The Everything and the Nothing

Teachings

The principle teaching of Upasni Maharaj was that there are three things that make life worth living: ^[2]

17. Don't trouble others

18. Become useful to others, even if it costs you suffering.

19. Always remain content and in the state of Be as it may.

Master to Meher Baba

Upasni Maharaj was the principle teacher of Meher Baba. Baba lived in the Sakori ashram with Upasni for seven years, starting at the age of 20, from 1914 until 1921. According to Baba, Upasni Maharaj gave him divine knowledge after he received God-realization in 1913 at the age of nineteen from Hazrat Babajan. ^[3] After an absence of nearly 20 years Meher Baba and Upasni Maharaj met for the last time on October 17, 1941 in Dahigaon, a small village in Niphad Taluka in the Nashik District of Maharashtra, just two months prior to Upasni's death.

Meher Baba at Sakori Ashram with Godavari Ma and other girls

References

7. ^ Meher Prabhu: Lord Meher, The Biography of the Avatar of the Age, Meher Baba, Bhau Kalchuri, Manifestation, Inc. 1986.

8. ^ The Talks of Shri Sadguru Upasni Maharaj. 1950

9. ^ The God-Man, C.B. Purdom, London Allen & Unwin Ltd. 1964.

Further reading

· Shepherd, Kevin R.D. Gurus Rediscovered: Biographies of Sai Baba of Shirdi and Upasni Maharaj of Sakori. Anthropographia Publications 1986.

External links

· Online biography with many pictures

· Sree Swami

· Lord Meher

· Online audio files of discourses of Upasni Maharaj

· Final meeting of Meher Baba and Upasni Maharaj (Photos)

· Final meeting of Meher Baba and Upasni Mahara 2j (Photos)

* * *

 

God to Man and Man to God, edited by C.B. Purdom, 1955

 

Discourses (ISBN 1-880619-09-1) is a book by Indian spiritual teacher Meher Baba, published by Sheriar Foundation in 1995.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discourses_(Meher_Baba)

http://discoursesbymeherbaba.org/

http://www.ambppct.org/meherbaba/Books_by_Meher_Baba.php

 

* * *

 

God to Man
and
Man to God.

Edited by C. B. Purdom (Fragments)

God to Man and Man to God

The discoures of
Meher Baba

Edited by C. B. Purdom
London, Victor Gollancz LTD, 1955

 

http://www.beezone.com/GodtoMan/god_to_man_and_man_to_god_.html

 

This is an ongoing project:

 

Chapter I - The New Humanity

Chapter II - The search for God

Chapter III - God - Realization

Chapter IV - Aspirants and God Realized Beings

Chapter V - The State of the God Man

Chapter VI - The Work of the God Man

Chapter VII - Avatar

Chapters VIII - XXXIII

 

God to Man and Man to God
The discourses of Meher Baba
Edited by C. B. Purdom
London, Victor Gollancz LTD, 1955

Chapter III

GOD-REALIZATION

 

ARRIVE AT self knowledge is to arrive at God-realization. God-realization is different from all other states of consciousness because they are experienced through the medium of the individual mind, whereas God-consciousness is not dependent upon the individual mind. A medium is necessary for knowing anything other than one's self: for knowing one's self no medium is necessary. In fact, the association of consciousness with the mind is a hindrance to the attainment of realization. As the seat of the ego the individual mind is conscious of being isolated. From it arises the limited individuality, which at once feeds and is fed by the illusion of duality, time and change. To know the self as it is, consciousness has to be freed from the limitation of the individual mind. In other words, the individual mind has to disappear while consciousness is retained.

 

Throughout the life history of the soul its consciousness grows 'with the individual mind and the workings of consciousness proceed against its background. Consciousness comes to be firmly embedded in the individual mind. So when the mind is in abeyance consciousness also disappears. The interdependence of the individual mind and consciousness is illustrated by the tendency to become unconscious when there is any effort to stop mental activity through meditation.

 

The explanation of sleep

 

The phenomenon of sleep is not essentially different from the lull of consciousness experienced during meditation, though it is different in origin. As the individual mind is continuously confronted by the world of duality it is involved in conflict, and when wearied by its struggle it wants to lose its identity as a separate entity. It then recedes from the world of its own creation and experiences a cessation of consciousness.

