Evolution of Consciousness

The boundless universal space in reality is not empty. In it there abides an infinite in size and eternal Being which is called the Absolute.

How can one become acquainted with Him? How can one see Him?

It is impossible to see Him in full with the eyes of the material body.

Yet one can see, hear, and even embrace Him with the emotions of higher love, can infuse into Him and merge with Him — one can really do this with oneself as a consciousness (soul) developed to the necessary degree.

Why can one not perceive the entire Absolute through the organs of sense of the physical body? Because the Absolute consists of several “layers” which are called spatial dimensions, planes of the multidimensional space, eons, or lokas (the two latter words are of Greek and Sanskrit origins correspondingly). An individual consciousness is capable of perceiving only those objects and phenomena which exist within the “layer” where this consciousness dwells.

The Absolute can be likened to a multi-layered pie. Yet every one of these “Layers” exists in its “storey” of the multidimensional universe. And in order to cognize directly every such “Layer”, one has to enter it. But this is not always easy to do.

For an ordinary healthy person, it is easy to perceive only the material plane. But the material plane is just one of the seven “layers of the pie”.

Apart from the material plane, there are also the layers of hell, paradise, cosmic “repositories” filled with “building material” for future souls and material objects (correspondingly — protopurusha and protoprakriti).

What is the difference between these eons? They differ by the place which they occupy on the scales of coarseness — subtlety and density — refinement.

Every eon is separated from another by a well-perceivable membrane, which can be likened to a boundary between water and transparent oil contained in the same vessel.

For studying the multidimensional structure of the universe one can use the concept of vectors of multidimensional scales.

One of such vectors goes through the multidimensional space between hell — and the Abode of the Creator.

Another vector goes between the world of matter — and the Creator.

Hell — as a spatial dimension — is the place of aggregation of coarse, despising souls expelled outside the Absolute. Jesus called this place “the outer darkness where there is weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth” (Matt 8:12). It is the “cesspool” of the Absolute.

The world of matter is the most dense eon.

And the Creator (the Primordial Consciousness) is the main and subtlest form of consciousness existing within the Absolute; it is the Heart of the Absolute.

… Let me tell you also that in the past I tried hardly to arrange into a single scheme all the eons which I had known by that time. I could not do it for a long time, because I observed and entered pairs of eons of similar density and subtlety. And how can one arrange them into one sequence on the scale mentioned above?

The solution was found when I managed to realize that, yes, on every “storey” there is a pair of eons. The eons of each pair are separated from one another by one common membrane which can be called the Mirror. On the back side (with respect to the perceiver) of the Mirror there are “behind-the-mirror” eons; on the front side there are the worlds of matter, of individual souls, and of Holy Spirits who control the development of these souls.*

In this way the scheme for studying the structure of the Absolute was created and then published in some of our books ([1,9 and others]). This scheme allows spiritual seekers to master the lokas of the Absolute one after another with the help of this “search map”.*

There is the following nuance concerning this scheme: the loka of the Abode of Creator (Ishvara) is common for individual Atmans and for Paramatman (the Highest Divine Atman). Fully transparent and looking like emptiness Paramatman can be perceived from Atmans — between the two Atmic structures (the left and the right ones) of the spiritual adept — through the meditation The Cross (see [9]). This meditation allows submerging into Paramatman and cognizing — in Mergence with It — Its Infinity.

From this point, one begins to master the highest stage of Self-Realization*.

* * *

Attainment of Mergence with the Creator was preached as the meaning and goal of our lives on the Earth by Thoth-the-Atlantean (Hermes Trismegistus), Pythagoras, Krishna, Jesus Christ, Gautama Buddha, also by Messiahs of our days — Sathya Sai Baba and Babaji [2,5,8,10,13,15-18]. But the religious-philosophical ignorance of human masses instilled in them by various sects results in the fact that so many people do not understand why they appeared on the Earth and wander on the paths of suicide, drug addiction, criminality, and hatred toward everyone and everything…

… One may ask a question: “What do I need to do to achieve this goal?”

To answer this question we have to discuss first the process of development of souls.

The most important thing to understand now is that the Absolute exists in the state of unceasing development, evolution.

And this process goes on through the creation of individual particles of energy (purusha) which get incarnated into material bodies and grow gradually, become more complex, more perfect — with the purpose of achieving eventually that level of Perfection which would allow them to become worthy of infusing into the Primordial Consciousness and thus enriching It with themselves.

