Meditations: Yogas, Gods, Religions

The exploration of consciousness is an ancient and unique specialization of Hindu spirituality which sees consciousness as the very ground and being of the entire universe. Consciousness is the key word for the Hindu mind and meditation is the main methodology to develop it. There is a new interest in spirituality today, evidenced by the popularity of Yoga and meditation worldwide but it appears as yet to be immature or naive. While one can find meditation camps, techniques and training methods, these seldom turn out people of deep insight. The reason is that true intelligence is always something that cannot be planned, orchestrated or mass-produced. On the other hand, many spiritual people, particularly of a devotional nature, are notably lacking in intellectual sophistication and sometimes miss out in common sense. They can be duped by claims of sainthood or spiritual realization, which are easy to make and difficult to verify. They are prone to uncritically accept anything that calls itself religion or mysticism. Without some positive development of the intellect, spiritual growth appears limited or one-sided, or at least mute. It easily gets lost, deceived or confused. We need a new order of spiritual thinkers - spiritual intellectuals if you will - who have the sophistication of thought but coming from a place of consciousness within, and who speak directly, not relying on the intellectual establishment. In this context the works of Ram Swarup are notably refreshing and revitalizing to the spirit. He is a good model of the type of higher thinker that we need in the world today. He demonstrates a remarkable combination of sharp intellectual clarity with deep spiritual insight and sensitivity