Liberation 1

LIBERATION

Meher Baba

Those souls who are Liberated have their egoistic minds annihilated. Those who take birth again retain their minds. And those souls who, after Liberation, return to normal consciousness, have Universal minds.

22 July 1925,
Meherabad,
GM p54

A swine generally lives on refuse-matter. Give it dainty edibles, but it will not even look at them, much less eat them, if it has sufficient refuse matter to partake of. That is why it is said, 'Cast not pearls before swine.' Materialistic persons are like swine, for they prefer the filth of the world to the pearl of Liberation from the chain of births and deaths.

Ms 1:6 p7-8
(June 1929)
Another version: Sa p28

This new influx of the creative impulse takes, through the medium of a divine personality, an incarnation of God in a special sense - an Avatar. This Avatar was the first individual soul to emerge from the evolutionary process as a Sadguru, and he is the only Avatar who has ever manifested, or will ever manifest. Through him, God first completed the journey from unconscious divinity to conscious divinity, first unconsciously became man in order consciously to become God. Through him, periodically, God consciously becomes man for the Liberation of mankind.

1938, India,
MJ 1:1 p4-5
Another version:
Di (7th ed.) p269

The Avatar awakens contemporary humanity to a realisation of its true spiritual nature, gives Liberation to those who are ready, and quickens the life of the spirit in his time.

1938, India,
MJ 1:1 p7
Another version:
Di (7th ed.) p269-270

Most God-realised souls leave the body at once and forever, and remain eternally merged in the unmanifest aspect of God. They are conscious only of the bliss of union. Creation no longer exists for them. Their constant round of births and deaths is ended. This is known as Mukti or Liberation.

c.1939, Di v1 p2

Those who die thinking of me come to me. They are Liberated from the chain of birth and death, and see me perpetually.

March? 1939, LM7 p2409

Although I am the formless one, I am destined to assume a human form again and again, and so I am here. But I wish for you to become free from the wheel of births and deaths, of being born again and again: growing, maturing, marrying, enjoying, procreating, decaying and dying.

God is just as soft as he is hard, as compassionate as he is harsh. Just remember that when you call on him or invoke him, if he is touched even once, the impossible then becomes possible and you become free.

2 November 1952,
Meherabad,
GG3 p133-134

God is eternally free. To realise God is to attain Liberation from the bondage of illusion.

1954, Andhra, MD p8

The thought or wish the dying individual holds at the moment of death has special importance in determining his future destiny. If the last thought is of God or the Master, the individual achieves Liberation.

It is quite common for an individual not to have any specific thought at the moment of death. Even if he has had thoughts or wishes before death, he will tend to forget them at the time of death. At that moment some people hope they may not return to earthly life, but they are not exempted from rebirth by mere wishing. They are reborn, but exhibit a pronounced disgust for life, and tend to lead the lives of ascetics or recluses...

The true death of the individual occurs at that moment when he transcends his limited individuality or separative consciousness by being taken up in the Truth-consciousness of the unlimited and undivided being of God. The true death of the individual consists in the complete disappearance of the limiting ego-mind that has created the sanskaric veil of ignorance. True death is a far more difficult process than physical death, but when it occurs, through the grace of the Master, it takes no longer than the twinkling of an eye. This dissolution of the ego-mind, and the freeing of the soul from the illusion of separative, limited individuality, are known as Liberation.

The sanskara-ridden ego-mind can never attain any real poise. It vacillates in constant rhythm to the alternating dominant sanskaras. Consciousness can attain true poise only when the ego-mind, with all its attendant sanskaras, terminates. This is effected through the emergence of the unlimited and ultra-sanskaric individuality that comes into its own upon the inheriting of conscious eternal existence, which is true immortality.

The infinite poise of consciousness in Realisation should not be confused with the semblance of sanskaric equilibration that is approached by the limited ego-mind in discarnate life in the hell or heaven state. Such ineffable poise is unapproachable by the full consciousness in man as long as it remains clouded by the slightest traces of the limiting ego-mind.

At the time of taking on a new physical body, the good and the bad sanskaras of the individual are almost in balance. However, there is always a slight ascendance at this time of either the good or bad sanskaras. They are never in perfect balance, nor do they in any manner overlap or cancel one another. Complete poise can exist only when the two opposite classes of sanskaras are so qualitatively and quantitatively opposed that they exactly cancel one another.

When opposite sanskaras are not only equal in strength, but are also in exact qualitative opposition, they cancel each other, and can no longer act as semi-automatic subjective propelling forces, but are transmuted into consummate understanding that is free from opposing reactions to life. This is the state of Liberation...

