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The discoures of Meher Baba Chapters 1 - The New
Humanity 1967 expanded release of God to Man and Man to God entitled The Discourses (Online edition) |
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God to Man and Man to God OF ALL THE OBJECTS of human knowledge, God is supreme, but mere theoretical study of God does not take an aspirant far towards knowledge of the purpose of human life, though it is better to study God than to be ignorant about his existence. He who seeks God intellectually is in a better state than a skeptic or an agnostic. But better than to study him through the intellect is to feel for God, though the feeling for him is much less than experience. However, even experience of God does not yield the true nature of divinity, because God as the object of experience remains different from and external to the aspirant. The true nature of God is known only when the aspirant attains unity with him by losing himself in his Being. Thus, it is better to study 'God than to be ignorant about him: it is better to feel for God than to study him; it is better to experience God than to feel for him; and it is better to become God than to experience him. The supreme certainty The state of God-realization is not marred by doubts, which cloud the minds of those in bondage. To be in bondage is to be in a state of uncertainty about "whence" and "whither"; the God-realized are at the heart of creation where the source and end of creation are known. The God-realized knows himself to be God as surely as a man knows himself to be a man. It is for him not a matter of doubt, belief, self-delusion or guesswork; it is a supreme and unshakable certainty, which needs no external corroboration and remains unaffected by contradiction because it is based upon self-knowledge. Such spiritual certainty is incapable of being challenged. A man thinks himself to be what in reality he is not; the God-realized knows what in reality he is. God-realization is the goal of creation. All earthly pleasure is a shadow of the eternal bliss of God-realization; all mundane knowledge is a reflection of the absolute truth of God-realization; all human might is but a fragment of the infinite power of God-realization. All that is noble, beautiful and lovely, all that is great and good and inspiring in the universe, is an infinitesimal fraction of the unfading and unspeakable glory of God-realization. The price of God-realization The eternal Bliss, the Absolute Truth, the Infinite Power, and the Unfading Glory of God-realization, are not to be had for nothing. The individualized soul has to go through the pain and struggle of evolution and reincarnations before it can inherit this treasure, and the price it has to pay, for coming into possession of it is its own existence as a separate ego. The limited individuality must disappear if there is to be entrance into unlimited existence individuality which is identified with a name and form creates a veil of ignorance before the God within; for this ignorance to disappear the limited individual has to surrender his limited existence. When he leaves not a vestige of his limited life, what remains is God. The surrender of limited existence is the surrender of these~ firmly rooted delusion of having a separate existence. It is not the surrender of anything real but of the false. Two aspects of the God-man When a person is crossing the inner planes and proceeding towards God-realization he becomes successively mentally detached from the physical, subtle and mental worlds as 'well as from his own physical, subtle and mental bodies. But after God-realization some souls again descend and become conscious of the whole creation as well as of their physical, subtle and mental bodies. They are known as God-men. God as God is not consciously man; and man as man is not consciously God: the God-man is consciously God and man. By becoming conscious of the creation, the God-man does not suffer deterioration in his spiritual status. What is spiritually disastrous is not mere consciousness of the creation, but the fact that the consciousness is caught up in creation because of sanskaras and is consequently submerged in ignorance. In the same way, what is spiritually disastrous is not mere consciousness of the bodies but identification with them owing to the sanskaras, which prevent the realization of the ultimate reality. The soul in bondage is tied to the worlds of forms by the chain of sanskaras, which creates the illusion of identifying the soul with the bodies. The disharmony within consciousness, and the perversions of the will arise out of sanskaric identification with the bodies, and are not merely due to consciousness of the bodies. Since the God-man is free from sanskaras, he is conscious of being different from his bodies, and uses them as instruments for the expression of the divine will in its purity. The changing shadow of God cannot affect God-consciousness The God-man knows himself to be infinite and beyond all forms. He remains conscious of the creation without being caught in it. The falseness of the phenomenal world consists in its not being understood as an illusory expression of the Infinite Spirit. Ignorance consists in taking the form as the thing. The God-man is conscious of the true nature of God, as well as of the true nature of creation without consciousness of duality, because for him creation is the changing shadow of God. The God-man, therefore, remains conscious of creation without loss of God-consciousness. He continues to work in the world of forms for the furtherance of the primary purpose of creation, which is to create self-knowledge or God-realization in every soul. The God-man works through the universal mind When the God-man descends into the world of forms from the impersonal aspect of God, he knows, feels and works through the universal mind. For him there is no longer the limited life of the finite mind, no longer the pains and the pleasures of duality, no longer the emptiness and vanity of the separate ego. He is consciously one with all life. Through his universal mind, he not only experiences the happiness of all minds, but their sufferings too; and since most minds have a preponderance of suffering, the suffering of the God-man, because of the condition of others, is greater than his happiness. Though his suffering is so great, the bliss of the God-state which he constantly enjoys supports him so that he remains unmoved by it. The merely individualized soul is without access to the infinite bliss of the God-state because affected by sanskaric happiness and suffering through identification with the individual and limited mind. The God-man does not identify himself even with the universal mind. He enters the universal mind for his mission in the world, uses it for his work without identification with it, and thus remains unaffected by the suffering or the happiness which comes to him through it. He dispenses with the universal mind when his work is done; but while working in the world through the universal mind, he knows himself to be the eternal God. The God-man is not affected by suffering Even when the God-man comes down into duality for his universal work, he is not separate from God. In his condition as man, he is on the level of men and eats, drinks and suffers as they do, but as he retains his Godhood, he experiences peace, bliss and power. Though Christ suffered on the cross, He knew that everything in the world of duality was illusion and in his suffering was sustained by union with God. As God, the God-man sees all souls as his own; he sees himself in everything, for the universal mind includes all minds. The God-man knows himself to he one with all other souls in bondage. Although he knows himself to be identic~al with God and thus eternally free, he also knows himself to be one with the souls in bondage and is thus vicariously bound: though he experiences the eternal bliss of God-realization, he also vicariously experiences suffering through the bondage of other souls. This is the meaning of Christ's crucifixion. The God-man is continuously being crucified, as He is continuously taking birth. In the God-man, the purpose of creation has been realized, and he has nothing to gain of added bliss by remaining in the world; yet he retains his bodies and uses them for emancipating souls from, bondage and helping them to attain God-consciousness. Even while working in the world of duality, the God-man is in no way limited by the duality of "I" and "Thou" which is swallowed up in all-embracing Divine Love. He has consciously descended from the state of seeing nothing but God to the state of seeing God in everything. His dealings in the world of duality not only do not bind him, they reflect the pristine glory of the sole reality which is God, and contribute towards freeing others from their state of bondage. |
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The discoures of Meher Baba Chapters 1 - The New
Humanity 1967 expanded release of God to Man and Man to God entitled The Discourses (Online edition) |
|
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