An illusionary world binds us to a world of things. When we know our inner world, the discord disappears and we come in harmony with inner and the outer world. This is due to all-inclusive manifestation of our spiritual nature. The essence of spirituality lies in real perception of things and self realization. Attaining spiritual knowledge is a synonym of eventual reality. No amount of good deeds, no amount of scriptural knowledge, no amount of prayers, twirling the beads of a rosary and recitation of hymns, no amount of acts of charity, rites and rituals can help a person see God. Only reality is unfolded and bestowed upon the seeker of truth by self study and not by the any external support.

A philosophy is acceptable only if ‘I have experienced it myself’. This statement reveals the strength of a spiritual mind that echo’s the spirit of investigation, where all knowledge is verified before acceptance. Self-confirmation is self-awareness. It is the inner light that dispels ignorance. It is the inner investigation that leads to awareness and wisdom. Spirituality awakens the mind and religions blind faith.

A person with the intelligence of what is right and what is wrong is always in a dilemma to appreciate matters based on faith alone. Understanding article of faith in cerebral terms is the need of the modern man. Waging tail and following like a pug is not a reasonable mans quality. In today’s world, people have a moral and spiritual urge but lack time, patience and a vision to pursue it. Technology provides them everything instantly by touch. But there is no technological substitute to undergo a spiritual experience.

Living in harmony with nature is being spiritual. Natural resources, flora and fauna, living beings and non living beings, earth and the universe are all interdependent. There is a harmonious order in the world. When this balance is disturbed, harmony is displaced.

We all should work to establish a new age faith, one that cuts across the barriers of religions and communities. Let us all contribute our mite to develop, spiritualism and humanism as the new age faith named as Satyadharma to promote peace and brotherhood in the world.

When the principles of Satyadharma are fully integrated into community development activities, the ideas, insights and practical measures that emerge would promote self-reliance and human dignity. Satyadharma is founded upon such ideals and shared beliefs that weld society and nations together as one entity. Knowledge is both spiritual and material in nature. The methodologies of science and the insights of spiritualism, when they work together in a synergistic manner can certainly provide a harmonious and equitable living.

There is emptiness inside, something is missing, fill this space with spirituality. Let spirituality grow from here. When we look within, we realize what human nature is and how it functions. Why we are the way we are and how we should come to terms with it. We gain the knowledge to discriminate what is right and what is not. We find out that we are responsible for our life; no one else is or can be. We make out why and how we are programmed to feel the way we do and to improve we can work within to transform ourselves.

The world is coming closer so a collective effort is needed to weed out false religious beliefs and establish universal spiritual values. The transformation should start first from the nations, the defenders of human values and then percolate to the second level the social order, the catalyst of human values and end at the level of the individual to fulfill his spiritual needs and protect spiritual rights of each citizen of the country.

Satyadharma is a metaphysical entity, much beyond religiosity and rituals. It is a kind of commitment to certain time tested norms, which have become a part of human life. There are certain beliefs and truth which have remained constant since time immemorial. People should live up to those norms.

Spirituality is a longing to grow, to know and to dissolve from the cycle of life and death. Our inbuilt choice is freedom and not fetters. Yet we make ourselves a prisoner by our own ignorance. People are often difficult to deal with, irrational and selfish. They have physical cravings as well as spiritual aspirations. Spirituality is rather personal and does not propagate any system of belief. It is a lofty human feeling. In spirituality there is no theist or an atheist. All human beings are spiritual beings. Spirituality helps to cope with life and gives strength to deal with the trails and tribulations that life metes out on us.

Satyadharmiks never discuss metaphysical matters like God or soul. They simply don’t believe unless it becomes their own experience. Then why should one go by books. Books may be wrong. Some books trigger controversy, while others claim to unravel the whole mystery, in vain. Reality is one and the schools of thoughts are many. These schools of thought make differences and distort reality. Even the sky has no divisions called east or west, north or south. These are man made directions formed by splitting up the cover of the sky.

