The Truth- Individual

Question::

What is/constitutes “eternal truth”?
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Who is a “Truth-Individual”? How does one become a Truth-individual?
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How come “Path of love” is the QUICKEST, among other “spiritual approaches”?
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Why is it that every individual needs a separate individual treatment to cure their spiritual diseases (like lust, anger, greed) and progress on the path?
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Are there any rules to attain final illumination?
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When & How can the ‘mind of man’ turn away from the allurements of the world? What sort of experiences one encounters, when the mind is turned away from the ‘world’?
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What is “detachment”? When can it happen?
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Why ‘lamenting the loss of dear ones’ is considered sheer ignorance?
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What is the necessity of “physical body”, from a spiritual point of view?
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Why is it considered a spiritual blunder to neglect the “physical body” or put an end to it, forcibly?
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What is “Noor”? What makes spiritual path so enchanting and bewildering?
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Why can’t one seek God, through the “ego-mind”?
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Why is it that a Truth-realized Individual/Master has to suffer? What sustains Him from His suffering?
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What is the experiential state of a ‘Wali/Vali’?
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When can the supreme experience of ‘I am God’ be attained?
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Can anyone experience God, having the experience of the world concurrently?
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In which state, ‘consciousness of the worlds’ disappear? What happens to consciousness when the ‘ego-mind’ is dissolved?
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What is “nothing-consciousness”? When does one encounter it?
      (or)
What is “Truth- Individuality”? How is it attained?
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What is the function of “Universal Body”? When does it work/operate?
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How come a Truth-realized Master or the Qutub is considered the “center of the Universe”?

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 “Eternal Truth” has three aspects–

• Dnyana or knowledge,
• Shakti or power, and
• Ananda or bliss.

The Sakshatkara or realization of this three-fold divinity or Truth, is the target of the seeker.

• Persons who are on the ‘path of action’ become Mahatmas, and get its  ETERNAL POWER.
• Those who seek ‘wisdom’, get its ETERNAL KNOWLEDGE.
• Those who take to the ‘path of Prema or love’, get its ETERNAL JOY.

But at the end of the path, all have to come to the indivisible completeness of the Truth, in all its aspects, though their paths might have been different. The one who arrives at the Goal is the “Truth- Individual”.

THE PATH OF LOVE IS THE QUICKEST. The love awakened in the aspirant may be likened to the physical appetite. The appetite is followed by

• thoughts of food and then successively by
• striving for food,
• getting the help of a cook, and lastly,
• the fulfilment of eating the food.

So, “spiritual love” is followed by

• thoughts of God, which then successively result in
• longing for God,
• getting the help of the “Truth-individual”, and lastly
• in the realization of God.

This is the inheriting of the “eternal bliss”. It is the fulfilment of all other minor or major ecstasies of the path.

The ‘Prema-yoga’ or the ‘path of love’ leaves no room for halting or resting in the middle of the sojourn. It takes the aspirant inevitably to the ‘Truth-Individual’, and through Him to the ‘Truth’ itself. This ‘love’ makes one forget oneself and the world, bringing in its wake the ascending ecstasies attendant upon the intoxicating glimpses of the ‘Divine Being’. In Hafiz and other Sufi poets, it is likened to wine.

‘Divine Love’ and ‘wine’ are both often alien to the established creeds of religion. The former is beyond the creeds; and the latter is forbidden by them. Both are intoxicating and make man forgetful. But, while ‘wine’ leads to SELF-OBLIVION, ‘Divine Love’ leads to SELF-KNOWLEDGE. 

Slowly and gradually, the Master takes his disciples to the illimitable Truth. If there is too much hurry, there is the risk of the disciple dropping his physical body or of being a majzoob; for, in that case, his ‘ego-mind’ gets annihilated prematurely.
    Every individual requires ‘separate’ and ‘individual’ treatment, just as the different parts of the body, when out of order, require specific treatment according to the ‘nature of their disorder’. Specific treatment enables the different parts to be restored to their normal and healthy functioning. Then, they can all work in perfect harmony for a common purpose. All individuals are, as it were, parts of the universal life of Truth, and each requires special treatment.

