Divinepower

Sunday, October 22, 2006

POWER OF THOUGHTS

POWER OF THOUGHTS
Life is motion, consciousness in motion; and motion affecting all matter is ‘vibration’. In the beginning, it was all consciousness. Consciousness emanated vibration called the ’Word’ or ‘Sound’, i.e. ‘Shabad’ which projected the entire cosmic world. This ‘vibration’ is the first projection of Primal Energy or Infinite-Power, from which infinite types of vibrations sprouted, fructifying into numerous types and forms of matter. Matter is thus nothing but an expression of energy. In other words, existence of varied forms of matter is directly attributed to the process of combination permutation of infinite variety of vibrations. Different ranges of vibrations existing in this universe are named as light, heat, electricity, sound, etc.; all are modes of vibrations of the same nature in ether, thought they differ in frequency and quality. Thoughts, desires, actions, etc., are also made up to vibrations but differ in their phenomena because of different character, frequency and intensity. Every thing in the universe, whether living or non-living, having been created by certain types of vibrations, also emits the same type of vibrations inn the cosmos. So also, thoughts caused by certain type of vibrations emit the same kind of vibrations in the cosmos, which are recorded by the cosmic infinitude. In other words, the cosmic apparatus constantly registers and emits all types of vibrations affecting everything in the universe. Human soul is an integral part of the ‘Prime Soul’ or the Supreme Consciousness, in very much the same way as a ray of light belongs to its source – ‘the Sun’. The two differ only in degree (power), but in essence (quality) they are the same. Of all other living forms in the universe, human form is the most highly evolved being, as it has the exquisite faculty of discrimination, called ‘intellect’. For this quality, man is said to have been created by God ‘in His Own Image’. Thus, human form is the cream of cosmic creation. Human mind is endowed with the discriminating power of intelligence. Mind is nothing but a subtle phenomenon of thinking. It operates through thoughts; if thoughts do not exist, mind loses its identity. Because of its multifarious assignments, such as ambition, emotion, sentiments, feeling, instinct, inclination, imagination, volition, etc., the mind has acquired it mercurial nature. Acting in collusion with the sense organs, the mind rouses the five nerve-centers in the ‘Consciousness’, and they in turn, propel the executing organs to activity. They are: lust, anger, greed, and attachment, ego, which affect the intellect, distort its power of judgment and discrimination, and drive the man to act as a ‘slave’ to ‘mind’. It is, therefore, essential for the man to tame the mind and harness the power of thoughts. Mind can be compared to the ocean. Just as wind causes ripples on the surface of water, so are thought-waves caused on the surface of the mind. Certain strong waves of thought dive deep into the sub-conscious mind; they are like the under-currents at the sea-bed. Mind is never calm and vacant. Rumbling waves of desires, ego, ambition, craving, anxiety of possession, attachment, etc., always disturb its equipoise. Although intellect is superior to mind’ because of its power of judgment and discrimination, yet the man is easily amiable to the fascination of sensual gratification. Thus, ‘intellect’ plays a puppet in the hands of the mind. Human soul is an integral part of the ‘Prime Soul’ or the Supreme Consciousness, in very much the same way as a ray of light belongs to its source – ‘the Sun’. The two differ only in degree (power), but in essence (quality) they are the same. Of all other living forms in the universe, human form is the most highly evolved being, as it has the exquisite faculty of discrimination, called ‘intellect’. For this quality, man is said to have been created by God ‘in His Own image’. Thus, human form is the cream of cosmic creation. Human mind is endowed with the discriminating power of intelligence. Mind is nothing but a subtle phenomenon of thinking. It operates through thoughts; if thoughts do not exist, mind loses its identity. Because of its multifarious assignments, such as ambitions, emotion, sentiments, feeling, instinct, inclination, imagination, volition, etc., the mind has acquired its mercurial nature. Acting in collusion with the sense organs , the mind rouses the five nerve-centers in the ‘Consciousness’, and they in turn, propel the executing organs to activity. They are: lust, anger, greed, and attachment, ego, which affect the intellect, distort its power of judgment and discrimination, and drive the man to act as a ‘slave’ to ‘mind’. it is, therefore, essential for the man to tame the mind and harness the power of thoughts. Mind can be compared to the ocean. Just as wind causes ripples on the surface of water, so are thought-waves caused on the surface of the mind. Certain strong waves of thought dive deep into the sub-conscious mind; they are like the undercurrents at the sea-bed. Mind is never calm and vacant. Rumbling waves of desires, ego, ambition, craving, anxiety of possession, attachment, etc., always disturb its equipoise. Although intellect is superior to ‘mind’ because of its power of judgment and discrimination yet the man is easily amenable to the fascination of sensual gratification. Thus, ‘intellect’ plays a puppet in the hands of the mind.
II
Mind is the link between the ‘sense world’ and the ‘Soul Realm’, Mind operates through thought, which a subtle vital, living force is; capable of acquiring infinite power. Thought is a subtle wave or vibration emanating from the mind. In other words, vibrations out flowing from the mind are called ‘thoughts’. There is infinite type of vibrations of love, hared, envy, jealousy, anger, sensuality, etc. in the cosmos. Depending on the ‘principal of like attracts like’, we arrract certain types of vibrations from the cosmos according to our ‘instinct’ of previous and present life. Consequently, these vibrations are potentized by frequent repetition. In this way we in turn generate and transmit these vibrations in the cosmos. Everything there in the universe in the material form (seen) had its origin first in thought (unseen). What we speak is a mere expression thought. Poetry, a great writing, a fine piece of art, or a science and engineering marvel are all the result of thought. Thought is, in fact, the primal force of the genesis at the back of all creation. The present universe is the cumulative result of our collective thoughts and feelings. The universe, in reality, is the projection of our mind, which in itself is the store-house of computer of our acquired impressions, which are expressing themselves in impulses and thoughts. Every thought has a mental image, hue, form, dimension, etc. It is the: genesis of past thoughts and actions, vehicle of the present life, and seed of future propensity, affecting life individually and collectively, and transforming the physical and mental world continuously and imperceptibly. Thoughts travel far and wide in all directions at a lightning speed; carry subtle notes, which are registered in the cosmic records. Powerful thought-vibrations travel at a tremendous velocity and are received thought mental antennas of those who are receptive to such vibrations on the same frequency. Thoughts when focused and directed become dynamic forces and produce deep impressions. You can well imagine the ‘intensity of sun-rays’ when they are concentrated through a magnifying glass (double-convex lens) on to a piece of paper. Every one is living in one’s own world of thoughts continuously absorbing or repelling the vibrations of other thoughts recorded in the ether, according to the particular wave-length and frequency. Every thought is a link in the endless chain of cause and effect to produce desire – stimulating drive; thought – manifesting in action, and activity – weaving the web of character, fate and destiny. Pure thoughts are Divine forces which pervade human existence right from the birth. They radiate joy, hope, solace and peace to the entire humanity. Persistent thoughts of egoistic desire, selfishness, and covetousness breed, develop and nourish anger, hatred, jealously, revenge and the like, which give rise to malicious tendencies leading to heinous actions. On the other hand, noble thoughts of love, compassion, kindness, etc., produce, noble men and saints. Power of thoughts lies latent in us, and can be developed to make or mar our own life and destiny. We are continuously attracting to ourselves forces and conditions most akin to those of our own thoughts. Our particular thought within connects us with a similar thought from without. It is, therefore important for us to recognize as to how we live in out thought-world. Our thoughts instantly reflect on our face and features. They chasten, chisel and fashion our countenance, which is an index of our inner character. The facial expressions expose the true state and substance of our mind; howsoever we may try to hide it. Our face and eyes are: sensitive registering apparatus, faithful reflectors, clear mirrors, and true expressions of our inner feelings. Every thought produces a strong vibration in every cell of our body, and leaves a deep impression on our sub-conscious mind. Impressions from the depth of the subconscious mind come up in the form of thought-vibrations or mental images, and direct our actions accordingly. Therefore, we are the makers of our own habits, circumstances, character and fate. These thought-vibrations are transmuted to every fiber and nerve of our physical body, and cause electrical, chemical and biological changes, affecting our physical and mental condition. Every good and sublime thought conjures a noble spirit and initiates good action, contributing to our health and happiness. This also has an invigorating effect in improving our physical and mental condition, even during moments of depression and exhaustion. On the contrary, every depressing and negative thought has an adverse effect on every cell of our body, causing physical and mental exhaustion. Most of the present-day diseases such as hypertension, joint-pains, stomach ulcer, insomnia, spondilosis, chronic indigestion, heart-ailments and many other diseases, have their origin in psyche, i.e., habitual negative thinking, which cause substantial abnormality in different body-tissues. It, therefore, accrues that mere mode of thinking can create heaven or hell for life. It implies, therefore, that thoughts have tremendous force, can: execute desires and passions, fashion our countenance, develop our character, work out circumstances, influence and transform our behaviour, shape our destiny, and contribute towards shaping the universe. The force of thought, thus, works: systematically, subtly, imperceptibly, consistently, and dynamically. We have a free will to choose between: virtue and vice, friends and foes, good and bad, happiness and sorrow, health and disease, and heaven and hell. All these conditions are the outcome of our own thoughts and deeds, and are subject to our discretion. We have the free choice of thought, feelings and actions. So, it is up to us alone to discriminate, decide and work for a better and sublimer life. Our thoughts make us what we are here and hereafter. Happiness or misery is, therefore, the result of our own thoughts and actions. Poverty, misery or misfortune, may, in fact, prove a blessing in disguise, as, thought higher and constructive thoughts one may develop humility, endurance, faith, etc. conversely, affluence and luxury may breed inertia, passion, arrogance, faithlessness and resultant vices. The present state of our lives has been shaped by our own thoughts, and if we desire to change it for the better, we have to discriminate wisely and choose the higher and sublimer course of thoughts. In the world of today, most people believe in Epicurean philosophy, i.e., ‘eat, drink and be merry’. This is a devilish idea and leads to sorrow and miseries. We should ‘eat-to-live’ and not ‘live-to-eat’.
