When one starts his spiritual path, he is a rookie filled with elementary doubts about everything related to spirituality.
What is Reality?
Reality is what is immutable: the Self and His Power. All that changes is not Reality but a “manifestation” of Reality. Most people mistake reality for existence and unreality for nonexistence. This is wrong. Therefore, when one says that the universe is not Reality (it is unreal), he is affirming that the universe changes (it is not immutable), and NOT that the universe does not exist. It exists, obviously, because all that comes from Existence Itself does always exist. Anyway, as universe constantly changes, it is not Reality in the fullest sense of word. Reality remains the same at all times, everywhere. Only the Self and His Power are Real then. The rest is unreal, it continuously changes.
The universe is not only the external world full of bodies, planets, stars, etc., but also intellect, ego, mind, senses and such. All these are also undergoing mutation and consequently are not Reality. When someone is identified with his physical body, senses, mind, ego, intellect and so on, he is unreal in the sense that he is changing along with them too due to his identification. Such a person does exist, but he changes and is, therefore, unreal. Unreality brings its consequences in the form of birth, death, pleasure, pain, etc. In order to overcome this pest, a person must return to his essential nature and recognize that, in fact, he is the Self and His Power. This recognition is spiritual enlightenment.
Why do you say that the human being does not come from sea creatures, bacteria, etc.?
Modern science affirms such things, which are the fruit of spiritual ignorance. There is a primordial reason for refuting that affirmation: the human being is NOT essentially material, i.e. he is not his physical body, mind, etc. Modern science might say that my affirmation is only speculation without any solid basis. Nonetheless, to start with, I practically all the philosophical systems of India back up my affirmation. Next, there is always the problem of explaining the difference between a dead body and a living body if one is only a physical body and mind. And finally, I have my own direct experience. During my trances I perceive that, definitely, I am not my physical body and mind. This is very obvious to me.
While modern science has been investigating life, the universe, etc. for a few centuries, the ones who built the abovementioned philosophical systems along with the ones who continue to develop them, have been investigating these subjects for millennia. Besides, modern science is based on theories which change from time to time. For example, during the last century its explanations about the size of the universe changed drastically from only one galaxy to millions and millions of them. Their explanations about the nature of the atom changed dramatically too. On the contrary, the truth stated by the ancient philosophies has remained immutable for centuries and centuries.
What is changing all the time cannot be Reality. Yesterday there was one theory, today a different one and in the future another new theory. This process of constant change is not able to reveal Truth because Truth is immutable. Modern science calls the process of theory after theory “evolution in thought” or something. If that is the case, evolution in thought cannot reveal the Truth ever. The Truth remains the same always. It is not something that is changing and changing. The reasons for these problems in the modern science’s theories lies in its studying only the manifestations emanated from Reality (from the Self and His Power). As these manifestations undergo constant mutation, the theories will change accordingly. Some might think that the universe changes but not its laws. This is true in this universe. But the possibility of more and more universes to be discovered involves the appearance of new groups of laws. All this just adds more and more changes to what is already changing and changing. In this sense, the universe or universes along with its or their groups of laws can never be Reality.
My specialty is a philosophical system known as Trika. In Trika, the origin of all that is material is called Prakṛti and its position is the category 13, where the categories 1 and 2 are the Self and His Power. All that is above Prakṛti is NOT material. For example, the individual soul is the category 12 and consequently NOT material. The individual souls come from the Power of the Self always. All of them are NOT material. Therefore, when someone affirms that human being comes from sea creatures, bacteria, etc., he is really referring to the physical body of the human being and NOT to the human being himself. Even as an individual soul, a limited manifestation of the Self Himself, a human being is NOT material because of his being positioned above Prakṛti. How then could he be a descendant of sea creatures, bacteria, apes, etc.? What the Trika system affirms agrees with that which the most important philosophical system of India states. Other systems assign different numbers and names to the different categories, but all of them agree that soul is above Prakṛti. This being the case, what modern science claims about our existence is not true at all. At the very least, they are referring to our physical bodies and nothing else.
Modern science itself has realized that there is “something else” in the universe. They call that “dark”, for example, “dark matter” and “dark energy”. They refuse to call that “not material” or “spiritual” because modern science is based on materialism. They are always trying to shun the existence of the Self and His Power, which are inconceivable. In the end, modern science realized that the universe, for the most part, is full of dark matter and dark energy, i.e. what is not material is by far more abundant than what is material. This is what modern science is saying in the end. But this was already said by the ancient sages millennia ago. So, why all the fuss? Sooner or later, modern science will have to become spiritual or its conclusions will be replete with errors.
