Next set of essays would cover my understanding of the teachings of "Shri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"

Next set of essays in this blog would cover my understanding of the teachings of Shri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, on different topics, along with the supporting verses. Hopefully my understanding would be correct, but as my understanding improves the content may also change and improve.

The essays would be tagged with tag "-Book:Message" - the message of Shri Guru Granth Sahib ji, as I understand the teachings.

Shri Guru Granth Sahib Ji is the present Guru of the Sikhs, and as with any sacred scripture, understanding a scripture is not an easy task. I would present my understanding, which I hope would be correct, and will help me in understanding the topics better (I believe writing about a topic helps in increasing own understanding), and also could help the reader in their own spiritual journey.

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Acknowledgments: 

While it will be impossible to list all the sources which help me in increasing my understanding of the scriptures, following is a partial list of sources which I refer (or may refer in future).

I hope to keep updating this list in future...

Following are list of few of the web-sites, translations, and sources which I use (or will use in future), to increase my understanding of Shri Guru Granth Sahib Ji:

1. Online: www.srigranth.org
2. Online: www.searchgurbani.com
3. Online: beta.igurbani.com
4. Online: www.sikhitothemax.org
5. Android app: Amrit Kirtan 
6. Android app: Amrit Kirtan Pro
7. Android app: Dhur Ki Bani
8. Book: Guru Granth Sahib translation by Dr. Darshan Singh 
9. Katha and Kirtan programs in Gurudwaras, or broadcast on TV or online, like PTC channels, and others

Following are some sources of Judeo-Christian traditions which I refer:

1. Many guests, authors and books who are featured on the the shows of "Sid Roth's It's Supernatural" on https://sidroth.org/, like Rabbi Jonathan Cahn, Dr. Keith Ellis, and others.
2. Programs on GodTV network.
3. Android Bible app.

Some of the transliteration of Gurmukhi script has been generated using Google translate, https://translate.google.com/.

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Note related to numbering of verses (work-in-progress):

Many important texts follow a numbering system, which enables any sentence of a book to be numbered accurately, and it becomes easy to share the verse or refer to it later without much searching. For example, verse Romans 10:13 in The Holy Bible refers to "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.", and anyone with some knowledge of structure of The Holy Bible will be able to search for this verse.

Similar numbering system is not being used for Shri Guru Granth Sahib Ji as per my knowledge, and only Ang/Page number is being used today, but after opening the page number getting to an exact verse still takes some effort.

In this blog, I will try to use a simple numbering system, which could enable a person to reach the exact sentence within an Ang/Page of Shri Guru Granth Sahib Ji. The structure of the numbering system would be:

[ PageNumber : SentenceNumberWithInThePage ]
and,

[ PageNumber : FirstSentenceNumberWithInThePage - LastSentenceNumberWithInThePage ]

For example,
Verse [Page 4:5], would be "Page 4:Sentence 5" to refer to "ਕੁਦਰਤਿ ਕਵਣ ਕਹਾ ਵੀਚਾਰੁ ॥ / How can your creative power be described",
and,
And Verse [Page 4:5-10] would be "Page 4:Sentence 5-to-Sentence 10".

 Maximum PageNumber could go up to 1430, while maximum sentence number would depend on number of lines on a page, but most likely be around 50.

The end of a sentence would be one or more simultaneous occurrence of 2 vertical bars, e.g. ||, ignoring the numbers that occur between the bars. A verse heading which also ends with 2 vertical bars, ||, will be counted as a separate line.

If I come across a better or simpler numbering system, I will use that. I will be using one of the above online sources, and will count the sentence number manually for now, so I hope I am accurate.

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-x-

To rally people in the Name of God

A favorite grouse of atheists and rationalists, when talking about religion or God, is that belief in religion and God has caused a lot of violence throughout history. The real answer may be more complex. In this post I would focus exclusively on monotheistic God and faiths. Non-monotheistic faith is not an area of my study or devotion.

During any war, short or extended, their is a great need for courage and also unquestionable obedience of the troops involved, be it a regimented army or a vigilante group or civilian mobs. And over the years people have found that rallying people in the Name of God is more effective than rallying for other causes or reasons. And it also costs less money, in fact people might act for free.

