Master has declared that he has discovered this
condition which was not approached by anybody so
far in the history of the human race, namely the
state of TAM, which is beyond SAT or Existence,
which all people hold to be the highest. The
state of TAM is very difficult to attain and it
has been possible only for our Mission to help
people reach up to this particular point or the
Ultimate Reality. In fact, Master even goes a
step further. He says even that TAM is a kind of
reflection of the Ultimate Reality. So you will
understand how difficult it is to communicate
the very nature of that state except by putting
one into that condition. But then he says, it is
a condition where there is neither light nor
darkness. And, all our knowledge is said to be
of light. So 'what is that, that is beyond
light?' - shall we say it is darkness? No, it
goes farther beyond darkness. It is difficult to
describe that condition. In fact Master goes to
the extent of saying that a person who has
reached that condition will not be aware of it
except when somebody calls him back to answer a
condition. That is only when what we call
existence 'Truth' is introduced one becomes
aware of his condition. This is one discovery.
Of course, when I had asked this condition to be
given, he said that most people will not like
that state at all. They do not want that stage
at all. Most of us like to have knowledge, like
to have power and all those things which we
think as the 'summit of perfection'. A man who
goes beyond all these will not have all these
things. But then, he goes to the Root from which
all these things arose. And therefore, I said it
is worthwhile going to that condition. Anyway so
long as there is something still farther
mentioned there are some people who like it go
to the farther limits. Whether it means death or
final dissolution, they do not worry. Many
people do not like to go farther. They would
like to have what they have and not miss all
these things of the world. Of course Truth comes
only when we go far beyond knowledge, far beyond
happiness and perhaps even far beyond darkness.
The next step that Master illustrates is
about that condition. Do you think that in that
condition, do you exist or don't you exist. Will
you have your identity or not? Are you lost
completely? It is said as one of the argument
against losing oneself in God, that such a
condition is of no use at all and must, indeed,
be unreal. There are theories of Vedanta - I
don't say it is Advaita - which hold that the
individual Soul (that is you) is immortal and is
Eternal. If you do not exist God does not exist
- so you must exist. That is why they say the
individual soul is eternal, indestructible and
so on. That may be alright for people to say so.
Actually what happens? It is an experience not
only in spirituality but almost at every level
that True Love involves a dissolution of
oneself, a giving up of oneself even to the
point of annihilation of identity. This we call
merging. The religious people who are anxious to
experience God do not like to be merged or lost
in God. To them realisation means looking at
God, enjoying God, worshipping Him in all sorts
of ways, but not to feel one with God. That is,
these people want God to live for them and not
they for God. So, almost all religions want God
for the sake of the individual. Nobody is
thinking of living to exist for God. So many
people want to have their identity kept up. And
we find their identity is tried to be fostered
by names, works and so on and those remnants as
the delegates of such people. They are trying to
give immortality to the works of those people.
So to that extent we create a kind of
immortality to their identity.
It is only a philosophical feeling that you
must have been previously. There are arguments
for that. But ultimately do you exist as a
separate entity, keeping your own identity till
the very end? Our Master says, the identity
which each individual has, continues to be even
till the last date of Maha Pralaya. Some people
said even at Maha Pralaya, a person goes on
existing. That is a philosophical necessity.
Even when a man enters into the state of Tam, he
continues to have a little of identity till the
very last when everybody goes to the Centre
which is the Tam, and everybody at that stage
enters into it and after that period of Maha
Pralaya they come back again. The question is
whether they themselves come back again? Can we
believe that Markandeya comes back after every
Maha Pralaya? Most probably we must accept it.
But then, it is not clear whether it is a
problem for experience or for imagination.
The Upanishad is very clear in this matter.
The very same problem is stated in Katopanishad.
Nachiketa asks Yama 'What happens to me after I
get realisation, whether I exist or not?' 'It is
very difficult' Yama said, 'do not ask me that
question'. But he insisted upon the answer. Yama
replied "Well, you will come to a stage where
you are so much one with That that your
distinction from it is very little. When you
come out of It, a distinction comes out". That I
is the Existence. The I or identity is that from
which thought arises. Individual thought arises
from the I. Now, it is a very difficult question
to explain unless you go through that
experience. Master says there is an element of
man running parallel to the Divine. And the man
who realized the Tam is one with the Tam. He
almost identifies with the Tam. The human
element or identity remains to the 'minimum
extent' and it will remain till the very last,
viz., Maha Pralaya. The realisation is that. If
you want to have realisation here with the body,
then you must have a minimum of identity and a
maximum of the Divine. That is what we are
seeing in the Master. In other words, it is
precisely zero added before I and the number
added after the decimal point which makes your
identity less, nearing absolute Zero. This can
be experienced in the lives of people. I can
only represent this point by referring the
Master himself. This condition can be said to be
pure thought, with that slight point. And all
his actions come from that Tam, through the
infinitesimal. It becomes the passage through
which the individualization takes place. In
other words, Master says individuality is
brought to the minimum. What is lost is
individual and not Divine.
Master feels there is a great mystery, a
mystery which is, beyond all spirituality also
and if you want to experience, just try by
adding a little bit of what you call Truth or
existence. Then you will see whether He exists
or not. The person who reaches Tam is more real
than you. A man who thinks he exists, perhaps
does not exist really. That is a condition
indistinguishable from nonexistence. Existence
and nonexistence are transcended in this
condition. In other words, all our normal ways
of describing this condition do not go far, and
we are left to experiment on this aspect.
Do not have a fear that your identity is
going to be completely lost, if you have any
love for identity. Some people will say and in
fact the great distress of Buddha was as
everybody tells, that he was a nihilist. He said
the human individual is a bundle of Samskaras
and so everybody said he was a Sunya Vadin and
that is how they follow him. What he means was
that Ultimate cannot be described in the
language of real experience and it is something
to be experienced by Dhyana as he himself said.
And Dhyana means what? Try to understand the
original cause. If not, go on asking what is the
cause. You come to the final point of the I. Can
you then stop there? No, you have to go still
farther, beyond the cause. So you see at that
point, are you to say that you are born out of
nothing? All that you can say is yes and no. It
is very difficult. So, the Divine is completely
different from the human and there is no
graduated process. So, Buddha was misunderstood
because the people who argued for him were
intellectual, not those really experienced and
lived for that. With a bit of the Divine, they
expanded their individual and called themselves
God or Superhuman. But He who is fully merged in
that Tam and gives more importance to that Tam,
creates a new kind of personality. That is a
very great point which Master has stated. That
is why, to understand fully the magnificence and
attractiveness of the Tam, one has to put aside
all the prejudices about the nature of identity.
You must realize that Sat there is something
greater than the identity.
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