nn 1,2

1.4.3 spir. liberation, 1.4.8 spir. in practice

Today, I will discuss what are the impediments to self realization. You know, in order to merge the self awareness of individuality into the cosmic self awareness, requires some effort. There must be force creating momentum in that direction. Already the Cosmic Mind is pulling on the unit mind, drawing the individual being closer and closer to the Cosmic Nucleus. But, in that process, the individual mind, the individual expression must be made to focus upon the Supreme. Before the humanoid stage, this is not necessary despite the activities of the living beings. They are drawn steadily through the evolutionary cycle to more and more developed expression. But when the human stage is reached, the self reflective qualities of the mind give the developing beings the capacity to de-evolve as well as to ideate upon the Infinite. They may go in whatever direction they choose. So, at this stage, a living being must receive some guidance, some assistance, if they are to make choices which benefit their evolutionary development.

Now, when a living being is prepared for spiritual life, when the experience of their worldly existence has left them contemplating the condition of their life and thus they have turned to self reflection, then they are prepared to advance their development in the spiritual stratums. So, when a human being reaches this crossroad, there are certain requirements which must be met if they are to progress in a systematic fashion toward the Cosmic Nucleus. There must be some momentum created within the living being to propel them through the final stages of evolutionary development into the arms of their Supreme Father, into the shelter of the Cosmic Entity.

First of all, they must have a sincere desire to know the Supreme. The longing must be sincere. And how is a sincere desire created in the human mind? It is often created because an individual has reached a point in their life when they become truly aware that all of the fascinating colors of this world are nothing but traps and, in the end, are the sources of suffering. When a person, perhaps due to some hardship, comes to this realization, then they begin a self reflective process in which they may ask certain fundamental questions: "Why do I exist? What is this life of mine? How can I find lasting happiness?."

When a person begins to contemplate these subjects and seek solutions to these fundamental questions, then they automatically set their feet upon the introversial path toward the Divine Being. When they do this, they begin to perceive that they are in their human mind, in fact, the small reflection of the Great Entity which has created this cosmos. They are a small reflection of the Supreme Being. They have the same qualities and characteristics, but there is one fundamental difference. They also have a small sense of "I" so there is the feeling of "I exist" separate from everything else. "There is a boundary around me and there is that which is me' and that which is not me'." So they have this limitation of the small I' feeling and, from that small I' feeling, there comes the development of attraction to that which will preserve "my small I'" and repulsion from all else that may threaten the existence of "my small I and that which is "mine". "This body is mine. This mind is mine. But that body is not mine, that mind is not mine." Like this they think, so they are repelled from those things which do not promote the welfare of the small I' and they are attracted to those things which will promote this little person. They are caught in the bondage of attraction and repulsion. Desire dominates the living being. And from those desires, those attractions and repulsions, comes immersement in the feeling of self as the doer of actions. "I am the doer of acts and the results of those actions come on me." Then there is the development of reactive potentialities within the mind, which are stored, needing to be expressed. Thus the cycle of suffering goes on and on.

To reverse this process takes some momentum. The momentum is provided by a sincere desire to break bondages and to know the Supreme. This desire is often due to some hardship which throws the person into self reflection. They figure out for themselves that all of the things they thought were the very source of happiness, which they have clung to and desired so much in their life, are in fact the very source of their suffering. When this realization is reached, a person may apply them to systematically unwinding the chords which bind them within the framework of the little sense of self.

Now, one may ask, how is this done, how are these chords broken? The first method for doing this involves ideation upon the Divine. So once the sincere desire to break the bondages and know the Supreme is there, then contemplation of the Supreme becomes essential. More and more time should be devoted to thinking about the qualities and characteristics of the Divine Being and the nature of Infinite Consciousness. Now, secondly, there must be a neutralizing of the polarized forces of attraction and repulsion so that desires do not dominate the psyche 100%.

Conscious awareness needs to become greater and greater, and desires and repulsions need to become more subdued. Now, how are they subdued? They are subdued by the enhancement of self awareness. One cannot say "I will desire nothing, I will be repulsed from nothing." If one ideates in this way, one will become like a dead fish without any life. This is not the approach. The approach is, instead, to focus the mind upon the sublime and to increase ones' cognition and self awareness. If cognition and self awareness are increased, there is more consciousness. The percentage of consciousness within the individual becomes enhanced. So that when desires arise, the response is not simply like that of an animal: an impulse that comes and is immediately acted upon. When desire comes into the mind of a self reflective person they says "Ah, yes, I perceive that this need or this desire is arising in my mind and is exerting an influence on my psyche. But I will choose if I will follow the desire or I will resist." You see, a self reflective person, a self-aware person, may make such choices in their life. They are not the helpless victim of circumstance, compelled to act impulsively on whatever thoughts, needs, or desires arise in the mind. They may choose to act or not act because they live their life self reflectively. Cognition is more developed and so begins to loosen the fetters of desire and repulsion.

