Consciousness

The third volume of the six volumes of A Dictionary of Mystic Terms -all 480 pages – is dedicated totally to the Supreme Lord, the creative power. By looking at different religions and mystics, contributing authors have investigated names and descriptions for this power of God, dating as far back as 6,000 years.

Over the course of time this power has been given thousands of names in different languages, many of which reflect its audibility and also the captivating sweetness of its music. Names such as: the music of the spheres, the life stream, Shabd, Nam, celestial music, the breath of God, divine whisper and the Word. These are only a few of the names ascribed to this godly power.

This power, or Shabd, is conscious energy. It is the life and basis of everything that has been created. The Great Master writes in Philosophy of the Masters, Vol. IV:

The Lord is the great storehouse of consciousness. He is the embodiment of reason and the treasure-house of intelligence. He is the repository of love and compassion.

We are parts of Him. He is the whole. The essence of which our souls are made, its fountain source is called the Lord. If we are a drop of consciousness, He is the ocean of consciousness.

Following on the same theme is this extract from One Being One:

The One Being is the ultimate energy source, the central powerhouse. And He is conscious energy, too. Don’t forget that. His energy is imbued with an intelligence and wisdom way beyond human capacity to grasp.

So he projects himself as a series of energy levels. His one energy dances outwards into a multiplicity of forms − of forms that we perceive, since we are a part of this projected energy dance. And the bottom end of this beam of energy is what we call the material world. It’s nothing but a dance of energy in which we are intimately involved as participating beings.

The essence of life that both sustains us and fills all space around us − it is in us and we are in it − is this conscious energy that dances through the universe. Whether we refer to it as God, Shabd, the Word, Logos, ultimate reality or by any other name, it is all the same thing: consciousness. It vibrates throughout the universe in waves at different levels of frequency – the higher the frequency, the higher the energy - and if we could learn to vibrate in its range of frequencies, we could dance with it throughout the universe.

Maharaj Ji writes in Spiritual Perspectives, Vol. I, that we see thousands of candles lit in the first stage and our soul dances when it sees that light. And in Spiritual Perspectives, Vol. III, we read:

You yourself will know that you are going up. You have a certain bliss, certain contentment, certain happiness in those situations. You feel a certain joy and you dance within yourself in happiness. When you are on those planes, you radiate happiness.

It is this consciousness, or Shabd, that is our inner core – that gives us life. And it is in the greater consciousness that our own awareness will dance as it rises from one level to the next.

A disciple asked Maharaj Ji, “Is the real form of the disciple the same as the real form of the Master?” And Maharaj Ji responded by asking and answering his own questions. He asked:

What is the real form of the Master? Shabd. And what is the real form of the disciple? Soul. Is there a difference between Shabd and soul? Yes. The difference between the soul and Shabd? It is the level of consciousness.

So the spiritual difference between us and the Master is only the level of consciousness. Consciousness is one, it is indivisible, but it operates on a scale of energy levels or consciousness levels: from being dormant and unaware to super awareness in ultimate consciousness.

We are conscious that we have made some progress, if only evolutionary. And now the whole object of following this path, of asking for initiation and of having been initiated, is simply to dance up the scale of consciousness. It is not only to have greater awareness, but to actually comprehend ultimate consciousness − to know and to be everything, to merge our drop back into the ocean.

The Great Master has told us that in the physical creation this upward growth of the soul is tediously slow and agonizingly painful. Consciousness is very intimately associated with the body, and severing this long and intimate connection is naturally slow and painful. But with practice it becomes easy and natural.

This lifting of our consciousness can come about only through the practice of meditation, as taught to us by our Master when we are initiated. But achieving this high goal of full consciousness is a challenge. It takes courage to follow this path; it takes courage to be a disciple of a true Master because we are moving against the main stream of life. The spiritual path follows a course directly opposite to worldly ways. It means doing what comes unnaturally: shutting down the senses, turning away from thoughts, distancing ourselves from desires, and ignoring ‘I-ness,’ or the demands of our ego.

The process is neither easy, nor is it fast, but with patience and practice we can all do it. What is required is that we cast aside the anchor of matter and catch hold of the omnipresent current of consciousness. With practice our own consciousness will lead us to the divine happiness that we so desperately seek.

The Masters say that energy is consciousness and intelligence. Sometimes, when the day is clear and bright and our hearts are filled with joy, we get a sense of the divine magic that surrounds us. But even more than that, saints tell us that the creative process can be experienced within our own being as cosmic music, its beauty and melody far surpassing anything created by human actions. As children of the divine, this is our inheritance and our ultimate destiny.

He is never apart from His creation. He is always there, within every little being, every soul.

It can never be said enough, never recalled enough, never lived enough. He is in the present moment, right now. He is within. He is without. Whenever the mind is quiet, we will find Him in our being. He is the “wind beneath our wings”. He is not what we think; He is what we are.
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