The Passing and the Permanent

Reality is two-fold. One aspect is passing and the other is permanent. That which is passing is called phenomenal and that which is permanent is called Truth. What is permanent? Truth is permanent; consciousness is permanent; blissfulness is permanent. These are the three permanent states or values of our life which are called the spiritual life.

We are students and practical; we are looking for a prescription in this world of insecurity. The prescription is what Christ taught: discovery of the Kingdom of Heaven within.

The Kingdom of Heaven is not in the world of time or space; neither is it in the world of mind and imagination but in the world of transcendence. Perfection, the Kingdom of Heaven, immortal Truth, the realm of everlasting satisfaction is in the realm of trans-cendence. Transcendence means something beyond your mind, imagination and memory; something beyond all your feeling even of what is called love. We have to look for the realm of transcendence in our own intellect and in this realm abides everlasting Truth, everlasting consciousness and eternal blissfulness.

There is a realm beyond the mind and beyond all limitations, and this is called the realm of transcendence. It is the realm of your I-ness; your I is beyond your intellect, beyond your mind, because the mind and the intellect are the instruments of this I, and transcendence therefore means the region of pure consciousness; in other words, the region of your I-ness.

What is the remedy to all ills, outer or inner? It is the contacting by the soul of the region which is the region of I, above mind, above time, above space. No time can affect it; no space can limit it and it is beyond all attributes. This is the Kingdom of Heaven within.

What happens to one who has reached this truth? Nothing happens. We return to our normal condition, self-sovereignty. The essence in you is identified with the mind of the Lord, universal, cosmic, pulsating with creativity.

Hari Prasad Shastri

This article is from the Summer 2018 issue of Self-Knowledge Journal.