We Are and We are Not as also We are Not and We Are

Master in his speech ‘Love Him who loves all’ dealing with the real nature of existence and being, in a spiritual manner makes the remark ‘ We are and we are not’ as also ‘we are not and we are’ as the concluding part of a sentence after the apparently enigmatic statement that “It means Life without life”. This message comes after the Master gives the injunction that “If we want to go into Non-self then we will have to annihilate ‘to be’ in thought and will come to ‘not to be’ in its real sense. This infact is also described by him elsewhere using the traditional term ‘Jeevan Mukta’ or Living liberated. I am inclined to tell a story I heard long time back about why the Jiva ever thought of leaving the Origin or Home.

There once was a soul who knew itself to be the light. This was a new soul and so was anxious for experience. It found that it is all light and pure consciousness. Yet all the knowing of it and all the saying of it, could not substitute for the experience of what it is. And in the realm from which this soul emerged, there was nothing but light. Every soul was grand and every soul was magnificent and every soul shone with the brilliance of God’s light. So the little soul was like a candle in the Sun. In the midst of the grandest light, of which it was part, it could not see itself, nor experience itself as to who and what it really is.

Now it came to pass that this soul yearned to know itself. So great was its yearning that God one day said, whether it knew how to satisfy its yearning. The soul replied that it does not and added that it would do anything for satisfying this yearning. God replied in such a case it should separate itself from the rest of the souls and then it must call upon it the darkness. Perplexed the soul asked what this darkness is. God smiled and said “that which you are not” and the unfortunate soul understood. And the soul did so, removing itself from the ‘All’ going unto another realm. And in this realm the soul had the power to call into its experience all sorts of darkness. And this it did and later started crying “Father, Father, why hast thou forsaken me?”

God replied: “I have never forsaken you, and I stand by you always, ready to remind you of who you really are and ready always, to call you home.” Our true nature is light and bliss and the Vedic prayer ‘Tamaso ma jyotir gamaya’ in reality has no meaning as darkness is a term that the Spirit does not know. Darkness really is the absence of light. We can study light, but not darkness. We know how dark a certain space is by measuring the amount of light present. Darkness is a term used by us to describe what happens when there is no light present.

It is the desire for the experience that makes us create a statement of who we are and what we want to be. It may be noted that it is this desire to experience that is the basis of all bondages later. When the soul persisted to experience, the benevolent God said to the soul that it might choose to be any part of God as it wanted to experience divinity which it already is. The soul wanted to be the aspect of Forgiveness.

However this created a little problem, as there was no one to be forgiven. All God had created was perfection and love. ”No one to forgive?” asked the little soul, somewhat incredulously.” No one,” God repeated. “Look around you. Do you see any souls less perfect and less wonderful than you?” The little soul was surprised to see itself surrounded by all the souls in heaven. They had come from far and wide throughout the kingdom of God, because they heard that the little soul was having an extraordinary conversation with God. ”I see none less perfect than I!” the little soul exclaimed. “Who, then, shall I have to forgive?”

Just then another soul stepped forward from the crowd. “You may forgive me” said this friendly soul. ”But for what? What could you, a being of such perfect light do to make me want to forgive you?” the little soul wanted to know. The friendly soul replied, “I am sure we can think of something.” The little soul could not figure out why a being of such perfection would want to slow down its vibration so much that it could do something ‘bad’. The friendly soul explained, “I would do it because I love you. You want to experience yourself as forgiving. Besides you have done the same for me. This is how all of us lived all time giving and forgiving. And we have done it by agreement, so that each of us might experience ourselves as the grandest part of God. For we have understood that ‘In the absence of that which we are not, that which we are, is not.’ If we choose to be a thing, something or someone opposite to that has to be somewhere in the universe to make that possible.

