My wife, who is otherwise the most reasonable of beings, insists that all religious beliefs are delusions brought about by existential anxiety. Most people find the thought unbearable that there is no meaning in life except for the biological and rational fact of life itself. But this, she feels, should satisfy anybody. The fact of death, she believes, is to be similarly faced as a biological reality. It is an old theory, which I realise can neither be proved or disproved at an intellectual level.

The ultimate truth concerning life and death can never be adequately explained or expressed. It can only be felt by the aspirant and known by the realised soul. I concur fully with you that this idea, as well as that expressed by your wife, cannot be verified intellectually. However, what your wife feels about life and death cannot be proven to be any more true than what you feel about them.

Human memory is not the first and last word in reality. If, at the age of eighty, I fail to recollect any incidents in my life that took place before I reached the age of four, it does not mean that I did not exist before that. Just as a series of years passes by as we go from the age of four to eighty, so is there a series of lives which connects the present with the distant past and projects itself into the imminent future.

Then, too, there is something beyond the comprehension of our limited body-consciousness. Even while a man is grossly involved in the most ordinary physical activities, he may feel within himself, at times, some strange truths. These are usually unfamiliar and greatly elevating. These truths come from a higher or deeper world, from a different plane of consciousness, and they knock at his mental door. Thus he possesses and is possessed by forces beyond his ordinary awareness.

It is when we put ourselves in tune with these higher forces — indeed, with the universal harmony — that life ceases to be unbearable. I entirely agree with your wife's view that when a person sees no meaning in life, no goal or purpose, this attitude, nay the life itself, becomes intolerable. However, regarding religious beliefs, I wish to place before her an analogy:

I am now living in a Brooklyn apartment. If a child calls on me and asks, "Is there a place called Cologne?" I shall reply, "Certainly, my child, it is in West Germany." Suppose he says, "You must prove it to me!" Now how can I prove it to him, apart from showing him maps and photos? I can only tell him that I have personally visited Cologne and that there are millions of others who have also done so. His doubt cannot negate the existence of the city.

Similarly, those who have realised God fully have every right to tell us that there is a God. Just because we have not realised Him ourselves, we cannot deny His existence. Just as the child has to satisfy his physical eyes by going to Cologne, we can only prove to ourselves the reality of God by seeing Him. And this quest for God gives to an otherwise purposeless life an unparalleled meaning and direction.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Yoga and the spiritual life. The journey of India's Soul., Tower Publications, Inc., New York, 1971
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