III
Our thoughts are dissipated in many directions and in order to cultivate and develop their power, they have to be focused to a single point. With purity, concentration and meditation, thoughts can develop tremendous mental power and strong will. Only calm, serene, cheerful and pure mind, with faith and devotion can concentrate and meditate. Higher and spiritual thoughts, sustained by persistent meditation, can intuitively ‘tap’ or ignite our latent soul, and we can partake and enjoy peace, joy, bliss and love of the Divine Realm. There is no physical or mental limitation of time and space in the process of spiritual working. The spirit transcends all limitations and pervades and engulfs the Universe at a lightening speed. For the development of power of pure and sublime thoughts, it is essential to resist and avoid all lower obnoxious thoughts and impulses of worry, fear, anger, envy, sensuality, etc., which disturb and distract the mind. These obnoxious thoughts are the root cause of all our worries and mental tensions. The impure negative thoughts should not be entertained; they gain strength by repetition. They should be nipped in the bud by ignoring and avoiding them as soon as they appear. Even unimportant, useless and irrelevant thoughts should be avoided, as they rob us of our peace of mind and contribute toward mental tension. They should not be allowed to take roots. They should be replaced by kind, loving, devotion and inspiring thoughts and memories. Mind assumes a teeming variety of modifications. Mere understanding of the illusoriness of such modifications will not help; you have to develop the power to negate them. Let the modifications arise, but do not get yourself involved in them. In the beginning, controlling the thoughts of passions appears formidable and impossible. Never try to suppress your thoughts. Suppressed thoughts are more dangerous. They get stored in the sub-conscious mind and the form of seeds. Whenever the conscious control is weakened, they manifest themselves with a bang. Therefore, the negative desires should be substituted with positive ones, or sublimated by analytical reasoning and non-cooperation with them. Light dispels darkness. Likewise, every higher sublime thought is a ray of light, which clears the dark clouds of evil thoughts. Feelings and motives behind our thoughts and actions are very important and decisive. They should be: Pure, sublime, and constructive. Lower, impure feelings and impulses are to be: avoided, repelled, transmuted, sublimated, and spiritualized. But it is an uphill task as our mind easily flows into the old grooves of lower vicious thoughts. By its very nature, the mind goes for material things and worldly pleasures; but is never contented. Although it recognizes the consequences of its entire doings yet it cannot resist the temptations. Conquest of the mind is more difficult than the conquest of the world. The only way it can be tamed and subdued is by a superior, higher, and nobler love than the love for worldly allurements. This superior love is in the taste of Nam or Shabad – the ‘wordless word’, realized through meditation in the sublime company of Word-personified, Enlightened Masters. This love is so sweet, transcendent, and captivating that mind automatically loses its wavering nature and is made completely calm. Otherwise a bad master, it then becomes an excellent servant. Regular spiritual meditation is the fire in which the obnoxious thoughts and impulses can be burnt, and is the quickest and best way of cultivating mental peace and poise, and of preventing mental tension, which is the real killer of ‘self’. In the process of weaning the mind away from vicious thoughts of external objects, and fixing it on Divinity, ‘Simran’ (repetition of God’s name) is very effective. Meditation is a dynamic spiritual force to antidote and counter-acts the negative vicious thoughts of hatred, lust, anger, greed and pride, and to substitute them with positive and virtuous thoughts of humility, purity, kindness and love. When meditation becomes regular and devotional, our mind becomes more potent and strong to resist the temptation of lower destructive vicious thoughts. Gradually and imperceptibly, the spiritual effect of meditation will transform and sublimate our thoughts which will spontaneously reflect on our countenance, environment, dealings, habits, character and fate. Thus, new, nobler and spiritual grooves and avenues will be formed in our mind which will slowly, but surely, prepare us for the attainment of ‘God-head’, i.e., Consciousness of Divine Existence, Divine Love, Happiness and Bliss. God resides in our hearts, and the only way to worship Him is by cultivating sublime thoughts and meditating on His Name. With regular practice of meditation, thought0waves subside and in that perfect stillness of mind, the self-effulgent soul shines forth.
IV
For the practice of concentration and meditation: silence, solitude, regularity, guidance, and company of the awakened and illuminated souls is very essential. It must be realized that thoughts are the means of externalization and objectification of the Universe. Thoughts activate and express themselves in us through ‘I’, ‘Me’ and ‘Mine’. When our thoughts are spiritualised by meditation, ego consciousness is transmuted into Divine Consciousness, and our mind works in tune with, and as an instrument of the Divine Will. Determination and persistent striving is needed to build up the desired character, which is the deciding factor to resolve all issues and problems of life-good or bad-and make or mar life. The circumstances, environment and fate are the materialization of our own thoughts, and we have no right to put the onus of our miseries on other. Peace and prosperity can be ensured for the entire humanity only by generating a new thought-force. Propagation of teachings and philosophies of Saints and ‘God-men’ will go a long way towards the creation of sublime world of grace. One should also cultivate the habit of reading the literature and writings of holy men to purify one’s thoughts. Thoughts are the cause or seeds of all our physical actions, emotions and impulses. So, if we want to change our life, character and fate, we have to strike at the very root and transform our thoughts for the betterment, through: -- sublimation of our consciousness, -- faith in God, -- meditations on His Nam, -- company of Enlightened Souls, and – Grace of the Guru. In this way, our own life, as well as the civilization of the world, can be sublimated and ushered into the Divine Realm.
V
Thoughts have no power in themselves. They merely act as carriers or channels of power. All power belongs to God. There is no other power. The universe derives all kinds of powers from the source of Divinity. The Divine Power is infinite, all-engulfing, all-pervading and self-effulgent, and is projected and manifested in the universe in various reflections. Every particle of the cosmos possesses this heritage of Divine Power in full and profound measure. Thick and coloured curtains inhibit and diminish the power of light. Similarly, the intensity of thought-power is diminished when it passed thought coloured or polluted mind. Divine Power is dissipated in the process of external flow through mind’s diversification. This means, when sensitive thought-vibrations pass through the various channels of the mind, viz. lust, ego, anger, greed, attachment, etc., they get frittered and weakened, thereby losing their intensity and power. The subtle soul-vibrations are originally pure and sublime, but during their outward transition, they are subjected to our mental conditions, and thereby get influenced, polluted, and weakened. Limitation of power is thus mainly due to our depraved ideas and conceptions which modify, depreciate, diminish, restrain and obstruct the flow of the Infinite Divine Power. The supply of Divine Power into our mind is contingent to and limited by, the condition of our belief and faith in Divinity. Faithlessness of our materialistic mind is an obstruction to the inflow of Divine Power, i.e., misguided and ill-conceived thinking limits the flow of Divine Power into our mind and body. Realization of God’s gift of infinite Power is directly proportional to the intensity of our ‘belief and faith’ in His Divine Power and only in that proportion we partake and enjoy the profound benefit and bliss of His Infinite Divine Power, inherent in our souls. Consequently, we also limit the outflow of Divine Power, Bliss and Love, through our mind-channel, for the benefit of mankind. In fact, when thoughts and conceptions are sublimated in our consciousness, we become in tune with the universal Will, and the Infinite Divine Power begins to flow through us to the universe we become channels of the profound Divine Power. Since the onus of all the experiences on the physical and cosmic planes lies in our own thinking, conceptions, beliefs and faith, intuitional spiritual discrimination is very important and essential. This spiritual discriminating power can be acquired only in the company of Illuminated Souls, i.e., through Divine vibrations emanating from such Souls. Extremely sensitive spiritual vibrations originate and emanate from Divinity which are pure and dynamic. But, as they transit through our polluted minds, their power and purity is diminished in the process of externalization. Hence, the more our thoughts are scattered, contaminated and depraved, the weaker they become. On the other hand, the more our thoughts are purified sublimated and spiritualised by concentration and meditation the more they retain their original, inherent, spiritual dynamism. Every thought that passes through our mind leaves an indelible trace amongst the millions of cells of our brain. So whatever we do, makes it easier for us to do the same thing over again. This is because electric currents record all that happenes to us by creating path-ways or impressions among the cells of our brain. The more frequently the same thoughts and actions are repeated, the deeper and more pronounced the impression become. These impressions are unconsciously and constantly accumulating in our Mental Computer and they affect and shape our ideas, conceptions, belief, and faith; their sum-total is manifested in our behaviour, hbits, character and personality. Ninety percent of our personality is made up of, and represents our inner mental, emotional and spiritual qualities; only ten percent of it can be attributed to the outer environment. These influences are acquired through our mental inclinations and experiences both during the present and past many lives. Every smallest stroke of virtue or vice leaves behind an ever-so-little scar on our mind – good or bad – never to be undone. This scar or influence is so powerfully embedded in the sub-conscious mind that it is wholly carried forward through lives, birth afterbirth, and shapes man’s destiny to prove the Karmic Law of ‘As you so, so shall you reap’. The drunkard excuses himself for every fresh dereliction by say: ‘I won’t count it this time’. Well, he may not count it but it is being counted non-the-less in his Mental Computer, deep down into his nerve-cells and fibers, molecules and electrons in his subtle consciousness, registering and storing it up in its subtle folds, to be used against him when the next temptation arises in his mind. Man is incessantly weaving a good or bad ‘cone’ around himself, by his own thoughts and actions, like a silk worm; thus shaping his own fate and destiny. Thoughts have tremendous power which can be developed to unlimited degree by repletion, contemplation, concentration and meditation. Lower, depraved thoughts should be forgotten or brushed aside at once, as soon as they come, by diverting the mind to higher, nobler and inspiring thoughts. “As you sow, so shall you reap”. “Sow a thought, reap an idea; sow an idea, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a fate; sow a fate, reap a destiny.” Human mind is unconsciously and incessantly weaving and shaping its own good or bad world within, by its own thoughts. Similarly, every thought – good or bad – that emanates from the mind sends subtle vibrations all over the universe which are registered in the Infinite Perfect Universal Computer of Consciousness.
