Question::
What constitutes “traversing the Path”?
(or)
What constitutes “Spiritual Progress” or “Spiritual Journey”?
(or)
Why “Spiritual Journey” is called a “pathless Journey”?
(or)
What does “guidance from a Master” do? What is the added advantage of ‘being guided’ or ‘following a Master’ on the Spiritual Path?
(or)
What does “journey on the Path” comprise of?
(or)
When can our “veil of ignorance” becomes less opaque?
(or)
Why is spiritual journey termed an “imaginative journey”?
(or)
What happens to the fate of “sanskaras”, on the Path?
(or)
How does “spiritual Journey” leads one to become ‘fully Self-Conscious’ or in other words “Self-Realization”?
Answer::
(Extracted from Meher Baba’s literature, which is a copyright of Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust(©AMBPPCT), Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, Bharat/India)
Although, the unfurling realization of divine knowledge is often figuratively described as “traversing the path”, this analogy should not be taken too literally. There is no ready-made road in the spiritual realm.
“Spiritual progress” is not a matter of moving along a line already laid down and unalterably defined. Rather, it is a creative process of spiritual involution of consciousness, and this process is better described as a “spiritual journey” than as the traversing of a path.
The “journey” is comparable in fact to a flight through the air, and not to a journey upon the earth, because it is truly a pathless journey. It is a dynamic movement within the consciousness of the aspirant that creates its own path and leaves no trace behind it.
The metaphor of “the path” is helpful to the aspirant in the early stages of his development because it gives him the sense of ‘new phases of consciousness’ to be experienced. This anticipation is stimulated further by accounts of others who have completed the spiritual journey. This makes the pilgrim’s ascent easier than if it depended solely upon his own unguided efforts to visualize the probable path.
While trying to understand the path as described by the masters, the aspirant must also make use of his own “imaginative faculty”, BUT WITHIN THE CONSTRUCTIVE BOUNDS defined in the master’s spiritual guidance. Actual ‘spiritual experience’ is as far removed from uncontrolled imaginative expectation as reality is from chaotic dreams.
Though the ‘imagination’ of the pilgrim is inevitably determined by “past experience,” it must offer no resistance to the directional suggestions of the master
In fact, increasing surrender to the guidance of the master involves drastic curtailment of “deceptive imagination”– the roots of which are deeply embedded in the ‘mental’ and ‘emotional’ past of the pilgrim. With the gradual transmutation of the aspirant’s imaginative faculty into ‘divine consciousness’, the ‘veil of ignorance’ becomes steadily less opaque.
In the end, all ‘imagination’ comes to a standstill and is replaced by the true everlasting realization of God as the sole reality.
Thus “the journey”, like everything else in duality, is also an imaginative one, but it leads ultimately to final and enduring knowledge unclouded by any kind of imagination or transitory fantasy.
As the aspirant progresses on the “spiritual path”, a fundamental modification in the structure of his sanskaras begins to occur. Whereas before, the expression of one ‘sanskara’ in the world of form resulted in the inevitable creation of fresh sanskaras, this self-perpetuating process now begins to draw to a close.
As the aspirant’s “assertive lower self” begins to be removed, the tension of the ‘existing impressions’ can be released or expressed without the creation of ‘fresh sanskaras’.
At first, slowly but with gradually increasing speed, the old sanskaras are spent with less and less attendant creation of ‘fresh sanskaras’. With final cessation of formation of fresh sanskaras, all past impressions naturally unwind to the finish and then, free of all impressions, the soul stands fully Self-conscious forever.
– Meher Baba
Source::
Listen Humanity, Pg:: 157-158
© AMBPPCT, Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, India/Bharat
