a silver deposit, then a gold deposit, and finally a diamond field–all because he kept on going further.

All teachings and teachers are finite and limited by human boundaries. Eventually they must all be grown beyond. Truth is another matter altogether. Discovery of Truth should be the purpose of teachings and teachers, but is it? Aren’t most of them meant to “answer all questions,” “give comfort,” or “bring peace”? Are there any real answers, comfort, or peace in this world? I don’t think so. However, all rungs of the ladder are worthy of regard. Without the rungs of a ladder or the steps of a stair we do not ascend, but we ascend by leaving them behind, not stopping on them and calling all the world to come stand still with us. It is the willingness to keep moving onward, leaving everything behind, that is the highest renunciation. Years ago I came to realize that the journey was never going to end as long as I was moving from point to point rather than stepping off into eternity.

Someone asked Shankara: “What is truth [satya]?” Shankara replied: “There is no ‘truth.’ There is only The True [Sat].” As Sister Gyanamata said: God Alone. Like the egoic children we are, we hate admitting that we were wrong in thinking we had “found it.” The ego keeps people “loyal” from life to life. “God and Guru” my foot. In God there is no “and.” Remember: Sri Ramakrishna did not attain liberation until he mentally cut the living image of Kali in half with the sword of discrimination.

Does this all sound like I am one of those cynical, warped, and dried up souls like Krishnamurti that denounce everyone but themselves and all ideas but theirs? I hope not, for you cannot progress without any of these things I have mentioned, but you must also get (grow) beyond them. Every time you sit to do math, do you call up your first math teacher and ask her to come do it for you? Or when you get the right answer, do you say: “I have done nothing. It is all my first grade arithmetic teacher. All credit goes to her”? Of course not, because you aren’t nuts. So why be spiritually crazy?

Walking the Path

People talk about “walking the Path,” but the whole idea of the path is to come to its end and leave it behind. All books, however wise, have an ending, as do the discourses of even avatars. And then the Real Thing begins. We will not reach the Real without the paths, the books, or the discourses, but we must use them, not idolatrize them. A few years ago I figured out the universal motto of all religions: Adore The Messenger And Ignore The Message. The message is always: Move on until you reach the place where there is no more “on.”

The problem is not with the Masters but with the ignorant and deluded “disciples.” The Masters liberate, the groupies bind. Do you have the recording: Self-Realization: the Inner and the Outer Path? Dr. Lewis’s talk presents the right perspective: it is not an organization but an attainment.

I say all this because I know how a seeker can suffer from continual disillusionment if he keeps conscious and keeps his eyes open. But you will not suffer, only benefit, if you understand the way things are. Learn. Apply. Move on. It is all between you and God. And since when does God need any vows or promises? Either you seek Him or you don’t. And He can tell the difference.

Break all dependencies

My chief interest for some years has been how people can break all dependencies and find God on their own. Nearly all religious and “spiritual” situations involve manipulation and dependence. Religion is the number one field for Victimizers and Victims, though with sacred labels instead of the true ones. Coercion and submission is the order of the day. It is evil.

There are many things that people need at a certain level of development, but a time comes when external input no longer is what we need. Rather, we must open up the inner life and live on that alone. “Man shall not live by bread alone” implies this. The “word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” is purely internal. God speaks in the depths of our spirit, the core of our consciousness. No, He does not speak as a cosmic rumble as we sit with our thumbs stuck in our ears. That, too, is outward-turned. Rather, He speaks as “a still small voice” in the inner silence.

The absolute essential is the procedure by which our entire being is transmuted into the Life Divine. Just this morning I was reading Dr. I. K. Taimni’s statement that the purpose of following and seeking the Truth is to be the Truth. Ultimately, though not prematurely, we must come to say with Jesus: “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” We need to pass from feeding on the Bread of Life to becoming the Bread of Life. This is real Yoga–nothing else.

I have declaimed enough. Thank you for your letters. I hope you find something of what I have written useful–if only to disagree with it!

More Questions and Answers:

• The Yogi and the Afterlife
• Pets and the After-Life
• Persevere Amidst Mistakes
• The 2012 End of the World Bugaboo