VI
Millions of thoughts, emanating every moment from the minds of the entire Universe, are being registed and processed instantly by the Universal Computer and shelved into like cycles and wave lengths. The cycles and wave lengths of various hues and categories, and subtle vibrations thereof, accumulate and shape the subtle environment of the Universal Mind just as in the case of our individual mind and sub-consciousness. In this subtle process, our thoughts have profound influence in; -- directly shaping our character, fate and destiny; -- indirectly moulding and modifying the subtle environment of the universe, and – re-coiling on the whole humanity, collectively. In fact, every thought is a dynamic seed which sprouts, gains strength by repetition, spreads in the mental world and engulfs the entire universe to make or mar our lives, according to the nature of our thoughts. This explains the tense and vicious environment of selfishness, pride, unrest, strif, jealousy, cruelty and wars prevailing all over the world, inspite ofnumerous professed religions and cults, and all efforts of august institutions, like U.N.O., etc. God created a Heaven for his children to live in and enjoy, but we, the prodigal sons of the earth, have turned it into a hell like vicious rendezvous under the influence of our lower depraved thoughts, and have thereby degenerated moral values. The cultivate dynaic thoughts are so powerful that they are capable of modifying the cumulative result of our past and present lives. They are so insidious and permeating that they definitely have profound effect on our future as well. The sound of a particular frequency and wave-length is caught and relayed by any radio set which is tuned to that frequency and wave-length. Similarly, thought-vibration of different intensity, frequency and wave-length cane be caught, perceived and conceived by any mind or minds which are tuned to that frequency and wave-length, may be anywhere in the vast limitless cosmos. This means that the cumulative results of our good and bad thoughts are registered in the universal computer, caught and conceived by any mind-radio, whenever and wherever it is, provided it is tuned to the frequency and wave-length of the originating thought. In other words, the waves or vibrations of a particular thought simultaneously pass through every mind radio which is tuned to that wave-length. This explains why drunkards and villains, or noble and pious people, get attracted towards each other to prove the idiom: “Birds of the same feather flock together”. Our audio-visual process of electronic science workds on the same principle. This principle of attraction and communication at the same wave-length is working invisibly and imperceptibly throughout the universe, even beyond the limits of death and subtly e=affects our mind process and shapes our environment and relationship in the next lives. The kind of environment and relationship, good or bad, that we wish for in ournext life, can be decided and shaped in the present life itself, through our thought-process, by merely transforming our ideas and thoughts to higher and nobler wave-length, with contemplation and meditation on sublime and inspiring thoughts, with intensity of feelings and faith in the Divine compassion and Love. This Eternal Universal Law: “As you think, so you become”, is illustrated by the following story published some years ago. “There was an old lady who had suffered numerous misfortunes and miseries in her life and was overwhelmed with frustration, indignation,anger, hatred and sadness. Hence life became devoid of happiness, hope, brightness and goodness. She became irritable, quarrelsome and furious. Gradually her vicious temperament adversely affect her health and reflect on the features of her face which looked ugly, haggard,abhorrent and repulsive. In due course, all her relative and fiends deserted her and she was left all alone to ead a dry dready and miserable life. The people around her avoided her repulsive company and chile=dren would run away to hide from the sight of her ugly dreadful contenance. A noble soul took compassion on the wretched condition of this old miserable lady and approached her with kindness and sympathy. She aked her to recollect the brightes and happiest occasion of her life. The old lady at once brought her wedding phot and started narrating the happy and blissful events of her marriage. As she did so, luster came back in her sad eyes and features of her old wrinkled face became blooming and attractive. The good lady took her to the mirror and told her to carefully observe and mark the difference between her own features before and after the interview. The old lady was astonished at her own bright eyes and glowing face in spite of her wrinkled skin. Actually, she was frightened to compare her new features with her new features with her usual miserable repulsive countenance. The crucial point in this story is the sudden change in her countenance wrought by the sweet and blissful memory of bright and happy occasion of her life. It was the direct and immediate result of the change in her thoughts. She was advised to replace her usual depraved thoughts with higher and nobler thoughts and contemplate frequently on the brighter side of life, with thankfulness for the blessings of the Lord, as often as possible. By and by, her features changed for the better and luster of her eyes returned, and her behaviour became reasonable and endearing. Her repulsive countenance became attractive and lovely. Her neighbours and friends again flocked to her to sympathise, cheer her up, the fearful children came running to her and enjoyed her newly sprouted affection and kindness. Ultimately, she died as a ‘Loving Noble old lady’ instead of that ‘repulsive, witch-like old lady’, thus ensuring her, endearing, kind and living life in the here-after. The magic that wrought such an unbelievable and wonderful miracle to the hopeless, despondent and wretched life of the old lady is Eternal Universal Law: As you think, so you become. The power of thinking is attributed to the degree of one’s faith. Every aspect of our life revolves around the axle of thoughts in respect of our belief and faith being: good or bad, noble or deprave, and hinges on – kindness or cruelty, compassion or selfishness, love or hatred, happiness or sadness, health or sickness, prosperity or poverty, virtue or vice, friendship, or enmity, godliness or devilishness, heaven or hell, etc.
VII
If we desire and aspire for higher, nobler, healthier and happier life, we must first of all avoid, discard, brush aside or forget our lower ideas and thoughts, as soon as they sprout in our mind. At the same time, we should try to replace or substitute them with higher, nobler and inspiring thoughts. If the depraved thoughts are not forgotten or diverted, but are entertained and cultivate, they percolate and permeate deep into our mind and then into the sub-consciousness. Gradually, in course of time, they become insidious and powerful to enslave us, make us corrupt, depraved and vulgar, with trail of lower elements of selfishness, envy, prejudice, avarice, jealousy, hatred, anger, egoism, aggressiveness, wickedness, cruelty and what not. The easiest and quickest way to get out of this vicious circle of harmful thoughts, and to save ourselves from the pernicious consequences of these depraved thoughts i: -- to replace and substitute them with higher, nobler and inspiring thoughts, -- to divert our mind to sublime contemplation and spiritual meditation; and – to seek awakened and enlightened souls and imbibe sublime inspiration in their holy company. The example of a vessel with putrid and stinky solution will illustrate the point, and make it more comprehensible. It may be easy to put out the foul solution from the vessel and replace it with better on, but the putrid solution of mind-vessel cannot be wishfully poured out. This Mental Solution constitutes infinite, perverted ideas and thoughts, insidiously collected and condensed in our Mental Computer over many years and countless past lives. Therefore, we must understand and realize how tedious and difficult a task it is to change the pernicious and vicious thought solution of our mind-vessel, and to adopt and practically work a new course of higher and nobler lives. Our efforts in this direction have to be incessant, steadfast and tenacious, with determination, resolution and perseverance, against all kinds of circumstances, environment, temptations and stubborn opposition from perverse elements, both inside and outside. As explained above, our lower and depraved thoughts have engraved very deep grooves in our sub-consciousness, through so many past lives, and have fructified into our character or second nature. Therefore, persistent, tenacious and Herculean efforts are required to change, modify or erase these perverse grooves from our sub-consciousness, so as to manifest any perceptible improvement in our behaviour and habits. However, we would not be discouraged by our slow progress or recesses, but continue persistently, with renewed resolution in our efforts, but continue persistently, with renewed resolution in our efforts, until we make a mark for the better, in our behaviour, habits, ideology and character. Thereafter, the process of change becomes smoother, quicker and more manifest in every aspect of our daily life. But the crucial point is to develop our inner sense of discrimination, where we can distinguish between: right and wrong, good and bad, virtue and vice, morality and sin, love and hatred, materialism and religion, religion and spiritualism, saint and hypocrat, God and devil, and make the important choice of our future course of higher and nobler life. Without this discrimination and choice, our lives are like compass-less, radar-less ships drifting abut aimlessly, and knocked about and battered by storms and vagaries of the vast ocean. In order to: --develop the power of discrimination, --make decision about crucial choice of life’s course, -- take a turning point of life, and – walk on the chosen course of life, inspiration, help and guidance of the Enlightened Souls is very essential. In their company and with their guidance, our minds are gradually purified and spiritualized, and we become amenable and conductive to the sublime influence to subtle vibrations of Divine Light and Energy. At the same time, the influence of materialism is imperceptibly reduced from our consciousness in due course of time. The more our thoughts are spiritualized by sublime company and meditation, the more they become subtler, powerful and dynamic, with reflections from Divine Light and energy.
VIII
Minute sensitive waves of our thought-current are constantly and habitually scattered and wasted in the outer directions towards materialistic world, and are spent, absorbed and lost in materialism. These extroverted thought-waves have to be collected, concentrated and directed inwards to the source of all-powers, i.e., our souls. This is practically a Reverse Process of mind From – habitual, unconscious process o extroversion in which we are frittering away and spending up our latent inherent power and making our mind and body weak and exhausted. To: introspection, i.e., directing our thought-waves inwards, by concentration, contemplation and meditation on Divinity- the source of all powers. By this Reverse Process, we conserve and strengthen our energy and augment our inherent power by contact with and reflection from the Omnipotent Divinity. This Reverse Process of mind, called Meditation, has been defined and described in the past in numerous scriptures by Spiritual Masters, and various methods have been suggested and prescribed for its practice from time to time. The easiest process of meditation is to concentrate the mind on the Divine Word, i.e., Gur-Mantar, and repeat it continuously for some minutes in the beginning. The duration of meditation should be increased gradually with practice. Sit in a comfortable posture in a reserved room close your eyes and meditate at fixed time regularly, both morning and evening, as also at any other available time during the course of the day; even during sleepless intervals of night. Keep reminding your mind to avail of all possible opportunities, without letting off a single one, in repeating the Gur-Mantar. Repeat the Gur-Mantar in a slow voice, so that you may hear the whisper yourself. By this simple method concentration on the Word becomes easy and smooth. This is, of course, the preliminary technique, meant for the beginner. In due course, with consistent un-interrupted practice of repetition, the Gur-Mantar will imperceptibly dissolve into Shabad, i.e., Word-less WORD, vibrating with sublime thrill, bliss, joy and love. At this stage, Simran or meditation becomes effortless automatic, spontaneous and enjoyable. To attain such an exalted state of Blissful Consciousness, the following pre-requisites are essential:- minimum involvement in worldliness, complete detachment, complete and utter discard of Ego, unflinching faith in Divinity, intense devotion to Guru, selfless, loving and devotion service, regular, faithful, meditation on Naam, inspiring company of Illuminated and Enlightened Souls, viz. God-Men, Guru’s grace.
IX
We erroneously identify our self with our body and environment. This identification and attachement is the root cause of our bondage, misery and sufferings. Actually our body and visible world around are mere projections and materialization of our mind process, i.e., our thoughts, emotion, perceptions, convictions and faith. It is in the mental state of consciousness that we imagine, think and behold any thing as a person or material; and something as good or bad. In as much as the sense-world is a mere image in the mind, the mind acts as an instrument for the projection its higher-self, i.e., the Soul. This higher-self of the God-consciousness is the basic, original, only really and eternal creative principle, and substance of all life. However, the dense clouds of our egoistic thoughts and beliefs over-shadow the effulgent soul within, and we fail to recognize and realize our Divine Inheritance. God-consciousness operates through the faculty of mind. On the intellectual plane, we might be tempted to think of mind as creative possessing power. But, in reality, it is the omnipotent Divine Soul which manifests through the mind in all physical form. It is merely the condition of mind which determines as to what we see and experience in the material world. We often say, a particular person is very material minded while someone is Spiritual-minded. But mind, by itself, is unconditioned. It simply projects what is entertained in it through the thoughts. We are either letting it be permeated with higher, sublime thoughts or lower, depraved thoughts. A mind receptive to the Divine inflow and conditioned to the thoughts of purity, cooperation, charity, forgiveness, kindness, and love must exude goodness, peace and harmony. On the other hand, when the mind misuses its inherited freedom and entertains perverted thoughts, it becomes out-of-tune with the Divine Will, thereby creating disharmony in the material world. A mind filled with negative and depraved thoughts of fear, disease, limitation, lack, selfishness, lust, malice, hate, revenge, etc., reflects them in all aspects of our life. Since the good or bad that comes to our experience is determined by what is allowed to pass through the mind the importance of thought-power in making a harmonious living or a hell for ourselves, and for all the world around cannot be overemphasized. We simply create what we think. However, as long as we are attached to any kind of thoughts, good or bad, we are still in the realm of mind. Once we come to realize our true identity through the faculty of mind, we simply surrender ‘our self’ to the ‘God self’. This conscious awareness takes us beyond the realm of mind, into
God’s sense or power- both physical and mental, and realize that only God’s Power creates and directs the universe, and sustains all its activity. In the Spiritual Sense, the mind only functions as: -- a means for the realization of God-consciousness. – A channel of the projection manifestation of the Divine Power. Mind imbued with Spirituality becomes an instrument through which the Divine Grace flow and externalizes in the form of abundance, harmony, peace, joy, bliss land love; resulting in wondrous, beautiful life.
