Are Indians pro LGBT?

 Frankly, no.

For the facts enumerated in the latest Census of India (2011) make it absolutely, perfectly and perceptively clear that taken as a whole, an overwhelming majority of the people of India does not at all support the ill-conceived and unenlightened practice of homosexuality, lesbianism and bisexuality etc.

As to why it is so, to that aspect we will come later on.

Let the facts speak for themselves, for now.

In the latest available statistics on religion - which are of the 2011 Census, made public on 25th August 2015 by the government of India - for the very first time since the Independence of India, a new category of “no religion” was added to the said survey and its statistics.

As per this released data, out of a total population of 1.21 billion (in 2011) only 0.24% of India is presumably non-religious.

Derivative thereof, it could thus be considered that these people either do not follow any particular religion, or alternatively, fall under the category of non-believers, atheists, skeptics etc. In other words, this minuscule percentage of the Indian population, could very well be said to be actually and factually not practicing any formal religion as such. But it does not mean that these very same people may not be following some other kind of a spiritual path or a free mystical practice than that could not be formally listed under a religious faith or considered to be one of the major or minor religions of India.

The major religions of India are Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism. A small number of Zoroastrians and some other religious minorities - constituting approximately 0.67% of the population - are also listed in the 2011 Census of India.

The orthodox and well laid down traditional view of Christianity, Judaism and Islam, as found and is well known from their holy scriptures - from unimpeachable written records - is not only vehemently and violently opposed to homosexuality and lesbianism but also seeks death for those following this kind of a considered hedonistic lifestyle.

On May 25th 1999, in a recorded public interview, the Dalai Lama made clear that homosexuality etc. cannot be condoned in Buddhism.

Hinduism, though not seeking death penalty for homosexual behaviour, too does not in any way approve of it.

As early as 350–450- B.C. it was laid down in the ancient Hindu scriptural text Dharmasutra of Apastambha (1:19:15) as follows:

“A man who ejaculates his semen in any place other than the vagina becomes equal to a thief, equal to a murderer of a Brahmin.”

The ancient scripture Manusmriti which was penned down in 200 B.C. - though traditionally said to have been written in 1500–2000 B.C. - considers homosexuality etc. as “an unnatural offense”, causing one to fall from one’s high state of birth (11:68).

As for lesbianism, Manusmriti (8:370-371) advocates tonsuring the offending woman’s head, cutting off her two fingers and parading her on a donkey in front of the entire community.

In the holy book of Sikhism, in Sri Guru Granth Sahib, though no mention of any such act as homosexuality etc. is made in written, the natural state of being (sahaj) is advocated for God-realization. Therefore, no sagacious and spiritually inclined member of the Sikh community would ever even think of condoning lesbianism or homosexuality. Frankly, and generally speaking, the Sikhs scoff at it.

Now, from 2011 Census of India we already know that 99.79% (minus 0.24%, who say they have ‘no religion’ per se) of Indians are rather very religious in nature, in their living and lifestyle.

In its 2015 survey, the PEW Research Center, based in U.S.A., recorded that 8-in-10 Indians (out of the 1.31 in 2015) said religion is very important in their lives.

Hence, close to 1,048,000,000 or approximately 1.05 billion Indians (in 2015) held that religion is a vital component and a sine qua non in their life and living.

In other words, this humongous religious populace in India to whom religion is extremely important in its life - being true followers of one’s own particular religion - would most likely abide by and similarly hold that whatever their specific faith postulates, be it in the matter of such acts as HOMOSEXUALITY & LESBIANISM etc., it is to be upheld, and followed to the farthest extent, come what may.

Of course a few among them being a bit more liberal minded may not be so strict in judging the LESBIANS, GAYS and the BISEXUALS. But in general, since their religion specifically teaches so, more or less the people too believe what their religion teaches. Otherwise they would not be following it.

So, empirical facts tell us that INDIANS ARE NOT PRO LGBT.

Very recently the Supreme Court of India decriminalized certain sections of Article 377 regarding imprisonment for homosexuality etc., though not the portions that concern pedophilia or bestiality.

Yet it is apparent from the available self-explanatory empirical data provided above, that on the whole the vast majority of people of India neither approve of nor advocate any acts of homosexuality, lesbianism or bisexuality etc.

It may also be interesting to note that in the afore said case in the Supreme Court, in the affidavit filed by the Ministry of Health, it was submitted that “The population of Men who have Sex with Men was estimated to be 25 lakh in India.” Thus, even if extending the number all that much more to include the lesbians etc., still the number of LGBT community would stay very, very small.

This troubled lot though tiny, trouble themselves more, and then so many.

Anyway, on a metaphysical level too such sexual acts are considered a silly and a simplistic mistake, at the very least an aberration, and a fall from Grace.

This is so because in SELF REALIZATION it is found that the Essence of each and everything in existence is ONE.

From ‘It’, this ONENESS, manifests all that is, whatsoever it is.

We keep birthing, dying and are reborn time and again in a never ending vicious cycle because in dual-consciousness the human mind and being has been misled and thus mistakenly learned over time that we are a separate entity from the Whole.

The birthed soul, under an illusion of dual-consciousness, forgets that it is One with, and never separated from That Which Is.

Again, in this illusory world of duality, the poor human being yet gets all the more entangled in the snare and allure of its monkey-mind.

It, the human brain, somehow tricks the humankind to think it is this and that - including not being the human entity as she or he is naturally born.

Thus is birthed the illusion of one being who one is not!

First of all, we are not mere some bodily beings. We are a spiritual state of non-being. Secondly, we are not just beings. We are beyond being.

We are in fact the ‘That’ of What Is.

In quintessence, at the core of our being this ‘is-ness’ of the Immanent Source in us - unknown to us thus far - is our TRUE IDENTITY.

