Scientific Discipline 3

In our life the opposite attracts. Man attracts woman and woman attracts man. Always the opposite is attractive. Life is a play of attraction of the opposites. Yin attracts Yang and vice-versa. This is the way of nature, of biology. Even spiritualism is not affected by this rule, although it is a different journey altogether. Spiritualism is a pilgrimage to self-nature, to being oneself. We don’t have to seek through spiritualism that which attracts us, that which is our opposite. On the contrary, we seek that which we are- we seek our own pristine nature, our original face. In youth everyone is so active, and as we grow old all activity begins to ebb. Just for the reason that the youth is packed with feminine and masculine energy, so young men and women become busy building and preparing for adventures. With the advent of old age, the fire of life dims considerably. By this time men and women come to know all about each other, and so the pull of the opposites withers away. Too much familiarity breeds indifference.

As it is the natural law of life that the opposite attracts, so it is the natural law of spiritualism that self-nature attracts, not the opposite. Here the similar, the same attracts. Because of this, we find ourselves in trouble when we apply the ordinary law of the world to spiritual discipline. Therefore, a scientific discipline for the spiritualism should be understood, whose basic law will clearly say- no law of biology applies to spiritualism. In biology opposites attract and in spiritualism self-nature is the magnet. Spirituality is actually our immersion in self-nature. In spiritual journey I don’t have to reach the other, I have to reach myself. Of course, our life long habits come in the way.

I have heard a story for a scholar. When electricity became available, a rich man had his house electrified. Soon after this a relative from village visited him who has never seen electricity in his life. He was only familiar with lamps and lanterns as instruments of light. After the night’s dinner, the guest was put in a room for the night’s sleep. But the guest was faced with a serious problem- the problem of electricity. Since the light in the room was very bright, the man could not sleep. How to extinguish the light was the problem. He fetched a ladder from some where in the house to reach the bulb hanging in the ceiling, to blow out the light. But, even with repeated effort of blowing it of with breath failed him completely. He examined the bulb from several angle but failed to understand miserably.   He felt embarrassed to wake his host for this problem and the whole night went tossing in the bed without sleep till the host cam in the morning. Host understood the issue and pushed the button to switch the light off. Now this man had no idea of light controlled by a distant switch. And we can not blame him for that.

All our life’s experience can be summed up as ‘attraction of the opposites’. So even when we enter the world of spiritualism, which is different dimension altogether, we carry out old ways with us. We try to blow out the electric light with our breath, and we fail to think of switch. This error is centuries old and enduring.

Wishing you good health & happiness,

Dr. Dwarakanath, Director, Mitran foundation- the stress management people