Even as that soul, we have all necessarily to choose some aspect of the divine which we through our life, project to the best of our ability. On an earlier occasion we had studied this aspect while understanding the archetypal character of our individuality. Divinity in any aspect it should be noted is an act of ‘giving’ even if it means suffering to ones’ petty self. People who want to get divinised should learn how to ‘give’ and without learning that lesson in full no one enters the realm of divinity. Service or giving to others is not just a sphere of our activities: it is the essence of our existence. To think that one does service in spiritual life without serving in the other planes of existence is a deceit that the ego plays. As Revered Babuji said “Life is not life we are living. There is something beyond and beyond. I hope all of us will see the better days, if we are devoted to Him and Him alone.” He also said that “People ask the meaning of life. Life is meaningless in some persons’ minds, and this is a suicidal idea. Life has its meaning because there comes a force with it, and that reminds us of something which should be very precious to those who want to keep it within them. Accepting turning towards the spiritual life is the beginning of life, and the highest state of it is ‘Life in Life’ which lies hidden in life itself, we should start for that Life which is to be entered into. All our abhyas leads us to that Life.’

We should lead a life which is translucent. That is ‘to be’ and at the same time ‘not to be’; it is neither light nor darkness. It is the wisdom of the ancients that “There is no type of existence in which opposites do not co-exist. In a sense, existence may also be defined as the coming together of opposites. It is the principle of the quest for unity between two apparently different characteristics of a substance. It tries to point out that the characteristics which differences have, also have an identicality.” After the Advent of our Master there is a surge of this type of consciousness in human beings. It is happening every where and those who can see are enlightened and others will come to know soon. I mean to imply that some persons have undergone a spiritual awakening that also allows them to remain involved in ordinary life. Almost all these persons evolved through some meditation exercise and no religion qua religion has ever helped any in this growth. Religion needs to be transcended to know our true nature.

The shift that initiates one into the translucent life is an awakening that is beyond thinking and feeling, and changing experiences. Most of the time, most of us are glued to thoughts and feelings, beliefs, desires and fears. And all we know is the content of what is in the mind at that time. So we say, I am a vegetarian, I am spiritual, I am afraid, I am angry and so on. But we do not really know in that moment who we are. Because who we really are is experiencing beliefs, experiencing thoughts, experiencing objects moving, sounds being heard. When we examine the consciousness of the one who is experiencing during meditation and during the influx of Pranahuti we describe that as absolutely peaceful. It is not just loving, but love itself. When such love is developed in us where service and sacrifice are acts of love and not accomplishments, the statement of the Master that “Love is the inner awakening to Reality” becomes true. It is that Love that needs to be loved by all of us and that is the title of the message under consideration.

Rev. Babuji Maharaj later in this message states that “No doubt the world will be paradise but for that we have to work hard”. Some surveys reveal that at present there are between 3 to 4 million persons worldwide who realize that they are limitless consciousness beyond birth and death, absolutely free. They realize themselves as embodiment of love itself. I am a very dedicated spiritual seeker for over 4 decades. I did everything I can to follow the foot steps of the Masters of the Natural path to get enlightened. I must frankly admit that I got enlightened very early but the yearning and restlessness has not died down. I know the path, I know my Master and I know my status and yet the borders of Love are not reached- perhaps it has none. Such a border can be arrived at only when there is a total annihilation of ‘to be’ in thought and come to the state of ‘not to be’ in its real sense. When I really check my condition and this is not easy, as the grip of love of the beloved is too tight to look at other directions- I find just infinite empty space, Space that goes on and on forever and that it is some energy which is neither light nor darkness. The reflective consciousness when examined is found to be just Love and an immeasurable joy without emotion or excitement. It is what it is. The realisation that there is just consciousness and no experiences is a great realisation by itself that is translucent.

When we live our lives with such a type of consciousness, it is very much like living normally. Except that now there is recognition that the personal life is not ‘me’. The personal life is being experienced as states of consciousness and is not defined or limited to any border starting from the body, vitality, and mind and covering all of that of which I am conscious. And living translucently simply means that our life is handed over more and more from the habits of acquisition, desire, consumption, fear, separation, to this omnipervasive luminous consciousness, which is full, complete, free, and unafraid. If one chooses to call that God there can be no objection. I prefer to call that Sri Ramchandra Consciousness.

