# The Science of Religion/Chapter 2

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Los Angeles: Sat Sanga, pages 59–89
CHAPTER II
FOUR FUNDAMENTAL RELIGOUS METHODS
We have seen in the last chapter that the identification of the Spiritual self with body and mind is the fundamental cause of our pain, suffering, and limitations, and that because of this identification we feel such excitations as pain and pleasure, and are almost blind to the state of Bliss, or God-consciousness. We have also seen that religion essentially consists in the permanent avoidance of such pain and in the attainment of pure Bliss, or God.
As the sun’s true image cannot be perceived in the surface of moving water, so the true blissful nature of the Spiritual self—the reflection of the Universal Spirit—cannot be understood owing to the waves of disquietude that arise from identification of the self with the changing states of the body and mind. ​As the moving waters distort the true image of the sun, so does the disturbed state of the mind, through identification, distort the true, Ever-Blissful nature of our own self.
The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the easiest, most rational, and most fundamental methods (practical for all) that will free the Ever-Blissful, Spiritual self from its baneful connection and identification with the transitory body and mind, thus causing it to permanently avoid pain and attain Bliss, which constitutes Religion. Therefore the fundamental methods to be considered are religious and involve religious actions, because only by means of these can the Spiritual self be freed from the body and mind and thus from pain, and be made to attain permanent Bliss, or God.
A general idea of the religious method is given in one, among a great many, of Christ’s teachings. He says, “Unless ye have lifted up the Son of man, ye can not enter into the ​kingdom of God.” The “Son of man” means the progeny of man, i.e., the body which is born out of another human body. It may seem to us that “Son of man” means something other than this—that it means Christ. Granting this, we are then to interpret the next saying of Christ, “The Son of man shall be delivered unto the Gentiles and He shall be crucified,” as meaning that Christ, the Eternal Spirit, was to be crucified by material nails and His Spirit destroyed, an explanation which is obviously absurd; for it was the material body only, in which the Spirit of Christ was clothed, that could possibly be crucified, not the Spirit. We can explain the first quoted saying of Christ in this way: unless we can transcend the body and realize ourselves as spirit, we cannot enter into the kingdom or state of that Universal Spirit. We find an echo of this in a Sanskrit couplet of the Oriental scriptures: “If thou canst transcend the body and perceive thyself as spirit, ​thou shalt be eternally blissful and free from all pain.” (When Christ called himself Son of God, he meant the Universal Spirit dwelling in him.)
Now there are four fundamental, universal religious methods which, if followed in daily life, will in time liberate the Spiritual self from the trammels of its bodily and mental vehicles. Under these four classes of religious methods I include all the possible religious practices that have ever been enjoined by any saint or savant or any prophet of God. Religious practices are inculcated by prophets in the form of doctrines. Menof limited intellect, failing to interpret the true import of these doctrines, accept their exoteric or outer meaning and gradually fall into forms, conventions, and rigid practices. This is the origin of sectarianism. Rest from work on the sabbath day was interpreted by the Jews to mean rest from all work—even religious work. This is the danger to men of limited understanding. ​We should remember that we are not made for the sabbath, but that the sabbath is made for us; we are not made for rules, rules are made for us—they change as circumstances change. We are to hold to the essence of a rule, not dogmatically to its form. Change of forms and customs constitutes for many a change from one religion to another. But the deepest import of all the doctrines of all the different prophets is often the same. Most men do not understand this.
But there is equal danger in the case of the intellectually great. They try to know the Highest Truth by the exercise of the intellect only. But the Highest Truth can be known only by realization. Realization is something other than mere understanding. We could not possibly understand the sweetness of sugar if we had not tasted it. Just so, religious knowledge is drawn from the deepest experience of one’s own soul. This we often forget when we seek to learn about God, religious ​dogmas, and morality. We do not seek to know these through inner religious experience. It is a pity that men of great intellectual power, successful in their use of reason in the way of discovering the deep truths of the natural sciences, etc., think that they will also be able to grasp intellectually the highest religious and moral truths. It is also a pity that the intellect or reason of these men, instead of being a help, is found to be a bar to their comprehension of the Highest Truth by the only means possible—living it in one’s life.
Let us consider the four methods characterizing religious growth.
