Meher Baba said: - God is your inner most self. Do not search for god outside of you. Let these words be inscribed in your heart. Nothing is real but god. Nothing Matters but love for god. God is everywhere and does everything. God is beyond us and is everything .God alone is and all else is illusion.
To know what is god we must know what self is. In deeper self-search we becomes aware of the fact that, our body, ego and our experience of the universe are created out of single stuff, which is consciousness or soul. Due to ignorance we identify the soul with the body and we become egocentric. When we become aware of the fact that, the self is not the form but self is formless then we become soul -centric and realize the fact that, all the three states are mere illusion created out of consciousness. Thus, consciousness is ultimate truth. The consciousness is our inner most self. Ultimate truth is God or Brahman Christ or Buddha.
Consciousness is the true self. And consciousness is everything. It is One. Until one realizes the Unity in diversity– the mind, which is in the form of universe will prevails as reality. Until the universe is experienced as reality the duality will prevail as reality. If duality is accepted as reality one will remain in ignorance of the ultimate truth.
Panchadashi:- The Atman is the witness-consciousness that experiences the action, the actor, and the world of separate things. It is like a light that illuminates everything in a theatre, revealing the master of ceremonies, the guests, and the dancers with complete impartiality. Even when they all depart, the light shines to reveal their absence.
Consciousness is Pure Awareness; it cannot but be aware of us in totality. The universe is also consciousness –whether we see it as real or as a “waking or dream”. From Creation and Creator are one in essence. From the ultimate standpoint there is neither the creation nor the creator but only the consciousness, which is ultimate truth or Brahman.
Consciousness has no beginning and it has no end. It is within the universe but it is not of the universe. The Universe ceases to exist without the consciousness but the consciousness can exist with or without the universe [illustration: - as in deep sleep].
Just as the body and the world in a dream is superimposed and therefore illusory, so is also this body and the world in the waking is superimposed. The birth, life, death and world are part of the waking experience and waking is superimposed, and in the absence of waking, which contains the body and the world there is no room for karma at all.
The ignorance to be verily the material /cause) of the waking/dream just as water is of a cloud. If the ignorance is destroyed, how can the three states subsist?
Just as a person out of confusion perceives only the snake leaving aside the rope, so does an ignorant person experiences the world/dream within the waking without knowing their reality? The real nature of the rope being known, the appearance of the snake no longer persists; so the substratum being known, the waking no longer remains as real.
If one knows the ultimate truth, he will know there is neither cause nor effect. Pursuit of truth is to know, what is real, and base the reasoning on that real.
When reasoning is done on true base, one has the yardstick to know what is truth, and what is untruth, and he will be able to reject the unreal/untruth mentally. Therefore, one has to make sure whether the self is body/ego/I, or self is soul/Atman, which is in the form of consciousness.
When the reality appears this ignorance
which one thinks as reality becomes unreal.
— MEHER BABA
which one thinks as reality becomes unreal.
— MEHER BABA
Because of the inherited conditioning an average person cannot accept anything else as truth, other than his inherited truth. Only the seekers who has intense urge and receptive and sharpness to grasp will be able to reach their inner destination. Rest will remain in the illusion [outer] experiencing the birth, life, death and the world as reality.
It is necessary to for the seeker of truth to inquire on his own and realize the non-dual truth without any scriptures in this very life time, and make sure of the fact that, the three states are mere mirage created out of consciousness and consciousness alone is real and eternal.
Thus by quoting one authority from one scripture, and another authority from another scripture, and trying to prove and realize the truth is like, trying to drain the ocean drop by drop.
Samskars means conditioning. Conditioned to remain in ignorance of the true self, and perceive the world as person. As person within the world, one thinks he is an individual separate from the world. And world existed prior to him and he is born in it afterwards. Until this conviction is there, it is very difficult to overcome the samskaras. Therefore, self –knowledge is necessary in order to overcome the inherited samkaras. The samskara is not the religious or social conditioning of an individual. It is the inherited ignorance of the truth of one’s true existence. Because of this samskara the duality is experienced as reality. People limit the samskars as parental grooming with religious and social order, which is an error. Thus Sankara means the conditioned to remain in ignorance.
As one goes deeper in self-search one becomes aware of the fact that the self is neither the waking entity nor the dream entity, therefore one becomes aware of the fact that the self is formless substance and witness of the three states. When one becomes aware of the true self then he becomes aware of the fact that the one, which is born, lives and dies is not the self. And waking experience is as real as dream. Thus waking entity or ego is the false entity within the false experience. Thus our experience of the birth, life and death is part of the false experience. The soul, which is the formless witness of the waking experience, where the birth, life, death and world experienced, is as false as the dream. Thus to realize the waking experience is falsehood one has to discover and realize the fact that, the self is not the form [ego] but the self is formless (soul). The self or soul is in the form of consciousness.
Self-Knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana is necessary to know the fact that, the universe, which appears is in the form of mind and disappears as nothingness (formless) is mere mirage created out of nothingness, which is consciousness. Thus the consciousness is the source and witness of the universe or mind, which comes and goes. Thus it is necessary to know the formless witness of the three states in order to know the fact that, the true self is apart and free from the mirage ,which is in the form of birth, life, death and the universe. Therefore, it is necessary for the seeker to make sure how the three states are mirage.
The body and the world are reality within the waking experience but the waking experience is mere illusion, same way as the dream body and the dream world were reality within the dream. The dream becomes unreal when the waking takes place; similarly the waking experience becomes unreal when the non-dual wisdom dawns.
