THE GREATEST EVER RESCUE OPERATION TRYING TO SAVE THE SOUL, TRYING TO SALVAGE THE HUMAN FIGURE; IN A MARATHON EFFORT TO FIX THE CAUSES WHICH SET THE BELLS RINGING AND INVITE THE APOCALYPSE: A CLARION CALL from the author of BLISS: THE ULTIMATE MAGIC: AND 'BEYOND LIFE, BEYOND DEATH'.... MOVE BEYOND RELIGION. A REMINDER THAT ALL IS NOT LOST. THAT WE STILL HAVE OUR SOUL TO LOSE, OR TO SAVE. THE RESCUE OPERATIONS BEGIN, HERE AND NOW. RELIGION IS A MASK. THE FACE NO BODY KNOWS. THE MASK HAS DEVELOPED POCK-MARKS. WHERE IS THE SAVIOUR? HIMSELF IN NEED OF BEING SAVED? FROM MAN: WHO CAN TURN THE SOUL OUT, AND KEEP THE HIDE HANGING.... CRITICSPEAK: "Most powerful work of post-modern world, marooned in the faithless oceans of murky selfhood, and shorn of all glory, individual as well as collective.." Principal N.S. Tasneem, Winner of Literary Academy Award and Former Fellow, Indian Institute of Adv. Studies, Shimla. "Only book in contemporary history claiming spiritual kinship and affinity with classics like Khalil Gibran's 'The Prophet', Milton's 'Paradise Lost' and T.S. Eliot's 'The Wasteland' Dr. Roghayeh Farsi Researcher and Professor at Neyshabur University, Iran.] THE WORLD LIVES BY ITS SYMBOLS; HENCE, IN A SHAMBLES;;;;; FOREGROUNDING: Religion is a mask which has become the face. The face nobody knows but the mask has developed pock-marks. With the glow of the essential clouded, the society remains in ceaseless eclipse. Man's eyes are enough to light his being, but the darkness of vision doubled with the loss of divine vision has turned the world of man into a darkling planet, a graveyard and man, into a lost soul. In this desert of despair, hope shines beyond the horizon but like a mirage, only to make man tumble from one hope to another. What makes this journey a fearful experience? Was man destined to live through this nightmare? Why, on this beautiful earth, is human soul alone languishing for a breath of fresh air? Why is man alone lonely and forlorn? Where is the mad rush headed for? What are these cries? What is this blood? Whose are these arms? Are we man or militants? Where is sense? Where is sensibility? Where is culture? Where is civilization? Man' is not a fit description for this 'masked' creature. Brutes are more sensible, humane, satisfied, God-fearing and subdued. What makes this man turn mad? Is it mankind? Or madkind, to be more precise? Hasn't contemporary history played havoc with any sense that can be made out of the word 'Religion'? If hatred is what it teaches and bloodshed, what it preaches, we must go beyond this word and try to look at the reality afresh. What somebody has said is, no doubt, truth but what are we making or unmaking] of that truth and the truth left unsaid? It is surprising to see that each religion preaches love, brotherhood, kindness and humanity. Are these things to be practiced only within and by the followers of a particular religion? Has kindness nothing to do beyond the limits of that religion? Is the concept of brotherhood limited to a particular set of people? Who are those lying outside the charmed circle of our religions, Friends or Foes? Enemies- if we go by the prescriptions which have come into display. Love for forms is the soul of the religious practitioner and politics has vitiated the veins which now can't allow the free flow of love for mankind. What turns man mad? What turns him blind? What isolates him? What turns him into a killer? - Isn't it the maddening passion miscalled 'religion' or better, 'religionism'? This book makes an attempt to go beyond religion, look at the truth afresh, remove the mask and see with an unclouded vision at essential reality. Call it ESSENTIALISM, it is an attempt to redefine man, reassert humanism and re-emphasize the relationship between man and God - minus the formalities. THIS WORK IS MEANT FOR THOSE WHO BELIEVE IN THE COMMON DESTINY OF MANKIND; FOR THE