Part III

Realisation and reincarnation

The soul can easily go from one plane of consciousness to another. It is like visiting relatives in another place. The soul is not a stranger there. But can the soul make progress in these other worlds? No! Progress means evolution; and in the case of the soul, evolution means the manifestation of Divinity. This manifestation must take place here on earth while the soul is in the physical. And here, while the soul is manifesting the Light, the entire being is evolving. Each individual has to realise the Highest here on earth and not in Heaven. Only here can God-realisation take place, and in no other plane of consciousness.

God’s creative Vision created this world and God has special concern for us because we try to realise Him and manifest Him on earth with our limited capacity. Other beings in other worlds have got something and they are satisfied with what they have. But we are not satisfied. When we live in the desire-world, we want to have more, more, more material satisfaction; and when we are on a spiritual level, we want to realise God, reveal God and manifest God. God has special fondness for human beings because in other worlds the inhabitants don’t suffer like us. So when somebody is suffering, even if he is guilty, a kind of special compassion or grace flows from the inner world.

Many minor cosmic gods do not have the realisation that some human beings have. The realisation that the Christ had, the realisation that Sri Krishna and the Buddha had, is simply unique. It is incomparable. That kind of matchless realisation the minor cosmic gods do not have. Today the soul is for God-realisation, tomorrow it is for God-manifestation. Realisation and manifestation can take place only here on earth. That is why each time after a few years’ rest the soul takes on the physical sheath again.

The manifestation of Divinity cannot take place in one incarnation. Even to do one ordinary thing, just to fulfil a desire, it may take us ten, twenty, thirty years or more. So the manifestation of Divinity, which is a much more difficult task, takes quite a few incarnations for each individual. God will never allow us to remain unsatisfied, but we have to know what kind of satisfaction we are speaking about. If it is the satisfaction of our ego, then God is not going to grant it. Today He may boost up our ego; tomorrow He may not feed our ego. But when it is the inner satisfaction, heavenly satisfaction, divine satisfaction that we want, then naturally God is going to offer it to us even if it takes many, many years.

We start our journey with aspiration and when our aspiration reaches the end of its journey we realise God. First God aspired in and through the stone life and then He came into the plant life. There He aspired again. Then He came into the animal life and from the animal life He came into the human life.

Before we entered into the spiritual life we acted like animals. Jealousy and destructive forces, doubt and many, many negative things we cherished and treasured. Then we tried to reject these forces, but when they tried to enter into us we were scared to death. But we prayed to God and meditated on God and eventually we were able to threaten these negative forces when they tried to enter into us. We made them feel that they had nothing to do with us, that we belonged to some other world. So we can observe here in one incarnation the role that quite a few previous incarnations have played in our lives. In order to progress and realise God, one has to go through reincarnation. This is the only way. God wants us to continue playing His cosmic Game until He sees that we are playing the Game extremely well. Until we have realised God, God will not allow us to retire. And even after realisation, He may still not give a person relief. He may want that particular soul to continue to work for Him on earth.

Reincarnation means what? It is only a series of years and then death comes into the picture. We feel that there is a break, but it is not true. When we aspire we see that there is continuous life; only we take a short rest when death enters into the picture. On the strength of our inner aspiration we feel that there is endless Life, eternal Life. We are now waves of the Eternal Sea.