WHERE THERE IS IMBALANCE, THE UNIVERSAL POWER COMES TO CREATE THE BALANCE
The personification of a divine spirit comes from time to time to this planet and to every other form of existence to preserve and create a balance where an imbalance exists. If we study, we will find that throughout the history of the world, great men have come, such as Rama, Krishna, Buddha and Christ. Great men have come here to bring a teaching, and through this teaching, by creating in man an understanding or by implanting in man a spiritual force through grace, a balance is brought about.
The cause of the imbalance is the three Gunas that exist in this universe. There is the power of inertia, the power of light, and the activating force, which empowers both inertia and the power of light. In the process of evolution, as the primal atom proceeds to acquire its fullness, it automatically comes into conjunction with various other atomic and subatomic substances in the universe, and when this combination takes place, an imbalance is created, apparently to us from the relative level. To right these imbalances, a force is required.
The eternal teacher, or the Christ, as we would call it, or as I would call him, The Eternal Wanderer, never rests. From one planet to another, he goes on and on and on, and where there is imbalance, that force comes to create balance. This force has total free will, whereby it could merge away into unity consciousness, yet it would sit on the fence because it is the helper of mankind, and all universal forces would always help the progress and the evolution of mankind.
To bring down a Christ or a Krishna to our planet, certain prerequisites must be in place. Man himself, and the imbalance that exists on the planet, create a magnetic force, a kind of force that attracts this balance. For example, in the human body, if you cut your finger, you will find the white corpuscles rushing to it to mend the wound. In a similar way, this force is drawn by the magnetism of the imbalance created, so that this healing power, this universal power, is drawn to us.
THE AVATARA OR THE INCARNATION IS BORN FULLY REALISED
This universal power is ever-present, but being abstract, how could it make contact with man? So, in order to appeal to man’s mind at a particular stage of evolution, and to his heart, that universal force concretises itself, because who can contact man better than another man? That is why this universal force comes again and again, after a period of every 2,000 years, or a few thousand years, rather. From time to time, you find a personage coming to give meaning to life.
From His perspective, for example, in the modern age, where the world is progressing so much technologically and there is so much intellectual development at the expense of heart development, the teacher would come to open people’s hearts to this force, to the personification of this force, so that an equilibrium could be maintained between mind and heart. The world today is progressing at such a rate that if the mind keeps on developing more and more without the support of the heart, then this world will definitely end in a very major catastrophe.
Who is this personification of Divinity? Can one man, in a small body and a small mind, capture the essence of Divinity? That is the question. This is possible for everyone; everyone is a potential Christ, and everyone has the Divinity within them. But the Avatara or the Incarnation is born already fully realised. He does not require evolution; all his actions in life are non-binding. They carry no karmic bondage, and yet the Incarnation, although he is in the bondage of mind and body, still enjoys the freedom within that bondage. As I always say, like poetry within the framework of a metre, yet so free in expression.
The Incarnation can necessarily express Divinity through him as a channel. His mind and body can do anything they like because they are beyond the law of opposites. Beyond that law, he has the power to live in a small, confined body and yet, through that body acting as a channel, he can reflect the entirety of what Divinity is. When this teaching of such an incarnation begins to penetrate people’s minds, some change definitely takes place.
These incarnations are very different from reformers. Reformers normally try to change circumstances or the condition of man from a collective viewpoint, while the incarnation always starts from the individual viewpoint, for if the individual is bettered, the world could automatically become a better world. So, this is the purpose of the Incarnation. Firstly, he is drawn by this force of imbalance that has been created; he is drawn to come to right the imbalance. Secondly, being totally realised before he was born, being in that Unity Consciousness and yet exercising the choice of becoming embodied, he is beyond the law of opposites and has the power of will to manifest himself.
TO LOVE YOUR BROTHER MAN, YOU HAVE TO TRULY KNOW YOURSELF
The teaching of all theologies reverts to one point, “Love thy neighbour as thyself.” The teachings of all theologies converge on that point, and if you study the teachings of these great masters, you will find that it is the pivotal point of all their philosophical teachings. This pivotal point is so important that, because the incarnation comes as a man, he teaches you to love your brother men. To love your brother men, you have to know thyself. That is the second teaching of all religions, because when man knows himself and, through spiritual and meditative practices, gains self-integration, the integration achieved is knowing thyself. The integrated man functions in totality, and it is only when man can function in totality that he can recognise or appreciate the totality in his brother.
So, that is how, by knowing oneself, a man loves his neighbour as himself. In other words, the distinction between “I” and “thou” ceases and oneness is realised. This oneness is not a matter of mental gymnastics. Philosophically, we could analyse it and see its beauty, but it has to be realised. When the principle is realised, it assumes its practical value and becomes practical.
In the beginning, effort is required, as in our programme of self-help, to realise this. As one progresses on the spiritual path, this realisation becomes spontaneous, and the spontaneity that arises does not require the thinking mind, for every action you perform becomes a natural action. No thinking is required, and you automatically do right. Automatically you follow the principle, do good, be good. It becomes a spontaneous action because the whole principle has been realised not only by the mind but also by the heart, and this combination of mind and heart can only take place when man functions as an integrated person, where mind, body and spirit act as a whole, as a oneness.
WHEN MAN IS A TOTAL BEING, THEN ONLY CAN HE APPRECIATE THE TOTALITY
These few principles are the basis of all theologies in the world. They are also the main principles of every incarnation that comes down to Earth to teach. The rest is the philosophical side of things, which goes further to explain how these principles become workable so that man’s inquiring mind can also be appeased. When the inquiring mind is appeased, the heart is pleased, and that is the oneness that is created. Through this integration, man experiences joy and bliss, because only when man is a total being himself can he appreciate the totality, not only of his environment but of the entire universe. And from there, when he appreciates the totality of the entire universe, he can truly say, “I and my father are one.”
