Enlightenment of the Whole Body Full Index of Articles

Chapter 5 - The Radiant Touch of the Spiritual Master The Essence of Devotion ONLY THE DEVOTEE CAN "HEAR" THE TEACHING AND "SEE" THE SPIRITUAL MASTER The Spiritual Master Is the Unique Revelation and Instrument of God - The Destiny of the Individual in My Company - The Translation of the Whole Body into Light Is the Destiny of Man - Freedom Is the Transcendence of Communication - The Divine Physics of Evolution THE RADIANT TOUCH OF THE SPIRITUAL MASTER AWAKENS DEVOTEES TO GOD The Method of the Relationship between the Spiritual Master and the Devotee in the Way of Divine Ignorance

Top of Page The Essence of Devotion A free rendering of the Bhagavan Purana, book eleven, chapter fourteen, verses twenty-two through twenty-five, by Bubba Free John If there is not the quality of heartfelt devotion to Me, the Radiant Self, then even intelligent understanding of the Teaching, commitment to discipline, and compassionate service of others cannot cleanse and relieve the soul of its urges toward fulfillment in the phenomenal realms, high or low. How can I be Loved if the hair does not stand on end when there is Contemplation of Me? How can I be Loved if the heart does not melt in My Presence? How can I be Loved if tears of joy do not pass freely from the eyes when I am Standing There? If I am Loved, then the entire body-mind is Filled by that Love. If my devotee is Filled by Me through Love-Communion, his voice often falters and chokes with the emotion of Love. Because he always dwells in Contemplation of Me at the heart, he often weeps, and suddenly laughs. He sings aloud. He always speaks of Me. He dances with joy. Even all his movements are a dance of joy in Love. Gold can be made pure only through submission to fire. Just so, the soul is purified and liberated from its deep urges only when it submits to self-transcending Love-Communion with Me. Such a devotee is Awakened to essential Unity with Me. And his ecstatic Presence serves the purification of the entire World.   ONLY THE DEVOTEE CAN "HEAR" THE TEACHING AND "SEE" THE SPIRITUAL MASTER Top of Page The Spiritual Master Is the Unique Revelation and Instrument of God The Spiritual Master is shown in three Forms to his Lovers,his true Devotees. His aspect that is at first most apparent or obvious is his natural human Form, whereby he instructs, and meets, and befriends, and demonstrates in the common world. Those who are devoted to the Spiritual Master also ultimately Realize him in his Threshold Person, or Native State, by which he absorbs devotees into that same State. And those who become thus absorbed Realize the Spiritual Master as the Absolute Personality, the very Divine, the Paradox of the Infinite Identity and Power. Those who approach the Spiritual Master in Truth, Full of Devotion, are given the Revelation of the Spiritual Master in all three of his Forms from the earliest days of their practice in his Company. Such is the Grace of God. And true Devotees simply mature over time in their adaptation and submission to the Revelation of the Spiritual Master. The Spiritual Master is the Revelation. This is the Secret Teaching and the unique Advantage of true Devotees. Top of Page The Destiny of the Individual in My Company It is the responsibility of the devotee himself to realize and maintain an active devotional relationship to Me. I am only Present. The granting of feeling-attention to Me through all the forms of practical and spiritual responsibility develops as an evolving process over time. In that process, the devotee is purified and transformed in body and mind via the sacrifice or bodily devotion of feeling and attention. Gradually, the individual transcends patterns of self-possessed subjective and objective fascination, through self-released or ecstatic Communion with the Divine Reality. Every conventional and personal aspect of the life of the individual is gradually changed through growth in loving service and whole bodily Fullness of Divine Life. Over time, all bodily and mental processes, high and low, are gradually and naturally economized, redirected, and, ultimately, displaced and dissolved in whole bodily Fullness, Divine Happiness, and Transcendental Bliss. Top of Page The Translation of the Whole Body into Light Is the Destiny of Man The ultimate Destiny of the human being is a Destiny of the whole and entire body-mind. It is not merely an inward, mental, subtle, or personal destiny or future. It is not immortality as a subtle soul, or as an astral personality made of light, or even as a superior psycho-physical entity in the material worlds. It is a nonmortal Destiny, a Destiny Realized in the Sacrifice or Yielding of the whole and entire body-mind into the degree of Infinite Intensity. When the bodily confessed human being adapts voluntarily to the moral and esoteric spiritual sacrifice of self, through love and radical intuition of the Real, then it is