consciousness
Shri Mataji
So when you are enlightened, the conscious mind is something like a tree into which the sap is now flowing. It may be that it is just like a leaf or it may be it is like a flower, or maybe it is like a fruit. So it changes its forms once he gets realization. If a person gets realization then the conscious mind moves on, getting more and more light. Say, for example, when the electricity comes, you can see this room, you can see another’s room, you can see another room, you can go round and see and again, again you will see it all the rooms; then you become aware of all the rooms. So you are conscious of all these. But in the beginning you are just conscious of the room where you are standing, isn’t it?
So the conscious mind’s definition cannot be given after realization. A person like Me, say for example, has a conscious mind that might envelop the whole world. Or a conscious mind of a person who is realized soul who is still not anywhere, just started, then he’s only conscious as to where is right, where is left, where is this. So before the realization the conscious mind sees things around you. Out of that also there are categories. Some people see, say, for artists can see something, and a scientist can see something, another poet will see something. So it depends on the conscious mind how it is, has got the trend. But still it won’t see something that is subtle behind it, and that only is possible after you get your realization.
Shri Mataji, Sydney, Australia, 6 May 1987
We’ve all heard about the environmental disaster that is gripping the world and bringing it to its knees. But what about that other disaster that is taking place inside us in that mysterious, unquantifiable, inner environment – our spirit, our consciousness?
Because for every poisoned sea and ripped down forest around us in this world, there is a spiritual equivalent here within us, in this land of our imagination. Think about it – what happened to that innocent little creature you were when you were born, who seemed to know itself, that was happy in the moment? How has it changed? Haven’t our inner worlds transformed in parallel with the world around us? Who amongst us is still happy? Who amongst us even believes in the simple happiness of just being alive?
And what about these thoughts that choke up our inner skies as surely as any CO2-emitting chimney – that harangue us endlessly with guilt trips, anger, self-glory, alternating with self-loathing and a string of endless and insatiable desires? What about these lusts that break our societies and our families apart, and in the process our children’s hearts until, like us, they too are filled up with yet more pain and insecurity?
We can see the world around us as it suffers, we hear about the flora and fauna that are being destroyed in our wake and we are spurred on to try to curb our wanton consumption of life in the hope that the cycle can be reversed. But how can we hope to bring a balm of peace to this world when our hearts are swamped in toxins, our guts have been mined with unfillable pits of greed, our inner skies are choked by the smoking factories of our mind and our innocent desires are fanned into fierce fires that consume the brushwood of our morality?
Yes, let’s try to save the world! But as we do, let us remember what we are saving this world from. We are saving this world from ourselves, nothing more. We are saving the world from what we have become.
And if we really want to make a difference, then the struggle must be a twofold struggle – both an outer and an inner one. A simultaneous battle to save the animals of the Brazilian rainforests and also the bare-footed angels that live in our hearts. We’re fighting the Environmental disaster but we should not forget about the IN-vironmental disaster that is the root of all our present ills.
Jeremy Clancy
(Photograph: webshots)
Editor: Jeremy would like to start an email action group on this topic. If you would like to join the group, please write to me at [email protected], and I will send your message to Jeremy.