So our life is gradually transformed from one of trying to get something for us, to giving to the world from us. This is what Master wants us to understand when he said that we should know what part we have played in creation. ‘Do not ask what God has done for us; ask what have we done to God’ is the wise counsel emanating from such an experience only. We are now full and we become a source of blessings, a source of giving. So life is transformed from one of acquisition to one of blessing or giving or sharing. And we need to emphasize one thing that really makes this translucent revolution a departure from the traditions of the past. Realisation is not an end in itself and the real goal is service. I have often said that service is the means and service is the end and that is the crux of translucent life. Living liberated has been examined by many saints of the past and all of them are univocal in stating that it is possible only with the eradication of the petty ego.

To live in a state of consciousness that is termed as living dead one needs to live where as Master put it ‘the whole habitation of desires get turned into desolate ruin, and the cup of the besmeared individuality is broken up so as to be incapable of holding anything in it’. (SDG.156). In this there is a call to total annihilation of self. This is one thing most of the persons do not want and in fact are afraid of. But if we enquire as to what is getting annihilated or dead it is obviously not life itself as life keeps itself ceaselessly manifesting in countless variations. Then what is it that ‘dies’ when the drop of individuality reunites with the ocean of being? It is not the ‘beingness’ that dies, but it is the sense of separation that dissolves. At this point the ocean is as much the drop as the drop is the ocean as no distinction can be made. Putting it in another way when a clay pot breaks, the space within and without seamlessly merge. This awareness is the basis of Vairagya and that alone enables us to live as living dead. There is a peculiar notion amongst us that a person who is a living dead will not have any fear of death.

It must be understood that the fear of dying is not necessarily the same as the fear of death. The fear of dying is part of the natural functioning of any living organism; even a fly will try to avoid the fly swatter. The fear of death, on the other hand, is abstract mind stuff. It is based on imagination and projection and the erroneous belief that we are the body. The bad news here is that all that is born will die. The good news is that we are the Unborn prior to –and beyond- the cycle of birth and death. The ‘I’ that ‘may have a nice life now’ or the ‘I’ that fears its own demise, is the real problem, and needs to be investigated. The illusion of exclusively being this ‘I’ will die. Raja Yoga always stressed that there is no need to wait till the body gives out, as this sense of separation can die right now. This ‘I’ is an insubstantial ‘object’ that appears on the screen of awareness. We are forever that unmovable ‘screen behind the scene’ regardless of the forms and activities that appear on it. We are not just this body/mind organism.

An enlightened one says that God has stolen my false “I” and brought me close to the true “I”. This is what the Gopis in Rasa Leela expressed in all their naivety. All colours have returned to pure white. The journey is over and nothing but God exists. All attributes and relationships have been erased. The primal state has been re-established. What would be the features of such a person who is living dead? Since all relationships cease, one is not touched by pleasure or pain, greed, emotional attachment and egotistical pride and thus he would be the very image of God. God abides in such hearts. Such persons it is agreed in all mystic traditions are the living liberated. They live and yet do not. They do their duty but never get soiled by it.

An unenlightened one is continuously stirred up by illusion, ignorance, false ego, mistaken identity, delusion, etc. while witnessing his day-to-day life. But a Living dead observes the play of the life through the prism of the Pure Consciousness, the consciousness of the Master, without any desires, emotional attachment, restlessness, prejudices and agitations of the mind. Unconditioned Consciousness is our true nature, which can be awakened by fully roasting the seed of ignorance in the fire- Beej Dagdh. Thus alone one becomes a living dead or living liberated in this very life while still in the human body. In a nutshell it simply means getting rid of ego and notion of separate self/ soul.