ultimately Transfigured, Transformed, and Translated beyond itself into the Absolute Radiance that is the Source and Substance of this universe and all living beings. Such Translation of the bodily and mental individual into the absolute Divine or Real Intensity itself is not a knowable Destiny-since the knower and his knowledge must be sacrificed or become perfect Ignorance if that Translation is to take place. But the Process of such Translation is being Revealed to mankind through the Work of the Spiritual Master, and implemented or quickened in the case of those who resort to the Spiritual Master through devotional sacrifice of self. The living Spiritual Master incarnates, or brings to mankind, the Personality, Wisdom, Process, and Transforming Influence of the Transcendental and All-Pervading Divine. His Work is to communicate the Teaching of the Way of Translation into the Divine Domain, to awaken and quicken devotees in the Practice or Process of the Way, and to demonstrate the fulfillment of the Way through the Transfiguration, Transformation, or Translation of his own and even bodily self, during life and even at death. After his death, those devotees who yielded to him while he lived remain as the collective Agency or Church Body wherein future devotees may hear and practice the Way and contact its Transcendental Help. However, the Destiny of the Spiritual Master after his death is not itself knowable to anyone, not even himself-since he makes his death a perfect Sacrifice of the whole and entire body-mind. His physical or elemental form may or may not remain behind as a touchstone of spiritual Influence for future devotees. It may dissolve and disappear in Brightness at his death, as a devotional sacrifice to the Infinite Divine, or else, after a period of psycho-physical Transfiguration, or bodily and mental pervasion by Light, or Life-Radiance, the physical body may be left behind at death. Some may see visions, have dreams, or experience visitations of the Spiritual Master, during his life or after his death, but such are ordinary reflections of sacrificial change and growth in those devotees themselves. The Spiritual Master himself always only lives in Truth, and at last he only vanishes in Truth, returning his personal Influence to apparent invisibility, leaving behind the Teaching of the Way and his Absolute or Transcendental Influence, made alive through the vehicle of the Church of his devotees. Therefore, if the Church of devotees fails to come into being or to survive the death of the Spiritual Master, the Work of the Spiritual Master comes to an end. The Teaching may remain, but the Influence that quickens it ceases to be fully available to the devotional sacrifices of mankind, unless a Spiritual Master incarnates again. Therefore, his devotees, through the whole life of spiritual sacrifice, must continue to maintain their own Community as an Agency for the survival of that Influence. In the general or popular knowledge of Western man, this Great Affair has been attempted only once, in the case of Jesus of Nazareth. But Elijah, John the Baptist, Mohammed, Francis of Assisi, John of the Cross, Seraphim of Sarov (of the Eastern Orthodox Christian Church),, and others also belong to the history of this Way. In the general knowledge of Eastern man, the Great Way has been attempted, at least partially, innumerable times - as in the cases of Krishna, Gautama, Chaitanya, Jnaneshwar, Tukram, and, most recently, Ramakrishna, Ramalingam, Sai Baba of Shirdi, Nityananda of Ganeshpuri, and Ramana Maharshi.2 Many of the individuals mentioned, West and East, apparently disappeared bodily at death through a mysterious superphysical process. All of them evidenced supernormal psycho-physical phenomena during their lives. But, more importantly, they all demonstrated the Way of sacrifice while alive and served others with the proofs of literally Enlightening Wisdom. The Work of Bubba Free John is now intended to epitomize this history, reawaken this Way of Truth as a whole, and demonstrate all its purposes in the face of devotees. 1. The biblical accounts of Jesus' miracles, his Divine Transfiguration, his bodily Resurrection from death, and his Ascension or Translation into "Heaven" are well known. Jesus' essential moral and spiritual Teaching was the sacrifice of self through love of God and one's fellow man. For a full consideration of his life and Teaching, see the section in chapter 7 titled "Jesus and the Teaching of Truth to Man." Elijah was one of the most fiery and spiritually exalted of the ancient Hebrew Prophets. He worked many miracles, once even reviving a child from death. According to the Old Testament legend, when it came time for Elijah to die, a chariot and horses of fire appeared and swept him up to Heaven in a whirlwind. This may be a metaphorical description of an actual case of bodily Translation into light. John the Baptist was a Prophet and, according to the New