Is “absolute freedom” attainable?
Sri Yukteswar Giri, guru to Paramahansa Yogananda, once said:
“A master who achieves … final freedom may elect to return to Earth as a prophet….
“Or a freed soul may enter the causal world to aid its beings to shorten their span in the causal body and thus attain the Absolute Freedom.” (1)
Is there such a condition for the individual as “final” or “absolute freedom”? There are twelve dimensions or spheres before … well, the end of human evolution. The causal sphere, that Sri Yukteswar refers to, is the Fifth Dimension.
The “freed soul” would therefore have achieved a higher level than the Fifth to “free” others in the Fifth. But there still are numerous dimensions beyond that.
Nevertheless, absolute freedom itself would, I think, be something only God (as Father or Mother) experiences. If one were to say that (re)mergence with God would be absolute freedom, one would have to acknowledge as well that the individual ceases to exist upon mergence. Therefore who is left to be “absolutely free”?
Speaking of an experience junior to mergence, though the point remains the same, Sri Ramakrishna illustrated the situation with his parable of the “salt doll.”
“Once a salt doll went to measure the depth of the ocean. (All laugh.)
“It wanted to tell others how deep the water was. But this it could never do, for no sooner did it get into the water than it melted. Now who was there to report the ocean’s depth?” (6)
Of this post-dimensional, post-human world, the master Hilarion said:
“When the final secret of this great lesson is told, in it is opened the mystery of the new way – a path which leads out of all human experience, and which is utterly beyond human perception or imagination.” (7)
I call this post-dimensional world the Transcendental. But we’ll probably find that that’s too blunt a c0nceptual tool to describe it.
If it’s “utterly beyond human perception or imagination,” how are we, while in this density, to discuss it?
It’s inhabited by celestials, which makes sense, but also by sages, which surprises. Here the avatar Sri Ramakrishna describes meeting the seven sages, one of whom later became Swami Vivekananda, in the Transcendental. (8)
The description is fascinating enough to include the whole of it. It demonstrates that beings live in the Transcendental. It isn’t just a void as I’ve considered it for so long.
“Absorbed one day, in samadhi, Ramakrishna had found that his mind was soaring high, going beyond the physical universe of the sun, moon, and stars, and passing into the subtle region of ideas. As it continued to ascend, the forms of gods and goddesses were left behind, and it crossed the luminous barrier separating the phenomenal universe from the Absolute, entering finally the transcendental realm.
“There Ramakrishna saw seven venerable sages absorbed in meditation. These, he thought, must have surpassed even the gods and goddesses in wisdom and holiness, and as he was admiring their unique spirituality he saw a portion of the undifferentiated Absolute become congealed, as it were, and take the form of a Divine Child.
“Clambering upon the lap of one of the sages and gently clasping his neck with His soft arms, the Child whispered something in his ear, and at this magic touch the sage awoke from meditation. He fixed his half-open eyes upon the wondrous Child, who said in great joy: ‘I am going down to Earth. Won’t you come with me?’
“With a benign look the sage expressed assent and returned into deep spiritual ecstasy. Ramakrishna was amazed to observe that a tiny portion of the sage, however, descended to earth, taking the form of light, which struck the house in Calcutta where Narendra’s family lived, and when he saw Narendra for the first time, he at once recognized him as the incarnation of that sage. He also admitted that the Divine Child who brought about the descent of the rishi [or sage] was none other than himself.” (9)
If the celestials and sages felt we could understand what they have to say about the Transcendental, they’d probably communicate on it. But they usually don’t. Sri Ramakrishna is one of the few who does.
I’m often incapable of making heads or tails out of what they say about the Transcendental under the best of circumstances. Moreover, I don’t think that level of existence would be communicable in our terms. The greater usually cannot be reduced to the lesser.
Archangel Michael confided to Andrew Eardsley:
“In terms of human comprehension in this moment, we need to feed or allow the opening of the understandings to the human Collective – we’re talking about the broad Collective now – to be in ‘bites’ that they can chew, swallow and integrate.” (10)
So he admits to feeding us information in bite-size chunks.
