This article is based on my paper (with some updates) presented at the
8th International Conference on "Sustainable and Human Development
Through Spirituality, Peace Economics and Peace Science" on 6th April,
2018 at Hotel Le Meridian at Bangalore, India. It has been published
in International Journal of Exclusive Management Research, June 2018
(paper downloadable at
ssrn). You can read a short introduction of the paper
here
Summary
Spirituality is a possible solution to today's world of hatred and violence.
But Spirituality is highly misunderstood - it is beyond comprehension and
confusing for most. Spirituality is commonly associated with god and religion,
and major part of hatred emanates from religion. Spirituality can be more
easily understood if correctly and scientifically defined.
Secondly, there is a misconception that spirituality is for a privileged
few - "It's beyond my comprehension and reach". The reality is that every
human-being is spiritual and has immense spiritual power. What's missing
is know-how to tap our spirituality and spiritual power.
Prem Spirituality Model attempts to provide solutions to these two problems.
It gives a very simple definition of spirituality with a scientific flavor.
It attempts to make spirituality and spiritual
power within reach of the common man with the vision of a future imminent
"Spiritual Revolution". Just as the industrial and information revolution
brought muscle-power and brain-power in the hands of the common man, the
Spiritual Revolution will help us tap our untapped mind-power. Whereas
earlier revolutions were a result of advances in material-science (Physical
science), Spiritual Revolution will be driven by a new Mind-Science or
Spiritual Science.
Using the analogy of basic school-level physical sciences, the model tries
to extrapolate to create a vision of an advanced Spiritual Science, and
open the doors to further
research in that area. Prem not only provides a new vision-cum-dream of
spiritually-evolved human beings and a violence-free peaceful world, he
suggests new possible areas of research to actually realize the vision.
Prem's paper provides alternate framework for humanity to seek an elevation
in their emotional well-being with a new definition of spirituality which
is more scientific and less faith-based.
The diagrams in this paper may give an impression that it uses advanced
mathematics and physics. Actually, all that you need is simple common sense
and an elementary knowledge of school science. This article steers clear of
difficult terms and concepts normally used in spiritual discourses like
consciousness, nothingness, oneness, the Absolute, Ultimate reality, etc.,
except in some rare cases while trying to explain these terms in simple
language. For instance, Prem Spirituality Model tries to explain "Enlightenment" in
extremely simple terms within the confines of available common knowledge.
1. Introduction
1.1 Introduction
Fig. 1: While science has helped us understand the vast universe around us, the small
area within us which we call the Mind remains in the dark - Quote from my
article "
Is God a Myth?"
(Image: Public domain-pixabay)
“Prem Spirituality Model attempts to provide a very simple definition of
Spirituality with a scientific flavor”
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The world today is suffering from widespread hatred and violence. I believe that
Spirituality is a solution to global human problems. My paper deals with global
peace, human development and sustainability with spirituality.
Human development can happen when all humans and the world are at peace. Human beings
are at peace when the mind is at peace. I look at Spirituality as a possible solution
because spirituality is directly linked with human mind and human ability to use the
power of the mind.
The Industrial Revolution helped bring muscle power in the hands of the common man.
The information revolution gave brain power. The next big revolution - The Spiritual
Revolution will make mind power available to the common man.
Whereas the Spiritual Revolution is imminent, we don't know when - it may take 50 years,
or may take 500 years. We need to find ways to expedite the onset of Spiritual revolution .
This paper suggests two ways to help an early realisation of the vision of Spiritual
revolution:
- We need a more scientific yet simple definition of spirituality comprehensible to the common man
- We need more scientific approach to research on spirituality
My paper tries to contribute in both these areas, by suggesting a simple definition
of spirituality, and by building a model which can open the doors to a more scientific
research on Spirituality. It does not offend any religion nor is anti-religion, but
it helps everyone to follow their own religion without bias for other religions,
so as to gain from the benefits of their respective faiths, while avoiding the ill
effects of an overdose of faith.
1.2 Current Understanding of Spirituality
“Spirituality is a science which relates to you and your mind alone.
It has nothing to do with the concept of religion or god”
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Spirituality is one of the most misunderstood terms. It has different meanings
to different people, and may also be beyond comprehension and confusing to most.
It needs to be defined with clarity to remove all ambiguity. What is worse is
that spirituality is wrongly associated with god and religion, and major
part of hatred and unrest emanates from religion.
Let me start with our current vague understanding of Spirituality. We say that
Buddha and several other ancient saints were highly spiritual. Let us try
to analyse what was meant when we say Buddha had reached a very spiritual state.
The spiritual state of prophets and sages like Buddha was characterised by
the following three attributes:
1. Compassionate: They were extremely high on love and compassion,
possibly on all the positive feelings. They were in a state of extreme
benevolence with no ill feelings.
2. Powerful: They were extremely powerful individuals. They had
complete control over their mind and were able to use their "Mind Power".
They had high "mental energy".
