An introduction to religious and spiritual experience

The thing I love the most about Ramadan:
the fantastic settings in 
Cairo’s streets from lanterns, colored lights, free food outdoor tables 
(ma’’det el-rahman) and the cozy culture from meeting friends after 
breaking the fast (Iftar) or big family gatherings. 

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Religious and Spiritual Experience
74
The hardest/most annoying thing about Ramadan : 
the wrong per-
ception of people about Ramadan, that it’s just for upkeeping yourself 
from eating and drinking, and not understanding the true meaning of 
it, from self-disciplinary and training your will, to sharing the moments 
of other poor people all over the world. The second most annoying 
thing is, people giving an excuse of fasting to behave stupidly/weirdly. 
What I want to get out of Ramadan this year : 
I would like to talk 
to more people to make them aware of the ‘true’ spirit of Ramadan, or 
at least how I see it, and for me to question the religion which will lead 
me either to strengthen my beliefs or change it. 
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Chanting
A member of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness 
described the effect of chanting 
Hare Krishna
, the name of the Lord.
I had already found the philosophy brilliant but it was the 
kirtan 
that 
really convinced me. I saw how the devotees would chant on the street 
for five hours and then, at one festival I attended, when everyone was 
lying down in a tent waiting for food, tired after being on the street all 
those hours, a spontaneous kirtan began and lasted for more than 
another hour. There was no one around to see. It was just an expres-
sion of the devotees’ love for God. This personal expression of feeling 
for God was the best I’d ever experienced. Everything else was forgot-
ten. Only the name of the One we loved or aspired to love was repeated, 
over and over, creating a wonderful connection with God. Chanting 
alone can lead us to love of God.
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Yoga
Widely popular in the West nowadays, yoga is practised in various ways. 
Some schools of yoga are more, some less closely based on the original 
teachings in the Upanishads, where Shiva is seen as the god of 
yogins
or 
ascetics. A classic work is 
The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali
in which yoga 
is explained as ‘union’, or ‘yoke’, a method leading to union with ultimate 
reality through control of thought-waves of the mind. Commentators 
have used the image of a lake. When the surface is disturbed, full of waves, 
the bottom, the atman or soul, cannot be seen. The aim is the one-pointed 
mind, resulting in clarity and stillness.

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Religious Triggers
75
Yoga does not merely involve exercise, as is so often the case in 
Western classes, but is a holistic system including disciplined conduct and 
meditation as well as breathing techniques.
Here is an account of the effect of yoga.
Over the past fifteen years some of the most exciting openings 
have come to me through the practice of yoga and the study of yoga 
philosophy. Through the practice of the physical postures of yoga I not 
only made my body supple and balanced, but found a way of bringing 
my awareness into the present moment, so that without any great 
effort I could touch the experience of life in the NOW. Through the 
practice of concentration and meditation I began to take charge of my 
mind so that I could at times prevent my mental energy from diffusing 
in all directions and could conserve my inner power, or direct it like a 
beam in the direction of my choice. Through Yoga Nidra I learned 
a technique in which my body, mind and emotions experience 
complete relaxation, while my consciousness, fully aware, touched the 
deep dimensions of power within me. Through chanting a mantra 
I can still the mind, or use the sound like a booster rocket to take my 
consciousness to higher dimensions of my being. By practising breath 
control I have discovered ways of linking body, mind and soul, touch-
ing the deep levels of peace within me.
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