INTRODUCTION

Some of my friends asked me – “Where are the references for what you have described?” I thought I’d better answer these questions, since some of you may want to know the same. There is some research on the connection between religion and science, but it is still in its nascent stage, so I haven’t used any material from it. When I wrote this book, it wasn’t my intention to provide you a meta-analysis of religious, philosophical and scientific data. I rather thought to put together pertinent information, add my inputs and let you conclude.

My thirty years of experience in clinical guiding and counseling has, of course, added to this book; for many families I have been a de facto guide, and being put in that role, I got to learn a good deal about human life from their experiences.

In the year 2000, I took up learning, and later, teaching Sanskrit at the Sanskrit BhashaSanstha, a teaching institution with 5 branches and more than 5000 life members in Maharashtra, India.

The teaching included works on ancient Hindu philosophy and I have woven some of those principles into the book. I’ve balanced this with equal information on other major religions from standard open sources. In the mid-nineties, a group of doctors in Mumbai were chosen to undergo training by the Indian Society of Applied Behavioral Scientists (ISABS); I was a part of this group and the training included a personal growth lab, training on appreciative enquiry and on certain organizational behavioral models. Some of these concepts have been adapted here.

I have covered much more – geophysics, electrochemistry, astronomy, astrology, genetics, microbiology, computer science, human neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, biochemistry, human diagnostic medicine, human medical allopathic therapy, human surgery, alternative medicine etc. All this information is available in standard open sources. I have presented whatever is relevant in understanding our connection with the Universe and the objects in it.

Despite so much reference material available today, we still don’t have clear answers to some basic questions in life.

• Is there a God?
• Where are the ends of the Universe?
• Why do living beings die?
• Why don’t we understand the language of birds and animals?
• Does fasting help us cleanse ourselves?
• Does meat-eating make us less spiritual?

The answers to such questions are often contradictory, confusing or simply not available.But the Universe exists without any pretentiousness – the answers and explanations regarding everything within it, already exist in it and are easily available. It’s just that we don’t see them. There are many reasons for this – the limitations of human perception and lifespan, the contradictions between different religions and between religion in general and science.

But then, why haven’t we been created in a way that we understand the Universe and our own existence better? The answer is very simple – we can but we depend too much on the limited perception and conditioned knowledge, and too little on the more innate gifts the Universe has given us, such as our instinct and intuition.

The understanding of our connection with the Universe is all about learning to recognise the ways it touches us through objects in space and through living and non-living objects on Earth we interact with. It is also about learning to trust the messages the Universe sends us through its objects and forces. The book teaches how to delve into the subconscious in simple ways and appreciate the subtle signals the Universe sends us each day, and use these to find everlasting inner peace and happiness.