3. Enlightened: They were said to be enlightened. They had an extremely
powerful transcendental experience which is difficult to express, and is sometimes
referred to as having seen Ultimate Reality, or experienced God. This experience
gave them immense wisdom and perhaps great insights into worldly affairs.
Let me call this state of mind as "God State" (explained later) for ease
of discussion. We will build a "scientific" model, which I call
"Prem Spirituality ModelTM"
(Prem means Love!), to look at these three characteristics and try to derive
a more scientific definition to the phenomenon of spirituality. We will
examine and understand each of these attributes of spirituality, including
"Enlightenment", and see how they fit into our "scientific" model.
The word "Scientific" is used within quotes as the model is based on not only the known
science, but also the yet-unknown possible future science. In fact, the present science
is not adequate to explain
the spiritual phenomena and completely new scientific methods may
need to be developed.
2. Need for a New "Science"
2.1 Physical Science & Mathematics Failed to Explain Spirituality - Need a New "Science"
“The Industrial Revolution helped bring muscle power in the hands of the common man.
The information revolution gave brain power. The next big revolution - The Spiritual
Revolution will make mind power available to the common man”
|
Let's face it. Whatever great developments and discoveries of
science which we are very proud of are in the world of matter. There are a whole
lot of avenues still to be explored and discovered - in the world of mind and the
science of the mind. While science has helped us understand the vast universe around
us, the small area within us which we call the Mind remains in the dark (see Fig. 1).
We need a completely new "science" to define spirituality and
explain spiritual phenomena or the phenomena of mind sciences.
Even Mathematics, which provides a language to define and express the universal
laws of physical phenomena fails completely when it comes to the phenomena of
the mind. Calculus, an advanced form of mathematics, also provided more help
in explaining the physical world, but was unable to enter the world of the mind.
Prem Spirituality Model envisions that there will be a completely new
"science" which I call "spiritual science" and a completely new language called
Mentomatics to explain the universal laws of spiritual phenomena. After
the Classical Model and the Quantum Model of science, we will have the "Spiritual"
Model.
My Model provides a curtain-raiser for exploring the new spiritual
science and gives insights into this new language of Mentomatics which when fully
developed can unravel the laws of spiritual world which are as much a reality of
our universe as the laws of physical world.
This model draws an analogy with the history of development of physical science
to envision a possible future development in "spiritual" science.
It is a vision of what new scientific developments would look like when we
extrapolate the past scientific developments in the realm of physical world and
apply them to the unknown world of the human mind.
The model also demonstrates how spirituality can possibly be completely detached
from the realm of religion and be researched as a pure science.
As things stand today, it would be unrealistic to expect major breakthroughs. The
purpose of this paper will be served even if, based on this analogy, this model
can pave the way for further scientific research on spirituality and show us
the path to realize the dream of a Spiritual Revolution.
Since we will use some very basic concepts of physics, it will be worthwhile to
brush up some elementary physics, which will not be more complex than school
physics. There is no need to be overawed looking at the diagrams which look a
bit mathematical. If you are familiar with the 3-Dimensional Physical space,
you can easily skip the following section.
2.2 Refresher of Simple School Physics - The Physical 3-Dimensional Space
You may skip this section if you remember school physics. We know that the
physical world consists of a three dimensional space (Fig. 2.1). An object
occupies a unique position in this space. We use x, y and z as the three
co-ordinates of this physical space which measure distances in the three
dimensions or directions from the Reference Point or Point of Origin (denoted
by coordinates (0,0,0) in Fig. 2.1). The physical position of an object in
this space is denoted by its x, y, and z co-ordinates. For example, in
Fig. 2.1, if an object is at point P, its position is denoted by co-ordinates
a, b and c respectively. So Fig. 2.1 is the all-familiar physical space.
Fig. 2.1: Physical 3-Dimensional Space
It is also common knowledge that every object in the Physical Space has a
potential energy. Its potential energy depends on its position in the
three-dimensional space, denoted by x,y,z axes. In Fig. 2.2, an object at
point P2 has a higher potential energy than an object at point P1.
Fig. 2.2: An Object at Point P2 has higher Potential Energy as compared to an object at Point P1
This is all the elementary science that we will use in this paper.
3. Prem Spirituality Model - Definition
3.1 Physical Space and Mental Space
“Prem Spirituality ModelTM
attempts to free spirituality from the locked doors of temples
and faith based religions and move it to universities and research labs.
It tries to open the doors to a more scientific study of spiritual world”
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Some of you may recall an incident in your life when you were on the verge of
despair, and a few words of encouragement from someone dear to you suddenly
pumped fresh energy into you. And you sprang into action to 'conquer the world'.
Now if you look back, there are several questions which start bugging you:
How did you get the energy to move the earth when a moment back, you were
powerless and hopeless? Your energy levels increased multifold with just
a few words of encouragement. Where did the energy come from? Was it already
there dormant within you and suddenly became active?