When the ideation is taken that all is the form of the Supreme and the Supreme Being is the only one who acts, not this little I', when this ideation is seriously taken, then another layer of bondage becomes undone, because cognition grows even stronger. Awareness, that is, perception of the nature of the cosmos, is cultivated in day to day actions and those actions become transmuted, transformed. They are not associated with the little I'. Day to day actions become, not the expressions of individual sanskara (mental reactions), but slowly, over time, they become the expressions of Cosmic Mind, of cosmic desires. That is to say, as this ideation is taken, the bondages of individual life become thinned and there is more and more alignment with the operative principals of the universe, greater and greater harmony with all life. And so, the actions that are taken, become more and more aligned with this universal harmony rather than the expressions of individualistic tendencies. Then another layer of bondage is broken. More consciousness is freed from the cycle of attraction and repulsion. And what is it freed for? Self awareness. It is transmuted into self-aware cognition. Then, once these bonds are broken, the living being comes to see that they are not merely this little I'. The strict boundaries between self and all other existence begin to be softened. There begins to be the feeling that "When I am helping the child, I am not just this person in this little body, but I am also the child himself whom I am helping. I am the wolf in the woods, I am the eagle in the sky, I am the trees in the forest. I live in so many bodies." This type of awareness begins to dawn in the mind and so the fundamental feeling of what constitutes survival begins to change. The living being begins to perceive their survival, not in a small body, but in the bodies of all the living beings. Their welfare becomes, not the welfare of the little body and the little mind, but of all living beings. And the fetters grow thinner and thinner.

The feeling comes "When I am acting, it is the will of the Cosmic Mind that I am serving. It is the welfare of all living beings that I am concerned with, not the welfare of a small body and of a small mind." So there comes a somewhat different approach to life. The feeling of I', me', and mine' begins to be less dominant. The feeling of separation from others begins to be smaller and smaller. The feeling of doership becomes less and the living being, thus freed from these bondages, feels a tremendous lightness within them.

The body may get injured. It may get pain and that pain will hurt. There will be the desire to heal the injury, no doubt, and to avoid injuries to the body. There will be wounded feelings if insult is given, no doubt. It is not that the living being is no longer human. They are Supremely human, Divinely human. So, though they live in a physical body, though they express through a human mind, they begin to identify with all of life, with all that exists and with the Sublime Consciousness which underlies all existence. They begin to feel that love, knowledge and wisdom are their essential nature, not individuality.

There is a fundamental shift in identification. Cognition is steadily growing, self awareness is steadily growing, and the fetters, the bondages of attraction and repulsion are steadily diminishing. Though there may be attractions and repulsion, they do not exert dominance over the mind. Instead, self awareness exerts dominance on the mind. In this way the journey toward consciousness is undertaken. There is a steady growth of self awareness, cognition and perception of reality; and there is a steady diminishment in the influence of desires, and the feeling of identification with the little 'I'. This is the process of spiritual development which leads a human being toward the Cosmic Nucleus. It is possible because the Cosmic Being exerts a pull. Like the sun which holds the planets and pulls them towards itself, the Cosmic Being pulls on human beings, pulling them closer and closer. Because of this pull, this process of spiritual development may happen.

But for the process to happen there must not only be a pull from the Supreme Being, there must be initiation from the unit being, from the individual entity. Human beings have fully developed capacities. Though they are often latent in the minds of many people, none the less, they are there. So, the human being must decide to turn themselves around and walk the path toward God; so that they will be fully able to perceive the existence of the Sublime Entity and they will be able to perceive that that Entity exists within themselves. They are not the small people whom they thought they were, but they are that Infinite Consciousness, pretending to be an evolving being, becoming self-aware. And that self awareness, that full cognition is the birth right of every human being.

So, this is the process for enhancement of identification of the little with the Great. As the process continues, there comes a point when the mind of a human being becomes so expanded that the identification with individual existence finally is broken all together. It is permanently dissolved. The living being merges their consciousness into the Infinite Consciousness of the Supreme Purus'a and the mind of the living being becomes absorbed in the Cosmic Mind like the drop of water is absorbed in the great ocean. When it is dropped in the ocean, who can tell the difference, water from water, it becomes the ocean itself. So, when the human being sheds the bondages of identification with a small sense of I' feeling, when this is broken, the little merges with the Great and no difference can be found between them.