 

The quiescence of mental activity in sleep entails the submerging of consciousness, but this cessation of conscious functioning is temporary because the impressions that are stored in the mind cause it to return to renewed activity, and after some time the psychic stimuli are responsible for reviving conscious functioning. So sleep is followed by wakefulness and wakefulness by sleep, according to the law of alternating activity and rest; but so long as the latent impressions in the mind are not undone there is no annihilation of the individual mind or emancipation of consciousness. In sleep the mind temporarily forgets its identity, but does not lose its individual existence. And when the person awakens from sleep he finds himself subject to his existing limitations. There is resurrection of consciousness, but it remains mind-ridden.

 

The obstacle of the ego

 

The limited mind is the soil in which the ego is rooted; and the ego perpetuates ignorance through the many illusions in which it is caught. The ego prevents the manifestation of infinite knowledge already latent in the soul, and is the most formidable obstacle in the attainment of God. A Persian poem says, "It is extremely difficult to pierce through the veil of ignorance; for there is a rock on fire". As the flame of fire cannot rise very high if a rock is placed upon it, a desire to know one's own true nature cannot lead to the truth as long as the burden of the ego lies upon consciousness. Success in finding oneself is rendered impossible by the ego, which persists throughout the journey of the soul. Though more and more detached as the soul advances on the Path, it remains until the last stage of the seventh plane.

 

The ego is the centre of human activity, and the attempts of the ego to secure its own extinction may be compared with the attempt of a man to stand on his own shoulders. Just as the eye cannot see itself, the ego is unable to end its own existence. All that it does to bring about self-annihilation only adds to its existence, for it flourishes on the very efforts directed against itself. Thus it is unable to vanish through its own activity, though it succeeds in transforming its nature. The vanishing of the ego is conditioned by the melting away of the limited mind which is its seat.

 

The meaning of God-realization is the emancipation of consciousness from the limitations of the mind. When the individual mind is dissolved, the related universe vanishes, and consciousness is no longer tied to it. Consciousness then becomes unclouded and is illumined by the Infinite Reality. While immersed in the bliss of realization the soul is oblivious of objects in the universe and in this respect it is as it were in sound sleep. But there are many important differences between God-realization and sleep. During sleep, the illusion of the universe vanishes since consciousness is in abeyance; but there is no conscious experience of God since this requires the dissolution of the ego and the turning of full consciousness towards the Ultimate Reality. Occasionally when the continuity of deep sleep is interrupted, the soul may have the experience of retaining consciousness without being conscious of anything in particular. There is consciousness, but not of the universe. It is consciousness of nothing. Such experiences anticipate God-realization in which consciousness is freed from the illusion of the universe and manifests the infinite knowledge hidden by the ego.

 

Difference between sleep and God-realization

 

In sleep the individual mind continues to exist though it forgets everything including itself, and the latent impressions in the mind are a veil between the submerged consciousness and the Infinite Reality. Thus during sleep consciousness is submerged in the shell of the individual mind, but has not yet been able to emerge out of that shell. So though the soul has forgotten its separateness from God and has attained unity with him, it is unconscious of unity. In God-realization, however, the mind does not merely forget itself but has (with all its impressions) lost its identity; and the consciousness hitherto associated with the individual mind is freed from trammels and brought into direct unity with the Ultimate Reality. Since there is no veil between consciousness and the Ultimate Reality, the soul is fused with the Absolute, and eternally abides in knowledge and bliss.

 

The manifestation of infinite knowledge and unlimited bliss in consciousness is, however, confined to the soul that has attained God-realization. The Infinite Reality in the God-realized soul has the knowledge of its own Infinity; but such knowledge does not belong to the unrealized soul, still subject to the illusion of the universe. If God-realization were not a personal attainment, the entire universe would come to an end as soon as one man attained God-realization. This does not happen, because God-realization is a personal state of consciousness belonging to the one who has transcended the domain of the mind. Others continue to remain in bondage, and can attain it only by freeing their consciousness from the burden of the ego and the limitations of the individual mind. Thus God-realization has a direct significance only for the one who has emerged from the time-process.