It is for this purpose that islands of the matter — stars and planets — are created in various parts of the universe. And then on planets suitable for this purpose, there begins development of organic bodies and incarnation of germs of souls into these bodies.

Thus two parallel evolutionary process guided by God begin: evolution of organic bodies and evolution of souls incarnated in these bodies.

Souls get incarnated many times into material bodies of increasing complexity and thus go through the stages of vegetal, animal, and then human life.

And the task of us, humans, consists in conscious and active development with the purpose of achieving Divinity and merging into the Primordial Consciousness, and then continuing to live in It as Its Integral Parts and to act from It helping other evolving beings.

… So, having understood the meaning of our lives on the Earth, it would be appropriate to discuss now how one can realize it most successfully.

* * *

Every intellectually developed incarnated person can notice the vast diversity of people around. This concerns not the difference of the bodily features: sex, ethnicity, color of the skin and hair, etc — all these do not matter! Another difference is more important — the difference of qualities between souls.

There are two main factors which define the quality of the soul and its corresponding capabilities in the task of spiritual development at present. They are: a) the soul’s psychogenetic age* and b) what qualities were developed by this person during the last stages of his or her personal evolution. These qualities can be positive or negative; in other words, they can be contributing to the evolutionary progress of the soul or impeding this progress.

But how can one discriminate between vicious and virtuous qualities of the soul? Is there an objective criterion for such discrimination?

For example, for many alcoholics it would be the following: if you do not want to drink with me, then you do not respect me, then you are my enemy! And if you drink with me, then we are friends with you forever!

In some religious sects they believed and believe now that it is a feat to kill infidels. The more infidels you kill, the more chances to go to paradise you have!

There are many despising examples of this kind. They concern national and sexual prejudices, rules of how one should or should not dress, etc.

Such morals dominate among the masses of ethically perverted souls, who live in constant search of objects for their hatred… They involve into their movements other souls, who are younger and therefore submissive, and lead them, too, to hell…

But God always suggests to incarnated people the opposite thing: to love, to give, to be tender and caring toward each other, not to judge, not to hate, to forgive… [2,5,8,9,13,14-18,21]

One may ask: why? After all, if we rid the Earth of all those… — then it would be more joyful and easy for all to live! And God finally would be able to come to us and make us happy!…

But God has a different opinion.

He Himself says that He is Love (1 John 4:8). And He suggests that we learn this from Him (Matt 11:29). And in order to become closer to Him one has to make efforts on changing oneself quantitatively, approaching in this way to Him — to the standard of Perfection! (James 4:8)

Also He is Calm and ultimate Subtlety. He suggests that we learn these qualities from Him as well [8-13,18].

He also tells us about the Wholeness of the Absolute, suggests that we infuse into this Wholeness and live in such states of the consciousness, which habituate us to the state of unity and mergence with Him rather than separateness.

After all, can we come to Mergence with Him if we are used to say to everyone “no”?*

On the contrary, one has to learn to MERGE IN LOVE — in order to become able to merge with the Main Beloved!

The symbol of love and mergence is “yes” rather than “no”.

And, in general, can we sincerely (not only in words) fall in love with the Creator if we have not yet learned to fall in love with people?

And can we expect responsive love and caress from the Creator if we are not capable of loving His Creation, are not careful toward nature in general and toward concrete incarnated beings: plants, animals, people?

* * *

God commanded to people DO NOT KILL (Exodus 20:13), do not use for food bodies of creatures which contain blood (Exodus 9:4; also [9]). Yet how many people follow these commandments? And violation of these commandments leads to burdening of one’s destiny with diseases and inability to progress on the Path to the Creator.

… Every one of us has to think constantly about what God wants me to be. Yes, one has to listen to what other people say about it, yet one also has to learn to see and to hear the Will of the Creator behind the opinions of people.

Let us think: why did Jesus suggest not to demand the things which were stolen from you, and even to give to the robber more than he wants to take from you, and to him who slapped you on one cheek turn another cheek also (Matt 5:39-42)? Jesus suggested it for us so that we learn not to exit the state of love whatever may happen! After all, every instance of leaving this state of consciousness makes us more distant from the Creator!