Therefore, sexuality is an illusory state.

Already burdened by the duality-conscious state of mind in this birthed entity, some frail people become doubly troubled and ensnared by another set of tomfoolery and disunity i.e. homosexuality etc.

In Essence, we are neither a man nor a woman; or even an entity.

We are the Infinite, Immanent Eternity itself.

Thus the Awakened find. In enlightenment, at the End, no this-that or sexuality is. Not even uni-sexuality is. All that exists a DIVINE UNITY is!

To this end, to understand that we are IT, are we born.

Therefore, to become all the more little, by taking up this or that duplicitous identity, is to lose ‘It’: the Ultimate Truth and Reality of What Is.

To attain it - the Absolute Truth - we have to break all our chains, be it of the mind or of spirit. We have to purposefully and resolutely free ourselves from the entails of all our inculcated concepts, imbibed isms and even get rid of some of the imbecilic teachings somehow left meandering in own inherited religions - truth be told.

Besides it, thinking and doing otherwise - folly fully fancying oneself to be what in essence one is not - is to but getting needlessly and unnecessarily entangled in the devil’s horns.

We have to learn to be more. And be Whole. ~_~

PONDER …..

Silence must not be taken for approval.

As in today’s time, even in the ancient times people were rather reluctant to talk about such matters as homosexuality etc. For it was either too embarrassing a matter or is an act of such a lowly and a ‘lower’ kind that spiritual people in general just stay away from talking about it.

Thus, it must not be assumed LGBT has any sanction whatsoever of the Indian populace. Or that the people just do not give a crap about it. They do. Very much so. The facts stated above speak for themselves.

Come to think of it, I too would not have spoken about it.

But then, like the readers, I am from these modern times. I have the privilege of having had one of the best basic and advanced education my parents and my motherland could provide. Hence, like other people of today, for or against any matter, I stand. And speak.

The metaphysically aware would be wise to keep on the Way, without getting distracted by erroneous ways of those who stray.

Ponder over it.

May all be healthy, wealthy and wise. ~_~

Is it possible to meet your alternate self in a parallel universe?

In the Absolute Reality, alternative realities do not exist.

But, yes, theoretically, parallel universe akin our own, could very well exist. However, do they, other universes, exist for real?

Science speculates, does not exactly have an answer. Hawkins thought there may be a few, in all probability and possibility.

Since the query has been addressed to me personally, therefore, it may be safe to assume that the answer sought is also from a metaphysical view point. Thus, it seems the query does not limit itself to seeking answers from only the present-day scientific view. It is open to learning and getting to know the alternative findings, especially of the free mystics of the world.

Hence, I shall speak only of the metaphysical reality of the universe.

Scientists, through empirical means, by their own observation and experience in this limited three dimensional world, seek to find the nature of the universe.

The ‘other’-worldly or supra natural self-experience - within the naturally endowed human Consciousness - is more or less ignored and hardly acknowledged by popular modern day science, if at all.

Mystics know this world, as well as any other normal person of this world.

But they do not bind themselves to this modern day indulgence, of seeking the answers to existence in only one dimension - the earthly or the worldly one.

Scientists limit themselves. Mystics do not.

Do the mystics find any parallel universes in their search for Truth?

Well, putting it succinctly, eventually, the self-realized free mystics of every area and era find an endlessness and oneness as the Whole of Whatsoever Is.

It is, and shall so be found, at all times to thus be metaphysically true.

At the End is but One Whole. In ‘It’, no parallel universes or alternative universes are found to exist or subsist.

An immanent, infinite, indivisibility permeates everywhere.

From this immanence of permanence, emanates each and everything - including our known universe, and other unknown cosmic phenomena.

There is just One Self. All else is its illusory elf.

Since there is just One I-ness as the eternal and end reality, the possibility of a parallel or an alternative self does not arise.

So, no! No parallel self is found anywhere ‘out There’.

Only ‘One’ - as the Infinite, Eternal, Indivisible Self - is found as the Alpha and the Omega. And as the Beginning and the End.

This One Real Self, is the immanent reality in everything. Is the All of What Is.

‘It’, the Universal Self in itself - as per its eternal and infinite nature - is immanent and indivisible. It does not divide itself, reproduce its ‘clone’ self, or make an alternative or parallel to its own-self. For, it is but One Self.

The seeming reproduction from this changeless ‘It-ness’ is but a mirage.

It does not happen, but seems to.

This seemingly ‘sired’ illusion is what is witnessed as the ‘seen’ universe. So are we, as human beings, an illusory play from ‘It’. In its ‘make’.

Now, a question arises, consequently.

It would run thus - “So, okay, in the Absolute there is no alternative reality or parallel self. Just One Self and its Ultimate Reality. But on the way to ‘It’, could there be parallel universes, and therefore, the possibility of meeting an alternative self to one’s own self?”

Theoretically, anything is possible under the aegis of Theo.

But practically, no!

Seekers in the paranormal and supra-normal realm, do not find or witness an alternative self, a parallel-self to one’s own-self.

They do witness a fantastical, unimaginable, supra natural scenario ‘out there’ in the meditative consciousness. Even indefinable permutation and combinations of alternative, incredible realities!

Yet, no alternative or parallel self! Sorry.

Therefore, it is advisable to let go seeking mind-made, made-up fantasies out ‘here’. For, sadly, facts speak otherwise.

Know that besides ‘One’ nothing is ‘out there’.

And so too out here! ~_~

NOTE: An Afterthought!

In all fairness to the questioner, the ‘That’ of Which Is, call this ‘It’ or whatsoever, is absolutely and inherently capable of making manifest any alternative reality. Or a supra natural spectacle.

