Going For The One
Michael Turner
© 2009 by Michael Turner
“There is one Reality,
The Unmanifest Manifested.”
- Guru Nanak
For quite some time now people have been interested in a wide variety
of spiritual, occult and metaphysical topics. All of these paths, or
areas of interest, are like facets on the diamond of total
consciousness, of God.
Those engaged in the spiritual quest must ask themselves one essential
question: “What is the goal of my quest?” Is it gaining knowledge
about various subjects? Is it acquiring virtues, powers, health,
abundance, wisdom? Or is it spiritual freedom, attaining liberation
from the cycle of death and rebirth? This question is the most
fundamental of all.
Most philosophies, metaphysical systems and occult theories appeal to
the former perspective. There is a vast amount – and variety – of
information to be acquired and knowledge gained. It is rather like
going to a university with a thousand elective courses, each as
attractive as the next. One could spend a lifetime studying, and
still not be satiated. This semester that we call “life” would be
over, and we would want to enroll for another – just one more class,
just one more experience. And so it goes –around, and around, and
around.
This desire for experience, for knowledge, for metaphysical prowess –
in fact, just plain desire, period - is an underlying root cause of
karma and reincarnation. We will explore this in depth at another
time. Let us suffice to say for now that, if one desires to learn
about astrology – or crystals, or aura balancing, or reiki, or wicca,
or psychic healings, or psychedelic neurologic, or the various cosmic
rays, or channeling, or tarot, or palmistry, etc. – there is plenty of
information available. And you will have all the time in the world to
learn it.
However, if you wish to attain spiritual freedom, and be released from
the wheel of karma and reincarnation, that is another thing
altogether. The quest for spiritual freedom is really a quest for
self-knowledge and God-realization, a quest to know ourselves in our
ultimate, core spiritual essence, and to directly experience God of
Itself. It is a tall order, perhaps; but every major teacher – from
Rama to Hermes, from Plato and Pythagoras to Buddha and Zoroaster,
from Jesus and Saint Paul to Rumi and Shamus i Tabriz, from Kabir and
Guru Nanak to Shiv Dayal Singh and Sawan Singh, from Kirpal Singh to
Paul Twitchell and Darwin Gross – has taught that Self and God-
realization are the only goals worth pursuing. Paul Twitchell stated
this very clearly when he wrote:
“It is a spiritual law that we must
first seek the Kingdom of God, which is
God-realization. There is little need to
seek His attributes, like love, wisdom and
understanding, for they are secondary
causes and will be attained provided we
have first the enlightenment of Divine
Reality...It was during His great Sermon
on the Mount that (Christ) urged all, ‘Seek
first the Kingdom of Heaven and all else
will be added unto you!’ Thereafter, He
re-emphasized the spiritual law of God-
realization as the primary goal of one’s
life in practically every public speech.”
This postulate, of itself, raises three basic questions: What is the
nature of the Self? What is the nature of God? And how do I attain
their respective states of realization?
I. The Nature Of The Self
According to the great spiritual teachers, our true identity is Soul
(also known as Surat, Jiva, Atma or Tuza) – an eternal spark of Divine
Love in the Body of God. As the Fifteenth Century mystic weaver-poet,
Kabir, put it so succinctly:
“O Kabir,
The soul is a particle of the Lord.”
And the Twentieth Century Sat Guru, Kirpal Singh, reiterated:
“...Soul is a conscious entity, a drop
of the Ocean of All consciousness,
and in its miniature capacity carries
all the divine attributes of Godhood.
Since it is environed by mind and
matter, it has lost its heritage and
forgotten its origin, the True Home
of the Father. The Masters come
to our help, to awaken us from this
long slumber of ignorance. All the
past Masters including Christ
have been stressing the importance
of this inner development of soul.”
In other words, Soul is a timeless unit of pure awareness. It is not
the mind, nor is it the causal body, the astral body or physical
body. These are all protective sheaths it wears in order to function
and communicate within the harsher vibration levels of duality,
psychic energy, space, time and matter. They may be compared to a car
used for locomotion, or a deep sea diving suit used to protect the
physical body from the pressures of oceanic depths.
An important extension of this principle to understand is that, while
we are atoms in the body of God (or drops in the Ocean of All
Consciousness), we are also individuals who will continue to exist
throughout eternity. There is no point along the path to
enlightenment wherein we lose our individual consciousness and merge
back into the “Universal Mind” or great void of the Unconscious. We
are individuals. We are Souls. We are eternal. We are love.
II. The Nature Of God
The second question is: What is God? The Supreme One has been known
by as many names as there are languages. Among them have been:
Jehovah, Allah, Brahm, Sat Naam, Radha Soami, Ekankar, Anami Purush
and Sugmad. The closest I can come to describing It is: an
incomprehensibly vast vortex of pure, conscious, golden Love.
It is neither an old man on a throne in the sky (as seen by
traditional patriarchal religions), nor the maternal earth goddess
favored by wiccan, neo-pagan and some Hindi schools of thought.
These, and all other stated attributes, are mere reflections of the
One. Neither male nor female, Brahma nor Kali, Jehovah nor Gaia, God
nor Goddess – It is beyond all attributes and duality. IT JUST IS!
One of the best descriptions of the indescribable – the Supreme One –
was written by the Indian Master, Guru Nanak nearly 500 years ago.
The mul-mantra, or prologue, to his classic work, the Jap Ji, begins
(in Urdu): “Ekankar, Sat Naam, Karta Purakh.” The full prologue
declares:
“There is one Reality,
The Unmanifest-Manifested
Ever-Existent, He is Naam (Conscious Spirit)
The Creator; pervading all
Without fear, without enmity;
The Timeless, the Unborn
And the Self-existent;
Complete within Itself.
Through the favor of His
True Servant, the Guru,
He may be realized.
He was when there was nothing;
He was before all ages began;
He existeth now, O Nanak,
And shall exist forevermore.”
Again, I must reiterate that there is nothing wrong with seeking the
attributes, or reflections, of God. But they, of themselves, will not
lead to God-realization. However, God-realization with lead to the
attainment of these attributes – and more. In other words, such
skills as telepathy, prophecy, channeling and psychic healing will not
bring about enlightenment; but enlightenment will bring about these
capabilities.
III. Divine Spirit (Shabda)
Having addressed the questions of self and God (or creation and
Creator), you may ask yourself: “Well, how do I get there?” The
answer is simple. You achieve self-realization, God-realization and
spiritual freedom through a conscious linkup with the creative essence
of God. There is a singular flow of pure, golden, creative Love
Energy, manifesting Itself as Light and Sound, which is the Source and
Foundation of all that exists.
It is known by many names, including the Word, Holy Spirit,
Logos,Kalma, Ek, Aum, Shabda, Bani, Naam, Shabad Dhun and Divine
Spirit. As Julian Johnson once noted, It moves like a radio wave,
continually flowing out from the heart of the Supreme One to the
farthest reaches of creation, and then returning to Its originating
Source.
We can learn from a living spiritual teacher how to harmonize our
awareness with the return flow of the LightSong of this Divine
Spiritual Current, this Audible Life Stream, and allow It to gently
lift us above body consciousness and into the pure positive worlds of
God. In doing so, we are liberated from the bondage of karma and
reincarnation, achieve the goal of spiritual freedom in this lifetime
(Jivan Mukti), and are free to be a creative, loving co-workers with
God.
Yours in the LightSong of Eternal Love,
Baraka Bashad!
Michael Turner
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SFS/
alt.meditation.shabda