All that we can say for sure is that there was a change in the state of your
mind. Earlier you were in a state of mind which was associated with a very
low energy, and later you shifted to a state of mind which resulted in a
very high energy. Nothing appears to have changed outside. It looks obvious
then that it relates to some unknown phenomenon of the mind.
Borrowing from some very basic knowledge of our physical science, if we were
to plot your energy states before and after you heard the words of encouragement,
it would look something like what is depicted in Fig. 3. We have very vaguely
depicted in a graph the low energy level L before you heard the words of
encouragement and the high energy level H afterwards. Since the energy was
generated from within due to a change of mind, we call this space the Mental
or Spiritual Space and the energy as mental energy.
Fig. 3: High and Low Energy Points in Mental /Spiritual Space
Point L represents your position in the mental space before you heard the
magic words of encouragement and Point H represents your position afterwards.
Point L corresponds to low mental state and low energy state, whereas Point H
is high on both. Note that the axes are yet unknown and are marked with red '?'
Now doesn't this look similar to our familiar physical space (Fig. 2.2), where
P1 and P2 were two positions of low and high potential energy? Apparently we
humans also occupy different positions in the mental space (positions L and H
in Fig. 3) with different energy levels. While the axes of the physical space
were distances in x,y and z directions, the three axes here are marked with
red coloured "?" sign to indicate that we still do not know what the axes of
the mental space are. Let us try to define these axes.
3.2 What are axes of Mental Space?
“Laws of physical science work in the physical space and are fairly well
explained by Mathematics. Spiritual Space too is governed by equally precise
laws of spiritual science but are not yet known”
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We know that the distances x, y, z are the axes of the physical space, but what
are the axes of the mental space? To answer this question, let us identify what
causes the changes in the potential energies from P1 to P2 in the physical space
of Fig. 2.2 and compare with what may have caused the change of mental energy from
L to H in the mental space of Fig. 3. In the physical space what caused the
change was a change in position, which was in turn caused by change in distances
x, y, z from origin. What was the change that triggered the change in Mental
energy from L to H?
If you closely analyse, there was indeed a change within you - in your state of
mind. The magic words shifted you from a hopeless "mental state" to that of
hope and determination. What changed your "state of mind" were your feelings.
Your feelings of fear and despair were replaced by hope, confidence and
courage. You had more faith in yourself. In other words, you measured low on
some feelings at position L and measured high on those at H.
So the axes of the mental space are your feelings. In Fig. 4, we have shown a
schematic representation of Mental Space with just three important feelings
as axes, namely feelings of Love, Faith and Hope. Point L represents your
position in the mental space before you heard the magic
words of encouragement and Point H represents your position afterwards. Point L
corresponds to low mental state and low energy state, whereas Point H is high
on both.
Fig. 4: High and Low Energy Points in Mental /Spiritual Space
I have taken only 3 important feelings to plot the mental space so that we can
compare and contrast with the physical space which we know so well. Actually
our mental state, or frame of mind depends not just on above three feelings but
on multiple feelings and emotions as listed in Table 1:
Faith | or | doubt, distrust
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Hope | or | Despair
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Confidence | or | apprehension, fear
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Love | or | Hatred
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Courage | or | Fear
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Firmness | or | fragility, hesitation
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Dedication | or | apathy, indifference
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Happiness | or | Sadness
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Table 1: Positive and
Negative set of feelings
Since there are multiple feelings, the mental space is actually a
multi-dimensional space which may look something like Fig. 5. In this diagram,
each line represents a feeling, with one side of the centre showing positive feeling
and the other side negative feeling. For instance, hope and dispair are depicted
as the positive and negative measures respectively of one feeling.
Fig. 5: Multidimensional Mental Space
However, for simplicity we will work with the three dimensional space shown in
Fig. 6.2 because it helps us to compare with the physical space which we are
so familiar with (Fig 6.1).
Today you cannot measure feelings, but there was a time when we were not able
to measure distances either. Today we can not only measure physical distances,
but also intangible items like light, sound, wavelengths, etc., which was
unthinkable once. Is it not then possible that a time will come when feelings will
be measureable too? We will then be able to plot exactly our position in the
mental space.
Fig. 6.1: Physical Space
Fig. 6.2: Mental /Spiritual Space
Fig. 6: "Prem Spirituality Model"
That completes our conceptualization of "Prem Spirituality Model" (Fig. 6).
The model consists of the familiar Physical space with x,y,z coordinates, and a
similar mental or spiritual space, the dimensions of which are our various feelings like
love, fear, hope, faith, courage, etc. Just as we occupy a position in the
physical space, we occupy a unique position in the mental space at any given
time.
To understand how this model can explain spirituality, spiritual state and
spiritual energy, we need to dive deeper in this model.
3.3 Physical State and Mental State
Just as a point in the three-dimensional physical space indicates the physical
position of a body in that space, a point in the mental space denotes a
particular state of mind or mental state. My mental state or my position in the
mental space can be defined by how much I measure on the feelings axes at that
time. Conversely, how I measure on the different feelings axes at any time
determines my mental state or my position in the mental space.