 

What was latent in the infinite becomes manifest

 

After the attainment of God-realization, the soul discovers that it has always been the Infinite Reality, and that its looking upon itself as finite during the period of evolution and spiritual advancement was an illusion. The soul also finds that the infinite knowledge and bliss that it enjoys have been latent in the Infinite Reality from the beginning of time and that it became manifest at the moment of realization. Thus the God-realized person does not become different from what he was before realization. He remains what he was: the difference that realization makes in him is that while previously he did not consciously know his true nature, he now knows it. He knows that he has never been anything other than what he now knows himself to be, and that he has been through a process of self-discovery.

 

The process of attaining God-realization is a game in which the beginning and the end are one. The attainment of realization is nevertheless a distinct gain. There are two kinds of advantages. One consists in getting what we did not previously possess; the other consists in realizing what we really are. God-realization is of the second kind. However, there is an infinite difference in the soul that has God-realization and one that has not. Though the soul that has God-realization has nothing it did not already possess, its explicit knowledge makes God-realization of the highest significance. The soul that is not God-realized experiences itself as finite, and is constantly troubled by the opposites of joy and sorrow. But the soul that has realization is lifted out of them and experiences the Infinite.

 

In God-realization, separate consciousness is discarded and duality is transcended in the abiding knowledge of identity with the Infinite Reality. The world of shadows is at an end and the curtain of illusion is for ever drawn. The distress of the pursuits of limited consciousness is replaced by the tranquillity and bliss of truth-consciousness and the restlessness of temporal existence is swallowed up in the peace of eternity.

 

* * *

 

Chapter IV

ASPIRANTS AND GOD REALIZED BEINGS

 

BEFORE GOD REALIZATION advanced aspirants pass through states of consciousness that are akin to the state of God realization. For example, Mad Masts and saints of the higher planes are completely desireless and immersed in the joy of God intoxication:

 

since their only concern is God, they become the recipients of the happiness that is characteristic of the God state. They have no beloved except God. They have no longing except for God. For them, God is the only reality. They are unattached except to God, and remain unaffected by pleasures and pains. They are happy because they are face to face with the Divine Beloved.

 

Different states of aspirants

 

Advanced aspirants not only participate in some of the privi leges of the divine state, they also possess occult powers and per ceptions. They belong to different types according to the kind of powers they possess. For example, on the first plane, the aspirant sees lights and colours, smells perfumes and hears the music of the subtle world. Those who advance further see and hear at any distance. Some see the entire physical world as mirage. Some take a new body immediately after death. Some have such control over the physical world that they can change their bodies at will; they are called Abdals in Sufi tradition. But all these achievements pertain to the phenomenal world; the field of their powers is itself a domain of illusion, and the apparent miracles they perform do not in themselves mean that they are nearer to the God state.

 

In their consciousness, too, aspirants belong to various types, get intoxicated with extraordinary powers, and in the temptation of using them have a long pause in their Godward march; they get held up in the consciousness of the intermediate planes. There are some who become dazed, confused and self deluded. There some who get caught up in a coma. There are some who with difficulty try to come down to physical consciousness by repeating e physical action or an identical sentence a number of times. ere are some who, in their God intoxication, are so indifferent the life of the physical world that their external behaviour pears to be that of mad persons; and there are some who cross e path while performing their worldly duties.

 

Owing to their exalted states of consciousness, some advanced aspirants are adorable but their state is in no way comparable to at of God realized persons, either in respect of the spiritual duty and perfection of their inward state of consciousness, or in respect of their powers. All aspirants to the sixth plane, are limited by finite consciousness, and are in the domain of duality illusion. They are mostly happy, due to their communion with God. For some, the joy of the inward companionship of the Divine Beloved is so great that they become unbalanced in behaviour, and in their unsubdued state of God intoxication may abuse people, throw stones at them or behave like ghosts. Their state is described as that of the Unmatta. Owing to the exuberance of uncontrolled joy in inward contact with the Divine Beloved, they are regardless of worldly standards or values, and owing to the fearlessness which comes to them through complete detachment they may often allow themselves such self expression as would be mistaken for exaggerated idiosyncrasies.

