God-realization (Meher Baba)
Encyclopedia
God-realization, according to Indian
guru
Meher Baba
, is the highest state of consciousness and the goal and ultimate destiny of all souls
in creation. Ultimately the ego weakens through endless expression of itself in many lifetimes of experience, finally disappearing completely in full Self or God-realization.
According to Meher Baba, the aim of all beings in creation, in fact the very purpose of creation, is the attainment of God-realization. A soul is God-realized when it has first traversed evolution
, taking each successive form in creation until it achieves full consciousness in the human form (the terminus of physical evolution according to Meher Baba), then has gone through successive lives during reincarnation
, and finally, having traversed the inner planes of consciousness during involution
, achieves consciousness of its true original identity as God
.
This experience of Oneness with God, according to Meher Baba, is not the same as simply a discursive realization of this condition through reading or contemplation, but rather must be fully experienced with the help of a Perfect Master
or sadguru
. Thus he emphasized that a man who reads, in Vedanta
literature for instance, that he is God and then says that he is God, is in fact a hypocrite, since he does not have this experience. The goal of life, instead, is to achieve this "I am God" state as a permanent and genuine experience. According to Meher Baba this ultimate experience, for which the universe came into being and is continually sustained, cannot be described or talked about, but only lived and directly experienced.
According to Meher Baba one gets God-realization at the hands of one Master, but for knowledge, which the Muslim Sufis call Irfan and the Hindu sages Dhyana, it may be necessary for him to approach more Masters than one.
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
guru
Guru
A guru is one who is regarded as having great knowledge, wisdom, and authority in a certain area, and who uses it to guide others . Other forms of manifestation of this principle can include parents, school teachers, non-human objects and even one's own intellectual discipline, if the...
Meher Baba
Meher Baba
Meher Baba , , born Merwan Sheriar Irani, was an Indian mystic and spiritual master who declared publicly in 1954 that he was the Avatar of the age....
, is the highest state of consciousness and the goal and ultimate destiny of all souls
Atman (Hinduism)
Ātman is a Sanskrit word that means 'self'. In Hindu philosophy, especially in the Vedanta school of Hinduism it refers to one's true self beyond identification with phenomena...
in creation. Ultimately the ego weakens through endless expression of itself in many lifetimes of experience, finally disappearing completely in full Self or God-realization.
According to Meher Baba, the aim of all beings in creation, in fact the very purpose of creation, is the attainment of God-realization. A soul is God-realized when it has first traversed evolution
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
, taking each successive form in creation until it achieves full consciousness in the human form (the terminus of physical evolution according to Meher Baba), then has gone through successive lives during reincarnation
Reincarnation
Reincarnation best describes the concept where the soul or spirit, after the death of the body, is believed to return to live in a new human body, or, in some traditions, either as a human being, animal or plant...
, and finally, having traversed the inner planes of consciousness during involution
Involution (Meher Baba)
For Indian spiritual master Meher Baba, involution is the inner path of the human soul to the Self. Charles Haynes, in describing Meher Baba's sense of involution writes, "The old and new impressions, both of which create a veil over consciousness, gradually wear away, revealing an increasingly ...
, achieves consciousness of its true original identity as God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
.
This experience of Oneness with God, according to Meher Baba, is not the same as simply a discursive realization of this condition through reading or contemplation, but rather must be fully experienced with the help of a Perfect Master
Perfect Master (Meher Baba)
Perfect Master is the English translation that the Indian spiritual master Meher Baba began to use in his writing as early as 1925 to the denote the Eastern sense of a sadguru or a qutub...
or sadguru
Satguru
Satguru does not merely mean true guru. The term is distinguished from other forms of gurus, such as musical instructors, scriptural teachers, parents, and so on...
. Thus he emphasized that a man who reads, in Vedanta
Vedanta
Vedānta was originally a word used in Hindu philosophy as a synonym for that part of the Veda texts known also as the Upanishads. The name is a morphophonological form of Veda-anta = "Veda-end" = "the appendix to the Vedic hymns." It is also speculated that "Vedānta" means "the purpose or goal...
literature for instance, that he is God and then says that he is God, is in fact a hypocrite, since he does not have this experience. The goal of life, instead, is to achieve this "I am God" state as a permanent and genuine experience. According to Meher Baba this ultimate experience, for which the universe came into being and is continually sustained, cannot be described or talked about, but only lived and directly experienced.
According to Meher Baba one gets God-realization at the hands of one Master, but for knowledge, which the Muslim Sufis call Irfan and the Hindu sages Dhyana, it may be necessary for him to approach more Masters than one.