The reverence we feel towards our own life and towards the
living surrounding is the first step in spirituality. The strangest reality for
the modern human is this sense of reverence. God has become a negligible
stranger. It is the meaning of life situations that is to be revealed primarily
for them. Knowing that there is much more than what we see in whatever is
around, will enable us to humble ourselves before the wisdom within the
mysteries of the universe. We tried to experiment, measure, manipulate, and
conquer the nature. Yet, when we realise that even a small grain of dust is a
love-link that caringly provides for us as babes in a cradle, we cannot approach
it without devotion and wonder. The real humane sense is born in this reverence
and devotion.
We will be filled with a sense of gratitude when we realise
that we are given in a great measure much more than the burdening achievements
for which we put great effort. If we are able to give thanks for everything,
and if it becomes an attitude, that is the door for surrendering and
dedication. To surrender is to have a responsibility towards one’s own life and
towards whatever is related to it. The detachment and renunciation involved in
it are much more than relations and duties; it is the self itself. At times we
may be exhausted of the masks we wore to hide the blackened self, just because
we are unable to surrender the self.
We need to evaluate sincerely whether even the celebrated spiritual
forms which we are also really proud of, sometimes become a make up for the
masked face. In an attempt to defend that face we load ourselves with countless
number of burdens; anger, jealousy, envy, hatred … We named these interior
realities as sins, of which we are not completely aware of the matter and
reasons. It is nurturing factor if we can understand the need-bases for our
good deeds, vices, and habits. It will enable us to feel the rootedness of our
being. If at all we had allowed ourselves to see these realities sincerely with
humility and courage, they would have liberated us letting us recognise our
real face and accepting them graciously. According to the measure of this
freedom, our imaginations, personal language, life pattern, and behaviour would
also keep changing. When we do not have the fake faces to be protected,
naturally we will have the inner freedom and peace. Such an openness and
acceptance deep within ourselves makes us know a providential content both in
our goodness and in our shortcomings. There we might begin to see the face of God,
and realise that the same presence was there in all the process we saw above.
It is here in the dust where we live and the human reality
we live, we begin our journey. Otherwise we may give disfigured faces for God which
might suit the masks we have created for ourselves. The name of God is not to
be used in vain. We are not to profane the holy name. The holy name is to be
taken in such a manner that it also should fill the hearts with life; it should
not be used as a magical tool that can bring an effect. The verses of the
scripture also should not become a claim to boast and show supremacy. They are
to be the seeds to be implanted in human hearts. Only when it begins to give
fruits, probably we begin to know the meaning of it. If so, even without a
moment of contemplation, when the words are used or the name is taken in a
triumphal voice, is it not a fake pleasure we make for ourselves?
Only when knowledge and imageries interplay in reality with
one’s own surroundings, they become experiences that give convictions. On the
contrary, they remain some principles, however zealous we are. The danger here
is that it closes our hearts and makes it unclean, and keeps us chained without
interior freedom. The sense of gratitude and reverence has to take birth in us
before we offer it to God. Otherwise our offering would be mere words, and we
offer, not to God but to some image of God.
The figures that are worshipped and the imageries that
misguide are the most dangerous things in spirituality. We use the same
language to speak of human situations and also about things beyond human
situations. We do need such language because we are humans. But we give same
meaning in both levels, the reality we realise might be false.
Each one forms a story that they could live out. The story
so formed is a life-world for that person. The life examples they see, and their
own life situations offer this story direction and value. It will be more
enriched with the lessons learned in life, the evaluating and assessing methods
of the society, and the way many relations are integrated towards one’s life. This
life-world will define the horizons for one’s meaning of life. There was a time
people formed such life-world in relation to the nature, others, and even to
the celestial objects. Though there were difficulties and hurdles, that life
style gave them a clear direction of life even in the midst of uncertainties.
Todays the facilities are much advanced, yet we find a generation that is
helpless in a world of hasty rush, bearing the burden of their dreams,
disappointments, brokenness and desires, little pleasures and anger. To ask
whether we are happy, there was no energy left to engage in some questions. Later,
there was no time to ask them, and now such questions themselves seem
insignificant. They want to flee from this world but inescapable, they are
being pulled from different demands and remain a fragmented self. To form a
life story, which examples can they take that have the pulse of life? It is not
surprising that their stories and art forms include fast rhythms. It is not
sufficient that we get an imaginable possibility, it must offer clarity in the
midst of complexities of the world. We try to integrate our life stories into
such stories that are both available and are capable of interestingly accommodate
us.