X
The conception of mind-power is as illusory as that of mterial power. Both belong to, and work within the cosmic world. They are governed by various cosmic laws-such as: the Karmic Law – ‘As you sow, so shall you reap’. As you think, so you become. Like attracts like. Law of compensation. The law of action and reaction. Law of gravity. The law of relativity, etc. these powers can be acquired and developed, or depleted and lost, according to the concentration and condition of our thoughts and the consequent actions. They are, however, quite limited and fleeing, and are subject to the law of duality in that they can be manipulated and used for both food and evil purposes. Lost in materialism and mental powers, we conveniently forget that there is but one real power, and that power is God-Power or the Divine Power. Divine Power is the source and fountain-head of all power; and the cosmic powers are derived from, and are only a faint reflection of, this innate Spiritual Power. The Divine Power is infinite. Its sunshine – the ‘Word’ (Shabad) or ‘Naam’ is also boundless and infinite. It manifests by itself, and remains the only—original, self-creating, and sustaining, effulgent, glorious, and eternal principle of the universe. The Divine Power is ever expressing itself as: Eternal life, Light, Wisdom, Power, Abundance, Kindness, Compassion, Love, and above all, a rhythmic flow of Grace. God’s spirit is inherent in all creation. All the elements of the cosmos are created, developed, sustained, integrated and disintegrated by this Supreme Divine Power. These elements work under the cosmic laws, projecting from the Divine Will. God is infinite source of Grace, Power and Bliss and human soul is a natural heir to that heritage. If we have not been able to appropriate in full this Divine Heritage, it is due to our depraved thinking and egoistic consciousness. Being a ray of Infinite Light – The Prime Soul, the journey or flight of the human soul extends to infinity. There are infinite realms through which the soul has to pass on its way to Eternity. The infinite Divine Power is inherent and lies latent in every soul. We have only to tap the fountain of this Divine Power within our souls to become channels for the projection of Infinite Spiritual Power. When the soul is enlightened by the Grace of God, and intuitionally ushered into the Divine Realm, it is filled with all the sublime attributes of Divinity and Divine Power flows through it smoothly and effortlessly. The enlightened soul inherits and acquires dynamic Spiritual Power which over shadows all other worldly and psychic powers with its effulgence and glory. In fact such Illuminated and Enlightened Souls become Ministers of the Cosmos, capable of controlling its elements and work extra-terrestrial Phenomena or Divine Miracles which strike awe and amazement in the minds of the common people. These powers are Gifts of God and flow into the minds of God-men from Diviinity. But when we are tempted to use these sublime powers for selfish materialistic ends, to feed and boost our Ego, to exhibit spiritual achievements, to entertain the curiosity of people, to attract and allure large number of admirers and followers, to exalt our religious of spiritual personality, or to advertise our name, fame and holiness. We are degrading, disgracing and misusing the Divine Gift of these powers by taking material and religious advantages of psychic powers, we are – misusing these powers, denigrating their sublimity, digressing the Divine Law, interfering with the smooth natural flow of Divine Life-current. Acting out of tune with Divine Harmony sinning against the Divine Will, and unconsciously spending and losing the acquired power. When we are blessed and bestowed with the Divine Gift of Spiritual Power, we become – mirrors for the reflection Divinity; -- channels for projection and manifestation of Divine Power; --agencies for dispensation of sublime attributes of kindness, compassion, energy, joy, bliss and love; and – media for the expression and working of the Divine Will. This the culmination and ultimate fulfillment of the purpose of our lives in the Eternal Divine Drama of the cosmos, and this conscious realization of the Grace of the Lord fills our souls with His Blessings of sublime wisdom, joy, bliss and love. The worldly powers of mind and materialism only boost and inflate out egoistic consciousness, and are liable to be misappropriated and exploited for baneful selfish purposes. They also deviates us from the real goal of Spiritual life of God-Head. The salvation of the world, therefore, lies only in the realization of Spiritual Power. This power we shall not manipulate for our personal glorification and ulterior purposes but rather we consciously allow this power to use us for the Divine purpose. The real power is in this conscious union with God. In His Grace, there is but one power, without an opposite, and only the Divine Law (Hukam) operates. The Divine Consciousness can be experienced in a moment of silence, by the Grace of the Lord, and the only way that leads us to that point is the contemplation on the practice of Divine Naam or the meditation on the Divine world, i.e., Simran with intense faith and love, this is made easy in the company of Enlightened, Illuminated, and blessed Souls, Sadh Sangat, because God’s Grace incessantly flows to such Spiritual Personalities and in turn flow out from them to bless the seekers.
CONCLUSION
God is one, without a second. God is: all powerful, all pervading, all engulfing, all effulgence, all intelligence, all kindness, all forgiving, all compassion, all embracing love , infinite, perfect, omni-potent, omniscient, Divine Father, Divine Mother, Divine Creator, Divine Sustainer of the infinite cosmos. God is immanent in His many Divine Attributes of: Glory, Grace, Effulgence, Power, Compassion, Kindness, Joy, Bliss, and love. God is all powerful; i.e., all power belongs to God. There is no other power. The Divine power is: infinite, all-pervading, all-engulfing, and self-effulgent, and is projected and manifested through the cosmic consciousness in various reflections. Therefore, all other powers we perceive or are aware of are the reflections and projection of the Divine Power. The cosmos derives all kinds of powers from the only source of Divine Power. But in our egoistic deception we believe that there are different kinds of powers coming from different sources. All the attributes of the sun, such as light, heat, energy, life sustaining properties, etc., are projected, reflect and manifested through sun-rays to sustain the cosmos, even without their knowledge or asking. The infinite celestial attributes of God mentioned above are silently, invisibly, secretly and immaculately reflecting and working consistently in the cosmos through His power and Grace, to create, develop, sustain and entertain His innumerable children of the cosmos. We, the creatures, with even our limited power and intelligence try to provide our babies with all their needs and comforts under the instinct of our parental affections. Therefore, it is unthinkable that such a Loving, Kind, Gracious, Great Diving Father should have left His dear children to fend for themselves at the mercy of adverse materialistic forces. In fact, it is the Divine Power and Grace that creates, develops, sustains, degenerates, and again regenerates all creatures of the universe. It is again God’s Power and Grace that provides in abundance all the needs of His children for ever and without asking. But we are unable to perceive and realize the Benevolent Divine Law of Providence in our egoistic illusion. Thereby we create obstructions in the natural inflow of Divine-Power and Grace into our mind which becomes stagnated and depraved with wrong thoughts. In doing so, we invite all sorts of troubles, problems and miseries, and make a ‘hell’ of our lives. The heavy clouds of selfishness, doubts, fears, conflicts, turmoil, confrontation, etc., engulfing the universe, is the result and positive proof of our depraved thoughts and wrong perceptions emanating from our egoistic consciousness. Due to egoistic consciousness and superfluous faith in Divintiy. We deprive ourselves of the ever-flowing abundance of His Kindness, Compassion, Grace and Love. The light of the sun is reflected into our room through glass planes and curtains. If the glass panes are coloured and the curtains are heavy, the flow of light into the room is curtailed. Similarly, when our mind is clouded with wrong thoughts and perceptions of egoistic consciousness, the reflection of the ever-present Divine Power and Grace on our mind is diluted and restricted. In other words, the inflow of Divine Gifts of Love and Grace is in proportion to our faith in Divine Power. The following illustration may help to elucidate the subtle difference between: the ‘Primal Divine Power’ and – the illusionary conception of cosmic powers working in the materialistic world. The sperm grows into foetus is being nourished and protected within the womb without outside interference or help. This process of growth of the foetus goes on invisibly, secretly, with meticulous precisions and ingenious perfection, in which the ‘mother’ has no conscious part to play. It is solely the Divine Power working silently, secretly and perfectly. In fact, this wonderful process of ‘gestation’ is one of the awe-inspiring miracles of Divine Power and Wisdom, but we take it as ‘casual’ and fail to recognize it as Divine Power. On the other hand, the ‘mother’ thinks that she herself has conceived, nourished, sustained and developed and ‘foetus’ into a ‘baby’. This is the egoistic blasphemy on the part of the mother. When the foetus is grown, it is ushered into the world as a ‘baby’ here again the Divine Power and Grace works spontaneously to supply suitable milk: in the breast of the mother and instill the instinct of ‘motherly love’ for the baby in the heart of the mother. With this ‘motherly love’ she cares for, nurses, protects and makes sacrifices, in the up-bringing of the baby. As the baby grows, the Divine Power provides it with teeth to eat and also other human faculties. Here again the Divine Power and Grace works silently and secretly for growth, development, sustenance, and protection of the baby into full manhood or womanhood in which very little conscious part is played by the parents. But the egoistic parents think that the chills has grown up with their own efforts and wisdom, thus denying the real Divine Power and Grace silently working in this process. At both pre-natal and post-natal stages, God’s Grace and power worked through the body of the ‘mother’ for the growth, sustenance and development of the child. In the case of foetus, mother’s body is unconsciously used as an ‘incubator’. In the cae of the ‘baby’, God’s Grace and love descends and permeates the heart of the ‘mother’ so that she can nurse the bay with tender care and affections. This ‘motherly love’ is actually a ‘reflection’ of God’s Grace and love, and the ‘mother’ becomes a ‘channel’ for the outflow of the Divine grace and Love for the baby. In fact, the Divine Father who provides nourishment and protection to the foetus within the womb, and mil in the breast of the ‘mother’ without the conscious knowledge of the baby and mother, had created vast Nature and made Eternal Law of Providence to provide all the needs of His children in abundance for their growth, sustenance and entertainment for ever. In fact the Loving Grace of the all-powerful Divine Father is ‘all-sufficient’, for the needs of His children to enable them to live in and enjoy the comforts of peace and bliss in the Heaven of Divine Kingdom. But it seems so absurd and strange to think that human being – the ‘king’ of ll creatures, and made in ‘His own image’, should be so unhappy, worried, miserable, and suffering in the veritable hell of his own delusion. It is obvious that there are two distinct, contrary and opposite worlds existing in the universe: 1. the world of Peace, Bliss, Love and Abundance, i.e., the Kingdom of God’s Grace 2. The illusive unreal, self-created world of worry, turmoil, sufferings and miseries, i.e., egoistic world of Maya. The former has roots in the reality of Divine Presence and Grace, while the latter is based on false illusionary egoistic consciousness. But these two worlds are not different physical planes of spheres. They are culmination of thoughts, perceptions, beliefs and faith in our consciousness – Egoistic or Divine. If we have fallen from the ‘Kingdom of God’ to ‘materialistic hell’, the cause lies in our own consciousness. It is, therefore, obvious that