Twelve glass sheets, like window panes, formed a company and went to the Registrar of Societies with a constitution they had drawn up and all the papers necessary to become an accredited company. They registered the company name as "Sunlight Obstruction Company Unlimited." After forming the company they wrote an open letter to the sun shining in the sky.
"Dear Mr. Sun, (it said)
We have formed a very serious company of directors here. We mean business. We will not allow you to pass through here from now on."
And the sun shone! Right through them. The twelve glass directors stood in a body and the sun passed through them with a smile. That's what happens in such a case. The sun was immanent in all those glass sheets and passed through them as before. It looked as if they made no difference. And, after trying in vain to obstruct the sunshine, they felt so down-hearted they all decided to commit suicide. They knocked against each other till all got broken into bits. In fact, they were swept aside and dumped into a dustbin. So as a directorate they ceased to exist. And the sun shone, transcendent all the time --which means, nothing could affect it; it could not be "contained", "cut off", "obstructed" and so on. When the twelve glass sheets were there, he was completely immanent in the twelve. When they all disappeared we call him transcendent.
That is an example of what is totally immanent being transcendent at the same time. What does this mean for our lives?
It means that He who is inside us can penetrate the walls of separation made by bodies, minds, differences in clothing, skin color, past histories, present behavior, future hopes and plans. Like the sun going through pieces of glass, He can pass through all these with a smile and be immanent inside them. Without criticizing them, finding fault with them, laughingly He goes through them, himself unaffected, without affecting them either. When the sunshine passes through the glass sheets it doesn't change them: they remain just as they are, twelve sheets stuck together. Also, when they are all removed it makes no difference. Whether this world comes before us, stays there or goes away, it makes no difference. The outlook is the same.
We can tell the world, "Look here, world of variety, come if you want to; stay and have a cup of tea! Or if you can't stay, go on, go to your business. Come if you want, stay if you can and go if you must. Welcome all the variety without trying to make any change in it. The sunshine which is immanent and transcendent did not try to make any changes at all in the piece of glass.
"Glass," it says, "you look quite beautiful as you are. With all your intention to stop me --thanks. Stay there. It makes no difference to me." This is the utterly transcendent attitude of a person who is also immanent at the same time. We have to cultivate an attitude like that.
Who owns this body? Do you? You may say, "I breathe." Actually the lungs breathe, don't they? The diaphragm goes up and down, making you breathe in and out. Who moves that diaphragm? Right after a baby is born, the diaphragm begins to move up and down. You can't say the baby does that; that baby's consciousness doesn't develop so soon. It takes about a year for it to understand, "I, I, I." In the beginning who does that? When the child is sleeping or the adult is sleeping, who is it that digests the food? Nature digests it. God does it. God's presence inside makes the food digested. All activities take place this way. How is it then, that when we are waking we think that we are conducting the body's activities?
When our ego recognizes that somebody else is doing that, then when it drops even the waking activities. It says, "Lord, you are sitting there inside, and doing all this." If your legs walk, it is God's legs that walk. If your hands catch something it is God's hands that catch something. Like that, you change the label and put all of it in the correct account. This is called giving up mentally by means of discrimination.
You learned three big words today. See if you can remember them. Surprise your family and friends by using each one the right way.