In the worldly stages of established religions, as well as in the earlier stages of the ‘inner path’, there are diverse, helpful rules according to the approach taken (Marga, Talim or Rah). But the aspirant should know from the beginning that–

• in the ‘final illumination’, there are no rules at all.
• Nor can the ‘final illumination’ be brought about by the observation of any rules.
• It has to be entirely left to the grace of the ‘Truth-realized Master’.

The ‘mind of the accepted disciple’ is like a wheel, turning most of the time in only one direction. It is “unwinding” the acquired impressions. But the ‘mind of others’, seeking without a Master, is like the balance-wheel of a watch. As a rule, it moves in both directions. It sometimes UNWINDS the “impressions”, but often it also WINDS them up.

It is, however, very rare for the ‘mind of man’ to be finally turned away from the allurements of the world.

In order to awaken you from a smooth and pleasant dream, some frightening thing like a tiger has to appear in the dream itself.

In the same way, some ghastly and unwelcome thing has to occur in the life of those immersed in the world, if they are to get ‘disillusioned’ and REVERSE the direction of their “mind”.

Such ‘reversal of direction’ first expresses itself through increasing detachment from the “body”.

The ‘physical body’ is nothing but the food which man eats. The body assimilates that portion of the food which is useful for body-building; and it throws out that portion which is useless. What is thrown out is as much “food” as what is assimilated. If man is so supremely indifferent to the eliminated refuse, why should he not have the same detachment to the accumulated food which becomes his ‘body’? Why should he shed tears when, after death– the ‘body’ itself has to be thrown away?
    After all, the body itself is a sort of ‘food for the soul’, when it serves some purpose of the soul. But, when it is rendered useless, it is dropped by the soul– as something which no longer serves any of its purposes. There is absolutely no point in lamenting the loss of the ‘physical body’, no matter whether we ourselves have lost our body or others have lost theirs. When one body is dropped, the “soul” can take up another body- when it needs one.
    As long as food advances the health of the body, it is welcome. But, if it is poisoned and becomes a danger to the body, it is rightly shunned. As long as the ‘body’ is useful for the spirit, there is some meaning in attaching importance to it. But if it cannot serve that purpose, it is sheer ‘ignorance’ and ‘weakness’ to lament its loss.

The body is perishable by the unalterable law of nature. Why weep and worry at the time of its dissolution? The ‘soul’ remains untouched by ‘death’. You are the ‘soul’, not the ‘body’. However,

it is a mistake to belittle the ‘physical body’; and it is the greatest spiritual blunder to try to put an end to it.

It is only in the ‘physical body’ that the soul has any chance of attaining God-realization. Even the Devas long to get a physical form on earth.

It is a sheer act of folly not to take proper care of the body; or to put an end to it for flimsy troubles and supposed sufferings. But, while it is right to take care of the body, it is wrong to be attached to it, to pamper it, or be dominated by it.

Look at your own ‘shadow’. It seems so near to you. It is adjoining you. But you cannot grasp it or overtake it in a race. You may follow your shadow till doomsday, but it will still evade you and be a bit ahead of you. Seeking God through the ‘ego-mind’ is like trying to go ahead of your own shadow. It cannot be done, not because God is in any way far off, but because you can never get to the ‘Real’ through the ‘false’.

God is nearer to you than your own “shadow”. In fact, He is not only within you, but is your very Self. But you can never get at Him, for you seek Him through the ‘ego-mind’ which converts Him into a will-o’-the-wisp.

It is no easy thing to realize God, as some seem to think. The ‘ego-mind’ must meet actual death, if God is to be SEEN and REALIZED.

A person who is bound in the “illusion of the world” is like gold mixed up with ore. As he turns away from the world, the impurities in him gradually get eliminated until at last he becomes like ‘pure gold’ without the ore. Now, when He comes back to the world, it is like CONSCIOUSLY accepting the dross. That is why He SUFFERS. But He knows that He is really gold, and not dross. This “knowledge” sustains Him.
    When His work in the world is over, He again goes to the state of illimitable purity. And even during ‘His work’, He never allows the dross to be anything except His superficial covering, which He takes on and off at will, without getting mixed up with it. The really difficult process is the ‘first ascent’, during which the ‘gold of self’ is separated from the ‘alloy of illusion’.

