forty years. Hafiz continues that when he got up after bowing down to his Beloved, he wanted to plunge into the ocean of Effulgence, but an infinite vacuum had to be crossed (between the sixth and the seventh planes)."

Baba explained that the aspirant takes fright at this juncture and hesitates as to whether he should plunge in or remain on the shores. At the Dawn of day (seventh plane), he finds himself relieved of all his misery of separation and becomes One with the Beloved. Baba continued, "Hafiz said, 'I was stripped totally naked and found myself all alone in all my glory. What a glorious dawn it was, that I was given a pass to the Highest. It was the Grace of my Perfect Master that I became the dust at his feet and thus became the Highest.'" Baba added, "It all means that God alone is Real and all else is Illusion."

Baba added, "There is Paramatma. Paramatma is all-existing. All Atmas are in Paramatma. All Atmas are Paramatma. When an Atma apparently comes out of Paramatma, the Atma becomes Jiv-atma and begins to gain consciousness of falseness. For the Jiv-atma to become one with the Paramatma is the Goal."

"After passing through the processes of evolution, reincarnation and involution, the Jiv-atma eventually becomes Shiv-atma and remains so eternally.

"When Shiv-atma 'comes down' to normal consciousness in duality, i.e. when Shiv-atma is duality-conscious, he is 'Nar’ (Man) and 'Narayan' (God) simultaneously. So the Atma that thus regains normal consciousness (in Duality), should be called Jiv-Shiv-Atma. This boils down to the fact that the Atma has to go through one hell of a thing, one after the other, in order to become Self-conscious. To become Self-conscious is to experience the ‘I-Am-God' State consciously. After becoming Shiv-atma there is the state of Baqa. Such a one, in the state of Baqa, is termed 'Purushshottam' (Purush plus Uttam), the Best of Man.

"Atma is Purush. Prakriti has come out of the Nothing. Purush and Prakriti are linked eternally, till Purush releases himself from Prakriti and becomes Self-conscious. The Majzoob of the Seventh Plane is the Shiv-atma. Avatar is Shiv-Jiv-atma and He is the Param-Purush, the Highest or the Beyond or the Eternal Man." Baba closed the above discourse with the following remark: "All that I say is all what I know and to you all these are just words."