Of the many criteria to know whether we live and at the same not live some may be stated as:

a. He alone is called ‘living dead’ or liberated while yet alive in whom the ego is eradicated.

b. He, who effaces his own self and is dead to all trivia in life, is liberated while alive.

c. In whom Pure consciousness abides in all activities of the mind is considered to be liberated before and after death.

d. In whom the duality is totally annihilated and only Prayer subsists is considered as liberated while living.

e. He who has the grace of the Guru and who is rid of the false ego is liberated while alive.

f. Who is free of the idea of “I, Me, Mine, and your”.

g. Who is free from the delusion of personal doership.

h. Who is free of lamentation and hankering for material objects.

i. Who is ever aware of his identity with all beings.

j. Who remains undisturbed through reactions of the material qualities (goodness, passion, and ignorance);

k. Who is ever situated in as a serf.

l. Who is always in Samatva or balanced or having Samadrishti, unaffected by physical death and birth

m. Who no longer concerns about bondage or liberation

n. Who is always in possession of ethical virtues such as humility, unselfishness, purity, kindness, fellow-feelings, contentment, compassion, forgiveness.

o. Who remains full of spiritual wisdom.

p. Who knows the Truth and leads a truthful living.

q. Who remains undisturbed by the world of flux.

Persons who are living liberated are not interested to reach a condition and say they have reached the goal. The goal is a march towards Infinity and there is no end point here. This is possible only in service- service to the divinity in humanity- shedding and spreading light all around striving to bring happiness and peace in the kingdom of God. To make this world the kingdom of God is the goal of any spiritual person and this is possible only through translucent living. We do not subscribe to the concept of enlightenment as a fixed state. Instead, life itself is an endless river of enlightening, where every moment there is the possibility to live with more love, creativity, humour, art, and generosity of spirit.

Such a state of enlightenment is freedom from our own mind. It is total freedom from the Ego. The Ego of course, does not really exist. It is a collective way of speaking about thoughts. Realisation does not mean cessation of thoughts. It is a state where we know that they are just thought constructs of the mind. As was mentioned earlier this type of awakening is happening in many individuals. I presume one of the things that precipitated this collective awakening is the fact that our physical life is becoming less secure. The fact that we have so many more people on the planet than we ever did, and we are using up resources much faster than we ever did and we are impacting our environment so much more than we ever did, and we developed our technology for weapons of mass destruction, which are now in the hands of wild and strange characters makes life less secure, less reliable, and less predictable than it has been in the past. And this uncertainty about the future has been an important factor in precipitating collective awakening.

‘We are and we are not’ as also ‘we are not and we are’ or translucent living can also be understood wrongly as a way of avoidance. That is because when we realize that every thing is overwhelming and the only way out seems to be to go inward. But that is not so as we see in the way in which our Masters lived and many more are living in this manner even as the profound mystics and prophets lived in the past- be it Lord Buddha or Lord Christ. Human beings have always had awakenings, just not in such large numbers as we see today. That is one of the most important things that are to be noted in the present upliftment of human psyche that is happening.

But there are other things that make the translucent revolution even more remarkable and unusual. And that is the way the awakening is embodied. In the past, in most established traditions, awakening has been associated with renouncing the world or avoidance. So spiritual experience was a way to get free of this horrible realm, this dirty, messy realm of cycle of births and rebirths. That approach though gets echoed in certain of the writings of the Master, I think that is not his message. I think it was his way of communicating to persons who are conditioned to such thinking based on tradition of this holy land. The whole approach in tradition was to send the energy up the spine from Mooladhara to Sahasrara and out into the cosmic void, where one need not have to deal with human incarnation anymore. And that it is how they thought of spirituality and taught spirituality. The reformed system of Rajayoga of our Master has more than this to offer.

Rev. Babujis’ system is not any continuation of the old systems but one which gathers into it the wisdom of the past and presents a way of life which may be justly considered as the beginning of a new era of spirituality. The system is for the ordinary house holder who participates in every activity that is just and sanctioned by the society expressing their relationships in an enlightened manner. Master asserted that he is not restricted to India but his message is for the world. His is a method that integrates the awakening that is associated with oriental traditions, and the dynamic capacity for action that is associated with the Western cultivation of the psyche. When you look at those who are awoken in this way in the Natural Path we find that they have a kind of glowing appearance. An enlightened person is someone who has awoken deeply enough to who he is really and whose personal agenda of desires and fears and aspirations are semi-transparent. He is no longer opaque and there is no secret with him.

