THE GOD-MAN The Life, Journeys and Work of Meher Baba with an ...

THE FINAL DECLARATION 259body. Aham implies identification with the false. Why do we do this? Even when we understand, we stillidentify. Why? The T is not the body, nor the eating nor the quarrelling one. For ages the unlimited Selfhas been in illusion, because consciousness and intellect were not developed. In the human formconsciousness and intellect are developed, but there is identification with illusion because of the habits ofages. Hafiz says: 'You, who do not come out of this age-long habit of being ignorant, can never realize theSelf as infinite'."It is truly said that God has no beginning and no end. Think this over. If he had no beginning, what wasthere before God? The answer is, God. You cannot in imagination reach where no beginning was. Theanswer can only be God. What will be there after billions of years? God. Always God. This means that inEternity there is no time. Nothing has ever happened, and nothing ever will happen. Billions of years agoyou were; today you are here, ever afterwards you will be. Today all that is happening is not happening,though this does not appear to be so now."When one has experience of Eternity, one knows that God Is. To say that God was, is and will be, iswrong. All Eternity is now present at this moment. So I say, 'God Is'."What happened yesterday had produced a temporary effect; but the actual happening of yesterday hasstopped, which means that nothing happened yesterday. The temporary effect is illusion. So it goes on:God and illusion running parallel. Illusion says everything is happening, God says nothing happens."When you are in the grip of the false'I', which identifies itself with what happens, illusion governs you.But when you know the truth, you do not identify yourself with it. All we see, hear and experience in theworld is not God. Whatever you can understand, is not God. Whatever is explained is not God. Whateveris expressed is not God. The poet says:"The lover says to the Master: You have taught me something that has made me forget everything. Youhave created in me a desire that says, do not desire anything. You have given me that One Word whichsays, words mean nothing."And the lover says: Oh Master, I was seeking God and thought Him this and that. Now you have givenme something of which even my imagination cannot produce the shadow."It is all words. When you say Self, God, Infinity, they mean nothing. To attempt to understand byreading or hearing explanations is an