Different degrees of these feelings (Table 1) and their combinations result in
different mental states. With every shift in our mood or in the intensity of
our feelings, we move to a new position in mental space, and hence to a
different state of mind and different mental energy.
4. Prem Spirituality Model - Implications
4.1 Physical Energy and Mental Energy
It is evident that a change in your mental state after you heard the magic
words was immediately followed by a change in your energy state. You shifted
from a "low energy state" before to a very "high energy state" thereafter. You
shifted from negative feelings listed in Table 1 to positive ones after you
heard the words of encouragement. Apparently, we are endowed with some power
that lies dormant within us but can be activated. Since the energy does not
seem to have come from outside, it appears that the energy was dormant within you
when you were in one state of mind and suddenly turned active in another state.
In Fig. 4, point L represents a low energy state and point H corresponds to
high energy state where the feelings are more positive. As the degree of our
feelings keeps changing, our position in the mental space, and hence our mental
energy also keeps changing.
4.2 Prem Spirituality Model - God State and God Zones
“Spirituality is a science which relates to you and your mind alone.
It has nothing to do with the concept of religion or god”
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If more positive feelings lead to higher energy, then there must be zones in
the mental space where very high positive feelings will lead to extremely high
energy levels - so high so as to lead to an extremely high state of mind
with extremely high mental energy and possibly superhuman powers. Indeed, this
high energy state is the enlightened state where Buddha reached, possibly Christ
and Mohammed and other prophets and sages (Fig. 7).
What is commonly known as reaching god or attaining god is synonymous with reaching
these high energy states in the mental space (Fig. 7). Hence we call this state of
mind with extremely high mental energy as "God State". And we call the zones in
the mental space which correspond to such highly positive feelings and high mental
energy as "God zones"
Fig. 7: God States and God Zones
High Energy Zones corresponding to High Energy States in Mental Space
Isn't this the same "God State" that we described right in the beginning in
section "Current Understanding of Spirituality"? We said that the God state is
characterised by three characteristics - Compassionate, Powerful and
Enlightened. That definition fits in well with our "mathematical"
representation in Fig. 7, as the God State is indeed characterised by high
positive feelings (compassionate) and high mental energy (powerful). It is a
highly spiritual and powerful state of mind. God Zones are zones where the
measure of confidence, love, faith, hope, etc. is extremely high.
5. What is Spirituality?
Two of our characteristics of spiritual state, namely Powerful and
compassionate fit well with our Prem Spirituality Model (Fig. 7). You can see why
I called it Prem Model as love (prem in hindi) is a very important component
of this model. We will see a little later that the third characteristic,
namely Enlightenment, also fits into our model as described in Fig. 7. But
before we do that, let us pause and see if we are getting a sense of the word
"spirituality".
Our discussions so far suggest that spirituality is nothing
but a state of mind, which depends on your position in the mental space or
how you measure on various feelings. The closer you are to the God State or
God zone, the more spiritual you are. At the same time it is clear that what
we have been referring to as mental state and mental energy is synonymous with
spiritual state and spiritual energy. We will be using these terms "mental state"
and "mental energy" to refer to spiritual state and spiritual energy in future.
It is also clear that, though difficult with the current methods available,
each of us can reach the god state as shown in Fig.7. If you can reach that
state of mind, you can reach the state that Buddha reached. In other words,
each one of us has the potential to be a Buddha. Buddha and most sages reached
that state through meditation, but it seems beyond reach for most of us.
The moon too was beyond reach once. Just as reaching
the moon in physical space was unthinkable at one time, reaching the god state
seems impossible today. But just as physical science has found once unthinkable
method to reach the moon, new inventions in spiritual science may one day
provide a faster and easier method to reach god state in the mental space,
a method which we cannot even imagine today.
Spirituality is simply a state of mind and can be represented as a position in the
mental/spiritual space of our model. The higher you are in that space (represented
by higher measure of positive feelings), you are in a higher spiritual state.
Spiritual Science is a science of the mind which is still not fully understood.
Psychology does try to understand the science of the mind, just as physics tries to
explain the science of matter, but it is still in
the domain of qualitative description and lacks the quantitative strength offered
by mathematics to physical science.
I admit that we have not yet seen how the third characteristic of Spirituality,
namely Enlightenment, fits in this model. It will soon be clear as we examine the
two spaces in our model a little more closely.
6. What is Enlightenment?
6.1 Common Meaning of Enlightenment
Enlightenment commonly refers to an "aha moment", a moment when you suddenly get
complete clarity over something which you always heard but could not comprehend.
Something like an object on your office table or room which was always there but
you never noticed. It is a sudden awakening or insight.
Other synonyms for enlightenment are awareness, illumination, wisdom, etc.
