Part Four
Nature of Bliss III: The Spiritualists
The cosmic ocean, the sea of maya can only be crossed through learning to know God. These steps, called the seven steps to God realization, can be learned about later in the Prem Ras Siddhant and in the other works of Kripalu Maharaj. But for now, the perspectives of the materialists/positivists must be reconciled with that of the spiritualist.
When asked if he has seen his inner self, the positivist answers in the negative. When asked again if he has perceived the mind or intellect, the positivist again answers in the negative, because these things are subtle, and are beyond immediate perception. We cannot hear, see, smell, feel, or taste the intellect or the mind. Yet the positivist forms his arguments based on the products of the mind or the intellect.
Similarly, when asked if a person can gain knowledge of a single letter of the alphabet, in isolation, just be perceiving it, the only logical answer (whether positivist or spiritualist), is no. This is because the recognition or pronunciation of a letter must be preceded by verbal articulation, by the awareness and perhaps, the capacity for speech. These sort of arguments are endless, and they are extremely important. For example, “can one perceive the power of perception?” Decidedly no, that power stands beyond our perception. Thus Kripalu Maharaj says all of the powers used by the positivist, who claims that God does not exist because God cannot be seen, heard, touched, and so on, are also imperceptible to human awareness!