Life of Understanding – Cosmos

The Knee Of Listening Tapes/transcribed discourses entitled the Life of Understand took place in Los Angeles in 1973. The following is from an early (and present) devotee, Tom Riley about the classes held.

The classes were held from January – April or so, 1973. I was fortunate to have been part of a small group invited by Beloved up to His Home @ 2509 Thames Place, Laurel Canyon, Hollywood, CA atop the Hollywood Hills. (In hindsight and thus appropriately enough, that particular section,where Beloved Resided, atop these Laurel Canyon Hills was formally named Mt.Olympus). He was otherwise not present physically at His Ashram on Melrose Ave. and we implemented, for the first time, some basic life disciplines as per his instructions to us during these every – Wednesday Night Sit – Silent Satsang, Life Discipline Instruction and The audio taped Knee Of Listening Elaboration/Discourses. The blessings, instruction and fruits of our formal spiritually – intimate time with Beloved (still Franklin Jones at this time) were communicated and brought into the general community of devotees by those of us in weekly attendence with Beloved in the living room of His Home.Each and every Wednesday evening for approximately 12 consecutive we would arrive at 7:00 p.m. sharp. Each Wednesday evening with Him consisted of Sitting In Silence with Beloved, for approximately one hour. Beloved would then instruct us on some fundamentals of Right Life Disciplines including diet, hygiene, etc and He discoursed and elaborated (the one and only time He’s ever done this w/The Knee of Listening to my knowledge) on The Knee Of Listening; His Early Life Spiritual Autobiography. The handful of us would arrive at 7:00 p.m. and leave His Residence generally somewhere between midnight and 2:00 a.m. All of this took place between January of 1973 and into April or so of same year prior to His Pilgrimmage to India in August 1973,returning to The Melrose Ashram as Bubba Free John in September 1973.

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THE COSMOS

by Bubba Free John (Franklin Jones)

I

The beginning of the book is not page nine, beginning the Life of Understanding, a biographical section, the beginning of the book is the prologue, the Heart of Understanding, And this prologue contains a thesis and a claim, which is the central proposition of the entire book, And that’s why it’s here, So it would be appropriate to read it,

“Death is utterly acceptable to consciousness and life.” This is a thesis and a claim. An unusual one, How could death be acceptable to life? It seems to be the opposite to life. How could it be acceptable to consciousness. It seems to contradict consciousness, So this is an unusual claim, a paradoxical claim.

“Death is utterly acceptable to consciousness and life. There has been endless time of numberless deaths, but neither consciousness nor life has ceased to arise.”

This is part of the defense of this thesis. If death were the entrance of the devil, or the great negation of manifest life, it would gradually bring it to an end. It would make life and consciousness obsolete. But death has been a manifest function throughout the entire history of this apparent world, for instance. Death has been going on from the beginning of time on this planet. Throughout all human history, death has been the continuous experience of mankind, and yet mankind hasn’t ceased to arise, Death has been the continuous experience of all forms of life, and yet life continues to appear, Conscious life and simple life, in all its forms, continues to arise, even though death is the continuous prominent event in the experience of life.

“The felt quantity and cycle to death has not modified the fragility of flowers, even the flowers within our human body.”

Examine flowers, examine the delicate structures of the world, if death were what it seems to be, what we assume it to be from the point of view of our willful and narcissistic attempt to survive in a particular form without change, if it were what we conceive it to be, why wouldn’t something as fragile as flowers, for instance, begin to show the effects? Why do flowers continue to manifest, open, full, brilliant, alive without the quality of contraction, if death were what we think it is? Just so, the flowers; the open, living, psychic, subtle life within us has not in itself been made obsolete by the endless death that is periodically experienced by all entities. As soon as we turn to these functions in ourselves we see that they are alive, full, completely available. The only thing that suppresses them is, in fact, this notion we have of what life is. This willful thing we add to life is what makes life shrink and contract and become obsolete. Life in itself is not modified at all by the quality of death, nor is consciousness, real consciousness.