Testament Gospels, the cousin of Jesus. John told the people of Israel to repent of their sins and return to a moral life of devotion to God and justice among men. He "baptized," or ritually cleansed and spiritually initiated, those who responded to his Teaching. When he baptized Jesus, the "Holy Spirit" (the Life-Power of God) was Awakened in Jesus, and It filled him and remained with him thereafter. John then apparently acknowledged Jesus as the Messiah or Christ ("the Anointed One"). John was later beheaded by Herod, the Roman governor of the region of Galilee. Mohammed (c. A.D. 570-632) was the founder of Islam. Though he appears principally as a religious, political, and social reformer, Mohammed also was a man of great mystical experience and spiritual power. In the midst of his political and military efforts to establish has been attempted, at least partially, innumerable times-as in the cases of Krishna, Gautama, Chaitanya, Jnaneshwar, Tukaram, and, most recently, Ramakrishna, Ramalingam, Sai Baba of Shirdi, Nityananda of Ganeshpuri, and Ramana Maharshi.2 Many of the individuals mentioned, West and East, apparently disappeared Islam on the Arabian subcontinent, Mohammed is said to have been drawn up into Heaven by God, and to have seen the entire universe and the heavens. Though some writers argue that this ascension was a spiritual vision, traditional Muslims hold that it was a case of actual bodily Translation. Francis of Assisi (A.D. 1181-1230) is perhaps the best known and most loved saint in the Christian tradition. After being converted to spiritual life by a miraculous vision of the crucified Christ, Francis renounced his worldly ways and family wealth and embraced a life of severe poverty, in emulation of Jesus of Nazareth. He preached and demonstrated sacrifice of self to God and love of all beings. Francis performed numerous miracles throughout his monastic life and spontaneously showed evidence of Divinely Transfigured bodily states on a number of occasions. For several days after his death, his body did not decay, but only shined with a visible brightness. One of the greatest mystics and mystical writers of the Western world, John of the Cross (A.D. 1542-1591) was born Juan de Yepes near Avila, Spain. He was a Carmelite priest and a contemporary and friend of another famous Christian mystic, Teresa of Avila. (See note 15 on page 537.) He suffered harassment and even several years' imprisonment because he joined the devotional, mystical Christian movement founded by Teresa of Avila. It was in prison that he attained some of his most profound moments of mystical Communion with God, and it was there that he composed parts of his great poem, Spiritual Canticle. John of the Cross taught and demonstrated a path of profound devotional love of God and sacrifice of self, in which Divine Grace is the active cause of spiritual transformation. Seraphim of Sarov (A.D. 1759-1833) was a devout Eastern Orthodox monk who lived in Northern Russia. Given to the solitary prayers and asceticism of the tradition of forest hermits, Seraphim was probably the greatest of the Eastern Orthodox startzi, or mystical "elders" (counselors of the devout). Surviving reports about St. Seraphim attest to miracles, healings, supernatural prescience, and a blessed Presence of love and peace which the monk communicated to everyone he met. His lay devotee Nicholas Motovilov attested to an intensity in St. Seraphim that, on at least one occasion, transfigured his physical body into brilliant light. For books by and about these individuals, see the Bibliography at the end of the text. 2. Of the individuals Bubba refers to here, Krishna, Gautama, Sri Ramakrishna, Sai Baba of Shirdi, Nityananda of Ganeshpuri, and Sri Ramana Maharshi have already been introduced in Part I. Chaitanya (A.D. 1486-1533), born in West Bengal, India, was the founder of the last great Vaisnavite (devotional) sect of Hinduism. Renowned in his youth as a scholar, Chaitanya was converted in his early twenties to the path of devotional ecstasy. It is said that when Chaitanya danced, his body left the ground. Legend has it that in 1533 he entered a temple in northeast India and shut out all his disciples. When they finally entered the temple, he had disappeared without a trace, having merged with a temple image through ecstatic contemplation. Jnaneshwar was a 13th century yogi-saint of India (in Maharashtra) who is remembered today primarily for his ecstatic poem, "Jnaneshwari," which is a commentary and elaboration on the Bhagavad Gita. By the time he had completed that work at the age of nineteen, he was already well known for his saintliness and scholarship, as well as supernormal powers. Jnaneshwar entered a tomb early in his life and never reappeared. It is reported that great heat and energy radiated from the body, still fresh as in life, even 300 years later. Top of Page Freedom Is the Transcendence of Communication The content