We believe humans are fortunate to be born as humans, the only living animals capable of being aware and conscious of their outer and inner worlds. However, most of us are continually complaining and perpetually dissatisfied, whether we are affluent or poor. In our lives, there is a perpetual sense of incompleteness. We are never satisfied for no apparent reason. Seldom are we at peace or happy in our current state.

Life consists of the rhythm of aware energy, manifesting in diverse forms and intensity levels to maintain, destroy, and recreate living things. From a scientific perspective, life is a combination of body and brain produced by a blueprint written in DNA that takes the form of birth, death, and rebirth. Mentally, it is an undercurrent of electromagnetic stimulation in the consciousness, inspired by never-ending emotional desires, forever aiming at something more and better. Biologically, life describes the dynamic system that maintains cellular order, adapts to its environment, and reproduces to perpetuate the species; it has no inherent meaning or purpose. Despite the complex interplay of biology, psyche, and spirit, life invites us to explore a realm beyond mere survival—the realm of awareness and conscious evolution.

Spiritually, Indic scriptures convey that life is an illusory play of non-dual, aware energy—’Lila’ — created by the mind under ignorance in dualities, an expression of the universal, aware energy that entertains all living creatures with separate intensities. Human beings ascribe the highest quality of awareness to express themselves uniquely through their consciousness, creating, conserving, crushing, and collapsing eventually. A cosmic dance of awareness that is inherently intelligent, awake, and alive.

The above implies that our existence is illusory, merely a play of the absolute spirit or energy in relativity or duality. Everything we see and feel superimposes itself on our awareness, and everything we believe, such as God and the devil, is merely a mental construct with no factual reality. The absolute or the organic whole is all that exists, and we, along with everything else, are a part of it.

Living is the essence of life. It is a mechanism, not a thing. There is no other way to achieve life than to live it, to be alive. Life is not something that happens to you; it occurs within you. We often read that life comes from life. Life is the period between birth and death, which is essentially composed of matter and consciousness, differentiating between the living and the non-living.

There is only a beginning and no finish to life. From a seed to a sapling to a tree, and then to many more seeds, energy tends to expand and evolve, continuing its cycle and endlessly changing. The perimeter of this circle continues to grow, and life continues to circle without end. Death is simply the new birth in life’s cycle of birth and death, continually growing and evolving materially or spiritually until we all disappear into its nothingness.

Life is a game of illusions in which we pass through numerous stages as observers and performers. Who and what you are is not what you believe you are. Your mind plays this game independently, and you, as a spectator, are witnessing it. You try everything possible to make something out of nothing, leaving you exhausted and wondering if you’re heading to heaven or hell—what an illusion! When you become aware of the drama of life, you rejoice and perceive the actual reality differently from what the mind wishes you to see.

We can’t relate the subject of life to anything else, such as science or religion. Spiritualism continues to unfold at its own subjective pace, developing in life, with awareness through consciousness transcending toward its true self as its ultimate goal, allowing it to experience more than what it can perceive and conceive. Religion strives but often fails to discipline the mind by establishing norms and conditions that connect you to a separate community and culture. At the same time, science focuses on the physicality of existence. On the other hand, spiritualism has no beliefs that link it to any additional force or field beyond enabling the mind to become aware of the spirit within the soul. It only requires your mind’s alertness, attentiveness, and truthfulness to awaken that metaphysical pure consciousness residing within.

Moreover, physical life emerges mechanically from active matter, requiring the energy of food and air to expand and breathe. However, what makes the matter conscious, providing meaning to every movement of the body and brain? It is that metaphysical component that contains the aware universal energy, which is boundless, formless, eternal, and infinite from a Vedantic point of view. When it enters the human mind, it can make the mind first aware and conscious of all that it perceives, conceives, and experiences, enabling it to perform every feeling, thought, and action through the body and brain.

We need to awaken from this ignorant state of our unconsciousness. Today, scientists claim that the mind functions at a lower or subconscious level in auto-mode for over 98% of the time. It simply indicates our ignorance and ineptitude about the functioning and control of our minds. It is a shame that, despite reaching such high levels of health and physical comfort, we remain largely unconscious and far behind in understanding our inner selves and our spirits.

Knowing the spirit is essential because it is the presence of who you are. Because of this presence, your mind understands how and where your personal life is heading. Because of this abstract spirit, you can observe and direct your mind. It awakens your mind to the reality of its false perception of misery and suffering. You are the unwavering spirit that balances the demands of your selfish material mind and its body. The spirit is eternal; life continues, whereas the body and mind appear and disappear. Without awakening its soul, the mind ignorantly and materially persists in the dualities of happiness and sadness. It remains imbalanced, clinging to its egoistic identifications and attachments of me and mine.

Consciousness is wakefulness, which makes the mind active and alive, without which the body and brain will collapse like a log of wood separated from its living tree. It creates that individuality that is unique in every living creature. Hence, the subject of life insists that one always be observant, aware, and conscious. It is the responsibility of life, through the soul, that we can observe externally and internally all that we perceive and conceive, which is the essence of experiencing life.

Now, let’s discuss how to live life to its fullest. The topmost method is to be constantly aware by watching and witnessing your mind and its thoughts, feelings, motives, and actions. I repeat: become an impartial watcher through alertness, continually observing your thoughts to become aware of them, which will effortlessly transcend your mind into higher consciousness. It is the topmost secret in the art of living your life graciously. You will be inwardly aware and conscious of your intentions, attitude, character, and how the mind is handling itself outwardly; otherwise, you shall remain ignorant without knowing about the same.

Life is that intense inquiry of ‘Who Am I’ beyond what I call my body and mind. A glimpse of its sacred presence, wanting to define, discover, and distinguish the inner depths of life.

NAMASTE