SIRD Malaysia

The relationship between the visible existence and the invisible Supreme is as intriguing as it is unique. It gives abundant scope for reflection, rumination and introspection. In fact, one's whole life can be devoted to the understanding and contemplation of the subject.

To lift the mind from the tangible `personal' concepts of the Supreme to the `Impersonal Absolute' is neither common nor easy. People prefer to cling to `forms', even when they think about the Supreme Cause and Source of the endless universe. But as long as the `personality feeling' is there about the Supreme, the seeker will not be able to imbibe stability and wholesomeness in his comprehension.

It is the apparent prevalence of the perceptible world that makes the human being seek and enquire, leading him to unravel the truth of this mysterious and ultimately illusory existence.

The seeker must necessarily have a good understanding of the world around, the relationship between the Creation and its Cause, in order that his quest for Truth will be properly founded and reinforced. Intelligence is the key component in the human. It is only next to intelligence that everything else in him exists and operates. Intelligence always looks for, hunts and seeks knowledge. Knowledge is the best and most invaluable possession of man.

Religion may at first be an outcome of emotions operating in the mind level, but very soon it has to respond to the quests of intelligence. Thus in Hindu thinking, the religious thoughts very soon become philosophical and spiritual. There is no religious discussion that does not take up the relationship between the perceived objects, the subject involved in these, and the causal nature of both.

Krishna (in the 9th chapter of the Bhagavadgeeta) takes his discussion to the practical level of day to day life of the individual, the society and the world at large. Like individuals and their society, the world, as a whole also has its behavioural pattern, subject to some laws and sequences. It is important that religion, philosophy and spirituality probe into and understand these. It comes under vijnana,the expanse of jnana. Everything is explained, so that no question remains a cause of discontent or doubt.

All beings inhering in one cause is rather a difficult proposition. As we see around, all gross forms of existence, small or big, are circumscribed by their size and form. Separateness is characteristic of everything. To think of stringing all together is unthinkable. To overcome this difficulty, Krishna gives the example of air and space (Bhagavadgeeta 9.6)

"Know that just as the all-pervading, ever-moving air inheres in aakaasha, space, so too  all beings inhere in the Supreme."

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