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plane of being, some other altitude of consciousness, some altered state of consciousness.
That is the religious desire. It arises when you feel like a stranger. Then you start searching for something that may be your home. One has to go long distances to arrive home. Not that the home is very far -- it is very close, but to come close one has to travel long distances. Not that the home is outside -- it is inside, but to turn towards the inner, one has first to search the outer.
To come to one's own home, one has to knock at many houses -- there is no other way.
So whenever you feel that stranger arising in you, don't try to put it away, don't try to put off that feeling. Don't try to make yourself comfortable, don?t try to make yourself at home -- because that feeling is going to lead you further. At-homeness is not going to lead you anywhere.
That may be a little painful; it is not very comfortable. It has a discomfort in it because one wants to be at home and relaxed. It pinches like a thorn -- that this is not your home, that this is a caravanserai... maybe good for an overnight's stay, but in the morning you have to go. That feeling should be continuously maintained. If you lose track of it, you are stuck.
Then one day, one really comes home. Then it is not just a feeling of at-homeness. Then you are the home. Not that you are in a convenient relationship with the world -- no! You are no more. The world and you are not separate anymore. Only then have you arrived home. The universe becomes your womb and you are part of it.
Psychologists have some insight into it when they say that religious people are seeking the same comfortable state that was available to each child when he was in the mother's womb. They have a certain insight into it. It is true... some ingredient of truth is in it.
When the child is in the mother's womb, he is not separate. The mother breathes for him, the mother eats for him. He is affected by every mood of the mother, every climate of the mother. He is a part of her... he vibrates with her. If the mother is sad, he is sad. If the mother is happy, he is happy. He is a member... an organic
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