On The Path of Spirituality

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About the Author T.N. DHAR (b. 1934), is a well-known poet and writer who writes under the pen name 'Kundan'. Born and brought up in Kashmir, he is an Honours graduate in Sanskrit and Hindi from Kashmir University and an ICWA from London. Extensively travelled that he is, he has made a place in the literary circles by his writings in Kashmiri, Hindi, Urdu and English. He has authored a dozen books on a variety of subjects including Education, Philosophy, Religion and Literature. He was the editor of a prestigious trilingual monthly journal of more than fifty years' standing for about six years. His articles appear in various journals regularly and his poems have been included in the anthologies published by the Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi and the Academy of Art, Culture and Languages of Jammu and Kashmir. Presently he is the consulting editor of two prominent journals published from New Delhi and Bangalore. He is the recipient of Pandit Prem Nath Bhatt Memorial Amateur Journalists Award for the year 2000.

Introduction From the very young age truth, purity and piety attracted me. I never liked falsehood. I never liked shabby, untidy and unclean surroundings. I liked flowers, dawn, the spring season and the small children. I would never lie nor liked people speaking a lie. The spotless white colour enthralled me. So did the religious songs and hymns sung in solo or chorus please me. I liked to go to temples shrines and sacred places. I liked to read songs and passages written in praise of God. The stories of Shri Krishna's childhood as narrated in Shrimad Bhagawatam fascinated me. In later years I was attracted to the poetry of Surdas, Meera, Rasakhan and others who wrote about the childhood frolics of Krishna. I liked to sit in the company of elders when the subject of their conversation was spiritual. I liked to go near holy men and would get fascinated by the radiance of their forehead and dazzle of their gaze. I did not know then that the seeds of spirituality were sown in my mind and these were slowly getting sprouted. As I grew I took Sanskrit as a subject for studies and this introduced me to the Hindu scriptures. During my college days I had an occasion to read the Bible and some connected literature relating to the Christianity. I came into contact with some knowledgeable persons who gave me an insight into some more literature relating to the Islam and other religious faiths. I developed reading as my hobby and this enabled me to make an indepth study of religious and philosophical literature. In course of time the study of the Gita became my passion.

When I grew up I realized that the opposites were the facts of life. Black came with white, falsehood with truth, shade with light, unclean with clean and dark with bright. I resolved to take all these in my stride and judge every single thing on its merits without denouncing anything as false or despicable. I became aware that God had given us humans a discriminating wisdom, a heart full of feelings and other faculties to choose our actions. It was up to us to choose the course of our life, make it meaningful and purposeful and imbibe spirituality to justify our existence. Accordingly, I chose the path of spirituality and tried to tread on it as steadfastly and truthfully as was possible in the face of the ups and downs that came my way. This journey on the path of spirituality gave me a variety of experience, physical, mental as well as spiritual. I developed an approach to life and its complexities. This became my philosophy of life in course of time. This philosophy is more practical than theoretical, more experiential than academic, more down to earth than ideological, more commonplace than intellectual and more heartfelt than superficial. Having been born in a family professing Sanatana Dharma, a slight leaning towards Hindu thought could not be avoided in spite of my conscious effort to remain unbiased.

In my personal life I lived as a low-key poet, who remained away from name and fame, taking pleasure from reading and writing. I have so far authored more than a dozen books including one on the Bhagavad Gita. The other two books that give an insight into my views on religion and philosophy are 'Philosophy of a Common Man' and 'Exploring the Mysterious'. Even then I wanted to write a book, which would give expression to my feelings rather than only my views, my experiences rather than what I had studied as also to my own personality and being. I have, therefore, written this present book with this end in view and with the purpose of sharing all my experiences and feelings with you all. Sharing my experiences with you gives me an immense pleasure and utmost satisfaction. It gives me a sense of belonging to you all and the satisfaction of fulfillment, which I cherish.

You might ask me why did I choose this path of spirituality. My answer is simple that I did not choose the path but it came to me naturally. My upbringing has been such that I could not have chosen a different path even if I had tried my best. Some thinkers have explained that religion is a cage and the spirituality is a bird in it. I do not subscribe to this view. I have come to believe that religion is a creed but spirituality is the character, religion is a focus but spirituality is the foundation and where religion is our relationship with the Divine, spirituality is our relationship with the self. Religion gives us parameters of our existence and the spirituality inspires us to explore ourselves. To explore myself I had to journey through this path of spirituality. While doing so, I sometimes entered into a dialogue with myself, sometimes I engaged God in an intimate conversation and sometimes I remained still and silent and pondered over a variety of topics, a number of subjects and many different problems. The problem before me was to probe into all that was covered and hidden. I wanted answers to unsolved questions, solutions to intricate problems and needed to explore the mysterious. I tried to know the unknown, ventured to count the infinite and made an attempt to fathom the depths of a bottomless ocean and gauge the unending span of the skies. The task was stupendous and arduous but it did not deter me. Undaunted, I went on this journey and to date I am journeying relentlessly. Not that I did not stop occasionally, I did. I came across certain milestones but these were not my destination. Yet they re-invigorated me and gave me a further fillip and strength to continue on my journey. I have been a non- stop pilgrim on the unending pilgrimage to an unknown shrine.

This journey on the path of spirituality has been satisfying and joyous, as will be vouched by my fellow travellers, who are on a similar journey. While I am vividly conscious of the fact that every traveller has to tread this path himself and nobody can undertake the journey for him, yet I feel that reading an account of my journey may interest others. It may fascinate some and amuse some. Some of you may find the experiences more or less identical and congruent with your own experiences. Some may find them bizarre and far- fetched but all the same fascinating. It may inspire some of you to be resilient and keep on going. Some of you may feel disheartened with the account of my journey since it has still not reached its destination. Let me however assure you that if I have not attained the goal that does not mean that none of you will arrive at the destination. There might have been some sortcomings and drawbacks in my efforts or understanding that have affected the outcome of my travel. Your effort may be more realistic and your understanding may be nearer to the truth. That will ensure quick results for you and enable fructification of your sincere efforts. If you do not agree with the conclusions drawn by me from my journey on the path of spirituality and you laugh at these I shall still feel that my effort in jotting down these chapters has not gone in vain. For it has enabled you to take stock of your own experiences and compare notes with mine.

**Contents and Sample**