Truly happy people are rare in spite of the smiles which are usually the brave front for varying degrees of internal misery. Yet everywhere and in every walk of life, man is longing for happiness and searching desperately for some means of breaking out of the trap which his life has become.
It is not his fault if he assumes that the solution to his deep dissatisfaction lies in a sensual world, or in achievement in business or the social world, or in a life of exciting experiences. Neither is it his fault if life is not usually long enough to teach him factually that he would find even more profound disillusionment if these goals were to be fulfilled to the hilt.
If he would suspect that his ideas of achieving a successful and happy life were wrong, and that he must try some new way of living, then the stalemate might be broken. A new line in the divine picture is sketched only when some individual takes life forcefully in his hands, breaks up the old patterns and insists on creating something new by his own inner vision.
Progress in the inner life of the individual is accomplished by such a breaking with the old and venturing forth into new ways. True happiness can come only to one who will find the courage to strike free of the attachments which he has formed throughout a sterile lifetime. If he will not do this, then he is shackled endlessly to the treadmill of oppressive action in which happiness is so transient that it has almost disappeared, there is left only the persistent, bottomless vacuity of mind which strangles life, regardless of repeated efforts to fill it with endless experiences.
Such suffering comes from blunt ignorance or persistent attachment to illusion. The average person plays with illusion as children play with toys. It is not easy for little children to give up their toys, and it is equally difficult for adults to relinquish the mental and emotional toys to which they have become habituated. The mind of the individual is very old, and through the ages it has become deeply engrossed in playing with illusion. It has become addicted to this self-created spectacle, and it has had no thought other than to go on watching with fascination through cycles and cycles of creation.
During this period of rebirth in cosmic illusion, the individualized soul becomes identified with the physical body due to the limitations imposed upon consciousness by the impressions (sanskaras). Its knowledge of reality is therefore necessarily restricted to the products and inferences of sense-perception. Information so obtained is completely inadequate and even misleading insofar as the true nature of reality is concerned.
The quest for happiness is irretrievably enmeshed in the problem of the illusion of the world of form with which the individual self has become identified through the body. If this illusion can be shattered, the shackles which bind happiness are automatically shattered as well. But how to shatter the illusion? An individual who mistakenly believes he is a coward may live a lifetime of misery during which all his actions are shaped by this incorrect belief. But if some event in his life challenges him so deeply that he unthinkingly strides forth with great courage, then the illusion will suddenly vanish and he will see himself as a different being. Often it takes a real crisis to bring out a sure knowledge of the real inner self, and it is always a creative knowledge.
Even as the individual can be wrong in his convictions regarding his own nature, so he is often quite wrong about the nature of the world around him. In reality, it is a world of illusion that separates him from his true birthright of freedom and happiness in oneness with the One.
Actually, no individual is entirely devoid of some real happiness in some form, for God as an endless and fathomless ocean of bliss is also within every person, and no one is entirely cut off from him. Pleasure sought in illusion inevitably results in endless perpetuation of that very same false life of the ego, which leaves the individual exposed to intense suffering.
The whole play of illusion and the suffering it engenders functions by the divinely established law of karma (cause and effect). Therefore suffering must be accepted with grace and fortitude. It must be remembered that one's own actions are the cause of much of one's suffering, and therefore wise action can minimize it. But real alleviation of suffering requires spiritual enlightenment, and for that man must turn to the Perfect Masters and the God-man (Avatar).
If the world of form is only an illusion in reality, and if its harvest is such a rich one of misery, then why should its experience be required of the soul?
Life in the world of matter is an unavoidable phase in the progress of the individual, inasmuch as it provides the field for action. Action is the expression and therefore the focusing of the mental and emotional impressions (sanskaras) which impel the individual. As the individual acts, other motivating forces incompatible with that momentary effort are withheld.
Action is the paramount means through which the individual exercises discrimination in choice and adjustment between the many claims exerted upon his consciousness. Action also links a large number of individuals together through the innumerable karmic ties which have arisen out of past service and bondage. The material world offers the necessary environment for this interchange and interdependence.
On the one hand these karmic ties trap the mind in a complex web. On the other hand they facilitate collective life with all its opportunities for exercise of love, sacrifice, service, and mutual help. Through the negative lessons of hate and malice, as well as the positive lessons of love and service, the individual finds himself compelled to participate in collective effort. The mind's seeming isolation is continually invaded by the life-streams of other minds, ultimately enabling the individual to abandon entirely the illusion he had entertained of being separate. Thus he gradually comes to realize the unity of all life.