One may wonder whether what I say is something that is possible at all: we have been told that to be a Jeevan mukta is not easy and as a matter of fact certain philosophers have said Jeevan Mukta is a myth and Videha mukti alone is possible. That meant to throw away the possibility of this superior sort of living to the realm of the dead. As was stated above now a days there are more enlightened persons but they do not think so unfortunately judging by the standards and parameters that are not applicable today- as they say myths die hard. Realisation is possible for all and that is what Master asserts. True it was considered impossible earlier but with the Advent of the principle and process of Pranahuti things have changed. We can understand this by taking the example of the proverbial ‘four-minute mile’. The four-minute mile was considered impossible for human beings. It was a benchmark that was thought as just beyond the capacity of any human being to achieve, until Roger Bannister managed to run the four-minute mile in 1953. And since then, the four-minute mile has become the standard benchmark for Olympic athletes. If you want to run in the Olympics, you have got to run a four-minute mile every time you do a training session. The standards have risen high and accomplishments superior, ever since the Advent of Rev. Lalaji Maharaj in the field of spirituality. New realms of consciousness were discovered and thrown open enabling every one to live in an enlightened manner.

The most important thing to note is that the gates of the temple are wide open these days. As our Master asserts it is so much easier than ever before to have this kind of awakening. The only kind of prerequisite to awakening is a sincere interest in reality and practice the methods so graciously bestowed to humanity and then we realize who we are deeper than our thoughts. Silence rules such enlightenment. Master asserts that we should work and work if necessary without wages also. It is because through work alone one gets happiness. The hub of civilization lies in work. It is where we spend most of our time. If we love our work, we probably love life.

So that is the ground (work sphere) where we can explore who we are and where we can explore Jeevan mukta condition. When business is dominated by the old paradigm, it is about trying to get something. It is always an acute awareness of LACK. In the unenlightened condition everything is about lack. So the old mind, the hypnotized mind, is convinced there is something missing, there is a problem, and fixates on how to fulfil that lack. Consequently business becomes about profit. And that is what is called the bottom line. The bottom line of business is how to make more profit.

Till recently it is profit that is the concern of any business. Now the shift is towards the people who are to be served- though cynically I may add what ever it might mean. Profit is not given up but people are now the focus in business. The second change that is clearly observable is the focus on the planet THE MOTHER EARTH. The business world now tries to dedicate itself to leaving the planet a healthier environment than the one it was. So the business gives more to the planet than it takes. For example, re-planting trees would be a translucent practice. Another example would be business in the Oil industry now is motivated to find sustainable alternatives to oil. And they are on their way to that, they are working a lot with solar panels, with fuel cells. They are exploring all kinds of clean alternatives to oil. Industries we find are thus trying to become translucent. The third change is in the way profit is looked at. No business can run without making money. But if a business only dedicates itself to profit and nothing else, which many corporations do, we have missed the point of being alive. Another dimension we observe in work sphere that is developing, is that it is not just people’s physical, vital and mental interests and aspiration that are sought to be addressed to. Sincere attempts are being made to attend to the spiritual aspirations of the humans. The work force is now recognised as not substitutes for machines but aspiring human individuals with a collective consciousness. It is not as though this concept of the human psyche is new totally. In every religion there is a spectrum of which one end is fundamentalism and the other this spiritual understanding. Oriental religions and more particularly Hinduism express such translucence. This is where religion becomes what it is intended to be. Such translucence can be observed in Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism and to some extent in Sufism in Islam too.