Thus, it - Mother Nature - can and does seem to produce the ‘alternative self’ phenomenon some times.

So, it is known in metaphysical circles of people witnessing simultaneously the ‘alternative’ or ‘parallel’ self of another ‘higher’ being - say, of a spiritual guru or a self-realized person etc. - at another place other, than the one this physical entity is spatially present at that particular time.

In other words, this supra normal phenomenon - of a person reportedly seen to be present at two different places at the same time - has been reported.

Have I seen it? No! Have other people? Yes! Do I personally know of it actually and factually happening? Yes!

But yes! I have personally been witness to physical phenomena akin it, in kind.

And yes! Being of a scientific temper, with even a degree in science, having witnessed such ultra-scientific happenings, I’ve been as much boggled and bowled over as would’ve been any other person witnessing it.

It happened years ago though. Half a century back!

Anyway, theoretically, in the metaphysical realm anything is possible.

Even producing anything out of nothing! ~_~

Who remembers once we are gone! [Metaphysical poetry]

Insaan ka insaan se ho bhaichara! - May there be brotherhood of humankind!)

Where does your soul go when you die?

From whither cometh, thither all goeth.

But what is soul, and what’s death? Do we possess a soul, or are we just a soul-less bodily entity, a bio-chemical gibberish, and our life sans meaning or a goal?

Such questions arise naturally in a thinking being. And they must be addressed.

Science would have us believe in its invincibility. However, it has no answers to life and death beyond a dictatorially thrown-up, theoretical explanation. Of ‘dead’ chemicals somehow coming into being owing to a big bang a few billion years ago, whereby ‘all this’ was created. And then, the same non-sentient chemicals whimsically got to ‘banging’ each other. Thence, owing to the ‘dead’ screwing with other ‘non-life’, up comes life! In a process of a evolution of sorts.

As to how consciousness enters life, science has no explanation.

But higher spiritual traditions, especially of India, do provide answers about the basics of the soul, its consciousness aspect, and its hereafter. Many an ancient gnostic scripture exist thereof, laying down the fundamentals of the metaphysical reality. It is all told straightforwardly by the sages of India, based on their self-discovery of the Absolute of All That Be.

So, what is the self-experience of freemystics vis-a-vis the soul, and death?

Well, the meditating being whose destiny it is this time to “get” the Beginning and the End as a verifiable fact, this Buddha-to-be finds that in the Absolute of Truth, the Ultimate Reality is that nothing exists ‘here’ or ‘there’ except a soulfulness of oneness. As the Innate Essence.

Hence, at the end of one’s metaphysical quest, not soul but a soul-full-ness is found to be the Conscious ‘IT-ness’ of Whatsoever Is.

In simple words, no separate soul of the living being is found, as existing differentiated from anything else ‘out there’. This is the self-realization of enlightened sages of India.

All existence is an unbroken, a unified all-ness of oneness.

That is, only One ‘I-ness’, as the All of the Whole, is the End Reality.

This ‘I’ of the Cosmic Absolute does not see itself as different from existence as a whole. Wherever “IT’ looks, it finds its SELF.

Therefore, quintessentially, we are all the indivisible infinity of existence.

Alternatively, it means all existence is a singular self-knowing soul-ness. In other words, there is no soul in us, but a universal soul-full-ness!

‘It’ is the life of all, as a unified wholeness, an unbroken oneness sans a second.

Hence, life and the Beyond is an indivisible and an inseparable infinitude of singularity, of a unity-conscious-soulfulness. Of endlessness.

In order not to drowned in undue verbosity, it may be simply stated that the Ultimate Truth of the Absolute Reality is that life and death, and the thereafter, is but a Single Whole. As say, heat would be in fire. Or as milk is in curd.

That is, in its essential pristine soul-substratum and life-substance, no separation exists in life and death, or the beyond. All ONE WHOLE is.

Therefore, after death, the soul exists as a possibility of re-birth - as a wave does in the ocean. The wave rises - is born as though - and then, subsides. So, it seemingly dies. Yet it rises up again - reborn as if - and so on, and so forth. Similarly is the case of the soul of the living beings. It - the soul, so to say - stays as an ‘alive possibility’ within the Whole. In time, becoming a this or a that. Until it’s return to the Absolute.

As the essence of the wave and the ocean is but one - is water - therefore, both the creator (ocean) and the creation (wave) are identical in ‘make’. Analogically, from this theological reference, it may be said that the soul of the wave neither lives nor dies, but is a foreverness of possibility within the ocean, of water. It is thus similar for the living entities, especially us, the humankind.

In time, as karmically ordained, the soul which is in fact nothing but a duality-conscious no-thing-ness of everything-ness, this seemingly ‘dead’ entity is ‘reborn’ in the infinite indivisibility of the unity-conscious wholesomeness.

Summing up, it may be said that the soul is nothing but the ‘forgetful’ oneness that thinks it is separate from the indivisible whole - which is its true identity.

It lives, dies, and is reborn in dual-consciousness. Ad infinitum. Until it reaches the State of the Stateless - of self-realization - that it is nothing else or other than the Whole. Or it is so blessed by the Grace of That Which Is. Owing to which, even without knowing the Ultimate Truth, the devout born-entity thereafter lives on eternally as the Infinite Absolute of the Whole of What Is.

The choice for spiritual seekers is to either reach enlightenment or seek Divine Grace to take care of the worshiper. The former state a rare one reaches, the latter anyone may be blessed with.

The really wise ones stay endlessly in devotion to That Which Is, harming none on the Way, and surrender in worship to the Grace of the Absolute.

Thereupon, the human soul rests in peace.

Not in isms, or under the stupid dictum of silly god-men or of ill-informed and self-proclaimed messiahs, but at lotus feet of the Divine Truth and Reality. Of Unity Consciousness of Oneness, of All That Is. Most call this - the Absolute - God.

