Evolution of love

Spiritual Nectar

QUESTION: After having realized the Oneness of all, due to what need or imperfection does it become necessary again to worship a particular deity?

Answer:  In that state there is no need or imperfection.

INQUIRER: But then it cannot be service or worship, as we understand them!

Answer:  You may call it anything.

The point is this: Sukadeva was a liberated Being; why then did he relate the Srimad Bhagavata?

What reply have you to this? The need or imperfection that prompted one to serve and worship at the initial stage has no place here.

The Vedantists discard one thing after another, saying ‘neti, neti’ (‘not this, not this’ ). Indeed, you see a beautiful flower, and a few days later it has been reduced to dust; therefore what they say is perfectly true. What is subject to change will most certainly change. On the other hand, expressed in the terms of those who believe in the reality of name and form, one may say: "All names are Thy Name, all forms Thy. Form." Here name and form are also real. Again, it may be argued: "What is bound by change is the world. By persevering in the practice of discrimination, one finally becomes established in the One Reality."

When there is only the One Ocean - nothing but water - one cannot see oneself as separate from the All.

This is full immersion.

Nevertheless, if outwardly or inwardly, even so much as a hair has remained dry, it signifies that complete immersion has not yet occurred. When a seed has been fried it can never sprout again. Just so, after realizing Oneness, you may do anything - it no longer contains the seed of karma. Where this is not present, there, all form and variety are but THAT. Look, by intense devotion as well as by Vedantic discrimination one has arrived at the One Essence. Does then ‘to merge into IT’ mean to become stone-like? Not so, indeed!

For form, variety, manifestation, are nothing but THAT.

The characteristic features of each person’s particular path will of course be preserved; yet, what is attained is the One, in which no doubt, no uncertainty can survive. In fact, what is there to be attained? We are THAT - eternal Truth. Because we imagine that it has. to be experienced, realized, it remains apart from us. On some levels this point of view is valid, but on others it is not. The Eternal ever IS. What is styled ‘the veil of ignorance’ signifies continual motion. Motion means change, incessant transformation. Yet again, no change takes place where there is non-action in action. For such a one duality does not exist; who then eats, and what can he eat? In this state, how can there be theories or disputes?

If someone argues that, since a certain person speaks, he cannot have attained to this State, - what does he speak and to whom?

Who is the one to whom he speaks?

This is so when full Realization has come about.

When trying to explain this to others, one comes to see that they have not understood it.

Does realizing that someone has not understood, imply that one has oneself reverted to ignorance?

One has realised both: being able to understand and being unable to understand. He who is limited by the point of view of the world is in bondage. But where the vision of THAT is, there, the knowledge of ignorance and the knowledge of Knowledge stand revealed in their fullness. There, the question of viewing knowledge and ignorance separately can simply not arise. Actions such as eating, and so forth, has now become action in inaction. Whether one still performs ceremonies or not, what difference does it make? Knowing and not-knowing in their entirety are now contained within oneself. But to understand this state is difficult indeed It is easy to comprehend a particular line of approach or level. But here, there is no question of attainment or non-attainment, and therefore, even non-attainment is no shortcoming either.

However, if the very slightest attachment has survived, it signifies that this Sublime State has not yet been reached.

By selling imitation goods people may become rich.

Why are imitation goods purchased at all? Because they resemble the genuine ones; this is the wonder of it!

But by using them the deception will come to light, and then one will again search for the genuine article.

Having realized the One Self, and that there is nothing outside of It, one knows that the image one has worshipped is THAT in a particular form.

Having found Reality, one perceives it in this particular guise:
the deity I adored is none other than the One Self,
the Brahman - there is no second.

Thus, the One is the Lord I worshiped.

When one has dived into the depth of the sea, water is known to be He in one form. The aspirant who advances along the path of bhakti will, when he has attained to the vision of his Master, become a true servant. The methods of ‘not this, not this’ and ‘this is Thou, this is Thou’ lead to the One Goal.

By proceeding in one direction It is reached, and by taking the other direction, one also arrives at the very same Goal.

Those who follow the path of surrender to Shakti, the Divine Energy, and those who worship the image of Siva, both must finally attain to the one Shakti, the one Siva.

Those who advance along the line of Vedanta will find that ice is water, that there is no form, but only the formless ; whereas the bhakta comes to realize that his Beloved is but the Brahman - everyone has his own method of approach.

Equality, Oneness must come and become permanent state. Having achieved it, if someone says : "I am renouncing liberation", or "I am giving up the worship of my Ista" - even though he may give it up, nothing will be lost; for in this condition there is neither renouncing nor retaining.

It may be asked, why there cannot be one and the same path for all?

Because He reveals Himself in infinite ways and forms - verily, the One is all of them.

In that State there is no ‘why’.

Quarrels and disputes exist merely on the way.

With whom is one to quarrel? Only while still on the way is it possible to have disputes and differences of opinion.