I. Intellectual Method. The commonly-adopted, natural method, not so effective in realizing the end.
Intellectual development and progression has been natural and hence common to all rational beings. It is our self-conscious: understanding which differentiates us from the lower animals, that are conscious but not ​self-conscious. In the grades and processes of evolution we see that this consciousness gradually becomes self-consciousness—from animal consciousness self-consciousness arises. The consciousness gradually tries to free itself and tries to know itself by itself, and it is thus changed into self-consciousness. This change is due to an evolutional necessity, and the universal urge toward intellectual pursuits is due to this evolutional tendency. The Spiritual self, identified with various degrees and sorts of bodily and mental states, tries gradually and naturally to return to itself through itself. The development of the conscious thought-process is one of the methods which the Spiritual self adopts to rise above the trammels of body and mind. The effort of the Spiritual self to return to itself—its lost condition—through the development of thought-process is natural. This is the process of the world. The Universal Spirit expresses itself in different grades of develop​ment, from lower to higher. In stone and earth there is no life or consciousness. In trees there is vegetative growth, an approach to life, yet no full-grown life and no conscious thought-process at all. In animals there is life and also consciousness of life. In man—the culmination point—there is life, consciousness of it, and also consciousness of the Self (i.e., Self-consciousness). Hence it is natural for man to develop himself through thinking and reasoning, by deep study of books, by original research work, and by laborious investigations into causes and effects in the natural world. The more deeply a man engages in thought-processes, the more he can be said to be utilizing the method by which he has come to be what he is in the course of the world-evolution process (i.e., the method by which consciousness develops into Self-consciousness) and the nearer, knowingly or unknowingly, he approaches the Self. For in thought we rise above the body. The deliberate ​following of this method will bring about sure results. Exercise of thought in study, etc., solely for the acquirement of knowledge of a certain thing, though to some extent improving the self-consciousness, is not so effective as that thought-process which has as its sole object the transcending of the body and seeing the truth.
One of the defects of this method is that it is a very slow process for the Spiritual self to thus realize itself. It may involve a good deal of time. While the Spiritual self begins to apprehend self-consciousness by this method, still it is always engaged with a series of passing mental thoughts with which it has no relation. Tranquillity of the spirit is something beyond thought or bodily sensation, though when once attained it overflows both.
II. Devotional Method. This consists in fixing the attention of the Spiritual self on one object of thought, rather than on different ​series of thoughts and on different subjects, as in the intellectual method. Under this method are included all forms of worship (such as prayer, from which we must eliminate all thoughts of worldly things), or objects of reverence. The Spiritual self must fix its attention deeply on whatsoever it chooses to concentrate on. It may be any thing that it likes. The Spiritual self may create a Personal God, an Impersonal Omnipresent God, or any other thing. It must simply concentrate on one subject of thought in good earnest.
By this process the Spiritual self becomes gradually freed from the disturbances of vagrant thoughts—the second series of disturbances—and gets time and opportunity to think itself in itself. When we pray earnestly, we forget all bodily sensations and drive away all intruding thoughts that try to engage our attention.
The deeper our prayer, the more intense is the satisfaction felt, and this becomes the ​criterion by which we measure how far we have approached Bliss-God. As the bodily sensations are left behind and the vagrant thoughts are checked, the superiority of this over the foregoing method becomes manifest.
However, this method presents certain defects and difficulties. Owing to the long-continued attachment and slavery of the Spiritual self to the body—to this deep-rooted bad habit—it ineffectually tries to turn its attention away from the sphere of bodily and mental sensations. However much one may wish to pray or engage in any form of worship with one’s whole heart, one’s attention is mercilessly invaded by the raiding bodily sensations and vagrant thoughts brought in by memory. In prayer we are often wholly engrossed in the consideration of the circumstances favorable to it, or we are too ready to remove any of our disturbing bodily discomforts. In spite of all our conscious efforts our bad habit, which has become a second nature ​to us, lords it over the self’s wishes. In spite of our wish, our mind becomes restless. “Wherever your mind shall be there shall your heart be also,” and “Pray God with all thy heart.” Instead, we generally pray to God with our mind and heart occupied with bodily and mental disturbances. Let us look for a more effective way by which our self’s effort may be made easier and be more greatly helped.
III. Meditation Method. This and the next method are purely scientific, involving a practical course of training, and are prescribed by great savants who have realized the truth personally in their own lives. I myself learned them from one of these. There is nothing of mystery in them, or anything to be dreaded as harmful. They are very easy, if one is properly acquainted with them. They will be found to be universally true. Practically-felt knowledge is the best proof of their validity and pragmatic utility. ​By undergoing regularly the processes of meditation till they become a habit, we can bring upon ourselves a state of conscious sleep. We generally experience this calm and pleasurable tranquil state just when we are falling into deep sleep and approaching unconsciousness, or rising from it and approaching consciousness. In this state of conscious sleep we become free from all thoughts and outer bodily sensations, and the self gets time to think of itself—it comes into the blissful state from time to time, according to the depth and frequency of its practice of meditation. In this state we are utterly forgetful of and free from all bodily and mental disturbances which divert the self’s attention. By this process of meditation the outer organs are controlled by the controlling of the voluntary nerves, as in sleep.