May you live, and die in Self-realization. As the Universal Self - the divine ‘It-ness’ that is neither this nor that, soul nor soul-less-ness, empty nor full, and neither lives nor dies. But is the forever ‘Is-ness’ of the Whole.

So, go nowhere, but within. To live forever. As ‘That’.

Is BLACK MAGIC real?

There is no black magic. Just a wondrous oneness of ‘All That Is’.

The reality is that owing to our duality conscious ego-derived and driven mindset, we see and experience only ‘this’ and ‘that’ every day of our life. That is, everything seems separate from us, as some subject or an object - hardly ever a part of us.

However, in quintessence, at the principal substratum level, all that we see hither or thither is nothing but an indivisible whole. What it means in simple words is that whatsoever is, this existence now or hence, is a continuum. An unbreakable unity of being.

Only at a simplistic level of understanding do people view “all this” - our world “here”, and the rest of the universe “out there” - as something “other than us”.

“The plurality that we perceive is only an appearance; it is not real.” ~Erwin Schrodinger [Austrian physicist, 1933 Nobel Prize for Physics]

The freemystics of ancient India called this seemingly world-appearance as ‘maya’ - an illusory state of non-being.

In other words, though we may see it so, and therefor, feel to be a part of this world, yet “all this” - I, you, them! And all that is, the universe and us - is but a ghost of nothingness.

It is very much like the serpent we see in the rope at night, but in the morning find it to be unreal.

Similarly, once the bio-chemical “this-that-ness” of existence is delved into its essence and to the extreme, the most advanced scientists insist, as did the Nobel prize winning physicist, Niels Bohr, that “everything we call real is made of things that cannot be regarded as real.”

One of the most brilliant theoretical physicists of the 20th century, David Bohm, held identical view of this existence as the freemystics of India, of it being an “undivided wholeness… an implicate order… an unbroken and undivided totality.”

It is no wonder that these physicists, all possessing wondrous minds, along with other Nobel laureates as Max Planck, Werner Heisenberg etc. had read, and had derived the basics of their quantum science and beyond from the metaphysical teachings propounding the oneness and unity of everything - namely, the VEDANTA texts, the UPANISHADS of ancient India.

So, how does the above provided information answer your question, of black magic being “real” or not? Well, it should, without my telling you - if you’re receptive, and perceptive enough.

But telling it as it is, you should “get” it that the epitome of knowledge, as revealed by the self-realized ancient freemystics and sages of ancient India, and by the advanced scientific minds as the afore-mentioned Nobel laureates, is that the “otherness” experienced by us is just an illusion, an unreality sensed foolishly as though as real, by our physical senses.

However, once the seeking of ALL THAT IS goes beyond the “seen” phenomena, both the ancient freemystics and the modern physicists self-discover that “Basically, everything is one,” as observed the Nobel prize winning scientist, Barbara McClintock.

What should all this mean to you?

It tells us that we must not be afraid of shadows of unreality.

This whole world phenomenon, ultimately, is a magical unreality. Meaning thereby, that in the final analysis, even we are nothing but an is-ness of no-thing-ness.

For, that we call existence, is but an infinite indivisibility of unity.

Now, in this unreal world, the possibility of another unreality - black magic - is but an impossibility!

Learn to be a detached witness to all that is happening in this illusory world.

And whenever the “otherness” strikes your heart and mind, crush it like the bug it is in light of “oneness” that is the ultimate reality of this universe, and existence.

“The task is, not so much to see what no one has yet seen; but to think what nobody has yet thought, about that which everybody sees.” ~ Erwin Schrodinger

Live freely. In Self-Knowledge.

Why does meditation help reduce stress?

 

Meditation or ‘dhyana’ in Sanskrit, mean more or less the same - to contemplate.

This concentration of one’s being and senses, and the resultant byproduct - the deeply endused contemplation thereof - could be over anything.

It may be over nothing but the inner self itself too.

The latter would be the metaphysical aspect of meditation. It is about this particular and specific ‘kriya’ or process brought into play, that the general populace is more curious about.

The query herein is perhaps regarding this esoteric side of meditation.

For, a normal person is apt to wonder as to how by merely closing one’s eyes, and then staying concentrated thereof, do anything at all?

More specifically, how could this seemingly simple act relieve one of stress?

But before we go into the metaphysics of the matter, let us first find out as to what exactly is stress, and how does it effect or enter our being.

Stress comes about when the bodily being deals with other similar contesting or contrasting entities in this world. Or when the incessant happenings going on in the outside world somehow disturb the inner status or equilibrium inside us.

Stress is natural and normal - once we are born.

It is a part and parcel of life. Nobody is free from stress. Few are able to get rid of it completely. It effects even the wisest amongst us.

Why is it that stress effects us all: comes to us whether we want it or not?

It is is because we are not in harmony with life itself. We are ‘two’ with the world. We are unable to be ‘one’ with it.

Why are people not ‘one’ with this cosmic juggernaut called life?

People experience the outside world as one’s competitor.

Seeing ‘two’, in a dual-conscious state of mind, they do not ‘get’ the metaphysical reality that the outside and the within are but One.

To be able to comprehend or at the very least tangibly feel that the outside and the within are not separate in quintessence, one has to meditate.

When one meditates, one goes within one’s own-self.

Now, only the spiritually aware and the metaphysically awakened know that the moment one closes one’s eyes, concentrates within, an unsaid cosmic ‘kriya’ or otherworldly-process comes into play automatically.

All one has to do is to just do it! The rest, Mother Nature does.

It is the Way of the ‘That’ of Which Is. It is the Nature of the Absolute.