Mere mention of Will of God, or Name of God, has an affect on human mind. It triggers an urgent need to obey unquestionably and a lack of concern to the resulting consequence. It has for me at least, and maybe on other human minds also. Power lobbies everywhere have found this fact useful to rally people for their particular purpose. They have used words like 'For God' or 'In the Name of God' or some similar associated phrase as part of their campaigns, and added their particular concerns around these phrases, giving an impression that there is a Divine Sanction to their particular agenda, but which is seldom the case. In reality they may lack any concern for God's Will or His people, and only want to use God's Name as a catalyst. And who among us can claim to know the Will of God? Only a saint, or a delusional, or a liar, or whomever God chooses to reveal His words. This principle of influence would apply to any desired action, and not just war.

-
For the truly faithful,
God alone is enough,
God's Will is reason enough.

For the truly devious,
Or for the genuinely lost,
God alone is never enough,
God's Will is just a means,
To achieve a secondary goal,
To rally support for their concerns,
And concerns of people are many,
Concerns of kings, or queens, or nations,
Of lands and its people, of pride, or tribe,
And support for so many other things.

Human concerns are their own,

And remembering God can help,

Help them carry on in their quest,

But be aware, that God's concern is for all.

Many people of faith,
Have been led to violent wars,
And met with violent ends,
In the Name of God,
When not many knew,
What they were really fighting for.

Faithful lose way for lack of knowledge,
Knowledge of the Will of God.
If a person feels the need to serve,
Serve something more than God's purpose,
Know that the person may be lacking in faith.

It is important to realize that God does not need help,
Humans are in need of God's help,
If God needs a human to do His works,
Then probably it is not God.

And surely God does not need any help to fight His wars,
Nor to manifest His Will on Earth,
He may use humans, or anyone else for that matter,
But be aware that He is not in need.

We are helpless without God,
And not the other way round,
God does not need anybody to fight His wars,
We need God to fight our wars.

Anyone who uses God's Name,
To rally people to war or strife,
For an unjust or a wicked cause,
Know that blood is on their hands,
A cause is just or unjust as per Will of God,
And not by human choice or sanction,
And like most things in life,
Conscience and reason are our true guide.

--

Coming back to the original statement of this post. Are God and religion really responsible for death and destruction in society? For me the correct answer is 'No'! The correct answer may be that human beings are restless, and can go to any length to meet their objectives. Human beings have an insatiable desire for power, riches, glory and a lot of other things, and humans are crafty, very crafty indeed. They can use any possible reason to convince themselves and others of the justness of their particular cause, which may or may not involve violence. Some of the primary catalysts to move human beings to action are pride, honor, family, nationalism, divine will, race, caste, religion, greed, love, fear of loss, lust for power, hate, service of society, empathy, and many others. Of all these catalysts, God or Divine Will is the most potent, and power lobbies have found ways to mix their personal agendas with God's Will cleverly, so that it has become difficult for the faithful to discern the real motives behind different calls to action. Divine Will is a catalyst and not a reason for violence, and in absence of it, the power lobbies would have used some other catalyst to goad people to violence.

 -
If all religions preach peace,
But still there is war and strife,
In the Name of God and religion,
Then truly something is amiss,
More is hidden, lesser is known.

To seek knowledge is good,
But also seek discernment,
To see things as they truly are,
And not as you think they should be.

 -x-

The one true religion!

What is the one true religion? Most will name their own. But most likely this question cannot be answered convincingly by most people. Once I have selected a religion to follow, then that becomes the only true religion for me to pursue. Others may choose other religions to pursue, which will become the only true religion for them. A person cannot travel on two boats, at least that is what I believe. Each person chooses on which boat to travel, and it will most likely be only one. Trying to travel on multiple boats may seem like a challenge, or socially polite, but I am not sure, for the waters can be deep.

I do not know the one true religion,

But I do know this,

Sun is not the only star,

Rose is not the only flower,

Lion is not the only animal,

Eagle not the only bird,

There are many cities,

There are many highways,

World is rich in choice,

But each choice has its own color,

Each choice has a consequence,

Free to choose, but own your choice,

For each choice will have a consequence,

Each choice leads to a destination,

Choose wherever you are willing to go,

There may be as many true paths, 

As many the Creator wishes to create,

To insist otherwise would be to doubt the might of the Creator,

How many I do not know for certain, for I am just a human,

I am not privy to the Creator's mind,

Nor know all the nature's secrets.

