three days; it was to be death or Self-realization for him. He was without food or shelter in the icy snow-covered wilderness. Bhagwan wrote of it: "I found myself reflected everywhere in the whole Universe! It was one harmony . . . full of Wisdom, Infinite Love perennial and Bliss Eternal!" *

To turn to the greatest of all initiations — the "I AM GOD" state in which it is realized that man's highest purpose in life on earth is to be united with his Divine Self, the OVERSOUL. Another American friend describes this tremendous cosmic event which he experienced after meeting for the first time a certain Indian sage in California. It lasted three days and three nights and very nearly killed him, for his physical vehicle had not been "stepped up" to the high rate of spiritual frequency required for such a state of cosmic awareness — or as the Masters say — the time was not yet ripe for the final consummation. He said it was the most stupendous, the most wonderful, but at the same time the most terrifying experience of his life. He felt that at any moment his body might be torn asunder, bursting with the cosmic strain imposed upon it; it felt as if it were being pulled out in all directions, being stretched out to the uttermost — as if it could not contain the life and rush of the Spirit.

In this greatest of all absorptions bordering on Self-Realization (which can never be fully accomplished without the aid of a Perfect Master) — he knew that he SUSTAINED everything. . . that he LOVED everything . . . He felt that the sun, moon, planets and stars were all coming out of himself and that REALITY was neither good nor bad, but EXISTENCE! He saw the whole immense universe dwindle like a speck on his being! It was as if he could put his finger on it and wipe it out!

When a man has this cosmic state of universal awareness and is transcending creation, he then knows the universe to be an illusion or Maya, and it vanishes as the morning mist. Now provided he meets a Perfect Master he would in all probability become Self-Realized in the coming fresh outpouring of the Spirit which has to dawn soon upon our distracted world — otherwise it will surely perish.

Meher Baba has explained that after regaining creation-consciousness, a Perfected Man who has attained to Liberation will behold countless numbers of suns, moons, stars and planets issuing forth out of himself . . . for the whole universe is in the Self, and springs into existence from a tiny point in the Self, which is referred to as "OM." Those who have realized

*Translated by Shri Purohit Swami, McMillan, London, 1934.