In spite of the suffering entailed, experience in the material world of action is thus not without compensating value. It constitutes a necessary phase in purifying the consciousness of the mind from all illusion in order that it may be transmuted into the consciousness of the soul.
One sees then that the material and spiritual worlds of lower and higher illusion play an irreplaceable role in the divine game, which has as its goal that man shall become consciously aware of his own divinity. The positive values derived from the divine sport in illusion cannot be harvested without simultaneous collection of the residual by-products of the coming-to-consciousness, termed "impressions" or "sanskaras".
A newly constructed building is not considered to be really completed until the debris of construction has been cleared away. Similarly, the fully developed individual consciousness is not available for union with the Divine until these residual products have been cleaned away and there is left only the completely untrammeled, unitary nature of the individualized soul, now fully conscious of self. As discussed earlier, in the process of both sleep and death the individual returns unconsciously and briefly to the beyond-beyond state of God. In it the soul achieves refreshment before it returns first to the subconscious state of ordinary dreams or the intense subconscious state of heaven or hell, and then to the ordinary conscious state of wakefulness or reincarnate life.
The individual cannot remain in the beyond-beyond state of God for long and for very important reasons. The goal is to achieve the full awareness of consciousness, which is fully achieved when all of the residual impressions have been dispelled.
Full consciousness is achieved in the first human form, but remains captured, so to speak, by the residual impressions, which continue to exist regardless of the waking or sleep state of the individual mind. It is as if they continued to stand as the unpaid balance of the price of consciousness. It is due to the standing impressions or sanskaras that the individual consciousness must return again and again from oblivion to square its account with illusion, in illusion.
However consciousness must eventually disengage itself from enmeshment in the material realm of action, for in the long run all activities of the worldly man are like the movements of someone on the surface of the ocean. He develops some knowledge of the ocean of life through these activities, but only as much as is obtainable through exploration on the surface of the ocean. The time inevitably comes when he wearies of surface-wanderings and makes up his mind to plunge into the depths of the ocean of life.
Thereupon he becomes deeply concerned with the riddles of "whither" and "whence", and this fact constitutes his spiritual birth, by which he is eventually ushered onto the path.
The path of divine knowledge has both beginning and end. In rare cases, a pilgrim may be very advanced due to efforts in previous incarnations. In such cases he may attain divine knowledge instantaneously as a gift bestowed upon him through the grace of a master. In most cases, though, the pilgrim has to travel the path by stages, attaining this knowledge gradually.
The understanding of God which the average person attains through belief or reasoning is so far removed from true understanding that it cannot be called inner knowledge.
Such true knowledge (gnosis) does not consist in the construction or perception of an ideology. It is the product of ripening experience that attains increasing degrees of clarity. It consists in man's consciousness becoming more real and participating increasingly in the truth, until there is nothing more to become, and nothing more to assimilate.
The devotional rituals followed in religions do not lead the seeker to the true inner journey, for in greater part they are mechanical observances barren of the redeeming experience of divine love.
Nevertheless, regardless of how rudimentary these types of belief and devotional observances may be, they do contain in latent form the future inner knowledge.
As the aspirant struggles through the obscuring fog of mental and emotional tension his consciousness becomes more one-pointed, forming a spearhead that eventually pierces through the curtain to the inner path of divine knowledge. Even the early glimpses of this knowledge which the pilgrim gets are a great advance over understanding that rests solely upon faith or reason.
As the aspirant advances towards the path he undergoes a significant change of direction that might be compared to a somersault. He is now more concerned with the inner realities of life than with their outward expression. As the emphasis shifts from the external to the internal aspects of life, the deepening of consciousness is greatly accelerated. Now consciousness is no longer committed primarily to external incidents or routines, but is directed towards the deeper and truer aspects of being that demand greater integrity of thought and feeling.
Caught up with this deeper awareness of the self is a concurrent deepening of perception into the workings of the world. A refocusing of consciousness occurs which is far-reaching. All the avenues through which the individual conducts his search are radically transformed by the sincerity and concentrated purpose of his effort. The increasing depths of his internal understanding suffuse every aspect of life, giving it new form and meaning and causing him to hasten his exploration with the greatest exhilaration.
Poise of the mind born of the pilgrim's new understanding automatically and unwittingly brings about a readjustment of material surroundings, and he finds himself at peace with the world. Conservatism, intolerance, pride and selfishness are shed, and everything takes on a new meaning and purpose.