“Therefore, our understanding of consciousness in life must be turned to that utter inclusive quality, that clarity and wisdom, that power and untouchable gracefulness this evidence suggests.” This evidence of the flowers. “We must cease to live in our superficial and divided way, seeking and demanding only consciousness and life in the present form we grasp, avoiding and resisting what appears to be the end of consciousness and life in death.”

In other words, this ordinary strategy of identification with present structures and the attempt to make them survive against odds persists without change. This whole strategy that is a reaction to the conception of what death is – death as an obstacle, death as an obstruction, death as en end or threat – this whole strategy must be understood, and we must turn instead to the quality, the genuine quality, which even the simplest evidence suggests is present in the world.

The Heart is that understanding, that true consciousness, that true life that is under the extreme conditions of life and death. The Heart is this true life, this true consciousness that lives and is continually refreshed, and is unmodified, even though death is an aspect of its process, Therefore, it is said that One that is, is neither born nor come to death, not alive as the limitation of form, not rendered in what appears, and yet it is the living One, than which there is no other, appearing as all of this but eternally the same. That One that is reality, very reality, Real-God, Real Form, the God-Light, the ultimate nature, the very Heart. This is the One that lives, that is, that exists, whether the present condition is that of life or death.

It is in the enjoyment of the Heart or the very quality, the very reality that the paradoxical nature or all manifest life is clarified. “There is only the constant knowledge and enjoyment of the Heart, moment to moment, through the instant of all conditions of appearance and disappearance.”

So this whole series of paragraphs is a thesis and a defense of that thesis, a description of the import or ultimate implication of that thesis. It ends with this claim – for if you’re going to make all such statements you have to make your credentials. How can you support this claim, apart from the argument –  “Of this I am perfectly certain.”

How can you be perfectly certain of this? “I am That”. Only one who is That could be certain of it. It is only in the perfect realization of this ultimate nature, this ultimate reality that such certainty exists. And the one who writes this book makes this claim. And this claim is not an exclusive claim. It’s not one that demands fascination. It is a hopeful claim for other beings, all beings. It is not an assertion of prominence. It is simply an assertion of happiness, and an assertion of that which is the very condition of all beings.

At the beginning of the first section, I thought it was appropriate to discuss some of the larger questions or implications of the book. It opens up right away after the prologue: Right away it starts talking about some very sophisticated things, relative to the “Bright” in childhood. Behind this description of the “bright” in my experience as a child, as a baby, there is a vast cosmic system that’s assumed, implied by all of this. So I thought it was appropriate at the beginning to discuss some of these things.

What kind of a cosmos or a world or larger reality do, we exist in if the functions and phenomena described in the first part of the Knee of Listening are true? The world of the One who is writing this book is quite different perhaps than the world assumed in our ordinary conversation, our ordinary social understanding. Of course there’s no absolute description that can be given of the cosmos, or of the absolute condition. But something can be said descriptively that is suggestive and meaningful. I’ve described the aspects of this a number of times before, but in this particular case I want to speak not just about the internal system, this sphere of our own functional existence which I’ve described a number of times. I want to particularly talk about the larger condition. 

The essential fundamental reality is not speakable, not describable, formless, absolute, perfect, infinite. And I call this One Real-God, the Reality that is God, and the God who is Reality, this perfect nature, called Brahman, called the Father, Allah, the Absolute Deity. And from this perfect One arises perfect Light. This Light is the perfect reflection of this perfect nature, and it is also eternal, beginningless, endless. And this aspect of the eternal reality I call the God-Light, the God who is Light, and the Light who is God.

This unspeakable God and his infinite Light, are the larger equivalents of which the Heart and the “Bright” are the intuited reflection. Amrita Nadi is the form of our intuition of the Ultimate reality. It is the perfect reflection of the Ultimate reality. Amrita Nadi is the relationship between the unspeakable God and the God-Light, between Real-God and the God-Light. The relationship between these aspects of the infinite One is intuited as Amrita Nadi. This God-Light and Real-God are eternal, perfect. They do not come to an end, nor do they begin.