We will see that when they reached the god zone in the spiritual space, the
spiritual saints got a sudden awareness or insight into something very special
about the spiritual space which normal individuals completely fail to see. We
will again use our model to examine what they got enlightened about with
respect to the spiritual space that we are still groping to see. We need to
first get introduced to the concepts of "Spiritual Laws of Universe", which we
do in the next few sections.
6.2 Physical Laws of Universe are Known and Proved
We know that the physical space of Fig 8.1 is governed by the physical laws of
universe like gravitational law, laws of forces and action and reaction.
These laws have been fairly understood and explained. We can measure physical
distances (x,y,z axes), denote in numbers a position in the physical space,
measure the strength of physical forces and the potential energy. We know
exactly what measure of force and at what exact angle the force needs to be
applied to move an object from A to B in physical space (Fig 8.1). Physical
science and mathematics tell us clearly what force should be applied (and at
what angle) to move from A to B in physical space.
Fig. 8.1: Physical Space
Fig. 8.2: Mental/Spiritual Space
In the mental space (Fig 8.2), however, we are completely in the dark about
the laws of the spiritual space. We don't know what mental forces operate in this
space, measuring them is a far cry. If I have to move from point A in Fig.8.2 (a low
energy state in mental space) to point B - a high energy state in God Zone, I
do not know what mental force I need to apply at what angle. We can't measure
feelings (the axes of this space) and mental energies, so we don't know what measure
of feelings can move me from A to B. What is worse, this is
actually a multi-dimensional space with multiple feelings. (Fig.5).
If the physical space follows universal rules of physical science, then there
must be some rules governing the spiritual space too.
It is not difficult to notice that the present method of religion and god actually
help you to move towards the god zones by increasing your faith and love for god.
Just as man discovered primitive methods to navigate in the physical space based
on the position of stars, sun, tide, etc. much before physical science and
mathematics gave advanced methods, man seems to have discovered methods to
navigate in the spiritual space too, though they are slow, imprecise and not
based on proven scientific methods.
6.3 Universe Has Yet-Unknown Spiritual Laws Too
Indeed this spiritual space too does have its own laws. What
are these laws?
We all occupy a certain position in the spiritual space (Fig 8.2) at any given
time. With change in our feelings and our moods, our position in that space
keeps changing. When you are happy, you are in one position, and in another
position when you are unhappy. We don't know why a person is happy and another
person sad, why a rich person may be unhappy whereas a poor person may be happy.
We do not know what forces will move us from an unhappy position to happy
position or from a low energy position to high energy position.
When you are in a higher energy position, you are more likely to succeed than
if you are in a low energy position. Today we do not know exactly why one
succeeds and another fails, why we can do a job better on some days, on other
days we cannot. A tennis player playing the same opponent may play well one day
and not so well on other day depending on what state of mind he is in and what
is his mental energy, or in other words what his position in the mental space is.
Feelings like anxiety, fear, hope, confidence, etc., all of these change from
day to day, hour to hour and define our position in the mental space at any
given time. Again, we don't know how to move from a low energy position in this
space to higher energy state because we don't know the laws governing this space.
Physical science has no answer to these phenomena such as causes of happiness
and success, or how to move from one state to another - they are mainly phenomena
of the mind. These phenomena also follow some laws and we probably unknowingly
follow them also to be happy or successful. Each individual makes or discovers
his or her own laws, and has his own spirituality. There are no standard documented
laws which are proven beyond doubt.
In the physical space, if we want to achieve a result y, mathematics helps us
define the dependent parameters x1,x2,x3 etc., and also define a relation or
formula f(x1,x2,x3.) which defines what values of x1, x2, etc. will help you
achieve the desired value of y.
y = f(x1, x2, x3..)
In the mental space, if we want to achieve a mental energy of value 'y', we do not know
what the dependent parameters x1, x2 or x3 are, nor do we know how to measure
any of the parameters like feelings.
The laws of spiritual space have not been quantitatively defined as yet because
we do not have the luxury of a language like Mathematics in the spiritual space.
Prem Spirituality Model, however, envisions a new language of Mentomatics, which
could be the language of the spiritual space, just like mathematics is the language
of the physical space. Those who lived in in pre-mathematics era did not know
how to quantitatively define the physical laws. We all live in a pre-mentomatics
era, so we are unable to define the spiritual laws. People born in post
mentomatics era will have both the physical and spiritual laws at their command.
Now in the absence of a quantitative language of mentomatics, all we can do is
find a descriptive explanation of the spiritual laws using simple English language.
With this limitation, we will try to understand the spiritual laws using our model.
6.4 What are the Spiritual Laws of the Universe?
Indeed this spiritual space too does have its own laws. Scientific study of
Spirituality will reveal that just as there are universal laws of physical
science governing the world of matter, there are common and universal laws
of spiritual science governing the world of mind, which are interpreted and
expressed in different ways by different religions causing a divide. Most of
the preachings of religions (in their pristine form, not with the corruption
and distortion of religions over time) are nothing but universal laws of the
spiritual space. For instance, this verse from the hindu scripture Bhagwat
Gita which says "Do your duty without expecting the fruits of your work".