 

Poise comes on the seventh plane

 

Only when the soul attains God realization on the seventh plane does it get full control over its joy. Only with realization does the unlimited happiness, which is eternally his, in no way unbalance a person, for he is now perman~ntly established in non duality. No longer for him is the extravagance of newly found love. The occasional unsettlement due to the on flow of increasing joy at the closer proximity of God is also over because he is now inseparably united with him. He is lost in the Divine Beloved and merged into him, for he is one with the infinite ocean of unbounded happiness.

 

The happiness entered into by the God realized person is un conditioned and self sustained, eternally the same, without ebb and flow. He has arrived at certainty and equanimity. The

 

are some who get caught up in a coma. There are some who with difficulty try to come down to physical consciousness by repeating some physical action or an identical sentence a number of times. There are some who, in their God intoxication, are so indifferent to the life of the physical world that their external behaviour appears to be that of mad persons; and there are some who cross the path while performing their worldly duties.

 

Owing to their exalted states of consciousness, some advanced aspirants are adorable but their state is in no way comparable to that of God realized persons, either in respect of the spiritual beauty and perfection of their inward state of consciousness, or in respect of their powers. All aspirants to the sixth plane, are limited by finite consciousness, and are in the domain of duality and illusion. They are mostly happy, due to their communion with God. For some, the joy of the inward companionship of the Divine Beloved is so great that they become unbalanced in behaviour, and in their unsubdued state of God intoxication may abuse people, throw stones at them or behave like ghosts. Their state is described as that of the Unmatta. Owing to the exuberance of uncontrolled joy in inward contact with the Divine Beloved, they are regardless of worldly standards or values, and owing to the fearlessness which comes to them through complete detachment they may often allow themselves such self expression as would be mistaken for exaggerated idiosyncrasies.

 

Poise comes on the seventh plane

 

Only when the soul attains God realization on the seventh plane does it get full control over its joy. Only with realization does the unlimited happiness, which is eternally his, in no way unbalance a person, for he is now permanently established in non duality. No longer for him is the extravagance of newly found love. The occasional unsettlement due to the on flow of increasing joy at the closer proximity of God is also over because he is now inseparably united with him. He is lost in the Divine Beloved and merged into him, for he is one with the infinite ocean of unbounded happiness.

 

The happiness entered into by the God realized person is un conditioned and self sustained, eternally the same, without ebb and flow. He has arrived at certainty and equanimity. The happiness of the saints is born of proximity to and intimacy with the Divine Beloved, who, however, remains an externalized Another. In the happiness of the God realized there is no duality. The happiness of the saints is derivative; the happiness of the God realized is self grounded. The happiness of the saints is that of the outpouring of the divine grace; the happiness of the God realized is the divine grace itself.

 

Differences in relation to the universe

 

When a person attains God realization, he has infinite power, knowledge and bliss. The intrinsic characteristics of inner realiza tion are the same in all the God realized, irrespective of the differences that give rise to distinguishable types. These differ ences are extrinsic, belonging not to the relation with God but to the relation with the universe; they do not constitute degrees of spiritual status between the God realized, who are all perfect. Yet these differences exist only from the point of view of the observer; they do not exist for the God realized themselves, who are one with each other and with all existence.

 

From the point of view of the outward creation, however, the differences between the God realized are not only definite but worth noting. After God realization, some souls drop their bodies, and remain eternally immersed in God consciousness. For them, God is the only reality and the entire universe is zero. They are so completely identified with the impersonal Truth that they have no direct link with the world of forms.

 

Majzubs

 

Some God realized souls retain their gross, subtle and mental bodies; but in their absorption of God consciousness are totally unconscious of the existence of their bodies. Other souls continue to see their bodies and treat them as persons incarnate, but these bodies exist only from the point of view of the observer. Such God realized persons are called Majzubs, in Sufi terminology. The Majzubs do not use their bodies consciously, because their consciousness is wholly directed towards God, it is not turned toward their bodies or the universe. For them, their bodies as well as the world of forms have no existence, so there can be no question of their using their bodies in the world of forms. However, though the Majzubs do not use their bodies consciously, they are necessarily the centres for the radiation of the constant overflow of the infinite bliss, knowledge and love, and those who revere these bodies derive spiritual benefit from this radiation of divinity.

