Bhagavad Gita and a Time of War

 

I feel that it is important to repost this blog at this time. War again raises its terrible head. Again, people take sides, people discuss, people argue. And it’s been going on for thousands of years.
The following excerpts are taken from the Bhagavad-Gita, the teachings of Krishna, which comprise the sixth book of the great Indian epic called the Mahabharata. It takes place in a time of war. Is there something we can all learn from it?

The Mahabharata is set in that transitional time between the end of the Dwarpara Yuga and our own Kali Yuga— according to most traditional calculations, somewhere around 5,000 years ago.

Dwapara was a great age; a time when Divine Knowledge pervaded the fabric of everyday life and the attributes of lucidity and purity found expression in all human endeavors. Lucidity and purity are expressions of Sattva Guna. In the Vedic teaching there are three gunas, Tama, Raja, and Sattva, that color the expression of all gross, subtle, and mental energies—and the highest of these three gunas among the trinity is Sattva Guna. Sattva Guna leads to the state of Gunateeta, described by Upasani Maharaj, as “the state devoid and beyond the Gunas,” i.e. God- Realization.

In the beginning of Dwarpara Yuga, life was guided by the manifestation of Divine Knowledge, and the ascendancy of Sattva Guna over Tama Guna and Raja Guna. But by the end of Dwarpara Yuga, life fell under the shadow of Tama Guna —the expression of ignorance and dark cruelty—and the shadow of Raja Guna—the expression of the unbridled pursuit of worldly pleasures and possessions. Consequently, as the next age of Kali Yuga dawned, the ability to think, speak, and act truthfully was in decline and life became growingly selfish and deceitful.

Mahabharata means great family—the great family of humanity, but as the shadow grew longer, and Dwarpara Yuga inevitably turned to Kali Yuga, the great family had become divided by greed and distrust. It is a long story, but eventually the two sides of the family, the Kauravas and the Pandavas, were arrayed on the battlefield poised for war. Krishna, the Avatar, had done all that He could to avoid the confrontation, but even He could not stem the tide of destiny.

In the great battle, Krishna stood with the Pandavas, who represented the embodiment of Sattva Guna, against the Kauravas who embodied Raja and Tama Gunas. In fact, it was Krishna himself who drove the chariot of Arjuna, the Pandava prince and greatest of all warriors, into war.

It fell to the exalted status of Arjuna to throw down the gauntlet that would begin the war. Lord Krishna drove the chariot onto the battlefield between the two opposing sides, but Arjuna balked. Seeing the faces of both sides— faces of his brothers and kin, his teachers, and respected elders, and realizing that war would only bring suffering and death to all, he froze with indecision. Seeing his hesitancy, Krishna asked, “What are you doing? Why do you hesitate? Throw down the gauntlet to begin the war.”

“I cannot!” Arjuna replied, “How can I start this war and bring death upon all of these people?” And so it came to pass, that right there and then, between the two armies poised for war, Krishna taught Arjuna the Great Teachings known as the Bhagavad-Gita.

“He who shall say, ‘Lo! I have slain a man!’

"He who shall think, ‘Lo! I am slain!’ those both know naught!

“Life cannot slay. Life is not slain!

“I say to thee, weapons reach not that Life,

“Flames burn it not, waters cannot overwhelm it, not dry winds wither it.

“Unentered, all-arriving, stable, sure, invisible, ineffable,

By word and thought encompassed, ever all itself — thus is the Soul declared!” – Krishna

Krishna is speaking from His direct experience of illusion and reality. These bodies of ours, these bodies we cherish so deeply, exist only in the illusion and delusion of a great dream. It is the dream of us and others. Our joys and sorrows, successes and failures, births and deaths all seem so real— until we wake up.

But if it is really a dream, yet our experience tells us that it is real, then how should we act in the world—moment by moment, day by day? This was Arjuna’s question—our question.

In the conversation that follows, Krishna speaks to Arjuna about the life of action and the contemplative life of meditation. He extols the virtues and shortcomings of both, saying; “Live in action! Labor! Make thine acts thy piety…” while also counselling; “Yet the right act is less, far less, than the right-thinking mind. Seek refuge in thy soul, have there thy heaven.”

 And so, Arjuna remains confused. He asks Krishna which of these two paths is the better way to attain the Supreme Reality.

Seeing Arjuna’s mind impaled on the horns of this dilemma, Krishna slips between the horns saying that the two paths are, in fact, really one:

“Yet these (two paths) are one! By shunning action; nay, and none shall come by mere renouncements unto perfection.”

We have probably all heard the saying, “…to be in the world, but not of the world.” This is quite consistent with Christ’s words to His disciples;

 “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and save for God what is God’s.”

