The group had their food in the school, and then at 1:00 P.M., Baba urged Pukar, "Sing such a song that will either make all wide awake, or put them to sleep!"
Pukar sang and Baba was happy. Baba asked others to sing, which they did.
Referring to the previous night's disturbance, Baba commented, "When the madman was howling last night at Amalapuram, a thought struck me, and it was that the mess regarding baqa and fana should be cleared up for the mandali once and for all."
He then began this discourse:
In Sufism, the term fana means passing away, and baqa means abiding. Fana is the goal where the "I-Am-God" state is experienced, like that of the majzoobs, and baqa means abiding or living in God.
Fana has two states. The first state of fana is absolute vacuum, where the mind, body, energy, universes, even I vanish — nothing is there. Only Consciousness remains in that state. Until fana, you have consciousness of yourselves, mind, energy and body. In the first or vacuum state of fana, everything disappears except the Consciousness. But the very next moment, the vacuum state is followed by the second state of fana, where mind and body don't come back. Even if the body seems to be there, the I comes back, the I of the I-Am-God state. It is the goal.
Very few, however, come down to the normal state of consciousness — to the state of baqa, that is, abiding in God. In that state, the life of God is lived. In baqa, mind comes back as the Universal Mind, energy comes back as infinite power, body comes back as Mahakaran , the Universal Body . This Universal Body remains because it has to be on the level of every consciousness — gross, subtle and mental.
So fana has two states. After the first, the second must invariably follow. For example, compare fana with our sound sleep state. In sound sleep, mind, energy, body all vanish: that is, you are not conscious of them. But as soon as you wake up, you first become conscious of yourself and assert your I. Similarly, in fana you become conscious of the "Real I," or "I-Am-God." Fana is spontaneously followed by baqa. The gross baqa means becoming conscious of your living in this world.
Nirvan is where God is not. That is the only state where God is not and consciousness is.