Sinner and saint appear to be waves on the surface of the same ocean, differing only in magnitude, each the natural outcome of forces in the universe rooted in time and causation. The saint is seen to have no pride of position and the sinner no stigma of eternal degradation. Nobody is utterly lost and nobody need despair.
The "internalizing" which is the real basis of entering upon the path should not be confused with the purely intellectual discovery that there could be an inner life. Nor should the gradual and natural shift from participation in external events to a focusing on inner development be confused with the limited intellectual detachment some persons achieve. Since such detachment is only intellectual, it brings freedom only in the realm of limited intellect and is usually characterized by a sort of dryness of being.
The intellectually detached often try to shape the present in the light of knowledge of history, as well as through their insight into the possibilities of the unborn future. At best, such a purely intellectual perspective inevitably remains partial, sketchy, incomplete, and in a sense even erroneous. Further, the intellectually detached are almost never in vital communication with the elements which so largely shape the course of the present.
Therefore their beliefs, even if transformed into effort, rarely produce marked results. The limited intellect is not competent to grasp qualities which are beginningless and endless.
Intellectual perspective is workable and even indispensable for planned action. Yet in the absence of illuminating wisdom of heart and clear intuition of spirit, intellectual perspective gives only relative truth bearing the ineradicable stamp of uncertainty.
So-called intellectually planned action is really the product of weighty subconscious forces which have not yet risen to the threshold of consciousness of the planner. Thus, planning often leads to many results entirely unanticipated in the so-called planning. In other words, "planning" turns out to be planning in name only, containing only sufficient conscious participation by the planners to satisfy their need to feel that they have a real share in the whole game.
Intellectual perspective, intellectual planning and intellectual detachment should therefore be carefully separated from the robust exploration of the inner self and the internalizing of the facts of existence that characterize the individual who has set foot on the path.
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 process 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 traces 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 imbedded 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 the final cessation of the 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.
The various routes by which the individual may start on the journey are many indeed. Several of the principal ones are referred to as Dnyana Marga or the way of knowledge, Karma Marga or
the way of action, Bhakti Marga or the way of devotion, and Yoga Marga or the way of mental and physical discipline. Each of these paths may be regarded as a routine, dutifully followed, and unthinkingly executed, or it may be transmuted into a path of living discovery by having become the focal point of the aspirant's entire being.
Dnyana Marga, or the way of knowledge, may consist in the pursuit of speculative philosophy, either through independent thinking or in the study of existing systems of philosophic thought. Or it may be transformed through concentrating the mind and the entire personality on the truths hitherto mentally grasped. Such deep meditation of spiritual realities is aimed at assimilating their inner meaning, and results in lifting them out of the category of intellectual playthings into animating principles which invade and gradually transmute the innermost core of the aspirant.
Karma Marga, or the way of action, may normally consist of a life of service to humanity, a life in which effort is expended to improve the well-being of people through social, political, or physical projects. In such service the motivating factor is usually a sense of duty, but often it is corrupted by the desire to achieve power, fame or other personal gain. Regardless, the way of action creates in its wake many joys and many sorrows, much exultation and much disillusionment. It often creates further bindings for the soul and is frequently fraught with nagging restlessness due to the worker's expectation of specific results. As often as not, it results in enlargement of the ego rather than its deflation.
On the other hand, internalizing this same way of action renders it pure, safe, and spontaneous. In such case the aspirant may still be engaged in humanitarian work, but that work is no longer entangled in personal ambition. Such service is not a mechanical response to a sense of duty, but a spontaneous expression of voluntary love. Through it man gradually becomes purer, is freed from many limitations, and finds peace of being as he becomes wholly detached from the results of his actions. Under the enlightening influence of inner understanding, the life of action helps in the elimination of the ego-mind and quickens the pace to attainment of truth-consciousness.
The inner spiritual path is irreplaceable because of the welling up of divine love which occurs during its course. Even in Bhakti Marga as the ordinary religious man of the world practices it, this up-welling of love is absent. It is only in the inner transformation of the way of devotion that the aspirant is initiated into that spontaneous love which needs no outer observance for its realization. Such love springs up spontaneously in the heart under the quickening touch of the master's grace.