 But Arjuna’s questions persist—our questions persist—and in order to explain the why and how of His proclamation, Krishna begins to talk about the three qualities that inform action—namely our friends Sattva, Raja, and Tama Gunas.

In the fourteenth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita Krishna says, “Sattva, Raja, and Tama—so are named the qualities of Nature—Lucidity, Passion, and Ignorance. The three bind down the changeless Spirit in the changeful flesh, though sweet Sattva by purity living unsullied and enlightened, binds the sinless Soul to happiness and truth; while Raja, being kin to appetite and breeding impulse and propensity binds by tie of works the embodied Soul, Oh Kunti’s son! But Tama, begot of Darkness, blinding mortal men, binds down their souls to stupor, sloth, and drowsiness.”

There is a saying, “Good is not God,” another by Meher Baba, “The saint is bound by a golden chain, the sinner by a spiked one—but the goal is to be free of all chains.” From this we can conclude that even too much Satva Guna is a hindrance to attaining the Supreme Reality. This is why Krishna counsels Arjuna that one should rise above all the Gunas.

“When, watching life, the living man perceives that the only actors are the Qualities (the Gunas), and knows what rules beyond the Qualities, then he comes to Me! The soul passing forth from the Three Qualities— whereby arises all bodies—overcomes Birth, Death, Sorrow, and Age; and drinketh deep the undying wine of Amrit,” (the Eternal Bliss of Union with God).

Of course, Arjuna is more than interested at this point, and asks Krishna;

“Oh my Lord! Which be the signs to know him that hath gone past the Three Modes (Gunas)? How does he live? What is the way that leads him safe beyond the Threefold Modes?”

Krishna responds; “He who with equanimity surveys luster of goodness, strife of passion, sloth of ignorance; without anger, nor wish to change them: who sits a sojourner and stranger in their midst unruffled, standing off, saying serene when troubles break, ‘These be the signs!’

“He unto whom—while centered in the Self—grief and joy sound as one word; to whose deep-seeing eyes the clod, the marble, and the gold are one; whose equal heart holds the same gentleness for lovely and unlovely things, firm-set, well-pleased when praised or blamed; satisfied with honor or dishonor; unto friends and unto foes alike in tolerance, detached from undertakings—he is named Surmounter of the Qualities.”

The teachings of the Bhagavad-Gita were not new—even in the time of Krishna.

“This deathless Yoga (these teachings), this deep union, I taught to Vivaswata, the Lord of Light.”

 There is great significance in this statement by Krishna because Vivaswata is a name associated with the Sun. So, Krishna is saying that indeed He has been around for a long ling time!

 “Vivaswata gave it to Manu (his son) who passed it down the line to all My Royal Rishis. Then with years the truth grew dim and perished, noble prince!

Now once again I will declare to you this ancient lore, this mystery supreme—seeing I find you my devotee and friend.”

But Arjuna is puzzled. How can this same being have been around since the beginning of time? He asks;

“How shall I comprehend this thing You say, ‘From the beginning it was I who taught…?’”

To this Krishna responds revealing the nature of Divine Incarnation—the Avatar—the Christ—the Messiah—the Ancient One who comes again and again, in different guises and different forms ;

“Manifold the renewals of My birth have been, Arjuna! And of thy births, too! But Mine I know, and yours you know not, oh Slayer of the Foes! Albeit I be unborn, undying, indestructible, the Lord of all things living; not the less by Maya, by My magic which I stamp on floating Nature-forms, the primal vast—I come, and go, and come.

 “When righteousness declines O Bharata! When Wickedness is strong, I rise, from age to age, and take visible shape, and move a man among men, succoring the good, thrusting the evil back, and setting Virtue on her seat again.”

It is the story of the Avatar, The Ancient One, The Highest of the High, The Christ, The Buddha—His Names are many, His shapes are many—He dons them all like we put on clothes appropriate to the situation and the time.

 And Arjuna believes in the divinity of Krishna and by His teachings his darkness is dispelled, but Arjuna still sees Him as a man and so asks Krishna to reveal Himself—reveal His Godhood.

“If this can be, if I may bear the sight, make Yourself visible…show me your very Self, the Eternal God!”

 And Krishna obliges His beloved devotee.

“Gaze then Arjuna! I manifest for you those hundred thousand shapes that clothe My Mystery: I show you all my semblances—infinite, rich, divine—My changeful hues, My countless forms, see in this face of Mine…Behold! This is the universe! Look! What is live and dead I gather all in One—in Me! Gaze, as thy lips have said, on God Eternal, Very God! See Me! See what thou prayest!”

Krishna then tells Arjuna that what he wishes to see cannot be seen with earthly eyes, “therefore I give to you other eyes, new light! Now look! This is my glory, unveiled to mortal sight.”