The original verse in Sanskrit language translates to something like this -
"You have the right to work only but never to its fruits
Let not the fruits of action be your motive"
Similarly, principles like "Do good beget good" - (Kar Bhala Hoga bhala, in
Hindi) and "Truth always wins" too, according to me, are Universal Laws of
Spiritual Space. Somehow we have very little trust in these laws.
6.5 Why We Have Little Trust in the Spiritual Laws
Today we do not believe in these laws of spiritual space because more often
than not, they do not work for us. They do not work for us not because the
laws are incorrect but because we do not exactly know the laws and practice
them with incomplete knowledge. For that matter, the knowledge of spiritual
science itself is not so advanced like physical science in physical space
(Fig. 8.1) where you can precisely denote in mathematical formulas, measure
the parameters involved and repeat them in laboratories or real life to get
the same results repeatedly.
“Prem not only provides a new vision-cum-dream of spiritually-evolved human beings
and a violence-free peaceful world, he suggests new possible areas of research
in mind-science to actually realize the vision”
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Why did Gandhi succeed with his experiments of truth, whereas most of us fail?
May be when Gandhi used the spiritual law "truth always wins", he did it with
high feeling of faith on his method and that put him in a different position
in the mental space, whereas when I do it, I really do not have the same faith
as Gandhi had. Did Gandhi know some rules of the spiritual space which we do
not? They say that when you pray with full faith in god, god listens to you.
May be the same is true with success in not just praying, but whatever you do
in life. When you do it with full faith in your method, you succeed because
your higher faith puts you in a different position in the mental space and you
are in a higher energy state.
Why did Buddha reach God zones but so many others could not? Did Buddha too
know some rules of this space which others didn't? When Buddha became
enlightened, why is it that he could see and experience something which
others could not?
Spiritual law "Do good and beget good" may fail for you depending on your
feelings and your state of mind/position in the spiritual space when you did
the deed. Did you have the feeling of love or a feeling of expectations, and
with what measure or how intense were your feelings?
We simply do not understand the laws of this space nor can we measure any of
its parameters, and hence are groping in the dark. Some people learn to
practice these laws by chance, and some learn through the method of
meditation. But even those who learnt to practice the laws did not know how to
explain the laws as there was and is no language to express these. There is no
formal, quick, precise, way to explain, learn and practice with repeatable
precision like we do have for physical laws using mathematics and physics.
6.6 What is Enlightenment?
“The universe consists of not only the physical space we are so familiar with,
but also a spiritual space. All of us occupy a certain position in this space,
just like we do in a physical space”
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Those who got enlightened through special techniques of meditation, etc.,
could see and knew something which the common men did not. It is said that
reaching this high energy God State is a transcendent experience and cannot
be explained in language. It gives you some powers which we today call
supernatural. It gives you absolute insights into the way the world is -
insights into world phenomena not normally realized or experienced by humans
- so far considered supernatural. Some call it seeing the Ultimate Reality,
some call it having a glimpse of God, and some just call it a transcendent
experience.
Our discussion so far of the spiritual model, the God state and the special
powers of the people who reached the god state indicates that such insight
could have come only if they had got insight into the laws of the spiritual
space.
In our "scientific" model, we can therefore say that Enlightenment is a state
of mind when a person in God state gets complete insight into the unknown laws
of Spiritual space. When we say that they had a glimpse into Ultimate Reality,
it would mean that they had a glimpse into the Spiritual Laws of the Universe.
They had great insights into the reality of the world, into BOTH the physical
and spiritual laws of universe.
They had complete clarity of the laws - they could practice the laws without
probably knowing the theory. In other words, they were practitioners of these
laws, but not theorists. Even if they knew the theory, they could not have
explained to the common man as they did not have the language of Mentomatics.
(Even mathematics was not developed then).
How else could the ancient spiritual sages create Yoga, discover the medicinal
and nutrition values of vegetation, get insights into astrology and astronomy
without any of the sophisticated gadgets available today? It is said that
Buddha had identified that all matter is made of tiny particles which he called
kalapas. (Google on 'Kalapas' to know more). It shows that the state of mind
they reached gave them special powers to see what is invisible to the common man.
This is only possible if, in their enlightened state, they had special insights
into both the physical laws of the physical space and the spiritual laws of the
mental space.
Though difficult to reach with the methods available today and the current
level of scientific knowledge, each one of us theoretically has the potential
to reach the god zones and hence get the enlightenment which the spiritual
saints got. They gained the expertise to use and practice these spiritual laws
of universe, giving them what one may call supernatural powers.
6.7 Supernatural versus Spiritual Laws of Universe
Our model shows that these capabilities are not supernatural really, they are
part of the normal spiritual laws of universe, just like the physical laws of
universe. They are available to every human being who can reach the God
state - it is just that most of us do not know how reach that state. Everything
happens and is governed by natural laws of universe. There is nothing
transcendent or supernatural in this. Every one of us, can reach this state of
mind, each of us can be Buddha. What is required is a jet age method to reach
that state of mind.