The development of the ability to attune with the beauty of nature and with the best works of art, the control over the emotional sphere, behavior and the entire way of life based on calm and benevolent attitude to all the leaving — both to incarnated and not incarnated — this can prepare us for the ascent to the summit of Perfection!

And then the principle stage on this ascent will be to master the system of psychical self-regulation developed by us [9 and others].

This system includes, among other things, cleansing and development of the main energy structures of the organism (the chakras and meridians): after all, one cannot attune with the Divine Subtlety of Holy Spirits and the Creator if one’s body is contaminated with coarse energies, which get accumulated, first of all, from coarse emotions and wrong nutrition.

Another important emphasis in this system of training has to be made on the development of the spiritual heart [1-18,21].

The spiritual heart is a part of the soul which may begin to develop in the heart chakra anahata.

The chakra anahata is that emotionogenic zone of the emotional-volitional system which is responsible for producing the emotions of love. Move of the concentration of the consciousness into this chakra allows one to get rid of coarse states of the consciousness, to destroy pathogenic thinking dominants — and to come to pure, subtle states of love.

The consciousness can change not only qualitatively but can also grow quantitatively.

If one grows oneself in coarse states of the consciousness, then such a person for sure will become an inhabitant of hell.

If we grow as spiritual hearts, this allows us to transform by becoming more subtle and large, to become giant spiritual hearts — and then we gain the ability to see Holy Spirits and then the Creator in His Abode, to converse with Them as easily as we converse with people most close for us… We can even begin to try to embrace the infinite Creator by submerging our loving Arms of the Consciousness into Him and expanding them in Him, the Arms which grow from the giant Spiritual Heart… Then we can easily submerge ourselves completely* into Him, merge with Him, and become Him.

And what is next? — The next thing we should do is to learn to act from Him, learning this from Holy Spirits — from Those Who entered Him earlier.

* * *

Such a level of communication with the Primordial Consciousness and with Its Representatives allows Those Who have traversed this entire Path to evaluate all the variations of attempts of spiritual ascent made by other seekers of the Path and to help them avoid making mistakes*; also to directly impart to people the Will of the Creator, His Teachings.

However, I ask you not to make the mistake that many people make by believing that God will help them in their selfish intentions! God is not our servant! It is people that have to become servants of God!

The intention of the Creator toward people is that they develop correctly, grow spiritually. He is ready to talk to people almost exclusively on this subject. Such examples are the methodology of Straight Path of spiritual development given by Him and biographies of Holy Spirits — Divine Teachers — narrated by Them [8]. From these autobiographical stories one may learn about many variations of walking the Path to the Creator, and can choose the most convenient one for oneself.

Selfish desires are incompatible with the spiritual Path, and in general they cannot have place in relationships with God! It is so because they separate man from God by opposing the human “I” to Him.

He who has approached Perfection serves without reservation only to God rather than to oneself. His service implies self-sacrifice. After all, it makes sense to sacrifice to God one’s own life rather than the lives of others — contrary to what followers of primitive sects do.

And — having sacrificed the personal interests and the personal “I” — man infuses into the great “I” of the Primordial One!

* * *

So, the most important thing on the spiritual Path is the development of the spiritual heart; it is useful and adequate for all people including children.

It is also necessary to study and to realize in life the ethical principles suggested for us by God. Yet in this matter there must be age differentiation. For example, if one taught children “to turn another cheek”, this would reduce their chances to develop the power aspect of the soul necessary for withstanding on the spiritual Path. One has to learn first to fight, to develop (in particular through this) the willpower, self-discipline — and only then one can apply to oneself all the suggestions of God: they are intended for mature people!

And another thing: it is very important to develop the intellect in all possible ways. Without a developed intellect one cannot understand and realize in life the ethical principles suggested by God. And the developed intellect is even more important for understanding the multidimensional structure of the Absolute and for being able to explore and study it without danger for one’s own psychical health.

One may say that the level of one’s intellectual development defines what part of the spiritual Path that person can traverse during the foreseeable part of his or her life.

Not everyone is capable of traversing quickly this entire Path. Yet one has to make everything one can do to achieve this goal. In particular, in this way we create positive karma (destiny) for ourselves — and make our lives more joyful, happy! And the more we traverse now, the lesser part of the Path will remain for us to traverse in the future!

Vladimir Antonov, Ph.D. (in biology)
(chapter from the book Anatomy of God)

Translated from Russian
by Mikhail Nikolenko

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