And right there, on the battlefield, between the two armies poised for war, Krishna reveals to Arjuna His Universal Form.

I find it interesting that in the story, when Krishna reveals His Universal Form to Arjuna, it is Sanjaya, who narrates the story. Sanjaya is Dhritarashtra’s advisor. Dhritarashtra is the blind king who has fathered the Kauravas warriors.

Sanjaya tells Dhritarashtra that Krishna is now displaying to Arjuna all of the splendor, wonder, and dread of His Almighty-head.

“Out of countless eyes beholding, out of countless mouths commanding countless mystic forms enfolding; in one Form supremely standing, countless radiant glories wearing, countless heavenly weapons bearing, crowned with garlands of star-clusters, robed in garb of woven lusters, breathing from His perfect Presence breaths of every subtle essence of all heavenly odors; shedding blinding brilliance; overspreading—boundless, beautiful—all spaces with His all-regarding faces—so He showed! And sore amazed, thrilled, overfilled, dazzled, and dazed, Arjuna knelt, and bowed his head, and clasped his palms and cried, and said…”

Try to imagine, if you can, what Arjuna sees. He sees the earth, its moon and sun, the solar system; all solar systems that make up our galaxy; all galaxies; the entire creation coming into existence and then being absorbed through Krishna’s Divine Form.

 Try to imagine that all of creation is less than even a speck when compared to the Subtle World with all its powers and experiences, heaven and hell, angels and gods, and all divine beings; and that the Subtle World is less than even a speck when compared to the  Mental World, the abode of Archangels and real Saints—the world of Mind itself.

 Try to imagine all these three worlds being born and existing and then being absorbed—crushed—between the teeth of Krishna’s Divine Form.

 This is what Arjuna saw while standing on the battlefield between the two armies of the Pandavas and the Kauravas poised and ready for war.

Arjuna exclaims; “You fashion men and then devour them all, one with another, great and small alike! The creatures who you fashion you then take within your flaming jaws—lapping them up!

 “Lord God! Your terrors strike from end to end of earth, filling life full, from birth to death, with deadly, burning, lurid dead! Ah Vishnu! Make me know why is it is that You appear so? Tell me, who You are who feasts upon the dead!?”

 Seeing within Krishna Universal Form the aspect of Shiva—The Destroyer—reignites Arjuna’s ambivalence regarding the war and his role in it. Krishna responds thusly;

“Arise Arjuna! Destroy your foes! (It is) by me they fall—not you! The stroke of death is dealt them now, even as they show thus gallantly. Arjuna, you are My instrument and it is I who bid them perish! You will only be the slayer of the slain!”

Apparently, Arjuna gets it—gets who Krishna really is—and after praising Him in every way utters, what I think is a very interesting observation—how easy it is when graced with the familiarity of a Divine Presence, to forget that He is not like we; or as Meher Baba reminded us on more than one occasion, “I come down and laugh and play with you—but never forget, I am God!”

Arjuna says, “For you are All! And if in anger now, You should remember I did think You my friend, speaking with easy speech, as men use each to each, and did call You ‘Prince,’ yet never comprehending Your hidden majesty, Your might, and Your majesty; and in my heedlessness, or in my love, on journey, or in jest, or when we lay at rest, sitting at council, straying in the grove, alone, or in the throng, did do You the most Holy, wrong, then forgive me for that witless sin!”

 Arjuna then asks Krishna to show him once again His personal form—His human form:

 “Now I know that you are Father of all below, of all above, and of all worlds within, as so with all reverence I ask Your grace, as father to a son, as friend to friend, as one who loves to his lover, turn your face in gentleness and mercy upon me on and show me once more Your visage that I know and let me once again behold the form I loved most of all, my Charioteer, in Krishna’s kind disguise.”

To his request Krishna replies, “Let trouble shake your heart no more because your eyes have seen My terror and My glory. As before I have been so will I be again for thee; with lightened heart behold!”

“Then back again the semblance dear of the well-loved charioteer; peace and joy it did restore, when Prince Arjuna beheld once more, Mighty God’s form and face clothed in Krishna’s gentle grace.”—Sanjaya

With Arjuna’s earthly sight and familiar state returned, his heart beats calm, his mind can think, and Krishna tells him of the rarity of his experience.

“Yes, it was wonderful and terrible to view Me as you did, dear Prince—to see me as the gods see me! Yet not by study of the sacred texts, nor from sacrifice, nor penance, nor gift-giving, nor with prayer shall any so behold Me as you have seen Me!

 “Only by fullest service, perfect faith, and uttermost surrender am I known and seen and entered into, Indian Prince! Who does their all for Me: who finds Me in all, adores Me always—and  loves all that I have made, and loves Me as an end in itself, that person  Arjuna, comes to Me!”  

