The Journey of One Ant towards God Realization
Individual Ant Consciousness
INFINITY CAPSULE
Sam Kerawala
Infinite, the other name of our Beloved Meher Baba, cannot
be grasped by our limited intellect.
In the late fifties Avatar Meher Baba was residing at the
Ganeshkhind Fruit Experimental Station superintendent's
bungalow. Adjoining the garden is the American Seven Day
Adventist Mission. One morning two students from Indonesia
came to visit Meher Baba.
Baba welcomed them and asked if they had any questions.
One of them asked about Infinity. Meher Baba pointing to a
big black ant crawling on the floor said, "Do you think
the consciousness of this ant could comprehend a human
being?" The student answered in the negative. Baba then
said, "A greater chasm divides your state of consciousness
from Mine. So even if I were to explain to you the
significance of Infinity you would not understand the
same." The matter was dropped and Meher Baba started
making casual conversation with those present there.
Suddenly He gestured to one of His close ones, "Take down
what I am dictating: Whatever is, is God." Again after a
while He gestured, "Take down what I am dictating:
Whatever is not, is God." And then once again He dictated,
"On an off chance if something is left over, even that is
God; and this is My state of consciousness from My
beginningless beginning through to My endless end and
this is the Infinity."
Mansur Hallaj, the great Sufi martyr has said about the
Avatar, "So Infinite is His Infinitude that before He has
completed the word Be it has become."
WORDS OF KABIR & OTHER STORIES, p. 165
Copyright 2006 Sam Kerawala
REMEMBER ONE POINT
Meher Baba
You are all blind — unless you see me as I am. This is what I mean by this discourse on maya. Irene used to tell me that Westerners were spiritual, that they have more spiritual understanding than the Easterners. I said she was right. Easterners have no understanding but they have more love. And of course Irene was not pleased; so I had to create an explanation for her, so she was pleased, and God remains pleased.
Remember one point, try to follow it, it's so new and difficult. Why do I say, everything is here within you? It is not above or beneath; the difference is only in the state of consciousness.
For example, an ant is here on the barn floor; it is free, active. You also do actions here on the same floor. But the consciousness of the ant when compared with yours is insignificant. You are conscious of planes flying over the barn. You also know about air flights and so many things. But the ant on the same floor with you is not aware of planes.
The difference between the experience of the ant and your experience is very great, though you are both on the same gross level. So similarly the difference between your experience and my experience is like that between you and the ant; but to me you appear as the ants appear to you!
THE GOD-MAN, p. 259, C. B. Purdom
1971 © Meher Spiritual Center, Inc.
THE SLOW AND GRADUAL ASCENT OF AN ANT
Meher Baba
The emanation of the world is as it were a descent from the navel of a man along one leg; the reincarnations of the soul in human form are a wandering into the wilderness of Maya (illusion) between the two legs of a man; and the onward ascent of consciousness through the planes to the realization of the original infinite Beyond is like the slow and gradual ascent of an ant along the other leg back to the navel from which the creation started.
The navel represents the "OM" point of creation. After transcending this point, the duality of the creator and creation is sublated. The portion above the navel is like the Beyond, where there is conscious enjoyment of the shoreless ocean of Divinity.
BEAMS FROM MEHER BABA, pp. 80, 83
1958 © Sufism Reoriented, Inc.
Meher Baba and the Ant
"Sometimes Baba surprised us by saying something unimaginable. One day He was sitting with a group around Him, when a black ant crawled onto His hand and then onto the sleeve of His white sadra.
Everyone sitting nearby noticed the ant, and Eruch got up to flick it off, but Baba stopped him. Pausing, He gestured, 'This ant will take human birth.'
For me this was a time of seeing Baba as Creator, the One holding infinite power--not just to alter the length of a single human life, but to allow an ant to bypass millions of life forms and be born as a human. I was stunned."
Arnavaz Dadachanji, GIFT OF GOD, pp. 168-169
"Arnavaz's story of the ant reminds me of the story Dr. Kenmore told of how Baba used the ant to illustrate what Infinite Consciousness really means. One day Baba asked what infinite consciousness meant and to illustrate what it really means, He pointed at an ant and said something like, 'Do you all see that ant? Not that one over there, or that one over there, but that one? Infinite consciousness means knowing what that particular ant will be doing a precise moment as a human being millions
of years from now.'"
contributed by Gary Nedzweck to the Avatar Meher Baba Listserv
