Page 54 - Journey to Infinity

ourselves.
Imagine that we are Brahman, the centre, the origi¬nal element, and the essence of existence. Let this idea be internal first. Then, looking to the external manifestation, think that all these are the symbols of our own mental feeling. All these have emerged from us are our form. What else can there be excepting ourselves?
When the internal and the external become one, the veil of plurality will first drop off. One-ness comes in, and that too will vanish gradually. What will remain then? You yourselves will remain. The triad of knower, knowable and the known will disappear. It will be a strange condition which can be neither ex¬pressed, nor heard, nor thought of. Merger in one-merger in plurality and merger in Reality—all these are the interim states.
1. An ignorant boy has cast his reflection in a mirror and says that there is a boy inside the mirror. He also says that the boy should be taken out so that he may play with him. A mad dog of the mansion roams barking at his own reflection. This is the condition of wise persons who are immersed in plurality.
2. An intelligent person looking at his reflection in a mirror says that he is one and the same person inside and outside the mirror. This is the condition of merger in one-ness.
3. A lover of the condition of merger in Reality thinks the internal and external idea as one and the same and, keeping the reality of originality behind the veil of bliss, remains always blissful. This is the condition of merger in reality.
These three are not in an unchanging condition. Hence the beginning of the signs of the fourth condition.
The Self, which is the source of all things, seldom comes to view. In one sense It has neither name nor form, and in another sense all names and forms belong to It only. It is the support of all, and has itself no support. All are dependent on It, but It is not dependent on anybody. It is the Self and its being so (from our point of view) is Its glory. It is the absolute, and the absoluteness (from our view point) is Its attribute. We ourselves call It as Self and Perfect, these words being coined for our own understanding. They give some sort of experience about it, and we obtain peace, for It is the real peace. For example, suppose that there is a thing, underneath which Its existence in the form of ideas and subtlety surrounds It and has its play.