Human beings have a tendency to cling to comforting and satisfying conclusions rather than be bold enough to acknowledge the truth. This attitude thwarts the journey of discovery in any field. A good historical example of this may be called the Copernican syndrome. This is the item in connection with the discovery of the solar system’s heliocentric characteristic. The Polish astronomer Nicholaus Copernicus is usually credited with providing a systematic proof of it based on the retrograde motion of the outer planets. At that time (16th century AD), the religious people in Europe, numbering several thousands, if not millions, became his antagonists because their pet conclusions arising from an interpretation of the Bible insisted on the geo-centric theory; it turned out to be an ego-centric theory too (!) because they called Copernicus an idiot. And yet, in due course, all those thousands of people were proved wrong and one Copernicus was right. This establishes the fact of how attachment to pet conclusions can take one away from the truth even though a multitude of people believe in those conclusions. Thus, truth does not depend on the opinion of the majority but on the perspicacity of the few who are bold enough to respect the truth. “They are slaves who dare not be
in the right with two or three.”
Those are the relevant lines from a poem by James Russell Lowell.
Athma Vichara
Slavery to a system, religious or otherwise, destroys the inner freedom necessary to take a journey of discovery into any realm and especially into the spiritual realm. Then, the system beliefs become more important than accepting the truth that may go against the beliefs. One would rather remain with the beliefs than respect one’s native intelligence and insightful awareness. Many sages have pointed out that Athma Vichara – the soul search – is the way to understanding the primal source from which all thoughts arise and push people into illusion. It needs inner freedom from slavery to explore into those regions. They belong to the zone of Natural Spirituality.
Another unfortunate spin-off of the above mentioned slavery is that the mind has a tendency to get involved in a number of outward activities sponsored by the belief system. This is necessary for it to feel secure in the system by getting lost in it. By the same token, there is no time or energy for such a mind to care for self-awareness or to test the beliefs by open-minded investigations. As a result, their minds revolve within a limited cocoon looking for ego satisfaction and security. It becomes impossible for them to move from the myopic mind into the vast consciousness of which the mind is a small part. Many NDEs reveal the fantastic nature of that consciousness. The NDEers are able to free themselves from the ego-hold and observe life from a vast perspective after that experience. The following lines from Victor Solow, a NDEer, give a glimpse of that transformation:
“A recurrent nostalgia remains for that other reality, that condition of indescribable stillness and quiet, where the ‘I’ is part of a harmonious whole. The memory softens the old drives for possession, approval and success.”
Related matters are covered in the book “In Quest of the Deeper Self” details of which can be found in the website http://spirituality.yolasite.com .