for the transition of our ego – consciousness to Divine Consciousness, the process of our thoughts and beliefs has to be transformed and reversed from – negative and depraved egoistic thoughts of materialistic world, to – positive and sublime thoughts of Divine Love and Grace. It is so easy to discuss, give discourses, preach, philosophize, sermonize intellectually about this ‘reverse process’ of thoughts, beliefs and conceptions but it is a very difficult task to emulate and practice this ‘percept’ honesty into our daily life. This is because the false idea of ‘I’, ‘Me’ and ‘Mine’ projected from the illusive ego has permeated very deep in our consciousness by consistent practice during so many past lives and has become a part of our ‘self’ and we cannot think or act otherwise. Therefore, our understandings, beliefs and perceptions of ‘things spiritual’ remain shallow and superfluous on the surface of our consciousness and do not touch or affect the core of our egoistic self, hence, all this self deception and hypocracy is prevailing in the universe. In this ‘self-deception’ of egoistic consciousness, we believe that we possess all powers to: -- Provide ourselves with all our needs, -- fulfill our selfish desires and aspiration, -- make our life comfortable and happy, -- solve all our problems, -- mitigate or remove our sufferings, -- make plans for the future; -- guide the destiny of our life. But in spite of all our individual and collective materialistic and intellectual achievements, our problems, unhappiness and miseries have not decreased or been eliminated. In fact our problems, sorrows and miseries have been increasing and multiplying manifold with the advancement of our so call civilization, thus turning this world into a veritable hell. it is ironic that in spite of: --higher education, --scientific achievement, -- massive religious literature, -- unending social and religious propaganda, the humanity is still groping in the darkness of egoistic illusion of Maya; and peace, happiness, contentment, joy and love are still a far cry, beyond the reach of humanity. The crux of the subject is that in our egoistic illusion, we entirely rely on our own illusionary power and intelligence, which is just a faint reflection or limited projection of the Divine Power. This illusionary power of mankind is the source of all evils, sufferings and miseries of humanity, such as: selfishness, covertness, pride, corruption, conflict, confrontation, quarrels, war, etc. According to the saying ‘Power corrupts’ and more power corrupts more – when we acquire: -- money power, -- sword power, -- gun power, -- nuclear power, -- physical power, -- political power, -- pen power, -- intellectual power, -- emotional power, -- psychic power, -- occult power, -- hypnotic power, -- magic power, -- tantaric power, etc., we become more corrupt, thereby we increase and multiply the problems, unhappiness, sufferings and miseries of the universe of these acquired powers for our selfish ends to the determent of theirs. All these powers are developed by consistent efforts and hard work over long periods, but are useful for only a short span of life. They are liable to be modified, diminished or lost in course of time by exigencies of life, i.e., change of circumstances, disease, age, mishaps or death. Therefore, these acquired powers are temporary, fleeting and illusive. With the development of these cosmic powers, our ‘Ego’ is boosted and inflated. It is only through our egoistic consciousness that we become aware of our separate individual entities. As separate entities, our individual thoughts, beliefs and interest come into conflict, which ensue all sorts of selfishness, bitterness, hatred, jealousy and confrontation. In such egoistic clashes, we are apt to abuse our petty powers to the detriment of other. In our egoistic illusion, we believe that these fleeing cosmic powers are supreme and exclusive. We often abuse them for our egoistic desires and whims, and to carry out evil designs. Hence these cosmic powers become ‘negative’ and harmful. Some of these occult and magical powers are ‘antisocial’, violent, destructive and horrifying, creating more problems and miseries in the universe. Our individual and collective ‘Egoistic Powers’ are the root cause of all problems, turmoil, sufferings and miseries of the world. When these egoistic powers clash and overlap, the problems get intricate and messed up. In trying to solve our problems, with our petty egoistic powers, we unconsciously and inadvertently create many more problems. Thus we are caught in a vicious circle. To extricate ourselves from this vicious circle, we again unconsciously rely on our own petty egoistic powers, which created this mess originally. This makes us more unhappy, frustrated and miserable in this ‘self-created’ mess. The corrupt and depraved state of our social, political and religious affairs, obtaining in our homes, institutions, nations and the world, is the positive proof of the polluted thought environment and abuse of our egoistic powers. If and when we realize that our petty egoistic powers are inadequate to solve our problems or mitigate our sufferings. We shall turn to the higher Spiritual Power with humility and faith. This does not mean that we should not make efforts to acquire and develop our latent physical, mental and emotional faculties. These faculties are Gifts of God to the humanity and should be developed and utilized to make our short sojourn in this world more happy and comfortable, and to guide others towards better and happy lives. In fact, all these human faculties are ‘Love-Gifts’ of the Lord to his children and we are privileged to develop them for the good of humanity. With humble thankfulness and devotion we should aspire for, and seek the Grace of the Lord, for higher spiritual gifts of Divine Kingdom. Like the sun-shine, this Grace of god is flowing eternally and is the only creating and sustaining principle of the Cosmos. Our faith in Divinity is the subtle ‘fuse-wire’, which can connect our ‘egoistic self’ with the sublime ‘Divine Self’. Then the ‘egoistic self’ loses its false identity and merges with, and becomes the ‘Divine Self’, through which God’s Grace flows incessantly. However, when our ‘faith in Divinity’ is weakened or lost, we become ‘negative’ and are thereby deprived of the Divine Power and Grace. Like ‘Love’, faith cannot be learnt, taught or acquired intellectually. Faith is subtle feeling of trust, belief, and a condition of the heart and higher consciousness. Faith is kindled, ignited, developed and intensified in our higher consciousness, i.e., Intuition – by sublime inspiration from Men of faith, i.e., Enlightened Souls – though: their personal contact and company, their sublime spiritual writings, their exemplary behaviour and inspiring life, and the personal spiritual experiences of the aspirant. Faith is the only means of communion between the aspiring Soul and the Divine Self. Such spiritual communion can take place only in the higher consciousness of the soul, i.e., ‘Intuition’. By such spiritual communion, all the attributes and powers of the Divine Self, i.e., God, spontaneously flow into the aspiring Soul. When a woman conceives, she develops subtle affection for her unborn child, which she carries in her womb. Unconsciously and constantly she conveys her subtle affections and good wishes to the foetus. The foetus receives these faint motherly affections during pregnancy, and tender ‘motherly love’ is unconsciously implanted in the heart and soul of the unborn child. After birth, the baby continues to receive physical and emotional motherly love through tender care and nursing by the mother. In this unconscious subtle process, the baby develops faith and love for the ‘mummy’. To the baby the mummy is her provider, protector, nurse, God and all-in-all. Her innocent faith in her ‘mummy’ is projected and exhibited in all her scolds and beats the baby, she clings to her legs with tears of love and faith for the mummy. Such innocent faith of the baby for ‘mummy’ is very powerful as it drives the mother to provide her child with all her needs without asking. The perfect innocent faith of the bay for her mummy puts us the grow-up intellectuals and wiseacres to shame, as we have very shallow faith in our Real, All Powerful Divine Mother. As the baby grows up, she becomes intelligent, wise and independent, and her natural faith in the parents is proportionally diminished. In the degree, the ‘faith’ is weakened, parent’s care is lessened, and in the end, the child is left to fend for itself. From the above illustration, it transpires that so long as we have unflinching faith in our all-powerful Divine ‘Mother’, we are unconsciously provided with all our needs, even without our knowing and asking. But when the egoistic consciousness dawns on our intelligence, our innate faith in Divinity are weakened, and the inflow of abundance into our life from the Divine Kingdom is diminished, and we become ‘prodigal sons’ left to fend for ourselves in this vast materialistic words. The looking glass reflects the images of single phase of the surroundings. We have to change the angle of the looking glass to get images of other phases. Our mind is also one-sided subtle ‘looking glass’ which takes only the images of this materialistic world and forms ideas, thoughts, opinion which in course of time become beliefs, convictions and faith. By constantly: seeing, observing, thinking, dwelling, contemplating on the illusive phase of his materialistic world of ‘Maya’ during so many lives, we have become unaware, ignorant or forgetful of higher, sublimer Real World of God’s Kingdom. It is, therefore, obvious that if we want to realize the real Divine Kingdom, we will have change, redirect and divert our mind and thoughts from the present materialistic phase. But his process of diversion and transformation of our mind thoughts and consciousness is possible only in the magnetic field of ‘aura’ of Enlightened and Blessed Souls, who live in the Divine Kingdom and enjoy the Grace and Love of the Lord. The human beings, with all the weakness and propensities of being influenced by the powerful gravity of ‘Mata’, in the darkness of egoistic illusion, are unable to aspire for, or try to undertake the task of changing or reversing the process of their, consciousness by themselves. In other words, ‘Man of Faith’, i.e., an Enlightened and Blessed Soul is required to inspire and re-ignite our latent Faith in the Divine Power, and Grace. Thus the Reverse Process of re-orientation of transformation of our consciousness can be initiated, sustained and developed by constant inspiration in the company of ‘Men of Faith’, i.e., Illuminated Souls. The newly inspired and ignited soul is then ushered and re-admitted into the Divine Kingdom, and becomes ‘Beloved Son’ of God, enjoying all the happiness, powers, bliss, joy and love of Divine Kingdom. His ‘egoistic self’ is re-oriented, transformed and transmuted into the ‘Divine Self’, and he is not longer troubled with materialistic casual desires and ambitions. He is invested with all the attributes and powers of the Divine Kingdom by virtue of his ‘spiritual inheritance’ as ‘Son of God’. If necessary, he uses these spiritual powers in response to the dictates of his ‘inner self’, for the good of the universe. He becomes a tiny pinion in the vast drama of the cosmos to carry on his assignment with selflessness and dedication. He works for ‘Thee’ and ‘Thine’, in conjunction, and in tune with the Divine Will. It becomes hi ‘Loving service’ offered to the Lord with humility and devotion. In this sublime spiritual consciousness, God’s Grace and love becomes ‘self-sufficient’ to: -- provide all the needs of the soul in abundance, -- nurse the souls with motherly tender care, -- protect and sustain the soul in the illusive world of Maya, -- solve all kinds of problems, -- eliminate all the sufferings and miseries, -- bless the soul with the Divine Gifts of peace, happiness, joy and bliss, -- bask in the cosy sunshine of Divine Effulgence, -- free the soul from the clutches of ‘Karmic Law’, -- enjoy the sweet grace and love in the lap of Divine Mother. Such Enlightened and Blessed Souls become desire less and contented, are lost in the ecstasy of humility and thankfulness for all the Divine Blessings and Gifts showered on them by the Grace and Love of the Lord. Having been admitted into the Diving Realm, the soul becomes a member of the Genuine Spiritual Brotherhood and Sisterhood, and is endowed with all the attributes and powers and Divinity. Thus it holds the whole cosmos in its palms!

