FROM MAULANA'S DESK

time that the heart was only an organ for blood circulation. The human mind and not the heart is the centre of intellectual activity. All the spiritual masters continued to seek spirituality in the heart, whereas the truth is that the centre of spirituality exists in the mind. The truth is that spirituality too is a function of the mind. Spirituality is a phenomenon of intellectual development. By applying the mind, one discovers that there is a non-material reality beyond material existence. This is the beginning of spirituality and with greater realisation of this higher reality one develops one’s spiritual level. Spirituality is a conscious discovery, far removed from any vague type of feelings. Spirituality centered on the heart is based on meditation and leads to ecstasy. When ecstasy peaks, it suppresses the intellectual function of the mind. Feelings take hold and one is no longer guided by one’s conscious mind. Compared to this, spirituality based on the mind results in a conscious discovery of intellectual realisation, a thrilling experience. There can be no greater thrill at the conscious level. Even at its peak, ecstasy cannot take man beyond the confines of a limited world, whereas intellectual realisation knows no bounds. Heart-based spirituality led to an unscientific viewpoint regarding the understanding of God. As spiritualists focus on their heart in their meditations, they feel the boundaries gradually disappearing. They feel they have reached a world where there is an answer to existence. They find this feeling of ecstasy very thrilling. They find they have reached a world where there is unity of existence; where the difference between the Creator and the created has disappeared. This experience does not lead to intellectual discovery, but is one of a vague temporary feeling. Still on the basis of this vague feeling it came to be believed that there was a unity of existence at the higher level. This resulted in the theological belief of ‘non-dualism’—the belief that God and man are the same existence, the claim that man is not separate from God, rather he is a part of God. Spirituality is a function of the mind. Spirituality is a phenomenon of intellectual development.