But the process of meditation has also its drawbacks and defects. By this process, just as in sleep, we learn to control only our outer ​organs, the only difference being that in sleep the outer organs are automatically controlled, while in meditation, on the contrary, the outer organs are voluntarily controlled. This produces a state of “conscious sleep.’’ The Spiritual self then experiences this state of conscious sleep, being continually disturbed by the involuntary and internal organs, e.g., lungs, heart, and other organs which we mistakenly suppose to be beyond control.
We must look for a better method than this, for so long as the Spiritual self can not at will shut out all bodily sensations, even interior ones, which are the occasions of the rise of thought, but remains vulnerable to these disturbances, it can have no hope of final rest nor time or opportunity to know itself.
IV. Organic, Scientific Method. St. Paul said: “I die daily” (1 Cor. 15, 31). By ​this he meant that he knew the process of controlling the internal organs and could voluntarily free his Spiritual self from the body and mind, the sudden freedom of which, due to the wearing out of this gross body and mind, is termed death. Now by undergoing a practical and regular course of training in this scientific method the self can be felt as being separated from the body.
I will give only a general idea of the process and the true scientific theory on which it is based. I set it down here from my own experience. I can say it will be found to be universally true. And I can also safely say that Bliss, which is, as I pointed out, our ultimate end, is felt in intense degree in the act of practising this method. The practice of it is itself intensely Blissful—far more purely Blissful, I venture to say, than the greatest enjoyment that any of our five senses or the mind can ever afford us. I do not wish to give any one any other proof of its truth than is afforded by ​his own experience. The more one practises it with patience and duration, the more one feels intensely and durably fixed in Bliss. Owing to the persistence of bad habits, the consciousness of bodily existence, with all its memories, revives occasionally and fights against that tranquillity. If any one practises regularly and for extended periods, it can be guaranteed that in time he will find himself in a highly super-mental state of Bliss. We should not, however, overwisely seek to imagine beforehand the possible results to which the process may lead, and then cease practising the method after.a short trial.
In order to make real progress the following things are necessary: First, loving attention to the subject to be learned; second, desire to learn and an earnest spirit of inquiry; third, steadfastness until the desired end is attained. If we go only half-way and then, after a short practice, reject it, the desired result will not follow. If novices in spiritual practices try to ​pre-judge the experience of experts, they will appear as ridiculous as a child who tries to imagine what post-graduate studies would be like. It is a great pity that men will spend their best efforts and time in securing what is needed for worldly existence or in indulging in intellectual controversy over theories, but seem never to think it worth their while to realize and patiently experience in life the truths which not only vivify but impart meaning to it. Misguided efforts can engage their attention longer than well-guided efforts. I have been practising the above-mentioned method for the last 18 years, and the more I do so, the more I feel the joy of a state of permanent and unfailing Bliss. We should bear in mind that the Spiritual self has been in bondage to the body for how many ages we know not. It cannot be freed in one day, nor will short or desultory practice of the method take one to the Supreme State of Bliss or give one control over the internal organs. It ​will require patient practice for a long, long time. I guarantee this, however,—that the following of this process will bring the great joy of pure Bliss-consciousness. The more we practise it, the more we get that Blissful state. I wish that, as seekers of Bliss, which all of us are, you should try to experience for yourselves that universal truth which is in all and may be felt by all. This is not an invention of anyone. It is already there. We are simply to discover it.
Do not, until you have tested this truth, look upon what I write with indifference. It may be that you are tired of hearing various theories, none of which has hitherto had any direct bearing on your life. This is no theory, but realized truth. I am trying to give you a general idea of what can be really experienced.
I had the fortune to learn this “Holy, Scientific Truth” from a great saint of India a good many years ago. You may ask why I urge you—why I draw your attention to ​these facts? Have I any selfish interest? To this I answer in the affirmative. I wish to sell this truth to you with the hope of getting in return pure joy by helping you find your joy in the practice and realization of it.
Now I have to enter into a little physiology, which will enable us to understand the method, at least in a general way. I must describe the work of the main centres and the electrical current that flows from the brain through these centres to the outer and internal organs and keeps them vibrating with life.
