From time immemorial, mankind has attempted to decipher the awareness and understanding of God. These various attempts have made man to propagate different approaches to God. These approaches include idol worship, monotheism, polytheism, etc and other forms of worship. These different approaches to God are also reflected in the different cultures of the different regions of the world.
If one were to conduct a study of these different religions on earth today, one would see a concentration of different religions or approaches to God in different locations. In the Far East we have Buddhism and Sikhism being predominant while in the Western Hemisphere we have various forms of the Christian Religion. In the Middle East and to the northern part of Africa, we have the Islamic Religion and around Israel we also have Judaism. We also have tints of Animism or Idol Worship spread across different parts of the world but in limited and unidentifiable proportion compared to the major religions.
All these represent different awareness levels of man’s relationship with his Creator God but based on a personal experience of the main proponents of such religions. But all these religions are for the purpose of leading man back home to God at man’s different levels of understanding; except that some would take millions of years of merry go round.
But when man was first placed on the Earth World many millions of years ago, he could see the sun rise every morning and then darkness in the evening. With his residual knowledge of the pure heavens of God he is used to, man knew that Light represents the God Force while darkness is what man was not used to. He then reasoned that the sun must be worshipped. And thus began the worship of the sun gods in various cultures.
Through the spiritual evolution of man, he has made significant progress to that point where he now knows that God is not outside himself despite the fact that the realization of this is still below about 5% of the human population today.
This represents the different levels of Spiritual Consciousness.
Spiritual Consciousness is the awareness of man with his higher self known as Soul, the Holy Spirit Individualized. Some of us are not aware of this relationship hence the need to pray to God regularly to tell God what to do. This misconception of the relationship of man with God has also led to the worship of ‘Gods that get angry’ at short notice or Gods that destroys its creations. These definitely are not the God of love that we know about.
If God is love, pray, why would God be angry or destroy Its own creations?
The levels of Spiritual Consciousness therefore implies that we have different levels of understanding of God and these different levels are reflected in the different religions we have in the worlds today. These levels are; The Animal Consciousness, the Human Consciousness, the Social Consciousness, the Soul Consciousness and God Consciousness.
The Animal consciousness indicates the consciousness where there is no self awareness of a relationship with the Holy Spirit. This is the level of the brute. Its only responsibility therefore is basic existence of survival. These are administered strictly by the Lords of Karma who are in charge of creatures under this level of consciousness. The mineral consciousness is a sub group of this level. The only difference being that it is devoid of movement. It is usually thought of as inanimate but actually contains spirit for those who have the eyes to see.
The Human state of consciousness is depicted by mankind and his relationship with God. The man in the Human state of consciousness is recognized by his relationship with God. He is the individual who believes that God is outside of himself and therefore, he represents God with many items of reverence and attempts to communicate with God through different media. This approach is still prevalent in many societies in the world today.
The Social Consciousness is the awareness of God at the level of duality. This is depicted by man equating his God to a rival generally known as ‘Satan’ or ‘Devil’. This has gained so much prominence in the world today that man feels that he can ‘bend’ the ways of God to suit himself through endless prayers to God. It is also based on the worship of God at the mental level whereby images of ‘different sons’ of God are like intermediaries between man and God. These religions operate from the mental plane where man has reduced himself to communicating with God through self appointed intermediaries. This is the relationship of man with the Universal Mind Power. For if God is omnipotent how can God Almighty have a rival? The entity called ‘satan’ or ‘devil’ is actually a minor spiritual worker in the heavens of God. His job is to ensure that no impure soul gets access into the pure worlds of God which is beyond the Fourth Heaven.
This dual faced god achieves his goal by tempting man with material riches and wealth thus tying man down to repeated sufferings in the materials worlds. When man prays for wealth, he obliges man. When man desires power, he gives man power that will rope man unto the wheels of Karma and Reincarnation until man learns how not to request anything from God.
Until man learns how to say ‘God let thy will be done!’, this entity will continue to tempt man.
If we look into the Holy Books of all religions, we shall find this entity tempting all known children of God. If he were not working for God, why would God allow ‘his sons’ to be tempted or why has he not been put out of business? In any case all who pray to any God outside themselves are operating at this level of spiritual awareness.
The level of Soul Consciousness is that level where the individual has come to the realization that there is no difference between himself and God Almighty in terms of his spiritual make up. For man is God clothed in rags without his knowledge. But how can man know that he is Soul, created in the ‘image and likeness of God?’ Only few individuals in the world today are aware of this level of Consciousness.
Man should know that he is beyond flesh and bones. That at the core of man is the Holy Spirit individualized and that the only thing man needs to do is to find out the will of God in all situations. This can be done if man can only learn how to communicate with God on a day to day basis. This two way communication can be achieved through man ‘knowing’ himself as Soul. This can be achieved in three major ways.
The first is for man to look for a teacher who can show him the way. This teacher must be alive to be able to lead man in the right direction.
TOWARDS SPIRITUAL FREEDOM
By Tuborki Dauyemie
