There is a journey we all undertake.
A journey to find out more.
For some, that journey happens automatically or with very little effort, and they are the fortunate ones. For most, it is a conscious effort to first identify the need, and then try and see which path suits us best. Thoughts of who we are, why are we here, what is our purpose, where are we going, how do we become better, and so on keep pushing us forward on this quest.
Our ancestors, who first discovered the power of such contemplation, must have thought that a structured set of practices and guides would help their next generations to get there faster, and codified what we call today as religion.
Those founders of religion probably thought the next generations would all be intellectually supreme and would be able to build on what they’ve been given.
However, we went the other way, and today, I find that while the answer is actually very simple, the path we take has made it mighty complicated. There’s too much unlearning to do, and for many, that itself takes up their entire life.
Start on a path, get lost along the way, meander, realise it isn’t working, start over… And when one lifetime isn’t enough, we’ll have to come back again and again to find the answer.
God must be very frustrated with us, as we keep losing the way to finding what He has already placed right inside our hearts.
I’ve been meandering on this path for a couple of decades now. We think its all clear and then some other explanation or question pops up, which derails the entire line of thought. So this time around, I want to document this journey. As ground rules, I decided that I will only peruse original sources as much as possible. I will only follow first principles here, and since I don’t speak much Sanskrit of any of the other languages various religious texts were originally written in, will use AI for translation and to take notes. There are a great many rabbit holes that open up on such a journey, and to document those, I have a separate account on Twitter at x.com/simplespirit1.
This journey, I will begin on 23rd Nov 2025, the 100th birthday of Bhagavan Satya Sai Baba, who was my first spiritual guru. I intend to spend an hour or so each day without any specific syllabus set out. Hopefully this time I will stay the path for a while.
You’re welcome to join me on this quest either via the above mentioned Twitter account, or by signing up to receive new posts via email (which I hope will atleast be one per week) using the form at the end of this page.
_/\_