 There are numerous paths that lead to God-Realization; but here, in this passage, Krishna reveals the highest path—the path of Love. It is so simple, one needs no special talents or intellect; no diet, or dress, or mode of life, or sacrifice, or practice is necessary—only love for God—only love for the God-Man—the Christ—the Avatar.

 Krishna then goes on to make a distinction between worship of the personal and the impersonal states of God, “Whoever serve Me as I show Myself, constantly true, in full devotion fixed, those hold I very holy. But those who serve and worship Me as The One, Invisible, Unrevealed, Unnamed, Unthinkable, Uttermost, All-Pervading, Highest; who adore Me thus, mastering their senses, cultivating an impartial mind that looks upon all without distinction, joyful in response to all acts of goodness, these blessed souls come unto Me.

"Yet this path (of service and devotion to the Impersonal State of God) is most difficult to tread. It is an invisible path that can scarce be trod by man.

 “But as for those who live their lives renouncing self for Me, full of Me, fixed to serve only the Highest, night and day musing on Me, who clasps Me with heart and mind, whose soul clings fast to Me!—him will I swiftly lift up from life’s ocean of distress and death, to dwell with Me on High!”

But Krishna is also a pragmatist—the Avatar and all the Perfect Masters are always, as I have learned, pragmatists. These Perfect Ones never stand on ceremony, are always adaptable to every situation, and are always here for us only. The Avatar never gives up on us, never gives up on anyone or anything.  

“But if your thought droops from such height; if you find that you are unable to remember me constantly in your body and soul, do not despair!

 “Instead give me service! Seek to reach Me by worshiping Me with steadfast will.

 “But if you cannot do that, them do your work for Me, toil in works pleasing to me! For he who labors right for Love of Me shall in the end attain!

 “And if even in this your heart fails, then bring Me your failure! Find refuge in Me! Let go of failure or success — the fruits of labor— renouncing even hope itself for Me, then come with humble heart, for, though knowledge is greater than diligence, yet worship is better than knowing, and renouncing better still, for near to renouncing — very near — dwells Eternal Peace.”

I find it interesting that in this statement Krishna has made what appears to be the lowest path the highest — the fruit of failure becoming the requisite for renunciation. Is this not an expression of God’s mercy and compassion?

 “Who does not hate any living thing, being himself kindly and harmless, compassionate, exempt from arrogance and self-love, unmoved by good or ill, patient, contented, firm in faith, mastering himself, true to his word, always seeking Me heart and soul, vowed unto Me, that man I love!

“Who troubles not his kind and is not troubled by them; free of wrath, living beyond gladness, grief, or fear, that man I love!

“Who does not chase after his desires, looking here and there with longing, free of sin, serene, well-balanced, unperplexed, working with Me, yet from all works detached, that man I love!

“Who fixed in faith on Me, dotes upon none, scorns none, rejoices not and grieves not, unperturbed when good or evil manifests or departs, that man I love!

“Who keeps an equal heart for friend and foe alike, equally bearing shame and glory; who remains at peace in heat and cold, pleasure and pain; abides without desire and endures praise or calumny with passionless restraint, linked by no ties to earth, steadfast in Me, that man I love!

“But most of all I love those happy ones who without effort or awareness live life in single-minded fervid faith and love unseeing, drinking the blessed nectar of my Being!”

And in the end, Krishna turns to Arjuna and once again counsels him to fight. This war was inevitable and even the Avatar could not stop it. The forces of destiny had been fixed; there was no way out.

 Could not God Himself stop a war? There is an old story about a candidate for the priesthood who was being examined by a bishop, and a question regarding God’s omnipotence was asked of the candidate who responded by saying that even God cannot do everything. “And what is it that God cannot do?” asked the Bishop. The candidate answered calmly, “Even God cannot beat the ace of spades with a deuce of clubs.”

 Stopping the war would destroy the game—His game. And what is His game? It is the game of awakening God to God’s own Reality—His own true Self—our own true Self—our own Divine Reality.

And so, it was time for Arjuna to commence and fight the war; but the real question was how he should fight; how he should act; how he should hold himself.

 “Do all you do for Me! Renounce for Me! Sacrifice heart and will and mind for Me! In faith of Me all dangers you will vanquish by My grace. But, if instead you trust to yourself, forgetting Me, then you will perish!

 And then Krishna reveals to Arjuna that, in fact, Arjuna has no power to stop the war either—that Arjuna has no power to not fight. Thinking that he does, is just another delusion.

 “If this day, relying on yourself, you say, ‘I will not fight!’ vain will your resolution prove, for the qualities of your nature spurred by fair illusions will rise within you and prompt you to the very actions you have disavowed and you will be lost.

