I have frequently said that Meher Baba’s teaching is unique. One of its unique aspects is the important role that consciousness plays in his Cosmology. I thought I’d say a little about this, because I’ve learned that many are not clear on it.
While I’m not an expert in comparative religion, I don’t think that consciousness plays a major role in most accounts of Creation, if it plays any role at all. For Baba it is central.
For Baba, the Universe we perceive around us is psychogenic. This means it’s of psychological origin. It is merely a dream in the Imagination of God. Each soul is really God lost in this dream. For each individual the goal of life is to awaken to discover itself as the Creator of this imagination and the sole Reality. Baba calls this final awakening for the individual “God-Realization,” and it is the destiny of every creature in Creation to eventually achieve it.
This Realization naturally requires that the soul be fully conscious. In other words, full consciousness is a necessary precondition of God-Realization. Obviously to realize something you must be conscious.
To achieve this full consciousness (fully awake and aware state) requires that the soul traverse a sequence of stages called evolution, beginning as gas and ending as a fully awake and aware human being. Even then the soul has to undergo a secondary process of unwinding the impressions it gathered in the first half of the process. And this second process is called involution. All this is explained in detail in Baba’s book God Speaks: The Theme of Creation and Its Purpose.
The advancing stream of life is marked by ever-increasing awareness (consciousness).
And, in regard to the evolutionary process, it is well to remember always that the beginning is a beginning in consciousness, the evolution is an evolution in consciousness, the end, if there be an end, is an end in consciousness. – Meher Baba
As we said in the beginning, consciousness plays a major role in Baba’s teaching. The chart below, painted by disciple Rano Gailey under Meher Baba’s supervision, was introduced into the 2nd edition of God Speaks.
It is easy to misunderstand it. Far from being a mere illustration of the various species of evolution (on the left), the images of minerals, plants, and animals actually signify unique states of consciousness. So, for instance, the stone form depicted near the top in fact signifies that state of stone consciousness described in the book. And on the right are states of consciousness on the planes of involution described in the book. God is the only protagonist in this story and it is in fact God who experiences Himself in each of these states of consciousness.
Also, the words written in the four corners form a phrase when reconnected, and were given by Baba for the chart. Reconnected they read:
Formless and Colourless God’s Creative and Impulsive Imagination to Know Himself as Omnipresent, Infinite, and Eternal.
I included a second, larger copy of the chart on the following page so one can see it more clearly. In God Speaks it is listed as Chart VIIA CREATION, EVOLUTION, REINCARNATION, INVOLUTION & REALIZATION, ACCORDING TO MEHER BABA.
One thing I should add is that for Baba consciousness gained is never lost. So there is no regression in evolution. The notion of a person coming back as a dog is anathema to Baba’s teaching. It can’t happen. Once a state of consciousness is attained by an individual it is never lost. And this goes for God-realization as well. Once God consciousness is reached it is permanent.
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