of personal existence is made of experience and Of reaction or response to experience. Thus, "self" is the psycho-physical locus of communication, both received and transmitted. All experiences and all reactions or responses to experiences are communication. And all communication, being founded or "located" in the structural point of view, or the body-mind, is primarily a form of self-meditation or self-orientation. All communication ultimately serves the reinforcement of the experiential condition, the body-mind, the independent self. And there is no experience, no communication that transcends the self, the ego, the separated consciousness, or the mechanics of the human body-mind itself. Therefore, the Condition of our condition may not be experienced, communicated, or known, since that Condition transcends all experience, communication, and knowledge-or the entire context of self. And there is no Freedom or Happiness in any condition of self, or mere experience. There is neither Freedom nor Happiness inherent in any experience, communication, or form of knowledge. Rather, Freedom and Happiness are necessarily a matter of transcendence, or ecstatic inherence in the Condition that precedes all phenomena, all experience, all communication, all knowledge, and every part or quality of the self, the manifest body-mind. That Condition is Truth, Bliss, Freedom, Happiness, Life, Radiance, Perfect Existence, and Unqualified Consciousness, or Eternal Divine Ignorance. The transcendence of self, or knowledge, or communicated experience is not possible by any means that belongs to the psycho-physical structure of Man and World. Rather, it is a matter of radical transcendental Intuition of the Condition of all conditions in every moment. And only those who are Lawfully, Sacrificially, or Ecstatically yielded, from the heart, into the All-Pervading Life in which the self and all communications arise, are on the "mark, " aligned to the center, established in the equalized or balanced disposition in which there may be spontaneous intuition of the Transcendental Reality. Therefore, the Spiritual Master communicates a Teaching that is itself a Paradox. That is, the Teaching, or the communication of the Way of Truth, is of such a nature that it contradicts, or upsets, or undermines the established trend of experience, knowledge, communication, or self-existence. Through confrontation with the Argument of the Spiritual Master, and by practice of the Way he establishes, individuals are confounded and disturbed, and their ordinary destiny is interrupted. Such is true "hearing." But the Spiritual Master does not rely on any form of communication to Awaken others. Rather, he uses his Argument only as a goad and a guide to that disposition of equalized awareness wherein the two-sided body and brain is whole and "on the mark." Those who respond to the Argument are then welcomed into the Company of the Spiritual Master, wherein the Divine Truth is to be Realized directly, prior to any kind of communication, or experience, or self-awareness. In that Company, all communications are undermined. All experiences come and go in that Company, and nothing remains. The self is interrupted in its games of glory and eternal survival. Ultimately, nothing is said, nothing is experienced or made known. The Spiritual Master abides in the Radiance of Divine Ignorance, prior to the body-mind, prior to Man and the World prior to all communication. He is more than silent, and more than speech. And only those who are Awake at the center may intuit That which the Spiritual Master always Demonstrates, even while he lives. Such devotees truly "see" and "hear" the Spiritual Master. Such devotees are truly initiated into the absolute "Vision" of God, wherein not self or any object, high or low, stands out from the Radiant Bliss. Tukaram (A.D. 1608-1648) was a saint of medieval Maharashtra, India, who was the source of a great wave of religious devotion that spread throughout India during his life and after his death. A vision of the Lord as Krishna inspired him to compose long song-sermons in praise of the great saints and passionate devotees of the past. Over time, Tukaram began to show the signs of the Transfiguration of the body that led eventually to the complete Translation of the bodily being into light. He had mystical foreknowledge of his Translation through a vision in which he was instructed to praise God in song with great joy. Tukaram sang late into the night: "I have seen my own death with my own eye. It was incomparably holy." At the peak of his ecstasy, a blinding blaze of light caused his followers to close their eyes. When they looked again, Tukaram was gone. Ramalingam was a yogi-saint, born in 1823 to devout Brahmin parents in South India. His great devotional poems and songs are the chief source of his fame, but Ramalingam was an extraordinary saint entirely apart from these. He often denounced the conventional