 

Some God realized persons have the awareness of the existence of others who are in bondage. But they know these souls to be forms of the Paramatman and that they are one day destined to have knowledge, they remain indifferent to the provisional and changing lot of those who are in bondage. They know that just as they themselves have realized God, these also will realize him. They are in no hurry to speed up the God realization of those who are in bondage, for they take no active interest in the time processes of creation.

 

God Men

 

Some of the God realized not only possess God consciousness but are conscious of creation and their bodies. They take an active interest in those who are in bondage and use their own bodies consciously for working in creation, so as to help others in their God ward march. Such a God realized one is called Sadguru of the universe, and everyone high or low, good or bad, is at the same distance from him. In the Sufi tradition, this centre is called Kutub. Through Kutub the universe is controlled.

 

Avatar

 

The God realized one who first emerges through evolution as the God man and helps others in bondage is known as the Avatar. Sadguru and Avatar have complete God consciousness, plus full consciousness of the gross, subtle, and mental worlds simultaneously, and have no difficulty in retaining normal human consciousness; but the Paramhansa and Jivanmukta, who have no duty to perform, have at times great difficulty in keeping their consciousness normal, and have to compel their minds to come towards material things an activities; they may ask for food or pull their hair or slap themselves to remain in the body. The Avatar has no difficulty in retaining normal consciousness at all times. He does not have to resort to physical activities in order to keep in the physical world.

 

In fundamental characteristics of consciousness the Avatar is like other God men. None retains a finite and limited mind because after merging in the Infinite the mind becomes universal. The God man as well as the Avatar never loses God consciousness, although engaged in activities in relation to the creation. Both work through the universal mind when they desire to help others.

 

* * *

 

Chapter V

THE STATE OF THE GOD-MAN

 

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.

 

* * *

 

Chapter VI

THE WORK OF THE GOD-MAN

 

GOD-REALIZATION is the endless end of creation, and the timeless consummation and fructification of unbinding Karma. If the self takes an incarnation after God-realization, it is not as an ego-mind, but as the embodiment of the universal mind; so that it is not, like the reincarnating ego-mind, subject to the bondage of Karma. Ordinary man takes an incarnation under the irresistible impulsion of creation but the God-man reincarnates by free and spontaneous arising of compassion for those who are still in the world of illusion and bondage. The descent of a God-realized one is fundamentally different from the incarnation of souls in bondage.

 

Free and unbinding give and take

 

Those who have not realized God are still in the domain of duality; their dealings of mutual give and take create the chains of Karmic debts and dues, from which there is no escape in duality. But the God-man, dwelling in the consciousness of unity, has no

 

such chains, and is thus able to contribute towards the emancipation of others still in ignorance. For the God-man there is none excluded from his own being, he sees himself in every one; he freely gives and freely takes without creating binding for himself or others.

 

Any person who accepts without reserve the bounty which the God-man showers creates a link that will stand until he attains the goal of freedom and God-realization. Any person who serves the God-man, offering his life and possessions in his service, creates a link that will be a means of spiritual progress. Indeed, even opposition to the work of the God-man is a beginning to the journey that leads God-ward: while opposing the God-man, the soul is establishing contact with him. Thus everyone who voluntarily or involuntarily comes within the orbit of the God-man's activities becomes subject to a spiritual impetus.