 “Arjuna, I am the Master that lives in your heart; it is I who pulls the strings and you who dance to My tune. Trust Me, your Master, and come to Me for your nourishment and your relief. Oh prince of men, only then, by My grace, will you gain the uttermost repose, the Eternal Place.”

Then Krishna offers His last words to Arjuna, revealing the unique relationship of God and man and the love that God, in the form of the Avatar, has for each and every one of us—for all of His creation—for each and every state of Himself.

“Arjuna, you are precious to Me! Hear My last words; I tell this to you for your comfort. Give Me your heart! Adore Me! Serve Me! Cling to Me in faith and love and reverence; and I promise that you shall come to Me! For you are sweet to Me.

 “So let go of those archaic rites and writs of duty! Fly to Me alone! Make Me your refuge, and I will free your soul of all of its sins. Be of good cheer!”

 As Meher Baba said, “Don’t worry, be happy!”

In the Bhagavad Gita Krishna is saying that there are numerous ‘ways’ to reach the Supreme Reality. There is meditation and contemplation; works done with an attitude of renunciation and detachment; living life in the knowledge that “all things shall pass.” But it is also pretty clear that Krishna is saying that of all the ‘ways’, the best and the highest, is to hold on to Him—the Avatar—the Ancient One—the Godman.

Meher Baba wrote/dictated a book called God Speaks. In it He answers many questions about how the process of God Realization works through the dream of creation and the mechanics of evolution, reincarnation, and involution of consciousness.

 I have read God Speaks many times over the past thirty-five or so years and have come to the conclusion that God Speaks is God’s story; it is Meher Baba’s story—the story of the Avatar—the Ancient One—the Godman. In other words He is telling us who He is.

But just imagine the difficulty of the task. Let’s say that you were suddenly to awaken on another world inhabited by beings that have never heard of or seen a human being, or have even heard of the planet Earth. What would you tell them when they begin to ask you who you are? “Well, I’m named Michael; I’m a musician, and I live on this planet called Earth…”

But that approach wouldn’t work because in all these answers there is an underlying assumption that the beings you are talking to understand what it is to be human. You would have to first explain what it is to be human. That would be a little difficult, no doubt. Now, by extension, how can the Avatar begin to explain to us who He is—that He is God in human form and what God in human form means?

God Speaks is His explanation—His story—and it takes Meher Baba 159 pages of the 201 pages of principle text (2nd Edition), before He even mentions the word Avatar. He is like an artist painting the under-painting, background, and all of the other characters from stone to man to angels and saints, before painting himself into the canvas.

“Hence, at the end of every cycle, when God manifests on earth in the form of man and reveals His divinity to mankind, He is recognized as the Avatar—the Messiah—the Prophet. The direct descent of God on earth as the Avatar is that independent status of God when God directly becomes man without undergoing or passing through the processes of evolution, reincarnation, and involution of consciousness. Consequently, God directly becomes God-Man, and lives the life of man amongst mankind, realizing His divine status of the Highest of the High, or Ancient One, through these (five) Qutubs or Sadgurus, or Perfect Masters of the time.”—God Speaks, page 159

Meher Baba goes on to make the distinction between the Avatar and other God-Realized individuals. Then returning to the unique status of the Avatar He says on page 162:

“In this manner, infinite God, age after age, throughout all cycles, wills through His infinite mercy to effect His presence amidst mankind by stooping down to human levels in human form, but His physical presence amidst mankind not being apprehended, He is looked upon as an ordinary man of the world. When, however, He asserts His divinity on earth by proclaiming Himself the Avatar of the Age, He is worshiped by some who accept Him as God; and glorified by a few who know Him as God. But it invariably falls to the lot of the rest of humanity to condemn Him while He is physically in their midst…"

“The Avatar is always One and the same because God is always One and the same, the eternal, indivisible, infinite One who manifests Himself in the form of man as the Avatar, as the Messiah, as the Prophet, as the Buddha, as the Ancient One,—the Highest of the High. This eternally One and the same Avatar is made to repeat His manifestation from time to time, in different cycles, adopting different names and different human forms, in different places, to reveal Truth in different garbs and different languages, in order to raise humanity from the pit of ignorance and help free it from the bondage of delusions.”

Please remember that the story of the Mahabharata is set in a period of time roughly five-thousand years ago and was communicated for thousands of years through the long tradition of oral transmission. This great epic was only later written down in Sanskrit—approximately 1700 years ago— and English translations began to emerge a mere hundred years ago or less.

 The question arises; are the words uttered by God immune to the ravages of time? Or in the words of the legendary Sufi Saint Mullah Nasredin, is what we have here, “the soup of the soup of the soup of the chicken your friend brought?”

 Allow me to digress:

A friend knocks on the Mullah’s door one day. “What do you want?” asked the Mullah. “I’ve brought a chicken for your wife to make into a soup.” So the Mullah invites him in, they sit around while the soup is cooked, and then they eat it.

