Question::
Is pursuing God or God-realization, a selfish aim?
(or)
What sort of qualities does a ‘God-realized person’ attain/possess?
(or)
What does power, knowledge, bliss mean in the terms of ‘God-Consciousness’? What is considered ‘false imagination’, in terms of God-consciousness?
(or)
What does “coming down” or the “returning of the soul” mean, in spiritual panorama?
(or)
Who is a ‘Jeevan-Mukta’ or the Living-Dead? What is his experience of the world?
(or)
How come a ‘Perfect Master’ is more helpful to the world than a Jeevan-Mukta? Why can’t a Jeevan-Mukta take ACTIVE INTEREST in affairs of the universe?
(or)
What are the different phases thro’ which ‘God-realization’ becomes complete or Perfect?
(or)
When is ‘Divine Knowledge’ said to be complete?
(or)
How come the Perfect Master represents ‘Conscious Reality’, and when so??
Answer:
(Extracted from Meher Baba’s literature, which is a copyright of Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust(©AMBPPCT), Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, Bharat/India)
The realization of God as He is has required the complete surrenderance of the ‘false individuality’ of the separate “I”. All sense of ‘separateness’ and ‘duality’ is only illusion, sustained by the sanskaras (impressions) of the ego-life, and expressed through lust, hate and greed.
Through a pure life of selfless love and service and the grace of God or a Perfect Master, it is possible to brush away these limiting sanskaras.
By transcending the illusory “veil of separateness”, the individualized soul comes to know itself as identical with God, who is the sole reality.
‘God-realization’, which is achieved at the end of the last phase of the first journey and on the seventh plane of consciousness in which the ‘mental sphere’ is completely transcended, is the goal of all life. It is the reason why the entire universe came into existence.
“God-realization” is sometimes mistakenly considered to be the ‘selfish aim’ of the limited individual, while in reality there is no room for any selfishness or limited individuality in God-realization. On the contrary, it is the final aim of the limited and narrow life of the separate ego.
‘God- realization’ not only results in the attainment, by the individual, of an inviolable unity with all life, but also in his dynamic expression of this final realization of truth through a spontaneous and undivided life of love, peace, and harmony.
The life of the God-realized is a pure blessing to all humanity.
Within this state of God-realization, God is known and experienced to be the only reality, and as there remains nothing to know, one aspect of this divine consciousness is “omniscience”.
Since God is experienced as being the only One without a second– having no rival to overcome and no limitation to transcend, the ‘individualized soul’ realizes a second aspect of supreme consciousness to be “omnipotent”.
Since God is also experienced as unconditional and spontaneous joy continually welling up within the soul, the third aspect of divine consciousness is realized to be “unlimited bliss”.
These attributes of omniscience, omnipotence and unlimited bliss are not divisible parts within infinity, but differentiated qualities of one indivisible infinity. Being indivisible, no one of them is in any way curtailed by another. Since they interpenetrate each other completely, none can or does exist without the others.
In God-consciousness,
- to know is– to exist as blissful power;
- to exist as power is– to know oneself as unbounded bliss; and
- to experience bliss is– to be permeated by ‘divine knowledge’ in which knower, known and knowledge are all one.
Any existence in which ‘power’ is limited, ‘knowledge’ imperfect or ‘joy’ beclouded, is a product of ‘false imagination’ and cannot satisfy the earnest seeker of God.
Thus in the truth-consciousness of Haqiqat, God knows Himself as having infinite attributes, but He has no consciousness of the universe. In a few cases, “consciousness of the universe’ returns to the God-realized soul without in any way obscuring the totality of his ‘divine knowledge’.
This first affirmation of God-consciousness in the universe may be said to constitute the first journey of ‘complete divine knowledge’, known as Baqaiyat°°.
Conscious now of the “universe”– through the being of the Jivan-Mukta or Azad-e-Mutlaq or Baqa-billah– God does not regard it as other than Himself.
Not only is His knowledge not handicapped by ‘consciousness of the world’, it uses the shadow° which it has itself created as a medium through which it finds expression.
In this state of Baqaiyat,
- God not only knows Himself as God but also as everything. He now experiences His own infinite attributes of omniscience, omnipotence, and unbounded bliss also IN and THROUGH the ‘consciousness of the universe’.