Each religion has a theology and a philosophy, which may or may not overlap with other religions. But what each religion promises is a definite or an indefinite outcome for a practitioner who wishes to follow its path. Following are some of the different things promised by different religions to their followers:

1. A peaceful or blissful present life
2. A peaceful or blissful afterlife
3. Liberation from transmigration
4. Liberation from sin
5. Eternal companionship with God
6. Everlasting bliss
7. Personal deification
8. Fame in present life or afterlife
9. Wealth in present life or afterlife
10. Other material pleasures in present life or afterlife
11. More esoteric things like higher consciousness which are difficult to understand
12. Continuation of tradition, customs, and culture
13. Appeasement of ancestors, society, spirits, authority, gods, or other real or imaginary things
14. And maybe many other things...

A religion would generally promise a follower some of the above goals. So a follower needs to realize that focusing on some goals alone, may make the other things out of reach. Read the promises well, what is claimed and what remains hidden.

Now whether these claims are true or false I don't know. The belief in these claims started originally with the teachings of respective founders and prophets, and it is for each person to decide what to believe in and what not to believe in, what goal to pursue and what goal to leave, what path to follow and what path to leave behind.

The important thing here is to realize that apparently there could be everlasting consequences of the personal choice made by an individual. People might claim that all religions are same, and any could be followed. But studying about the different religions will give a person a more comprehensive perspective, and a better understanding about the goals of each religion. Saying all paths are same, may generally mean the person making this claim does not have much knowledge of any of the paths involved. I do know that different religious paths may promise different destinations to their followers, and have different deities and rituals, and it is up to each person what he or she wants to pursue in life. Where does a person want to invest or spend his or her life, and what return does a person expect from this investment in a lifelong faith? Is faith for an eternal goal, or for service of others, or for being one with the crowd? Where does your faith promise to take you?

There is a secondary and equally important question, after a personal destination (religion) has been decided by the person. The secondary question is, whether the path chosen will actually lead the person to the promised destination. This is a question which can only be answered in the seeker's mind, either by simply believing the teaching of the founders of religions, or by actually traveling the path, but few are known to reach the destination.

As with most things in life, 

it is almost impossible to make a definite bet. 

This is the ultimate gamble of life. 

Where will you invest your life, on which belief? 

Believe, or some would say bet, on what,

In ephemeral pleasure, or in pleasing society, 

or maybe on mortal or eternal goals. 

Welcome to the earthy casino of life,

Wheel is spinning, and the clock is ticking,

Destiny, the croupier with a wry smile invites you,

Invites you to place your bets,

Your eternal destiny is at stake,

For the price of this one life,

For the price of a decision and a belief,

Place your bet, for time is running out,

Time will run out, bet on an eternal consequence,

A consequence which each will meet alone,

Without the company of a friend or foe,

A consequence of suffering or bliss,

Indecision will not slow down the clock,

For some this gamble can be overwhelming,

And they may look the other way,

As they try to find meaning and reason,

Believing there is no substance in eternal fate,

But time will not stop, neither for me nor for you,

The game of life is already afoot,

Try not to let your mind fool you,

But who can claim to never have been fooled.

So like everything in this world, there is endless diversity. Each religion offers a path to follow and a destination. Paths may meet at some places, and may lead to similar or different destinations. Choose the path based on where you want to go. Each path may take you where it promises to go, and hope your map is accurate.

Know where you want to go before starting a journey,

If you do not know where your faith will lead you,

You might reach a place where you do not want to be,

 If a mentor refuses to explain in simple terms,

In simple words that do not confuse nor sting,

Then perhaps you are being taken for a ride.

-x-

One of the reasons why I believe in God

There are many reasons why I believe in a monotheistic God. In this post I will just share one of the reasons. As per my understanding, if different religions or a set of people claim to worship a monotheistic God, who is the creator of the world and who has no equal, then I believe they must be referring to the same God, irrespective of the fact that such groups of people will have some differences. If it were not the same God, then having 'no equal' statement would not hold, as individual claims would give 'multiple all powerful Gods', which is an oxymoron (because if there are two all powerful Gods, they will not remain 'all powerful' in front of the other, but would be an equal).