Yoga Marga, or the way of mental and physical discipline, is also capable of producing a complete transformation in the aspirant by unfolding the inner path of gnosis or Irfan in him. In his attempt to gain control over mind and body, the worldly man often resorts to these yogic practices and austerities to achieve the discipline he covets.
There are three main systems of yoga: (1) Hatha Yoga which consists of self-mortifying asceticism and physical austerities; (2) Raja Yoga which is the process of mental self-denial through resistance to all desires; and (3) the positive system of Pranayama, which consists in the awakening of the Kundalini, and meditation through an ascending order of exercises.
It is characteristic of all the different systems of yoga that they emphasize the purification and preparation of bodies or vehicles of consciousness, rather than concerning themselves directly with the onward movement of consciousness itself. The contribution of yoga is comparable to that of the physician who removes the ailments which have developed in the functioning of the internal organs of the body.
Of the different systems of yoga, Hatha Yoga is the most superficial. The self-imposed austerities represent in a sense a pressuring of God, or of a God-realized Master, for either power or realization. It is a kind of bargaining in which penance is undertaken with an ulterior motive. It can hardly be called self-sacrifice, for the things apparently denied oneself are denied in order that one might have something else. Ultimately it reduces to intelligent selfishness.
Spirituality, as love, can never be achieved through any type of coercion. If spiritual attainment should be sought in this manner, the person invites harm upon himself rather than spiritual benefit, and restriction of power rather than expansion. In brief, he gets exactly the opposite of what he had sought.
The yoga of mental self-denial through resistance to all desires (Raja Yoga) is chiefly negative in its method. It consists in a concentrated attempt to be freed from all good and bad wants and desires. This in itself is a form of wanting, for it is wanting a state of wanting nothing. However, this form of yoga, when carried to its extreme limit, can result in the subjective annihilation of the ego-structure of desires.
The positive system of yoga consisting in the practice of Pranayama (breathing exercises) gives increased control over prana or the vital energy. It also includes the awakening of the Kundalini of the latent spiritual power in man, and is supplemented by an ascending order of meditation exercises. But in this yoga there is the danger of the aspirant having a "fall" and retrogressing spiritually if he misuses his awakened occult powers. This he inevitably does if these powers are awakened before he is spiritually ready.
The aspirant is therefore well advised not to take up this positive system of yoga except under the direct supervision of a master. When aroused under the proper guidance of a master, however, the awakened Kundalini can lead the aspirant to the occult Riddhi-Siddhi powers of the fourth plane which is described later.
In any case, the highest attainment possible through Pranayama, the breath exercise phase of the positive system of yoga, is that of the objective or semi-illumination of the fifth plane.
Both the fifth and sixth planes of gnosis are states of illumination, but they may be either subjective or objective, depending upon the manner in which the illumination has been achieved. The positive systems of yoga lead to the objective illumination of the fifth plane, but such objective illumination can only be termed "semi-illumination", for in it God is experienced as without, and therefore sight of Him is eclipsed or obscure.
In contrast, subjective or full illumination is brought about through the inner path of love, which brings about a blending of devotion, knowledge, and action. Such subjective illumination in the fifth and sixth planes has absolutely no element of obscurity, because God is experienced within. In a sense, God is nearer the subjective realm than the objective, although ultimately He is inclusive of both, as well as beyond both.
Such are the traditional paths by which the aspirant may launch upon his quest for realization. The particular route by which the worldly man will start his search is determined by his temperament and environment. But when he enters the inner spiritual path he seeks the truth of consciousness as it is. This quest for the real compels him to transcend the obscurities of the mind and the twistings which arise from temperament and environment. Even as the inner truths unfold, these factors continue to limit his consciousness, but he is now impelled to make a conscious effort to free himself from their entanglements.
The first evidence in the aspirant of freedom from limitations imposed by the subjective mind is that he begins to understand without prejudice his own nature and environment. To react intelligently to environment is impossible unless its true meaning is understood.
For example, a man habitually inclined to react cynically to all that is good in other people, inevitably fails to appreciate the latent good in those whom he contacts. Consequently he not only misses the pleasure of harmonious relationships with them, but is also prevented from utilizing the potential value of such experience for the good of others.
Similarly, if a man erects his projects on an incorrect evaluation of environment, the energy which he invests in them may be wasted in spite of his enthusiasm. Correct judgment of environment and people is an important requisite of fruitful and right action. It requires in the aspirant both the capacity to rise above his personal prejudices and, more important, to understand them. Judgment befogged by personal bias renders right action impossible.