TRANSFORMATION OF EGOISTIC CONSCIOUSNESS

TRANSFORMATION OF EGOISTIC CONSCIOUSNESS

The word ‘Ego’ is the Latin pronoun for ‘I’. It is only the consciousness of the ‘false-self’, i.e., self-centered ‘I’, and has no existence of its own. It is like a ‘Maniac’—thinking, posing, and acting like a ‘King’. His imaginary kingdom has no real existence. His Egoistic kingdom exists only in his deranged intelligence and imaginative beliefs. Therefore, the ‘Maniac’ is an imposter! The real kingdom of God is above and beyond the grasp of imagination and illusory intelligence. God is—Divine Light, Diving Intelligence, Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent. Where there is no Light of God—there is darkness of ignorance, illusions, false beliefs, and misconceptions, in which ‘Humanity’ thinks, acts, and lives under the spell of false Ego of ‘I’, ‘Me’, and ‘Mine’. This unreal and non-existent illusive ‘Darkness’, which governs our thoughts and actions – is called illusion of ‘Maya’ in the Scriptures. The apparent illusive existence of darkness is, in fact, the absence of God’s Light, i.e., ‘NAM’, and is the root cause of ‘duality’ in our consciousness. ‘Light and ‘darkness’ are antithetic and opposite, and cannot co-exist. Likewise Faith in God’s Existence is antithetic and contradictory to the ‘Egoistic Conception’ of ‘I’, ‘Me’ and ‘Mine’. To illustrate this fine and sublime point and make it more comprehensive, a concrete example of Electricity and its gadgets may be helpful. Electricity is generated in a Central Power House, and is distributed and diverted for various uses through different kinds of gadgets. The same electricity illuminates bulbs of different colours, shapes, sizes and wattage. We know that it is the electricity which is the life and light of the bulb; the filament is only an instrument for the projection and manifestation of the latent current. The outer glass case is meant to protect filament. It would sound so absurd and illusive on the part of the bulb to claim and boast that it is giving the light. That would be tantamount to the expression of false and gross ‘Ego’ on the part of the bulb. Precisely the same way, the ‘Divine Life-Current’ working through us, is the gift of the Lord, and we are different kinds of instruments employed by Him, for the manifestation and working of His Universal Drama, and for the projection of His Divine Scheme. But in our illusion, we think that we are the authors of all our physical and intellectual achievements, conveniently forgetting that the source of all Energy, Light, and Wisdom is ‘God’. To claim and boast of materialistic achievements of our limited deceptive intelligence as the outcome of our personal wisdom is stupendous human blasphemy, and ILLUSION of Egoistic Consciousness. It is a pity that with all our intellectual learning and advanced civilization, we humans should have been so influenced and ‘brain-washed’ by the illusion of our false Ego, as to have the audacity to ‘play God’. There is a Divine “LIFE-CURRENT’, called the wordless ‘WORD’ (SHABAD), running through the universe, which – creates, develops, directs, protects, maintains, sustains, harmonises, beautifies, integrates, disintegrates, regenerates all life in this vast Universe. Some how, we have become – indifferent, doubtful, ignorant, forgetful, unconscious of our ‘Heritage’ of ‘Divine Light’ and Wisdom. Consequently, we have bee – entertaining, cultivating, feeding, nourishing developing, sustaining, glorifying, magnifying, deifying the idea and conception of our false ‘Ego’, through the expression, projection and practice of ‘I’, ‘Me’, and ‘Mine’ for aeons in countless past lives. Our intelligence has been so ‘Ego-Oriented’ that this false conception of ‘I’, ‘Me’, and ‘Mine’ has become a – deep strong, unshakeable, uncompromising conviction and faith with us. Therefore, we have become indifferent, disinterested, and averse to listen, think, entertain, and believe in anything contradictory to and inconsistent with our ingrained and established egoistic ideas and false dual convictions and conceptions. This false conception of ‘I’ and ‘Mine’ has permeated, absorbed into and saturated our very BEING and we have become.
“EGO-PERSONIFIED INDIVIDUALS”
The tragedy is that this false mental conception of ‘I’, ‘Me’, and ‘Mine’: 1. has permeated and absorbed into the very fibers of our ‘being’ and become part and parcel of our lives, 2. has been accepted by us as a REALITY in our lives, 3. in fact, it works and projects through every aspect of our lives, 4. has become our second natures, 5. we cannot think or believe in anything outside and beyond our Egoistic-consciousness. In fact, we have been – expressing, manifesting, projecting, proliferating, justifying, institutionalizing, magnifying, glorifying, advertising, propagating, legalizing this false ‘Ego’ in our daily routing and in every aspect of our lives since aeons. This false sense of Ego; 1. Is the driving force behind our stupendous materialistic achievements, brilliant, literary and scientific knowledge and exquisitive emotional flights of thoughts and aspirations; 2. Is the basic foundation of our so-called religions, beliefs, dogmas, philosophies, rites and rituals; 3. Has diluted, modified, changed, galvanized and transformed our thoughts, habits, characters and destinies; 4. Has driven us into becoming ‘prodigal sons’ to suffer all the physical, mental and emotional agonies and miseries at the hands of the ‘Satan’ or ‘Maya’; 5. is the root-cause of our selfishness and desires, which drive us into the quagmire of all kinds of evils and sins, i.e., greed, deceit, jealousy, hatred, anger, corruption, sensuality, strife, quarrels, and even wars; 6. has blunted the sense of our discrimination between: right and wrong, truth and falsehood, virtue and evil, God and Maya in our thoughts and perceptions; 7. has mou7lded and degenerated the conception and profession of our so-called Religions to suit our selfish materialistic designs and convenience; thereby making the practice of religion superfluous, ritualistic, showy, self-deceiving, and hypocritical; 8. has driven us to live, knowingly or unknowingly, dual or multi-faceted lives; 9. has, so often, galvanized and aggrandized our convictions and beliefs in so-called religious dogmas, that we have become ‘bigots’ to the point of fanaticism. When ‘Ego’ puts on the garb of religion, woe to the humanity! It plays havoc with humanity and makes a mockery of the religion. In our blind religious zeal, we have perpetrated untold sufferings and cruelty on humanity, and crucified many Godly Saints and Prophets, in the name of religion. It is ironical that, in spite of—1. All our physical, intellectual, emotional advancement and boastful modern civilization ; 2. Proliferation of numerous religions into various Sects and Sub-sects; e. profusion of religious knowledge and philosophies of various scriptures; 4. propagation and exhortation of religious sermons and dogmas from numerous scriptures and religious books, through modern scientific means of electronics – like transistors, tape-recorders, televisions and videos; 5. Multiplication and exaltation of religious ‘Temples’ all over the world; 6. Myriad of so-called ‘Sadhus’ or ‘God-Men’ preaching and propagating different doctrines of various Faiths and Religions, ‘humanity’ has not been able to: discern, understand, comprehend, realize, grasp, recognize, identify, isolate, control, neutralize the nature and working of this false ‘Ego’ of ‘I’, ‘Me’ and ‘Mine’, culminating into the greatest FRAUD perpetrated on humanity by the ‘Satan’ or ‘Maya’ through our own ignorance and ‘dual’ misconception. This illusive ‘Maya’ has exploited the intellectual and emotional faculties of our Egoistic mind as its tools, to – produce, direct, enact, run and govern the vast Cosmic Drama of the Universe. The results of our egoistic participation in this vast Cosmic Drama are – untold physical, mental and emotional life-long sufferings of agony, sorrow, and miseries; mixed and diluted with illusory fleeting happiness, occasional thrills and temporary sensuous enjoyments to assuage the ‘Sting’ of Karmic Suffering. We conveniently forget that this unreal drama of ‘Maya’ is: rooted, projected, perfected, enacted in the illusionary plane of our intellectual and emotional egoistic consciousness. The irony is that, though we act under the inspiration and influence of the five senses which Agents of the Maya are, our acts are governed by the ‘Law of Karma’, i.e., ‘Reap as you Sow’. For the sins committed under the impulse of the five senses, we humans have to suffer the consequences of: -- being naïve enough not to be able to see ‘through’ the big illusive game of ‘Maya’: -- having succumbed to the instigation and lure of glittering grandiose temptations of ‘Maya’: -- voluntarily choosing unreal and illusive ‘Maya’ as our ‘Master’, and opting to become its dedicated ‘slaves’, speaking as ‘Master’s voice’, and acting as its ‘puppets’.
II
Somehow, we came under the influence of ‘Maya’, were lured into its net of illusive glittering phenomenon, and placed under the ‘Law of Karma’. Thus our souls have been confined into solitary cocoons of our individual ‘EGO’ manifested through the expression of ‘I’, ‘Me’ and ‘Mine’, life-after-life. In other words, we have voluntarily sentenced ourselves to confinement into miserable solitary individual cells of false ‘Ego’ for ages! Because we have voluntarily accepted this state of solitary mental confinement at the instigation of the alluring ‘Maya’ it is again our own free will to break the shackles of this self-imposed slavery, if we desire and aspire for our inherited Spiritual Freedom. It should be remembered that ‘Maya’ has been bestowed with tremendous powers by the Creator to instigate, lure, enlist, guide, direct, train , equip, employ the way-faring innocent souls, for organizing, administrating, disciplining, enacting, running the ever-lasting ‘SHOW’ of the Universal Drama. We have become so used and inured to the ‘bonded’ slavery of ‘Maya our established egoistic life is unsavory and unacceptable to us. Therefore, we cannot shake off or efface this false conception of ‘Ego’ by our mere wishes or efforts, as this false belief has so permeated and saturated into our very being, that we have become ‘the embodiment’ of this Ego of ‘I’ and ‘Mine’. Even if, in frustration or under the influence of ‘Sat-Sang’, superfluous emotions of higher and sublimer thoughts pass through our minds, the ‘Maya’ will not allow its ‘slave-souls’ to think independently and seriously any such spiritual thoughts, or to desire and aspire for freedom from its powerful clutches until and unless the stronger Divine Power of the ‘Guru’ helps and guides such aspiring souls to break the chains of slavery of ‘Maya’. God is all-powerful, omnipotent and omniscient and is constantly searching and looking out for his ‘prodigal sons’ – who feel miserable, frustrated, desperate and repentant of their ‘bonded’ slavery of ‘Maya’, and desire and aspire sincerely to shake off the shackles of the miserable slavery, and yearn to be free. Such aspiring souls are saved from the miserable clutches of the ‘Maya’, and blessed by the ‘Guru’ with Eternal Joy, Peace, Bliss and Love of Divine Grace. The whole process of this wonderful and secret phenomenon of soul slavery, freedom and Divine Blessings is initiated, contemplated, ‘worked out’, and accomplished in the mental, emotional and Spiritual Planes. Therefore, it is only on these intellectual, emotional, and Spiritual Planes that a change for the better and sublimer Life can be wrought. There is one Sun from which countless rays are scattered all around, giving light, energy, warmth, and life to the universe. If these rays are encased in capsules, each ray will enshrine in itself all the qualities and attributes of the whole Sun, but outwardly manifest itself in different shapes and colours. Similarly, God is a Single Entity, and all Rays emanating from Divinity carry the very Essence of God’s attributes. This Divine Essence of ‘Presence’ is encased in the ‘Mental Core’ of ‘False Ego’, depicting outwardly different ideas, beliefs, and conceptions. In other words God is the only Entity or Reality, and everything else is the projection of Divinity in various forms, ideas and beliefs, fashioned according to outer influences, environment, and inner instincts and impulses of individuals. Influence of our contact with the surrounding world has profound effect in moulding and changing our thoughts, beliefs, or consciousness, which from the basis of our good or bad lives. It is obvious that the crucial factor in our lives is the ‘influence’ of the ‘company’ we keep, which can make or mar the fate and destiny of our lives. This illusion of misconception of our ‘false Ego’ is engendered in our mental consciousness through the baneful ‘company’ of un-godly elements. Therefore, it is apparent that a ‘sublimer company’ is imperative and essential for a change or transformation of consciousness to higher plane.
This transformation in our thoughts, beliefs, and conceptions can be wrought only through the ‘inspiring company’ of the Awakened, Enlightened and Blessed Souls. When this transformation of our consciousness takes place, our soul is awakened and illuminated with the Divine Light and Glory and the darkness of our false Egoistic illusion spontaneously fades away just as the darkness of night fades away on the rising of the Sun.
