One retired judge had been on a pilgrimage to Badri Narayan, a sacred Hindu shrine in the Himalayas. As he told Baba about his visit, Baba asked, “Did you see me there?” The man was silent.
Baba then stated:
The fun is, although I am with you and within you all, you travel far and wide to find me. I am the Infinite One, infinitely near to everyone, but because of this infinite nearness, it becomes infinitely difficult for you to find me. Until you see the world as worthless, you cannot see me. Once you have a glimpse of my divinity, you have an infinite longing to see me as I am. Owing to this intensity you get ‘painted’ unawares spiritually.
Baba quoted these lines of Kabir in Hindi:
One very, very slowly gets painted spiritually;
Mind takes a very, very long time to vanish completely;
And the man who has slept for ages [in ignorance]
Gets awakened very, very gradually.
On the spiritual path, in the subtle world at different stages, the aspirant gets unusual and splendid experiences of sweet music, perfumes and the sights of lovely lights. In the mental world, the seeing of God has its beginning and culmination. A rare one, who with enough patience keeps his heart open, sees me as I should be seen; but even this “seeing” is not the goal. You have to become me.
Time steeped in infinite eagerness and patience rolls on and, at the opportune moment, the aspirant begins to lose the awareness of himself as being a separate “self.” Although awake, he becomes literally blank to all that can be seen in the six planes of consciousness and thus experiences infinite vacuum, or the complete “blackout” of the Nothing. Then, in an instant, he becomes fully conscious of God as Everything.
Consciousness of the Nothing is the Vacuum State. Consciousness of Everything is the God State. But this needs my grace.
-www.lordmeher.org, p4748
May, 1961; Guruprasad