Opening remarks
The Secret Knowledge does not come by tapasya (concentrated personal effort towards spiritual evolution) alone. While there is no denying the necessity of human effort, the Divine revelation in man is an act of Grace, – ‘the wind bloweth where it listeth’ [the wind blows where it wishes], as the word goes. Or as the Upanishad puts it, yameveshe vranute, – he whom the Self chooses to reveal Itself. It is this mystery of a human vessel that is being revealed now as also the various ways in which the divinity comes to us.
The inexpressible Mystery
In the unfolding process of the Self
Sometimes the inexpressible Mystery
Elects a human vessel of descent.
All our life is a progressive unfolding of the Divine Self within. But a time comes when the Divine Self takes up the life and works of a chosen human vessel. Then life is filled with the marvel of a wonderful Grace working in and through the human vessel.
A figure of eternal Peace
A breath comes down from a supernal air,
A Presence is born, a guiding Light awakes,
A stillness falls upon the instruments:
Fixed, motionless like a marble monument,
Stone-calm, the body is a pedestal
Supporting a figure of eternal Peace.
The signs of this mysterious Grace choosing the human vessel and laying Its luminous hand upon it is the awareness of a Divine Presence within and a Divine Guidance in life. There also grows along with it a peace and stillness enveloping and permeating us. Initially this Peace and Stillness are felt during some special moments, divine moments so to say, when the body and mind fall quiet effortlessly with the divine Touch.
Revealing Force
Or a revealing Force sweeps blazing in;
Out of some vast superior continent
Knowledge breaks through trailing its radiant seas,
And Nature trembles with the power, the flame.
Peace is the first to come and prepares the ground for the true Knowledge. Once the Mind and Vital grow quiet, the Divine Force comes with the Light of Truth. There is a downpour of ‘Knowledge’ from vast and luminous realms Above. Human nature and our natural instruments, such as the body and brain take time to adapt to this rain of ‘power and light’.
Master of our souls
A greater Personality sometimes
Possesses us which yet we know is ours:
Or we adore the Master of our souls.
We recognize this Presence as the Master of our souls. With this recognition, there grows in us love for the Divine. We experience the Divine Personality taking hold of us from time to time heightening, refining and glorifying the instrument.
One with Nature and with God
Then the small bodily ego thins and falls;
No more insisting on its separate self,
Losing the punctilio of its separate birth,
It leaves us one with Nature and with God.
As our Nature is possessed more and more by the Divine Consciousness, the ego-sense and the limited personality linked to a particular name and form thins out and vanishes. All movements are experienced as waves arising out of universal Nature. And behind all is felt the Divine Presence, the Upholder, Origin and Goal of everything.
Our spirit sits alone
In moments when the inner lamps are lit
And the life’s cherished guests are left outside,
Our spirit sits alone and speaks to its gulfs.
These are indeed divine moments that come to the chosen soul as gifts of Grace. These luminous moments are given to us for contemplation upon the deepest mysteries of existence. During such God-moments, the strong-hold of desires and all that we cherish is loosened and meditation becomes natural and spontaneous.
Timeless Glory
A wider consciousness opens then its doors; (p 48 begins)
Invading from spiritual silences
A ray of the timeless Glory stoops awhile
To commune with our seized illumined clay
And leaves its huge white stamp upon our lives.
An inner door then opens on the Infinity that surrounds us. The forces and powers of Consciousness from higher realms descend and seize our instruments to express and manifest a greater and higher Truth-Light. Initially, these divine touches withdraw after sometime but only to return again and again. They leave their stamp upon our life giving it a definitive turn and making it easier for the experience to return.
Closing Remarks
This passage about a chosen human vessel should not be taken as if others are not called or excluded. Rather it is in the sense that ‘many are called, few are chosen.’ What is meant by this is that everyone gets his opportunity to realize the Divine and for each one it is an equal opportunity. But not all are ready to take it. Of course they too will realize it in due course of time but their time has not yet come. Chosen simply means that the time has come for this soul to realize the Divine or to become a conscious and willing instrument of the Divine Work.
It is then that this contact and these experiences of higher states of Consciousness begin to flow naturally and spontaneously into the prepared and ready human vessel.
