Chapter 36: Interested In Remaining Disinterested
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Those who have the necessary courage to tread the spiritual path are not many. People talk too lightly about spirituality. The spiritual path, in fact, is far above what they could possibly conceive. It is a matter of experiencing. To be on the Path is to become gradually dead to one's material and mental existence. This process proves very trying for the fickle and the worldly-minded people who lack fidelity of heart. The Path leading to sainthood is not easy.
One who sees the Sat [Real] is a sant . The saint on the sixth plane of consciousness sees God face to face. Such an experience is the result of lives upon lives of honest search and sincere longing for union with Beloved God. This state of "seeing" God culminates in final fana and that is the end of the First Journey. In the First Journey, there are seven stations of which one is referred to as the state of a Saint — the one who sees God.
Final fana implies the merging of the drop (individual atma ) in the Ocean ( Paramatma ) and consequently the drop becoming the Ocean. In final fana there are two stages. In the first stage, there is conscious experience of the absolute vacuum state, and in the second, there is conscious experience of the "I-Am-God" state. These two stages are, in fact, so completely one that each implies the other. This is the state of real majzoobiyat of a perfect majzoob [one drowned in God].
Not all [God-realized souls] are destined to undertake the Second Journey. In the Second Journey there are no stations. In fana, one's limited existence is entirely and permanently effaced. This is the state of unconscious consciousness, except for Self being God. In the Second Journey, baqa, one has consciousness of the Unlimited Infinite, and at the same time, individuality is retained. This is the beginning and ending of the Second Journey. This is the state of perfect sulukiyat of a real salik.
Baba pointed to one of his lovers named Soman.
For example, you are called Soman. In the experience of final fana you are not left as Soman. Only God exists.