True immortality is not the survival of the limited individual in the period following the death of the physical body. It is true that the ego-mind persists unscathed through death, but the individual cannot and does not thereupon attain to final freedom from birth and death. Survival should not be confused with deathlessness, which is true immortality. The chain of alternating incarnate and discarnate life is only a survival of consciousness plus ignorance, and ignorance makes true life impossible.

Life in ignorance is the very negation of existence in Truth. It is so basic a curtailment of true existence that when judged by the standards of the true existence in eternity, it had best be termed a continuous death. Only in Realisation is consciousness emancipated from the tyranny of this continuous death which nullifies the true life in eternity. And only in Liberation can consciousness arrive at that true immortality which lies beyond all curtailment and obscurity.

before 1956,
LH p104, 108-111

I am never sorry for anyone who dies. He who dies with my name on his lips, with me in his heart, never dies. I never worry about them, for theirs is no loss. If I am ever worried, it is for those that suffer through the death, which they might allow to alienate them from me. That would be their loss indeed. Why suffer unnecessarily? My dead live in me. That should make you happy...

Knowing this, any mourning you may do therefore must be for yourselves only, from selfish motives. You don't know how fortunate they are who die with my name on their lips and in their hearts.

1955, AL p94

For ages past I have been telling people to leave all and come to me. That alone is the way to Liberation from all illusion.

1955, Meherabad, LH p40

Although I am taking my own name continuously, I have come to hear it repeated by my lovers. And even though I were deaf, I would hear it if you repeated it only once with all your heart in it. If you cannot remember me constantly, then always take my name before going to sleep and on waking up. At least remember to remember me when you breathe your last, and you will still come to me. But how will you remember at the last moment, unless you start to remember me right now?

Kammu Baba, whom many revere as a saint in Bombay, recently sent me word asking to be relieved of his duties and to return unto me. I advised him also to take my name when breathing his last. In his last moments, Nozher took my name. So did my brother Jamshed, and many others who have come to me. But it is only the heroes who come to me in their physical form. To these, death itself surrenders ultimately.

1955, Meherabad, LH p45
Nozher = Nozher Dadachanji.

In reality, there is nothing such as death or birth. I know this, and I say it with the authority of my conscious knowledge. We are all in eternity, and we will always be there. Really, none comes or goes, none is born or dies. But to experience this truth, we must first free ourselves from the bondage of our ignorance.

After a hundred years or so, you will all have dropped your bodies, and yet you will still exist. Do not think about your bodies, but think only about me. Then, before you drop your bodies, you will be able to remember me. My miracle will be to make you become me.

1955,
Meherabad,
LH p86

My brother Jamshed loved me very much. He was mad with love for me. Once he was so full of love for me that he couldn't contain himself, and he dropped his body. But just before dying, he shouted out loudly, 'Baba.' He has come to me. He is now with me eternally.

21 July 1956,
New York,
Aw 4:2 p26

All this world is nothing, an illusion. I am in everything. I tell you with my authority, I am in everything.

Love me, and that way, when you drop your bodies, then you are with me eternally.

22 July 1956,
New York,
Aw 4:2 p29

Leave all thoughts, your own thoughts, your selfish thoughts, and simply obey me. Then you are Liberated, then you are free. But if you cannot, then more and more bindings are created, for every action creates a binding.

You are very old, Don, ages old. And you are bound. And you will be bound, and you'll go on getting bound age after age. Age after age the same bindings will be created, you'll try to free yourself, and in so doing, get rebound.

But once you are Liberated completely, then you'll realise that there was no binding at all. It was just imagination, a dream... you were seeing and experiencing only a dream.

All of you here are very old - ancient ones. All are God. God is within each one, and God is not bound by time - he is eternal. You are all eternal. Now you are bound. You feel you are bound, and you continue to get bound. But there will be a time when every individual gets freed, gets Liberated. Then that individual realises that all his bindings were just in a dream - he was seeing a dream.

Christ took upon himself the sufferings. Why? To Liberate humanity. And the bindings are still there. Mankind is still bound. Yet Liberation doesn't require time. You are bound for ages, but when you get Liberated, it is instantaneous - it comes in a flash.

Just think of it: God is within all, in everyone, and he is infinite. God is all powerful, God is all bliss. And yet, though God is in each one, how helpless we feel. We weep, we feel pain, we feel sorrow, although God, who is so infinitely powerful and blissful, is there. Why? It is because of our own bindings. But there is one way to get Liberated from these bindings, and that is through love...

If you can love me, love God, your love will make you know me. If you can make others happy through your love without seeking your own happiness, you can free yourself from this bondage. You can then find me as I really am. No sooner do you get that experience, than you feel Liberated and experience infinite bliss.

