Isra And Miraj

The Angel Gabriel cleansing Mohammed's heart of impurities in preparation for his ascent to heaven, while the other angels watch. From the 16th-century manuscript The Progress of the Prophet, from Turkey

High beyond Intelligence is the Great Self,beyond the Great Self is the Unmanifest,beyond the Unmanifest is the Conscious Being.There is nothing beyond the Being-that is the extreme ultimate,that the Supreme Goal-KATHA UPANISHAD

Nirvana-Liberating,annihilation,extinction,not necessarily of all the being,but of being as we know it,extinction of ego,desire and egoistic action and mentality

The Central Being. The Universal Person
"Thou art He" – such is the eternal truth. Tat tvam asi, thou art That. This is the Truth the ancient Mysteries taught and the later religions forgot. Having lost the central secret, they fell prey to all the aberrant dualisms, substituting obscure mysteries for the great, simply Mystery. "I and my Father are one," Jesus Christ said (John 10,30); "I am He," – so'ham – the sages of India say; indeed, this is the truth all liberated men discover, whether they be from the East or the West, from the past or the present. This is the eternal Fact we must all discover. This "I," the self who asserts its identity with God, is not that of a privileged individual

"A year and a half later, he was invited to the Presence of Allah, Almighty and Exalted. From Makkah to Jerusalem (Quds) he travelled accompanied by Archangel Gabriel (Jibril) . From Jerusalem he ascended to the heavens by means of Buraq, a heavenly mount who carried him up. All the prophets in the different levels of heaven came to greet him. He ascended higher and higher, until he heard the scratching of the Pen(Kalam Of Allah or The Self Of Allah), writing out God's Decree. He approached the Divine Presence, closer and closer, until Jibril said to him, "Ya Rasul Allah (O Prophet of God), I cannot continue further, or I will be extinguished." The Prophet said, "O Jibril, accompany me!" He said, "I cannot, or I will be burned in Allah's Light." So Muhammad , the most Perfect of the Perfect, continued alone. Driven by his love for Allah's Divine Presence he approached closer and closer, achieving the State of Complete Annihilation in five different stages


From one stage to another the Prophet moved into Allah's Divine Secrets. Between each stage was five hundred thousand years. He passed through these vast Divine Oceans of Knowledge, which Allah Almighty and Exalted has created, until he was completely dissolved in Allah's Existence, seeing nothing except Him. Then Allah called him to return to existence after he had reached the State of Annihilation. He returned and Allah told him, "O Muhammad, Approach closer." From this it is understood that the Prophet , having reached the State of Complete Annihilation, was called by Allah by his name, indicating that he was appearing anew with Allah's Appearance. He reached so near to the Divine Light, that he was "two bow-lengths or nearer" [53:9]. Allah asked him, "Who are you, O Muhammad?" At that time the Prophet was not conscious of himself and he replied: "You, O my Lord." This is the perfection of the state of not associating anyone with Allah. It is the perfect sign of Tawhid (Oneness), when nothing exists except His Glory, His Essence, Himself."

http://www.naqshbandi.org/chain/1main.htm

Towards The Home Of Total Reality

[Yusufali 6:5] And hearkens to (the Command of) its Lord,- and it must needs (do so);- (then will come Home the full reality).
[Yusufali 6:62] That is because Allah - He is the Reality; and those besides Him whom they invoke,- they are but vain Falsehood: verily Allah is He, Most High, Most Great.

[Yusufali 26:193] With it came down the spirit of Faith and Truth-

[Yusufali 17:80] Say: "O my Lord! Let my entry be by the Gate of Truth and Honour, and likewise my exit by the Gate of Truth and Honour; and grant me from Thy Presence an authority to aid (me)."
Here is what Sri Aurobindo reported:

I lived in that Nirvana day and night before it began to admit other things into itself or modify itself at all... in the end it began to disappear into a greater Super-consciousness from above.... The aspect of an illusionary world gave place to one in which illusion is only a small surface phenomenon with an immense Divine Reality behind it and a supreme Divine Reality above it and an intense Divine Reality in the heart of everything that had seemed at first only a cinematic shape or shadow. And this was no reimprisonment in the senses, no diminution or fall from supreme experience, it came rather as a constant heightening and widening of the Truth.... Nirvana in my liberated consciousness turned out to be the beginning of my realization, a first step towards the complete thing, not the sole true attainment possible or even a culminating finale.¹¹⁹

Nirvana cannot be at once the ending of the Path with nothing beyond to explore... it is the end of the lower Path through the lower Nature and the beginning of the Higher Evolution.

