THE ABSOLUTE JUST “IS”
EVEN THE AVATAR HAS EGO
When it comes to a great teacher, an Avatar, an Incarnation who has come to teach the path for people to reach this level, he has taken upon himself an individuality. Suppose you can picture yourself an ice cream cone from the broad end where he exists. In that case, he brings himself to the narrow end of the cone to assume or to take this individuality, and individuality necessarily has an ego.
Ego is a perfect word but so misunderstood. The ego that people usually talk about is the grosser ego and not the refined ego. The refined ego is on the level of Superconsciousness where its constituent is Sattvic force, pure force, the force of Light. That still does not alter the fact that it is ego. It is still ego, but at its subtlest level of the Superconscious Mind, it is in direct contact with the Absolute. In other words, it is the clearest reflector of the Absolute and that Light is reflected in the world.
BECAUSE OF THE NEED OF THE UNIVERSE, THE AVATAR TAKES FORM
The Avatar or the Incarnation can merge away into Unity by will, into the Absolute, where nothing remains of him. Still, he consciously assumes form because of the need for the universe and the world. That is why the great Sages have come in the forms of Christ and Krishna and Buddha etc., and that is why they have come.
Just imagine coming from that universal vastness into the limited small body. There is the paradox, where a man can remain in a limited small body and yet be entirely universal, where he is here, there and everywhere, expressing himself in a very tangible form. That which is intangible becomes tangible. That which is Absolute becomes relative. That is the beauty of it.
THE WHOLE UNIVERSE IS FOREVER TRYING TO PRESERVE A BALANCE
Do you know that there could never be more than seven self-realised people in this world? If there were more than seven self-realised people, this whole universe would go into imbalance. Too much good is also an imbalance, not in man himself but the universal self. So, the entire universe as the individual self is forever trying to preserve a balance, and that balance, in straightforward terms, is called tranquillity. In these tranquil waters, the waves and the ripples have subsided. And when the waves, the ripples subside, conflict ceases because the momentum of another wave creates one wave. They are there all the time. If you look superficially at the sea, you will find the waves moving from over there to over there, reaching the shore. That is not happening, you know. The waves are just there all the time; they are not moving. They are just going up and down, up and down, up and down, giving the illusion that that portion of water is moving from here to there.
WHEN A SELF-REALISED PERSON DIES, HE MERGES AWAY INTO THE ABSOLUTE
When a self-realised man dies, he merges away into the Absolute. To merge into the Absolute, there has to be no trace of the individual “I”, never mind how refined it is. In the heat of the Absolute – this is using the word poetically, of course – in the power and the heat of the Absolute, the finest trace of the ego disintegrates, and it disintegrates and joins itself up with the various other elements at its level. That is it. Because when the mergence takes place, He becomes the universe.
THE ABSOLUTE JUST “IS”
When we talk of the total refinement of the ego, that ego is so extended that it is as vast as the universe. When total mergence with the Absolute takes place, then to the Absolute, there has been no ego. The universe is a dream, but for relativity, the universe is real. When we reach the Absolute, nothing else exists but the Absolute. So, it depends on what angle we look at it.
This can only be fully appreciated if one has reached the Absolute. Until then, we are still swimming around in the sea of relativity.
Some people have reached finer levels or finer limits of it, but it is not the completeness of it. By refining the ego to that extent where one encompasses the entire universe, you have only reached the level of the totality of the universe. Some people call it the Personal God, some call it Christ Consciousness, and some call it Krishna Consciousness. Yet the impersonal God is beyond all consciousness because consciousness, too, is limiting. Consciousness, too, is within the realms of relativity, while the Absolute just is. Because even the purest consciousness requires to be conscious of itself, and immediately consciousness becomes conscious of itself, ripples start at the most refined level of the ego.
THE ABSOLUTE IS EVEN BEYOND THE LEVEL OF CONSCIOUSNESS
The Absolute is beyond the finest level of the refined ego and even beyond the level of consciousness where it does not need to be conscious of consciousness. It is just an “Isness.” The electricity current that burns in these lights is not conscious of itself as electricity. It is only the usage of it that tells us that these light burns because of electricity. It is a realm beyond human conception, and one that has not realised that can only know about it. And that is what the Universities do; they tell you about a thing, but not what it is because that “Isness” has to be experienced and shared by itself, without the experience.
That is what is meant by “Isness.” You just are. I am that I am, no qualifications, no adjectives, and that is what it is.
… Gururaj Ananda Yogi: Satsang UK 1978 – 35