 

The work of the God-man

 

The work of the God-man is fundamentally different from that of the priest. It is characteristic of the priests of established religions to attach importance to forms, rituals and conformity with rules, and since they are not themselves free from selfishness, narrowness or ignorance, they may exploit the weak and credulous by holding before them the fear of hell or hope of heaven. The God-man having entered for ever into the eternal life of love, purity, universality and understanding is concerned to bring about the unfoldment of the spirit in all whom he helps. There are those who are themselves in ignorance, who because they have read or listened to the words of a God-man may out of self-delusion or in deliberate selfishness use the same language as he and they may try to imitate the God-man in his way of life; but by the very nature of their spiritual limitations they cannot imitate the God-man in understanding, bliss, or power. If out of self-delusion or hypocrisy they pose as a God-man, their self-delusion or pretense becomes evident in their lives. There are those who believe themselves to be what they are not, and think they know when they do not; when they are sincere they are not to be blamed, though they may become a source of danger to others, and should be recognized for what they are. The hypocrite knows that he does not know, and his pretense creates serious Karmic binding for himself; though he is a source of danger to the weak and the credulous, he cannot continue with his deceit.

 

God-man can play the role of the aspirant

 

In his universal work, the God-man has infinite adaptability. he is not attached to any one method of helping others; he does not follow rules or precedents but is a law to himself. He can rise to any occasion and play any necessary role without being bound by it. A spiritual aspirant cannot act as one who has attained perfection, since the perfect one is inimitable, but the perfect one can for the benefit of others act as an aspirant. One who has passed the highest academic examination, can write alphabets for teaching children, but children cannot do what he can do. For showing others the way to divinity, the God-man may play the role of a devotee of God; he may play the role of a Bhakta so that others may know the way. He is not bound to any particular role, and can adjust his technique to the needs of those who seek his guidance. Whatever he does is for the good of others; for him, there is nothing more to obtain.

 

Maya used to annihilate Maya

 

Not only is the God-man not bound to any technique of spiritual help, he is not bound to conventional standards. He is beyond good and evil; but though he may appear to be lawless, what he does is for the good of others. He uses different methods for different persons. lie has no self-interest or personal motive, and is always inspired by the compassion that seeks the well-being of others. He uses Maya to draw his disciples out of Maya, and adopts very different workings for his spiritual task. Nor are his methods always the same with the same person. He may do what shocks others because it runs counter to their expectations; this is intended for a spiritual purpose.

 

The God-man may seem to be harsh with certain persons who contact him; but onlookers do not know the internal situation and cannot have a right understanding of his behaviour. In fact his sternness may be demanded by the spiritual requirements of the situation in the interests of those to whom he is harsh. We have an analogy in an expert swimmer who saves a drowning person. He may have to hit the drowning man on the head to minimize the danger in which he is likely to involve his helper. So the sternness of the God-man is to secure the spiritual well-being of others.

 

Shortening the stages of false consciousness

 

The soul in bondage is caught in the universe, and the universe is illusion; but since there is no end to illusion he is likely to be held indefinitely within its mazes. The God-man can help to cut short the different stages of false consciousness by revealing the Truth. Through illusion the soul gathers experiences of the opposites. Where there is duality, there is a possibility of restoring balance through the opposite. For example, the experience of being a murderer is counterbalanced by the experience of being murdered; and the experience of being a king, is counterbalanced by the experience of being a beggar. But the soul may wander from one opposite to the other without putting an end to its false consciousness. The God-man can help the soul to perceive the

 

Truth, cutting short the working of illusion. The God-man helps the soul in bondage by sowing in him the seed of God-realization, but every process of growth takes time. There is, however, a qualification of this statement to be made.

 

The help of the God-man is more effective than the help that any advanced aspirant may give. When an aspirant helps, he can take a person up only to the point that he himself has reached; and even this limited help becomes effective gradually, with the result that the person who ascends through such help has to stay in the first plane for a long time, in the second plane a long time, and so on. When the God-man chooses to help a person, he may take the aspirant to the seventh plane in one jump, though in that jump the person has to traverse all the intermediate planes.

 

By taking a person to the seventh plane, the God-man makes him equal to himself, and the person who thus attains the highest spiritual status becomes himself a God-man. This transmission of spiritual knowledge is comparable to the lighting of one lamp from another. The lamp that has been lighted is as capable of giving light as the original lamp itself; and there is no difference between them. The God-man is like the banyan tree, which grows large and mighty, giving shade and shelter to travellers and protecting them from sun, rain and storm; in the fullness of its growth its descending branches strike deep into the ground to create in due time another full-grown banyan tree, which also becomes not only large and mighty, but has the same potential power to create banyan trees. The God-man arouses the God-man latent in others.

