THE END OF ALL THINKING

 
The troubles of the world are due to thinking. Soon I shall take this thinking upon myself, when my health will, most probably, be seriously affected. This is essential for my future working which will affect the whole world.

It is the duty of Perfect Masters to give an onward push to the subtle universe; but the Head has also to prepare the Circle and to make the members realize God as well as to give an onward push to the gross universe. When they — the Perfect Masters — give such a push, they have to work for it; they have to come down from the state of Eternal Bliss, which is symbolized in the human body at the top of the head, and take their position in the Brahmand, symbolized between the eyebrows. This point is also called the junction between the Upper Bliss state and the lower human form, from which we can see the whole of the lower parts of the body — equivalent to seeing the entire chain of past lives and forms, which one has to pass through before God-realization.

A duty is placed upon some few of the God-realized ones to come down to the junction and bring up those in the world who are worthy to be taken up, that is, worthy to be God-realized, because of their preparedness and spiritual connection. But such preparedness does not come easily. It requires ages upon ages of suffering and sacrifice and deep connection with a God-realized one. It is after ages of suffering that one is deemed worthy of being admitted into a Circle for God-realization.

God-realization means the destruction of all sanskaras, the 'stopped' state of the mind, the end of all thinking. This is very difficult; for if the mind tries to stop thinking it tends towards the sound sleep state, that is, the unconscious. Even great yogis are unable to attain to this 'stopped' state of mind for good; they can at the most stop thinking during meditation, concentration, or samadhi, and even this creates new sanskaras; no sooner have they come down from the samadhi state than their minds start to work and the store of past undestroyed sanskaras gets added to.

Hafiz has likened the body to a pot, the smoke of the fire to the soul, and sanskaras to a large stone on the top of the pot. 'For all its attempts', he says, 'the smoke never succeeds in throwing off the stone.' For that, a sage must come and lift it away. Similarly, a bird may try to open its cage from the inside, but the door will never be opened till help comes from the outside. In short, those who desire to gain spiritual benefit must be brave and patient.