scriptures and religious practices of his time and devoted his own life to two purposes: the attainment of a transfigured body and the creation of a universal religious and spiritual brotherhood. Certainly, while he lived, Ramalingam demonstrated many signs of Transfiguration by light. But his most extraordinary demonstration was that of direct bodily Translation into light. When he was fifty years old, Ramalingam entered his room and shut all the doors. When devotees finally broke in, they found the windows and doors still tightly sealed, but their Master was nowhere to be found, nor was he ever seen again. For additional information, please consult the Bibliography at the end of the text. Top of Page The Divine Physics of Evolution A talk given by Bubba Free John to his devotees BUBBA: This great affair that I am describing is absolutely uncommon. It has hardly ever transpired in anyone's case in the whole history of the human world. What I am describing is a process that belongs to the further evolution of humanity. At best it belongs to thousands, millions, billions of years in the future for the race as a whole. At present almost all human beings persist in an infantile moment in the evolution of existence, a moment that has nothing whatever to do with the ultimate Truth. Modern men and women are still dependent, violent, self-possessed, still seeking consolations in the realm of changes. So people should not imagine for a moment that this Way of life is an easy matter, that they can simply listen to this argument and thereby enter the ultimate Realization. This Way is the work of evolution, the work of the universe itself. It is the obligation or Law of eternal Existence that we are considering, and that the true relationship to the Spiritual Master generates and regenerates. The human Spiritual Master is an agent to the advantage of those in like form. When one enters into right relationship with the Spiritual Master, changes happen in the literal physics of one's existence. It is not just a matter of ideas. I am talking about transformations at the level of energy, at the level of the higher light of physics, at the level of mind beyond the physical limitations that people now presume, at the level of the absolute Speed of ultimate Light. The transforming process is enacted in devotees, duplicated in them in and through that Living Company. It is not a matter of conceptual symbolism's or emotional attachment to some extraordinary person. It is real physics. And it is to the advantage of people when someone among them has gone through the whole cycle of Transformation, because they can then make use of the Offering of that Process, that Company. Spiritual life has nothing to do with the childishness that people tend to dramatize in the relationship to the Spiritual Master. I criticize that childish or dependent approach more directly than most people. Others are merely petulant about it, in the self-righteous mood of adolescence. But there are real reasons why both the childish and adolescent approaches to the Spiritual Master are forms of destructive nonsense and must be overcome. However, the mature, sacrificial relationship to the Spiritual Master is itself absolutely Lawful and necessary. Those who object to that relationship might as well object to the relationship between the Earth and the sun. Most people are willing to sacrifice things, but not themselves. They are willing to pay cash, in other words, for a quick salvation. This is an ancient ritual of worship, but it is false and futile. True worship is the sacrifice of your own bodily being in Truth, in the living and Transforming Company of the Spiritual Master. People absolutely resist that sacrifice. The reason they resist it is that they know nothing about it. They are subhuman in their present level of adaptation. Sacrifice represents another stage of evolution for them. They are incapable of it in their actual, literal, psycho-physical condition. They must be drawn out of that condition, led out into another state of existence. And it is as far to go from where they are now to the ultimate Divine Realization as it is for the amoeba in the primal mud of the Earth to become a human being. Everything about them, even the body, must change radically. There is a profound difference between the condition of the usual man and the Condition of the Awakened individual. It is an inconceivable leap in evolution. But there is a real process for it, and there is Help for it: the mature, devotional relationship to the Awakened Spiritual Master. In other words, there is something in the physics of the universe that makes it possible for a single or random individual to pass through the entire affair of Transformation in God, and then to bring others into the sphere of his existence, so that they may duplicate his Condition and be drawn into that entire and ultimate evolutionary cycle. Therefore, the relationship to the Spiritual