It is like different groups of scientists set out to study properties of the largest known galaxy, IC 1101, and they might call the galaxy by different names, may find different properties of the galaxy, focus on different aspects, but still the galaxy IC 1101 does not become two or more galaxies. If some groups of people start worshiping the largest galaxy, in different ways, giving it different names, still it would remain a single galaxy. Many people do worship some planets and stars in their own respective ways, but the planets and stars remain a single entity irrespective of how many different ways different groups worship a star or a planet.

Of the religious groups which I have studied as a theology hobbyist, the mains one include Judaism, Christianity, Islam, monotheistic aspects in Hinduism and my own religion, Sikhism. I do not claim to have any authoritative knowledge on any of them, but I have tried to understand whatever I could.

During my studies I found an interesting aspect, although it is already well known in theological circles, but I found it fascinating, and feel not much emphasis has been laid on this aspect, especially in popular culture. Judaism believes in prophets of the Old Testament. Christianity believes in all the Jewish prophets from the Old Testament, and also believes in prophets of the New Testament, including Jesus Christ. Islam believes in all the prophets of Old and New Testament, while also believing in Prophet Mohammad, who is mentioned in The Koran (Koran mentions Jesus Christ often, as also prophets Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and others). These three religions, of middle eastern origin, worship the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob. It is like three tributaries of the river of monotheism arising in the middle east.

The monotheistic theology originating from Indian sub-continent includes Sikhism and some aspects of Hinduism. Sikhs believe in Shri Guru Granth Sahib Ji as their religious guide and mentor. Shri Guru Granth Sahib Ji contains verses describing a monotheistic theology, and the verses were contributed by some Sikh Gurus themselves, and others were collected by the Sikh Gurus but were originally written by few Hindu and Muslim saints from the Indian sub-subcontinent. We could say there are three tributaries of the river of monotheism in Indian sub-continent, two new and third continuing from middle east.

Above is a very simplistic description of my understanding. It might be important to note that one of Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ, Saint Thomas, actually arrived in South India around 50 AD (as per Wikipedia). I believe influence of Saint Thomas's arrival in India is a topic which has not been studied much, and it is possible that some aspects of his teachings merged with or influenced the monotheistic theology of the Indian subcontinent, of which very little details are known.

Another important aspect is that the verses in the scriptures of any of the above monotheistic religions are attributed to some saints and prophets, but many of the saints and prophets claimed that the origin of the words is from God alone, as the words and the wisdom they convey were revealed to them. I have no way of proving this statement but I just mentioned it for sake of completeness, and also to highlight the common aspect of the different scriptures.

Coming to the next part of this post I would like to mention the number of primary prophets and saints that are mentioned in each of the above monotheistic religions or their scriptures. All data is taken from Wikipedia, and in no way I claim that the data is complete. I will come to the reason later, of why I share the list here.

• Prophets in Judaism: 55 = 48 + 7 (Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prophets_in_Judaism)
• Prophets in Christianity: 70+ approximately (Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prophets_of_Christianity, many would be shared from the earlier list related to Judaism)
• Prophets in Islam: List overlaps with the above lists with addition of Prophet Mohammad (Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prophets_and_messengers_in_Islam)
• Prophets in Sikhism: 40 = 36 contributors to Shri Guru Granth Sahib  Ji (which includes Sikh Gurus, as well as some Hindu and Muslim saints of the Indian sub-continent) + 4 Sikh Gurus whose verses are not part of the Scripture (Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Writers_of_Guru_Granth_Sahib)

It is important to note that above numbers include actual historical figures, and historical records are available for most of them. Each of above people believed in a monotheistic God. Most of them were not college professors who are paid for writing new fancy theories, books and articles, nor were they arm-chair philosophers whose interest in theology was limited to a spirited conversation during free time, and neither were they conquerors interested in gaining territory and taxes. For most part they had normal lives, not unlike a passionate entrepreneur or scientist today, and they insisted to have a belief because they thought it is true. Also, some of the people in the above list actually had very difficult lives, and faced immense resistance during life for their beliefs, sometimes brutal resistance, but they still held on to their belief. What was the reason for their beliefs? Why did they continue to believe in what they believed, in spite of all the resistance that they faced?

