Doorways to Reality: The Many Paths to the Infinite
Seeker: I used to think there was only one path to awaken, but I am beginning to see that seekers come to the same realization through many different paths: some through devotion, some through self-inquiry, some through suffering, and others through silence. I have heard you speak about different doorways, which seems similar to spiritual paths. What exactly do you mean by a doorway?
Rajiv: A doorway is any practice or process that helps you go within. It creates the conditions in which you are better equipped to investigate the nature of reality. It leads the mind away from habitual patterns and into a more spacious and silent state. For example, acceptance is a doorway because it interrupts the mind’s constant resistance to what is. The moment you stop pushing against reality, the energy bound in conflict begins to settle, and the mind becomes still. In that stillness, it is possible to go deeper.
Seeker: Can music be a doorway? I have always loved music, but now I wonder if it is just another attachment. The teachings speak of renouncing worldly pleasures like music. If I indulge in it, I feel I am moving away from the truth.
Rajiv: Yes, music can be a doorway which can lead to presence. Music, when listened to with presence, can quiet the mind more deeply than a hundred thoughts about silence. There are moments when music draws you so fully into the present that there is only listening. It is no different from a bell in a Zen temple. It calls the mind to stillness.
If music brings you to that, let it. But the moment you begin to crave music and chase it as an experience you have lost the doorway and returned to the corridor. If music has the power to quiet the mind and bring you into deep stillness, is it not leading you in the same direction as meditation?
Seeker: But is that really the same? In meditation, I turn inward, away from external distractions. Music is an external experience and comes from outside of me. How can something external lead me to what is internal?
Rajiv: That is the illusion, thinking that music is “outside” and you are “inside.” Where do you experience music? Does it exist anywhere other than within your own consciousness? When a sound arises, it appears in your consciousness.
Seeker: I suppose it is within my consciousness, but that would mean all sensory experiences are doorways. If I take pleasure in food or beauty, does that mean those are doorways too?
Rajiv: Anything can be a doorway if it dissolves the sense of separation and brings you into the state of presence. The problem is not with the senses, it is with attachment and identification. Food and beauty are also an expression of this consciousness. They are not obstacles unless you cling to them.
Seeker: But many great sages left behind all sensory pleasures to realize the truth. Shouldn’t I also practice detachment from things like music?
Rajiv: A person who runs from music because they fear it, is still bound. They are now bound by avoidance. This too is attachment, only in reverse. It is the ego disguised as renunciation.
True detachment is not escape. It is when music can move through your awareness and leave no mark. You do not grasp it. You do not push it away. It arises, it fades, and in between, there is only the knowing of it.
Renunciation is not the absence of things. It is freedom while in contact with sensory objects.
Seeker: That makes sense. I have noticed that sometimes music does take me into deep stillness. But other times, I use it as an escape, as a way to avoid silence, to fill some emptiness inside.
Rajiv: And that is the key: to see how you use it. Anything can be a distraction if used unconsciously. But anything can be a doorway if approached with awareness. The same fire that burns can also give warmth. The same water that can drown and kill you can also quench your thirst. Music is not the problem. It depends on you; if you are using it to escape or to enter into existence.
Seeker: So instead of feeling guilty for listening to music, I should simply be more aware of how I listen?
Rajiv: Exactly. If it becomes a doorway, let it be a doorway. If it becomes a distraction, see it clearly and let it go. But do not create unnecessary conflict in your mind. Guilt is just another trap of the ego. Instead of resisting, just be fully present with whatever arises. Whether in silence or in music, the immensity is always present.
Seeker: And what is on the other side of the doorway?
Rajiv: Nothing and everything. On the other side there is no seeker and no seeking. No music and no silence. There is only reality, vast and infinite, expressing itself in endless ways. One moment as a song, another moment as silence. One moment as a wave, another as ocean. The doorway was never the destination. It was only a gap through which the infinite steps forward.
The Devotee Disappears
Seeker: I’ve been reading Nisargadatta’s teachings and I’m beginning to grasp the essence of what he points to. Nisargadatta helped me move beyond the need for devotion. I now understand the goal is to rest in this formless consciousness.
Rajiv: When we first spoke a few months back, your focus was still on devotion. That devotion was a doorway, a necessary stage. For many seekers devotion is the first step, a movement toward something beyond the self. But there comes a moment when the one who offers devotion begins to fade. The line between the devotee and the divine thins until it disappears. What remains is not a relationship, but this vast field of pure consciousness itself.
Seeker: I spent years in devotion, offering prayers and surrendering to what I believed was something beyond me. Devotion itself was a path leading me here. And now, as I move from the indirect path of devotion to the direct path of self-inquiry, I can see the devotee merging into the infinite consciousness.