We are in throes of a new era as Dr.K.C.Varadachari put it. We are going through a transition. That means we are seeing symptoms of the death of the old order. And we are witnessing the symptoms of the birth of the new Era. And so if we look at things in terms of what we are used to, we have some bad news. The economic structure we have is entirely based in the idea of something missing, or lacking. God has given us all abundance but we feel the lack and that is due to the muck that we have acquired from the past. It is a truth that requires a thorough comprehension that advertising only works with people who feel their life is missing something. In such a mind set it is easy to persuade others that they can feel better with their latest product which has been exclusively designed to meet the personal requirements.

Our economic structure at present favours tremendous disparity and this will change. We are aware that in the part of the world called third world things are being manufactured for wages that are perhaps only 10% of the cost at which they are being sold in the so called first world. This is total exploitation that is now a practice under various terms and words. This kind of economic system might well collapse with in the next decade. This is because its support is the old kind of mind. If one is concerned about maintaining the value of ones’ stock market portfolio or if one is concerned about maintaining the job under any circumstances, one can continue to buy stuff, and things might get very unstable very early. But if we look at the number of people experiencing their lives as blessing, experiencing this moment as alive, as free and if we notice people dedicating their lives to tremendous service and creativity: then there is a lot of good news. Master states that “There is spiritual awakening through out the world. …I feel that every day my work is becoming easier because it is now the Divine dictate.” The most important evidence is the fact that there are so many people experiencing this shift of consciousness themselves.

One may wonder how these small fragments of human population accounting for 3 to 4 million in any way change the nature of the entire human population. This will be clear when we study the way that social systems change. Evolution is initiated through a small percentage of population reaching what is called a critical point or tipping point. And this has most recently been explained by Malcolm Gladwell and his book The Tipping Point as I understand from a review of the book. He explained the shift in purchase of music from tapes to CD’s, did not go one percent, two percent, and three percent. On the contrary it went by up by 0.1 percent, 0.2 percent, up to 0.9 percent, and then from 1 percent to 92 percent. And that seems to be how shift happens. Another fascinating parallel was what happened just before the Renaissance. A few decades before the Renaissance, Copernicus was a theoretical astronomer who suggested that rather than the planets going around the Earth, they in fact went around the Sun. Copernicus suggested that in fact, we were all going around the Sun, and that made sense. He died in 1540 with his books still unpublished, so nobody knew about his theories. And it took Galileo, with the world’s first telescope, and other people, to test Copernicus’ theories to discover they were accurate. By 1600 we were headlong into the Renaissance. And by 1600 everybody recognized that we were all going around the Sun. That is how we shifted from feeling that we were in a universe governed by an eccentric deity, to a universe that makes sense.

It only took the more intelligent, educated people, probably less than one percent, to recognize what was true for the whole culture to change. We see that many times humanity has gone through a leap. One percent of the world’s population today would be 60 million people, and many people prophesize that it is going to be about 60 million people who need to shift in this way to see a new kind of collective consciousness on this planet. Now it is for us to play our part in this transformation. It is important for us to wake up and live translucently. And encourage other people to do so. And then we will be in tune with the Divine will.

The need to become a living dead has been stressed by all realized beings and the scriptures. Why is it so important? As they remind us, if one is not free from the time-bound consciousness while living in the body, then he will be unable to free himself from the cycle of repeated death and birth. In other words, Liberation or Mukti is not an after death phenomena. It must be achieved and demonstrated “here” and “now” while still alive. Becoming living dead also means closing of the bodily senses in material consciousness, and opening up of the Divine Consciousness. With the senses active we will be unable to enter the Spiritual Consciousness. In other words, the process of becoming living dead involves separating the consciousness from the material bondage. It is a total merger or union with one’s True Nature from which the individual never returns. A true living dead is not emotionally involved in anything other than the Divine.

The state of living dead does not mean committing suicide, abandoning one’s duties, remaining inactive, running away from the world, or neglecting one’s responsibilities of life. On the contrary, the life of a living dead is full of actions — actions that are God-centered, actions that are of pure intention, actions that do not create new samskaras, and actions that use all of ones’ powers to serve God and his creation. Hence to be living dead simply means detaching from the mundane consciousness. If one has to say he is living dead the most important thing that he needs to exhibit is self discipline.

