ADAM AND EVE

In the story of Adam and Eve,
  the creative relationship between Infinite Unconsciousness
    and the Nothing is again portrayed.

The All-Pervading King (Sarvasva) is Adam,
  Maya (Vaikunth) is Eve, and they once
    slept happily together in the Paradise of the Beyond-Beyond.

God is the All-Knowing (Sarvagna).


Adam and Eve were created by God in the very beginning
  and they lived together naked in Paradise, Eden.

In Paradise their life was harmonious, beautiful and blissful,
  and God Whom they had never seen
    cared for them in every way.

But in turn, Adam and Eve had to obey one command:
  God forbade them to eat from a certain tree in the Garden.


One day a snake came to Eve and convinced her
  to offer the forbidden fruit to Adam, which she did.

Adam hesitated, but Eve convinced Him to eat the fruit.

Adam ate of the fruit, ate it all;
  and God, angry with them for disobeying,
    for breaking His only command,
      threw them out of Paradise!


Although it is claimed in GENESIS
  that God threw Adam and Eve out of Paradise,
    the fact of the matter is
      they came into creation out of sleep.

Adam entered creation from the state of sleep
  because of His ignorance of His own nature.

Because Adam was ignorant,
  the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge
    very much attracted Him, though He hesitated at first.

The forbidden fruit contained the knowledge of good and evil,
  the opposites; it contained consciousness,
    the knowledge of consciousness and unconsciousness.

The snake represents illusion,
  and illusion, though it is not real is convincing.

Illusion which has no substance of its own,
  but to which the Nothing is very susceptible, is the snake
    which convinced Eve to tempt Adam
      or stirred Vaikunth to desire a child.

The fruit from the tree of knowledge
  represents the object that creates desire
    through temptation, Eve's powers of seduction.

Eden is the Beyond-Beyond state of God,
  the original state of everything (Adam, Eve, and the snake)
    latent before the beginning.

Adam entered creation because of the desire
  created by tasting the fruit;
    the more He ate the more He desired to know Himself.

The taste of fruit gave Adam knowledge of good and evil,
  meaning He knew the difference between being conscious
    and being unconscious; He desired to be conscious (to know).

In Meher Baba's book, GOD SPEAKS,
  this desire in Adam to know Himself
    is referred to as the Original Whim (Lahar), "Who Am I?"

GOD SPEAKS is dedicated to the snake, illusion,
  since without that snake
    Adam would not have become conscious
      (that same snake is called by Hindus SHESH NAG).

Adam's being thrown out of Paradise indicates the force of the Whim,
  the force of the movement of the whole creation;
    that force is called the pasara — expansion,
      and it is continually spreading out — moving.

Adam's purpose of coming into creation
  was to realize Who He was,
    but He could not without desire,
      and that desire is called sanskara.

From that original desire to know
  came innumerable desires, sanskaras,
    which make up the illusory consciousness of everyone
      and everything in creation.


In the beginning Adam and Eve were naked,
  meaning they had no sanskaras, but without sanskaras
    there is no development of consciousness.

Eve desired Adam, and Adam desired the fruit of knowledge.

Adam could not realize Himself without the DESIRE TO KNOW —
  the fruit was the cause of His desire for knowledge.

As He ate and felt the grip of the sanskaras He desired more.

It takes time to know the Self
  in the long process of evolution, reincarnation, and involution.

The hesitation on Adam's part was the stirring in the Ocean
  of the Whim of desire before any manifestation occurred.


In the Hebrew and Christian tradition,
  this story is told that Adam was thrown out of Paradise
    by a wrathful God after eating the fruit;
      but the meaning has been lost.

Actually Infinite Unconsciousness came out of the Beyond-Beyond
  and into creation because of Its own desire —
    the desire to be conscious.

God's wrath is the same as Sarvasva's anger
  when He was awakened by Vaikunth.

In Islamic tradition the same story is told,
  but Satan enticed Adam (instead of Eve)
    to eat forbidden wheat,
      and so God threw Adam out of Paradise.


Adam is the First One, and it is He
  Who realized Himself as God first
    (Adam is none else but that Mischievous Chicken
      Who ate all the wrong things before He ate Himself).

Eve followed Adam out of the Garden,
  she followed because she was His shadow
    (as the gas followed the Chicken).

When Eve said to Adam, "Eat this,"
  it is the same as when Imagination said to the Chicken,
  "Eat all you want."

In this way both Adam and the Chicken were deceived,
  but this deception is necessary
    to know Knowledge as Knowledge and Ignorance as Ignorance.