Materialism is always a dangerous agent of spiritual ignorance. One should not underestimate it ever. When you are told that you come from sea creatures, bacteria, apes, etc., you are tacitly told that you are your physical body. With the omission of the existence of a soul that is NOT material, a human being has no way out of his bondage. If the physical body is healthy, one is healthy. If the physical body is sick, one is sick. If the physical body dies, one dies. If you have this wretched viewpoint about yourself, it is obvious that you will never be totally Free and perfectly Happy. This Freedom and Happiness will not appear while you keep considering your physical body as yourself. As a result, when modern science establishes our origin in a materialistic way, it is encouraging the already strong identification with the physical body, which can never be good news to the human being. If this course of action and thought is not modified, modern science will become a powerful agent of spiritual ignorance. Instead of throwing light, it will throw more darkness. This is happening right now every time some scientist explains the origin of Life, human beings, etc. in a materialistic manner. These theories may appear to be innocent and inoffensive but they have a strong influence on the minds of human beings. These materialistic theories, if not stopped, will only bring more disaster and confusion to humankind in the long run.
The Self and His Power are the only way out of bondage. If modern science denies them tacitly or explicitly, it is just encouraging spiritual ignorance and more bondage. This being the case, modern science will become a useless thing in the future unless it becomes more spiritually oriented. Just as it was not right in the past for a religion to explain everything through spiritual processes, it is not right to have modern science explain everything through material processes nowadays. The middle point has to be reached sooner or later or modern science will be absolutely useless as far as bringing solutions to humankind.
Are you against modern science?
NO. I am against materialism in all its forms. Why? Because it causes tremendous pain by removing the possibility of a way out of bondage. If you are taught that you are merely a physical body and a limited mind living in a super-huge universe, what will you do then in order to be perfectly Happy and Free? You are doomed to a life full of misery and pettiness, only awaiting an inevitable death. The influence of materialism on a human mind should never be underestimated. Read history and learn about the lessons of the past.
The problem is never science, religion, etc. but the crazy human nature. For example, now there is a new threat that most people do not notice, as always. They are very busy with their jobs, sense pleasures and the like. In the beginning of the last century, most people did not notice that two world wars were going to happen either. Most people are like that and there is no solution to this problem for now. They are constantly distracted by what is secondary in this world. So, my blog is intended for people with ears, as it were. The new threat is the quantity of knowledge about genetics the human beings are gathering. Genetics is not the problem, of course, but the lower nature of the average human being. I do not need to be a prophet to foresee a future where someone full of good intentions, as usual, will use genetics for horrible purposes. If all people dedicated to genetics were spiritually wise, there would be no problem. Unfortunately, they are mostly materialistic. It is like a monkey with a gun.
A future disaster of that kind is completely possible because the inner nature of the average human being remained the same since the very start. For example, right now, many people are manufacturing more and more modern weapons to kill as many people as possible with least effort. Everything is always in the name of self-defense. These people look civilized and are supported by the government. As one is used to all that craziness, it looks normal, but from a spiritual viewpoint, that is just craziness. The average human being has replaced his club with a devastating nuclear missile, nothing else. The change only happened to the weapon, not to him, and I am absolutely sure of this. Obviously, I am speaking about the average human being, not about the wise. This being the case, one should be on the alert and detect the symptoms in order not to be taken by surprise. Spiritual ignorance appearing as insane human minds spreading materialism, violence, etc. should never be underestimated.
Does an animal have a different soul than that of a human being?
NO. There are only individual souls, which are essentially the Self becoming many through His own Power. Next, each of these individual souls (category 12) is endowed with a respective psychic organ and body according to their nature, which is determined by the Power of the Self. This is carried out by Prakṛti, the source of all that is material. Prakṛti gives a living being an ego if he is a human being, a demon or a higher entity. If the living being is an animal, Prakṛti will not give him an ego. Prakṛti is also called “Nature” because, as I told you, it concedes psychic organs and bodies to the souls according to their nature.
Though Prakṛti does all that, it only rules over egoless living beings (e.g. animals) and not over those endowed with ego (e.g. human beings). These latter are controlled by the law of Karma, which manages all that is ego-related. The law of Karma starts before Prakṛti, that is, it is above Prakṛti. Hence you cannot transcend the law of Karma by merely using material processes. For example: no chip inserted into your brain will do the trick, be sure. In the end, a human being will have to resort to what is spiritual in order to be perfectly Free and Happy. There is no other way out of this karmic prison. Yes, Final Liberation will not be cheap, anyway, but it is possible. I mean, you will be able to attain Final Liberation (also known as spiritual enlightenment) if you persevere in your efforts. This is good news then.
I will see you in the next post, where I will remove more doubts.