The Finite Self

The dif­fer­ent forms described pre­vi­ously are non-differentiated par­tial man­i­fes­ta­tions of God-dess. The liv­ing enti­ties are God-dess’ dif­fer­en­ti­ated par­tial man­i­fes­ta­tions. The liv­ing enti­ties are the mar­ginal energy, dis­tinct from the spir­i­tual and mate­r­ial ener­gies but con­nected with both just as the shore is dis­tinct from land and sea but con­nected with both. The liv­ing enti­ties are sub­ject to the influ­ence of both the spir­i­tual and mate­r­ial ener­gies just as the shore may be part of the land or the sea depend­ing on the tides. Though the liv­ing enti­ties are free to sur­ren­der to the spir­i­tual or mate­r­ial energy, their intrin­sic nature is to serve God-dess under the guid­ance of the spir­i­tual energy.

The liv­ing enti­ties have a dis­tinct meta­phys­i­cal real­ity of their own. Knowl­edge, action and enjoy­ment are their attrib­utes. They are self-luminous. “Like the light of a lamp, it reveals itself as well as the objects falling within the focus of its con­scious­ness. Its lumi­nos­ity, how­ever, is derived from” Cos­mic Con­scious­ness, “who alone is self-luminous in the real sense. It is called self-luminous only in con­trast with the mate­r­ial objects, which nei­ther reveal them­selves nor any­thing else.” (133)

The liv­ing entity is atomic in size, yet it per­vades the phys­i­cal body in which it is tem­porar­ily encased. It is the sub­ject of ego-consciousness, but its ego or self should not be iden­ti­fied with the self of the empir­i­cal ego, which is a prod­uct of mate­r­ial nature and its modifications–the body and senses. Being the prod­uct of mate­r­ial nature, the empir­i­cal ego is imper­ma­nent, impure and liable to suf­fer­ing. The pure ego, which is unaf­fected by mate­r­ial nature, is eter­nal, of one sub­stance, iden­ti­cal with itself, spir­i­tual, bliss­ful and eter­nally pure. Birth, death, devel­op­ment and decay, refer to the body in which the liv­ing entity is encased under the influ­ence of illu­sion, and not its intrin­sic nature, which is eter­nally the same. Con­scious­ness of bliss is explicit in those liv­ing enti­ties under the spir­i­tual energy, but implicit for those under the mate­r­ial energy.

The rela­tion between the liv­ing enti­ties and Cos­mic Con­scious­ness is described as “incon­ceiv­able identity-in-difference.” (133) It is iden­tity, because Cos­mic Con­scious­ness is the source and ground of exis­tence of the liv­ing enti­ties from which they derive their nature as exis­tence, con­scious­ness and bliss. It is dif­fer­ence, because the liv­ing enti­ties share the nature of Cos­mic Con­scious­ness in very small mea­sure. Their exis­tence, con­scious­ness and bliss are lim­ited, while Cos­mic Con­scious­ness’ con­scious­ness and bliss are unlim­ited. Again, the anal­ogy of a tiny part of a holo­gram con­tain­ing the whole is apt.

The liv­ing enti­ties “are infi­nite in num­ber, and their intrin­sic nature is always the same. But there are dif­fer­ences among them accord­ing to their past and present deeds and the dif­fer­ent posi­tions occu­pied by them on the mun­dane or the spir­i­tual plane.” (133) Devo­tees of God-dess are happy because they are with­out desire. The rest are unhappy because they desire either enjoy­ment or liberation.

The eter­nal func­tion of the liv­ing entity is to serve God-dess, but it has free choice in this regard. It is free to serve God-dess by sub­mit­ting to the spir­i­tual energy or to enjoy mate­r­ial nature. Thus, we have a dis­tinc­tion between these two types of liv­ing enti­ties. Those who choose to serve God-dess are eter­nally lib­er­ated beyond the influ­ence of illu­sory mate­r­ial nature. Those who choose not to serve God-dess are bound by illu­sion on the mate­r­ial plane. The lib­er­ated enti­ties dwell with God-dess as com­pan­ions in the spir­i­tual abodes and enjoy the bliss of devo­tion. Those bound in illu­sion, undergo a process of con­scious evo­lu­tion as God-dess per­sua­sively tries to attract them.

The bound enti­ties for­get their real nature as spir­i­tual ser­vants of God-dess. They are cov­ered by sub­tle and gross bod­ies which they iden­tify with, rather than the spirit soul. The sub­tle body con­sists of mind, intel­li­gence, con­scious­ness and ego­ism, which are con­di­tioned by illu­sion in the case of the bound enti­ties, but exist in their pure form in the lib­er­ated enti­ties. When the spirit soul is fur­ther cov­ered by a phys­i­cal body, its mate­r­ial con­scious­ness is inten­si­fied. It then begins the cycle of repeated birth and death. Accord­ing to its actions, it expe­ri­ences a wide range of births in heav­enly, hell­ish or mid­dling con­di­tions. In these lives, it unavoid­ably expe­ri­ences phys­i­cal and men­tal pain along with enjoyment.

Since the liv­ing entity is part of God-dess and of the same nature, per­fect eter­nal hap­pi­ness is one of its intrin­sic qual­i­ties which it always seeks to expe­ri­ence. This is not found in the objects of the senses. Their plea­sures are short-lived and mixed with pain.

As a result of grace and past good deeds, one gains the com­pany of an advanced devo­tee who imparts right knowl­edge and ini­ti­ates one into devo­tion. Then one may turn from illu­sion, find God-dess and become estab­lished in one’s eter­nally bliss­ful nature. The cover of illu­sion is removed with the appear­ance of God-dess just as dark­ness is removed by the ris­ing sun. Attain­ment of God-dess is the cul­mi­na­tion of life. “There is no real hap­pi­ness with­out it.” (135)

In its nat­ural state, the entity is part of God-dess whose nat­ural func­tion is to serve God-dess. Attain­ment of this state implies attain­ment of God-dess and bliss, removal of illu­sion and the bind­ing of actions, enter­ing a state from where there is no return to this world, as well as ces­sa­tion of pain and suffering.

Lib­er­a­tion may be attained while the entity is in the phys­i­cal body or after death. The later is the real goal, as it implies com­plete tran­scen­dence of the phe­nom­e­nal plane and elim­i­na­tion of all extra­ne­ous fac­tors block­ing the entity’s inher­ent capac­ity to real­ize the high­est bliss.

Cul­ti­va­tion of lov­ing devo­tion makes inti­macy with God-dess pos­si­ble. Lov­ing devo­tion “implies both the qual­ity of lov­ing and being loved.” (139) To real­ize God-dess fully, one must real­ize lov­ing devo­tion, which means one must real­ize God-dess as the sub­ject and object of love in his-her sweet aspect. God-dess loves the devo­tees just as his-her devo­tees love him-her. They are each oth­ers heart and soul and their minds are absorbed in each other.

Divine love is not a means to lib­er­a­tion but an end in itself. It is the high­est bliss of which lib­er­a­tion is the nat­ural accompaniment.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, August 7th, 2008 at 13:17 and is filed under Steve's Musings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.