Man is essentially leading a life of falsehood. Therefore, the history of mankind, in every century, has produced great enquirers of truth: some who thought the truth was a mission or an expedition, some who made it into a hunt and some who sought truth like a thirsty person seeks water. The truth is mesmerising and man is charmed by it, which is why mankind has been engaged in searching for the truth everywhere. But the truth is only revealed to those who become an embodiment of the truth.
All our religions are articulations of the same truth, but they are erroneously peddled as the truth. The truth is the truth. Religions dictate ways of praying, and humanity is divided by prayers, not by the truth. Humanity has fought thousands of wars and millions have bled for establishing such divisions. Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Zoroastrians and Jews—they all pray to their gods according to their distinct rituals. But this division of gods and prayers has only divided humanity further.
All prayers are to make humanity learn how to prostrate before or bow in respect and gratitude, to surrender to That Which Is. But it does not matter whether you surrender yourself before God in a temple or somewhere else. Just learning how to surrender is essential. Surrendering is the ultimate flowering of mankind. Once you have learnt how to do it, how to kneel down in gratitude for someone or something, or even nothing, you have learnt the art of prayer. Your life becomes a prayer to That Which Is.
In your life you bow to men in power, authority or of wealth. If you kneel before God for the same reasons, like fear and greed, you turn God into an extension of those men. That is barter for power or wealth—you may bow your head, but not your heart.
But surrendering is to make gratitude and love the centre of your being, regardless of whether you bow to God or not. Once you learn the art of praying, you will prostrate before a flower in love, you will kneel before a bird, a butterfly or a child, you will learn to join your hands in gratitude when a breeze blows, when the sun soothes you or when moonlight bathes you. Prayers flood you with love for everything you see and feel around yourself. Love becomes your religion. All religions are thus manifestations of the basic code of love. When eyes full of love land somewhere, temples, churches, mosques, gurudwaras and synagogues are created. These eyes, full of love, are able to see God in every grain of sand. Hindus say how God is present in every atom.
When Siddhartha flowered as the Buddha, it gave a new dimension to mankind. It shocked all religions because Buddha freed mankind of God. Buddha separated God completely from his scheme of things. The word ‘Buddha’ means ‘the awakened’. Buddha told the world that it does not need God for its awakening. Buddha brought a new way of finding God which was not through prayer but by way of awakening to Buddhahood or godhood. Buddha taught the world that ‘being’ is enough. Hindus would call it “Aham Brahmasmi”. Buddha never talked of God, but he made millions of people godlike. He brought godliness to the world without talking about God.
In Islam, Sufis are the ones who went beyond the two concepts of God and self. Kabir said that the passage to love (or godhood) is so narrow that the two cannot fit into it. In the religions of prayers, only God can fit into this passage and thus the enquirer disappears to reveal the ‘being’ or That Which Is. On the other hand, Buddha said that one is responsible for oneself and that the ‘being’ is enough, so God becomes absent. This was a new kind of love affair, hitherto unknown. Most interestingly, it was a love affair where God was not needed.
Friedrich Nietzsche said that God is dead. But Buddha said that 2,500 years back. Buddha began his enquiry as an antithesis of God and successfully proved that there is no God. Islam also it says “La ilaha illallah”, which means, “there is no god, only God”. This is what had been proved by Buddha. That God is not separate from his creation and there is no duality or distance between you and God. Sufis have followed that principle for thousands of years.
You are what you ought to be. But one has to understand whether one’s religion is the way one wants to follow. Religions which are merely prayers are not responsible for making us lead false lives, we are. If you have not understood your religion well enough, you will lead a false life and continue to create deep divisions in the way humanity does with its prayers.
If Man leads a false life, his prayers also become false, his love becomes false. We may think that some part of us is false but we are ultimately true. But the division is like light and darkness: if any light is there, darkness will disappear. This deception is disguised as the truth and this falsehood forms the ‘ego’. The ego is a wound on the soul of mankind. But it will drop once you understand your falsehood. And once you understand that, the truth will be born within you.
Mankind cannot live without falsehood. Man considers falsehood as the truth. It is why history has witnessed lies peddled as truths by the likes of Alexander, Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Milosevic and Bin Laden. Germany incarnated Hitler as a demi-God, the messiah to subsume Jesus, Moses and the Yahweh. Soviet Russia made the State its God following the Das Capital which said that religion was the opium of the masses.
But Buddha asked us to wait. To just sit back and let the falsehood be seen by your being and be dropped. In that moment, the truth will rush towards you, fill you like water gushing down a river. It is then that your false ego will leave you and the truth will dawn upon you. But whether you need to live a false life or as the real you, the choice is yours.
The author is a spiritual teacher and independent advisor on policy, governance and leadership. He can be contacted at arunavlokitta@gmail.com.