There are three possibilities regarding a person's belief, the person believes in truth, the person believes in a delusion, or the person is lying. Each individual, including you and me, have to make a decision in our life regarding the beliefs of the people in the above list, whether it is true or not. I have made mine. I believe that the people in the above list believed in a truth when they said that there is one God, all powerful and creator of all there is. I have no reason to believe that they were either lying or were delusional.

There may be many aspects of their life which cannot be explained logically, or maybe some of the stories are fabricated or have turned into exaggerated myths, but is it not true with all history. It's always hard to tell in history what is true or what is not true. As for me, I am only interested in one aspect of the stories and myth, and that is that they all believed in one God, who is all powerful. I don't have enough time and resources in this life to validate all the other myths and stories that I hear and read about the different people in the above list, but it does not matter. Because I take the only unquestionable piece of information at face value, that is common in the belief of all the legendary people of the above list, and that is 'There is one God'.

So one of reasons why I believe in a monotheistic God is that everyone listed in the above list believed in a monotheistic God. It might seem a very weak reason in a society obsessed with individuality, but facts are true or false, and individuality is a misplaced concept when discussing accuracy of a potential fact (i.e. something or someone exists or does not exist irrespective how you or anyone else thinks about it). I have no reason to suspect that the belief of people in the above list was mistaken, and actually many aspects of their individual life and the effect that they had on society during their lifetime is awe inspiring (even if we do not consider the miracles associated with them, that cannot be logically explained). Many cults and kingdoms have come and gone, but affect of people in the above list has sustained through the test of time. That alone could be a good enough reason for most people to consider their teachings seriously.

-x-

Burden of proof?

One of the main point of contention between atheists and believers is that atheists insist that there is no conclusive and verifiable proof of the existence of God**. And they are correct, regarding objective proofs. Atheists claim that the burden of proof is on the believers to prove the existence of God.

Look at it from another perspective, if there is a verifiable objective proof of God's existence, then there would be no need for faith. If there is a verifiable proof, then everybody would believe in God, and fear God, and live a compliant life. Then not believing in God would be stupid and there would be no choice, no need for faith, no need for belief, as God's existence would be confirmed. A lot of drama in life would come to an end, many would even say that all drama in life would come to an end. 

If the headmaster is present in a class and the children know it,

They will not speak nor play, and would be all nervous and frozen stiff.

But this is not how this world seems to have been setup. The elusive nature of God seems to be by design. Please take a moment to stop and think about this, because faith is not about choice but about eternal destiny. Atheists, or scientists, or rationalists, or others did not design the world in which we exist. Nor does the world in which we exist needs to conform to any logical model conceivable to the human mind.

With existence of an objective proof faith and belief cease to be a virtue. I am not saying that faith is a virtue, but to believe in concepts taught be the prophets unquestionably is an essential part of any religion. Certainly there is every chance that a person starts believing in a prophet whose teachings may or may not deliver on their promise, or the student may not understand the teaching properly, and that is a constant persistent doubt in most believers. This is as if it adds different colors to the religious and spiritual landscape of society. This complicates the choices further, but again this seems to be by design - Nature is characterized by presence of extreme variety, and presence of many different schools of thoughts also conforms to this.

Coming back to the question of proof. The system of belief in this world seems to be such that glimpses of the unknown have been conveyed to few people, who are generally identified as prophets. And stories tell us that after their respective revelation the prophets lives did change, as they lived in awareness of God's presence, while rest of the people around them went on with their normal life oblivious of God. The drama of the world continued for people who were unaware of God's presence. Some people did heed the words of prophets. For others the life's test is to sift through the available teaching and paths, and try to find a way.

Life presents an endless maze of words and ideas,

Walk carefully picking your treasures,

Treasures of words, and faith, and belief,

Leave the wrong turns and take the right ones.

-x-

 **In this blog, by word God, I always refer to the Monotheistic ever present and all powerful God, the Creator of the world. I do not refer to the many different deities present in the many cultures and religions unless specifically highlighted.