III
We have been thinking, believing, acting, living, suffering for ages in the ignorance and dilemma of our false Ego, i.e., in the darkness of illusive ‘Maya’ never realizing that there exists a better, sublimer, holier, freer, joyful, blissful, loving, graceful and real Divine life in the Realm of our Lord the God in whose ‘Divine Presence’ there can be: no darkness, no ignorance, no illusion, no sorrow, no pain, no suffering, no fear, no want, no desire, no hatred, no enemy, no ‘Satan’, no hell and such a joyful, blissful, peaceful, glorious, loving, magnanimous Kingdom of God is ours for eternity by inheritance, without claiming, without earning, just ‘for the taking’ by His Grace. This sublime State of Consciousness does not comprise of: 1. mere pleasant intellectual excursions. 2. Imaginary hypothetical visions. 3. Emotional flights of thoughts in the unseen. 4. Reveries in fanciful notions. 5. Exhibitions of psychic powers, 6. Learning scriptures and giving hair-splitting discourses on religious dogmas and philosophies. 7. Having a large following of disciples, 8. Sufferings of austerity of ascetic life 10. Immolation of life for salvation of soul. But it constitutes: 1. inner intuitional experience of the Soul. 2. Vibrating thrill permeating through body, mind, and soul. 3. Exhilarating reveries of the Divine Realm. 4. Intoxication of Divine Bliss. 5. exquisitive Joy of Divine Touch. y. infatuation of Celestial Music. 7. Invisible Sacred Divine Flame, 8. Ecstasy of Divine LOVE. 9. Cosy warmth of the Divine Sunshine 10. Breathing, moving, living, and having our being in the Divine Glory. 11. beholding and enjoying the be-witching and captivating Divine Beauty. 12. sweet caresses of Divine Grace. 13. soothing peace of Celestial Silence. 14. Eternal, Universal. LIVING RELIGION. Therefore, for the attainment of this exalted State of ‘Self-consciousness’, we have to: - do ‘Sat-Sang’ in the company of the awakened Illuminated and Blessed Souls. – grasp the intuitional reflection of scriptures and spiritual books: to regular daily meditation of ‘Gur-Mantar’, --does our duty conscientiously, --serve the ‘Guru’ and His ‘Sangat’ devotionally with heart and soul. – live in seclusion as far as possible. However, the false concept of ‘Ego’ has so deeply penetrated, permeated, infused, instilled into our sub-conscious mind, that it has become our second nature, and has turned us blind to the ‘Divine Light’ and deaf to the ‘Celestial Music’ of our own Soul. Therefore, it is not so easy to ‘wish-away’ or discard this false conception with a wishful thought of intellectual comprehension. In fact, the ‘GENE’ of ‘Ego’ originated when the ‘Divine Nucleus’ was encased in the false idea of ‘I’ due to ignorance. The separate identity of encased ‘Divine ray’ will continue its individual existence in our consciousness until it is merged again into the mainstream of the Divine Current. In other words, we have to live and work with this false ‘Ego’, until our soul is ultimately re-merged into God, by the Grace of the Guru. For this, we have to change, re-orient, and transform our false sense of ‘Ego’: FROM—‘I’, ‘Me’ and ‘Mine’ to –‘THOU” AND ‘THINE’, in our consciousness, by constantly remembering, contemplating, meditating, entertaining, nourishing, developing our belief and faith in the concept of the Benevolent and loving ‘God’, and by thinking, acting, living and having our being in the Grace of God’s Eternal Realm of Kindness, Compassion and Love. But, the truth is that, we have been doing just the opposite to our own detriment! To bring about this transition: from – Egoistic Consciousness to – Spiritual Consciousness a complete change of ‘Faith and allegiance’ from – illusive, unreal, non-existent darkness of ‘Maya’ to – the Eternal, Real, Benevolent, and Loving God and his Grace is essential. The Article “transformation of Egoistic Consciousness” was first written three years ago. Since then, flights of new thoughts on the subject have dawned upon my intuition. These thoughts are being incorporated in this revised edition as “After Thoughts”.
LUDHIANA KHOJI
August 1, 1987
AFTER THOUGHTS
GOD is ONE –without a second. GOD is immanent in His Divine attributes of: Grace, Glory, Light, Power, Compassion, Kindness, Joy, Bliss, and Love. In His grace, He created the vast cosmos in which the universal drama is being played by individual entities. To give these individuals the sense of separate entities, and to work and compete in the vast cosmic drama, the awareness or consciousness of ‘ego’ was introduced. The ‘Ego’ is like the subtle filament, through which the electric current passes and works. Therefore, ‘Ego’ is an instrument for the projection, expression and manifestation of the Divine Will to: create, maintain, sustain, run and govern the vast cosmic drama. ‘Darkness’ has no existence of its own. It exists in the absence of Light and fades away in its presence the NESCIENCE of God-Consciousness. When our consciousness illuminated by the Divine Light of our soul, this illusion of our Ego fades away spontaneously. Human mind works on two different planes of consciousness: 1. Egoistic Consciousness in the Cosmic Plane. 2. Spiritual Consciousness in the Divine Realm On the Egoistic Plane, we are conscious of our separate identity – as apart from God. This ‘duality’ of our ‘Ego-Self is expressed in ‘I-ness’ of individuals. These separate entities have different, variant, and divergent interest, ideas, thoughts, understanding, feelings, idiosyncrasies, sentiments, opinions, beliefs, convictions, faith. These different individual interests and beliefs are bound to create differences, clashes, conflicts, opposition, controversy, ill-will, envy, jealousy, avarice, enmity, quarrels. This ‘Ego-Self is demonstrated in ‘I-ness’ in various forms-such as: I think, I understand, I learn, I teach, I feel, I work, I rest, I act, I eat, I drink and in all our thoughts and activities. This ‘I-ness’ creates the instinct of “possessiveness” in the expression of ‘my-ness’: my body, my opinion, my dignity, my husband, my wife, my children my house, my country my community, my religion, my God and so on and so forth! It is the ‘Ego’ of ‘Me’ which feels slighted, ignored, dishonoured, insulted, ridiculed, cheated, bullied, hurt, at the slightest provocation. These ‘feelings’ inflame and ‘fan’ the ‘fuel’ of baser instincts of ‘Ego-Self’, which incite: resentment, criticism, dislike, protest, hatred, repulsion, indignation, opposition, confrontation, enmity, revenge. These depraved malicious egoistic thoughts, emotions and actions breed” doubt, misunderstanding, suspicion, envy, jealousy, avarice, bitterness, repulsion, ill-will, allergy in our mind, and generate in our ‘Ego-Self’: differences, dissension, friction, conflict, confrontation, aggrandizement, revenge, hostilities, quarrels, wars. In fact, the whole humanity individually and collectively is deeply involved in this pernicious egoistic quagmire. In such depraved, corrupt and vicious environments prevailing and pervading all over the world humanity is being brutally grinded in the materialistic clutches of Maya and suffers from: unhappiness, restlessness, tension, worries, misery, agony and consequently feel: lonely, betrayed, forsaken, desolate, fearful, apprehensive, terrified, panicky, bleeding, groaning. These feelings pervade our heart, intelligence, understanding, thinking, emotions, dealing, and decision, thus engulfing our homes, communities, societies, religions, countries, nations, and universe. And this dilemma is pervading and engulfing the whole ‘humanity’, in spite of our boastful: developed intelligence, scientific achievements, modern civilization, profound preaching, numerous scriptures, and various religions. In spite of various well-intentioned institutions of: social reforms, temperance societies, religious institutions, academic universities, scientific research institutions, august bodies like UNO etc. The overall condition of the world is getting more and more complicated, confused, confounded, insecure, pitiable, hopeless, precarious. Therefore, it is quite obvious that all our efforts to reduce and eliminate human degeneration have been of little or no avail! This is because we have been ‘beating about the bush’ and have failed to diagnose the basic insidious universal malady of ‘Ego-consciousness’!
II
Most of us are quite satisfied with the materialistic life of our ‘egoistic-self’, entailing life-long sufferings of unhappiness, restlessness, tension, disappointments, frustrations, miseries and are accustomed to inure to this pattern of life, taking it to be the natural course. Such people are not prepared to listen, consider or believe in anything beyond their established erroneous convictions and conceptions. But there are some aspiring sublimated souls, who are not contented with their present materialistic life of sufferings and turmoil based on false individual ‘Self’. Such developed souls desire, aspire and yearn for better, higher, nobler, holier, carefree, joyful, blissful and graceful SPIRITUAL LIFE—leading to the Kingdom of God. They become aware of their ‘Egocentric-self’ and the resultant chaos and miseries created by the egoistic consciousness. And aspire for the higher-self of Divine Consciousness. This transition of consciousness involves change ideas, thoughts, beliefs, convictions, conceptions, and faith ingrained, embedded and accumulated in our sub-conscious mind through innumerable past lives. It does not entail any change of place, country, nationality, religion, occupation, or denying ourselves or ‘renouncing’ possessions, properties, duties obligations, divine bounties and nature or running away from the responsibilities and exigencies of the cosmic life. We all know that the glass chimney of lantern is blackened by the smoke of the burning light inside. The more this ‘soot’ is thickened, the more the light becomes obscure. When the ‘soot’ is removed the light passes through the clear transparent chimney and reflects outward. Similarly, the ‘soot’ of materialistic thoughts, emotions and deeds has been accumulating on the ‘chimney’ of our egoistic mind since innumerable past lives. Therefore, our ‘mind-chimney’ has become so hazy and opaque that the Effulgent Light of the Soul cannot reflect on our mind, and we continue to live, and have our being in the darkness of illusion of our egoistic consciousness and suffer the consequences. To put it differently, the pictures from cinematograph can be visualized on the screen in the ‘darkness’ of the hall. When the light is put on, the pictures do not reflect in the light and the screen looks blank! Similarly the ‘pictures’ of materialistic world appear on the ‘screen’ of our egoistic mind in the darkness of ignorance and illusion. When the Divine Light reflects on our mind through ‘Intuition’, the darkness of illusion of our egoistic mind fades away spontaneously, and our consciousness is sublimated and illuminated. Therefore, unless the Divine Light of the Soul reflects and illuminates our mind, the illusion of our egoistic consciousness of ‘False-Self’, cannot be removed or eliminated, and our ‘Real Divine-Self’, cannot be realized or experienced. In other words, human mind is only a ‘mirror’ to reflect and project outwardly the innate Divine Light and intelligence. Our mental mirror is overcast with the cloud of illusion of materialistic world and has become foggy and hazy. Therefore, the reflection of Divine Light through the mirror of human mind has become warped, blurred, imperfect, deceptive and erroneous. This is the illusion of our Egoistic Mind.