Sanat Kumara also acknowledged, implicitly, that the masters and celestials have been holding back when he said: “We are at the point where we can have this broader, deeper conversation on the meaning of the journey.” (11)
On another occasion, he was even more candid: “Now I am going to be very forthright in this discussion because you are at a level of maturity, spiritual and emotional, where you can truly engage in the discussion, not the soliloquy, but the discussion.” (12)
That’s not faint praise to say we’ve reached the stage where we can engage in discussion with them.
The Divine Mother confided to us that she will on occasion speak of things beyond our comprehension, for a definite reason:
“There are parts of this, in the infinite and eternal – yes, even in the fulfillment of my Plan, even in what I have termed ‘New Time’ – that you may not fully comprehend.
“Then you may say to me, ‘Well, Mother, why would you even speak of it?’ I speak of it as I speak of many things. I plant the seed, not merely of knowing, but of remembrance within thee.
“As you water it with my clarity and grace, purity and love, it will sprout and it will grow, and you will come to know and understand, and expand in ways that are wondrous to you, to all, to me.” (13)
Our collective understanding is said to be unfolding and, as it does, we’re told more and more about life’s nature and purpose.
Here we are, on a strange journey to an unknown place, rising in ways unfamiliar to us, with no visible guides or available guidebooks. Nonetheless, with each new region entered, the rewards are so great that I can’t imagine anyone grumbling upon arrival there.
Footnotes
(1) Sri Yukteswar Giri in Paramahansa Yogananda, Autobiography of a Yogi. Bombay: Jaico, 1975, 421.[Hereafter AY.]
(1) Admittedly I’m reading the words of sages who DID communicate so the sampling is biased.
(2) Muhyideen Ibn Arabi, Kernel of the Kernel. trans. Ismail Hakki Bursevi. Sherborne: Beshara, n.d., 23.
(3) Paramahansa Ramakrishna in Swami Nikhilananda, trans., The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. New York: Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, 1978; c1942, 178. The knowledge of Brahman or Brahmajnana is seventh-chakra enlightenment and is the state immediately prior to Sahaja Samadhi, a permanent heart opening and the endpoint of our Ascension. [Hereafter GSR.]
(4) Fourth Dimension
(5) Fifth Dimension
(6) Sri Yukteswar Giri in Paramanansa Yogananda, AY, 421.
(7) Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 102-3.
(8) It may surprise us less to find a sage there if we remember that the Seven Sages were Elohim, rather than humans. On the Elohim, see “Who are the Elohim? – Part 1/3-3/3,” at https://goldenageofgaia.com/building-nova-earth-toward-a-world-that-works-for-everyone/what-role-are-the-elohim-playing/who-are-the-elohim-part-13/; https://goldenageofgaia.com/building-nova-earth-toward-a-world-that-works-for-everyone/what-role-are-the-elohim-playing/who-are-the-elohim-part-23/; and https://goldenageofgaia.com/building-nova-earth-toward-a-world-that-works-for-everyone/what-role-are-the-elohim-playing/who-are-the-elohim-part-33/
(9) Swami Nikhilananda, trans.Vivekananda: The Yogas and Other Works. New York: Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, 1953, 14.
(10) The Master Hilarion, channelling through Mabel Collins, channel. Light on the Path and an Essay on Karma. Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1974, 11-2.
(11) Archangel Michael in a personal reading with Andrew Eardsley through Linda Dillon on April 15, 2016.
(12) “Transcript: Sanat Kumara” The Only Litmus Test is Love,” at https://goldenageofgaia.com/2015/04/10/sanat-kumara-the-only-litmus-test-is-love/
(13) “Transcript: Sanat Kumara – We Override Those who Want to Hurt by Anchoring Greater Peace Within – Part 2/2,” February 25, 2015, at https://goldenageofgaia.com/2015/02/25/transcript-sanat-kumara-override-want-hurt-anchoring-greater-peace-within-part-22/.
(14) ’“Transcript of the Divine Mother: Density is Unloving Emotion; Love is Lightness of Being,” March 6, 2015, at https://goldenageofgaia.com/2015/03/06/transcript-of-the-divine-mother-density-is-unloving-emotion-love-is-lightness-of-being/.