 

Lord and Servant

 

The God-man may be said to be the Lord and Servant of the Universe at one and the same time. He showers spiritual bounty on all in measureless abundance, and as one who bears the burden of all and helps them through spiritual difficulties, he is the Servant of the Universe. Just as he is Lord and Servant in one, so he is the supreme lover and the matchless Beloved. The love, which he gives or receives frees the soul from ignorance. In giving love, he gives it to himself in other forms, and in receiving love, he receives what has been awakened through his own grace, showered on all. The grace of the God-man is like rain which falls on all lands, barren and fertile, but fructifies only in the lands that have been rendered fertile through toil.

 

* * *

 

Chapter VII

AVATAR

 

CONSCIOUSLY OR UNCONSCIOUSLY, every living creature seeks one thing. In the lower forms of life and in less advanced human beings, the quest is unconscious; it is conscious in advanced human beings. The object of the quest is called happiness, peace, freedom, truth, love, perfection, self-realization, God-realization or union with God. Essentially it is a search for all of these, for all are aspects of one thing. Everyone has moments of happiness, glimpses of truth, fleeting experiences of union with God. Everyone wants to make these moments, or glimpses, or experiences, permanent, so that he may have abiding reality in the midst of change.

 

This search is based on a memory, dim or clear, as the individual's evolution may be low or high, of his unity with God; for every living thing is a manifestation of God, conditioned by lack of knowledge of its true nature. The entire process of evolution is from unconscious divinity to conscious divinity, a process in which God himself, eternal and unchangeable, assumes an infinite variety of forms, enjoys an infinite variety of experiences, and transcends an infinite variety of self-imposed limitations. Evolu-don, from the standpoint of divinity is a divine sport, in which the Unconditioned tests the infinitude of his absolute knowledge, power and bliss in the midst of all conditions. But evolution, from the standpoint of the creature, with limited knowledge, limited power, limited capacity for bliss, is an epic of alternating rest and struggle, joy and sorrow, love and hate, until, in the perfected man, God balances the opposites and transcends duality. Then creature and Creator recognize themselves as one; changelessness is established in the midst of change, eternity is experienced in the midst of time. God knows himself as God, unchangeable in essence infinite in manifestation, ever experiencing the supreme bliss of S elf-realization in continually fresh awareness of himself by himself.

 

This realization takes place only in the midst of life, for only in the midst of life can limitation be experienced and transcended, and subsequent freedom from limitation enjoyed. This freedom from limitation assumes three forms.

 

Most God-realized souls leave the body at once, and forever, and remain eternally merged in the unmanifest aspect of God. They are conscious only of the bliss of union. Creation no longer exists for them. Their round of births and deaths is ended. This is known as mukti or liberation.

 

Those God-realized souls who retain the body for a time, but are not conscious either of their bodies or of creation, experience the infinite bliss, power and knowledge of God, but they cannot consciously use them in creation or help others to attain to liberation. That particular type of liberation is called mukti or liberation with the body.

 

Those God-realized souls who keep the body, yet are conscious of themselves as God in both his unmanifest and his manifest aspects, experience themselves as God apart from creation, as God the Creator, Preserver and Destroyer of creation, and as God who has accepted and transcended the limitations of creation. They enjoy to the full the divine sport of creation. Knowing themselves as God in everything, they are able to help everything spiritually, and to make other souls realize God, either as Muktas or Majzubs, as they themselves are called.

 

The God-realized ones though one in consciousness are different in function. For the most part, they live and work apart from and unknown to the general public, but there are always five, who act (in a sense) as a directing body, work in public, and attain public prominence and importance. In Avataric periods, the Avatar, as a supreme God-realized one, takes his place as the head of this body and of the spiritual hierarchy as a whole.

 

Avataric periods are the spring-tide of creation. They bring a new release of power, a new awakening of consciousness, a new experience of life not merely for a few, but for all. Qualities of energy and awareness, which had been used and enjoyed by only a few advanced souls, are then made available for all humanity. Life, as a whole, is lifted to a higher level of consciousness and geared to a new rate of energy. The transition from sensation to reason was one such step; the transition from reason to intuition will be another. In intuition the opposites are resolved.

