Illumination

Destruction is a very complicated term. In the animal world, destruction is at times necessary for survival. But otherwise, destruction is a negative force, a force of night, which is not at all encouraging, helpful or fruitful. Even the thought-world, which is so helpful in the human life, can be totally destructive. We do not need others to destroy us. One unhealthy, uncomely thought is enough to destroy our mental poise, and when we lose our mental poise, we lose everything.

When we breathe in, we breathe in many tiny creations of God. In order to live we have to breathe in, and they have to be our victims. When they are killed, the kind heart in us, on the strength of its oneness, should feel miserable. But when we enter into the deeper realm we see that this so-called destruction is not destruction at all. In God’s Cosmic Plan this is the only way we can continue our present-day life. At the same time, this so-called destruction is a step ahead for those little creatures of God, for the soul evolves through the process of death and rebirth.

In the world of possession, we possess in order to enjoy. But while possessing we make discriminations. We want this; we do not want that. Because of our sense of separativity, we prefer this thing to that, but we prefer it in our human way. We prefer the things that stimulate us or the things that give us immediate joy and satisfaction. But in the case of God, there is no discrimination. He sees everything as His own, and inside everything He feels tremendous utility and necessity.

We want to possess the world, but our capacity of receptivity is so limited that we have to make a choice between this and that. In God’s case, He does not make a choice, He does not have a preference; He possesses everything. He wants to bring to the fore His own Divinity which He has implanted in each creation of His. Even the destructive forces of ignorance have some light in them. So God wants to bring to the fore the infinitesimal light that even the ignorance-forces have. Like God, we also have to see the divinity in the ignorance-forces. Let us not see the outer world as such; let us not pay all attention to the outer body, which may not be divine. We will not deal with the outer body of the creation; we will deal only with the divinity, the inner reality of the creation, and then transform the body-reality so that it becomes as perfect as the soul-reality.

In the divine world, illumination is perfection. This illumination will never reject the possession-world or the destruction-world. It can easily house the possession-world and the destruction-world inside itself. When it enters into the destruction-world, it brings to the fore energy, for destruction has tremendous energy. It brings to the fore the energy-aspect of God’s creation, and then utilises it for a divine purpose. When it enters into the possession-world, it possesses everything; it does not exclude anything. It brings to the fore the essence of divinity which is in everything. When the Divine comes forward, even the outer body can easily be transformed. The illumination-world does not exclude either the possession-world or the destruction-world. Illumination is the world of acceptance.

God has accepted the whole world for His own Satisfaction. But His Satisfaction is unlike our satisfaction. Our satisfaction is to claim and possess, to say, “This is mine; this is what I have.” In God’s case, He always sees His creation and His own Existence as one. In our case, possession always involves somebody else or something else. We say, “I am the possessor, and you are the possession.” Then we feel that we are superior to our possession, for we can do anything we want with it. But God feels that He and His possessions are one and the same; they are equal.

Sometimes the possession will stand against the possessor or the creator. The parents are the creators of their children. When the children grow older and enter into adolescence, often they rebel. The possession, the creation, can become strong and go beyond the vision of the creator. In God’s case, with His Vision He creates something, and if that creation goes beyond His Vision-Reality, He does not feel sad or miserable. On the contrary, this is what He actually wants. In His Vision-world He sees one Reality, but within this Reality there are many realities fully blossomed. In our case, if we get what we want, we are satisfied for a while. But if we get one cent more than we wanted, we are not satisfied, because that very thing we did not want. We want to possess, but if one thing more or one thing less than what we wanted comes, we are not satisfied, because our desire is such that we want the thing exactly the way our mind has conceived it. In God’s case, even if it is not the same amount, He gets tremendous joy, because as soon as He projects His Vision, He is satisfied. In our case, after we have projected our will, we expect a certain kind of result, and if the result does not come up to our expectation, we feel miserable. In God’s case, His projection itself is more than enough for His Satisfaction.

Destruction is at times necessary not only for survival, but to bring to the fore dynamic energy which is now being utilised in a destructive way. Otherwise, the world of lethargy and somnolence will cover the soul’s indomitable energy. Possession itself is not bad, but we have to know what to possess. We have to know that the things that we really need are duty, beauty, light and delight. These things we have to bring to the fore. We will possess not the things that will possess us even while we are possessing them, but the things that will sing the song of oneness. Illumination is the acceptance of everything — destruction, possession, everything — but only for the sake of transformation. We have to accept, bring to the fore and transform.

The mind is now in the human world, the temptation-world. The eyes see something beautiful and immediately tempt the mind to go and grasp it. The ears hear something beautiful and immediately tempt the mind to go and grasp it. Each part of the body is subject to temptation and is assailed by temptation. Then it requires other parts of the being to come to its rescue and grab what is tempting it.

The illumination-world immediately will come in and grasp everything. Inside the temptation-world there will be a constant battle, a tug-of-war between the temptation itself and the illumination. The temptation wants to expand its own boundary, but even when it expands it is still not satisfied, because temptation is followed by frustration. So it looks around to seek abiding satisfaction here, there, everywhere. Then, when it sees illumination, finally it surrenders, for it sees that illumination is the answer.

Illumination encompasses the destruction-world, the possession-world and the temptation-world. We should always try to aim at illumination to save our earth-bound life from the destruction-world, and to transform our earth-bound life into the Heaven-free world.