To illustrate further, if the individual projects the content of his own subjective desires upon another human being, seeing in that person the fulfillment of his emotional longings, and if he acts under the impulse of that blind, driving force, then disappointment is inevitable. He has only seen in the other what is in himself.
There can be no adequate response from the object of one's desire under such emotional compulsion, and therefore no fulfillment. So true understanding of environment is as necessary for attaining soundness and depth of feeling as it is for engendering efficient, creative action. Such true understanding is achieved only when the aspirant frees himself from temperamental compulsion.
The personal factors which cause the worldly man to look upon the various approaches towards truth as widely divergent or even mutually antagonistic, are gradually transcended on the path. Eventually the ways converge, and their interdependence is revealed to the aspirant. He sees that every way implements the others.
Bhakti or devotion becomes the expression of truth through feeling. The way of knowledge becomes assimilation of that same truth through understanding, and the way of action is seen to be the result of the will being actuated by that very same truth.
In the worldly stage man is drawn more to one way than to others because of the particular limitations of his character and environment. On the path they blend with each other as the aspirant gradually succeeds in emancipating himself from the specific restrictions of mind and heart. Even the dry, self-imposed asceticisms of yoga flower as the individual realizes divine love as he follows the inner path.
It is possible by following any of the ways just discussed to lose the individual mind, the lower self, and yet retain complete consciousness. However this is only true when the zenith is reached through the inner path.
The easiest and safest way to lose one's infinite ego is by surrendering completely to the Perfect Master or to the God-man (Avatar), who is consciously one with truth. In them the past, present and future of the individual are drowned and during his implicit obedience to the master he is no longer bound by those actions, good or bad. Such complete surrenderance is in itself complete freedom.
Of all the high roads which take the pilgrim directly to his divine destination, the quickest lies through the God-man (Christ, Messiah, Avatar). In the God-man, God reveals Himself in all His glory, with His infinite power, unfathomable knowledge, inexpressible bliss and eternal existence. The path through the God-man is available to all those who approach Him in complete surrenderance and unwavering faith.
To the one who has unfaltering love for the God-man, the way to abiding truth is clear and safe. Such a one must waste no time playing with things that do not matter. Loyalty to the unchangeable truth, guided by enduring love, is the simple way that leads to God and abiding peace.
Although God is more easily accessible to ordinary man through the God-men, yet God also reveals himself through His impersonal aspect, which is beyond name, form, and time. Regardless of whether it is to be through His personal or His impersonal aspect, it is necessary that the aspirant seek Him and surrender to Him in love.
When the aspirant contemplates only God without a second there is no room for love for God or longing for God. The individual has the intellectual conviction that he is God.
Yet in order to experience that state in actuality, the aspirant goes through intense concentration or meditation on the thought "I am not the body, I am not the mind, I am neither this nor that. I am God." In exceptional cases the individual may experience through meditation what he has assumed himself to be. This mode of experiencing God is not only difficult but dry.
Progress is more realistic and enjoyable when there is ample play of love and devotion to God. This postulates temporary and apparent separateness from God and longing to unite with Him. Such provisional and apparent separateness from God is reflected in the Sufi concepts of the states of "Hama az Ust" or "Everything is from God", and "Hama Doost" or "Everything is for the Beloved God".
In each of these concepts the individual perceives that his separateness from God is only temporary and apparent, and he seeks to restore this lost unity with God through intense love, which consumes all duality. The only difference between these two is that, whereas the individual who follows the concept of "Hama Doost" rests content with the will of God as the Beloved, in the concept of "Hama az Ust" he longs for nothing but union with God.
Since the individualized soul which is in bondage can be redeemed only through divine love, even Perfect Masters who attain complete unity with God and experience Him as the only reality, apparently step into the domain of duality and talk of love, worship and service of God.
Divine love, as sung by Hindu masters like Tukaram, as taught by Christian masters like St. Francis, as preached by Zoroastrian masters like Azer Kaivan and as immortalized by Sufi masters like Hafiz, harbors no thought of the self at all. It consumes all frailties which nourish the illusion of duality, and ultimately unites the individual with God. The awakening of this Divine love in the heart of the aspirant and the cleansing of his being is one of the functions of the God-man and Perfect Masters.
The life of love of a Perfect Master is unperturbed by desires or duality. Once the mind of the aspirant gets a glimpse into this life of true values it protests against the bondage of desires and the cage of the separative ego-life.
