Revelation

by Marinus Jan Marijs 

Revelation (can be placed at level 10 B in the scheme of three forms of mysticism) and is a higher form of inspiration. Revelation is more encompassing as compared to inspiration which only deals with subdivisions. Revelation is concerned with the unlocking of totally new perspectives at a larger scale. Revelation also transcends inspiration because it not only changes one’s worldview, but it has a transformational influence on the human mind as well.

Here’s part of Nietzsche’s text on inspiration and revelation in Ecce Homo:

“Has anyone at the end of the 19th century a distinct conception of what poets of strong ages called inspiration? If not, I will describe it. If one had the slightest residue of superstition left in one, one would be hardly able to set aside the idea that one is merely incarnation, merely mouthpiece, merely medium of overwhelming forces. The concept of revelation, in the sense that something suddenly, with unspeakable certainty and subtlety, becomes visible, audible, something that shakes and overturns one to the depths, simply describes the fact. One hears, one does not seek; one takes, one does not ask who gives; a thought flashes up like lightning, with necessity, unfalteringly formed – I have never had any choice. An ecstasy whose tremendous tension sometimes discharges itself in a flood of tears, while one’s steps now involuntarily rush along, now involuntarily lag; a complete being outside of oneself with the distinct consciousness of a multitude of subtle shudders and trickles down to one’s toes; a depth of happiness … This is my experience of inspiration; I do not doubt that one has to go back thousands of years to find anyone who could say to me “it is mine also”.”

Gopi Krishna about revelation:

J.W. would you describe the process by which Revelation is given to you?

G.K. For me it is a very amazing occurrence. Always when I am in a mood in which these visions, and these writings come, it is always a condition so overpowering that I can only express it with tears. As I have said, I feel as if this, my person, my awareness, is not confined to my own body or to my head. That is, is as if I am body-conscious as an individual, but it is spread in space. I always feel as if there are two personalities existing side by side. One, a titan spread everywhere-everywhere ‘I.’ And the other is also a consciousness, an awareness, a part of it, a drop in it, but also one with it. I have read that in the case of inspiration, according to many poets and writers, including Nietzsche, the ideas and the lines or the passages, or the plots of whole stories, or even the whole story, came to them suddenly, as if they fell into their lap, as Nietzsche has put it . . . and then they put those passages, those lines or those ideas on paper. In my case, it is different. It seems that this titan, this other intelligence of which I am talking-this universal consciousness-is handing over these thoughts, these ideas, these passages and these verses to me. It is such a breath-taking experience that I feel awe full, humbled to dust. I am nothing. In this encounter, I am nothing. Just a shadow receiving directions and instructions from an intelligence which is spread everywhere. I feel that it is the limitation of my brain that I cannot get more from it.

Otherwise, what I believe is that every centimeter -every point in this Presence-knows all that there is to be known about the universe. It is a concentrated ocean of knowledge in which every drop is an ocean in itself. It is overwhelming and staggering. And when I start writing, suddenly a paragraph flashes before my vision. It is handed over to me. I can feel it. In the Vedas it is called shruti-heard. I both hear and see it. It is something which is just coming into my field of consciousness from the other field of which

I am always conscious. It is lent to it. It is handed over to it. And then, after some time, I start writing. What takes me half an hour to jot down is transmitted, maybe in five seconds sometimes. It just comes and enters my field of knowledge and my field of awareness. I can compare it to the fall of snow. When you look at the snowflakes they appear as points at the sky level. Then slowly they grow larger and larger and larger and larger till you have the snowflakes on your hand, or just falling in front of you. It is like this . . . as if subtle seeds of these ideas come out of this awareness. And then they are transformed by my brain into our language and into our thought. I hope you follow me.

From the Unseen-from this ocean of consciousness-a seed-like thing comes. Just a hint, which then grows into a passage, and I try to retain this passage in my memory. It is followed by another seed and another passage, followed by another seed and another passage. And then, when it is over, I try to write it down, and it takes me a long time. And in the meanwhile, some of the passages will escape my memory, and I have to recall them later when I am correcting what I have written once. This happened from the day I received those poetic lines when I was crossing a bridge-the first manifestation of this power in me. And since then I have always found that at such times as if another intelligence is working, and I am receiving directions, instructions and ideas, and also the linguistic expressions from it-even the words.