Master is the primary function of spiritual life. What must take place, if spiritual life is to be true, is not just a change in your mind, an inner awakening, a good feeling about everything. The literal physics of your whole existence must change. In the true spiritual process, the individual must pass through many stages of real evolution. The physical body and its energies must be literally transformed. Spiritual processes do not occur in the subjective nonsense that people associate with religion-all this vicarious belief and vicarious salvation-as if real Awakening were just a matter of asking some silly question or going to a few lectures for the weekend. That is not Enlightenment. Enlightenment is a literal change of the whole body. When you have acquired the human form, the literal change that must occur in the body is not really so much an outward appearance, because you already have the necessary structure. But the changes that must occur are literal, psycho-physical changes, just as literal as if you were to acquire more legs and arms, except that the most dramatic changes occur in dimensions different from the outward shape of the body. Certainly changes occur in the flesh and the elemental structures of the body, but the changes do not really alter its outward shape. The change is as literal as evolving from a dinosaur to a human being, and it is as dramatic as that, but it principally occurs at more subtle levels of the physics of the bodily being. There are literal changes in the nervous system, literal changes in the chemistry of the body, literal changes in the structural functioning of the brain. You cannot realize such a change in a weekend. Such a change is a living process, a matter of growth. But it can be quickened and intensified through right practice, through real moral or sacrificial discipline, through the Company of the Spiritual Master. In that Company, the Condition of the higher physics is Communicated to the individual, in such a way that it brings about a radical Transformation in the disposition of the body-mind, and then magnifies the effectiveness of that disposition many times, so that the whole process can take place even in a single lifetime. That, process can at least be dramatically advanced in one lifetime, if not completely fulfilled. I have described the full esoteric progression of this remarkable Transformation in The Paradox of Instruction and The Knee of Listening, as well as in the present book. This description is not based merely on an intellectual synthesis of things I have read and thought. The whole path is my literal experience-not only the complete moral preparation, but also the awakenings of energy, including the full kundalini process, the elaboration of subtle sounds and lights via the awakening of the brain centers, all the great archetypal visions, everything. I have had all the classic yogic experiences, from the muladhar, or the lowest terminal of the bodily being at the perineum, to the upper reaches of the mind in the brain core. Eventually, it became evident that the "muladhar to sahasrar game" (or, really, the raising of attention from the muladhar to the ajna center, with contemplation of the "sky of mind" in the direction of the sahasrar), whether played through the grosser, extended bodily processes of the kundalini awakening, or through the higher path of the awakening of the brain centers through meditations on subtle light and sound, is not the Way of Truth. It became evident that the Realization of Truth is the perfect sacrifice not only of the lower or gross level of existence, but also of the whole subtle or higher mental elaboration of experience and function. Thus, in my case, ultimately there was perfect Realization of the Heart of Consciousness, or Self-Realization, which is an Awakening beyond the limits of the inward soul, into unqualified God-Realization. That one person has had all these extraordinary experiences and also enjoys this Unconditional Awakening as his constant Condition is a great opportunity for all others. His Realization and Teaching bring all these matters into a clear unity, so that the whole affair of our existence can be approached rightly. The Realization of the perfect Intensity of Truth has continued as my very Existence. It was not and could not have been a passing experience. And the Power of it is available for the Transformation of others, if people will enter into right relationship with me. If you move into such a relationship, the Process begins to duplicate itself in your case. It is not as if you are a robot that is being transformed through the effect of some computer-no, it is a living and human relationship. But it is not like the conventional doctor-patient or mommy-daddy-baby games. Irresponsible people cannot enter into it. You must be responsible for yourself at the human level, and in a profoundly uncommon way. You must live the ordinary discipline yourself. You