The Perfect Master acts from the truth with which he is one, and not from any limited ego-consciousness. Hence his help is more effective than all the unaided effort the aspirant himself can make.
The Perfect Master does not give something which is not already within the aspirant in latent form. He unveils the real self of the aspirant and enables him to come into his own rightful divine heritage.
Complete surrenderance to the God-man is not possible for one and all. When this is not possible, the other high roads which can eventually win the grace of God are:
1. Loving obedience to and remembrance of the God-man to the best of one's ability;
2. Love for God and intense longing to see Him and be united with Him;
3. Being in constant company with the saints and lovers of God and rendering them whole-hearted service;
4. Avoiding lust, greed, anger, hatred, and the temptations of power, fame, and faultfinding;
5. Leaving everyone and everything in complete external renunciation and, in solitude, devoting oneself to fasting, prayer and meditation;
6. Carrying on all worldly duties with a pure heart and clean mind and with equal acceptance of success or failure, while remaining detached in the midst of intense activity; and
7. Selfless service of humanity, without thought of gain or reward.
In the end, all walks of life and all paths ultimately lead to the one goal, which is God. All rivers enter into the ocean regardless of the diverse directions in which they flow, and in spite of the many meanderings they may take. The high roads are important because they take the pilgrim directly to his divine destination, avoiding prolonged wanderings in the wilderness of complicated byways in which the traveler is so often unnecessarily confused.
The various states and stages through which the pilgrim passes on his journey to God realization may be broken down into there phases which the Sufis call Tariqat, Marifat, and Haqiqat. In the first, divine knowledge is experienced on the planes of energy as inner intuition, inspiration, and conviction.* In Sufic terminology this glimpse of divine knowledge is known as Tajurbat-e-Tariqat, and represents a transition from ordinary understanding to a condition of inner experiences of smell, sound, and sight.
During this first stage of unfolding knowledge there is a far deeper conviction about spiritual realities than is possible through the usual understanding of the worldly man. However, even this conviction is not unshakeable. It bestows only a mild and wavering degree of divine knowledge. The pilgrim has now only started on his spiritual journey and must face many trials.
While becoming established in the first stage, many aspirants are unable to cope with the ordeals they encounter as inner sight is opened. Whatever the pilgrim encounters here is for his good, and if he has a master's guidance he need not fear that he will be lost, although at the climax of the first phase (Tariqat), which is the fourth plane, the one real danger of risking a fall does occur through possible misuse of the extraordinary powers associated with this plane.
During this first phase the aspirant is disengaging himself from enmeshment in the material realm of action, and ascending to the realm of energy. This is accomplished through the gradual dissolving of the multitudinous desires which chain his consciousness to the material world. Although the individual is now constantly dependent upon the finer realms of energy, mind, and divine consciousness, even while immersed in the realm of matter, still he cannot live freely in these realms because of his continued enslavement to the gross world.
Moreover, he cannot receive in any appreciable measure the renewal which divine consciousness would pour into him, due to the resistance offered by the entanglements of the dense material plane upon which he lives. Nevertheless it is these divine radiations, meagerly felt though they be, which enable the matter-ridden mind to face suffering and make the effort to rise in the higher realms of energy and mind.
At last, weary of enslavement to the gross world, the individual decides to free himself from the enticements of matter. In this moment of irrevocable decision the individual cuts himself loose from the bondage of gross desires and ascends to the realm of energy. His will now reinforced, the individual prepares for a release of vital force far greater than was ever available to him during his bondage to the gross. The activities of the individual are now more powerful, for his actions are unhindered by the low voltage characterizing the energy of the gross realm.
Often the aspirant becomes absorbed in the new powers now available and he realizes that he can perform miracles and other phenomena. The tendency to wish to perform miracles, or to judge spiritual developments by performance of such spectacles, may persist for some time. Even spiritually advanced persons find it difficult to outgrow this habit of playing with illusion. It is not miracles, but inner illumination which will one day bring true freedom.
In the realm of energy the increased capacity of the individual to receive the downpouring of divine radiation gives him a greater sense of spiritual power, a larger measure of knowledge and a deeper sense of fulfillment, although these are as yet intermittent and fragmentary. The individual continues to carry on the physical plane activities of eating, drinking, and other automatic activities of physical life. But he is no longer the tormented slave of unfulfilled desires rooted in the physical functions, although a recrudescence of desires in a milder form is still possible.
