by John Martin Sahajananda
This new book by Br Martin is a courageous attempt to show the convergence of Christian and Vedic teachings. He sets out to show that human spirituality is not confined by religious boundaries, but is universal and eternal.
Br Martin sets out the Song as a poem, and partly as a conversation between the players: the Trinity of God the Father, the Spirit Mother and the Child; Adam and Eve; and the serpent. All these players are given varying names throughout.
The ideas expressed are familiar and yet given a new voice. The limitations of disciples of the Child, the ‘only Son of God’, are regretted in the following section, saying that they
….will forget the message and hold onto the messenger.
They will draw a boundary around his Truth, which has no boundary
He will be an itinerant preacher, but
They will build a house for him.
They will transform his inclusive message into an exclusive one….(p 63)
But some ideas are startlingly new, or may appear to be to Christian readers. For example, Creation begins when the One absolute reality desires to be known and this results in an explosion, Maya, and the appearance of the Trinity. ‘The Fall’ is pre-ordained by God in order that the human race might grow from unconscious unity to conscious unity (p 49). It is preceded by a feeling of separateness in Adam and Eve. Furthermore, the serpent is not blamed for the Fall, because it is inevitable and will lead to maturity, and the eventual realisation that
The way is to return to the Garden.
It is to return to one’s original state.
It is to remember one’s true self. (p 58).
The book ends with a prose section which considers the story of the Garden of Eden and the parable of the Prodigal Son. I must admit I found this section more easily understood and satisfying than the main part of the book. Br Martin states:
We are all one with God from the beginning of our lives, but we are not conscious of it, and we need to become conscious of it……. When spiritual persons realise their unity with God they also realise that that unity had been their original state. It is like coming home. (P 75)
The development of the mind or consciousness goes through seven levels, from unconscious unity to conscious unity. The person becomes aware of his/her individuality, becomes rebellious, but then evolves through reason and surrender to the divine, to the universal mind which recognises its unity with the divine consciousness (p77). Jesus expressed this as, ‘The Father and I are One’, and the Brihandaranyaka Upanishad as, ‘Aham Brahmasmi.’
The problem of time is one which our finite minds find impossible to cope with. Br Martin states that we need to ‘project what we are inside (our unity with God) to realise it consciously. But by projecting what is within outside, humanity introduces duality, time….’ [etc] (p 81). It is stating the obvious to say that spiritual evolution takes place over a period of time, and it is described in the case of Jesus (p 83). However, the ‘I AM’ sayings are eternal and outside the limits of time.
A section which I find very helpful is ‘Spiritual Evolution and Free Will’ (pp 84-87). Br Martin concludes that while free will and free intellect appear to exist in the course of spiritual evolution, at the final stage of conscious unity they no longer exist, bringing us to a state of bliss. In the same way, there is no absolute good and absolute evil, which creates a duality. In conscious unity, or the unitary mind, which is the end of human evolution, one is beyond good and evil. Br Martin still speaks of ‘a person’ here although there is in fact no separate person, but our language is unable to express this. (p 89)
In the parable of the prodigal son, Jesus illustrates all these points. I am grateful to have this explained, and to have been reminded again of non-dualistic thought which goes beyond boundaries between religions and indeed boundaries between seeing ourselves as individuals and seeing the one absolute Truth.
Dr Hilary Knight
Some comments from a friend who is an ordained Anglican Minister:
[Br Martin’s] model of unconscious unity via the social and rebellious mind to conscious unity is creative. His picture of the gradual development of human self awareness and societal development from group behaviour to individuality and subsequently becoming one with God or Being may be helpful to some. Of course it elevates humanity as the peak of creation so he presumably thinks everything else is unconscious unity. However if one thinks that everything is in the image of God who is in all around all and beyond all (panentheism) we should stop obsessing about ourselves
I find myself, as life on earth closes, that the framework of dogmatic religion falls away as we prepare to merge into the seamless totality of Being. At this stage his concepts have less traction and although he gives lip service to the Hindu tradition he remains embedded in the Biblical narrative in his explanations etc