Ignorance Is Bliss Part2

Sr Aurobindo"s Total Surrender

Room in Majumdars house Majumdars housewhere Sri Aurobindo got fundamental realisation of silent Brahman. He and yogi Vishnu Bhaskat Lele shut themselves away in house of Khaserao Jarvi not letting anybody know it. January 1908, Baroda

Vishnu Bhaskar Lele

May 1932
I think you have made too much play with my phrase "an accident", ignoring the important qualification, "it seemed to come by an accident." After four years of prānāyāma and other practices on my own, with no other result than an increased health and outflow of energy, some psycho-physical phenomena, a great outflow of poetic creation, a limited power of subtle sight (luminous patterns and figures, etc.) mostly with the waking eye, I had a complete arrest and was at a loss. At this juncture I was induced to meet a man without fame whom I did not know, a bhakta with a limited mind but with some experience and evocative power. We sat together and I followed with an absolute fidelity what he instructed me to do, not myself in the least understanding where he was leading me or where I was myself going. The first result was a series of tremendously powerful experiences and radical changes of consciousness which he had never intended—for they were Adwaitic and Vedantic and he was against Adwaita Vedanta—and which were quite contrary to my own ideas, for they made me see with a stupendous intensity the world as a cinematographic play of vacant forms in the impersonal universality of the Absolute Brahman. The final upshot was that he was made by a Voice within him to hand me over to the Divine within me enjoining an absolute surrender to its will—a principle or rather a seed-force to which I kept unswervingly and increasingly till it led me through all the mazes of an incalculable Yogic development bound by no single rule or style or dogma or shastra to where and what I am now and towards what shall be hereafter. Yet he understood so little what he was doing that when he met me a month or two later, he was alarmed, tried to undo what he had done and told me that it was not the Divine but the devil that had got hold of me. Does not all that justify my phrase "it seemed to come by an accident?" But my meaning is that the ways of the Divine are not like those of the human mind
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or according to our patterns and it is impossible to judge them or to lay down for Him what He shall or shall not do, for the Divine knows better than we do. If we admit the Divine at all, both true reason and bhakti seem to me to be at one in demanding implicit faith and surrender. I do not see how without them there can be avyabhichārinī bhakti [one-pointed adoration].

source

The Tao,Nirvana,And Non Being

EVENING

PURANI: J asks: Is there a universal plane called the universal psychic, like the universal vital or the universal mental? He thinks of the psychic as being only individual.
SRI AUROBINDO: It is a mistake to suppose that the psychic is only individual or consists only of individuality. There is a universal psychic like the rest.
PURANI: Is it there that the soul retires after leaving the body and gathers material for a new birth?
SRI AUROBINDO: Yes.
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PURANI: He also asks how the distinction is made in The Life Divine between Being and Non-being. Does the Non-Being come after Overmind - or before it?
SRI AUROBINDO: Why is he particular about the Non-Being? You arrive at the Non-Being by following the negative path. That is to say, when you start from mind, I mean spiritual mind, you come or open yourself to the experience of Nirvana. This Nirvana is the negation of all that the mind can affirm as the Being but it is only a gate of entry into the Absolute. From this Nirvana you can either take up the negative or the affirmative path. By the negative you reach the Non-Being or what the Gita calls anirdeshyam (the intermediate). This Non-Being is the Buddhists Nirvana or Chinese Tao. The Buddhists consider it as Shunya, the Void, while to the Taoists this void, contains everything. Again, this Nirvana is not the same as the Brahmanirvana of the Gita.
By following the affirmative path you arrive at the Supermind and pass through it to the Sachchidananda . In my own case, I passed to the supermind from a Nirvana which was not of the Buddhist type but a state of mere being with the most indispensable positive element. The Goraknath people also follow this affirmative way.
From the point of view of realisation, there are three aspects of Brahmana - Atman or self, Purusha or Soul, Ishwara or God. The Adwaitins negate both Purusha and Ishwara and arrive at the unity of the Atman and Brahman. The Buddhists negate all the three aspects and arrive at Non-Being.

When the others had gone, Purani brought up again the subject of Non-Being.

PURANI: Did you say the other day that by following the affirmative way one also arrives at Non-Being? I was not very clear about it.
SRI AUROBINDO: (with a surprised look): No. Only by the negative path you arrive at Non-Being, or what the Gita calls the Indeterminate. As I said, it is the same as in Taoism and Buddhism. But it is not really Nothing. What we can say is that no attribute of Being can be posited of it. Taoism says that Non-Being is Everything rather than Nothing. By the affirmative path you come through Supermind to Sachchidananda which is both static and dynamic, while through the negative path you come to Non-Being.
PURANI: Then the the negative path doesn't lead to Sachchidananda.
SRI AUROBINDO: No.
NIRODBARAN: Is Non-Being the final stage of the negative path or does one pass through it to something else?
SRI AUROBINDO: Non-Being is only a term of the mind to express the Supreme Existence. It is the Buddhists' way of expressing the Supreme they contact. In reality it is nothing but an aspect of the Supreme. What is called the Indeterminate is not really indeterminate. It can be called so because it is not limited or confined to any one determination, not because it is incapable of
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any determination. That is what I have tried to show in The Life Divine.
PURANI: In fact, it is the source of infinite determination. How is Non-Being related to the Supermind, etc., of the affirmative way?
SRI AUROBINDO: Both are gates to the Absolute. Non-Being is an aspect of the Absolute. When you enter the Absolute you can't describe it.