 

This influx of the creative impulse through the medium of a divine personality is an incarnation of God in a special sense and called Avatar. This Avatar was the first individual soul to emerge from the evolutionary process, and is the only Avatar who has ever manifested or will ever manifest. Through him, God first completed the journey from unconscious divinity to conscious divinity, in him he first unconsciously became man in order consciously to become God. Through him, periodically, God consciously becomes man for the liberation of mankind.

 

The Avatar appears in different forms under different names, at different times, in different parts of the world. As his appearance always coincides with the spiritual birth of man, so the period immediately preceding his manifestation is one in which humanity suffers from the pangs of the approaching birth. When man seems more than ever enslaved by desire, more than ever driven by greed, held by fear, swept by anger, when more than ever the strong dominate the weak, the rich oppress the poor, and large masses of people are exploited for the benefit of the few in power, when individual man finds no peace or rest and seeks to forget himself in excitement~ when immorality increases, crime flourishes, religion is ridiculed, when corruption spreads throughout the social order, class and national hatreds are aroused and fostered, when wars break out, and humanity grows desperate, when there seems to be no possibility of stemming the tide of destruction at this moment the Avatar appears. Being the manifestation of God in human form, he is a gauge against which man measures what he is and what he may become. He corrects the standards of human values by interpreting them in terms of divine-human life.

 

The Avatar is interested in everything, but not concerned about anything. The slightest mishap commands his sympathy; the greatest tragedy does not upset him. He is beyond the alternations of pain and pleasure, desire and satisfaction, rest and struggle, life and death, for to him, they are equally illusions from which he has come to free those who are bound. He uses every circumstance as a means to lead others towards the realization of the Truth.

 

He knows that men do not cease to exist when they die, and therefore, is not concerned with death. He knows that destruction must precede construction; that out of suffering is born peace and bliss; that out of struggle comes liberation from the bonds of action. He is concerned only about unconcern.

 

In those who contact him he awakens a love that consumes selfish desires in the flame of the one desire to serve him. Those who consecrate their lives to him become identified with him in consciousness. Little by little their humanity is absorbed into divinity, and they become free.

 

Those who are closest to him are known as his Circle. Every Master has an intimate circle of twelve disciples, who, in realization, are made equal to the Master himself though they differ from him in function and authority. In Avataric periods, the Avatar has a Circle of one hundred and twenty disciples, all of whom experience realization, and work for the liberation of others. Their work is not only for contemporary humanity, but for posterity. The unfoldment of life and consciousness for the whole Avataric cycle, mapped in the creative world before the Avatar took form, is endorsed and fixed in the formative and material worlds during the Avatar's life on earth.

 

The Avatar awakens contemporary humanity to a realization of its spiritual nature, gives liberation to those who are ready and quickens the life of the spirit in his time. To posterity is left the stimulating power of his divinely human example, the nobility of life supremely lived, of love unmixed with desire, of power unused except for others, of peace untroubled by ambition, of knowledge undimmed by illusion. He has demonstrated the possibility of the divine life of humanity, the heavenly life on earth. Those who have the necessary courage and integrity follow when they will. Those who are spiritually awake have been aware for some time that the world is at present in the midst of a period such as precedes Avataric manifestations. Even unawakened men and women are becoming aware of it. From their darkness they are reaching for light, in sorrow they are longing for comfort, from the midst of the strife into which they have found themselves they are praying for peace and deliverance. Yet they must be patient. The wave of destruction must rise still higher and spread still further. But when, from the depths of his heart, man desires what is more lasting than wealth, more real than material power, the wave will recede. Then peace, joy, light will come.

 

 

Мехер Баба. Всё и ничто

 

 

Meher Baba

Мехер Баба (1894-1969)

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meher_Baba

 

Всё и Ничто

 

Издательство: ИГ "Весь", 2002 г.
Мягкая обложка, 128 стр.
ISBN 5-94435-221-3
Тираж: 3000 экз.
Формат: 76x100/32

 

Переводчик:
Д. Слабко