Unreality and Reality

Dear seekers, dear friends, dear sisters and brothers, I wish to give a short talk on unreality and reality.

Unreality is a discouraging reality and nothing short of a negative reality. Reality is a positive and encouraging divinity. Unreality is the conscious fear of reality. Unreality is the continuous non acceptance of reality. Unreality is the constant rejection of reality. Even from the dawn of creation, seekers of the Absolute Truth wanted to discover reality in unreality. But the Vedic Seers came to realise that it is from the unreal that we come to the real. They said, Asato ma sad gamaya … "Lead me from the unreal to the real." They also thought that anything that is dark within us is less than reality. Again, inside the night they felt and saw an abundance of light. Inside human imperfection they found an iota of perfection. And inside that iota of perfection, they found that life was immortal.

Then there came a time when the Vedic Seers of the hoary past wanted to discover reality in unreality in a different manner. They saw how much suffering there was in the world, and they felt that the only way to have satisfaction or joy was to renounce the world. They said that suffering is unreal and joy is real. They also felt that anything that exists creates problems for human life. Therefore, they sang, Rupena … "Enjoy through renunciation. Do not try to possess the world, for possession is nothing short of frustration."

But in the course of inner evolution, the seekers discovered something else. They discovered that renunciation is not the way; acceptance is the only way. They felt that if they claimed to be children of God, it was their bounden duty to please God in His own way. They felt that if God was real, then His creation must also be real. God the Creator is reality; therefore, God the creation is also reality. It is the seeker within us that consciously tries to unify both God the Creator and God the creation.

The seeker tries to elevate his consciousness through prayer and meditation and reach the highest state of consciousness. This state of consciousness is God's Transcendental Consciousness. The Transcendental Consciousness houses at once the reality of the Infinite and the reality of the finite. The real reality of the finite and the real reality of the Infinite is to grow into everlasting love. The unreal reality of the finite is to live with limitation, ignorance, bondage and death.

Reality has a consciousness in the inner world and also a consciousness in the outer world. In the outer world, reality deals with the body, vital, mind and heart. In the inner world, reality deals exclusively with the soul. The consciousness of the body-reality is to give and take. The consciousness of the vital reality is to take and take only. The consciousness of the mind reality is to take and give. The consciousness of the heart reality is to give, only to give. The consciousness of the soul reality is to fulfil God in God's own way. The soul does not maintain any role of its own. It always soulfully and cheerfully abides by the Supreme's adamantine will.

Each individual offers to the world at large unreality and reality in a unique manner. In the outer world, when an individual says that he knows everything in God's creation, he is offering unreality to the world. In the outer world, consciously or unconsciously, he is forced to be in the realm of division and partition. Therefore, he cannot know the Absolute Truth in its infinite reality. Again, if the same individual says that in the inner world he knows everything, then he is not exaggerating. What he says is true, absolutely true, for in the inner world, his oneness with deep, abiding wisdom is complete. On the strength of his inner oneness with the Absolute Lord, he is knowledge itself.

In the outer world, on the physical plane, each thought unfulfilled is a symbol of unreality: each thought fulfilled is a symbol of reality. But in the inner plane, the spiritual plane, each thought is real in itself, each thought is a world itself. Whether it is manifested or not manifested on the earth scene is of no consequence. As long as it represents a world, it is undoubtedly a reality.

In the outer world, if an individual says that he loves God, then he is not telling the absolute truth, he is not offering the absolute reality. The outer world is the world of countless desires. In the outer world, God does not get the love, the loving life breath of the individual. Unless and until God gets the life breath of love, which gives Him total satisfaction, God does not call it real love.

In the inner world, the same individual offers love to God on the strength of his aspiration. And what is his aspiration? His aspiration is nothing short of God's illumining Compassion. This illumining Compassion has the capacity to please God in God's own way. When a seeker acquires God's illumining Compassion, he becomes not only the divine love, but also God the Love Himself.

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June 11th, 1976
University of Zurich
Zurich, Switzerland