For, when any entity having life at its core goes unto its self, a cosmic-current that is immanent in Whatsoever Is and its creation, gets automatically connected to its Source - howsoever feebly.

Even an atheist would get a feeling of calm as he or she goes Within.

A non-believer or a skeptic may not put it down to anything metaphysical, but they cannot deny that by the mere act of closing one’s eyes, staying still therein, does bring in a certain level of tranquility in one’s body and being. It may be less or more, maybe even negligible, but it does happen.

Why does it happen? And what happens when we go Within?

Going within sets in motion a domino effect. The bricks of the stubborn walls of dual-consciousness start falling one by one, each taking down the other - whether one wants it or not.

Once put into motion via meditation, the ensuing and inevitable cosmic process cannot be prevented from happening.

For, within us is an infinite immanence that stays unperturbed and one with All That Is at all times - in fact, forever.

Not even life, death or afterlife can disturb this immanent cosmic unity running through the primordial essence of each and every little thing which was or is or shall be!

What is Within does not view the outside as another but its own Universal Self.

Hence, the dual-conscious mind-set that ‘dares’ go Within, starts getting grabbed-up by the ever-present unity-consciousness within. As a long-lost sibling as though.

It is the Nature of the Thing-in-Itself that whosoever goes towards it, is cosmically embraced by the ‘It’ of What Is.

Thus, if you meditate, you are in trouble!

The Cosmic Absolute kicks in the moment anyone ventures Within.

For, within us is the domain and reign of ‘That’ which is the soul-essence of our life and being. It is akin the vast ocean, which by its very inbuilt and endowed nature cannot but take-in each and every drop of water, as one’s own self.

Hence, the moment one closes one’s eyes and meditates and goes within thereof, the Cosmic Self starts pulling the duality-minded entity towards itself. As say, a giant magnet would an iron pin.

Now, since the Universal Absolute is but single-eyed at its core - meaning thereby that it ‘sees’ no ‘other’ than itself as all that is - its cosmological nature of eternal oneness starts absorbing the duality-conscious being-ness unto its Infinite Bliss of Unity-Consciousness.

Consequently, the dual-conscious body and being, howsoever stressed or sad - once it has got connected to the Within - it sort of gets pulled unto the embrace of the Transcendental Equanimity of Eternal Reality.

As a result of this indescribable, inexplicable and immanent metaphysical-happening within, the dual-conscious body and being of a practitioner of meditation starts feeling his or her stressed-out self getting stretched-out into a sleep-like joyful state of being.

It feels as if one has bathed in the Ganges of Tranquility.

For, unknowingly, the meditating person has!

In short, the meditation process by its very nature makes the inherent micro-cosmic and macro-cosmic metaphysical aspects, lying dormant in our self, come alive. And become One with the Absolute of all that is.

Therefore, a meditating person, whether spiritual or agnostic, would feel the stress going out of them after a while - as though getting absorbed, or pulled-in somewhere there in the vast comic-ocean deep Within.

At the very least, as one continues the ‘kriya’ of ‘dhayana’, one’s stress would either be substantially reduced after meditation, or it will be found to be but ‘missing in action’ altogether!

So, yes! Do not meditate, lest your stress is distressed!

What is the thing that outlives death?

The truth, ‘SAT’ (swai tatwa) i.e. self-essence outlives death.

Now, query may arise as to whether this ‘truth/essence of the self’ is the soul or is it consciousness, or are they synonymous - each the other? And like you, one may legitimately ask as to whether it is one or both of these ‘things’ that a human being takes with him/her after death.

Cutting the talk short - for, I’ve given many interconnected answers to, if not to identical then at least to very similar queries as this one, before this time. So, let us go straight to the end of all matters. In fact, to the end of all ‘matter’ as such. To the Beginning and the End.

So, what is ‘There’, as self-realized by the enlightened beings?

At the very end, it is self-discovered that the ‘formless point of reference’ that had been witnessing its separation from the body, and thereafter, had been ‘seeing’ itself going unto a ‘surreal astral travelling’, into wondrous comic realms beyond imagination - all of a sudden, in an astonishing moment, in a zillion of a second as though - this self-witnessing ‘it-ness’ ceases to be a this or a that.

It’s ‘i-ness’, of being a witness consciousness, ends magically, and majestically.

Suddenly, as would a ray of sunlight find its ‘self’ to be the fathering principle - as the sun itself; similarly so, the witnessing ‘is-ness’ finds itself to be the Self of the Whole of What Is.

Speaking more simply, the conscious alive-ness that had been till then ‘seeing’ the astral and the cosmic wonders as separate from itself, stops being this dual-conscious witness of the ‘happening’.

It finds itself losing weight - literally! - of this duality conscious ‘is-ness’.

And in less than the tiniest blink of the eye, the witnessing soul-ness loses its self-consciousness of being the observer of the enfolding Cosmic Reality.

An all-ness of oneness - with no reference point of being the witness - finds its Self to be the Whole thereof - inseparable from all existence!

No souls, messiahs, or gods stand herein. Just the Self of Allness.

Having witnessed its Self to be the ‘I’ of the Universe, in an equally surreal moment,this Cosmic Self ‘returns’ to its now ‘reborn’ enlightened self and being ‘here’. And thus, finds its Oneness, and its Infinite, Indivisible Cosmic Consciousness ‘becoming’ the being-ness of the duality-conscious ‘is-ness’ of the mediating being.

The freemystics narrate, that the moment this dual-consciousness ‘returns’ to its earth-born original physicality, the ‘shakti’ or the power of life reverberates into existence. And as the breath of life, it enters the ‘is-ness’ of the meditating being-ness. This is how life comes into existence!

