By: Lalitesh Malhi

 Each human soul is potentially divine and each human being, the crown creation. He thinks marvelously and draws inferences from the nature around. His uniformly pulsating heart pumps blood and also believe in certain facts, appearances, earnestly, as does his mind. His body organs co-ordinate and co-operate to act as per the dictates of his brain, and his nerves faithfully feed the various senses, freely. How diversely gifted man is, is difficult to evaluate. Yet, man is a social animal, so usually termed as. In fact, he is no better than beasts in hunger, thirst, sleep, fear, procreation, etc. Bereft of true knowledge of oneness of God and humanity, he has so much divided the humanity into castes, creeds, religions, races, and nationalities, that he does not regard himself to be an integral unit of the humanity. He professes to be religious. Through every religion preaches and teaches mutual love, fellow feeling, amity and harmony, man is full of envy, hatred, ill-will, jealousy, for others. Even amidst material affluence, he cannot keep his mind free from irrational and base instincts such as lust, anger, greed, pride and attachment. Man has made astounding advancement in science and has landed on the moon. However, consumed by pride and narrow-mindedness, he shuns the company of those who differ from him in caste, colour and creed. These are some of the maladies, which have made man sorrowful and worried - a pathetic being.

There have been great kings, emperors, and conquerors and mighty of there times, but now no one even remembers them. On the other hand, Guru Nanak, Saint Kabir and Sant Ravidas, though of humble origin, became spiritual stalwarts and are revered, worshipped and glorified even today for their love, humility and service to the humanity. They realised the Truth and imbibed and propagated it. They expounded the true religion and set personal examples how a true religious being should conduct him.

In the word rife with doubts and delusions, superstitions and miss-beliefs, strife and violence, hatred and jealousy, discordance and dissidence, man runs from pillar to post in search of peace, bliss and happiness till he, fortunately, encounters a Spiritual Master who makes him realise the true aim of human life, bestowed by God with the faculties of realising his true self .

The Great Masters ever exhort man to learn the science of the true religion and realise the all pervading Reality  true spirituality -, because the people mistake worship or performance of rites and rituals as religion. The Great Master of the time questions them: Is God finite or infinite? Can the all pervading God be confined in an idol or image? Who you are, in reality? Where do you come from? Where will your soul go after leaving the perishable body? But they cannot answer even one of these questions. What a pity! Thus they waste away the rare human life in ignorance or amassing the passing wealth in the transitory world and remain tightly bound to attachments. Still the Master endeavours to guide them and put them on the path of the true religion.

Love is the essence of the true religion. The true religion fosters peace, bliss, humility, harmony, tolerance and the spirit of selfless service. The true religion ever unites never divides. A truly religious or spiritual master establishes a Holy Communion between the soul and the Over Soul, its true origin and final abode.

Only a true religion can inspire one for self-realisation to satiate one’s soul’s spiritual aspiration. Only the realisation of the all-pervading God, permeating the self, can bestow abiding peace, bliss and happiness. All doubts, false concepts, ever changing painful life-pattern, steeped in falsehood, and misbelieve, vanish in a single moment buy the grace of a True Master. To abide by the true religion (of God-realisation) and to get transformed from, an animal-man into a god-man is the way of real worship, and none else. With this, all pains and vain notions cease and the primary universal vitality starts vibrating throughout the redeemed being. As God is omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, unchangeable, self-existent and ultimate truth, God-realisation, the essence of the true religion, brings about a change of head and heart. With the divine vision bestowed by the True Master, one perceives the whole universe dwelling in God and every human a living image of God. Consequently, the feelings of otherness, selfishness and alienation get dissolves. Now a true and meaningful prayer flows from the heart of the realised being in a spirit of devotion, dedication and altruism. One realises that the pride of health, wealth, status, caste or colour is erroneous, even fatal, as the Supreme Father has ‘made’ all humans equal. Thus a God-realised person is unmindful of others’ diets, dress, life-style, as matters of little importance. He loves all and serves all without any distinction or discrimination. He lives in the world but in a spirit of non-attachment i.e. of not being worldly. He eagerly joins the sagacious and holy company of saints. Out of humility and self-surrender, he regards himself as humblest of the humble.

The essence of the true religion is total obedience to the teachings of the True Master. And a truly religious person is one who practices what he professes and preaches. He ever relishes and aspires for God-remembrance, God-glorification and fellowship of the enlightened as the source of perennial peace, bliss and happiness.

A truly religious or spiritually awakened person is honoured here and hereafter. God-knowledge sublimates his life. He takes minimum from the world but dedicates his whole being to human uplift, human service and human redemption. The true religion raises man above the barriers of borders and boundaries of time and place, norms and forms. He is immune to pain and pleasure, loss and gain, triumph and defeat, birth and death. Being a true Homo sapiens, he fosters world peace and harmony, pure conscience and mutual understanding. Since his heart, mind and soul are imbued with God-consciousness, his love is divine and pure. He regards every human as a member of the vast human family, who ought to be loved, honoured and served.

In short, the true religion transforms a human into a divine being, who dedicates his all - body, mind and wealth to the service, uplift and enlightenment of the whole humanity.