“Spiritual Revolution will bring all religions under one umbrella of spirituality,
with 'scientifically' explained, and 'repeatable-in-labs' common Laws of Spiritual
Science”
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The saints, through meditation or special focus on one's inner self, could
develop new faculties of the mind to identify, understand and even practice the
mind science phenomena or the laws of mind science. They had understood the
laws though probably they could not explain them, as they did not have a
language or vocabulary to explain it. It is like learning to use a machine or
computer through experimentation, observation and practice, without knowing
the internals or knowing how it works. The ancient
people used the stars, sun, winds and tides to help navigation without
understanding the science of each of these. A pilot learns to fly an aircraft
without knowing the science how his aircraft floats in air.
If Buddha reached the state of mind 2500 years back using certain method, can
we not with modern advances in knowledge find a scientific, faster, jet age
method to reach the same state of mind with less efforts? After all in the
physical world we have been able to reach places in hours what took months and
years for ancient people to reach. We have been able to reach places like moon
and mars which were not even accessible to stone ancient man. Yes, science will
certainly explain. We need to be prepared for the unthinkable.
7. Mentomatics
7.1 Mathematics helped explain the Laws of Physical Space
What gave clarity in the physical space is a field of study called Physical
Science. But the tool which really helped explain and document the laws was
Mathematics. Mathematics gave us a language with total precision to express
how to move a body from A to B in physical space (Fig. 8.1).
Before the discovery of Mathematics, man was completely ignorant of the laws of
physical space. The discovery of Mathematics was one critical milestone which
changed the history of physical science. It came like a bang after which the
growth of physical sciences took a miraculous turn to zoom upwards. It drew man
out from an era of ignorance and took him into today's era of scientific
revolution. Mathematics not only explained accurately the physical nature of
the universe, but also helped predict some effects. Then came calculus and
explained the rest of the phenomena related to physical forces in the universe.
7.2 Mentomatics will explain the Laws of Mental Space
The language of Mathematics, however, fails miserably to explain the phenomena
of the spiritual space. We need a new language to explain and express the laws
governing the Spiritual space.
We need a completely new science and a new language, which I call Mentomatics,
which will explain the laws of mental space and unfold the spiritual laws
of the universe. Today, we do not have a language to explain mental forces.
Before mathematics was devised, laws of physical space were as much a mystery
as the laws of mental space are today without Mentomatics. We are in the same
stage in the realm of mental forces as we were in the realm of physical forces
before Mathematics and Calculus were developed. We look at the spiritual
powers as miraculous or supernatural phenomena just as the common physical
phenomena were considered as miracles by the aboriginals. Whereas we are in the
space age in the physical sciences, we are in the stone age of spiritual
science. We are still ape-men so long as the mental space is concerned. In the
time graph of mental space, we are still in the Dark Age today. We know nothing
about the laws of this space.
7.3 Mentomatics - The Key to the Spiritual Revolution
The key to development of spiritual science is mentomatics. If we can develop
mentomatics, may be as a next upgraded version of mathematics and calculus,
the mysteries of the spiritual world will be solved. There will be no religion
and no god - only verified universal principles of Spiritual science.
But what is the key to development of Mentomatics?
The first step to development of mathematics was taken when we could measure
the x, y and z exes, that is the distances in the physical space. Then the key
to development of mentomatics will be when we can measure the axes of the
spiritual space - that is measure our feelings.
The day we can measure our feelings, we may as well open the doors to the
development of Mentomatics and to the next major revolution - the Spiritual
Revolution.
Like mathematics led to the development of Classical physics and Quantum
sciences, mentomatics will lead to the discovery of Spiritual Science. And
as quantum physics explained not only the laws of classical physics of slow
moving items but also explained the laws of fast moving particles of the
physical world, spiritual science will explain the laws of spiritual world
apart from the physical world (Fig. 9).
Fig. 9: Spiritual Science will encompass Quantum and Classical Science
With more "scientific" awareness of spiritual laws, there will be either more
tolerance for different religions, or at the least, the futility of discriminating
between religions will certainly become obvious.
8. Prem Spirituality Model and World Peace
How does the model contribute to world peace? In two ways.
First, it provides alternate framework for humanity to seek an elevation in their emotional well-being with a new definition of spirituality which is more scientific and less faith-based. When individuals are spiritually more evolved, the world will be much better
Secondly, the model shows that the objective is to reach the high energy state of mind. What we call god is reaching a state of mind. Religion and god are just methods or means which help to reach that state of mind (Discussed in full details in the ebook God in Two Minutes, listed in 'Related Readings' at the end). Reaching the goal is important, the means to reach there are not. Different religions could be different means to reach the same goal of high energy state (Fig. 10). It is only a matter of time before Spiritual Science will make all this crystal clear. Is it not foolish then to fight and kill for religion as we do today? Man will then look back and laugh at us and our beliefs in several religions and gods, just as we laugh at people who thought the earth was flat. This can be an eye opener to bridge the religious divide and reduce religious conflicts.