The next day there is another knock on the door. “Who’s there?” asks the Mullah. “I am the friend of your friend who brought the chicken,” the man replies; “can I have some soup?” The Mullah invites him in and goes back to the kitchen. There is only a little soup left, so he adds some water and serves the soup.

Over the next several days, friends of the friends of the friends come to his door asking for soup and the Mullah continues to add more and more water to the soup.

 “This isn’t soup!” states the seventh guest, “this is water!” to which the Mullah replies, “No, it is the soup of the soup of the soup of the soup, etc. etc. of the chicken that your friend of the friend of the friend etc. brought!”

What was it that Krishna told Arjuna?

“You see Me as Time who kills, Time who brings all doom; the Slayer Time come hither to consume.”

So apparently, even the acts of eternal God are not exempt from the effects of time once He has released them into the world. The point was brought home to me one day while I was sitting in Mandali Hall at Meherazad, India with a number of other pilgrims listening to the stories of Eruch Jessawala, one of Meher Baba’s closest followers. Somehow the subject of the Bhagavad Gita came up—perhaps it was something I said—and Eruch offered the following:

“There are so many paintings of Krishna and Arjuna standing next to each other on a golden jeweled chariot. It is really very beautiful, but brother, those chariots of war were not at all like that.

 “You see, in those days, the war chariots were built in such a way that the driver (Krishna) sat below the warrior (Arjuna) just above the wheels and had to endure the choking dust, the stench of rotting corpses, unable to even see where He was going. It was the warrior sitting above the driver who directed the driver by kicking him on the shoulders and face.

 “You see, it was the Avatar, Beloved God Himself, who accepted the position of the lowest of the low out of love for His lover. What a sacrifice it is that He makes for us.”

 And He does it again and again, sacrifices again and again for all time and All Times by taking a human birth and living among us to help each of us in our journeyless journey to God.

 Why does He do this? Is that not another way?

 There was once a king who asked his spiritual advisor why God comes again and again. The advisor parried the king’s question by saying that it was such a beautiful day, why not first have a special holiday on the king's royal barge.

 And so, the king gathered a huge retinue of soldiers and family, and they departed on the barge. Far from shore, the waters became very turbulent, and the mighty barge began to rock and sway. In the middle of this tumult the advisor picked up the king’s youngest son and through him overboard.

 The king immediately jumped into the water to save his son.

 As soon as they were safely onboard the waters became calm again and the king turned angrily to his advisor. What was the meaning of his cruel act? The advisor calmly replied, “You asked me why God has to come again and again. You could have ordered your soldiers to save your son, but you jumped into the waters first—because of love.”

                                                                                                                              ©copyright, Michael Kovitz,7.27.2010 

 

 

                                                                                                                                      

 

 

 

God As Certainty

 

Supercharged words are often avoided in serious discussions because they can stir up so much emotion and create so much polarization that the very point that was behind their use is all too often obscured or even totally lost.

Take the expression, the search for God. God is the supercharged word because people have such differing opinions of who or what God is. So, the very idea of a search for God often gets stalled behind the question of who or what is God. Ouspensky used to say, “A good plan is a plan that works.” So, what if we call the discussion the search for certainty?  

It could be argued however that certainty and God are not the same, but I think most people would agree that certainty, real certainty, is an attribute of God. In the absence of certainty there is often confusion, fear, worry, stress, and paralysis. If I’m not certain what is coming next, how can I plan on anything? If I don’t know that my next step will support me, how can I walk? If I don’t know how my words will be taken or understood, how can I speak? 

Of course, one might answer by saying that one can never be certain what the next day will bring; one can never be sure how their words will be taken, and yet, we do go on planning and talking, and living. And I agree; we go on living despite uncertainty and maybe that is why we feel so much fear, worry, stress, and paralysis.  I wonder also, if so much of our mental, emotional, and physical, activity is not implicitly, if not explicitly, motivated by a longing to achieve some sort of certainty in life?

The Mulla was observed by one of his followers searching for something on the on the ground under a streetlamp at night. “What are you looking for Mulla?” asked the follower. “Did you lose something?” “Yes,” replied the Mulla, “I lost my key?” “And did you lose it here, under the streetlamp?” “No”, replied the Mulla, “I lost it back there in the yard in the dark.” “Then why are you looking for it here under the streetlamp?” asked the follower incredulously. The Mulla answered, “Because the light is better.”

One of the meanings of this story is that things are not found in the dark where they were lost, they are found in the light. Very esoteric, no? But also, very practical because things cannot be found where they can’t be seen. To find, one must see, and to see, one needs light. One may say that it doesn’t make sense, but perhaps whether it is sense or nonsense depends on what we call the light.