And there is an absolute, timeless infinite, untouched, perfect realm, not describable, which is eternal. And you can call that heaven if you want. It is the God-world. Coming out of the God-world, the God-Light, descending from it, just as the God-Light reflects the perfect God, the Real-God, there is a reflection of the God-Light. That reflection is all of the infinite numbers of universes and non-universes, the entire, indescribable cosmos, of billions upon billions upon billions of universes, and possible states and worlds with all kinds of paradoxes. Within our single universe there can be infinite numbers of other universes, Within this universe, simple and apparent and visible to us, there are infinite numbers of other universes, existing coincident with this one, and yet with different energy frequencies, different times, relationships. The entire manifest cosmos is a vast, paradoxical entity, and it is a reflection of the God-Light.

So all of these manifest worlds appear as reflections of the Divine. And just so, just as they reflect it, the energy that is being reflected also returns. No light simply gets thrown onto a mirror. It is bounced off a mirror. So that manifest cosmos, the conditional universes which reflect the infinite God-Light, all have this circular, descending-ascending structure. So the worlds descend from the God-Light and return, like an infinite circle or bridge of qualities, from the most perfectly subtle descending down to the most absolutely solid, inert forms, and then again ascending through degrees of subtlety. Real-God and the God-Light are infinite and perfect, beginningless, endless. The light that reflects Real-God is as infinite and perfect as Real-God. They are both the qualities of the ultimate God or Reality.

But all of the reflected dimensions, all of the billions and billions upon billions of conditional states and worlds and entities are mortal, conditional, temporary, not themselves the Truth. They are a process. And quite naturally, then, there are two ways in which to live in any manifest condition. There is the way of living it as it is, in right relationship to its source and ultimate function; and then there is the other way, of buying it, of living the condition itself, living from the point of view of the apparent condition, without taking into conscious and living account, all of the subtler implied and not necessarily conscious aspects.

So all beings are obliged to become conscious of their actual condition and their actual or real condition is God. God is our condition, He is both our ultimate nature and also the form of the process in which we are appearing.

Within the range of reflections of the ultimate Divinity there are many worlds, certainly many conditions that are superior perhaps to the present world or the condition that you’re in at this moment. And these can be very distracting. But there is no world, no condition that is a reflection of the God-Light that is not temporary, that is not simply a form of change. So to become attached to any condition in itself is the first rule of suffering, to become identified with it, to assume the dilemma, the proposition that it represents, and to pursue life as a goal of release from that state or fulfillment of that state in itself, any such movement is the rule of ignorance, the rule of suffering. 

So even the subtler forms of cosmic existence are not the goal of consciousness, not the goal of life. Any subtle process that distracts you from your present state, is only a form of distraction into another similar state. It’s an illusion, because to be moved into another state, condition or world is not to have changed your essential condition.

To be put into another condition has not modified your strategy, has not modified your position as a conscious entity, So you are brought into the same condition of suffering ultimately, wherever you go. And it certainly is possible to be distracted. It is possible to be put into another condition. But as soon as that occurs, we settle into the other condition, that other condition becomes our present condition, and we begin to realize the subtle suffering involved with being in a condition, being within a karmic limitation.

So life in the universe always becomes moment by moment the motivation to release. Ordinary living always becomes dilemma and always instigates the striving for release from dilemma, regardless of where an entity appears, what karmic condition he arrives at. And so he’s continually only exchanging one karmic condition for the other, until the real process, the Divine process begins.

There’s an aspect of the fullness of the Divine to reflect itself, so the Real-God becomes God-Light, but without limitation, without illusion, without suffering. Just so, God-Light is becoming all of the manifest worlds. But if the Divine reflects itself without comprehending its own activity, the Divine is becoming obsessed with its own reflection. That’s the nature of Narcissus. So any manifest entity, any conditional entity, who has not understood his ultimate condition, his perfect and present condition, is simply duplicating a possibility of ignorance that is latent in the reflecting work of the Divine. Fullness itself.