Thou Art That!!

,nirvana,absolu

QUEST FOR GOD

O’ver hill and dale and mountain range,In temple, church, and mosque,In Vedas, Bible, Al KoranI had searched forThee in vain.Like a child in the wildest forest lostI have cried and cried alone,“Where art Thou gone, my God, my love?The echo answered, “gone.”And days and nights and years then passedA fire was in the brain,I knew not when day changed in nightThe heart seemed rent in twain.I laid me down on Ganges’s shore,Exposed to sun and rain;With burning tears I laid the dustAnd wailed with waters’ roar.I called on all the holy namesOf every clime and creed.“Show me the way, in mercy, yeGreat ones who have reached the goal.”Years then passed in bitter cry,Eacch moment seemed an age,Till one day midst my cries and groansSome one seemed calling me.A gentle soft and soothing voiceThat said ‘my son’ ‘my son’,That seemed to thrill in unisonWith all the chords of my soul.I stood on my feet and tried to findThe place the voice came from;I searched and searched and turned to seeRound me, before, behind,Again, again it seemed to speakThe voice divine to me.In rapture all my soul was hushed,Entranced, enthralled in bliss.A flash illumined all my soul;The heart of my heart opened wide.O joy, O bliss, what do I find!My love, my love you are hereAnd you are here, my love, my all!And I was searching thee -From all eternity you were thereEnthroned in majesty!From that day forth, wherever I roam,I feel Him standing byO’ver hill and dale, high mount and vale,Far far away and high.The moon’s soft light, the stars so bright,The glorious orb of day,He shines in them; His beauty - might -Reflected lights are they.The majestic morn, the melting eve,Teh boundless billowing sea,In nature’s beauty, songs of birds,I see through them - it is He.When dire calamity seizes me,The heart seems weak and faint,All natures seems to crush me down,With laws that enver bend.Meseems I hear Thee whispering sweetMy love, “I am near”, “I am near”.My heart gets strong. With thee, my love,A thousand deaths no fear.Thou speakest in the mother’s layThous shuts the babies eye,When innocent children laugh and play,I see Thee standing by.When holy friendship shakes the hand,He stands between them too;He pours the nectar in mother’s kissAnd the baby’s sweet “mama”.Thou wert my God with prophets old,All creeds do come from Thee,The Vedas, Bible, and Koran boldSing Thee in Harmony.“Thou art,” Thou art” the Soul of soulsIn the rushing stream of life.“Om tat sat om.”Thou art my God,My love, I am thine, I am thine.

(Swami Vivekananda's poem)

Only Breath

Not Christian or Jew or Muslim,not Hindu, Buddhist, Sufi or Zen.Not any religion, or cultural system.I am not from the East or the West,nor out of the ocean or upfrom the ground, not natural or ethereal,not composed of elements at all.I do not exist, am not an entity in this worldor the next, did not descend from Adam and Eveor any origin story.My place is placeless, a trace of the traceless.Neither body nor soul.I belong to the belovedhave seen the two worlds as oneand that one call to and know,First, last, outer, inner, only thatbreath breathing human —Jalaluddin Rumi,

The Great Secret
God was full of Wine last night,So full of wine
That He let a great secret slip.He said:
There is no man on earthWho needs a pardon from Me -
For there is really no such thing,No such thingAs Sin!
That Beloved has gone completely Wild-He has poured Himself into me!
I am Blissful and Drunk and Overflowing.
Dear world,Draw life from my Sweet Body,
Dear wayfaring souls,Come drink your fill of liquid rubies,For God has made my heartAn Eternal Fountain!
(Hafiz)

The Lord accepts the sin and the virtue of none;because knowledge is veiled by the ignorance.mortal men are deluded-The Gita

These are they who are conscious of the much falsehood in the world;they grow in the house of Truth,they are the strong invincible sons of the infinity-Rig Veda

"so remarkable..the poems of vivekananda,rumi, and hafiz..rumi describing nirvana of the absolute,hafiz intoxicated with ananda(bliss),and vivikananda seeking the union with the divine.."