-x-

Conflicting maps to the road in the afterlife? Does it matter?

Most of the Eastern religions believe in transmigration, that generally a soul undergoes continuous unending cycle of birth and death, out of which there is a way. While the religions of Mid-Eastern origin believe that after current human birth, the soul undergoes a final judgement with eternal consequence of having to live in either heaven or hell.

Once while discussing this with a friend, my friend pointed out that one of these two paths have to be correct and other incorrect (transmigration or final judgement). I disagreed, following are my reasons for the same.

Human mind requires simple straightforward theories, and complex things are generally simplified until they can be understood. Nature is complex. Founders of religions gave simple views to the nature of life and death that was enough for the disciples to understand the importance of current life, and to explain the intricacies of afterlife was not their primary goal, although they might have described some parts of it but not completely.

It is like traveling on a mountain road, and a sharp blind turn lies ahead. Different religions have put up different signposts of warning before the turn, and not all the signboards tell the same thing, but do have enough common highlights for a human mind to take notice and realize that something is coming. Following are some of the main common things written on the signposts:

1. Death is imminent, and will follow life
2. Our actions and choices in this life can have eternal consequences for personal soul
3. Eternal consequences can be desirable and undesirable, based on pain or joy that will be experienced in each of the possible consequences
4. Mortal would be well-advised to prefer a path of desirable consequences
5. Choice rests with an individual to choose a path, and work own salvation or its contrary, whatever it might be

Now, whether the warning messages on the signposts are correct or not, I don't know. I doubt any normal human being can give evidence for the above claims except for the first, which is obvious.

But is it not important to at least realize that almost all religions we know of have a warning about what's coming after the sharp blind turn on the mountain road, of what's coming after death? The details may differ but we will come to that later, but it is important to realize that there is a common thread of warning. My point is, is it not reason enough to at least take notice and investigate further.

Coming to the differences about the message on the signposts. They primarily deal with following:

1. Some religions say that a soul transmigrates life after life until final salvation or liberation is achieved, and other religions say soul has a final judgement after this life and experiences eternal heaven or hell based on the result of the judgement. Furthermore religions have difference of opinion on the nature of transmigration, heaven and hell.
2. Some religions say that a person could work out his/her own salvation, while other religions say that liberation is based on grace from God, or a saint, or some other way.

Regarding the first difference, for a normal human like me and you there is no way to find out the truth until after death, and then it apparently is too late to act on the information. It is a "Catch 22" situation. But does the difference really matter that much at this point in life, it is clear that the the mountain road has a sharp turn, and then after that there may be speed-breakers or other sharp turns, or a wall, we will know when we reach there. But the warning and religious instruction is for us to slow down right now, and probably reflect our best course of action as we inevitably approach the sharp and fatal turn on the high mountain road. But if a person does think about saving for the rainy day, or investing for retirement, or buying an insurance, and other things of the future, then sparing a thought on this matter may be good and possibly useful.

But, if one really needs to know the correct answer, then I believe there is no single correct answer:

There are too many paths and too many destinations, 

When the confused mind is looking for just one.

Not all rain drops from a cloud reach the ocean, 

They might after an eternity, but eternity can be long.

Regarding the second difference, it really is a personal decision based on the teaching that a person chooses to follow, and the destination that the teaching promises, along with the risk of actual effectiveness of the teaching in fulfilling its promise. Whether the path of choosing would work, I don't know:

Each to his own choice, burden and ferry.

-x-

Limits to science... can science be applied to everything (specially spirituality)?

Science by definition needs objective peer review to confirm validity of a phenomenon. Anything which cannot be objectively measured, or at least subjectively measured/observed by considerable number of people, is considered false or unscientific. In the current post we consider limits to application of science** to spiritual and/or religious experience.

The verifiable criteria for science is its strength and also it's weakness. It is, in a way, democratization of reality (more precisely, "democratization of our understanding of reality"), which neutralizes any possibility of outliers as unscientific, an anomaly. If an artist feels exhilaration while painting or performing a musical piece, but other people do not while doing the same thing, then is the artist's exhilaration fake (or unscientific) as it is not verifiable objectively (plugging in measuring equipment, assuming it can measure subjective experience, may cause change in artist's body parameters, by virtue of being plugged in)?