And regarding the search for certainty, how can it be found where it was lost—in the dark—in life as we know it, since uncertainty is found at the very core of life itself? Does not certainty only exist in the Infinite and Eternal Light of God?

“It is the mind that becomes the experiencer and the thing to be experienced. If the mind is not there then there will be nothing—no world, no enjoyer, nothing to be enjoyed. Mind, thus, is a very important entity. It has to take a false form to experience itself.” – The Talks of Sadguru Upasani-Baba Maharaja, Volume IV page 402

In other words, to experience certainty, uncertainty must be experienced first. And that is what life is for, to experience uncertainty. And to experience uncertainty that is what mind is for.

In the dedication to His book, God Speaks, Meher Baba states, “To the Universe—the Illusion that sustains Reality.” But this relationship between God and His creation is not so easy to understand and even some of His closest followers could not understand this statement. One even suggested that Baba had got it wrong.

The question has been asked and answered in countless ways since consciousness first evolved into the first human form. Even the Perfect Ones put their individual spins on the subject, but the one thing I have been able to glean that they all agree upon is that life in creation is indispensable to attaining God—attaining Certainty—the Illusion that sustains Reality.”

“It is that Bliss that first evolves itself into the mind and the body, and then through their help it is able to know it is Bliss. The body and the mind are formed out of that Infinite bliss. Once that Bliss is experienced, then that mind and that body, despite remaining there for a time, virtually become non-existent, since one immersed in that Bliss, does not remain conscious of them. Once that Infinite Bliss is attained that Bliss has no necessity of anything. What for and for whom will such a man request anything?” – The Talks of Sadguru Upasani-Baba Maharaja, Volume IV pages 402 – 403

Meher Baba put it beautifully when he said, "The sojourn of the soul is a thrilling divine romance in which the lover, who in the beginning is conscious of nothing but emptiness, frustration, superficiality and gnawing chains of bondage, gradually attains and ultimately disappears and merges in the Divine beloved to realize the supreme and eternal fact of God as Infinite Love."

Meher Baba is reminding us of the three states of God. God asleep in deep sleep, God asleep but dreaming, and God in the fully awake I am God state. There is neither certainty nor uncertainty in the first state and there is absolute certainty in the third state, but the hallmark of the second state is uncertainty. Everything in this state is always changing. 

Achievement in this state turns into failure and vice versa, pleasure into pain, success into failure, etc. Kabir is quoted as saying, “Because you have forgotten the Friend, that is why in everything you do, there is a strange sense of failure.” It is in the second state of God that God is forgotten—but not completely.

  When they begin the beguine,

It brings back the sound of music so tender,

It brings back a night of tropical splendor,
It brings back a memory ever green.

I'm with you once more under the stars,
And down by the shore an orchestra's playing
And even the palms seem to be swaying
When they begin the beguine.

To live it again is past all endeavor,
Except when that tune clutches my heart,
And there we are, swearing to love forever,
And promising never, never to part.

What moments divine, what rapture serene,
Till clouds came along to disperse the joys we had tasted,
And now when I hear people curse the chance that was wasted,
I know but too well what they mean.

So don't let them begin the beguine
Let the love that was once a fire remain an ember;
Let it sleep like the dead desire I only remember
When they begin the beguine.

Oh yes, let them begin the beguine, make them play
Till the stars that were there before return above you,
Till you whisper to me once more,
"Darling, I love you!"
And we suddenly know, what heaven we're in,
When they begin the beguine.

 

Meher Baba pointed out that the spiritual significance of this famous Cole Porter song, Begin the Beguine, describes the second state of God in which the soul, lost in life, at first finds any reminder in the existence of the Divine Beloved or of the soul’s own divinity unbearably painful, but in the end yields to the Infinite Love of the Beloved and in their union realizes the heaven of Infinite Bliss.

“It is the mind thus that becomes the enjoyer from ‘to be enjoyed’ to enjoy it. The moment that thing is enjoyed it ceases to exist. Then it forms itself into the enjoyer for another thing and on enjoying it, again ceases to exist; and so on. In other words, the mind goes on becoming the enjoyer every time for each of the various things, i.e., it goes on assuming so many forms one after another. 

