God-realization (Meher Baba)

God-realization, according to Meher Baba, is the highest state of consciousness and the goal and ultimate destiny of all souls in Creation. A soul that realizes God experiences God's infinite power, knowledge, and bliss continuously.

The Ego Separates Souls From God-Realization

What keeps man from this state of consciousness is the ego, the identification with a false self. Ultimately the ego weakens through endless expression of itself in many lifetimes of experience, finally disappearing completely in full Self or God-realization.^[1] He says,

Knowing that Creation is not an accident and that it has a deeper meaning than is apparent to the eye, the seers of all ages have time and again drawn the attention of the world to the fact that, although for a certain period of his life on this planet man may identify himself exclusively with the life of the senses, his transcendental destiny is God-realization.^[2]

The Goal of Creation

Meher Baba has stated, "The happiness of God-realization is the Goal of all Creation. The real happiness which comes through realizing God is worth all physical and mental sufferings in the universe. Then all suffering is as if it were not. The happiness of God-realization is self-sustained, eternally fresh and unfailing, boundless and indescribable; and it is for this happiness that the world has sprung into existence."^[3]

According to Meher Baba, the aim of all beings in Creation, in fact the very purpose of Creation, is the attainment of God-realization. A soul is God-realized when it has first traversed evolution, taking each successive form in Creation until it achieves full consciousness in the human form (the terminus of physical evolution),^[4] then has gone through successive human lives during reincarnation, then traverses the inner planes of consciousness during involution. Once past the inner planes, the soul achieves consciousness of its true original identity as God.^[5]

Εxperience of Oneness

This experience of Oneness with God, according to Meher Baba, is not the same as simply intellectual understanding of this condition through reading or contemplation, but rather must be fully experienced. A man who reads, in Vedanta literature for instance, that he is God, then says that he is God, is in fact a hypocrite, since he does not have this experience. The goal of Creation, instead, is to achieve this "I am God" state as a permanent and genuine experience. This ultimate experience, for which the universe came into being and is continually sustained, cannot be described or talked about, but only lived and directly experienced.

According to Meher Baba one gets God-realization at the hands of one Master, but for knowledge, which the Muslim Sufis call Irfan and the Hindu sages Jnana, it may be necessary for him to approach more Masters than one.^[6]

References

1. Meher Baba The Awakener, Charles Haynes, Ph.D. doctoral dissertation at Emory University, 2nd edition, 1993, Sheriar Press, p. 17
2. God Speaks, The Theme of Creation and Its Purpose, by Meher Baba, Dodd Mead, 1955. Sec. ed. p. 38
3. God Speaks, The Theme of Creation and Its Purpose, by Meher Baba, Dodd Mead, 1955. Sec. ed. p. 130
4. Discourses, Volume I § "The Formation and Function of Sanskaras", 1967, Sheriar Press, p. 60
5. The Mastery of Consciousness: an introduction and guide to practical mysticism and methods of spiritual development, Allen B. Cohen; Harper & Row, 1977
6. Purdom, Charles B.: "The God-Man: The Life, Journeys & Work of Meher Baba with an Interpretation of His Silence & Spiritual Teaching", George Allen & Unwin, London, 1962. p. 27