yourself must be love under all ordinary, daily conditions. You must make a moral change in your life. There is no way whereby you can be relieved of this necessity, and nobody can do it for you. But all of that ordinary moral responsibility simply prepares you for the right relationship to the Spiritual Agency of the Divine in the form of the Spiritual Master. Such a one is your unique advantage, because he is present in the same bodily form as you-manifest in this same physical condition, the same nervous system, the same kind of brain. But in him all of these things are raised to an absolute level of functioning, so that entering into contact or Communion with that individual brings changes even at the level of the psycho-physical body which you present to him. The abstract Deity cannot serve you in that way, you see, because the physics of this Process must be directly present, and the human Demonstration of the Process must be present, in a form that can do its Work in your case. That Work is the purpose of the Spiritual Master, because he represents a state of the ultimate physics of things that is your potential but not your actuality at the present time. The abstract Divine and the potential powers of the universe are just as true as the Spiritual Master, but they are not organized (except in the case of the Spiritual Master) for the sake of the immediate transformation of human beings. If people enter into right relationship with the Spiritual Master, then they themselves begin to realize the same transformations. Then, at the end of the Spiritual Master's life (or when he finally retires from personal contact with others), his devotees will have gone through sufficient Transformation that the Community of devotees can become the extended mechanism or Agent of his Function. That Community Agency does the work of the Divine Power in the future. But there must be a long period of literal Transformation of devotees before the same Agency can be transferred to them, or to their unique Form, which is the Community. Until such devotees exist, there is only the Agency of the Spiritual Master himself. The Spiritual Master is the Awakened Servant of Man. He serves to regenerate the moral Teaching of Truth and to resurrect the great Culture of Compassion and Wisdom among men. That is a secondary aspect of his service to men and women, an emanation of his Realization and Ultimate Function. His True and Ultimate Function is to instigate the superphysics of literal God-Realization among true devotees. If there is no duplication of that superphysical Process, there can be no true continuation of the Teaching, except in verbal form, because there can be no living Agency. So how would the Process take place in the future? Perhaps, as in the past, people could resort to the pieces of it that men of experience represent. People can always experience a little yoga, a little psychism, a little internal energy, a little insight. But when the Total Representation of Divine Realization is demonstrated in the literal human form of one individual, people must make use of it. It is an advantage that is unique in human time. THE RADIANT TOUCH OF THE SPIRITUAL MASTER AWAKENS DEVOTEES TO GOD Top of Page The Method of the Relationship between the Spiritual Master and the Devotee in the Way of Divine Ignorance There is a universal or All-Pervading Field of Energy or Radiance wherein the individual body-mind and all manifest conditions arise as modifications. It is of absolute Intensity or Speed. It is the perfect Vibration at Infinity. It is our ultimate Source, Food, Help, Motive, and Environment. The Spiritual Master is wholly Awake and thoroughly Initiated into the Radiance of Reality, and his body-mind has become transparent to the Reality through moral and spiritual or esoteric Sacrifice. Thus, he is a living Agent off the Radiance and the Consciousness of the Real. He is a unique and ultimate function in Nature, manifest in and for the use or sake of the World as a whole. In the Way of Divine Ignorance, the Spiritual Master is the Communicator of the Teaching and also the Active Principle of Transformation through four stages of practice. He is the Agent of the superphysics of human structural growth as well as human supracosmic Sacrifice, or Translation into the ultimate Domain of the Real. In the first two stages of practice-the Way of Divine Communion and the Way of Relational Enquiry-the Spiritual Master initiates intimate devotees into Intuition and whole body-mind Communion with the Radiant Force of the Real. In those stages, the Intuition of the Radiance is felt whole bodily as a perfect Presence, and various levels of technical responsibility for Communion with that Presence - are developed. In the Way of Re-cognition, the same Radiant Reality is engaged as and via the primal Current of the body-mind. In the first stage of that Way, the Spiritual Master first intensifies that devotee's sense