Spirituality & Mysticism (9)
Questions take birth in the mind, while answers are provided by life. However, life does not offer ready-made answers. To find them, one has to walk with open eyes and delve deeply in each moment of existence for the answers to our questions are in its bosom. Knowledge can be acquired in large amount from books and learned persons, but answers or the ultimate answer are in the core of life. And the core of life is oneself. This is the reason why prophets and masters have laid emphasis on self-knowledge. The Upanishads give the key, “Know That by knowing which all else gets known.”
“The most beautiful thing that one can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science,” has said Albert Einstein. Many times, I am asked why I use the term mystic and why I say that God is a mystery. In fact, the term God is very misleading and is even a misnomer, thus I prefer the word mystery though I do use the word God occasionally. There is the barrier of language, hence at times I use the word energy and borrow terms like Nirvana, Absolute and so on. That which is beyond human mind is mysterious. Indeed, if God is not mysterious, then what is It?
Tao simply means the way, but what do we understand about the way? Life is the way to something infinitely great and beautiful, but people have been caught by it. Who has made a street, a path or a bridge his dwelling? But this has happened to mankind: he has made the way become the goal. What is there on the path that is so pulling and interesting that we have forgotten the goal and refuse to move forward? However, let it be understood that life, as it is right now, is not a way. It can certainly be made one through understanding. In fact, the most beautiful part of the way, which is reached after walking a long journey, is called the Tao.