Spirituality is as old as human beings are. Religions appeared much later, with the advent of avatars, prophets, the messenger of God and the son of God. Where was God before the inception of religions? No one knew than and no one knows now, where God is. There were no religious wars before religions were launched. Sadly, with its arrival, religions have killed more people than all epidemics and natural calamities would have caused deaths in the past three thousand years. Nature has been more compassionate then the believers of God.  Hitler’s slaughtering of Jews or Mao’s Cultural Revolution can be compared to religious carnage but none can match its brutal intensity and continuity. The fundamentals in spirituality are clear (1) God is nature (2) Have faith in nature (3) Accept the laws of nature and (4) Live a natural life.

Unity in diversity and multi-faceted reality are lofty principle of civilization. Both are effective tools to resolve the problems of the world. Religions do not endorse oneness of man or oneness of world. Religions make people repressive. Too many religions have damaged the social order and corrupted the mind of the people with false beliefs. Humanity needs spirituality. At the same time, intellectuals must ensure that no one is conditioned or programmed by forcing an ideology be it spirituality or Satyadharma without anybody’s consent.

Satyadharma can flourish when there is freedom and economic prosperity. It is in the midst of material harmony that a society arrives at evolutionary understanding that there is something beyond the conscious world. Satyadharma is about discovering who we are. It is the search for facts about us and our existence and extinction. Spiritual progress is being connected with nature and being aware of what is happening within and around us.

We are born in a religion. Our name is marked by a religion. We are raised in a religion, which is thrust on us. We are tied to the post of religion till death, like a frog in the well. Spirituality is not handed down from a parent to a child. It is a part of our genes. Spirituality is inborn. When it develops, it depends on the trajectory of ones life. It’s common for people to turn spiritual later in life.

The animal nature of human beings thrives in ignorance. Spiritual nature comes to the fore with consciousness. We know that character decides, the standing of a person, but do little to correct our inner personality. We lack patience and while away our time in vanities. This is a deplorable laxity on our part. Failure and success is our own creation. To amass wealth and satiate carnal desire is the raw side of human life. Spirituality is the refined side of human life, it is meant for the sharp and the spirited, who realize that life is full of limitations. In spiritual life, one can experience eternity and bliss.

The forces of nature have created man. There is a basic decency in all human beings. Rooted in spirituality a man naturally respects dignity, goodness and worthiness in oneself and others and believes that each person has good values build in his nature. This is not an expression of religious belief. It is only doing a right thing in a right way, by respecting the global society to co-exist harmoniously with the natural world. Harmonious co-existence is the foundation of a religionless world. Satyadharma is meant for humanity because it espouses oneness of human race and world as one family.

If human beings are parasites on earth, they are also capable to protect the world from harm. Ecological balance is maintained both by living beings and non-living things.  It is important, indeed for humans to protect planet earth, a cosmic miracle that nurtures and sustains human life. It is a place where universal vibration, merges with human consciousness. Earth is the temple of nature.

Satyadharma is a progressive philosophy. The four fundamental attributes of Satyadharma are equality, universal brotherhood, harmonious development and a scientific temper. It believes in nothing that contravenes the laws of nature. One may not stick to any religious faith and still be compassionate and promote human values without a religious base camp.

Is Satyadharma a religion? In a sense it is and in a sense it is not. It is not a religion in the sense it is commonly understood, like it has no God to worship, no rituals to observe, no heaven or hell for the dead, no soul as an ethereal being, whose immortality is a matter of intense concern. But it is a religion in a sense that it considers nature as God and is human-centric. It respects nature in the form of worship. It observes the laws of nature as rituals. It believes in the immortality of deeds although a person may die and considers good karma as heaven and bad karma as hell and it is free from all dogmatic encumbrances.

People are in a state of intellectual logjam in the confusion created by irrational beliefs and unreasonable doctrines of religions. Religions have killed the spirit of inquiry to fashion falsehood. It is time to put religions to test. Spirituality is a personal experience. It accepts inferential way of thinking as the source of knowledge and rejects recourse to authority and treats divine disclosures as hollow. Spirituality is reasoning and not revelations. Men should think and ponder individually and not depend on anyone else, except themselves.

