Thus we proclaimed various small moral acts like consideration, treating others with a smiling face, softness and others, as the way to salvation. One may wonder how such trivial and ephemeral acts in daily life, as in not talking loudly with the phone at 2 am or treating the person next to us with good manners, can possibly lead to any profound spiritual state or insight?
No wonder that one wonders like this, for in the spiritual schools dominant in the west, which are modern Christianity and some forms of Yoga and neo-Buddhism, spirituality is considered as something different from daily life. Not just different, but sometimes distance, and not just distance but sometimes even disagreeing, opposite and hostile. For in Christianity, this whole world and its activities are but the fruit of the original sin, and thus are sin themselves. Life is something to turn away and repent from. Similar to this, in most Hindu and Yoga traditions this world is an illusion, an endless wheel of suffering known as Samsara that turns and turns forever to the soul's destruction. And the goal should be to be released from this never ending trauma and angst, which is the life of this world.
Thus for these schools and religions, spirituality is about "something else" and "somewhere else". It has to be done in a room isolated and in a time off the working hours. The idea that spirituality can exist, and co-exist, in the middle of the crowd and in the middle of the day and in the middle of the bazaar is not common. All spiritual seekers expect spirituality to offer a separate domain and a separate set of practices.
But in our path there is no such separation and partition as imagined and expected by some. There are indeed spiritual worlds, spheres of angles, heavens and other forms of reality. But the path to them and to ultimate bliss and salvation is this very life in this world. Our religious practices are embedded in everyday life. They appear in the form of good behavior, in the form of charity, in the form of character and persona, in the form of fight with oppression.
In this situation, not talking loudly with the phone at 2 am becomes of central importance, treating others with a smiling face and soft manner becomes the focus, and etiquette and ethics will be the content of the Sunday preachings in our churches and temples. This material world is not a futile state, is not anti-spirit, but a manifestation of the spirit and a path to its higher states.
In our religion and culture a spiritual man is not depicted as a recluse, a monk with bowed head and raised hands, or as a skeletal Sanyasin in orange rob fasting and meditating all the time in a forest or ruins, but as a strong and masculine knight with a grave face and a sword in his hand. The sword is not for oppression but for protecting the poor against the oppressor. And the grave face is the determination to fight Evil and fan goodness.
This might seem as an anti-thesis and counter picture of a holy man image. But for us, holiness is to spread goodness, and to spread goodness one has to toil, one has to use tools and swords, one has to engage and enrage. Justice is not established by itself. It needs to be established by man, and those men are holy men as pictured in our path.
Thus, a holy and spiritual man participates in the activities and efforts of the world in a very same way that a worldly man does. Verily a worldly and godly man have similarities: both go to work, both fight for promotion, both endeavor to obtain money and power, but with two utterly different purposes: one for self-importance and self-pleasure and the other for protecting others and spreading justice and equality. This is the meaning of the ancient allegory of two birds sitting on a branch, one was eating the fruit and the one was sharing the fruit. These are the primordial images of a hedonic and a holy man.
In our religion, we are not to sit in an isolated corner, doing prayer and doing nothing. In contrast, we are to do everything but with a good intention, and as part of the Good-Evil battle. As the ancient myth narrates, in the beginning of the time when the two Minos (powers) of Good and Evil separated, they did not look at each other with favor, and Evil vowed to destroy the Good and all its luminous creation. And the Good set a limited time for a battle between their forces before the Evil is utterly destroyed and cast into the abyss. As a result of that battle, the world was created, this life was created, and man is created to be the central figure in this cosmic battle and scheme of things.
This battle is embedded in every moment of human life. In every situation in everyday life both Minos of Good and Evil appear and place their paths in front of us. It is for us to choose between these paths, and the whole essence and sum-total of our religion is whether we choose the path of Good or the path or Evil, whether we adopt softness and respect to treat the angry person in front of us or choose to confront and insult him back, whether we choose to give ride to the waiting passenger in the rain or choose to race away, whether we choose honest income or choose to take bribe and deny others right.
Each choice makes a change in our existence level: good choices raise it and evil choices downgrade it. At the end of this life those with raised and exalted existence level will return to their primordial abode in the vicinity of the good God and become angels in His kingdom of light. But those with downgraded existence level will be handed over to the Evil and become demons in the darkness of its kingdom in the primordial abyss.
So this very world and very life is the path to salvation. There is no need to resort to monasteries or caves, no need for separate rituals and mantras, no need to ascend to other worlds and realms. Salvation is here, in this very life, in this very situation, in this street, in this bus, in this office. Everywhere and in every moment the paths of good and evil are here, in front of you, and the True religion and True worship in its purest form is to choose the Good path. This is the goal and purpose of this life. This life is not a futile phenomenon, something to run away from and unrelated to salvation, but in the words similar to the Gospel (John 14:6): it is the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father except through it (through living a virtuous life in it).
Evil tries hard to steal and conceal this truth, and to replace the word "virtuous life" as the means of salvation with other terms, with "rituals", with "meditation", with "cross" and other unrelated terms. That's how all these corrupted religions of today came forth whose followers do everything but good work and are everything but virtuous men and women.
So we see churches in every street and district and people in them focusing on theology and converting others, we see Mosques everywhere and people in them performing Salat rituals and growing beards, and we see Buddhist temples and people in them do meditation all the time, but good work nobody does, helping and befriending others nobody does, fighting with corruption, financial inequality and global greed nobody does. The path of virtue and good work is forgotten. Not a single religion of today emphasizes good deeds. And this is not by accident but by accurate planning of cosmic negative forces.
Evil knows the path by which man can obtain salvation, and is looking upon the earth to see who is treading that path. And then block that man by shooting arrows of distractions, doubt and other burdens. For a man who is walking in this path his face is beaming with Divine light. And Evil is jealous of that Divine light, he hates it, he wants to stifle it and it gives him a diabolic pleasure.
When the battle between Good and Evil began for a set time, Evil said to Ahura (the Great God) "I will turn your creatures away from you and turn them to my worship" Evil swore to sit on the "straight path" and prevent passengers. The straight path is the pure religion we are preaching: the path of developing ethics and virtue, the path of doing good work, solving problems, fighting with oppression and living by Truth and Truth alone. This is the most natural and shortest path to God, and thus called the straight path. And that's where the tent of Evil and its minions is erected and the walker in this path will soon confront them and will be harassed, blocked and challenged.
This is while other paths are broad open with no hindrance. You may spend hours and hours doing religious rituals and Evil will not bother you and the time passes peacefully. Or you may spend days in meditation and no problem befalls and peace ensues as expected. You may spend slabs of time in vain activities and actually enjoy it. But once you step in the path of goodness, once try to make a real positive change in your surroundings, then all the burden will come: negative forces will attack from within and without, you will feel disappointment, stagnation, hopelessness and other negative feelings appear inside. You hear someone crying within you: 'Let go! This goal is unachievable! Change your direction!" And in the outside world you will be facing resistance and impediments. Even your friends and family will turn away, and at times it seems like the whole world is turned against you like an angry and insulated bull.
But worry not child! This is a good sign! That is the sign that the Gospel talks about: "Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you" [Matthew 5:11-12] These prosecutions are signs that Evil and its demons are really threatened and feel insecure, and so they started taking action against you. It's a great sign! A star in the sky shone and became so intense that the whole sky became broad daylight. And then all the evils rushed to that light like robbers attacking golds.