There are six main centres through which Pranic Current, Vital Current, or Life Electricity from the brain is discharged throughout the nervous system. These are:
| Medulla-centre. | Lumbar-centre. |
| Cervical-centre. | Sacral-centre. |
| Dorsal-centre. | Coccygeal-centre. |
The brain is the supreme electrical Power-House (supreme centre). All the centres are connected with one another and act under ​the influence of the supreme centre (brain-cells). The brain-cells discharge life current, or electricity, through these cells, which in turn discharge electricity to the different efferent and afferent nerves which respectively carry motor impulse and sensation of touch, sight, etc. This electrical flow from the brain is the life of the organism (of its internal and external organs), and it is this electrical medium through which all our sensation reports reach the brain and cause thought disturbances. The self, if it wishes effectively to shut out the disturbing reports of bodily sensations (which are also the occasions of the rise of the thought-series), must control and concentrate the electrical flow and draw it back from the nervous system as a whole to the seven main centres (including the brain), so that by this process it may give the outer and internal organs perfect rest. In sleep, the electrical conductivity between the brain and the outer organs is partially inhib​ited, so that ordinary sensations of sound, touch, etc., cannot reach the brain. But because this inhibition is not complete, a sufficiently strong stimulus from without restores this electrical conductivity and is reported to the brain, awakening the person. Yet always in sleep there is a steady electrical flow into the internal organs,—heart, lungs, etc.,—so that they keep on throbbing and working.
As the control of life electricity in sleep is not complete, bodily sensations of discomfort, disease, or strong outside stimuli disturb it. But through a scientific process of control, which is not here described in detail, we can simultaneously control the external and internal organs of the system in a perfect way. That is the ultimate result of practice. But it will take long, long years to attain that perfect control. As after sleep, which is rest, the outer organs are invigorated, so the internal organs, after rest, as a result of the practice of this scientific method, are ​greatly vitalized, and with the consequent increase in their working power life is prolonged. As we do not fear to go to sleep, lest for the time being the outer organs remain inert, so we ought not fear to practise death, i.e., give rest to the internal organs. Death will then be under our control; for when we think this bodily house is unfit and broken, we shall be able to leave it of our own accord. “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” (1 Cor. 15, 26.)
We may describe the process thus: If the main telephone office in a town is permanently connected by wires with different parts of the town, men telephoning from those parts can always, even against the will of the authorities of the main telephone office, send messages to the central office through the medium of the electric current running along the connecting wires. If the main telephone office wishes to stop communication with the different parts, it can turn off the main electri​cal switch and there will be no flow to the different quarters of the town. Similarly, the scientific method teaches a process enabling us to draw to its central part—spine and brain—the life current distributed throughout the organs and other parts of the body. The process, roughly speaking, lies in magnetizing the spinal column, which contains the seven main centres, with the result that the distributed life electricity is drawn back to the original centres of discharge and is experienced in the form of light. In this state the Spiritual self can consciously free itself from its bodily and mental disturbances. The Spiritual self is, as it were, being disturbed, even against its wish, by the telephone reports from two classes of people—gentlemen (thoughts) and low class people—(bodily sensations). In order to break connection with them it has only to draw away the electricity flowing through the telephone wires to the central battery of its house by turning off the ​switch (i.e., practise the fourth method), in order to enjoy relief.
Attention is the great director and discharger of energy. It is the active cause of the discharge of the electrical life current from the brain to the sensory and motor nerves. For example, we drive away a troublesome fly by discharging, through the power of attention, the proper electrical current along the motor nerves, thereby producing the desired movements. I cite this to give an idea of the power by which the electrical flow of the system can be controlled and drawn back to its seven centres. It is of these seven star-like centres and their mystery that we find mention even in the chapter on revelation in the Bible. St. John experienced these seven centres as seven stars while he was in the spirit. “The mystery of the seven stars, which thou sawest, write them in a book.’’—Revelation 1: 19, 20. It should be noted that when I say the electrical flow of the body is controlled, I mean all ​electrical currents, whether flowing voluntarily or involuntarily.