Reliance on peer review, approval and verification, also brings up an interesting possibility that "anything which cannot be peer reviewed and verified is beyond the scope of science, and science cannot be used to explain such phenomena as it is not equipped for it."

To elaborate, the scientific method has, when applied to spirituality, following main subjective steps (taken from Wikipedia diagram titled, "The scientific method as a cyclic or iterative process"):

1. Make observations
2. Develop testable predictions
3. Gather data to test predictions

Rest of the steps in the cyclic method are not considered for the purpose of present discussion. For the above steps, there is no reliable scientific equipment to measure subjective spiritual experience (not that I know of), and the human body/mind is the only way to make observations, gather data, and verify test results in such scenarios. The variations of human mind/body/mood/training/environment is so vast that it is difficult to measure any type of data reliably and make predictions. The same people attending the same classes display different characteristics. Experimental psychology and psychiatry have a very high level of approximation.

To add to the complexity of verifying spiritual experience, by definition spiritual experience has very low chance of manifesting itself (not everybody trying to hear from God does hear from God, but stories of prophets tell that they did hear from God, but it seemed like a special privilege). 

In a nutshell, the problem of applying science to spiritual/religious experience is "How can science be used to verify and explain sparsely occurring phenomena, for which there is no definite method to collect positive data" (positive data is that which can confirm the phenomena). We can say that a phenomena is just hearsay, or superstition because millions tried to get an experience but failed. But we need to remember that even if one of the persons who claim to have a spiritual experience is telling the 'truth', then it is real. And so perhaps the fact is that science is not mature enough to be applied to this particular set of problems.

Science is a very reliable hammer, but not every problem in the world is a nail.

Some religious and spiritual experience reported by few outliers may come in this category. No doubt there are more than enough false claims to fool the gullible, but even if there is a single 'genuine' claim, is that not a reason enough for further investigation.

To recap - as highlighted above, the most common equipment used to measure a subjective experience is the human body/mind itself. And going by the differences (physical and psychological) in the human body/mind as a measurement tool, there is a high degree of possibility that even true claims may remain unverifiable. How many times does it happen that in a jungle safari only a few people of the group may catch glimpse of an elusive animal in the act of a hunt, never to be seen again for a long time. Professional photographers have to pitch tent for years before they are able to get truly detailed pictures in some cases. How many of scientists are willing to pitch tent with same amount of patience for a glimpse of the unexplained, specially when there is no likelihood of getting a funding? Human subjects cannot measure/observe in equal capacity. This shortcoming is generally overcome by increasing number of subjects whose feedback is considered to reduce error and personal bias. But is voting a science (I called it voting because beliefs could potentially alter experience, so even if a person votes honestly, they might have experienced different things because of different beliefs)? Basically conventional science has little place for subjective phenomena, which is generally identified as an anomaly, but highlights the limitation of science also.

Another interesting aspect of a scientific claim is that it has to be falsifiable. So in effect all theories are true until we get sufficient data to disprove it, basically a theory is waiting to be invalidated as more data is gathered. A scientific theory is waiting to be replaced by a better theory. This brings up another interesting question - Can science really be used to explain and address absolute facts (absolute truths), as it might seem that there is no (or little) space for absolute facts/truths in science?**

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**Note: My knowledge of the "philosophy of science" is limited, but it is an interesting subject which deals with what science is and how reliable it can be. I would encourage rationalists (and atheists), the self proclaimed champions of science, to spend time understanding where science can be applied or cannot be applied, before they "bet the ranch" on reason and science.
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PS: The above post does not cover a person applying the scientific method on self, and systematically trying to understand personal experience which are of a spiritual/religious nature. I believe this should be possible (because the data gathering equipment remains same, the body and mind of self), but what may not be as effective is trying to get the resulting theories, which came out of personal experience, verified by the wider scientific community. So there is always the risk of misunderstanding a personal experience, due to lack of peer-verification.

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This may well be a path on which you have to walk alone,

For if you seek the comfort of company,

Know that you might be on a different path,

You alone need to convince your mind,

Of the truth that you can perceive,
But if you do find a like mind, do not forget gratitude.

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