Theo. – Can you tell me something about liberation? I know it has to do with reincarnation. They say that once it has been liberated, the soul won’t have to start a new life on earth since it has completed its formation cycle at the school this earth is.
The Elder – This is a restrictive view. Here, the issue is neither about being liberated, nor having to be reborn or not, but about realizing what we really are.
Theo. – And what are we, actually?
The Elder – We have been created in God’s image, a mirror-like image of Him.
Theo. – Did not you say that God was nothing, and that being Nothing He was Everything?
The Elder – The metaphor has not been understood properly. In fact, men think God is in their image. A whole pantheon of Greek gods is a perfect illustration of this.
These gods have in fact all the same qualities and defects as men have. The Animists may count up to five hundred gods in their religion. Each god is connected to an element or a force of nature, but it is also worth mentioning that all religions believe in one God, one Force, that lies beyond all concepts and was the source of everything that exists.
Theo. – That fits with the Kabbalistic notion of the ‘uncreated’, as well as with the Ancient Chinese notion of the Tao, doesn’t it?
The Elder – That’s right, but it is no easier for men to talk about God the Creator than about an uncreated God, which is impossible for us to devise. It is certainly beyond all our criteria, but not beyond experience.
Theo. – I’d like you to elaborate a bit more about this.
The Elder – It is all about experimenting the Centre within ourselves. We can all have access to it through meditation. We can’t see God, of course, but we can detect and feel His Presence within us.
Theo. – Is that the reason why Islam prohibits any depiction of God?
The Elder – I’d rather say that it is an invitation to discover God beyond any form or appearances, and to avoid projecting anything on Him. The prophet’s nicest message is when he states that we can all be directly connected to God.
Theo. – That is exactly what we do when meditating on the heart, isn’t it? Yet, you had referred to the three levels of the heart. Then, when are we really connected to God?
The Elder – At the level of the light point, which is the core of the Centre.
Theo. – And before that?
The Elder – That is where you can introduce the three levels of liberation: at the first level, our being has to face its own tendencies, which are related to the five elements within the sphere of all manifestation (cf. article 002-the five elements of the heart), whose effects can be felt directly. There the being is in a cause and effect relationship. It is subjected to its own samskaras. The mature level of its consciousness won’t allow it to apprehend the real meaning of its life down here, and it tends to suffer it mostly. The work really starts when you are an aspirant.
Theo. – When will the aspirant attain liberation then?
The Elder – On going through the sphere of manifestation and then entering a cosmic dimension, which corresponds to ajna-ckakra, the points 6 and 7.
Theo. – How did you manage to reach the stage?
The Elder – Actually, the guide and spiritual master is the one who helps the aspirant go through one dimension to another. It looks like a quantum leap.
Theo. – Is the outcome a final one?
The Elder – It is not. It’s merely an approach. The aspirant is still subjected to the earth attraction and the elements it is made of. Now, the aspirant’s role consists in integrating what he or she has been given.
Theo. – What do you mean?
The Elder – Inwardly, the Atman (the soul) takes control of the aspirant’s life, in order to help him achieve the fulfillment of destiny. So far, the being was undergoing life. Learning how to let the soul guide one’s life takes a long time, you know. Sometimes, our tendencies are like old demons that come to haunt us and try to regain control over our lives.
Theo. – Can this really happen?
The Elder – Too often, I’m afraid.
Theo. – Is that what we call failing spiritually?
The Elder. Such failures may happen indeed.
Theo. – Is the soul really liberated only at the time of death, when it won’t have to live and suffer again on earth?
The Elder – The opportunity is there for everyone, at the moment of death. If the soul allows itself to be carried away by the Divine, then it will effectively be liberated.
Theo. – Otherwise?
The Elder – Otherwise, after a long or short moment of rest, regeneration and apprenticeship, the soul will constitute a new personality for fulfilling the destiny it will have defined with the help of its guide.
Theo. – What of those who have already approached the cosmic region and have already got their ticket for liberation, if I may say so? They don’t have to come back down to earth, do they?
The Elder – They have been fully liberated indeed. But they will have to continue to advance and evolve within other plans of existence, or they may also choose to return to earth and help humankind.
Theo. – They must have come quite a long way then, mustn’t they! Can you tell me more about it?
The points of the heart region.
The Elder – The Way represented by the six chakras has been open by the Master. Each centre has been cleaned. The siren voices for earth, water, fire, air and ether can no longer gain a grip on the soul’s being, which has been ‘liberated’ (jivan-mukti), but that is only the beginning of the way to be travelled.
Theo. – To my understanding, the first stage of liberation consists in the soul being liberated from the karmic effects of samskaras and from having to be reborn.
The Elder – Exactly! When at the second stage, man keeps thinking of liberating God, who is within him. Babuji has illustrated it by drawing the eleven circles of the ego.
The esoteric symbol.
Theo. – I can’t understand. I thought the ego concerned the region of manifestation and of the elements it is made of. Any releasable yogi has already crossed the first star. (cf. article 022 Part 1, about yatra and the esoteric symbol.) He has reached the ajna-chakra, the gate to the cosmic region. So why should the ego still be active, let alone detrimental? Didn’t you tell me that many further spiritual failures were possible at that level, though it concerns beings who are considered as masters, or even as saints?
The Elder – Babuji wisely had his disciples enter the cosmic region via Chit lake, or point 7, because point 6, ajna-chakra, is the point where flows the cosmic force, which is an immense source of power put at the aspirant’s disposal.
Theo. – And so, he can be tempted to play God, can’t he?
The Elder – The risk is there indeed, for he can now make miracles, read people’s thoughts, hear and perceive through his super-senses, and he has an access to a higher knowledge.
Theo. – Hence the risk! But hadn’t he gained independence from desires, anger or fear? Isn’t he supposed to be in peace?
The Elder – How could I explain it to you? We could say that he has got an Adam’s complex!
Theo. – What do you mean?
The Elder – Well! When God created the universal man (Adam), he made him in his own image and gave him all the powers that go with it. That’s when Adam said to himself: “Then I am God, and I don’t need any God, do I. So, I’m going to create my own universe; I’ll make it in my own image. I know all the laws and principles that govern it, and I have a universal knowledge. I am the universal man to whom God has given everything.” You see? ‘I, I, I…’ That is how it all started, how he split off from God and broke his link with God. In the Bible, that is what they call ‘Man’s fall’.
Theo. – Was he really cut off from God?
The Elder – Ordinary men don’t believe in God and they live as though God did not exist. They ignore Him, they deny Him, or they even blame Him for the state this world is now in.
Theo. – That is the world Adam has created, in fact. We are all Adams, lacking universality. Then, are we really cut off from God?
The Elder – That is not possible. He is at the centre of every single thing that is, He gives life to all that lives. You could as well talk of electrons having no nucleus. He is always present, he is omnipresent, but most of us have lost any consciousness of that Presence, of the energy, the vibration which animates us.
Theophile the Elder
An excerpt from Dialogs with Theophile the Elder
Theophile the Younger’s Initiation