Rajiv: The transition you’ve experienced, from worshiping an external God to seeking the nature of pure consciousness, is what many on the path of devotion have also lived through. Even Ramakrishna had to leave Kali behind to merge into the expanse of non-dual awareness. The form of Kali was needed until it wasn’t. What remained is not a deity but the formless presence that contains everything.
Seeker: Yes, I agree. I’ve left behind many concepts along the way, weights I didn’t realize I was carrying.
Rajiv: That’s the nature of this journey. Each concept we hold must eventually be seen as a stepping stone and not the destination.
Seeker: You’ve mentioned before that it took you years to shift from devotion to a deeper understanding of consciousness. How did you make this transition?
Rajiv: It wasn’t quick, nor was it without resistance. I had to confront the sense of security that devotion offers. When you’re a devotee, there’s a relationship of a “me” and “the divine.” Letting go of that relationship was stepping into the unknown void. But in that void, the truth reveals itself. You see, without understanding the nature of consciousness, you can’t truly understand God or Guru. They are not separate from this consciousness.
Seeker: Was the letting go frightening?
Rajiv: Yes, it was. The mind clings to familiar Gods because they give it a sense of stability and security. But the fear is just another layer of the ego. Once you face it and allow it to dissolve, you realize that the unknown is not empty; it’s full, radiant, and alive. That vast consciousness is the essence of both God and self.
In that recognition, all distinctions fall away. God and the self dissolve into the vast immensity.
Seeker: So all paths lead eventually to this infinite consciousness without division?
Rajiv: All paths ultimately lead back to the source which is this infinite consciousness. Some seekers walk in circles, some take detours, but the destination is always the same.
Absorbed in the Absolute
Seeker: I have heard many teachers say that the present moment, the “now,” is the key, but it still feels elusive. I can be aware of the present for a few moments, but then thoughts take over. If the now is truly the doorway to the infinite, why does it feel so slippery?
Rajiv: The reason it feels slippery is because you are still trying to hold onto it as an object, something you can capture. But the now is not something that comes and goes, it is here all the time.
You say thoughts take over and responsibilities pull you away. But where do they arise? Can they appear anywhere except here? Your memories of the past happen now. Your plans for the future form now. Even your sense of being pulled away unfolds within this same stillness. The now is not something you need to hold onto because you have never been outside of it.
Seeker: What happens when I fully recognize the now? Will my problems disappear?
Rajiv: The now does not change your life. It changes your relationship with life. Problems will still arise, challenges will still come, but they are no longer seen as happening to “you.” They are simply movements within the vast space of awareness. You let everything be as it is. And in that letting go, suffering dissolves, not because life becomes perfect, but because the one who suffers dissolves.
Suffering as a Doorway to the Infinite
Seeker: I have been reflecting on how different traditions speak of awakening in different ways. Some emphasize devotion, others meditation, others inquiry. If the destination is the same, why do the paths seem so different?
Rajiv: The paths appear different because the seekers are different. Just as one river may carve its way through mountains while another flows gently through the plains, the journey to truth takes many forms. But all rivers, no matter how winding, merge into the ocean.
Seeker: Besides devotion, are there other doorways to this infinite consciousness?
Rajiv: There are many doorways to reality. Even pain, if fully embraced, can be a ruthless but direct doorway to truth.
Seeker: How can suffering be a doorway to the infinite?
Rajiv: It forces you to see what is false. Suffering does not negotiate. It burns through your comforts and illusions. It shows you that what you relied on for identity and meaning was never solid to begin with. Most people run at this point and search for relief and escape. But if you do not run, if you allow yourself to stay completely with it, something else begins to emerge.
When you stop trying to fix it, when there is no more struggle to escape; there is a gap. In that gap, you will glimpse something untouched by pain. Something that does not move, even when your entire world is falling apart.
That glimpse is a taste of what you truly are. Suffering becomes a brutal but honest doorway to the real. You realize that there is always presence behind the brokenness.
Seeker: So, suffering, devotion, inquiry, music; so many doorways, but one reality.
Rajiv: Exactly. The form the doorway takes does not matter. It could be a devastating loss or the sweetness of a chant. It could be a question that won’t let you sleep or a piece of music that dissolves you. But the door is never the point. What matters is whether you walk through.
Many stay at the entrance. They name the door, decorate it, and argue about which one is best. Some even bow to it daily. But to step beyond means leaving behind the one who seeks. Few are willing to vanish like that. Yet, only in that vanishing is the real seen.