SOME BASIC SPIRITUAL QUESTIONS
RESPONSIBILITY AND DUTY OF THE BELOVED AND THE LOVER
Although everything happens according to the Divine Will, and as Baba explained, not even a leaf can move without it, the limited mind can neither know nor even understand how the Divine Will operates. It is beyond mankind’s comprehension. The Avatar comes to give His Wish to humanity, so they can follow His Wish and come to closer to God.
Every individual, when he takes birth, brings along with him his past sanskaras (impressions). The physical body is nothing but the mould of these past sanskaras. Through the course of reincarnation, the sanskaras go on changing, as does the face and body. Sanskaras are different for everyone. This can easily be understood by looking at the human face. Each face is different from every other face. And for each birth, one spends only the sanskaras from the past life. While spending these sanskaras, one collects new sanskaras, which are then spent in the next life.
Because they perpetuate the false self, as long as these sanskaras are in the mind, you remain bound. In a very real sense, they are a disease that needs to be treated. But each of us needs a different treatment for the same disease – the disease of the false self. The Avatar, knowing each person’s impressions, treats each one according to those individual impressions. His treatment is to wipe out the impressions that obstruct the progress of consciousness towards God.
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There are three types of impressions: natural, unnatural and non-natural. Natural impressions make your consciousness progress through evolution. They are created in response to God’s Whim, which is in everyone, and help consciousness progress towards God through evolution. Unnatural impressions are those which are not in response to the Whim. They are a response from the mind and obstruct your consciousness from progressing towards God. Non-natural impressions only cause diseases through the environment. They are easily wiped out. But unnatural impressions are difficult to wipe out, because they are due to your actions. Ultimately, all sanskaras have to be wiped out in order for you to become consciously One with God.
When the Avatar comes down on earth, His Work for humanity is to eliminate impressions that obstruct humanity from following God. After He drops His body, the force of His work is felt for 400 to 500 years as people gradually turn towards God. Because the general population of the world comes to know about God, begins to believe in Him and follow Him, this period of time is called His Universal Manifestation. During this period, most of the unnatural impressions of humanity and the lower kingdoms are wiped out.
When the force of His Work is at its height, brotherhood can be most easily felt in the world. During this time, Illusion bows down to Him. But then, as His Manifestation wanes, the force of Illusion grows throughout the world, gradually raising its head. Selfishness, greed, anger, lust, jealousy and all other low desires increase once again, creating impressions that obstruct humanity from following God. Gradually, the world’s condition becomes bad. It turns from bad to worse, and then from worse to worst. Except for a few of His true lovers, humanity remains in the grip of Illusion, forgetting God. At that point in time, God comes back again in the form of the Avatar (the Christ, the Prophet) with a different name and face to
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perform His duty to Creation through His Universal Work, giving each and every soul a spiritual push towards God.
His duty toward humanity is once again to create awareness of God in peoples’ hearts by minimising the impressions that obstruct consciousness from moving towards God. This awareness allows humanity to follow Him in a way particularly suited to them, by following His Wish. Although He is the same Ancient One, it is critical to follow the Wish of the present Avatar, because His Wish is based on helping humanity overcome its present set of obstructions against following God. When He begins His work, humanity is under the force of Maya, and so they cannot recognise Him. But when, because of His work, their impressions are minimised, they recognise Him, accept Him and follow Him by following His Wish. When the Avatar expresses His Wish, He also gives humanity the awareness of its importance in order to enable them to carry it out. After He drops His physical form, the Ancient One remains active in the form of the Holy Spirit. He continues to minimise obstructive impressions, so that humanity’s consciousness may progress towards God. With every Advent, human consciousness is raised to a certain level. But at the end of the cycle of cycles, human consciousness is raised to an even greater extent, affecting all of mankind. We are at the end of the cycle of cycles, which is why Beloved Baba has said the world will come to Him.
Every person unknowingly has the responsibility to spend those impressions which they have brought with them into the present life. No one knows what those impressions are and how they should be spent. When you spend your sanskaras according to your own wishes and desires, you collect new sanskaras and remain bound. But if you spend sanskaras according to the Avatar’s Wish, you follow God and do not collect new impressions. In fact, you lose some of the binding
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impressions you had. Therefore everyone’s real duty is to follow the Avatar’s most recent Wish for humanity.
The Ancient One and humanity each have a responsibility and a duty. The responsibility of the Ancient One is to take care of each and every soul in Creation so that it eventually becomes One with God. His duty is to descend into human form. In general, He gives a spiritual push to each and every soul in Creation. In particular, He creates awareness of God in humanity by removing obstructions in consciousness, so that consciousness may proceed to the Truth.
As for the responsibility of humanity, each individual must spend the sanskaras (impressions) that they bring with them to their present life. The critical decision is how those impressions are to be spent. And that is where your duty lies – to spend them according to the Wish of the Avatar, the Messiah, the Messenger of God, the Christ, in order that your consciousness eventually becomes One with God, completing the Avatar’s responsibility to the soul.
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