- God knows Himself as being everything, and everything as being Himself. His knowledge of Himself includes the knowledge of everything in illusion.
God enjoys the same ‘infinite’ and ‘unlimited’ attributes as in the first state of Haqiqat, but their expression within the ‘illusion of duality’ is naturally determined by the earthly vehicle in which the ‘individualized soul’ functions.
The ‘God-realized Jivan-Mukta’, though living in a world of duality, is aware only of the unimpaired unity which sustains and pervades the universe.
Such a one experiences constantly the ‘love’ which knows no limitation through ‘time’, ‘circumstance’ or ‘mood’.
Though the Jivan-Mukta LIVES and FUNCTIONS in the world of duality, his ‘consciousness’ dwells beneath the appearance of things in the underlying reality of his self (in God). In this manner, such a soul creates no cleavage between the ‘illusory’ and the ‘real’ world, nor does being in the world constitute for him any limitation on the spontaneous flow of divine love. On the contrary, the ‘world’ with all its dual aspects becomes the medium through which his ‘infinite love’ operates automatically.
In this phase of realization*, the individual enjoys the limitless attributes of God, BUT DOES NOT FEEL IMPELLED TO USE THEM FOR THE BENEFIT OF OTHERS. He has become fully conscious of his ‘impersonal divinity’ which automatically permeates and controls all aspects of the universe and therefore he does not feel moved to intervene in the affairs of the world.
Active interest in cosmic processes or activities of the illusory universe is possible only when the third journey from Baqaiyat to Qutubiyat, or the Sadguru (Perfect Master) state is completed.
- In this state, the fullness of divine knowledge, power and bliss is not only experienced completely, but is also DYNAMICALLY EXPRESSED. Here, the unlimited individuality of the Perfect Master participates fully in the life of the entire universe.
- In this state, “God” not only knows Himself as God and lives as God, but works as God, coordinating the ‘truth He has realized’ with the ‘processes of the universe’.
Thus, at the end of this ‘third journey’ of divine consciousness, God takes active interest in the spiritual yearnings of other souls, and extends His help in their onward ascent.
In this state, as the Perfect Master, He is no longer detached from the happenings of the world, and the ‘cosmic processes’ and ‘events of the world’ are no longer left solely to the direction of “impersonal divinity”.
God Himself has become a PERSON who is simultaneously fully-divine and fully-human, and He takes under His PERSONAL and CONSCIOUS SUPERVISION the groping, struggling life-streams within the universe.
The Qutubiyat or Sadguru state (Perfect Masterhood) is truly a state of personal Godhood.
His ‘omniscience’ and ‘unlimited love’ impel the Qutub or Sadguru to use his unlimited power freely for the spiritual benefit of all who deserve his grace. He goes half-way to meet aspiring souls and he accentuates their progress– communicating to them His boundless, overflowing love to the extent that they are capable of receiving it. This is a state in which God offers ‘Himself to himself’ in measureless abundance, in and through the universe of duality.
Throughout his expression of ‘personal interest’ in the life of the universe, the Sadguru never becomes entangled in duality. He is never bound in any way to the ‘world of form’ in which he is expressing his dynamic and unlimited personality.
When his divine game in the world of form is over, he drops the link to his own bodies– physical, subtle and mental, and with the universe– without SENSE of loss or pain. He withdraws from the scene of His ‘divinely expressed life’ in illusion and draws to a close his creative manifestation in the universe.
Withdrawal from participation in the universe of duality does not in any way impair his ‘consciousness of divine knowledge’, nor his conscious, constant and unbreakable experience of infinite power and bliss. He continues to remain ‘conscious reality’.
Activity in the world constituted only ‘action in an illusory universe’. Withdrawal from it is only ‘withdrawal from the unreal’– through which he chose to manifest for the liberation of those still in bondage, and is termed the fourth and last journey.
– Meher Baba
°° This is the state of the Jivan-Mukta. A more complete integration into activities in the world of duality is achieved by the Perfect Master, in the state of Qutubiyat, described below.
° Creation
* ie., the Jivan-Mukta state. The soul has returned to consciousness of the world of duality, but the focus of consciousness of the Jivan-Mukta wanders between “duality” and “God-absorption”.
See God-Speaks, pp.171-172
Source:
Listen Humanity, Pg:: 170- 173
© AMBPPCT, Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, India/Bharat
