Avatar Meher Baba Center Southern California
In Concert With
The Oral History Archive Project
Ward Parks
God Speaks Video Session One

 

 

How It All Happened
Part One

There is nothing like creation in the true sense of the word. What we call creation is the manifestation of countless forms out of nothing. This nothing is really nothing, but it exists. It cannot be denied. But it is not beyond everything. Everything includes nothing, but nothing does not and never can mean everything. Before the creation manifested itself, there was literally and absolutely nothing save the Almighty, Who alone existed, but who was latently conscious, and so did not know Himself. Just as consciousness was latent in the Almighty, so this, which is called the creation, was also latent in Him. The difference between the latent and the manifested creation may be likened to that between a seed and a tree. A seed is a small particle, but if sown into proper soil and watered, it will give rise to a mighty, big tree. This means that the seed was a tree in the compact form before it was sown, and it simply manifested itself when it grew into a tree. But whether latent or manifested, whether "seed" or "tree," the creation is always nothing, as it has come out of nothing, and is made up of nothing. But the Almighty is everything, including nothing, which implies that God is but One without a second, and that the nothing is also there. The nothing is there, but the pity of it is that this nothing is felt as everything by humanity at large.

Imagine God, before the universe came into being, as the dead, still, infinite Ocean. Now just imagine a whiff of wind stirring the still waters of the Ocean. Because of this stirring, countless different waves and drops, wave-bubbles and drop-bubbles, showed themselves out of the unity of the infinite Ocean. The whiff of wind that set the still Ocean of God into motion was but a passing fancy (what we call lahar in vernacular) on the part of the Ocean Itself to know Itself. The motion of the Ocean synchronized with this passing fancy, so that as soon as the Ocean began rolling, it began creating, or creation began manifesting itself. To put the matter more plainly, God, prompted by a passing fancy, asked Himself, "Who am I?'' No sooner did He thus ask Himself than He received a shock and no sooner did He receive a shock, than the creation that was latent, and lay in a dormant condition as the most finite and formless point in the unconscious — or latently conscious, but indivisible and infinite Paramatman — God, manifested itself in infinite forms

 

 

 

 

 

From Wikipedia the infinitely free encyclopedia part one:

God Speaks is Meher Baba's most significant published book. Kenneth Lux, Ph.D. writes: "God Speaks is Meher Baba's major book and it is famously difficult. But not only is it Baba's major book, it is his only book. All other books by Meher Baba, such as the Discourses and Listen Humanity, are not written as books, as God Speaks is, but are collections of essays and messages."

While Meher Baba does not emphasize intellect alone as a path to perfection, in God Speaks Meher Baba goes deeper into the subject of metaphysics than most other Indian masters. In his book Mastery of Consciousness, Allan Y. Cohen, Ph.D. writes that Meher Baba's "explanations of the creation, purpose, and evolution of the universe may be the most explicit ever written." In a review of God Speaks, oriental scholar Walter Evans-Wentz, the original English translator of The Tibetan book of the dead, wrote: "No other Teacher in our own time or in any known past time has so minutely analyzed consciousness as Meher Baba has in God Speaks."

God Speaks takes a strictly nondualist approach in explaining the universe and its purpose, carefully clarifying and syncretising terms as it takes the reader through the spiritual journey of the atma (soul) through its imagined evolution, reincarnation, and involution, to its goal, its origin, of Paramatma (Over-soul). The journey winds up being one from God-unconscious ("Beyond Beyond State of God") to God-conscious ("Beyond State of God"). Cohen summarizes, "In elaborate detail he explains the universe is an arena where infinite existence, identifying with the apparently limited soul, becomes more and more conscious of its oneness with itself as the Over-Soul."

 

 

How It All Happened
Part Eight

The earth is found everywhere in the world, since not only dry land but also the beds of seas, rivers, lakes, contain it. Similarly, water, though visible only in oceans, rivers, lakes, etc., is everywhere — if not on the surface, under the earth in large or small quantities. In other words, just as earth lies below the water in seas, rivers, etc., so water lies everywhere under the dry earth. There is no question of air not being present anywhere in this world. As regards fire, in the broad sense, viz., a kind of blaze, or "tej" (as it is called in the vernacular), it is certainly everywhere in the world; but it is covered under the layer of ether.

This blaze is the fire that, as said above, has connection with animals, and it is owing to this that the hunger-heat is so very intense in animals. Almost all animals eat great amounts of food, as if they were born for the sole purpose of eating.

The first form after the last vegetable form is that of an insect, which is green that it is not possible to recognize it on a tree. The most evolved form of insect is that of a worm. Though the worm is found on dry earth, it frequents moist spots, and this fact shows that it is on its way to becoming a fish or going into water. In other words, the insect form in the shape of a worm begins having connection with water from the dry earth, and the connection becomes complete when it becomes a fish. in the same way, the last form of the fish from the water viz., crab, begins leaving its connection with it.

The next form to the crab is of a water-fowl, the first form that begins connection with air. There are many kinds of fowls, including ducks, that like to swim in water. Just as the first form of bird has connection with water, so their last form but one, viz., cock, has connection with earth. In spite of its being a bird, the cock has little connection with air. The last form of bird is a big, burly one with a long beak and a lolling piece of flesh by the chin. The manifestation next to the last bird form takes place in kangaroo, in the animal kingdom, the last form of which is monkey, if we exclude human beings.

The five "turns" are implied in the above cursory description: (1) from under
the ground to its surface; (2) from the surface of earth to water; (3) from the depths of water to water surface; (4) from the surface of water to air; (5) from an to the surface of the earth.

Out of the infinite numbers of forms, in which the latent human form manifests itself, prior to its complete manifestation, those mentioned in the above diagram are of cardinal importance, in comparison with the spiritual planes. The seventh plane means Godhood, and so it is final. Similarly, there is no higher form than that of a human being. It is perfect. But there is the curtain of sanskaras between God and man, as shown in the above figure, and because of it the average human being knows not God. In order to do away with this curtain, one has to travel backward, through the six stages — the plane stages, instead of the form stage through which one advanced to manhood.

We have said that each wave-bubble is a world in itself and that there are numberless worlds. But for the purpose of illustration, we shall divide them into seven ranges. E, F, G, H, I, J and K. In each of these ranges there are a number of worlds. Of these numberless gross worlds, seven, each of which we have distinguished with a number, are nearer to the Creator, point D, than all the others. The three worlds, A, B, C in the central range, are to be regarded as only one world — the 7th, because they are so connected with one another as to form one world with two branches. This diagram shows the details at a glance.