Even a person who is stationed on the sixth plane is still in illusion. One who is on the “sixth plane” experiences that ‘everything proceeds from God’ (Hameh Az Oost), and also that ‘God is everything’ (Hameh Oost). This is the direct vision and experience of “Valis”– who see the universe as emanating from God Himself. But, this experience that ‘God is everything’ must not be mixed up with the supreme experience ‘I-am-God’. This supreme experience can come only when the “mind” is dropped.

Just as the knowledge given by the ‘physical senses’ is multifarious, the knowledge given by the SUPER-SENSORY ‘perceptions’ and ‘revelations’ can also be multifarious.

But in order to attain the Truth, all these props and pegs of super-sensory perceptions have– like ordinary perceptions of the physical senses– to be cast off at the threshold of the final merging of the soul into the Infinite.

The true experience of God comes only when ‘man’ and ‘God’ get united so completely that there is no possibility of any demarcation, far less of actual division.

In the final stages of the ascent, when the ‘mind’ is metamorphosed into the ‘Truth’, the general rule is that– all the three worlds (the gross, the subtle, and the mental) disappear from the range of consciousness.

In very few cases, “Truth-realization” can come concurrently with the soul’s having the experience of the three-fold world.

The experience of the three-fold world, in such extremely rare cases, becomes itself, as it were, the receptacle of the ‘I-am-all’ consciousness of Truth-realization.

If the “Truth-Individual” has had a wide range of world-consciousness prior to his realization,

• he wields greater hold upon the ‘relativities’ within the illusory existence than if he has had a narrower range of world-consciousness.
• He also enjoys greater authority and has for the use of his power the entire expanse of the three-fold world, which becomes the field of His “divine working”.

However, these are only rare and exceptional cases. Here, it is out of the material of the individual’s world-experience that there precipitously emerges the transcendent experiences of the illimitable Truth, the non-dual being the culmination of understood duality.

But as a general rule, before Truth-realization- there is a complete disappearance of the consciousness of all the three worlds.

With the dissolution of the ego-mind, ‘consciousness’ is held up in nothingness, with the result that the ‘limited ego’ has no successor. But, when the Truth which is realized in this “nothing-consciousness” begins to assert itself, it comes as a state of “I-am-God”.

In the MERGING, the “soul” is bereft of all individuality; but in the ASSERTION, it is bestowed with divine and unlimited “Truth-individuality”.

The ‘Incarnated Truth’ gets full control over the ‘universal body’ (sometimes called Virat Swarupa) by means of which the Master can appear in his ‘physical body’ at different places at one and the same time, in instantaneous response to any agonizing calls from the “devotees of God”. This body does not go into operation except in very special circumstances.

It is no pleasant progress for the ‘Truth-Individual’ to COME DOWN after attaining Godhood. He is always reluctant to descend into the ‘illusion of duality’ again. But sometimes, he does come– his sole object being to fulfil the ‘spiritual mission’ of saving other individuals.
    His mission takes concrete shape according to the ‘times’ and ‘circumstances’ in which he takes his descent. He himself has nothing to gain by descending from the shoreless ocean of Truth into the relativities of illusory existence. But in such decent, he also does not in any way lose his spiritual attainment. He now combines in himself both types of knowledge, viz., the ‘knowledge of oneness’ and the ‘knowledge of relativities.’

The Truth-Individual who descends into the world of illusory duality is referred to as Qutub, which literally means “the center”. The Perfect Master becomes the center of the universe. He finds himself as the only ‘absolute’ and ‘changeless’ point around which the entire universe is constantly turning.

The ‘universe’ is like the grinding mill; and the ‘Truth-realized Master’ is like its CENTRAL PIN.

As Kabir has stated, none can escape the eternal crushing that goes on in this grinding mill of the universe. Only the Master is unscathed by the happenings of the universe though he is in its very center.

Each Truth-Individual is in the center, but the center is only one.

Each has a distinct identity (Husti) of his own. This core of identity becomes the nucleus of affirmative divine individuality of the Truth-Incarnate, without blurring or limiting his oneness with the all-inclusive Truth.