So we could say that the entire cosmic process is a form of self-realizing activity within the Divine Nature. And in the case of any individual appearing in any time and place, the apparent purpose of present existence is to create a confrontation between the internal karmic tendencies that are latent within the subtle life of that entity; confrontation between that and the solidified, external conditions.

So the karmic entity, with all his arbitrary tendencies, confronts a solidified, lawful universe that exists over against his tendencies, in spite of his tendencies. This demands adaptation on his part. The process of that adaptation, is on the one hand the means of purifying him of his tendencies, his karmic destiny. It can either be a means to that purification or it can be a means to the manipulation of karmic life itself, so that he only takes on other tendencies, or exchanges present tendencies for others. So there are two ways of life. There is one lived by the law of karma, or change itself, in confrontation with the solid world, the appearing world; or there is the way of living from the point of view of Truth or the actual, the real condition. When the entity lives from the point of view of the real condition, then the karmic condition, living within a manifest world, becomes a purifying event, and he moves always into more and more appropriate forms of action, and is released from the limitation of tendencies so that he falls, ever more perfectly into the prior condition, the Divine condition.

And in the midst of this purifying, spiritual form of life, the entity falls through degrees of karma, from life to life, until he falls into the God-world, or the world of the true Siddhas.

There are many worlds that are sometimes called the world of the Siddhas in traditional literature, but these worlds are not the God-world. There are many kinds of Siddhas –  Siddha just means, in common language, somebody who has accomplished or realized some sort of extraordinary function, a siddhi of some sort. So many, by virtue of evolving subtle capacities, pass into cosmic dimensions that are extraordinary. And such beings can be called Siddhas, and such worlds could be called Siddha worlds. But the true Siddha is the God-realized Siddha, completed, fallen into the prior and perfect condition. And the true world of the Siddhas is simply the Divine Reality, the Divine World, which cannot be described. What I mean by it truly is the God-world. Within the traditional literature what is called a Siddha Loka is still a conditional world, a dimension within the reflected cosmos.

So the true Siddha is One who comes out of the God-Light, out of the God World, not just one who comes out of some extraordinary state into a human birth, with various powers or whatever. The true Siddha is one who lives in the God condition, while alive in the manifest worlds. And he is not extraordinary, in the most genuine sense, he is living, simply living, the appropriate form of life, He is living the appropriate or natural state, He appears extraordinary only over against those who are living from the point of view of karma, limitation, ignorance. But his assumption is that there is only truth already, and that there is only God already and that there is no world to be sought, no change of state to be sought, as if it were the truth. But in the present condition, Truth is the condition, God is the condition, in this instant. So that Truth wherever you appear, whatever condition has arisen at the moment, Truth is appropriate; understanding is real intelligence.  It’s never a matter of seeking a change of condition or state or world, as if that were Truth. It’s always a matter of realizing Truth or the real condition under present appearances.

One who moves into relationship with such a Siddha has fallen face to face with Real-God and the God-Light. The Siddha, Heaven-Born One, manifests the heaven condition to his devotee, so the devotee of such a Siddha lives the heaven condition while alive, whatever condition he may apparently be living. The Siddha brings the heaven condition into the world and lives it and makes it entirely available to those who will turn to Him, or Her. Such a One doesn’t create the heaven appearance. In other words, be doesn’t do all kinds of magic and make this seem like the God-world. This world remains what it is, what its appropriate, lawful appearance is. Perhaps he expands the range of some of its faculties, but essentially it remains what it is, what it latently is. It’s just that the God condition becomes also the condition of the world in which he is appearing.

So this is the purpose of such Siddhas, to appear in the conditional worlds and live the real condition in the midst of those worlds for those who turn to them. Now such beings have appeared since beginningless time in all the worlds, and in all forms. They’ve appeared not just as human beings among human beings; they’ve appeared as every kind of form or creature, in every kind of dimension. It Is the Divine work.

