Question::
What are the things that a person cannot see with “physical eyes” but exists in his/her “experience”?
(or)
Can anyone understand other people’s minds, merely by looking at them?
(or)
How are ‘spiritually advanced souls’ different from ordinary people, in the matter of “understanding others”?
(or)
Are “dreams” our own imagination? What can ‘astral body’ do?
(or)
Is it possible to experience “wakefulness” and “deep sleep” at one and the same time?
(or)
How are “spiritually advanced souls” different from ordinary persons, in the matter experiencing dreams, sleep and waking states? Who is called an ‘advanced soul”?
(or)
What does ‘saints’ do? How can ‘saints help’ or ‘Yogic processes” influence our ‘awake’ and ‘dream’ states?
(or)
How is Truth is related to our daily “waking” and “sleeping” states?
(or)
When can one ATTAIN ‘Truth’ or BECOME ‘Truth’?
(or)
What is the LAST TRUTH OF LIFE?
(or)
What is Truth? What does “sleeping wakefulness” or “waking sleep” mean? When does an advanced Yogi experience it?
(or)
Why did the “soul” gets encaged in the “body”, in the first place?
(or)
What is the relation between ‘soul and God’, ‘soul and Truth’?
(or)
Does “soul” exist in ‘deep sleep”?
(or)
Can one enjoy the happiness of “sound sleep” in the “awake state?”
(or)
What is the FINAL ‘Self-Knowledge’ that the soul can attain?
(or)
What is the Relation between soul, Truth, Nothing and the Everything?
Answer::
(Extracted from Meher Baba’s literature, which is a copyright of Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust(©AMBPPCT), Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, Bharat/India)
If you ask a man returning from a garden the question, ‘Where were you?’, he would without any hesitation ordinarily reply, “I was in the garden”.
- He sees himself as his own ‘physical body’, and believe himself to be the ‘body’.
- He also SEES the garden with the ‘physical eyes’, and BELIEVES that the garden really exists.
So, his reply about his whereabouts is quick and prompt. But, though he is so definite about the truth of his reply, what he believes is nevertheless not ultimately true.
Man SEES certain things, and therefore concludes that they exist. But there are many things, which we do not see; and yet they are there with us, all the same. For example::
- anger,
- kindness,
- love,
- jealousy
and so on, which exist in man, may not be visible to the “physical eye”; but they do exist.
What man can see for himself with his own ‘physical eyes’ is LIMITED to the ‘external physical body’ of another person. Even X-Ray exposure will only show the interior of the physical body and will not be able to show the mental thoughts, feelings, and desires which that person may be entertaining within himself.
But though a man cannot see these ‘mental realities’, HE CAN FEEL THEM, if he lives with that person for some days. After staying with that person for some time, he might be able to say that he is jealous or kind and so on.
Ordinary man has some degree of power to understand these ‘mental realities’ in others. But, his arriving at that understanding is neither ‘quick’ nor necessarily ‘accurate’ or ‘definite’ as it often is mostly inferred from ‘external physical things’.
But it is possible to develop this understanding of ‘mental realities’ in such a manner that it becomes–
- quick
- definite, and
- accurate.
It is possible for an ‘advanced man’ to know directly and unmistakably– the ‘character’ and ‘tendencies’ of another person merely by looking at him. But such power is very rare.
Ordinarily, a man gathers the “knowledge of the minds of others” gradually through association with them. And, when we want to know anything about another person, we not only want to know about his ‘physical body’, but also about his ‘mental life’ of
- thoughts,
- feelings and
- desires.
Man’s curiosity is not restricted to the ‘present’. The mind often asks questions about the ‘future’ i.e., “What is going to happen tomorrow?” ‘Future’ is a sealed book for the majority of persons. The forecasts do not interest the matter-of-fact persons who believe “only their own eyes” and none else.
From morning till night, nothing happens in their life to make them seek the ‘higher perception’, which has a direct access to the minds of others or which has a sure view of the future.
But even in the life of ordinary matter-of-fact persons, certain things happen and truly call forth ‘interest’ and ‘investigation’. When a man sleeps, he ‘stretches his body’ and ‘closes his eyes’. Slowly he forgets his surroundings completely. But he may begin to dream about wandering somewhere else.
Some of these wanderings, which come as ‘dreams’, are not purely imaginative constructions of the mind. They often stand for ‘actual journeys’ undertaken by the soul in the ‘astral body’.
These wanderings in the ‘astral body’ may be far and wide. In fact, there is no mountain which is too high, no sea which they cannot cross. These wanderings of the ‘astral body’ are sometimes recollected in wakefulness as ‘dreams’.
The ‘astral body’ has a will and a power of its own. ‘Actions’ which are impossible for the ‘gross body’ are easily done in the ‘astral body’.
After some time, these wanderings might cease. Then ‘deep sleep’ overtakes a person, who now experiences and feels nothing. It is necessary to pass through this ‘complete self-forgetfulness’ in order to have rest and feel fresh for the next day.