Once upon a time John Milton’s Paradise Lost and Dante’s Divine
Comedy had captured the minds of the believers in a very realistic sense. The
literature they produced with their background and interests became part of faith.
Their imagination of heaven and hell became unshakeable reality for us. We
continue such mistakes of taking literally what is to be taken in figures and
imageries even when we interpret scriptures and read the writings of the
mystics.
Industrial revolution and the lifestyle of those migrated to
the cities were not going in line with the ‘spiritual and traditional’ ways
that they used to follow. They never looked back into such old pattern
especially when their life situations were condemned to be that of ‘sin.’ In reality they were incapable of following
them. If the divine was to remain outside the world of filth, they themselves saw
no clear significance of that divinity in their midst. Though not answering every
question, human hearts always look for a divine face that lives with them
without being strange to their living situations.
The life stories to which the modern generation include
themselves are the stories like Harry
Potter, The Lord of the Rings, and many science fiction stories. We cannot
say anything wrong if they combine the world they imagine for themselves with
the attractive available imageries. Since we use figures, images and myths to
understand reality and to express our experience, the fictitious images do
enter into their sense of reality. While being still human, they have an inner world
which imagines of a transhuman reality. They are also being carried to another
world, though for a little while, with the advancement of gadgets like ‘Virtual
Reality.’ To travel in the speed of light and to be part of another galaxy …,
though imaginative, are partly already reality for them. We also need to take
into account the human situation in an advanced computer world. When ‘Artificial
Intelligence’ turns out to be sentient, intelligent, and personal beings we
might become mere vassals. We will be some cognitive patterns, numerical codes,
or something equal to mathematical formulae. It is already in process to work
towards realisation, acceptance, and worship of a godhead based on artificial
intelligence. In such situations we may have to reformulate our models of
imagination and mode of interactions. Alongside, we also will be forced to
rethink of our images of God, structure of religions, and spiritual stands. Though
in smaller scale, we do already face such challenges.
If at all the many spiritualities today could see the torn lives
that are frozen in front of multiple demands, and to embrace with tenderness
the being in them that longs to be human! In our attempt to preserve our
doctrines and the supremacy of religion, what we have lost the human with no
escape who is exhausted in the changing society and their diverse demanding
situations. It is not rebelliousness or
evil that is in them, but it is helplessness. The digital culture does form a virtual form of self and reality. Imposition of our 'good' may not be understood by these selves. How can we call them godless and satan worshippers just because it is not according to our view of 'good.' We might call many modern trends
to be evil. But if we had tried to find which need, social or personal, are manipulated
in such trends we may not have condemned them. Religion also does the same
manipulation when it gives religious and spiritual interpretations for the
matters which need objective evaluation and responsible reformulations, both
personally and socially. Spirituality should be an inner strength of survival
that enables one to stand and to walk hand in hand with others, integrating the
value of being human and the awareness of one’s own reality with the
surrounding reality. An enabling spirituality must have a deep relation with
both these realities. One might pray for a soldier in a battle field, sitting
in one’s holy place. But to say what the soldier must pray or how to pray, one
must be able to see his world through the eyes of his heart. We are all
excellent in telling people in a pilgrim place about the rites to be performed.
Instead of the holiness monopolised by our hypocrisy, if we could see the fountains
within the pilgrims and make them aware of it, if possible, we may be able to
find streams of grace even in the world that was condemned to be the world of
sin, evil, and filth. Temples will come down, God images will undergo change,
but our hope is in the people of good will. So enable one another to go into
their own depths where there is truth, goodness, beauty, kindness, and compassion.
Surely they will realise the presence of Christ, not as an outsider, but as the
anointed in one’s own being. The inner light of one who sees the possibility of
Christ within, will shine in any darkness.
____________________A Malayalam version is available at നഗരനൊമ്പരങ്ങൾക്കിടയിൽ കൃപയുടെ നീർച്ചാലുകൾ
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