In conclusion I wish to describe the nature of the states which emerge when the electrical flow is completely controlled. In the beginning a most attractive sensation is felt in the course of magnetizing the spinal column. But continued and long practice will bring about a state of conscious Bliss which counteracts the exciting state of our body-consciousness. This blissful state has been described as our universal aim and highest necessity, because in it we are really conscious of God, or Bliss, and feel the expansion of our real selves. The more frequently this is experienced, the more our narrow individuality falls away, the sooner the state of universality is, reached, and the closer and more direct is our touch with what we know as God. Religion is really nothing but the merging of our individuality in universality. Therefore, in the consciousness of this Blissful state we ascend the steps of ​Religion. We leave the noxious atmosphere of the senses and vagrant thoughts and come to a region of Heavenly Bliss. We learn by this process what will be found to be universally true. When by constant practice the consciousness of this Blissful state of our Spiritual self becomes real we find ourselves always in the Holy presence of the Blissful God in us. We discharge our duties better, having an eye more for the duties themselves than for our “egoism’’ and the pleasure-painconsciousness rising therefrom. Then we can solve the mystery of existence and impart real meaning to what is known as life.
Underlying all the so-called Religions—Christianity, Mahomedanism, Hinduism—there is one truth remaining, viz., that unless you know yourself as spirit,—as the fountainhead of Bliss, separate from body and mind,—your existence is devoid of meaning and your life is akin to that of the brute. We can know God only by knowing ourselves, for our ​natures are similar to His. Man has been created in the image of God. If the methods here suggested are earnestly practised, you will know yourself to be a Blissful spirit and will realize God. In these things there is nothing that is found in Christianity and not also in Mahomedanism and Hinduism, not in the latter that is not in the former. Further, the methods laid down embrace all the conceivable means essential to the realization of God. They do leave out of consideration the thousand and one conventional rules and minor practices enjoined by the so-called different religions, because some of these relate to differences in the frame of mind of the individuals, hence are less important, though by no means unnecessary, and because others come up in the course of practice of these methods, hence do not require fuller treatment in our limited space.
The superiority of this method over others lies in the fact that it lays its hand just on the ​thing that binds us down to our narrow individuality—the life-force that, instead of being turned back and absorbed into the expansive self-conscious force of the self, goes outward, keeps our body and mind always in motion, and causes disturbances to the Spiritual self, in the shape of bodily sensations and passing thoughts. Because life-force moves outward, sensations and thoughts disturb and distort the calm image of “Self’’-consciousness. This method teaches us to turn the life-force inward. Hence it is direct and immediate. It takes us straight to the consciousness of the “Self”—Bliss-God. It does not require the help of an intermediary. It controls and directs the course of the life-force by the control and regulation of a known and directly connected manifestation of the life-force itself. (It is not desirable nor is it possible that this process be explained further in this book.)
The other methods employ the help of the ​intellect, or thought process, to control the life-force in order to induce consciousness of the “Self’’ in its Bliss-ful and other aspects. It should be noted that all religious methods in the world directly or indirectly, tacitly or expressly, enjoin the control, regulation, and turning back of the life-force so that we may transcend the body and mind and know the “Self” in its native state. The fourth method directly controls itself by itself, whereas the other methods do it through some other intermediary—thought, prayer, worship or meditation, etc.
Presence of life in man is existence, absence of it is death. Hence the method that teaches life’s direct power to control itself must be the best of all.
Now savants of different ages and climes have suggested methods adapted to the mental frame and condition of the people among whom they lived and preached. Some have laid stress on prayer, some on feeling, some ​on love, some on reason or thought, some on meditation. But their motives have been the same.
They all meant that body should be transcended by the control and turning back of the life-force inward, and that the “Self” should be realized as the image of the sun in a calm, unruffled water. Their purpose is the inculcation of just that which the fourth method teaches directly, without the help of any intermediary.
At the same time it should be noted that the practice of this method does not prevent the cultivation of the intellect, the building up of the physique, and the activity of a social and useful life,—a life of the best feelings and motives, devoted to philanthropic works. As a matter of fact, all-sided training should be prescribed for all. It positively helps rather than retards the practice of the method; the only thing required is that its point of view be ​retained. Then all actions, all pursuits, will result to our advantage.
The main thing in this process, in a word, is to understand thoroughly the mystery of the life-force that sustains the bodily organism of man, causing it to vibrate with life and energy, illumine the intellect, and build up a strong physique, for the creation of the ideal social man. Unless we understand what we are and what the life with which we have daily connection means, our knowledge is imperfect. So I say we should analyze the life of man, as it were, in a laboratory, find out what it is, and then devise means to make it what it ought to be. This process is not of my own invention; it has been found to be universally true in all climes and ages. Truth is always found to be the same everywhere and by every one. Only, some times it is out of our sight. Though seeing, we see not, hearing, we hear not. I have only wished to relate what I have found through the help of others.
Footnotes