But, I am alert all the time. When I put it down, I am using my own reason, also, that what I have put down is correct. Does it conform to my own ideas? And when I feel that perhaps this does not concord with my own ideas, I try to change it, so that I am also using my own mind and my intellect. But what I assert is that it seems that another intelligence is handing over, or giving me, the hints or the passages in a mysterious way which I can clearly perceive, as if I am getting it from some other source. And that source is present before me, not from a source which I do not see. I perceive it as an intelligence, as a consciousness spread around me, above and below me.

This has given me the idea that what they call as Revelation has this difference from inspiration, that in the case of Revelation-the prophets were also able to understand the source, to perceive the source-say either in the form of a God or an angel, or a consciousness spread everywhere.

I can very easily imagine that there can be a vision of an angel or a god for a mind which believes in a god or an angel. Then this intelligence can take the form of a god, of an angel, of a prophet, and give the message. That, then, is Revelation. While in the case of the poet, the philosopher or the novelist, the inspiration that comes, one feels something pouring into his mind but is not conscious of another intelligence handing it over to him. In the case of the enlightened, there is a clear perception of an all-pervading intelligence which hands over these ideas and these passages.

This also, now, leads to another inference that even in your normal consciousness what we receive, what we think-the ideas, the thoughts-they come from a universal source. Only our brain is so conditioned that we think that it is our own, while it is coming from some other universal source, which is the fount head of all thought, all feeling, all emotion. Sometimes, especially when these verses about the shape of events to come, occur, I also see the visions. The vision and the verse, the passage, they come almost together. The vision is seen in this universal consciousness. I see it presenting a scene which pertains to a future date, or even sometimes of a bygone time. I see it reflected in that pool, in that mirror of consciousness. It passes through my mind and vanishes. But the line, the passage, which accompanies it, I retain in my memory. I retain the memory of the vision, also, but this I retain in language, and that language I then transcribe on paper. Then I see through it again and then again. Some of the last sentences-some sentences, some passages, some words-I misplace. I lose my memory of them, and then they come back and twice or thrice I correct my own writing till I put it in the final shape. I still am not sure if I was able to take all that came to me because the seed and these passages and these lines come so rapidly and are handed over in such a manner that one is bewildered and sometimes it becomes even difficult to see or grasp or retain in memory all that has been said. I miss pages, lines, passages. When I am writing I totally forget them. And there is another thing. If, for instance, I receive a passage or a line, or a poem, or something, and then I fail to record it, I lose its memory after a day or two. ,I must record it down, because then other lines come, and the former ones-they are almost obliterated-and it becomes difficult for me to record them, because in that state, when I am in touch with this intelligence, the brain is so delicate, and there is such a fine communication between this consciousness and that consciousness that the normal procedures, the normal mechanisms of our memory and of our writing, and everything, they remain in abeyance for some time.

It is a communication between spirit and spirit, and the normal mechanisms are suspended for some time. Therefore, if I do not put down, or record what is revealed to me at a particular moment, then sometimes it escapes the memory. And in these visions and in these writings I have seen a consistency in the last twenty-five years which leads me to the conclusion that a Mighty Intelligence is trying to apprise me of what is actually to happen.

I can absolutely no doubt it for the reason that I do have other prophetic visions also-I mean concerned with my own life or with those of my friends, and they come true. For instance, sometimes-even in dreams-I see things which are confirmed that very day, or the second day, or say after a week. I sometimes note down this peculiar dream, and I find that it is confirmed. Then I already think that my consciousness has- after this awakening-attained the power of looking into the past or the future. But not at my own will.

From this I conclude that those who believe that they are prophets, or can prophesy, or can gain occult powers, are either deluding themselves or playing with fire. A great intelligence takes possession of our mind, and we are under its control-not that it is under our control. That can never be!

Our ego has always to remain as human ego, while this is a trans-human state of consciousness. This gives me the impression that what is revealed to me, what I have put The Riddle of Consciousness and The Shape of Events to Come, and in other books, will surely take place, because I see it coming from an Intelligence which is, to me, all-pervading and which to me appears to be super-human-in the right sense of what we know as omniscient and omnipresent-which knows the past, the present and the future. And from this also I conclude that this higher dimension of consciousness in man is designed to guide humanity to regions and to achievements in future and to the control of energies and forces which are totally beyond our reach or even beyond our thought at present. (Written by Gopi Krishna)