26 July 1956,
Myrtle Beach,
Aw 4:3 p38-41
Don = Don Stevens

Ordinary Mukti (Najat) is achieved only after death by some exceptionally God-fearing, Truth-loving, good souls. And this Mukti usually comes three to five days after the soul has left the body. Since this Mukti is attained without the body, the individual soul enjoys only bliss (anand). And although power and knowledge are there, such a Mukta cannot experience them. Such a Liberated soul is conscious only of the bliss of union, and for him creation no longer exists, thereby bringing to an end the constant round of births and deaths.

Nirvikalpa samadhi must not be confused with this ordinary Mukti or Moksha state. Should a soul reach the Mukti state, it does so after the death of the physical body. Such a soul reaches God, but this occurs only after death. Thus there is an important distinction between ordinary Mukti on the one hand, and Nirvikalpa samadhi on the other, because the latter is experienced while the soul retains the body, and thus becomes Videh Mukta (a Majzoob).

from notes dictated by Meher Baba
before 1955, GS p259

I say with my divine authority to each and all that whoever takes my name at time of breathing his last comes to me. So do not forget to remember me in your last moments.

Unless you start remembering me from now on, it will be difficult to remember me when your end approaches. You should start practicing from now on. Even if you take my name only once every day, you will not forget to remember me in your dying moments.

1958, Aw 21:2 p41

There is one real birth and one real death. You are born once, and you really die only once.

What is the real birth? It is the birth of a drop in the ocean of reality. What is meant by the birth of a drop in the ocean of reality? It is the advent of individuality, born of individuality through a glimmer of the first most-finite consciousness, which transfixed cognizance of limitation into the unlimited.

What is meant by the real death? It is consciouness getting free of all limitations. Freedom from all limitations is real death. It is really the death of all limitations. It is Liberation.

In between the real birth and the real death, there is no such reality as the so-called births and deaths. What happens in the intermediate stage known as births and deaths is that the limitations of consciousness gradually wear off, until consciousness is free of limitations. Ultimately, consciousness, totally free of limitations, experiences the unlimited reality eternally.

Real dying is equal to real living. Therefore, I stress: die for God, and you will live as God.

You are first a child, then grow old and drop the body, but you never die and never were born. In the East, Vedantists believe in reincarnation, in innumerable births and deaths until one attains Godhood. The Muslims believe in one birth only, and one death only; the Christians and Zoroastrians the same. All are right.

But Jesus, Buddha, Muhammad, Zoroaster, all meant what I mean by real birth and real death. I say you are born once and die once. All the so-called births are only sleeps and wakings.

The difference between sleep and death is that when you sleep, you awake and find yourself in the same body. But after death, you awake in a different body. You never die. Only the blessed ones die and become one with God.

26 May 1958,
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina,
GM p328

You are the individualised ocean.

(Baba pointed to the brim of a hat he was holding)

Visualise this hat as you. You see this Gross world.

(Baba pointed to a box)

And with the help of a saint, you jump backwards and begin to experience the Subtle world.

(Baba put the box behind the hat, and pointed to a notebook)

Then again, with the help of another saint, you see the Mental world, not the Subtle or the Gross.

But what does a Perfect Master do? He makes the self turn completely around, make a complete roundabout turn, and the self disappears. The self goes, and God remains.

The question is, how is individuality retained? The stamp of individuality remains, it is left behind to say 'I am God,' 'Beryl is God.' Jesus said, 'I am God.'

This stamp or mark remains. It is still real individuality. Remember, the real self is within. When helped by a Perfect Master, the real self is removed. The imprint that remains is the original individuality. That is as far as I can explain it or touch your understanding. The real self is removed, and the real individuality remains as an imprint.

Suppose this is the infinite ocean. It is full of drops. Each drop is the ocean as long as it is not separate. So there are innumerable drops in the ocean. One says, 'I am stone.' Another says, 'I am man,' 'I am woman,' 'I am this,' 'I am that.'

Suppose there are three drops whose real self is removed, and God remains. But the individuality is there. So Purdom, one drop, says, 'I am God,' and his experience of his own ocean of bliss is continuous, without a break. Another drop, called Lud, is from the same ocean. Its real self is removed, individuality remains, and says the same thing, 'I am God.' And Beryl says 'I am God.' Three drops of the ocean say the same thing, but the experience is individual. It's so easy to understand... so difficult to attain.

So what happens when you are pushed into the seventh plane? You leave your false self, and also the real self, and instantaneously you experience yourself as God.

26 May 1958,
Myrtle Beach,
GM p331-332
For a similar explanation,
see below (6 June 1958)

Charles Purdom: Will you comment on what you mean by 'to come to me'?

Baba: To come to me means Liberation, experiencing me as I am. No more bondage of births and deaths. But it does not mean the state of a Perfect Master, of Perfection. That is only to be attained in the Gross body. So if you are not blessed with this state of Perfection, at least you can have Liberation. If you just take my name, just at the moment of dropping your body, you will come to me. Yes, anyone.

