Awaken to
God-Consciousness
Consciousness
cannot be externalized because consciousness is indivisible. If you imagine
that consciousness is divisible, you have also to imagine that there is a gap
between the two parts thereof. Who is conscious of this gap? Consciousness alone
is conscious of this gap between the two parts. That means, consciousness is
present even in the gap in between. This is another way of saying that
consciousness is universal.
Everyone
in this world refers to 'himself' or 'herself'. This 'selfhood' is applicable
not only to organic, but inorganic bodies and objects also. If 'selfhood' is
applicable to the whole world, it means the whole world is filled with selfhood
alone, and since selfhood is inseparable from consciousness, it means that the
whole world is filled with consciousness. But on account of ignorance, we
imagine that objects are outside the self. This idea of object outside is
itself a misconception. There is no object external to the self. What you call
the object is self itself.
Let
us take the example of a dream in which a tiger chases a man. He runs in fear
and finally climbs up a tree. The tree, the tiger, the chase, etc. are all a
projection of his own mind and his dream-personality also is a process of his
mind. So the one mind becomes every one of these in the dream. It is subjective
as well as objective. This is what is happening in the waking condition also;
and, even as the one single mind became all objects in the dream, the universal
mind has become all these external objects around here even in waking life.
They are nothing but the universal mind ultimately. You would not know that the
tiger in the dream is unreal till you wake up.
Even
so, there is another waking up from the present waking consciousness. That
higher awakening is called God-consciousness. In that condition, you will see
that all the objects of the world are your own universal self. The efforts of
man for material prosperity, and the like, are an indication of his deeper urge
to reach up to the universal consciousness.
From
social consciousness, you go to individual consciousness and from the
individual consciousness to the universal consciousness, and from there, again,
to the Absolute. From social aspect you go to the mind and from the mind to the
intellect and from there to the universal consciousness. This is the process of
universal history as well as natural evolution. Thus the whole universe is
struggling to attain the self-realization of itself.
Socially,
it goes through the historical process, personally through the psychological
process, and naturally through evolution. The society, the individual and
nature are simultaneously moving towards the Absolute. As a matter of fact, the
society, the individual and the world are not three different things; they are
three aspects of a single universal whole; there is only one world having only
one single purpose in life. When your activities are directed to this ultimate
purpose, your activities become what is called Karma-Yoga.
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