Spirituality

Atmananda Krishna Menon – The Neo Hindu

Remember the Matrix? Remember how Neo wanted to know the Truth and Nothing but the Truth? That is Atmananda Krishna Menon for you. He was named the Neo Hindu because he was the founder of the Direct Path to Nirvana. He realized how intellectually advanced the human race has become and how there is no need for hiding the truth behind religion or texts anymore. He understood that humans are ready to understand the truth in totality and directly. He practiced Advait or non-duality. 

Here is an excerpt from one of his discourses – 

Dated – 13th January 1951 – 

A disciple asked: “Why was secrecy so strictly observed in expounding the Truth in the old Shastras?” 

Atmananda: “Evidently, for fear of jeopardizing established religion and society. Religion had no place except in duality and social life. It was the prime moving force of social life in ancient times. But the concept of religion could not stand the strict logic of Vedantic Truth. The sages of old, who recognized the great need of religion in phenomenal life, expounded the ultimate Truth under a strict cover of secrecy, thus enabling religion to play its role in lower human society. But religion in the present-day world has been dethroned in many ways, and ungodly cults have come into existence in large numbers. Therefore it is high time now to throw off the veil of secrecy, and broadcast the whole Truth in the face of the world which has already advanced much, intellectually.”

This however did not mean that he shunned religion or spoke against it. It simply meant that he advocated a simple Direct Path to the truth. 

He had an interesting and valid logic behind it. He said, that there are three states when the Self experiences things, the first state is when the physical body is awake and we are aware and experiencing the outside world. The second stage is when we are asleep but we are dreaming and our mind is experiencing things and lastly, the dreamless sleep state where there is nothing at all and the Self is experiencing the state of nothingness. He said when this state of nothingness is achieved while being in deep sleep, and we are most peaceful during this state, we can achieve it while being wide awake as well and then went on to teach the simple and direct way of doing it. 

We would still call him ahead of his time because no matter what Neo knew and wanted to tell the entire world about, we still have many Agent Smiths who want to stay in the Matrix. This is when Tantra comes into practice and helps us experience everything along with duality and then look for the truth because then the need for truth becomes stronger and greater. 

To know more about the practice of non-duality, write into us at info@chamundaswamiji.com