But the form of the Siddha that we are specifically concerned with and that can become apparent to us and to this human condition is the human Siddha, and the particular work of the human Siddhas is, first of all, after taking birth, to transform the psycho-physical entity, or function, in which they are manifest. So you usually see in the lifetime of such a One, a period of time of very difficult struggle, because they must transform or evolve the psycho-physical life that they are animating in a very brief period of time; they must do in a very short time what all other beings by tendency would take eons to do. So the apparent life of such an individual is usually very dramatic, very intense. The sadhana of such individuals is very intense, usually under difficult circumstances, or very often is, at any rate.

But In any case, their work is to transform the psycho-physical entity, because when such a Being manifests in the world, the levels on which He or She is conscious, fully conscious of the function and perfect condition they’ve come to demonstrate, that consciousness is on a higher level, above the mind.

What is gained by such an entity coming into the human plane is all of the faculties, beginning with the conscious mind down through the gross physical existence, and those qualities are not in themselves enlightened, full, unobstructed. They are karmic in nature. So the same thing is required in such a One that’s required in anyone else – transformation of this obstructed, karmic, condition. It is just that such an entity brings with it, latently, spontaneously, at the profoundest level, the true movement that makes it possible for this work to be realized, and so it generally does take place in a relatively short time. Commonly it takes place in some time in what would ordinarily be the first half of life, and so many such individuals emerge to carry on the next phase of their work about middle age, or in their thirties. This is common, although it’s not an inflexible rule. Many have begun their peculiar work very early in life; others much later in life, This is just a common case.

What the Siddha has become once this period is done, this period of purification and transformation of the psycho-physical entity, what he has become at that point functionally is simply what all beings should be, he has become truly ordinary he has become the function in human terms, alive, with full consciousness as a living instrument or function of this Divine life, and then at that point the next phase of his work begins.

The first phase of his life is this purification and demonstration actually of the process of transformation. The early life of such an individual then acts as a symbol and a guide to those that the individual teaches later in life. But after this first phase of transformation then comes the phase in which the Siddha presents himself outwardly as teacher, Guru, Master, to others. So in a sense the individual announces his presence, announces his work in some form or other and then lives that process in relationship to beings who turn to them.

So such Siddhas, these are the true Siddhas, are the manifest expressions of the Divine work, the Divine process, and this work is going on endlessly. It’s coincident with the other work of creation or reflection itself. It’s coexistent with it always. It’s not a once-and-for-all process, there’s not just one Siddha, one event of the Divine work. It’s continuous activity, and all beings actually serve this activity, it’s just that there are periodically and randomly the appearance of Siddha has who assist the affair in a particular way.

In the Bhagavad-Gita, Krishna is made to say that whenever there is a decline in the dharma, in other words a decline in the understanding of the true way of life, He, meaning Krishna, is God, alive, a true Siddha, an incarnation. Whenever this condition appears in the world then he takes birth, He takes form in the world, in order to Instruct men again to restore the dharma, to restore the way.

II

The next thing that should be talked about, is the way In relation to such a One, the path or the form of life that is generated in relationship to such a Siddha. The individual, rather than simply resorting to the teaching, has begun to resort to the Guru. He’s begun to resort to the Guru as the man of understanding, and in this process takes on more and more qualities of intensity, and perceives more and more of the subtlety of the process of Satsang. So as the student resorts to the teaching, a member of the Ashram resorts to the teacher.

Now at some point this individual becomes a disciple, and his resort to the Guru has become intense; the purifying sadhana, the humanizing sadhana has become fruitful. He’s become sensitive to the subtle activities within himself and within the Guru, within Satsang. So you might say that as the student resorts to the teaching and a member of the Ashram resorts to the teacher or the man of understanding, the disciple resorts to the Guru or Spiritual Master. So a member of the Ashram resorts to the Guru as the man of understanding, this paradoxical individual. The disciple resorts to the Guru as the spiritual master, the one whose mere presence performs the unique spiritual activity.