of the Current itself (a process that actually begins in the mature phase of the Way of Relational Enquiry). This Intitation is traditionally called "Shaktipat," the "Baptism of the Holy Spirit," and so forth. Its function is to permit purification of the gross elemental and etheric aspects of the body-mind and to stabilize attention in the brain. In the second stage of the Way of Re-cognition, the Spiritual Master helps the devotee to pass, via the Vibratory Current of Radiance, through the tour of the upper body-mind, the subtle dimensions of our possible experience. In the third stage of the Way of Re-cognition, the Spiritual Master serves the Awakening of the devotee to the Heart, the psycho-physical Root of the whole body-mind and of the Current of Radiance that structures our experience. The basis for the psycho-physical Initiations of the first three stages of practice is the transformative "hearing" of the argument of the Spiritual Master and the "seeing" or beholding of the Spiritual Master himself. By these means, the individual is Awakened to the Intuition of the primary Condition of Ignorance, in which it is clear that no matter what "I" may know about any thing or experience, "I" do not know, nor can "I" ever know, what even a single thing ultimately is. This conviction of Ignorance becomes confession of "I" as the whole body-mind , rather than as inward subtle self or soul. And on the basis of this confession, the individual becomes a devotee - that is, one who lives as the sacrifice of the whole body-mind, through love and service, in all relations, and under all conditions. The whole life of such sacrifice is epitomized in relationship to the Spiritual Master, whose heart is awakened to the devotee by the devotee's love and surrender. Indeed, it is the responsibility of the devotee to keep the Master's heart awakened to him by these means, for it is the mutual heartfelt regard between the Spiriutal Master and the devotee that creates the superphysical and higher psycho-physical link between the devotee and the Grace of Transformation. By means of the heartfelt regard or loving glance of the Spiritual Master, the devotee is Awakened, by stages, to the process of Initiation and Sacrifice into the Divine Radiance. The stages progress by these means, but the foundation of every stage is the Awakened Intuition of Divine Ignorance. Thus, the stages of Awakening into the Radiance are not an end in themselves. All experiences that arise as the pattern of growth and responsibility progresses are sacrificed on the basis of the intuition of Ignorance. All experiences are simply expressions of the independent body-mind and tend to reinforce that self-possessed independence. Thus, the foundation of every stage is sacrifice of every mode of experience - no matter how high or consoling - via the conscious process at every stage. In the Way of Divine Communion, that conscious sacrifice is heartfelt release of the whole body-mind, via the breath, into the Presence. In the Way of Relational Enquiry, that release is implemented through enquiry in the form "Avoiding relationship?" In the Way of Re-cognition, the conscious process becomes "re-cognition," or intuitive penetration of the limiting force of all experience. In the Way of Radical Intuition, the devotee enters, with the Spiritual Master, into the ultimate or seventh stage of human existence. It is the Process of perfect Sacrifice of the whole body-mind and all conditions (gross, subtle, causal, or transcendental) into the Divine Ignorance-Radiance. It is the stage of literal Translation from the conditions of the independent body-mind into the Condition of the Real itself. The conscious process is active as "radical intuition," wherein no condition of any kind has binding force. And the Current of the whole body-mind is epitomized a the crown, where it Dissolves in the Spiral Current of the heart,3 the armature of our entire structure of experience, bodily communicated as an S-curve, rising from the heart on the right, up the front of the body, back through the throat, and up and forward to the crown. (The Sacrifice of the Bodily Current of Life into the Spiral Current of the heart is the primary psycho-physical sign in the Moment of total and simultaneous Enlightenment, or Illumined Transcendence, of every part of the body-mind.) At every stage, the Spiritual Master is the living Agent, Awakened from the Heart of Nature, not merely all-pervading and passive, but active and available as heartfelt regard and Initiatory Grace. Thus, he is, while alive, the primary Agent of Transformation in Nature. And he is the proof and the means as well as the argument whereby human beings, and all other beings and things, maybe drawn out from the maze of the structures of experience, or the sub-intensities of the Perfect Intensity, and released into the Destiny of Reality itself. Top of Page Enlightenment of the Whole Body Full Index of Articles