So, to answer your query specifically, all that is ‘taken’ from ‘here’ and ‘left alive’ out ‘There’ - in the Alpha and the Omega, in God as if - is nothing but ‘That’ from which it was birthed - the Immanent Self of Infinity.

But then, this is the ‘knowing’, the Self-Realization of a Buddha.

The metaphysical ‘happening’ which is observed in the case of the non-realized, normal ‘souls’ so to say, is dissimilar from that of the enlightened being.

Those of us who die in dual-consciousness, unaware that they too are verily the Whole of the All, these sad sacks take away their karmic ‘is-ness’ with them ‘out there’, after death.

This is-ness of dual-conscious being-ness of the Cosmic Self keeps birthing - taking this or that form, in the false belief that it is separate from the Universal Self. Until Divine Grace ends this vicious cycle of coming and going, once and for all.

Therefore, what is found ‘There’, at the End, is an aliveness of all-ness. It is conscious of being the ‘Am-ness’ of the Cosmic Absolute - of God, if one so prefers to address the Divine Reality.

‘IT’ - this Infinite Oneness of the Whole - is in us at this present moment too, within this bodily name-form. As our life, breath, soul-ness, and consciousness.

We just are not necessarily ‘awake’ to’It’

If we live, breath, and die in this self-realization of the Unity of All, then - if be the Will and Grace of That Which Is - this self-knowledge of our own Eternal Abode, we take away with us ‘There’.

Of course, it is all subject to karmic dues. The same, if unpaid, then, this ‘chip’ on the shoulder we carry with us to a dual-conscious ‘is-ness’ up there too.

This duality-torn soul-ness is born again unto a this or that-ness. Until all is set right, by its own self-realization, or by the Mercy of the Cosmic Divine Whole-ness.

So, there is no soul separate from anything ‘out there’, as differing from Cosmic Consciousness. But then, neither is this divine consciousness devoid of a soul-fullness of the ‘life’ of That Which Is.

Hence, out ‘There’, only the Cosmic Self, aware of it being the ‘I’ of the Whole, stands alone as the ‘am-ness’ and ‘is-ness’ of the ‘life’ of existence.

Unable to reach the Gnosis that we too are ‘It’, the human beings keep coming and going endlessly, unto a dual-consciousness of separateness from the Original Primordial Source: GOD.

The choice is simple.

Get the Absolute of the Truth and the Final Reality of All That Is by own effort, through self-realization. Or keep seeking, and praying. Doing good deeds, Harming no one intentionally. Nor taking away the life of another living being for our culinary tastes. And by staying in utter humility at the lotus feet of the Divine Truth. Either way gets us ‘There’.

Choose wisely.

Get ‘It’ out ‘here’. Take away the same out ‘There’. Unto foreverness.

What is the difference between formless worship of the Almighty by Islam and Nirgun Bhakti of Hindus?

Fancies of fools are similar follies and equally non-existent, be they of any ism.

The worship without adding attributes or qualities etc. to the Almighty Truth - or God if one so prefers to name the Absolute - maybe called ‘nirguna bhakti’. Ascribing a form - even formlessness - to the Ultimate Reality, would yet be considered a lower form of worship. For, it is more or less assuming and allotting a definitive ‘guna’/attribute and quality, in this case formlessness, to be the formal nature of the entity and physicality of God.

In any case, some ‘hadis’ - the authenticated records written down verbatim from the uttering of companions and compatriots of the self-proclaimed prophet of Islam - these texts reveal that the so-called god of Islam, Allah, was actually seen by Mohammed. This brief is given according to the prophet’s child-bride, Aisha. Another believable Islamic writings of earlier times propound their grand god to be a 30 meter tall human-like figure.

Interestingly, in an obvious attempt to be one up over the gods of other religions, now days many a Muslim hypothesize that the Islamic god is a mysterious and a faceless-form or something akin it, that cannot be seen by anybody. Saying so, one seemingly assumes that it adds an extra bit to the aura of their fancied deity. Sort of making it a tiny bit more than the infidel’s god.

Yet it is nobody’s case that some earlier writings of Islam do insist that Mohammed had indeed seen their god, Mr. Allah.

It is said that their all-seeing and all-knowing self-anointed prophet had once witnessed Mr. Allah in the form of a bearded youth. Alternatively, it is also told that this god of the Muslims was thought of by their prophet to be as a huge super-humanoid. However, all this is now being denied by a few amongst the faithful in Islam.

It does not change the truth of the matter though.

The truth is that the Islamic heaven or hell is thought of and taught so by the Muslims themselves to be very much a material, a solid and a virtual physical place of sorts. Hence, the ruling entity over these material but otherworldly regions is or ought to be logically and similarly a physical and an empirical reality.

It is therefore the obvious inference that Allah, the fancied god of the Muslims, too is a physicality, a human-like entity. Anyway, denying or not, he, Mr. Allah, is believed to be an empirical entity by all and sundry in the Islamic world.

Under this gentleman, the Islamic god Allah falls the physical command and care of the bountiful heaven to accommodate the faithful - be they even the vilest of people, or the most murderous, mad, malevolent lot. Oh, and as we all know so very well, sure hell-fire is physically guaranteed for the doubters and the non-believing infidels like us. Again, under the same majestic and merciful caretaker, the Islamic god, in person: ah! our very own, dear Mr. Allah.

In short, the Muslims believe, as did their prophet, that the next world - that is, a heaven or a hell - is not some sort of an abstract form of non-physical existence but a definite material realm and region. It is as real to them as is this existence on this earth, and as the ground felt under one’s feet right now. Similarly, their god, Allah, too is a physicality. Akin their own bodily self.

Thus, the Islamists have no concept of the Divine except with a form.

As to what form, well, that may be disputed. A spirit-like entity? A humanoid, albeit a gigantic one? Or some other this-that thing, but very much a touchable, a physical thing!

