2006, IV - The Muslim Sunrise

sustain its life and that of theoffspring. The tiger will never eatgrass even if its life is at stake.Animals kill other animals only tosatisfy their hunger. But humanbeings not only kill to eat butaggrandize to satisfy their greed.Mahatma Gandhi has told, “There isenough in this world to fulfill everybody’s need but there is not enougheven to satisfy one person’s greed.”In the nature deer are not afraid ofthe tiger and they stay in the sameforest. Once the tiger has eaten onedeer, they stay around knowing thatthe tiger is already satisfied and willnot eat more. But human beings mayeat two potatoes, but they will amasshundred pounds of potatoes for theirfuture use. In humans, there is suchgreed, but in animals no such greedis there. Unless humans follow thenature, they are worse than animals.Sins are only in case of humanbeings, not in animals. Eating meatis not sinful if it is needed for humansurvival; but eating even thevegetables out of greed is sinful.You said that Jivas canget connected withBrahman. What happenswhen that connection ismade?Then it becomes one withBrahman, and that means that itsjourney will come to an end. It isHome coming. All the wanderingswill come to an end. One will attainEternal Bliss. The game of life isover. There after one will love andserve every body not for fulfillmentbut out of fulfillment.Is it absorbed in Brahmanand disappears, or itsexistence is still therewithin Brahman?Once we realize that our truenature is Brahman, then though thebody is there for us to see it, but weare not the body anymore. Webecome one with Brahman. Therewill be no separate identity apartfrom Brahman. One might be seeinga tree, but actually it is ONE GOD.The Jiva connected with God seesGod in everything. After that thereis nothing left for Jiva to achieve.So there is no coming back to thecycle of creation.Is there a creativeprocess for Jivas, or theyjust exist by themselvessince eternity?There are two things: When youare talking of creation, at that timewe talk of karma, we talk of body,we talk of differences, and we talkof reincarnation. But when we aretalking from the stand point of theSupreme, then the creation is notthere In Hinduism, there are twotheories for creation: One is calledmodification, the other is calledmanifestation. Modification is likemaking yogurt from the milk. Milkis the cause, yogurt is the effect.Once the cause becomes the effect,then we cannot change the effectback to the cause. In modification,the nature of the effect is completelydifferent from the nature of thecause as it is evident in thedifference between milk and yogurt.But in case of manifestation, causewithout undergoing any changeappears as something completelydifferent. The example is that of arope appearing as a snake. In thedarkness of night we do not see therope as a rope, but we see it as asnake. But the snake is non-existing.Similarly, we see a ghost on a post,or blueness in the sky. This kind ofcreation is manifestation. When wetalk about this creation which ischanging all the time, which is madeof differences, in which there is lotof pain and suffering; but actuallyGod is appearing in many formswithout undergoing any change!That’s why we call the creation asthe manifestation of the Lord, theBrahman. Jiva is non other thanBrahman in its true nature.Now these Jivas, are theymanifested or are theymodifications?They are manifested, they are notmodifications.If all the Jivas aremanifestations of God,then what makes themdifferent from each other?Some are good and someare bad.The difference is only inappearance. In reality there is nodifference. We are the differentmanifestations of the same Lord.Appearance is only for the senseorgans and mind. Mind is like aprism. When a ray of light passesthrough a prism apparently sevendifferent colors are formed. Butthese colors merge back to theSunlight when the prism is removed.In the same way when the OneDivine light in us expresses itselfthrough the prism of mind,apparently different forms arecreated. But these differences areillusory. So Ignorance createsdivisions but understanding of ourtrue Self removes the differences.When we do not understand the oneAll-pervading Reality, we giveimportance to the creation of mindand sense organs which create theillusory divisions.Finally, if you have to givea message to the readersof the Muslim Sunriseabout Atman and Jiva,what would you like to sayin conclusion?The main thing is that all religionslead to the same destination. Religionsare eternal laws of life. By followingthose laws we can reach the supremeLord. Religions are propagated by greatsaints, by great prophets, greatmahatmas, and great seers. We are notreally the creators of religion. Religionis created by God. Divine principles andDivine Law are not created by anyhuman being. But there are so manyprophets or messengers they haverealized that Truth by following thereligious principles and they have shownus the path to Divinity. So we should giveimportance to the Divine. We should notget caught in differences in the paths butshould aim at the same Divinedestination. One should not get caughtup with how people look, and how theybehave. We should always concentrateon God, God is One! We should loveeverybody equally. We should not hateany one.40 MuslimSunrise