Making a Fresh Start

Summary
This article deals with the current serious spiritual plight of humanity. The
allusion to mankind’s spiritual degeneration has been made by every religious
tradition of the world without exception. The remedy or cure is also enshrined in
these ancient traditions. Unfortunately, this teaching has been misconstrued
resulting in the loss of this ancient wisdom. Despite all our scientific and
technological achievements the only way out for humanity is to rediscover this
ancient door which opens out to spiritual liberation. While technology can serve
us and take us to new heights, it can never liberate us from our stifling bondage.
This article draws attention to this fact and encourages the reader to search for
self liberation in a practical meaningful manner without being misled by manmade
systems which seek to substitute themselves in place of the perennial path plotted
by the diverse spiritual revelations granted to the different cultural traditions
of the world showing mankind what has to be done to obtain healing and
rejuvenation so as to be reintegrated with the true and real.

Content Description
The article begins with a reference to mankind’s spiritual depravity and argues
for the urgent need to address this problem before anything else. The stress is
laid on the need to accept this truth however bitter it is. It is also suggested
that our cosmic isolation is also due to this factor and that a universal
quarantine has been effectively in force as a result.
The impotence of science and technology to pull us out of this predicament is
considered and the attention of the reader drawn to the traditional religions
which confront this problem directly and prescribe what has to be done. We have
not been abandoned by the Creator. All cultures have received the invaluable
spiritual prescription for curing this inherent human malady. The need for close
cooperation with the Cosmic Forces as expressed through Divine Law and the
importance of practice as opposed to mere intellectual assent or ecclesiastical
compliance is highlighted. Complete resignation to the divine will is a
prerequisite for spiritual progress.All expressions of Ego and aggressive self
manifestation have to be overcome if one is to attune oneself to the cosmic
process. We have to reject our old identity and accept the new identity that is
offered to us. The article reveals that this latter is our true identity. It
adverts to the fact that a pure heart is in a much better position to receive the
revealed truths than a merely curious and brilliant brain and encourages readers
to practice the religious method and discover for themselves the true power of
religion which would enable them to blossom out to their optimum potential.
We have successfully hidden from ourselves our inherent spiritual deformity. Man
has been a fugitive running away from his true self and his creator. Time is
running out and we must realize that we can’t be running forever.
 Mankind Desperately Needs Help
Making a Fresh Start

We start from the premise that man is a spiritually sick being. This is the most
basic and fundamental truth about ourselves, acknowledged by all religious
traditions, although expressed in different ways, such as sin, ignorance, illusion
and the like. All the traditions agree about this downgraded state of man and the
need for spiritual upliftment. In this world of brilliant scientific achievement
and technological success, we have to learn first to accept this unpalatable
spiritual truth. Because of our degenerate spiritual status, we have become
universal outcasts. We have no communion or communication with any other
intelligent or spiritual life forms in the innumerable worlds of creation, and are
virtually quarantined in a secluded corner of our own little universe. Even the
remote frontiers of our own small material universe, let alone the innumerable
worlds outside our range of perception, are beyond human access and understanding.
Pretending that all is well with us because of our brilliant scientific
achievements is only to fool ourselves. If we adopt that attitude, it would
prevent us from seeking the help that we most urgently need.

The human race, despite its alienation from the rest of creation, has not been
completely abandoned or written off by its Creator or the Cosmic forces that
brought it into existence. Help is given to mankind through the various religious
traditions. The teachings enshrined in these traditions, reveal to man God’s
life- giving Spirit. It is only the Spirit of God that can cure man of his
inherent spiritual sickness, and infuse new life into him. Human science and
technology, man’s most
powerful tools hitherto discovered, are incapable of accomplishing his spiritual
regeneration.
When we are spiritually healed and regenerated, we shall be able to communicate
with the rest of God’s creation. The overwhelming silence which now confronts and
surrounds us, and in which we are so despairingly submerged, will be rent asunder,
and our fellow beings in the universe will communicate with us. The human race
will then no longer be isolated, and will be restored to its rightful place as a
member of God’s family. What the powerful radio-telescopes of science fail to
pick up, our purified hearts will receive, as the worlds rush in through newly
unlocked doors, which had been closed behind us, in that ill-fated epoch, when our
ancestors plunged the race into its present predicament.
“ Fling wide the gates,
open the ancient doors,
and the great king will come
in.
Who is this great king?
The triumphant Lord – he is the
great king! ( Psalm 24: 9-10 Good
News Bible)
In the spiritual healing process, we have to cooperate closely with the Divine
Physician. We must surrender totally to the Spirit of God and allow His Grace to
work in us. Self-will, self-action and even self-expression, which are no more
than an expression of our bloated and distorted egos, have to be renounced. Our
false ego must become less and less, so that our true Self can become more and
more manifest.

The enormity of our spiritual deformity, we have successfully hidden from

ourselves. If we could only see through our self-deception, and even momentarily
glimpse the spiritual leprosy ailing our souls, we will begin to realize why we
are completely isolated in the universe. No clean spirit would approach us. No
divine being would come near us.

All the world’s sacred traditions focus emphasis on the urgent need to radically
transform ourselves. We are repeatedly warned against mere routine conformity to
external standards of conduct, be it religious ritual or ethical precept. Such
superficial practices fail to effect the necessary spiritual cure. Let us not
deceive ourselves or be misled by the counterfeit codes of conduct which seek to
replace God’s spiritual law. Man made rules and regulations, be they secular or
ecclesiastic, more often than not violate God’s spiritual law, and hence become a
hindrance to spiritual development. Such rules and regulations may produce useful
social animals and docile religious followers, but, they certainly don’t produce
the higher type of human being envisaged by the best religious traditions of
humanity. If man is to regain his rightful place in the order of creation, he
must be spiritually cured and made whole again. This can only be accomplished by
total submission to the omnipotent healing power as expressed by the different
traditions in their own distinctive ways, and which alone can give mankind a new
life, and lift up the race from the spiritual morass it is now bogged down in.

Let us therefore categorically renounce the false and counterfeit man made
sectarian codes of conduct which have for so long held us captive, and embark on a
genuine spiritual journey, encouraged and strengthened by those pioneering
spiritual giants of different traditions and cultures who truly practiced the
sacred teachings embodied in their traditions, and proved to the world the truth
and validity thereof.