(Sept. 1954) I sometimes seem to be speaking at random, but I am really working elsewhere.
When you say “I am ill, I am hungry, I am old, I am young, or I am not hungry and do not want this food” and so on, when you use all these “I, I, I’s,” recollect that when your hands or legs are cut off, your “I” remains the same; whatever happens you remain the same. This means that the “I” is not the body. Why identify yourself with the body? Yet, for twenty-four hours a day you do so. Will used to say, “I am thirsty.” He now says in old age, “I am better.” If that were true it would mean that Will was the same limited body.
“Aham” (the “I”) means identification with the false. Why do we do this? Even when we understand, we still identify. Why? The “I” is not the body, nor the eating nor the quarreling one. For ages, the Unlimited Self has been in illusion because consciousness and intellect were not developed. In the human form consciousness and intellect are developed, but there is identification with illusion because of the habits of ages. Hafiz says:
“You who do not come out of
this age-long habit of being ignorant
can never realize the Self as infinite.”
It is truly said that God has no beginning and no end. Think this over. If He had no beginning, what was there before God? The answer is God. You cannot in imagination reach where no beginning was. The answer can only be God. What will be there after billions of years? God. Always God. This means that in eternity there is no time. Nothing has ever happened, and nothing ever will happen. There is no time factor. Billions of years ago you were; today, you are here, ever afterwards you will be. Today, all that is happening is not happening, although this does not appear to be so now.
When one has experience of eternity, one knows that God is. To say that God was, is, and will be, is wrong. All eternity is now present at this moment. So I say, God IS.
Mona (Malcolm Schloss’ wife who had recently died) was once here with you; she is no longer with you. The meaning is that she never was here with you; she always was in eternity. Even I cannot express this, but I try to do so as far as possible. It is beyond the intellect. What happened yesterday has produced a temporary effect; but the actual happening of yesterday has stopped, which means that nothing happened yesterday. The temporary effect is illusion. So it goes on; God and illusion running parallel. Illusion says everything is happening, God says nothing happens.
When you are in the grip of the false “I,” which identifies itself with what happens, illusion governs you. But when you know the Truth, you do not identify yourself with it. All we see, hear and experience in the world is not God. Whatever you can understand is not God. Whatever is explained is not God. Whatever is expressed is not God. The poet says:
“The lover says to the Master:
You have taught me something
that has made me forget everything.
You have created in me a desire
that says do not desire anything.
You have given me that One Word
which says: words mean nothing.
“And the lover says: O Master,
I was seeking God and thought Him this and that.
Now, you have given me something of which
even my imagination cannot produce its shadow.”
It is all words. When you say “Self, God, Infinity,” they mean nothing. To attempt to understand by reading or hearing explanations is an insult to our Beloved God, Who is beyond all understanding. The only answer is love. If we love God, we become Him. There is no further question. But we must love with all our hearts, so that only God exists for us.
Lord Meher, Original Publication, Bhau Kalchuri, Vol. 13, pp. 4489 – 4491.