It's not easy to take my name at the very moment of leaving the body. Then you individually experience bliss, infinite bliss. After Liberation, you continue to experience infinite bliss eternally. Why? Because it belongs to you eternally. You experience what belonged to you eternally. Even spiritual ecstasy cannot be compared with divine bliss. Remember this.

28 May 1958,
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
LA p529 (also GM p337)

How Individuality is Established in Indivisibility

(Baba had Adi K. Irani draw three circles on the floor in chalk. The circle on the right was labeled 'Gross,' the middle circle 'Subtle,' and the left circle 'Mental.' To the left of the 'Mental' circle was the word 'God.')

All the three worlds - the Gross, Subtle and Mental - and God the infinite, are within you, who are fully conscious. But you do not experience this. Why? It is because your real I within is playing the part of the false I.

(Baba took a hat.)

Let it represent the false I attached to the real I which is within.

(Then Baba had the hat placed on the floor between the Gross and Subtle circles, the open part of the hat facing the Gross circle.)

You, represented by the hat, are in this position - the real I with falseness attached. Because of the falseness attached to your real I, you experience only the Gross world with your full consciousness. Your back is, as it were, turned to the Subtle and Mental worlds and to God the infinite, and you cannot see them.

With the help of a Wali on the fifth plane, you are able to withdraw within yourself with full consciousness more towards reality, and you experience fully the Subtle world.

(Baba had the hat placed between the Mental and Subtle circles, with the open side facing the Subtle circle.)

From this position, you cannot see the Gross world, and again your back is, as it were, turned to the Mental world and to God the infinite, and so you cannot see them.

With the help of a Pir - one on the sixth plane - you are able to withdraw full consciousness still more towards reality, and you experience the Mental world, as you get stationed on it.

(Baba had the hat moved to between the word 'God' and the Mental circle, with the open part facing the Mental circle.)

When you are in this position, you can see only the Mental world. You cannot see the Gross or Subtle worlds, and you cannot see God the infinite.

At this stage, with the help of one on the sixth plane, you may be given a complete round-about turn with your full consciousness, so that you face God the infinite, and have your back turned to all the three worlds within yourself.

(The hat was turned so that the open side faced 'God.')

When you face the infinite fully, you see him everywhere and in everything, and your consciousness may be said to be your very sight. Even at this stage, when you see God face to face, the falseness attached to your real I is still not detached, and therefore the seer and the seen are not united.

(Baba had the hat removed.)

The grace of God takes the falseness from the real I.

Only with the help of one on the seventh plane, the Avatar or a Perfect Master, is the falseness attached to the real I completly lifted, and you, as the seer and the seen, become one.

Because your falseness has been lifted by the seventh plane Master, your real I is liberated of falseness, and therefore it is you who experience the reality as yourself, and you affirm this experience by saying 'I am God.'

Any other individual whose falseness has been lifted by the Avatar or a Perfect Master similarly experiences the state of being 'I am God.' This is because the impress of one's falseness removed from the individual real I retains the stamp of one's real individuality, and dwells in the realm of reality.

The Perfect Master, Sadguru or Man-God is individualised ocean. The Avatar or God-man is oceanised individuality. It is the Avatar who knows fully that he is in all and all are in him.

6 June 1958,
Avatar's Abode, Australia,
PS p118-120
See PS for copies of the drawings Baba used

Though completely happy and enjoying bliss to the fullest... Angels still aspire to attain human form, because only in human form can a soul become God-realised. God-realisation is the divine goal of all life, not Angelic existence or being a god among gods. So the Angels and Archangels must attain a human form... to progress further toward Godhood.

After an Angel has existed in Devaloke for four cycles (a cycle is about 26,000 years), the Angel has the opportunity of being born in human form. After only one birth and lifetime as a human being, that Archangel or Angel receives Liberation from all future births and deaths - Mukti, the state of infinite bliss realised.

from notes dictated by Meher Baba,
1967, NE p79-81

The Sadgurus bestow Realisation according to the divine plan chosen by the Avatar. So it is the Avatar who chooses who will become God-realised. It is for the Avatar's own special Circle and lovers and devotees that he himself bestows Realisation or Mukti (Liberation). All other souls receive Realisation or Mukti from the hands of the Sadgurus. Mukti occurs at the moment of death. At Realisation one retains the human body and continues to live...

This divine plan was laid out by the first soul when he came back down as the first Avatar... It is this plan that the Sadgurus execute in the timing of each soul's Realisation or Liberation.

from notes dictated by Meher Baba, 1967, NE p113-114

Liberation Book Two

Index - Book One