The journey of spirituality starts from facts and not from assumptions or beliefs. It recognizes righteousness and reality. It has no faith on dead books and relies on living facts. It manifests itself inwardly, as an inner feeling that comes naturally to give an outer expression. Spirituality needs no book the book on truth is unwritten. Spirituality struggles to reveal the true nature of things to a seeker. It does not opt to the theologian’s skill of transforming the irrational to the rational.

Spirituality makes no distinction between exoteric and esoteric doctrines. It does not endorse virgin births or resurrection or pacifying angry Gods. It has nothing to do with religious mysticism or with dreams and ecstasies, visions and trances or mental aberrations or the effects of hallucinatory drugs, considered as supernatural powers. Nor does it support people to withdraw into solitary places on the pretense of being in a divine state and then instruct others. The assertive authority of religion over its followers is the fear of exposure, about the meaningless writing in their Holy Scriptures.

Doubt can arise about what is being said, whether it is right or wrong. Misgivings cannot be cleared by someone else. One has to grasp the truth about it himself. It is not for us to accept theories which revolve around mysteries. They are supposition and not reality, in a blind alley, frisked to fumble.

Satyadharma is a finding in the sense that it is the result of inquiry and investigation into the conditions of human life on earth and understanding of the working of human instincts with which man is born. The molding of his instincts and his dispositions formed as a result religious tradition is working to his determent so reality must be sought by each one himself through his own efforts. Be cautious on the way. Do not be charmed by falsehood. Be sensible, be watchful. Satyadharma does not promise salvation, it only shows the way.

The existence of soul as a separate entity is just an idea. Mind and soul are not two things but one reality. The false notion of soul is common in all religions. Mind projects ego as an identity to deal with others and consciousness is a life force. They are felt as a presence and so are powerful thoughts. They are the background on which all human activities take place. Man should get rid of false concepts and accept mans mentality as real. Trouble arises from concepts, which are not provable. It is necessary to differentiate manmade theories and universal laws, manmade measures and natural events, manmade religion and spiritual nature of man.

Spirituality and not religion had and still has a vital role in the evolution of mankind. It has succeeded in imbuing morality, charity and mercy. It extends universal good-will but is critical to sectarian conceptions and the intolerance of religions spreading disorder in the world by fundamentalism and terrorism. People have matured and will surely recognize the significance of Satyadharma to bring out a nobler faith which aspires to be a world religion based on universal truths.

Spirituality dispels illusions from mind. It soothes the sorrows of life and eases those who cannot bear the load of life. It gives valor, self-sufficiency and hope to the weak. All obstructions are driven out and the way is seen. Truth strengthens to walk with confidence on the path of life.

Everything is ephemeral nothing lasts. There is birth and death, growth and decay, there is unification and separation. Everywhere there is haste and an impatient chase for contentment. There is a constant fear from pain and death and difficult, indeed to douse the burning desires. The world is constantly changing. The illusions of light and darkness are full of shine and full of shadows. Eternity is everlasting. A spiritual seeker knows that immortality is hidden in death and infinity in the finite.

The laws of nature determine combinations and separations. Bodies pass away but deeds are not destroyed.  They are transferred upon others reproducing those thoughts, character, aspiration and deeds. Eternity has no beginning and no end. Eternity is truth. Truth is the immortal part of the mind. Establish truth in the mind, it reveals the eternal. Cleanse and purify your lives. There is no other way of reaching truth.

Religion is not spirituality; there is nothing spiritual about petty disputes and frivolous fights over the cause of religion. People hold on to religion because of a sense of insecurity. They just use it as a crutch. It is when the personal agenda of religious leaders is promoted that trouble starts. There is nothing wrong with religions and the contributions of the founders.  It is the pundit, mullah and the priest who have brought malice into religion.

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