The first need is therefore to get rid of this misconception of confusing the spiritual dimension with philosophy, religious values of ethical morality and even occultism. When we get rid of these elementary misconceptions and understand the spiritual reality by identification, we discover that there is a unity of experience that cuts across the barriers of time and space. The real figure is seen only if we sound the depths ourselves and try to fathom the vastness that hides behind the human beings who have truly experienced and lived a spiritual life. Since such men have been few and scattered (though always present), it is doubtful if the statistical approach of interviewing the average or even an above average intellectual can help us understand this dimension better. Such a process may even be counter-productive by diluting or worse still falsifying or replacing the real thing by mimicry.
‘The Spirit is other than the mind’ affirm the seers. It is unity and oneness while the mind is duality and division. It is peace and bliss while the mind dwells in pain, pleasure and indifference. It is harmony and truth while the mind fumbles through error and ignorance. It is easy to understand from this that the spiritual dimension defies any simple definition. As has been pointed out by many, ‘Truth is simple so long as we do not define it’.
In fact, the spiritual reality does not necessarily need a language to communicate itself. Rather, it is best communicated and under-stood in the silence and stillness of our being. This inability to define and describe the spiritual reality is not any limitation as many suppose. It arises because firstly speech itself is a lesser term and faculty. Secondly, since it belongs still to the mental domain in its manifestation, it evokes different meanings and images in different human beings. To obviate this dual difficulty, we can attempt to define the spiritual dimension as the highest perfection man is capable of through self-evolution. This too, however, runs the risk of contamination by the mind which constantly confuses the human idea of perfection with a spiritual one.
For example, the Sanskrit word for health ‘Swasth’ literally means ‘rooted in the self’.
That is to say, true health exists only when man’s consciousness is firmly fixed in the spiritual self, the ‘sva’. Short of it, there can be absence of disease ‘Arogya’ or physical prowess and fitness ‘bala’ but not health. As Dr. Bisht rightly pointed out in his recommendation to the WHO – “… if we compare a group of human beings to a pack of wolves, and restrict the components of health only to physical, mental and social parameters, then the pack of wolves, who would be physically strong, mentally alert and socially well-knit, would be, according to the definition, ideally ‘healthy’. The group of human beings would be no better than the pack of wolves.”
So, for man to be truly called ‘healthy’ something more is needed. And that ‘something more’ in him is not just the maximum development of his mind through education and learning.