And though the part whether he, this Mr. Allah, can be seen or not by the faithful may be taken under advice and the opinion reserved, yet there is no denying nor may be doubted that the common lot of the Muslims imagine their almighty god is virtually and physically existing as a this or that something or the other, as do they find them earthly and bodily self.

And it is taught by the holy book of the Muslims that when the time comes, ‘he’, one Mr. Allah, shall physically rouse the dead and the buried coreligionists up from their rotting graves. Thereafter, after taking account of their life on earth, their god-entity shall physically put them in a material but a perpetual heaven with 72 virgins, and with nubile young boys serving the men (not the women, mind you! Just the ‘superior’ gender of men only) amongst the faithful.

To reach this fancied folly of a physical heaven, Jihadis kill imaginary infidels.

Many common lot of Hindus too think of their god possessing a form.

On the other hand, the more evolved among the Hindus and the Sufis of the higher sort, both worship the Divine in the Way as self-realized by their enlightened sages and gurus - as the Primordial Essence of the Whole.

The Abrahamic faiths - Christianity, Judaism and Islam - all faithfully follow a physical god, who is personal to them. And it is believed, and hence so propagated, that these ‘chosen’ people are able to talk to ‘him’ as we do to another human being.

So, more of less, this Abrahamic god is thought to be a humanoid akin us the human beings, only differing from us in some supposedly surreal way.

Thus, the believed in Islamic god is thought of by the fundamentalist followers of Mohammed to be a verifiable physicality, and as a virtual entity like us humans.

For the simple lot of Hindus too, their god - and they have 33,0000000 gods amongst them! - is very much in the image of an empirical but an ethereal material entity. Supposedly, the same is made-up of a life-stuff akin their own self. Or something thereabouts. In their own make and likeness, at the very least.

In effect, the god of simple folks is a physically existing entity, akin themselves.

However, unlike the Abrahamic faiths, the Hindus have always worshiped the Divine in both the ‘saguna’ and the ‘nirguna’ way. That is, as per their learning and leanings, the people think of their god to with a form, or being formless in form.

So, how different is the god of Hindus from that of the Abrahmic faiths?

Well, so long as the Divine is worshiped with the concept of it being a this-that form, in such a sense there is virtually no difference between the worshipconducted by the simple lot of Hindus and the complete lot of the Abrahamic faiths, especially by the Muslims.

This lot of worshipers of all isms have a similar mindset: they simply cannot conceive of the Divine without some form or the other. And even if they could, then too their god is thought to be a physicality of sorts, howsoever mysterious or majestic or magical in design!

At best, to get the better of those of another faith, the Almighty of Islam may be projected or put forward by the faithful of this ism to be a formless sort of being, that cannot be seen.

Alternatively, having evolved beyond the parochial mindset of their inherited religion of Islam, the Sufis worship God as the ‘It’ or ‘That’ in the whole of Creation. As do the Vedanta adherents and the more sophisticated amongst the gnostic Hindus.

Thus, it may be said that the worship of God without a form is yet a ‘saguna’ concept. That is, it is done so with a definitive thinking of the Almighty possessing a formless-form, be it a spirit-like one. At best this sort of worship may supposedly be indulged in by an unverified and an unheard minority amongst the Abrahamic religions. This could be termed as the ‘nirguna’ kind of worship in these isms - if indeed any among them do so think and pray to such a deity.

But in reality, and one may check out this fact oneself, nary a one among the really and truly faithful of the Abrahamic lot, especially from among the Muslims, thinks of the Ultimate Reality or God as being anything other than a plain-simple material physicality, albeit a spirit-like entity, if that!

On the other hand, the Sufis and the Hindus of the higher metaphysical knowing and understanding do not think of the Divine Reality as being a physical being of any sort. They worship the Truth in the like manner as their self-realized Masters.

The Allah of the Sufis is a name given to the Absolute Almighty Oneness that is the life and soul of everybody - even the infidel.

The above-told ‘nirguna’ or attribute-less and quality-less idea of the Absolute of Almighty Existence is not the theological concept of the Abrahamic faiths.

The Abrahamic god, and especially the Allah of the Muslims, is nothing like the one worshiped by the gnostic sages, yogis, Vedanta believers and the freemystics amongst the people of India. Or by the Sufis.

The ‘nirguna bhakti’ or the worship of the Divine without attributing to it any qualitative form of existence, is the Way of the better metaphysically learned and the more spiritually advanced amongst the Hindus.

This is so done owing to the fact that eventually the Almighty Truth is found not to be a god with a physicality.

That is, in the Revelation of Which Is, no god with a form or a formless ‘thing’ or something like it or a formless spirit-ness etc. is found standing, and lording over the absolute reality.

Such a supposition is not the self-realization of the enlightened beings.

Frankly, the Abrahamic faiths have not evolved to a higher metaphysical understanding of the Divine. That is, they cannot even bring themselves to conceive of the Almighty Absolute to being more than the physical being and form of their imagined god: Jehovah of the Christians and the Jews, and Allah of the Muslims.

Jehovah or Allah are thought of as physical entities. So are the millions of gods of the simple ones amongst the Hindus. These little-some gods are all the ‘saguna’ lot - with limitations prescribed to them, be it even of being formless in form.

To worship the Divine sans assumptions or attributes of any kind, is the Way of the Sufis, yogis, freemystics and of the sages of India since yore.

The non-qualitative and non-defining, ‘nirguna’ worship of the Divine is advocated by the enlightened spiritual gurus and masters of India because eventually at the End, in the Absolute of the Almighty Truth, in self-realization and in enlightenment, there is found to be no ‘saguna’ deity - a god with a this or that physical form.