It is ordinarily not possible for a person to experience ‘waking’ and ‘dream’ at one and the same time.
- In the ‘awake state’, he does ordinary things; but he does them with definiteness and full knowledge.
- In ‘dreams’, he may perform extraordinary things; but he does them with faint knowledge.
Rarely, as in advanced persons, the ‘wake’ and the ‘dream’ are experienced SIMULTANEOUSLY; and the extraordinary achievements of the ‘astral body’ are CLEAR and DEFINITE. In the same way,
it is possible for very advanced persons to experience ‘waking’ and ‘sleep’ at one and the same time. If both are combined, a person can CONSCIOUSLY EXPERIENCE in the ‘awake state,’ the unconditioned and unalloyed happiness of ‘sound sleep’.
Saints can help men to COMBINE the ‘awake state’ with the ‘dream state’ in the one hand and with the ‘sleep’ on the other hand. The combinations can be effected also by ‘yogic processes’. But the state of ‘full self-forgetfulness’ and ‘complete bliss’ is a GIFT from a spiritual Master.
The man who can combine ‘dreaming’ and ‘wakefulness’ is a bit MORE ADVANCED than one who cannot combine these two states. But he is as much in the ‘realm of imagination’ as the person of ordinary calibre.
But the man who can combine ‘waking’ with ‘sleeping’ ATTAINS the Truth, and BECOMES the Truth. For him, the “world” does not exist; all that exists is God and nothing else.
If you ask such a person, “Where were you?”, he would truthfully answer: “I always was everywhere, am everywhere and shall always be everywhere.” He KNOWS himself to be other than his ‘body’ and knows himself to be the Truth, which is everywhere.
Therefore, from the point of view of his highest experience, he will, with unshakable certainty, affirm that he is and always was everywhere. It cannot even occur to him that he was in the garden, because he is not even conscious of his ‘body’. This ‘knowledge’ and ‘experience’ is very rare. But it is nevertheless the last truth of life.
As soon as the Self comes out of a tiny point, it descends in ‘illusion’ and starts its journey in the world. Even advanced yogis, with all their ‘supernatural powers’, remain under the sway of ‘illusion’. They are bewildered and enraptured by the ‘inner planes’, and become the victims of illusions. They are like ordinary persons, conscious of the ‘shadow or reflection of the Self’ and not of the ‘Self’.
But as soon as they disentangle themselves from the ‘allurements of the planes’, they return to and enter the ‘initial tiny point’ from which the ‘soul’ emerged on its long journey.
At this stage, the YOGI experiences that the whole universe is coming out of himself. But as he succeeds in going beyond this ‘point’ (often called the “Om” point), he becomes completely unconscious of the whole universe. For him, there are no forms but only the ‘Eternal Reality’; and there are no fleeting joys or sorrows but only the ‘abiding bliss’. This is the Truth or the import of ‘sleeping wakefulness’ or ‘waking sleep’.
The process of GETTING BOUND and then UNBOUND is charged with immense significance. The ‘soul’ gets mixed up with the ‘body’ and then gets caught up in it. The ‘soul’ is like a parrot and the ‘body’ is like a cage. When the parrot was outside the cage it was free. But it did not quite appreciate and enjoy freedom. When it goes through encagement, it appreciates– through agonizing bondage– what ‘freedom’ is. And when it is set free again, it really enjoys its freedom.
The same thing happens to the ‘soul’, when– through the grace of the Master, it is freed from the limiting nightmare that it is its own perishable body.
The ‘soul’ is really God. To those, who are still caught up in the ‘illusion’ that it is the ‘body’ or the ‘mind’– this seems unthinkable. How can a person, who, for example, may be reclining in an easy chair, be regarded as being the same as a UNIVERSAL and ALMIGHTY “divine being”?
The ‘soul’ cannot realize ITS OWN INFINITY as long as it is under the sway of ‘ignorance’. But nevertheless its being the same as God, is all the same, an irreversible fact.
Just as the ‘soul’ during ‘deep sleep’ exists, (though it does not in its usual way know itself as existing), the ‘soul’ in reality is the same as ‘God’, though it is not conscious of this during the ‘period of ignorance’. The eyes of a person see many things, but not themselves, except in a reflection. In the same way, the ‘soul’ is ordinarily conscious of the whole world, but not of itself (except through the illusory identification with the perishable body).
The soul, in its final self-knowledge of itself as Truth, knows that it is everything.
Truth is everything!
There is nothing but everything; therefore, everything includes ‘nothing’. This means that the ‘illusion’ of the false world, though nothing in itself, can have its being, even as an ‘illusion’, only in the Truth and not outside it.
The ‘universe’ exists but has NO REALITY, i.e., it exists in ‘imagination’, which is imposed upon the Truth.
– Meher Baba
Source ::
Sparks of the Truth, Pg:: 61-64
© AMBPPCT, Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, Bharat/India
