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| RollingstonesUSA |
Anybody read his stuff....
Meher Baba's cosmology is based on divine unity, the concept that diverse creation, or duality, is an illusion.
I tell you all, with my Divine Authority, that you and I are not "WE," but "ONE." The Oneness of Reality is so uncompromisingly unlimited and all-pervading that not only "We are One," but even this collective term of "We" has no place in the Infinite Indivisible Oneness. [9]
Meher Baba said that the goal of life is conscious realization of the absolute Oneness of God and that his work as Avatar is to awaken this Oneness in each heart.
Meher Baba compares God's original state to an infinite, shoreless ocean which has only unconscious divinity — unaware of itself even though there is nothing but itself. From this state, God had the "whim" to know Himself and asked "Who am I?". In response to this question, creation came into existence. What was previously a still, shoreless Ocean stirred, forming innumerable "drops" of itself, termed “drop souls.”
Each dropsoul, being formed by God's whim to know Himself, contains within itself the same desire for self-knowledge. In pursuit of the answer to that question (i.e. to gain conscious divinity) each drop soul evolves consciousness through experience of each form in the seven kingdoms of evolution. These are: stone or metal, vegetable, worm, fish, bird, animal, and human. There are even more rudimentary "gaseous" states preceding the attainment of the stone state.
This development is accomplished through the accumulation of innumerable impressions, or sanskaras, acquired by the drop soul as it experiences creation. The impressions gathered through experience in turn seek expression through the dropsoul. This need for expression cannot always be accommodated by the form the drop soul currently has. This inability to express its accumulated impressions is the cause of the dropsoul abandoning one form and moving to a more complex form from which the impressions can be expressed.
In this way, the drop soul experiences (by associating with) and discards (by dissociating from) forms in all the evolutionary kingdoms. The final form of the soul's evolution of consciousness is human wherein the development of full consciousness is attained. Only human consciousness is capable of achieving awareness of divinity, according to Meher Baba.
However, although consciousness is full upon the attainment of the first human form, the drop soul's ages long accumulation of impressions prevent the drop soul from directing its consciousness toward God, its own true being. Instead, human consciousness is preoccupied with expressing its impressions by seeking sensual experiences. Ultimately, however, through the drop soul's reincarnation in various human lifetimes encompassing the whole range of human experience (i.e. man/woman, rich/poor, powerful/weak, etc.), the impressions accumulated through the drop soul's evolution toward human form and consciousness, as well as those gathered in its human forms, begin to thin and the drop soul's awareness of a reality beyond its own immediate desires. This is the beginning of the end of the drop soul's separate existence. The drop soul then begins to traverse an inner spiritual path, beginning a process called involution, through which it gradually eliminates all impressions which cause the appearance of separateness from God (Ocean).
Once the sanskaras are gone, the goal of knowing itself as conscious divinity is attained. The drop soul once again becomes merged in the Ocean, that is, it realizes its true Divine indivisible and eternal nature. It has now answered the question of “Who am I?” with “I am God.”
In Meher Baba's cosmology, the first drop soul to answer this question is the Avatar. Upon attaining conscious awareness of Godhood, He looks back compassionately upon those other drop souls following in his wake and takes responsibility for directing their evolution and involution. This responsibility is discharged by, among other things, periodically incarnating on Earth to reset the standard for human living and otherwise directing the affairs of the world. [10]
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Sanskaras
As the drop soul progresses through successive lifetimes, it creates and exhausts sanskaras. Gross sanskaras become more refined over many lives and become subtle sanskaras, and these over lives are refined and become mental sanskaras. Mental sanskaras can be completely eliminated. A sadguru or Perfect Master can eliminate any and all sanskaras of any kind. Sanskaras are described as binding or unbinding, natural or non-natural (also sometimes as unnatural, although the distinction between the prefix non- and un- in relation to Meher Baba's explanations about sanskaras has been the cause of some confusion). Actions such as murder create non-natural binding sanskaras. Even good actions can create binding sanskaras [11].
Sanskaras are individualized and so there is no way of determining the effect of a particular action. An action may be good in one instance and bad in another, based on the person's intent [12]. The law of karma (cause and effect) balances good and bad actions and their subsequent sanskaras.
Inevitably, the individual seeks a life of love for God, which is beyond the duality of good and bad. This inward journey towards God gradually awakens consciousness, until the grace of a Perfect Master wipes all sanskaras out. Meher Baba stated, "The wiping out of sanskaras can be effected only by the grace of a Perfect Master" (Discourses).
The Avatar, according to Meher Baba, is the eternal living Perfect Master. |
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