The ideas expressed and the conclusions drawn in this work about the real nature of mystical experience are offered in a spirit of utter humility with an open mind and a sense of preparedness to revise them if, after more than forty years' day and night critical observation of my own extraordinary mental state, I am still proved to be wrong. These opinions and conclusions, if correct, are of the utmost importance for the race; so important that, from my point of view, there is no other topic of such urgency and importance at this time. The urgency lies in the fact that, from what is revealed to me, the human brain is still in a state of biological evolution and that the tempo of this evolution has become so fast that a rethinking on and a readjustment of the current values as also the whole social and political fabric of mankind has become necessary.

Constant tensions and pressures in the world situation, a general sense of discontent and lack of peace, a foreboding of approaching disaster, widespread use of drugs, the revolt of youth, tragedies of marital life and a pressing urge in countless minds to rise above reality by religious striving, Yoga, meditation, esoteric disciplines or occult practices provide convincing evidence for what I say. It is palpably clear that the general mental climate of the earth is not the same as it was at the beginning of the second world war or even in 1950. But we do not know what factors have combined to cause this rapid change. Why is the gap between older and rising generations all over the earth becoming noticeably larger and more difficult to reconcile?

What mystical experience has to do with the environment of the earth will soon become apparent. The class of human beings that has exerted the greatest influence on the thinking and behavior of mankind has been that of the prophets, saviors and mystics, including the founders of all current faiths. Kings, philosophers, rulers, scientists or scholars have, all combined, played a secondary role. Revealed religious teaching has held a fascination and maintained a grip on the human mind that is unmatched in any other sphere of life. This grip has persisted for thousands of years. Why?

What makes millions upon millions of human beings to believe implicitly in the words of the founder of their faith even in this rational age? While literally flooded by the marvels of technology, why do the masses still have greater faith in the ideals of their religion and the teachings of prophets or saints than in the rational expositions of scientists and philosophers alike? Why do even distinguished scientists subscribe to faith? What is the explanation for this paradox? There are examples where even those rationalists who were rank atheists in youth turned religious towards the close of life. Even materialistic political ideologies have not been able to uproot this inherent urge in the masses. No psychologist or thinker has so far provided a rational explanation for this apparently erratic behavior of the human mind.

I am suggesting for the first time an explanation for the profound phenomenon of religion for close examination and empirical verification by the learned of our day. I do so with a full sense of my responsibility and the duty I owe to mankind and to God. From my point of view, religious experience is not to be treated lightly and cannot form a subject on which everyone can write or talk. It is of the profoundest significance and importance to mankind. This is the reason why deepest secrecy has always been maintained in respect of the esoteric doctrines of faith and why the hidden truths about God and soul were talked of with bated breath. It has always been felt instinctively that religion is a sacred subject beyond the province of the intellect.

The massive Vedas were committed to memory and transmitted orally, generation after generation, for centuries-a prodigious feat-because there was a subconscious awareness that what they contained was of the utmost importance for mankind. The concern shown by theologians and divines for every word and line of the gospels of all faiths to preserve them from distortion or interpolation has also been due to the same intuitive impulse. The reason is that mystical vision or, in other words, the vision of God, is the target of human evolution. Those who had it in the right form exerted a tremendous fascination on the mind of others as they were the first arrivals at a destination for which all of us are bound. Their teachings have been cherished and acted upon with the utmost care, because they contain hints and guidelines about the Path which all of us have to traverse to reach the same stage.

The interpretation that the first Founders of various faiths were special envoys deputed by the Creator is, from my point of view, only partially true, based more on personal convictions than on truth. This interpretation has tended to restrict the benefit these great souls came to confer on all mankind, for it created a climate of rivalry and even animosity between the adherents of different faiths, each determined to allot the place of precedence to its own founder. Since there are millions upon millions of devoted followers in each faith, no one can decide whose claim is true. The outcome has been that the founder of one faith does not hold the same position of honor in the other. The upshot is that, instead of commanding universal homage, as the first recipients of Grace, which lifted them up to a lofty spiritual height to which all human beings have to climb, they became objects of adoration only to one segment of humanity and of indifference, antipathy and even hate to the others.

This has created an anomalous position which cannot be overlooked any longer. Harmony between religions and unanimity among the followers of various faiths are of utmost importance to plug every possible loophole for dispute and discord among human beings. What political wrangles can arise and what scenes of bloodshed and horror can be enacted any moment by sheer religious fanaticism and hate are blatantly before us in many parts of the world. The media loudly point them out almost every day. This is a dangerous situation in the atomic age.

If religion cannot bring harmony and, by its very nature, tends to form a ground for discord among human beings, as has been the case so far, then it cannot be a natural impulse healthy for survival. In this case, it can only be treated as a man-created way of life and thought. But the phenomenon has been wrongly interpreted and this wrong interpretation has been at the bottom of religious wars, crusades, forced conversions, persecutions, witch-hunts, oppressions, massacres, suffering and torture that fill the pages of history for the past thousands of years. What has happened before is happening even now before our eyes and can happen again. But what did not exist before is the possibility of total destruction of the race with the sophisticated weapons of our day. If mankind has to survive, not only political dissension but also religious discord must cease.

But how can this concord be brought about? The only way, in my opinion, is for science to locate the factors responsible for enlightenment. The illuminated founders of all faiths were human beings. They were born and had bodies like others. What mystery lay behind their extraordinary visions, the power of their words and the tremendous influence they exerted on countless human beings constitutes a riddle that has not been rationally answered so far. The learned have no solution to this problem. From my point of view, there cannot be a more rational, more healthy and more efficacious method for achieving harmony among different faiths than the discovery of the natural law behind illumination and mystical ecstasy or the Revelations that came through them.

Mystical vision, enlightenment and prophethood are the natural endowments of a more evolved human brain brought in tune with the spiritual realities of the universe. I believe dogmatic barriers to the acceptance of this position will gradually cease, when the organic factors responsible for this transformation are clearly demonstrated by the objective methods of science. Sundry irrational beliefs and dogmas of faith continue to exist, on the one side, and skeptics continue to harangue against religion, on the other, because the Law is still unknown. The extremists on both sides are sure to be silenced when it is objectively proved that religious feeling is a natural state in human beings, a born companion of the intellect to moderate its egoistic ardor and to help in the evolution of the brain till a personality proportionately balanced, both on the spiritual and intellectual sides, is formed. This mystical feeling is almost always present in the intelligent human mind. Most of the outstanding geniuses in science, including Newton and Einstein, as also great poets and philosophers possessed this feeling to a pronounced degree. Illumination is the final product of this religious impulse and depends on a hitherto unlocated activity of the brain.