Matter is materialized mind stuff. Everything we see is the result of an idea. We could not visualize anything without a thought. Invisible thoughts precede and give all things their reality. If we can control our thought process, we can dematerialize and materialize anything by the power of concentration developed through deep meditation. As we all know, matter is composed of different forms of electronic vibrations. Ice becomes water and when electricity is passed through water, it breaks further into hydrogen and oxygen which are nothing but forms of electronic vibrations or invisible electrons.
So, anything which can be dissolved into invisibility cannot be said to have valid existence. In this sense, matter can be considered as not existing. But the basic building blocks, like invisible electrons or protons, always exist as forms of energy in motion. Thus, matter exists in relation to our mind and as a materialized expression of invisible electronic forces that do exist, but are unchangeable and immortal. Both water and ice are manifestations of invisible gases and have transitory existences as such. Both our mortal mind and matter are manifestations of Divine Consciousness. In reality, only the cosmic mind exists. As a person remembers everything he creates; similarly, God remembers everything He has created.
The ordinary man’s memory cannot hold the consciousness of all experiences, but the underlying divine power or memory retains everything. Put differently, an ordinary mortal may forget things, but his subconscious ‘self ’ registers everything. However, his super-consciousness, with divine felicity, remembers everything. Through this timeless memory, He (God) wants us to remember our own divine origin and go back to it. But before we can do it, we need to get over and get beyond the mundane temptations of our senses. God’s whole creation is so designed as to disillusion us, disillusion us enough to understand the futility of remaining stuck in sensual temptations and thereby try to explore the unexplored and know the unknown. Through this realization, which dawns as we deepen our longing for Him, He tries to draw us back to Him.
While Satan makes us think that God is unattainable, God makes it that much easier for us. However, man’s misuse of God-given freedom and his misidentification with the physical body as ‘real self’ is the cause of all our suffering. The joy we keep searching for through physical means is always temporary because the source is temporary. To find eternal joy and bliss, we must find an eternal source which is God. Because of our differential faculties, we face the same challenges differently. Man lives in the body as a prisoner. Love of our body is nothing but the love for a prison. While it is okay to enjoy life, we need not become attached to anything. We, unfortunately, become slaves to our habits. It is natural for a man to yearn for the role of a king on life’s stage. But if all were to be kings, there would be no play.
By our selfish actions, we set in motion the karmic law of cause and effect which inevitably destroys our own and others’ happiness. Heaven will not be delivered to us at our doorstep. We shall have to discover or create it ourselves. Even though we all want to go to Heaven on our death, we can create this Kingdom of God on earth if all societies unite in cooperation and harmony. A federation of all religions and nations is necessary. We must find our heaven by choosing the best from all faiths. We must develop an inner consciousness of divine peace that remains unruffled by the experience of this earth. The Bible says, ‘Love thy neighbour’. God made this world. We need to make it better. We can enjoy solitude, but when we mix with others, we should do so with all our love and friendship.
The Hindu idea of social division into four classes are not about rigid social stratification, but dynamic qualities informing different members of a society. Thus seen, Shudra is the sense-bound state of existence where souls, as mortals, remain tied to the sensual temptations. Vaishya is the business or creative stage of a man. So, all of us, who are engaged in commerce, business or creative activities, are Vaishyas. Kshatriya is the warrior state of a soul where the man tries to engage in battle with the senses and to conquer his attachment with the senses. Brahmin is the ultimate wisdom state where the individual has overcome all attachment to the senses and is immersed in God. Our life is a dream and we wake up on our death. If we know that we are dreaming, we will not suffer the bad experiences of different nightmares.
Same is the case with our life which is also a dream which we realize on our death. The universe is a divine dream. As we cannot change a dream by imagination or by denying its existence, the same is the case with our life. We need to rise above the duality of a dream and reality. Everything in the universe is a product of the Divine Mind in the same way that all we see in our dreams are creations of our mind. Dreams are lessons in the working of the cosmic consciousness. They come to us for a reason. Their purpose is to awaken in us a realization of the dream nature of our life, of the universe and of the method of its operation. In sleep, we have a heightened creative power of visualization and manifestation. The sages of India have spoken of the universe as a materialization of God’s thought.
It is necessary that we first develop mind power to realize this. We may feel sad because of the hurts received in a dream, only to realize on our waking that it is nothing but a dream. Truly speaking, says Paramhans Yogananda, the visible man is of little importance; the invisible self or soul is of utmost importance. During sleep, we are unaware of the visible self, but we are aware of ourselves, our real ‘self’. Take that away and our outer visibility is meaningless. Without the invisible self, the body would be worthless as a corpse. If one of our fingers is cut off, we still feel the finger to be there. There is an invisible astral part for all the body parts.
Behind our physical heart, there is an invisible astral heart. Without it, our physical heart would not beat. We have invisible organs of sight and hearing, an invisible brain, invisible bones, and nerves. These parts constitute the astral body of the invisible man. The astral body looks exactly like the visible one, except that its form, being made of light and energy, is exceedingly subtle. The wire exists merely for the passage of electricity; electricity does not exist for the wire. Similarly, it is electricity which lights the bulb, not the other way round. While electricity can exist without the bulb; the bulb has no existence or relevance if there is no electricity flowing through it to make it emit light. So, the body exists for the use of the invisible self, but our real self or soul does not exist for the body.
But for our remaining tied to the body, we can walk on the water or fly in the sky and re-enter the physical body again. The astral body of the invisible self has sensory perceptions much greater than those of its physical counterparts. When our consciousness of the physical astral body is developed, it can smell, taste and touch objects far beyond the range of physical senses. And we can make them large or small at will. If there is no invisible man, there would be no visible man. When the invisible man leaves the physical form, the body disintegrates. Those who understand the subtle relationship between the visible and the invisible man can dematerialize and materialize at will. For this, we must learn to live in silence and meditate with deeper concentration.
Similarly, we may feel sad by our failures in physical life, only to realize on our death that it was nothing but a dream. It is when human intelligence does not work, we look up to God for help. He being the master of the multiverses, we should think of God as the highest necessity of our life. Once we realize this, we shall become ever so peaceful and happy.
(The writer is an IAS officer, presently posted as the Transport Secretary, Government of West Bengal. The views expressed are personal )