Self-discipline is a dedication to reality. Any problem can be successfully solved given enough time. Problem solving takes time. We have to be disciplined enough to give the problem our time and attention. We must take the time and recognize that we must delay gratification long enough to solve the problem at hand. To be living dead is not any gift from above; it is a state in which the aspirant abides by option and thorough self discipline. We should know our responsibility in any problem. We all know that Life is problem solving. To the extent that we are successful at this problem solving we are also successful in official, business and personal relationships. The extent that we are skilled at problem solving also determines our mental, physical and spiritual health.

We must be dedicated to truth. And we must welcome discomfort as we proceed to live a life of living dead. We have noted earlier it is not any static state. This is a state in which as our Master states” … the atoms of the body begin to convert themselves into energy and then energy into its absolute.” We must be willing to self-examine our thinking and contemplate over our true condition and accordingly interact with others. Constant self-examination is painful. A life dedicated to truth is a life of challenge. And challenge can be painful. Our goal as humans is transformation and reformation. On such examination we find new ways to interact with others, new routes to joy. But the road is not an easy one. But the new road is easier than the many dead-end roads of our ancient traditions.

In order to lead the life of a living dead we need to be balanced in every walk of life. Balance is the tool that allows us flexibility in living. Balance is acting and reacting appropriately to life situations. Anger, for example is bred into us, and allows us to be alert to dangerous situations. However, our mind allows us the capability of choosing ways to express our anger in an appropriate way, or of deciding that there is no danger. This is how we use the self-discipline tool for balance. We choose an appropriate way of reacting to our emotions.

Most importantly to lead a life of living dead we have to grow to our full potential. In order to grow to full potential there are certain things that we must give up and accept. These are the conditions, states, desires and fantasies we must learn to give up in order to grow and transform. We must give up

1. The state of infancy, in which no external demands need be responded to

2. The fantasy of omnipotence

3. The desire of total possession of our parents

4. The dependency of childhood

5. The distorted images we have of our parents

6. The freedom of uncommitment

7. The agility of youth

8. The fantasy of immortality

9. Authority over one’s children

10. Various forms of temporal power and

11. The independence of physical health; and ultimately, life itself.

Our spiritual yearning can be taken as an involved attempt to have personal and intimate relationship with the Master. The living dead are living in, for and by the Master while refusing to get attached to anything that is mundane. This is a type of wooing. It has all the qualities of an addictive element. Addictions arise upon the appearance of adrenaline. Whatever gives us a sense of a higher feeling, emotionally or physically, can lead to compulsion in the direction of the event or things that is associated with that emotion or physical event.

Such wooing of the Divine which is otherwise called as constant remembrance is a condition where we are paying attention at all times to the object of our yearning. We do feel an oneness with the Master. And yet we do not feel because we insist that we must necessarily possess the object of our yearning. On the contrary in true wooing there is true yearning or living in the Master for Master and by the Master and that is the condition where we are accepted. This is a plane of non-questioning and contentment. This is religious passion - a passion for God and worship. In the condition of living dead we transform this passion into a life-giving direction.

By living to the awareness of our petty self as nothing but a serf to the divine and dedicating such a self to the service of others we know how to act and react appropriately and in a balanced manner. The process of self-discipline, of delaying gratification, of accepting responsibility of problem solving, of dedication to truth and reality, and the balance of emotions using self-discipline, which are the tools for living the life where we can say ‘we are and at the same time we are not’ ensures our steady spiritual growth towards Infinity or otherwise and preferably called Insignificance. When we are mute to the ‘word’ and alive to the ‘spirit’ we are and we are not. It is then the statement of the Master ‘Therefore, the true conscience of the people has taken its turn to make it run outside also. And they are compelled to do so as good times are ahead.’ will come true and it is then we will see the THING behind the things. I pray that all of us are firmly attached to the Master through every breath of us thus ensuring divinisation of Man soon.