Understanding atheism and the Divine

The moment an atheist accepts, even remotely a field that is unexplainable, he ceases to be an atheist. Any intelligent person cannot rule out the mystery in life and the universe and hence cannot honestly be an atheist.  

The so-called atheists are perhaps only denouncing certain concepts of God. Also, it is difficult to see God as formless and it is difficult to see God as form. The formless is so abstract and God in a form appears to be too limited. So some people prefer to be atheists. In order to disprove God, you must have enormous knowledge. For one to say that something does not exist, one should know about the whole universe. 

So you can never be one hundred percent atheist. An atheist is only a believer who is sleeping! For a person to say, “I don’t believe in anything”, shows immense belief in himself — but he believes in himself about whom he does not even know! An atheist can never be sincere because sincerity needs depth — and an atheist refuses to go to his depth. 

Because the deeper he goes, he finds a void, a field of all possibilities — he has to accept that there are many secrets he does not know. He would then need to acknowledge his ignorance, which he refuses to do, because, the moment he is sincere, he seriously starts doubting his atheism. A doubt-free atheist is next to impossible. 

So you can never be a sincere and doubt-free atheist at the same time. When an atheist comes to the guru, what happens? You start experiencing your own form and discover that you are indeed formless, hollow and empty. And this abstract non-form in you becomes more and more concrete. The guru makes the abstract more real and what you thought as solid appears to be more unreal. Sensitivity and subtlety dawn. 

Perception of love, not as an emotion, but as the substratum of existence, becomes evident. The formless spirit shines through every form in creation, shattering the atheism. Then the journey begins and it has four stages. The first stage is saarupya (to see the formless in the form) — seeing God in all the forms. The second stage is saamipya (closeness) — feeling absolutely close to the form you have chosen and reaching out to the formless. This leads to a sense of intimacy with the whole creation. 

In this stage, one overcomes the fear of rejection. But this is time and space bound. The third stage is saanidhya — feeling the presence of the Divine by which you transcend the limitations of time and space. Then the final stage — saayujya is when you are firmly entrenched with the Divine. 

It is then that you realise you are one with the Divine. There is a total merging with the Beloved and all duality disappears. Whether an atheist or a believer, he or she goes through the four stages.