Spiritual Import of Religious Festivals - 17.1

19/10/2018
17 - The Awakening Message : 1.
The inaugural message given at the 24th All India Divine Life Conference held at the Convention Hall of the Ashoka Hotel, New Delhi, on 29th of December, 1973.

It would not be easy for many of you to envisage the purpose of a Divine Life Conference. At the outset I may take the liberty of pointing out that this is not a religious conference, in the sense religion is interpreted and understood by the popular mind. It is not the intention of this conference to tell you something stereotyped or to give you a diversion from the boredom of your daily life.

With the benign blessings of most worshipful Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj and the grace of the Almighty, this conference has been inaugurated and conceived to point out to the human mind in general a way of extricating itself from the meshes in which it seems to be involved. Man has to become man in order that he may accelerate his progress to a state which is superhuman.

Mankind today may be said to be in a state of complacence, in a kind of slumber, which is mistaken for a consciousness of progress and cultural advancement. Nothing can be worse for man than to mistake the false for the true, and vice versa. Ignorance is bliss, is an old adage with which we are familiar. We have to be cautious to see if we are in this condition. Are we in a fool's paradise imagining that we are well off, not knowing what will happen to us in the future?

The greatest threat to the enlightenment of the mind of mankind, I may point out, is what may be designated as the material glamour. The world is before us as a thick screen through which it may be difficult to penetrate into the truth that is behind it. Today, our world prides itself over its achievements which it calls science. And, on a careful scrutiny and an investigation into the true situation and affairs in which we are, we would discover that the very forte of science shall be its own refutation.

It requires a little thought to realise that the structure of science on which the material values of life are based is really fixed on a shaky foundation. It requires courage of an uncanny nature and a novel type of boldness to plumb the depths of this false system of values that is presented before us as the majesty of matter, the glory of earthly paradise.

To be continued ..