The quintessence of mysticism⁴

There are three principal paths that lead to God-Realisation: the path of Selfless Service, the path of Love and Devotion and the path of Knowledge and Wisdom. Raja Yoga (Mysticism) is a significant stage in the Yoga of Knowledge (Jnana Yoga). The knowledge Supreme is something infinitely more than mere philosophical knowledge. Mysticism is experience. This experience is the direct and intimate experience of Truth. After covering a great distance in the path of knowledge, philosophy gets tired. It takes rest. It stops. Mysticism begins when and where philosophy ends. The seers, after having the personal experience of the knowledge of Truth, reveal it to the world at large.

The seer sings:

The seer teaches us that the Transcendental Reality and the All-Embodying Existence are one and the same.

A mystic takes both unity and diversity as one. He further sees unity in diversity. He tells the world that the One and the Many are one. The One is Many in its universal form. The Many are One in their Transcendental form. In our spiritual life, we come across two significant words: occultism and mysticism. Occultism is secrecy and cries for secrecy. It wants to house everything in top secrecy. Mysticism is not like that. Mysticism is ready to offer its achievement, transcendental knowledge, to all those who cry for it.

The difference between a philosopher and a mystic can be noticed in the fact that a philosopher, with the greatest difficulty, from a striking distance sees rather imperfectly, the body of Truth, whereas a mystic enters into the very soul of Truth at his sweet will and he can live there as long as he wants to and he is also permitted by the Supreme to bring to the fore the vast wealth of the soul and share it with the seekers of Truth.

Mysticism affirms that the knowledge of the Divine is universal.

Let us for a moment enter into the lore of the supernal mystery of the Vak in the Vedas. Vak is The Word. Vak at once embodies and reveals the Truth. In its embodiment of Truth, it receives creative inspiration in infinite measure from the Supreme. In its revelation of Truth, it offers to mankind the Supreme, the Liberator Supreme. Vak is the connecting link between two worlds: the world that has not yet realised and fulfilled itself and the world that has already realised itself and is fulfilling itself.

Mysticism has a language of its own. Its name is Intuition. In it, no mind, no mental analysis can ever exist. A mystic sits on the wings of the Intuition-Bird and flies towards and reaches the Ultimate Real. Intuition reveals the perfect oneness of the Transcendental Vision and Absolute Reality. A mystic is sincere enough to tell the truth. He says that it is next to impossible for him to interpret his inner experience. No word, no thought has he, that can do justice to his experience. Here, at this point, the Vedic seer cries out: "What shall I speak, what verily shall I think?" Poor mind, poor senses are no longer alive. They have collapsed in their race towards the Unknown. Not for them, the mind and senses, the Ultimate Mystery of the Universe. Not for them, the knowledge of the Beyond. Mysticism emphasises the unity of all souls in the Universal Soul. When we look at the universe, we see it as the scene of conflict between good and evil, darkness and light, ignorance and knowledge. Needless to say, this struggle commenced its journey long before the appearance of man. It still continues. The light works in and through the aspiring soul; the darkness works in and through the unaspiring soul. The real transformation of human nature comes not through the austere, ascetic life and the complete withdrawal from the world, but through the gradual and final Illumination of one’s life. And for that, one needs aspiration. Aspiration and Aspiration alone is the precursor of this Illumination.

A mystical experience is the aspirant’s inner certitude of truth. This certitude rests on revelation. Revelation is inner authority. Inner Authority is final; who has this authority? Certainly not he who is a merciless victim to logic but he who has the experience and who has now grown into the experience itself. Logic is the reasoning and reasoned truth, which is the pride of the finite. Mysticism is the revealing and revealed Truth, which is the pride of the Infinite. If we believe in mysticism, which we really do, then we must realise that the Ultimate Truth is not only above reason, but is contrary to reason. If we believe something by reason, we enter into the life-torturing path of plurality, unconscious plurality of separateness. But when we believe something by our inner, mystic faith, we enter into the life-giving and life-fulfilling path of unity’s Transcendental Reality.

Martin Luther vehemently distrusted the effectiveness of reason. Nor did he have any faith in ritual or in mere work as a means to salvation. In his mysticism, we see the smiling and convincing face of faith. Faith alone can bring about salvation. Faith alone has the key to salvation.

Existence and Essence live together. They are one. In the thirteenth century Meister Johannes Eckhart dynamically asserted this view. We have to realise that essence is singularly manifest in the divine qualities of the human soul, whereas existence is gloriously manifest in the human qualities of the divine soul. The journey’s end of the human soul is in its complete union with God. The journey’s end of the divine soul is in its absolute manifestation of God.

Mysticism tells us that God-Realisation cannot be attained by the practice of ideas, but by the constant feeling of oneness with the Truth. An idea, at best, indicates the passive aspect of the sense world because a mental formation is directly or indirectly caught by the sense-world, whereas the feeling of oneness with Truth easily transcends the sense-world and indicates and ascertains the active and dynamic aspect of life’s evolving process in the flowing stream of Eternity.

A mystic tells the world that God’s body is wisdom and God’s soul is Love. A worldly man feels that his body, his physical activities fashion the soul. A mystic smiling says that it is the soul that moulds the body and transforms it into the unlimited consciousness-light of the soul.

According to Santayana, "Mysticism is not a religion, but a religious disease." Santayana is perfectly right when he says that mysticism is not a religion. In my opinion, mysticism is the highest aspiration that religion embodies. And as for the "religious disease", I can never be at one with Santayana in his profound realisation.

I want to say with all the spiritual confidence at my command that mysticism serves as a panacea, not only to those who cry to see their Beloved God’s face, but to those who are afraid of seeing God’s face in His Omniscience and His Omnipotence. And finally to those who are at once mercilessly and unpardonably unbelievers and disbelievers in the very existence of God.