Prior to this century, if you wanted to become enlightened, it would have been one of the rarest prizes to attain. One person in a million might have achieved it.
Jesus was not jesting or exaggerating when he said that “many are called, but few are chosen.” (1) The invitation is always given to many by way of a vision or a peak experience early in life to spur us on, but few have the commitment or the stamina to stay the course.
“One in a million understands all this play of consciousness [and] transcends it,” Sri Nisargadatta observed. (2) “The Divine Mother … gives freedom to one out of a hundred thousand,” Sri Ramakrishna said. (3)
The higher the level of enlightenment, the fewer there be that achieve it, as medieval sage Richard Rolle noted.
“For this mystery is hidden from the many, and is revealed to the few, and those the most special. So the more sublime such a level is, the fewer – in this world – are those who find it.” (4)
Why is this? Well, primarily because of what Swami Brahmananda described: “Only one in a million sincerely longs for God, and few sustain that longing.” (5)
Of the individuals who achieve enlightenment, there’s yet another kicker, which is somewhat complicated to describe. Many of the people whose enlightenment we celebrate were already at least enlightened sages to begin with or else ascended masters who reincarnated. Jesus was Elishu; John the Baptist was Elijah; Dhjwal Khul was Lao Tzu; Mohandas Gandhi was St. Francis of Assisi. And almost anyone with the name Teresa was the same person reincarnated (plus she was St. Clare).
For all the times St. Germaine incarnated and was enlightened, remove another batch of names. Once we remove the duplicated names of these sages and ascended masters who reincarnated, our list shrinks dramatically. Very few everyday people achieved enlightenment or even knew about it in all our history. The roll of enlightened individuals may seem large when considered collectively but is infinitesimally small when compared to the population.
The level of enlightenment associated with Ascension is an exalted one known as Sahaja Nirvikalpa Samadhi. (6) I know of only Sri Ramana Maharshi who achieved it in recent history. I once suggested another living sage to Archangel Michael and asked him to confirm he had attained it and he replied: “Not yet.”
So against this backdrop, we of this generation are aiming for the Ascension of all of humanity. All of humanity have before them the opportunity that almost no one in the past did. We’re going from one in a million to anyone from among seven billion who assimilates enough light to withstand the refined vibrations of the Fifth Dimension and chooses Ascension. That is movement from one extreme to the other.
Obviously not all seven billion will make it or even choose it. But potentially it’s open to them.
Sri Krishna tells us that “the reward of all action is to found in enlightenment.” (7) Sahaja Samadhi will bring us endless bliss, creative potency, unbroken health, freedom from death – on and on the benefits go.
Ibn Arabi described the knowledge of God as “a hidden treasure;” (8) Jesus as a “treasure buried in a field.” (9) Solomon described the Mother’s enlightenment as “better than … silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold.” (10) It was “more precious than rubies: and all things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto [it].” (11) But today the Divine Mother has opened her treasure chest and is offering her gems freely to everyone, begging us to take them.
Anyone who has tasted enlightenment attests to its irresistible delightfulness. St. John of the Cross tells us of a level of enlightenment well short of Sahaja: “Such is the sweetness of deep delight of these touches of God that one of them is more than recompense for all the sufferings of this life, however great their number.” (12)
Walt Whitman, who experienced, he says, only one ray of light, could still exclaim:
“Thou O God my life has lighted,
With ray of light, steady, ineffable, vouchsafed of Thee,
Light rare untellable, lighting the very light,
Beyond all signs, descriptions, languages;
For that, O God, be it my latest word, here on my knees,
Old, poor, and paralyzed, I thank Thee.”
(13)
And yet far greater than this is being held out to us, for the asking and a modicum of preparatory work.
How lucky are we? Do we even realize how lucky this generation is? I’ll bet we don’t.
Here I sit, saying to Archangel Michael, reading after reading: “And when is Disclosure? When is the reval? When is Ascension?” And the Company of Heaven is creating the circumstances that will see that as many as assimilate the needed light and choose it will attain a level of enlightenment that was beyond the reach of almost anyone in times past. How humbling it is to encounter my own superficiality?
And he never complains or chastises me! How lucky is that? How lucky are we?
Footnotes
(1) Jesus in Matthew 22:14.
(2) Nisargadatta Maharaj, Consciousness and the Absolute. ed. Jean Dunn. Durham: Acorn press, 1994, 70.
(3) Paramahansa Ramakrishna in Swami Nikhilananda, trans., The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. New York: Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, 1978; c1942, 136.
(4) Richard Rolle, The Fire of Love. Trans. Clifton Wolters. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1981; c1972, 51.
(5) Swami Brahmananda in Swami Prabhavananda, The Eternal Companion. Brahmananda. Hollywood: Vedanta Press, 1970; c1944 194.
(6) “The Divine Mother: Come to Me as I Come to You – Part 1/2,” Oct. 17, 2012, at https://goldenageofgaia.com/2012/10/the-divine-mother-come-to-me-as-i-come-to-you-part-12/
(7) Sri Krishna in Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood, trans., Bhagavad-Gita. The Song of God. New York and Scarborough: New American Library, 1972; c1944, 54.
(8) Muhyidden Ibn Arabi, Kernel of the Kernel. trans. Ismail Hakki Bursevi. Sherborne: Beshara, n.d., 3.
(9) Jesus in Matthew 13:44.
(10) Proverbs 3:13-4.
(11) Proverbs 3:13-4.
(12) St. John of the Cross in Maurcie Bucke, Cosmic Consciousness. A Study in the Evolution of the Human Mind. New York: Dutton, 1969; c1901, 149. [Hereafter CC.]
(13) Walt Whitman, in old age, in CC, 233.