That realisation is to be cultivated in the ordinary man. The incarnation is born with that realisation, and because he is born with it, he is in a position to teach it, speaking from experience. Normal human beings are on the path to this realisation. The incarnation has already travelled the path, and from that vantage point, standing so high on the mountaintop that the whole city of Cape Town can be seen, he has a panoramic view of the entire universe.
THE INTEGRATED MAN GOES BEYOND THE LAW OF OPPOSITES
The force that is imparted creates another force, which is called Anti-Christ. How real is this force? When you study the theory of motion and the theory of force, you will always find opposing factors. If there are no opposing factors, then this force becomes non-existent. So, what we term a good force must have its counterpart in the not-so-good force. When we light the lamp, there has to be the shade. Where there is day, there has to be night. But can we really call it a bad force? What we call a bad force is rather an interpretation of our minds. Our minds analyse it as a bad force, and the analysis of the mind, as I always say, is such a cunning animal that today it will find this answer, tomorrow it will find that answer, and, being limited, it cannot be total, and not being total, it cannot be stable in its judgement.
But from the point of view of the spirit, the unchanging self of man, these forces in relative existence are necessary. The idea is first to establish a balance and equilibrium between the forces of good and bad, then to infuse goodness into the so-called badness, and still further to go beyond good and bad, which means going beyond the law of opposites.
The integrated man goes beyond the law of opposites. These forces at work in the universe will always be there. They can never be destroyed. Electricity cannot function without the positive and negative wires. We cannot call the negative wire bad; it is a necessary part of the mechanics of electricity. It is our viewpoint only. Because it causes certain friction within ourselves, within our lives and within our environment, we immediately label it as bad, but without that so-called bad, good might not have existed. Without the negative wire in an electrical circuit, the positive wire becomes useless.
EVERYTHING HAS COME ABOUT BECAUSE OF FRICTION
What is man to do? That is the question. These forces are indestructible. That is how the theory of Satan came about, in which Lucifer actually means light. But this light later became transformed, according to man’s interpretation, into bad light, because it had friction with that which is called good light. Because of this friction that has been created, we term one good and the other bad. But really speaking, as I said in a lecture in America, nothing could exist in this universe without friction, because friction is the basis of motion, and the universe could never exist without motion, because motion, the changing quality of relativity, is the manifestation of that which is changeless. So, change and changelessness can join hands in our daily lives.
The entire universe is caused by this friction. This world itself is caused by friction. If there had been no explosion in the sun, these particles would not have coalesced to form the solar system. In this very moment, this world is hurtling through space at thousands of miles an hour, and it is in continual friction with other forces of nature around it. Because of this friction, it can re-rotate, it can revolve, and it can preserve a balance. So, everything is created by this friction. From the first big bang, from the first explosion, the explosion itself is friction, whereby the present cycle of this universe is in existence. Every human being is born because of friction. Everything is friction, friction, friction.
Our problem is that we are too deeply involved in friction. We intellectualise; we analyse with our limited 10% conscious mind, and what do we observe? We observe only friction; we observe the surface waves of the ocean and not the calmness deep down inside. So, what is the solution? You cannot get rid of motion; it is indestructible. Motion exists because of friction; friction is caused by two opposing forces of contraction and expansion, of attraction and repulsion. These forces are eternal, and these very forces constitute what we call nature, for it is the nature of nature to have this friction and this motion. There is only one way out, and that is through meditational and spiritual practices, by which we gradually gain integration within ourselves, the integration of mind, body and spirit. The more this integration comes into being, the more we can stand apart and observe the friction.
TO LIVE IN THE WORLD, YET NOT OF THE WORLD
When man can objectify this friction, whatever kind of friction it may be, from the smallest to the largest, and observe it, it would mean that he is standing apart. You are sitting in a cinema; you are enjoying this drama on this vast screen. All the pathos and the comedy, all the happenings, the heartaches and the headaches, are on display, and yet, while you are sitting watching it, you are moved by these comedies and tragedies of life, and yet you know that it is a play. Yet you know you are sitting, observing it.
When we, through self-integration, develop the power of observation, we find the secret of life, which is non-attachment. We become, we live in the world, yet not of the world, in the world but not of the world. We can stand apart and watch this motion, watch this friction, watch this play, and not be affected, because it is only by being affected that we would experience joy or sorrow. If you have the capacity to experience joy, then be sure to know you have the capacity to experience sorrow. The deeper the joy you can feel, be sure to know the deeper the sorrow you can feel.
BY BECOMING NON-ATTACHED TO THE LAWS OF OPPOSITES, YOU WILL NOT BE AFFECTED BY EXTREME JOY OR SORROW
But this is the process, and in this process of evolution, the evolving being has to go through these experiences. It is only by going through them that you will know their value. You will appreciate their meaning; you will appreciate their words. And when you reach that stage, where, by knowing the words, these experiences seem worthless, then you really stand apart, and you laugh, you laugh the laughter of love, you laugh the laughter of joy, you laugh the laughter of creation itself. How beautiful this flower grows. The particles and molecules that composed this very flower are forever in friction and in motion for it to be an entity, for it to have that adhesiveness, for it to have this cohesion. And when you see that, you know, “Ah!! Creation has these opposing qualities,” but if I become non-attached to these laws of opposites, then I will not be affected, neither would I feel that extreme joy and the extreme sorrow, because of self-integration I will have the equilibrium.
… Gururaj Ananda Yogi: SA 1978 – 73
