The Paths and the Goals
A very common notion prevailing in Indian spiritual or religious circles is: All paths lead to the same goal. Through all systems of spiritual discipline or religious practice, one can approach the same God, the same Truth. Only the ways are different, it is said, but at the summit, they all finally meet. There is only one Reality, it is believed, and all the seeking through various means must end with finding this one Reality. “God is one—man makes him many” This seems to be a very commonly accepted idea.
In the highest and broadest sense, such an idea is quite true. But at a lower plane, it does not have the same value. As a matter of fact, so sweeping generalization appears to be too simple a solution to a very complex metaphysical problem. If all the paths indeed reach the same goal, if all the seeking through various spiritual or religious practices leads to the same Reality, why then has this supposedly same Reality been defined so differently by various seekers and resulted in founding so many religious or spiritual disciplines? No two religions seem to accept the same Power as the supreme reality. No two spiritual or religious systems agree on the various aspects of this supposedly same Supreme Truth. Each system has described it differently, more often than not even denying the findings of the other systems through different paths; professed even contrasting codes of practice. How then can they be said to be the outcome of the finding of the same Reality at the end of their respective paths? How then can it be assumed that all paths lead to the same goal or end with finding the same Truth?
This belief, in fact, is a great distortion of a very profound truth. Regarded in the light of the true knowledge from the highest level and in its broadest sense, it is true that there is indeed only One Supreme Reality. But when proclaimed in ignorance from a lower level it loses its basic significance. At this obscure level of half-light and half-darkness such an inference can only be partially true. This can be aptly explained by a more easily perceptible common life example.
It can be said that in the highest and broadest sense, the final goal of all branches of knowledge through different streams such as science, art, or commerce is the same. For, indeed, all sincere and honest seeking after knowledge must essentially end with finding the true reality, which is there hidden behind the appearances of this material existence. In this highest sense alone such a statement is valid. But if the same Truth is regarded from a lower level and it is said that a student can have the same knowledge by studying science, art, or commerce, it will sound totally untrue.
The perception of the truth, therefore, changes when looked at from different levels. Depending on from what level a truth is regarded, it appears in its purer or imperfect forms. Another aspect of this subject that needs to be highlighted is that there can be an altogether different view from the point of total ignorance. As in the above example, while on one side, a wiser view can proclaim that the goal of all seeking after knowledge is the same, on the other side an obscured view from total ignorance incapable of any discrimination or intelligent judgment can also advocate the same concept. To put it simply, a totally illiterate person, out of his ignorance, may also hold the view that the studies in sciences, art, or commerce end in acquiring the same knowledge. Anyone who has the right experience and knowledge to differentiate between these branches will never make such a mistake. Once one is enlightened enough to discriminate between the different paths and where they end at different stages, it will be impossible to hold such a view.
There may be many areas common initially when one begins to study, but as one progresses new vistas open with the coming of the new stages that are completely different from one another. Besides the ignorant ones, it is only those who have not made such progress or had stopped at the initial stages, that can make such a false assumption that all the disciplines of knowledge through various means lead one to the same goal. It is therefore clear that this statement holds good only when proclaimed from the highest level, with an integral and total vision of things.
In the case of religious or spiritual beliefs, evidently, this has not been the case. Had such a proclamation been made by all after reaching the highest level—where, indeed, there is only One Reality—how could the definitions of this Reality have been different? Unless it is the proverbial case of the five blind men touching the same elephant at different places and describing it differently. It can be argued that this might well have been the case. As is believed by some: who can know the ultimate Reality fully? One is bound to be at least partially blinded by the splendor of God and therefore such differences in the interpretation are only natural. If the God-experience itself was complete and the same it should not be differentiated just because the explanations were different. Such an argument, although advocated quite convincingly by some in the past, does not have much enduring value. The experience of the ultimate Reality, the realization of the highest Truth comes from an integral and conscious union with this Reality by widening and heightening of consciousness, and once this union is fully established the human consciousness becomes one with this Divine Consciousness and then it becomes impossible to receive and transmit anything but this highest Truth. And because it is the highest Truth, neither can it appear nor be interpreted differently. For, there can be no false notion attached to the Truth. Either it is described as what it really is or it cannot be defined in its purest form at all. The Truth cannot be divided. The moment it is compartmentalized or fragmented, it no longer remains the Truth.
What, however, may happen is that the Truth may appear in diverse forms at different stages as already demonstrated in the example of acquired knowledge. The perception of the Truth changes, in fact, changes quite radically when it is looked at from different planes. What appeared to be a falsehood or only a fragmented truth from the level of ignorance, at the height of enlightenment comes out as the final truth. Another example may make this point, the occult relation between the truth and different planes, clearer.
If the world is looked at from the ground level, only a locality comes into view. But with the heightening of the level of vision gradually more localities, a city, more cities, a country, a continent, and finally the entire globe becomes visible. What appeared to be true from the lower level becomes only partially true in the light of the higher vision of things, which reveals higher and higher truths with greater and greater ascension. And it is not till one gets to the highest level that the full truth of existence presents itself in the right perspective.
What is to be noted is that every level has its own truths. For, when only a city is coming into the vision from a particular height, it is the truth of that level of viewing. The fact that from a greater height, a continent may come into the scene does not nullify the truths of the lower planes. It may also happen that one can climb only up to a certain height. His perception and knowledge in that case will be limited to the truths leading only up to that plane and no more.
(To be continued)