But then there’s a stage beyond that of the disciple. The disciple becomes involved in the comprehension of subtle life, and all of the levels of the manifest life, the processes that they involve, but when he becomes a devotee, all of these processes in which he was randomly involved as a disciple have begun to become second nature to him, conscious and active, without necessary acts of attention and of learning, and he’s begun to resort to the true form of the Guru. He’s begun to resort to the Guru in himself, as himself, for himself. So he resorts to the Guru in his perfect form, the Guru as the Divine Form, and the devotee also begins to demonstrate more and more of the active qualities of the Divine activity in himself.

III

Now the three major sections of this book are not all written, communicated, from the same point of view, the section on meditation, the Meditation of Understanding and the Wisdom of Understanding, are both written from one point of view, and the autobiography is written from another point of view, because the purpose of the autobiography is different from the purpose of the teaching sections of the book.

So the autobiographical section is written from an experiential point of view, the point of the experience of one who is making this claim. But the “I” that appears continually throughout this autobiographical section is the “ego”, the personal “I”. Franklin, who has gone through all of these experiences, this Franklin showing himself as a character, as an individual, who went through various states, experiences, and learns lessons. He’s an ordinary “I” a person , and therefore he can be identified with. He’s understandable, comprehensible, visible, natural. And all of this was done because the purpose of presenting the life of Franklin Jones here is in order to write a moral tale, to write a story that has a moral. It’s the life of an Individual in the form of lessons that have a specific import. It’s my life in the form of an argument. It’s not Franklin’s life itself how could it be? That’s already been done. So this is the use of that life, the communication about that life, in a form that is intended to be useful to others. It’s not intended to fascinate people with Franklin life. It’s intended to make Franklin’s life usable as a lesson, to make it useful, then, beyond its own time,

The “I” of the rest of the book, and it rarely appears, it appears in a few places, but the assumed communicator of the rest of the book is not this personal “I”, this Franklin, this one who is learning lessons. It’s the “I” of one in whom the lessons are always already fruitful, one in whom the ordinary round or extraordinary adventure is transcended in real meditation.

So the point of view of the latter part of the book is without person as a medium, as a limitation. In the first part of the book the person as a limitation or medium is assumed and used, because only in that sense could it be communicated. Otherwise the writing of the life, perhaps, couldn’t have been done at all, or it would have just been in the form of aphoristic assertions without any life. The lessons themselves just would have been written up in sort of holy terms. There would have been no life to show; there would have been no way to use the life, to make it a demonstration.

IV

Now this first chapter, pages 9 to 11, are important. It contains another claim; there’s the claim that this Franklin was born already conscious of illumination, already conscious of that function and structure and realization and enjoyment that this whole life that’s about to be described is intended to demonstrate piece by piece. It’s this whole life that appears, from November 3, 1939, here intended to be a working out,a visible demonstration, of something that already existed at the moment of birth. Complications were thrown into that life in order that it be a demonstration. And that’s the purpose of the complications. It’s meant to be, this life was intended to be, a working out within present conditions, a demonstration within conditions that disciples themselves will encounter, of the process of spiritual life that is then the purpose of the second half of the book to teach.

Now the essential complication that arises at birth, in this case, is that of birth itself. This one who is apparently born is already conscious of this illumination, this enjoyment, but he is born. In other words, he has come alive under karmic circumstances, the karmas of the lower nature for one thing, and the karmas of the world in which this lower nature is a karmic manifestation, and the karmas of all the other beings who appear within that world, so this is the complication. This is what makes this life that is here born a form of adventure, a transformation. And the essential import of this life from the point of view of this person, is that in the midst of this adventure that is now about to be described, there is a transformation of the lower vehicles – mental, emotional-astral, vital, and gross physical.