Fig. 10: Different Religions are different means to the same goal of Spirituality
9. What Next? The Way Forward
9.1 Summary of "Prem Model of Spirituality" & The Way Forward
Let us summarise the features of our model. The model also helps us define
spirituality and to suggest a way forward towards the Spiritual Revolution
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The universe consists of not only the physical space we are so familiar with,
but also a spiritual space. All of us occupy a certain position in this space,
just like we do in a physical space.
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Spirituality is nothing but a state of mind, or a position in this spiritual
space. There are positions with extremely high energy in this space, which we
call god zones. Reaching these zones is like reaching a very powerful state of
mind which we call God State.
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Reaching god or attaining god is reaching god state, or reaching these high
energy zones. Every human being is capable of reaching there, every human being
has the capacity to be Buddha.
-
Laws of physical science work in the physical space and are fairly well
explained by Mathematics. Spiritual Space too is governed by equally precise
laws of spiritual science but are not yet known. Spiritual principles are
nothing but simple universal laws of Spiritual science.
-
Phenomena of the physical space like gravity, wind, light, etc. too were
unexplained (or explained as will of god). They lacked a language to explain
them till Mathematics explained them all. What we lack today is a language to
express phenomena of spiritual space as mathematics fails miserably in that
space.
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Man is sure to discover a new language (or an enhanced version of Mathematics)
called "Mentomatics" which will not only explain spiritual principles as
precisely but also provide the much needed repeatability.
-
Just as ability to measure distances or the x,y,z coordinates of physical space
opened the doors to development of Mathematics, our ability to measure
feelings, the axes of the mental space, are the much needed first steps to
development of Mentomatics.
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Historically, spirituality has got associated with religion as a marriage of
convenience. Religion, by its very nature of 'faith-dependency' has blocked all
free thinking and research in spirituality as a science. There is need to break
spirituality free from the shackles of religion, from closed door of temples to
universities and research centres.
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Today half learned men try to "spread" half-baked concepts of spirituality.
Spirituality is not something which needs to be spread or taken to common
people. It is already there in every human being in the form of latent
spiritual energy. What is required is not the age old slow methods of tapping
this latent energy, but much faster scientific, space-age methods to access it
and utilise the spiritual power latent in every individual. Science needs to
aim for attaining "God in Two Minutes" or being "Buddha in Two Minutes"
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Spirituality is a science which relates to you and your mind alone. It has
nothing to do with the concept of religion or god
9.2 Skepticism, Criticism of "Prem Spirituality Model" & Further Reading
Because of limitations of scope and time for this paper, I know that a lot of
questions are unanswered. The paper raises serious doubts in the minds of
cynics and skeptics about the feasibility. It is not possible to satisfy all
doubts in this paper. This paper is limited to using the Prem Spirituality
Model to define Spirituality, explain the possible meaning of enlightenment and
to introduce the concept of Mentomatics.
Most of the doubts raised here are hopefully cleared in the book "God in Two
Minutes1". The book builds on "Prem Spirituality Model" to explain the origin of
God and Religion, how the "method of god and religion" works, and what the
pitfalls of a faith-based method are. It elaborates on concepts not covered or
briefly touched upon in this paper like "marriage of convenience between the
concept of God and Religion", Mentomatics, Spiritual Science as a superset of
Physical and Quantum science, etc. The book peeps into what the world will look
like with Mentomatics. Temples may be replaced by Spiritual Clinics where you
may get prescription how to raise your spiritual state, or to reach a
particular position in the spiritual space!
The book uses the model to explain how the method of god and religion works for
spiritual upliftment, but at the same time the method has had a serious side
effect. There is an inherent flaw in the method which has resulted into big
religious divides, violence and bloodshed in the name of religion. The model
can help bridge this religious divide and usher in the spiritual revolution
with unimaginable possibilities.
Here it suffices to say that if unthinkable things have become a reality in
physical space by physical science, one has to "Think the Unthinkable" to
imagine what is possible in spiritual world once mentomatics is discovered.
Go Top
Related Readings from my Site:
Prem Spirituality Model - Ringing in a Spiritual Revolution
Prem Spirituality Model - An Introduction
God in Two Minutes - the eBook (Download ebook at Amazon.com)
Is God a Myth?
God in Two Minutes - A Summary
What is Mentomatics?
Reader Comments & My Response
My Views and Beliefs on Religion
What are God Zones?
Editor Comments on my Book God in Two Minutes
My Mission - Bridging the Religious Divide
Will the World Survive? - My Reply to Dr Stephen Hawking
What is Subconscious Mind? How Does it Impact our Actions
All Articles in Prem Kamble's Blog
Also See:
Seminar: "A Fresh Look at God & Religion"
Seminar: "Knowing Your Inner Self"
"God in Two Minutes" on Facebook
Copyright 2018 Prem
Kamble
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