"In the course of time, the Jiva comes to know the mind’s inconstancy and misleading behavior and becomes tired of it. Somebody may say, then why give any importance to such a mind? Because it is the mind that is able to lead to self-realization, and hence mind, Buddhi[1], and Ahamkara have to be given great importance. Ahamkara is most essential. By Ahamkara is meant the primary—fundamental—consciousness. For, if there is no consciousness, then how can anything be experienced? And that is why Ahamkara is most essential.” – The Talks of Sadguru Upasani-Baba Maharaja, Volume IV page 403

Simply put, life is not what we think it is, or what we think it is for, or even the experience that is experienced. This life is lived and experienced by the Jivatma. Jiv means embodied and Atma is the soul. Upasani Maharaj defines the state of the Jivatma as “that pure celestial soul identified with the projections of the mind.” This state is also called the state of the Holy Ghost. Holy refers to the soul and ghost refers to the soul’s dream of itself as a creature of creation. This state, call it what you will, has but one purpose and that purpose is to acquire and perfect the consciousness by which the soul (Atma) can know and experience itself as infinite and eternal.

Meher Baba explains that this whole process by which the soul gains and perfects consciousness and ultimately comes to know itself as Infinite and Eternal begins with a whim—the Whim of God. Meher Baba uses the Hindi/Marathi word Lahar. He says that the English word whim comes the closest to it. Whim has no cause; it arises spontaneously without any rhyme or reason. The Whim manifests in the Totality of God in the form of the question, “Who am I?” 

With this question the totality of God manifests itself as Everything and simultaneously as Nothing. Everything answers the question and says, “I am God!” but the Nothing, being nothing, tries to answer but cannot, because though God is also Nothing, Nothing is not God, because it is nothing. The Nothing does try to answer the question—actually tries again and again—but always with the wrong answers, “I am stone. I am tree. I am man. etc.” the problem being that the Totality of God identifies Itself with the Nothing and not as the Everything.

Only when God comes to know “Himself” as God, is real and lasting certainty is achieved. It is the certainty that only direct experience can achieve. Belief, conjecture, imagination, can never achieve certainty, because that certainty exists in duality and duality is always a stick with two ends. On one end of the stick is certainty, but the other end of the stick is doubt. To achieve real certainty, we must transcend duality itself. And that is what Upasani Maharaj is talking about.

Consciousness is necessary for experience and mind is necessary for consciousness. It is for this consciousness that the whole of creation came into existence. What started it all was the Whim of God that expressed itself in the question, “Who am I?”

“It is the mind that becomes the experiencer and the thing to be experienced. If the mind is not there then there will be nothing—no world, no enjoyer, and nothing to be enjoyed. Mind, thus, is a very important entity. It must take a false form to experience itself. To experience being water, it must condense and come into that form first. In the same way, to experience the Sat (Real Self—Infinite knowing—Certainty) Asat (false self—ignorance—uncertainty) is necessary.” – Ibid, page 402

Some might ask, “But why must the false, the Asat, be experienced first?” Perhaps it is because the full consciousness necessary to experience the Sat, does not come all at once—it dawns. Think about waking up. We don’t wake up all at once from deep sleep. Deep sleep, prompted by our own latent impressions, precipitates the dream state, which eventually culminates in consciousness of the fully awake state. This, our, fully awake state is nothing other than the dream state (Asat state) of God—a necessary state in the process of His awakening from the deep sleep of His Beyond Beyond State to His fully awake I am God State.

 “To enjoy—to experience—that pure Bliss, true Ahamkara (consciousness), is necessary. But to achieve that consciousness, the false consciousness (finite, illusory,) must first be accepted (experienced). As various false things are experienced, one begins to think that there must be something true, and then slowly begins to think about the origin of all false things. As this happens, one begins to experience the true happiness—the Ananda.” – Ibid, page 404

I remember that as a small child nothing seemed to make any sense to me. What to others seemed important, to me seemed unimportant, that which for others seemed to be real, for me seemed most profoundly unreal. So, I began asking others—relatives, teachers, religious figures, etc.—to explain things to me. Mostly, they were all too happy to oblige me but none of their answers satisfied me—their explanations just did not ring true for me. In other words, a big part of me felt engulfed in the apparently tangible false, but an even bigger part of me began to yearn for the intangible true—or perhaps the intangible true never let go of me—never let me let go of it.

And so, I became a seeker. I felt that there were answers, real answers, and somewhere those answers could be found, and eventually in the words of the Perfect Masters and most especially the Avatar—Meher Baba—I found them. But words are one thing and experience is another. As Meher Baba said in the conclusion of His book, God Speaks,

“To understand the infinite, eternal Reality is not the GOAL of individualized being in the Illusion of Creation, because the Reality can never be understood; it is to be realized by conscious experience.”

These words do ring true for me, and perhaps in that ring of truth is certainty. Yet, as Kabir put it, “Until you experience it, it is not true.” And so, I sit, as it were, between two chairs—not the most comfortable place—not awake, but not believing that I am awake. A healthy sense of humor sure helps…

                                                                                                     © copyright, Michael Kovitz, 2021

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[1] The Buddhi is that aspect of mind that enables the Ego to distinguish, value, and understand the array of worldly impressions that continually bombard the consciousness of the mind. Ed.