Part I — Consciousness and Immortality

Consciousness and Immortality¹

In the spiritual life, in the life of aspiration, in the life of dedication, there are two indispensable realities, and these realities are Consciousness and Immortality. Consciousness and Immortality are inseparable. They are like the obverse and reverse of the same coin. At this moment Consciousness plays the role of a seed and Immortality plays the role of the fruit; the next moment Immortality turns into the seed while the same Consciousness becomes the fruit. Then the fruit again becomes the seed in a self-perpetuating cycle. In this way Consciousness and Immortality remain always inseparable. The seed-form we call Consciousness. The fruit-form we call Immortality. But they can and they do change their respective roles.

Consciousness is birthless and deathless Eternity within and without. Immortality is self-giving. We offer our body, vital, mind and heart in order to grow into something divine. When we grow into something divine, the divine existence that we have developed or have unveiled is the immortal Reality in us. Today we give what we have to the Lord Supreme; tomorrow He gives what He has and what He is to us. We give Him our inner cry, we give Him our ignorance, our darkness, anything that we feel belongs to us or that we have been cherishing. In His case, everything belongs to Him; and when He feels that we are ready, He gives us everything out of His infinite Bounty.

Consciousness-sea loves reality and eventually becomes reality. Immortality is our silence-life which envisions the Truth and our sound-life which manifests the Goal, the transcendental Reality, here on earth.

Immortality loves life, embraces life and finally fulfils life here on earth and there in Heaven. The soulful cry of earth is Immortality in the seeker's life. The soulful smile of Heaven, too, is Immortality in the seeker's life. The soulful inner cry is immortal and the all-illumining, all-fulfilling smile within is also immortal.

How is it that earth-consciousness at times does not accept Heaven's bounty of Compassion, Love and Light? It is precisely because Heaven's divine qualities, which have developed in various forms, are unfamiliar; therefore, the unlit earth-consciousness resists the divine qualities, divine capacities and divine blessings of Heaven. Again, at times Heaven will not help when earth sincerely tries to do something correctly. Earth wants to grow into the divine reality and it needs Heaven's assistance, but there are times when Heaven remains indifferent. Earth does not remain always receptive and Heaven does not remain always concerned. But there comes a time when the seeker unifies both earth's cry and Heaven's smile. Just as earth cannot remain always unlit, so Heaven cannot remain always indifferent. Then earth gives soulfully, devotedly and unreservedly its peerless world-cry and Heaven gives smilingly, unreservedly and unconditionally its peerless Heaven-smile and inner Consciousness, divine Consciousness, supreme Consciousness.

The expansion of Consciousness controls and conquers doubt. This doubt is a hungry tiger in us. It wants to devour the real in us, the divine in us, the beautiful in us. But when Consciousness expands, the doubt-tiger is brought under control; it is conquered and illumined. Faith is the roaring lion; doubt is the devouring tiger. The lion has to grow, so it has to be fed. The Delight of Immortality feeds the divine lion, the golden faith-lion within us.

When we conquer fear, doubt, jealousy and impurity, at that time Immortality dawns in our vital existence. When we claim the vastness of reality as our very own and grow into that vastness within, Immortality dawns in our mind. And when we hear the oneness-song and see the oneness-dance in everything that we say, do or think, Immortality dawns in our oneness-heart. Finally, when perfect Perfection looms large in our earth-life and in our Heaven-life, when Perfection inundates our earthly existence and our heavenly existence, then we grow into the supreme Immortality.

Ego-consciousness, human consciousness, divine Consciousness, supreme Consciousness. Ego-consciousness is nothing but destruction here, there, everywhere. Human consciousness is man's preparation for the higher life, for the divine life, the life which will satisfy human beings totally and unmistakably. Divine Consciousness is aspiration, the road of absolute Perfection, the road of transcendental Height. The aim of supreme Consciousness is to constantly transcend the already achieved goal. The supreme Consciousness always transcends its own achievement. There is no fixed goal. Today's goal is tomorrow's starting point; therefore, the supreme Consciousness inspires us, energises us and carries us to a Goal which is an ever-transcending Reality. That Goal is Immortality in earth-life, Immortality in Heaven-life, Immortality in each individual consciousness, Immortality in the collective consciousness, Immortality in the Universal Consciousness and in the Transcendental Consciousness.

Human consciousness and divine consciousness, earth-bound consciousness and Heaven-free consciousness. Human consciousness is nothing short of the self-forgetfulness of the Infinite in the finite. Divine consciousness is the self-awareness, self-illumination and self-perfection of the Infinite in and for the finite. Earth-bound consciousness sees reality the way reality functions here on earth, but reality functions on earth in a very limited way. Here we see reality in infinitesimal measure. Often it opens to countless wrong forces. Earth-bound consciousness constantly tells us that there is no goal, and even if there is a goal, it will always remain a far cry. It tells man that even when desire is fulfilled, man becomes frustrated because the fulfilment of desire can never give abiding satisfaction. Today a man desires to have a car, so he buys a car. Tomorrow he wants to have two cars. If he is wealthy enough to buy them, then the next day he will want to have three cars. Each time he gets something, he wants to get something more. But there comes a time eventually when he does not or cannot get what he truly wants. Then he looks around and sees that somebody else has that very thing in boundless measure. So again frustration comes into the picture.

Earth-bound consciousness always gives us the feeling of frustration with the things that we do not have and the things that we do have. But Heaven-free consciousness constantly gives us the message of satisfaction. We want boundless Delight; we want everything in boundless measure. But right now if we get even an iota of Delight, we feel a sense of satisfaction. Then, from a tiny drop we grow into the vast ocean. Today a tiny drop of the ocean of Delight we have received or have achieved; therefore, we are exceedingly happy. And when we are happy, our receptivity grows. There are few other ways to increase our receptivity than by remaining happy all the time. When we are happy, our receptivity grows; and when receptivity grows, Heaven-free consciousness can grow in us.

Consciousness and Immortality. Consciousness is at once the flower and the beauty. Immortality is also both the flower and the beauty. But when we look at the flower with our human eyes, we see what is in front of us, not what is within us. We see the beauty as long as it lasts-for a few hours or a few days. But the beauty that we see also enters into us, into the inmost recesses of our heart. The essence of the flower which remains inside us is Immortality. So we can say that Consciousness is the beauty of the flower before us, which enters into us, and Immortality is the beauty of the flower within us, that previously was before us. Each seeker sees the outer beauty of the flower and each seeker sees the inner flower, which is beauty unparalleled.