Picture: Papa had a spigot of bliss on his big toe!
Continuing from the previous post Test Each Spirit, this includes another excerpt from a talk Mother gave in 1986. I had the privilege of asking Mother another question close to my heart:
David H: You go through many experiences when on your way to God. At what point do you fully know that you and God are one? In other words how do you know when you’ve completed the journey?
Mother Hamilton: Well, you know that you’re living in a dual world, but you’re filled with the bliss of God. You feel that you’re full of God. You feel like when Ramdas came out of the cave at Arunachala in India, he’d been there for 20 days. He ran about embracing the trees and every man he could see. So this man he embraced said, “You’re in the upper story, eh?” He said, “Ramdas is in all stories.” Anyway, he was great in God and full of fun. He enjoyed the world. He wasn’t just sitting there pretending he was God and everybody should bow at his feet and worship him. I’ve told you before that he said, “Ramdas has trouble with all this head bumping when people come and put their heads on his feet to pay their respect to him.” He says, “Ramdas doesn’t know if they’re trying to get God from him or give him a present from God. He has a big spigot on his big toe and when they put their heads down there he turns the spigot and gives them a shot of spirit and they go away happy.” He was a lot of fun.
It is a rare a rare privilege to have the opportunity to ask a fully realized master about the ultimate attainment of full God-realization. There are many steps or levels of realization, all of them wonder-filled in nature, but the supreme attainment is only known, and can only be explicated, by a true spiritual master who has achieved this rare state. Even then, to have a spiritual master who is willing to directly comment on this exalted state is a true moment in time to be treasured.
Mother’s first measurement for complete God-realization is the ability to both live in the world of duality and be filled with the bliss of God. This mirrors Sri Yukteswarji’s statement that God-realization is ever-new joy—to know within you, “I am living in that blissful-joy, feeling God’s Presence day and night without a break.” Then Mother went on to refer to Papa living in a cave on Arunachala Mountain after receiving the darshan of Ramana Maharshi, during which time he was chanting Ram Nam day and night. Coming out of that cave Papa saw that the whole world is God, and everyone in it is His veritable manifestation. His joy is overflowing, it penetrates into everything he does and everything he sees.
Oh, what bliss was Papa’s, what a pure state of realization was coursing through and through him! And finally, Mother spoke of the fact that such a fully God-realized soul is a blessing to all who come into contact with him or her—with a big spigot he issues out bliss to all who seek his blessing! Papa’s bliss is infectious, it is positively maddening! For such a realized soul is truly a fountain of joy, and lives on earth to lift one and all into this universal vision.
Note: Today we have a ceremony to mark the passing of Treva Koler, so there will be no talk today. Please keep Treva and her family in your prayers. Treva is continuing her journey, now free of a body that was no longer keeping in good health, and with renewed purpose is ready for even greater growth.