But the assertion is made in this first chapter that even though this adventure is about to begin, even though this transforming process, transformation of the psycho-physical life is about to begin, there was this prior enjoyment of the very thing that is, on the last page, going to be also the realization.So in the midst of this life, the various, peculiar functions of the reflected condition are open to be purified, transformed, their obstructions removed, so that this prior consciousness can be openly lived and actually lived in these vehicles, in these functions. And this will be the difference that is created in this person; that will be the difference between this first page, this first moment of life, and the end of the autobiography. At the end of the autobiography this prior knowledge and enjoyment will have become fitted to all of the lower vehicles, so it can be communicated, and lived, and demonstrated and enjoyed, also in the karmic condition, without the karmic condition tending to exclude the realization. So the whole descending, ascending, circuit of life and all of its functions, gross, subtle, causal, super-causal, all of that had to be transformed and fitted to the Divine Knowledge which always exists.

Before I get into commenting on some of the aspects of the first part of this autobiography, I want to say something about the teachers who were net at various stages in this process. Of course the ones that stand out most obviously, seem to have the most obvious importance, would be Rudi and then Muktananda, Nityananda, and Maharshi, And each of these represents a particular stage in this demonstration that is going on in this life.

In relation to Rudi, the sadhana that was done was the sadhana of the descending force, and of the descended life, the functional life. It was truly the most difficult stage, because it deals with the most heavy, functional, life-level sort of thing, so it’s the most obviously difficult stage of sadhana. But it was in that period of living and performing sadhana in relation to Rudi that all of this work in the lower life was performed, essentially work in the vital, and in the vital gross-physical mechanism and its emotional components.  But essentially in this descending functional order of life that sadhana was performed in Rudi’s company.

When this had become fruitful and the next stage of the process was indicated, I went and began to work with Muktananda. And with Muktananda the ascending aspect of the circuit was lived, demonstrated. It was in relation to Muktananda that the ascending or subtle aspects of the spiritual process were generated end lived. The culmination of the ascending process is the “bright”, the illuminated consciousness, the spiritual light of consciousness.

This aspect of the spiritual process, this goal of the ascending life as well as source of the descending life, the sadhana of that aspect of the process was lived in relation to Nityananda and to other subtle entities, influences that manifested during that period; the Mother Shakti, many, many, many experiences, and they’re certainly not all indicated there. But Nityananda’s perhaps the primary Guru figure in relation to that aspect of the process.

In Maharshi’s case, there was the sadhana of the causal being, You must begin to see something about the sadhana in each of these cases as well. The sadhana in relation to Rudi was very difficult, aggressive, muscular, active. In relation to Muktananda the ascending process required certainly a certain amount of difficult sadhana, but it’s already easier, it’s already more fluid, simpler. In relation to Nityananda and the subtler influences of the “bright” of consciousness, the sadhana and the enjoyment were taking place at the same time. So nothing was attained in the confrontation with Nityananda; the confrontation was itself the enjoyment. So at this point the sadhana has become so rapid that it’s coincident with the experience itself. And Maharshi didn’t enter into the picture in the path of the opening of the causal being, did not enter into the picture as a form of sadhana at the time. I don’t even talk about Maharshi in this book until after the events occur, of which Maharshi is an example. But in any case, Maharshi represents that aspect of the process, descriptively, he represents that aspect of the process which is the realization of the Heart, the prior nature, the intuition of Real-God.

So what you see in the process of the life of this one is a duplication of the spiritual process, of the great process of the manifest world, descending and ascending and fallen in the Heart. This is also a recapitulation of all of the traditions of spiritual life; religious, spiritual, philosophical, occult, esoteric, but this was not the end. Beyond this falling into the heart, there was another spontaneous realization, which was the resurrection of Amrita Nadi, the Intuition of the God-form.

And in this stage of Sadhana which is the least available to description perhaps, the Divine was the Guru, directly. From the beginning of this One’s life, the Divine was the Guru, and the Guru took on apparent functional forms at various stages in the sadhana of this One. But then another instrument appeared, relative to the sadhana of the next stage. So there was no single human Guru, or manifest Guru from beginning to end for this One. There was the most directly manifest, perfect Guru from the beginning, the Divine. So God is the Guru.