THAT which is, is sat variously termed positively as Light, Supreme or Prime Consciousness, Fullness, Heaven, Silence, Grace, and negatively as Nirvana, Nisreyah and so on. Its aspects of Chit and Ananda, knowledge and Bliss, are expressed as the Heart of all that appears as Existence. In its aspect as Grace its one effort is to express itself through all that exists. This expression of joy is the eternal Dance behind all the wakefulness, dreams and peaceful sleep of life, though these three alone appear as our experience.
The effort of humanity from time immemorial has been to discover this Joy eternal and this has been termed Tapasya. The result of such an effort is not the attainment of something new but only fitting the vehicle so as to be overtaken by the ever-present Grace and be in It, and then to find that there is nothing but It. Wherever there is a perfect vehicle the overtaking and the expression of Grace are immediate and perfect, and such a one is termed Maharshi, Siddha, Jivan-Mukta and so on.
THE TRANSFORMATION
Nearly fifty six years ago such a perfect vehicle appeared on earth. After sixteen years of apparently normal life the Grace of life awakened in Him, gushed in and out of Him, caught and drew His normal consciousness deeper and deeper inward into that in which nothing but Itself is seen or heard or known, in which there is not the shining of the sun, the moon, or the stars, but which is all these and fullness Itself. In the Grace enthralled or Grace- embraced condition, aware of nothing but ever-awareness, the vehicle was propelled or impelled to Arunachala, Light- Constant. Here, absolutely controlled by the Light ever- aware, He sat and sat and sat. He could not talk, not that He would not. He could not open His eyes, not that He would not. He could not move, not that He would not. What we call ‘He’ was under the control of an inner- something which was to Him an experience of unterminating awareness, and Bliss all-embracing. That state of fullness is the Mouna of perfect Shanti, the Reality into which the Maharshi awoke and in which there was no ‘he’ to act.
While the small bubble of ‘he’ was merged in the wide expanse and kept enthralled, His being was being renewed and reconstructed, the old faculties partook of the nature of the essence into which they were merged. Until His re-cloaking and re-decoration was complete, hugged the Son firmly in His sleep, and the Son, enjoying the inner recess of His Father’s Chamber, was of necessity lost to all knowledge of the outer thatch. When this process of attuning was complete, the Parent let go the Child to play with whatever urchins might come to Him in the street. The Child, in the same way as the Parent and being perfectly as towering a personality as the Father, was sure that He could not be tarnished by the touch of the foul urchins in the street. Nay, He was sure He could not only play with them, but was fully conscious that He could transform them all after His own and His Father’s Image.
RETURN OF THE VOICE
When He came out, He found that He had lost His power of speech in the fullness of His joy and communion in the silent language of His Parent. He could have quietly slid back into the enjoyment of His Father’s chamber, but no. He was all-compassion for the urchins, and He began to lisp and prattle like a new-born babe. Those who were fortunate enough to be close at hand, when He came out of His Father’s Chamber, can testify to His first efforts to articulate. His vocal chords could not coherently put words together for long years after this release. Today His soothing voice, silvery eyes and golden touch are the solace of thousands and thousands of pilgrims from the East and the West. May this Grace be with us forever and bless all who long for Light.