No such imagined or similar physicality or entity of a god with a particular form - even of formlessness - as the Almighty Lord, is found breathing ‘up there’ as the Ultimate Reality.

Therefore, from the very onset, at the beginning of the spiritual quest itself, the self-realized sages advice the seekers to worship the Divine Reality sans any pre-conceived ideas of any kind.

This open-minded approach frees the mind, the psyche and the spirit of the spiritual aspirants. It exonerates the seeker from the psychological clutches of any imbibed misconceptions, of their inherited religion and regional culture. Or of any other such acquired education of another kind.

In turn, this kind of ‘nirguna bhakti’ or worship of the Divine sans the addition of a this-that qualitative attribute to the Ultimate Reality, makes the seeker wander and wonder at leisure. And worship in freedom.

It makes one a free spirit, a freethinker, and a freemystic.

By this is meant that one actually sees what one really-truly does - in one’s metaphysical search for the Absolute Reality.

In other words, the seeker does not falter unnecessarily in his or her search for the First Principle, owing to the ill-effects of some already existing funny or fancy ideas in the head about the Truth being a particular kitty in kind.

Thus, because of such mindfulness one does not pre-assume the supra normal to be as told by others, especially as enshrined dogmatically in one’s own mythical-cultural-religious lore.

Consequently, as a result of a better metaphysical re-learning and de-learning, one seeks and searches for the Almighty Truth in total freedom, in spirit and in truth.

In the Abrahamic religions, more specifically in Islam, it is not the Absolute Reality that is worshiped, but a physicality of a tribal god of a peculiar culture and a people, at a particular time in history.

Thus, it is not the Truth that is paid obeisance to by the people of these isms. It is but an obsolete i-me-mine god-dogmatism of dark ages that is worshiped per force by the people of these religions.

A lowly, lower knowledge of lost times has no place in these enlightened times.

Now days every kind of information is freely flowing. One can easily find out, know and understand for oneself that Creation is not just 6,000 years old, as propounded by the Abrahamic religions like Islam. And that neither is the earth flat. Nor does braying of a donkey mean it has seen the devil - as said by Mohammed. And as recorded in the correct and authenticated hadith of the Muslims.

Little knowledge makes people little, and that littler their gods.

Unlike in Islam where blind faith is a must, in Hinduism the emphasis is laid less on worshiping little gods and more on self-realizing the Divine Truth. By one’s own efforts. And by one’s own-self, as a first-hand self-experience.

Worship in higher forms of Hinduism is for attaining self-realization.

No concept of attaining the Absolute Truth by own-self exists in any Abrahamic faith, especially in Islam. It is the Way in Sufism. It is not the accepted truth in Islam.

The enforced tenet and truth of Islam is in that a physicality in the form of a god called Allah is the lord and master of the universe. And this fellow, Mr. Allah must necessarily be worshiped. Whosoever does not worship this ‘saguna’ deity or this particular believed in physicality of a god - with certain notable nefarious qualities - and does not believe in ‘his’ messenger Mohammed, the erring lot is an ‘animal’, is the infidel. And the infidel is going to hell. The follower to heaven. The kafir must be forcibly brought into the fold. Or killed. Sans mercy.

Islam does not accept the concept of Enlightenment.

In fact, to seek oneness with the Almighty, and therefore attain knowledge of the Universal Self - as the Sufis, yogis, freemystics et all do - is apostasy in Islam.

The above-said act - of seeking Unity with God - is called ‘shirk’. It is punishable by death in the Muslim religion, and in the regions ruled under the Islamic law of ‘Sharia’.

So, let it be clear. The Islamic god is a physicality separate from our own.

The Sufi and the Hindu concept of God being ‘That’ which is the limitless infinite oneness running in everybody’s veins, such a reality above definitions - ‘niraguna’ divinity - is not only unimaginable in the Islamic mind, but is considered the highest and unforgivable ‘kufr’ - an infidel lie - of a heinous kind. Punishable by sure death.

Alternatively, in better tuned-in spiritual schools of thought in India, the seeker is encouraged to seek the Absolute of Existence. And not the god of one’s own flawed inheritance or fancied insistence!

Islam claims its personal imagined physicality is the real entity, of God.

All of us, the unbelieving infidels are expected to pay obeisance to this illusory fellow as the only god-reality, as postulated by Islam. It’s followers, the Muslims insist that the others too must worship this non-reality as the only god. Failing to do as dictated by their prophet, is to lose one’s life - physically so. Beware, fellow infidels!

In a nutshell, as you must have gathered from the above long-winded analysis, the Islamic god Allah is a ‘saguna’ deity - a god with a form.

Islam is incapable of conceiving God to be an immanent, infinite eternity within all that is here or there.

The idea of a ‘nirguna’ deity, of the Divine to be the unbroken all-ness of oneness, which is unto the life and substance of everything - was then, in the lifetime of Mohammed - and is yet, beyond the limited intellectual and similar metaphysical confines of an unsophisticated people.

Hence, Islam is what it is. An ism for the unenlightened kind.

The worship of the Muslims and the Hindus, therefore, is remarkably different from each other - be it the ‘saguna’ or the ‘nirguna’ kind.

The twain do not meet.

With Sufism the higher teachings of Hinduism are in perfect agreement. But betwixt the two religions, of Islam and Hinduism, there is no meeting of the heart, the soul or the mind.

Sorry. That’s the truth.

Having stated this stark reality, have held back much. To be kind.

But then, one must by one’s very own-self read the Islamic literature as too the gnostic Vedanta texts of India, to make up one’s mind about the actual and the factual nature of the Absolute Principle of all that is. Call it the ‘god particle’, or God, or whatever. Even Allah!

May that which is ‘That’ unto all, in believers and infidels alike, help you to get ‘It’.