III
The ‘ghost of ego’ has firmly established its sway on our mind and we are content to be the ‘His Master’s Voice’ of this ghost! We just cannot think or act otherwise! This ‘ghost of Ego’ reigns and asserts its authority in all aspects of our lives, i.e., through our body, mind, heart, feelings, thoughts, understanding, ideas, intelligence, desires, aspirations, beliefs, convictions, faith, religions, happiness, sorrows, miseries, joy, life, and death: in fact, we are ‘possessed’ by this ‘ghost of Ego’ and have ourselves become PERSONIFIED EGO-GHOSTS! We have been slaves of this ‘Ego-ghost’ since innumerable past lives and are unable to shake off this ‘slavery’ by our own efforts. Even if we so desire, we cannot just ‘wish-away’ or discard the ‘Ego-ghost’ from our mind by intellectual exercises or philosophical theories! In fact, we have sentenced ourselves to indefinite ‘confinement’ in ‘solitary cells’ of our ‘Ego’ since aeons, and have become so used and inured to the drudgery and miseries of this ‘slave-life’ that we have become indifferent and complacent about the thought of ‘freedom’ from this egoistic slavery! We work ‘in conjunction’ and ‘in tune’ with the dictates of our ‘egocentric-self’ and are ignorant of the existence of the ‘Real Divine Self’ – within ourselves! ‘From from this ‘Egoistic slavery’, in which the whole universe is involved, can only be achieved if we can perceive and realize the illusive Nature of our ‘Ego’ by ‘intuition’, i.e., reflection of the Divine Light within, with the help and guidance of Blessed and Illuminated Souls it is beyond the understanding or grasp of physical, academic, scientific knowledge and mental or occult perceptions. It is simply an AWARENESS of innte heritage of Divine Joy, Bliss and Love within our souls, to be experienced and enjoyed in our consciousness on the spiritual plane of Intuition. These Divine attributes of Joy, Bliss and love are lying dormant in our souls just to be ‘tapped’ with faith and meditation and enjoyed in profound measure. In our ‘Ego-Consciousness’ we obstruct the inflow of Divine Light and Grace into our mind, and thereby deprive ourselves of the Divine knowledge and Grace. Therefore, we are left to mend for ourselves, and thereby suffer the consequences of our depraved egoistic selfish thoughts and deeds, according to the ‘Law of Karma’. It must be remembered that the sense of ‘Ego’ is transient and ever-changing in its manifestation and ramifications. Only the ‘Soul’ or the ‘Real-Self’ abides, and is ever immanent. The process of transformation of ‘go-consciousness’ to ‘Divine-consciousness’ hangs on the subtle conviction and faith in Divinity. It is not an ‘intellectual exercise’ alone! Faith in Divinity is the extremely delicate and sensitive crucial ‘Screen’ hanging between ‘Egocentric-Self’ and the ‘Real Divine Self’ of our Souls. In fact ‘faithlessness’ in Divinity is the source and sustenance of our ‘Ego’, while ‘faith’ in, and devotion to the Lord is the seed of ‘Divine Insight’ or ‘Intuition’. Developed intelligence can at best give us mental perception about the nature of and the difference between the ‘False0Self’ and the ‘Real Self’, but our intellectual knowledge cannot ‘initiate’ us into the ‘Divine Realm’. In other words our intelligence can, at the most, take us to the outer courtyard of Divinity, but is unable to usher us into the Divine Realm. Beyond that, the Divine Courier of ‘Intuition’ takes charge of our ‘Self’ and conducts it to the Gracious Presence of the Lord. What is required is the re-orientation of our ‘Egoistic Consciousness’, or ‘Grafting’ the faithless ‘Egoistic-Self’ with the nucleus of Divinity, i.e., ‘Intuition’. This is subtle process of transformation of our ‘self’ on the sublime plane of ‘Intuition’. This ‘inner experience’ of Divine Intelligence and ‘Effulgence’ can only be perceived or realized by ‘Insight’ of the Soul, called ‘Intuition’. And the seed of Faith in Divinity, Spiritual Insight, and ‘Intuition’ can only be ‘sown’ and developed in the sublime company of Awakened, Illuminated, and Blessed Souls. Such Souls can awake, inspire, infect and ignite our slumbering souls and USHER them into Divine Consciousness.
IV
What is ‘Intuition’ – as distinct from intellectual knowledge? The reflection of ‘Divine Light’ on the mind, and the inner experience of the Soul are called ‘Intuition’. ‘Intuition’ comes from ‘within’, but intellectual knowledge is developed from ‘without’. ‘Intuition’ sees the Reality in it totality, while intelligence dissects it into parts and gives imperfect or erroneous knowledge of Divinity. ‘Intuition’ is inner experience of the ‘Real-Self’, i.e., the ‘Soul’, while intellectual knowledge is the experience of the outer senses. Human intelligence is derived from ‘Ego-consciousness’ and is limited, imperfect, hypothetic and illusive, while ‘Intuition’ is the reflection of Infinite and Perfect Divine Knowledge and Wisdom. Intuition is the means of direct ‘communion’ between ‘Man’ and ‘God’. ‘Intuition inducts the soul into the Divine realm and gives ‘face to face’ view of the Reality, but intelligence can, at best, formulate hazy and hypothetic vision of ‘Reality;.every soul is gifted with the inner faculty of ‘Intuition’ which can be developed, just like the outer mental intelligence. But this ‘Intuition’ cannot be achieved or developed by outward: knowledge, intelligence, philosophies, hair-splitting discussions, rituals and rites, religious dogmas, renunciation and ascetic life. This ‘Intuitional’ faculty is the gift of the Lord and can only be developed in deep SILENCE in the inner recesses of our Soul. This SILENCE is not mere absence of speech or noise. It is STILLNESS or THOUGHTLESSNESS of mind, which means cessation of THINKING. This process of STILLNESS or SILENCE can be developed by turning our mind inward and concentration on ‘GUR-MANTAR’. This is called ‘MEDITATION’. Only in perfect deep silence and calmness, the reflection of Divine Light or ‘Intuition’ descends on our mind to illuminate it with Divine Effulgence and Wisdom. Even a passing idea, thought, doubt, or wish emanating from the mind, disturbs this ‘stillness’ and obstructs the inflow of ‘Intuition’ into our mind. But the restless mercurial mind cannot be controlled and stilled easily. It requires long persistent efforts and practice to concentrate it in meditation. In this arduous, prolonged practice of meditation, company and guidance of Blessed, Illuminated Souls is not only helpful but essential. Personal contact of company is the easiest and quickest way of conveying thoughts and influencing others. The effect of such influence of thoughts is dependent on the intensity and conviction of one’s feelings on the one side, and the receptivity of the other mind. Hence, persons of developed minds with deep conviction and strong faith, can influence, inspire and infect weaker minds with their dynamic thoughts. Where vocal exhortations or intellectual propaganda fail to leave any sustaining mark on the minds of audience the very presence of a Dynamic Personality can silently inspire and transform the lives of individuals with powerful penetrating spiritual rays and vibrations which constantly emanate from higher spiritual Souls. The same principle applies to the Intuitional writings of Enlightened Souls which are ever fresh, original and soul stirring. If cultivated powerful mind can effect the ordinary mind so deeply on the mental and emotional plane. Enlightened Divine Souls can also inspire, awaken and ignite aspiring souls and introduce them into the subtle Intuitional Plane. If laser rays and radio-active radiation can penetrate through thick metals and the destructive flash of ‘lightening’ can do so much havoc on the physical plane, the subtle dynamic and radiant spiritual rays of Divine vibrations emanating from ‘Dynamic’ Personality of a ‘God-man’ can also pierce the thick clouds of materialistic ideas and intellectual conceptions and touch the fringes of the soul of the aspirant, and USHER him into the Divine Realm. Thus, the silent dynamic rays of Divinity can transform the life of an aspiring soul to higher plane of spiritual consciousness, being reborn into the Divine Realm. This is the direct, secret and sacred method of introduction of aspiring souls into the Divine Realm on the intuitional plane of consciousness, which ahs been practiced by Prophets, Gurus, Sages and Saints – since ages. In the company of such illuminated Souls, i.e., ‘Sat Sangat’, the mind is gradually calmed down, harmonised, turned inward, ‘pulled in’, concentrated, absorbed, infatuated, and lost in the joy and Bliss of Divine Grace and Love. But such genuine Blessed and Illuminated Souls, i.e., Sages, Saints, Bhagtas are rare. As our concentration becomes intense and deeper, we lose the sense of our body and the surrounding world. During such deep meditation, we lose the sense of our individual ‘Egocentric Self’ altogether, along with its illusive creations and ramifications. In such inward ‘stillness’, the dawn of ‘Intuition’ descends and develops gradually. As our consciousness dives deeper and deeper into the fathomless Divine Realm, we come face-to-face with the Reality of ‘Divine presence’ in all its ‘Glory’. In this sublime state of consciousness, the sense of our separate individual ‘Egocentric Self’ evaporates spontaneously with its projections of ‘I’, ‘Me’ and ‘Mine’.
As we grow in meditation, veil after veil of illusive darkness of Maya is withdrawn from our mind, until a new revelation of Divine Presence rises in our consciousness and we are blessed with the Grace of God. When such Divine Consciousness is awakened we will realize and feel that ‘God’ resides in ‘our self’ as well as in all ‘other creation’. In this state of sublime consciousness our behaviors towards other will be – as if we are dealing with ‘ourselves’. Only then we can comply with the Biblical precept of: ‘Love thy neighbors as thyself’. In this realization of Divine Self, there can be ‘no duality’. The aspirant realizes that only ONE GOD pervades and engulfs the whole universe. When the mind becomes aware or conscious of the ‘Divine Presence’ within, it is so dazzled and infatuated with the ‘awe’ of: Divine Effulgence, Divine Immanence, Divine Grace, Divine Glory, Divine Majesty, Divine Wonder, Divine love that it spontaneously loses the sense of ‘False-SELF’ or ‘Egoistic Consciousness, and experiences Divine Grace, Divine Joy, Divine Bliss, Divine Compassion, Divine Kindness, Divine Love and becomes ‘God-like’ in its ‘Divine-self’.
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For the culmination of this wonderful and miraculous ‘transformation’ of – ‘Egoistic Consciousness’ to – ‘Divine Consciousness’ the following salient and crucial points should be comprehended and realized: 1. God id ONE without a second. 2. He pervades and engulfs all creation. 3. His Will prevails and is manifested everywhere in the Cosmos. 4. We have become oblivious of, or ignorant of ‘God’ and his Will. 5. Therefore, we have developed Egoistic Consciousness or ‘False-Self’ – as apart from God. 6. This ‘Egoistic Consciousness’ is the root cause of our depraved thoughts and deeds. 7. Consequently, we suffer from unhappiness frustration and miseries.
8. On the other hand there is permanent happiness, joy, bliss and love in
‘Divine Consciousness’. 9. It is necessary to realize, identify and discriminate between the nature of our ‘False Individual Self’ and ‘Real Self’. 10. Even if we become intellectually aware of the above salient points, very arduous and prolonged efforts are required to change our mentality or consciousness. 11. But these efforts become easy with the Divine Grace (a) in the company and guidance of Blessed and illuminated Souls, (b) with concentration of mind, (c) by regular deep meditation. This transformation of consciousness will be perceptible in the change of mind, thoughts, beliefs, actions and behavior of the aspirant, in every aspect of his life – from unrest to peace, from selfishness to selflessness, from hatred to love, from vice to virtue, from sorrow to joy, from misery to bliss, from cruelty to kindness, from sin to nobility, from jealousy to tolerance, from wrong to right, from frustration to tranquility from limited intelligence to all-intelligence from myopic vision to celestial vision from fleeting pleasure to infinite bliss, from egoistic consciousness to Divine Consciousness from ego-centric to Divine effulgence, from ‘karmic law’ to Divine grace, to ‘Maya’ to God, from ‘I’, ‘Me’, “mine’ to ‘Thou and thine’, from hell to Heaven. But this process of ‘transformation of consciousness’ is not merely and intellectual exercise or ‘scientific experiment’. It is a practical course in the ‘Science of the Soul’ to be learnt and imbibed in the school of
Sat’Sangat’, i.e., regular company of the ‘Blessed and illuminated Souls’.