TRUTH SUBLIME
The Void is full — of a calm repose — a joy of peace.
There thoughts are still and words are dumb,
It is neither yea nor nay,
Worlds like shadows flit and pass through it.
In it light and darkness lose distinction,
Sounds waft over it — like distant echoes of its own being,
A Truth sublime in which is blended strangely
Eternal motion and eternal rest.
How I understand it:
In
this poem, Beloved Papa has described the Truth as the point where the
so-called opposites meet, co-exist and losing distinction, reaching the state
of equilibrium — Samatwam.
The
Truth or Void is also as Beloved Papa elsewhere put it: “All-containing but
still eluding the grasp of thought.” It is the point where there is calmness
and peace even in the exuberance of joy, where yea and nay, light and darkness,
motion and rest co-exist, but lose all distinction.
In
this vast infinity of the Void, worlds come into existence, stay for a while
and pass on. Their appearances and disappearances are like shadows because they
are merely projections of the Infinite.
Pujya
Swami Satchidanandaji said: “The world is actually not a creation of God, but a
projection, which means God Himself has projected forth as the entire universe
as a seed projects itself forth as a huge tree. Everyone is He and there is
nothing but He.”
Sounds,
though emanating from within the Void or Consciousness, seem distant like echoes,
much like the projection of worlds.
The
theme of this poem resonates in the following words of Pujya Swamiji culled
from his book GOD GUIDES: “When I look at a person, I see him or her as pure
Consciousness and the body is a tiny speck floating in the Consciousness. So,
all the matter in the universe of innumerable forms is only many tiny spots
floating in the pure Consciousness. When someone speaks, I know the sound comes
from Consciousness only. Though the body walks etc., the power is of pure Consciousness
only. But Consciousness is not affected by the so-called action. So, it can be
said that such actions are taking place through the vehicles and the power for such
actions is drawn from pure Consciousness only. So, there is no ego anywhere.
But each form takes upon itself the responsibility for such action and
therefore the sense of doership with all the consequences.”
To
better understand the Void, Beloved Papa made it possible for me to dwell on It
in the following manner:
To understand the
“Un-understandable” with the help of our limited mind is like tongs trying to
grasp the hands that hold them. However, it is only through the mind that we
can try to make our way to the GREAT VOID! So, here’s an attempt in that
direction.
To define or
describe the GREAT VOID is very difficult. We may keep thinking of ways and
means to do so however we find ourselves quite baffled and tongue-tied. It is
probably due to this that Beloved Papa said: “In the Upanishads you will find
the definition of God given negatively: ‘Not this, not this.’ Whatever you see,
hear, touch, smell or talk is not He. But you can know Him by experience, by
direct intuitional perception. Mind can think of relative things. What can it
think of the Eternal? It is baffled. So, the Upanishads say Mouna or emptiness
or nothingness is God. Silence is Brahman.”
This may have also
been the reason why Beloved Papa did not use the word GREAT VOID multiple times
in his talks and writing. After all, what can one write about the Un-writeable,
what can one speak about the Unspeakable! Thus, “Mouna is Brahman’.
In one of his talks
during the world tour, Beloved Papa said, “The manifest and the unmanifest as
two aspects of One Truth which is both and yet beyond both. It is unthinkable, incomprehensible and
inexpressible. We can express something
about the dynamic and the static aspects, that is, the Reality with form and
without form, but that which is beyond these is incomprehensible and
inexpressible. God is at once dynamic,
static and transcendent.”
In the poem THE
GREAT TRUTH, Beloved Papa called the mind, movement in darkness, and love,
movement in light. In the poem TRUTH SUBLIME, he said: “The Void is full of a
calm repose, a joy of peace. There thoughts are still and words are dumb; It is
neither yea nor nay; worlds like shadows flit and pass through it. In it light
and darkness lose distinction,” In GOD EXPERIENCE, Vol 2, he stated, “Where
opposites meet, there opposites are transcended. That is called Samatwa; there
you find God. There is perfect balance and peace here.” So, the GREAT VOID is a
state of “perfect balance”,
This mystery is
further dealt with by Beloved Papa through his explanations given in GOD
EXPERIENCE, Vol.1, where he states: “God is a mystery. You cannot say what He
is and what He is not… When opposites clash and disappear, what remains is
silence. You can speak only about one of the opposites at a time — light or
darkness. What can you say of that which is beyond light or darkness? You can
conceive of light, conceive of darkness, but not of that which is beyond light
and darkness. Even so, God can be realized, but cannot be expressed, cannot be
defined. It will be futile to describe the Indescribable, to express the
Inexpressible. He is the witness of His silence, He is also the witness of His
talk. He is silence; He is talk; and He is beyond silence and talk. Silence
cannot describe God. Talk cannot describe Him. There must be neither talk nor
silence. He is the all-pervading, all-inclusive, all-transcendent Godhead.
‘When I talk, I am dumb. When I walk, I am still. When I work, I am at rest.’
The GITA brings us to that point where these opposites meet and lose
distinction… God is at once active and inactive. To describe Him is difficult.
One visualizes Him and tries to describe Him. It is all imagination, not
reality. We form our own ideas about Him, but He is beyond all ideas. He is
beyond all thought, all imagination. Imagination cannot soar up to Him. Mind
cannot grasp Him. Words cannot describe Him. Still, we try to set Him forth in
words. His glories are infinite. His powers are infinite. He who is beyond
conception, beyond expression, has become everything. There is none but He.
Therefore, the saint sees himself everywhere; sees God everywhere because God
and he are not different. Ramdas cannot speak of Him except in this strain.”
Now that we
understand that He is a mystery. How can we unravel this Mystery! How can we
fathom the Unfathomable! The answer could be in Beloved Papa guidelines given
to Pujya Mataji in her Sadhana days. He asked her to remember everything she
did, from morning to night, in a chronological order, then he asked her to
remember everything she spoke in a chronological order, thereafter recall
everything she thought in a chronological order. By the time Pujya Mataji
reached this juncture, she found that whenever she was trying to recall the
sequence of thoughts, there would be gaps in the thought process. Slowly the
gaps increased to the point where there were no thoughts for long intervals.
Thus, during meditation, she could go into a state of Nirvikalpa Samadhi very
easily.
My initial
understanding was that Beloved Papa was aiding her meditation through these
methods. However, now I think it could have been to make her get glimpses of
the GREAT VOID during these gaps. This can be understood from the words of
Vinobaji: “Cosmic Consciousness is hidden by the resolves or modifications of
the mind and can be experienced in between two modifications. The mind is
constantly covered or hidden by these modifications. These modifications are a
result of different resolves and fantasies of the mind. But the time gap in
between two such modifications is the one that needs to be harnessed and
increased in length. During such intervals the Cosmic Consciousness reveals
itself.”
Hence, the Truth —
the GREAT VOID — can be experienced in the gaps of silence, talk, movement. It
is the Substratum of the manifest and unmanifest aspects. Therefore, in It, the
beginning and the end are the same. THE GREAT VOID is that in which all
opposites meet and lose distinction.
Prem Sudha:
The mp3 of the Bhajan is also attached herewith.
Beautiful interpretation
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