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Cosmic Consciousness by Ali Nomad

VI EXAMPLES OF COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS, WHO HAVE FOUNDED NEW SYSTEMS OF RELIGION

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It is well to remember that these claims have been made by the blind followers of these great teachers, and that it is almost certain that not any one of them made such claim for himself. Certainly he did not, if he had attained to spiritual consciousness.

One passage from the doctrines of Gauranga is almost identical with many others who have sought to express the feeling of security, of _deathlessness_ which comes to the soul which has realized cosmic consciousness. He says:

"My Beloved, whether you clasp me unto your heart, or you crush me by that embrace, it is all the same to me. For you are no other than my own, the sole partner of my soul."

The gospel of Gauranga and his followers is, indeed, much more a gospel of love, than of methods of worship, or of intellectual research.

The realization of our union with God, in deathless love, is the key-note of the message, and this great joy or bliss comes to the soul as soon as it has attained Illumination through love.

God is alluded to in Vaishnavism most frequently as _Anandamaya_--meaning all joy. Vaishnavism more nearly resembles the gospel of Jesus, as taught by orthodoxy, than it does the Vedantic systems, since it does, not claim that God is _within each_ human organism, as the seed is within the fruit, but that, by love, we may gain heaven or the state or place where God dwells.

"If you would worship God, as the Giver of Bounties, then shall the prayer be answered, and further connection cut off, God having answered the demand. So if you would worship God in simple love, He will send love. The real devotee seeks to establish a relationship with God which will endure. He will ask only to worship and love God, and pray that his soul may cling to God in divine reverence and love." Thus, say the Vaishnavas, "God serves as he is served, in absolute justice."

Another salient point which the followers of Lord Gauranga emphasize, is the "All-Sweetness" of God. This idea is impressed, doubtless that the devotee may not feel an impossible barrier between himself and so great and all-powerful a being, as God, when His Omnipotence is considered. The idea is similar to that of the Roman church, which bids its untutored children to select some patron saint, or to say prayers to the Virgin Mary, because these characters were once human and seem to be nearer, and more approachable than the Great God whose Majesty and All-Mightiness have been exploited.

Be that as it may, the fact remains, that Lord Gauranga is said to have earned the devotion and love of some of the most learned pundits of India and, according to a recent biographer, "he had all the frailties of a man; he ate and slept like a man. In short, he behaved generally like an ordinary human being, but yet he succeeded in extorting from the foremost sages of India, the worship and reverence due a God."

The fact that Lord Gauranga "behaved like a man," is comforting, to say the least, and presages the coming of a day when "behaving like a man" will not be considered ungodly. When that time shall have arrived, surely there will be less mysticism of the hysterical variety and probably fewer hypocrites.

Very unlike Lord Gauranga, is the report of a writer of India, who tells of the effects of cosmic consciousness upon Tukaram, considered to be one of the greatest saints and poets of Ancient India. Tukaram lived early in the sixteenth century, some years later than Lord Gauranga.

This Maharashtra saint is chiefly remembered for his beautiful description of the effects of Illumination, in which he likens the human soul to the bride, and the bridegroom is God. This poem is called "Love's Lament," and might have been written by an impassioned lover to his promised bride.