The Kerf II

When the Kerf falls out of the First Plane entry door, what can we who are impatiently waiting at the door anticipate?  In the first place, it will be the last time we anticipate anything since time does not exist in the Subtle World. More on that later.

Bhau Kalchuri's The Nothing and the Everything dictated by Meher Baba has a very extensive explanation of the seven planes of the involution of consciousness with descriptions of the various heavens and sections.  Meher Baba's God Speaks*  also has a thorough explanation of the seven planes as described by the ancient Sufi, Vedanta and esoteric Christian masters.

Briefly; to realize the Original, mind-souls evolve from the Nothingness through gases, solids, plants, insects, reptiles, birds, animals to full consciousness in human beings.  At that point, a mind-soul incarnates through of thousands of human physical bodies to acquire sufficient experience to attain a desire to discover what he really is.

This desire then drives the involution of consciousness gradually diminishing mental impressions gained through millions of lifetimes in evolution.  The spiritual path begins with the movement out of "gross" consciousness of matter into "subtle" consciousness of energy in an effort to shed gross mental impressions to see through the illusion of matter.


In The Nothing and the Everything, the First Subtle Plane is described on pages 67-71. My comments follow the italicized quotes.

"This first section is called the sub-subtle or 'astral' plane; here the pilgrim experiences while awake what the gross conscious human being experiences while dreaming in his sleep."

Although we will be able to act in the gross world, we will not be conscious of (impressed by) it. Experiences will be dream-like — no longer gross and not yet subtle. We will experience astral energy which is the "connection between the subtle and gross world."

"In the second section or part of the first heaven the pilgrim sees circles and circles of light swinging like universes at an unimaginable speed."

Meher Baba goes on to describe other fantastic phenomena the pilgrim experiences in the second section. He says that it is the adepts and yogis arriving at the First Plane by their own efforts who experience the lights, sounds and smells of the subtle-cum-astral energies. Those who are guided by a Sadguru do not experience these phenomena so do not get caught in the various heavens. It seems likely that those who are entering the door at the prompting of their Master will not be mesmerized by these spectacles.

"The first heaven (the astral) is closer to the gross world than the subtle, and time only exists in the gross world."

Meher Baba explains that the astral gives man the sense of time. Pilgrims of the subtle planes do not experience the passing of time.

"Being independent of time is one aspect of experiencing one's divinity (spanning time)."


Thus it seems in the subtle world we will experience only Now. Since worry, fear, regret, impatience, frustration, anxiety and all their relatives rely on our sense of time, those negative emotions will not be endured.

"Don't worry be happy" was meant for those of us still banging our heads against the granite walls of the gross world.

As an aside, it is interesting that Albert Einstein related energy(E) and matter/mass(M) with the speed of light. Although not intimated in Bhau Kalchuri's book, the astral may also give us our sense of space.

Therefore, Einstein proposed that E=Mc2 where 'c' is the speed of light -- or distance (space) per unit of time. Einstein may have had some awareness of the astral plane to propound his relativity theory —or perhaps he saw it in a dream.

Digressing further, since time does not exist in the subtle world, is it any wonder that, while psychics can see future events, they invariably fail when it comes to the timing of the events? Since there is no time in the subtle world, there is no beginning nor end to what happens — everything is constantly in motion.

As Meher Baba explains in The Nothing and the Everything page 80, Indra the angels and fairies are constantly making adjustments for man's mental maneuvers. This is another reason why predictions often fail to materialize in the gross world. It is my feeling that Meher Baba was merely placating our gross need for mental structure when He suggested time periods for His predictions about events in the gross world.

And digressing into what would have seemed absurd before our literal venture into the subtle world; Woody Allen may have had an Einstein moment when he put forth this proposition:

"Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once."

Perhaps Woody had a fleeting glimpse of living in the subtle world.

Asides aside, I wonder if you folks can see even more aspects of living in the First Plane without an awareness of passing time. How could you think about what to do next without that awareness? Would it matter?

More on Meher Baba's description of the First Plane in my next post...

Err...

....unless the all future tense awareness vanishes into the vacuum of infinity with the falling of the Kerf.

* PDF links for God Speaks - Part I &  PartII