Changing the subject, Baba stated:
I will give only points today, no explanations. Tomorrow, if time permits, I will explain about God and the universe, Reality and illusion, the One and the many, Substance and shadow, Everything and nothing, Knowledge and ignorance, and the gap between the seven descents and seven ascents.
Jesus and his inner circle and the Christian mystics all stressed purity of the heart. Muhammad and his Imams also stressed purity of heart. So did Zarathustra and the Magi; so did Krishna and his companions, and the Vedantists. So does Baba stress purity of heart. Today we shall see what the heart is, what the mind is. Is it only the physical organ that is meant or something deeper? A Sufi has said:
“The Abode of Love is infinitely higher
than the domain of the mind.
He alone, out of millions and billions of people,
can touch and kiss the threshold of the Beloved
who carries his life in his sleeves.”
This is a literal translation. What it means is that if you want to see your Beloved God, you must go before Him with your head in the palm of your hand! It means that the mind can never attain to the One Who transcends the mind. So, we now understand that God cannot be understood. He is not visible, because He is infinitely visible to that eye which has no veil of desires or ego over it. The mind has a dual function, which I have explained at length in God Speaks. The first function is that of thinking. The impressions that lie dormant have to be worked out, and appear as thoughts. This thinking function of the mind is known to the Vedantists as mun.
The second function of the mind includes all feelings and emotions. This is called antakarana, which means the heart. So, what is known as the heart is actually the second functioning of the mind itself. The impressions called sanskaras are spent through both thinking and feeling. In the first functioning of the mind, are thoughts of all kinds. In the second functioning of the mind, that is the heart, are all feelings and desires – feelings of joy, pain, disappointment, happiness, shock – belong to this antakarana (heart).
In sound sleep, the impressions registered in the mind lie in a latent, dormant state. We will not discuss dreams now; they have been explained in God Speaks. What wakes you up from sound sleep? The impressions of actions done. These impressions are spent first by thoughts, then by desires, then by actions. So Krishna in his Gita said something to the effect that the impressions should be spent only through thoughts. Then no new impressions will be formed. If you cannot do this, then let the impressions be spent through desires, longings, feelings – not through actions. Then new impressions will be formed, but they will not be so deep. If impressions lead to actions, then new and stronger impressions are bound to be formed. This means that the first functioning of the mind is not important in so far as spending impressions is concerned. It is natural. But the second functioning of the mind, which is generally called the heart, is important because it is the seat of desires, and unless the heart is void of desires and feelings, unless the heart is pure and naked, God, Who is your innermost Self, cannot reveal Himself. Is this clear?
God is your innermost Self. That means that behind this limited body you have within you energy and mind with both its functions. You as you, the ego, are also there. Behind all this, imagine God as infinite space. Try to grasp what this means. You have this idea of yourself as body; you feel happy, depressed, hungry. You, you, you – this “you” you think to be yourself, but behind this “you” there is something that cannot be gotten rid of, even if the body is not there. If both your hands or legs were cut off, you would still exist as “you.” That means that you are not this body. In sound sleep, you are unconscious of your body, but you still exist, so you are not this body. Who then is this “you?” This “you” is your innermost Self. We must find in our own self this important “I.”
Who am I? I am not this body. Then who am I? “I” might be energy. But when I do not move, do not act – when I am unconscious – energy does not manifest itself, yet I still exist. So I am not energy.
“I” might be mind. But the same applies here. When I am unconscious, in sound sleep, and the mind is still, the mind is not functioning, but I still exist. So I am also not mind. Then who am I? Try to grasp this. Let us try to understand what cannot be understood. I am that which is not body, not energy, not mind.
In sound sleep, what do you experience? Nothing. That is you! Why? If I am not body, energy, mind, then I am that which has no body, energy, mind, and only sound sleep means that. Only sound sleep answers the question. In sound sleep, you are not body, not energy, not mind. Yet the body is there, energy is there, mind is there. Only the consciousness of body, of energy, of mind is not there.
I now go back to the first point and return to this later. The original state of the Beginningless Beginning was the infinite sound sleep state of the Infinite One. In the Beginningless Beginning, when there was no creation, no universe – not even nothing – there was only the “IS” state of God.
Then started the Ten States of God, which you will find described in God Speaks. During the processes of evolution and reincarnation, impressions were gathered. Body, energy and mind developed, and the Soul, in spite of its infinite state, experienced itself as the finite body, as energy and as mind, due to these impressions.
Now we return. In sound sleep, Malcolm [Schloss] is not conscious of body, energy, mind, and only Malcolm as real Malcolm exists. The important point is that Malcolm in the sound sleep state exists as “I am Malcolm” and is unconscious of this “I-ness.” The ego in the sound sleep or absolute unconscious state is called “the natural ego.” There are three kinds of ego; the first is the natural ego.
What wakes you up from sound sleep? The impressions that lie on your mind. They say, “Malcolm, wake up; we want to be spent.” So Malcolm wakes up and spends the impressions through thinking, desiring, acting. And Malcolm, while spending the impressions, thinks “I am this body.” This “I” is called the false ego. Let us not go too deeply into this. Malcolm who really is Malcolm and not this body, according to impressions, takes one form after another, and goes on spending new impressions. But this is a different chapter.
While spending old impressions, new impressions are formed, which also need spending. So ever new forms are taken, according to good and bad impressions – man, woman, beautiful, ugly, rich, poor, strong, weak and so forth. They are like different clothes which you alternately wear and discard. All along, this false ego persists.
Then comes a time when the impressions grow fainter and fainter, scarcer and scarcer. Eventually they become so faint that they fade away completely, and when impressions are not there, mind’s
functioning is stopped. The heart is now naked and pure because there are now no desires, longings, feelings. Yet you are still there. Then the “I,” void of all impressions, has no bindings, no limits. It now experiences that state which is above mind – the mind is no longer there. It experiences the Infinite Original State of Real “I-ness.” This ego is called the Real Ego, and just as within the false ego, Malcolm said, “I am this body, or I am this energy, I am this mind,” now Malcolm says, “I am God.”
So there exists the natural ego, the false ego and the Real Ego. Only the pure in heart can see God. This was what Purdom asked about – what being pure in heart means. Whatever I have explained will take you nowhere, because how can one explain One Whom the mind cannot grasp!
There is a bird of paradise which is said never to come on earth. Hafiz said:
“God is like the bird of paradise.
Do not try to snare Him by spreading the net of thoughts.
In that net you will find nothing but mind.
And so it is said, only love, and God will be yours.”
Not thinking (intellect), but love. So however much I may explain, God cannot be explained. But if I should wish it, in a split second you would see God and you would know.
Ramakrishna [the Sadguru of Calcutta] did not speak any language except Bengali. He could not read; he was what they call illiterate. Yet, in an instant, he gained All-Knowledge. Flocks of very literate and learned people gathered around him without understanding a thing he said! So love!
The secret is, in a few words: when you are there, God is not. The more you use the rational mind, the less you understand. To explain and to understand, you must be there, and when you are there, God is not. So explanations and understandings mean you drive away God, instead of drawing Him in. When you understand, you have not understood!
My one and the same Beloved, it is said, appears in different guises and garbs, and with different names, and appears to be always different, yet He is one and the same Beloved.
You have to become what you already are. You are God, but you must become God. Christ humiliated himself, he had himself crucified to teach this: through love become what you already are.
Lord Meher, Bhau Kalchuri, Original Publication, Vol. 13, pp. 4454 – 4458.