He is now subject though to new forms of restlessness. In desperate search for enduring peace he determines to ascend to the still higher mental sphere, upon which the realm of energy fundamentally depends for sustenance.
Having crossed to this realm, the pilgrim is now at the second phase of the journey, in which he begins to see the light of God. Unfolding divine knowledge now amounts to real illumination, and the aspirant is given knowledge of the past, present, and future. He is now firmly established in the divine path, and there is no longer any risk of his "falling" or losing his true illumination. There are still many trials, but he faces them with conviction, confidence, and resolution.
This second phase occurs at a point which is called Qubuliyat, or "God's acceptance of the pilgrim". Here, being endowed with illumination he knows what trials lie ahead of him, but he also knows that he cannot fall from this fifth plane, and is aware that he can meet any situation adequately.
At a certain time the pilgrim passes to the point described by the Sufis as Marifat, and sees God as He is. This is spoken of as being the sixth plane of ascent of the individual in his conscious return to the One. It is in the mental sphere, as was the fifth plane.
In the sixth plane the freedom, joy and illumination that the soul experiences are all greatly enhanced, as the mind is in direct contact with transcendental divine consciousness. The bliss experienced in this higher realm surpasses all possible pleasures experienced in the realms of matter or energy. There is now absolutely no resistance to the direct infusion of the unceasing radiations of light, power, wisdom, and bliss that overflow from the Godhead. The individual's happiness is unutterable, his vision undimmed, his power unrestrained, his peace undisturbed, and his understanding suffers no slightest momentary impairment. He knows no lack of any kind; he continually sees God as He is.
All that the individual enjoys in the mental realm is still not self-sustained, but is continually supplied by the never-failing emanations from the transcendental Godhead. Although the mind is completely surcharged with the heavenly abundance which descends upon it from God, nevertheless it constantly recognizes its utter dependence upon the renewal which comes to it from above. The higher realm of mind is no less dependent upon the transcendental Godhead than are the lower realms of energy and matter, for the individual, though enjoying perpetually the free life of the spirit, still has not attained unity with the Godhead. He has not yet transcended duality nor realized himself as the Infinite One.
In short, man on the gross plane makes indirect use of energy and mind through the gross sphere, and he can experience only such joy, power, and knowledge as the limitations of the gross permit. Man on the subtle plain uses energy directly but uses mind indirectly, i.e. through the subtle plain. Also his joy, peace and understanding are still severely curtailed by the fact that he cannot make direct contact with the mind itself.
Man on the mental plane can use energy as well as mind directly. Thus he enjoys immeasurable power, knowledge, and bliss, but inasmuch as these are gifts from the Godhead, he still has a sense of dependence. He experiences the attributes of divinity as reflected in the mental spheres, but they do not originate in him.
Even when man is able to make direct use of the mind, he falls short of that ultimate experience of knowing himself as the infinite Godhead. Although the individual experiences uninterrupted self-fulfillment owing to his absorption in the replenishing divinity, still he must transcend the mind completely if he chooses to realize himself as the unlimited and eternal truth, power and bliss of God.
At this stage the traveler sees God as the sole reality, but he may remain absorbed in this sight of sights, or he may cross the final gulf and become one with God.
In the final and third phase of the spiritual journey, called Haqiqat, man becomes one with God as the infinite truth. This realization is self-sustained. Man's consciousness is now completely one with the illimitable truth of the conscious God. The individualized soul has completely transcended the mind and established unity with the Godhead, thereby realizing itself to be the fountainhead of infinite love, infinite peace, infinite bliss, infinite power and infinite knowledge.
These attributes are now no longer received by the individualized soul as emanations from the transcendent Godhead, but are experienced as being the soul's own inalienable characteristics. Nor is this state of superabundance merely one of self-sustained and unmarred spiritual self-sufficiency. It is a spontaneous overflowing in which divine consciousness sheds the glory of its superabundant life upon one and all. In this state God knows Himself as God. The goal has been reached.
To recapitulate, 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 by 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 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 further 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 limitations to transcend, the individualized soul realizes a second aspect of supreme consciousness to be omnipotence. 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 after 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 (God's knowledge) uses the shadow (creation) which it has itself created as a medium through which it finds expression.
I 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* (*I.e. 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-absorbtion. See God Speaks, pp.171-172) 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 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 halfway 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 on 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.
by meher baba; CHAPTER 6,'LISTEN, HUMANITY' NARRATED AND EDITED By
D.E. Stevens
