Lifting the Veil

The Ultimate Truth behind the obvious physical world is that it is covered by a veil of illusion. This veil keeps people imprisoned in the pleasures and pains of life. Those who are satisfied with prison life should leave the veil alone; this article is written for those who want liberation.

In ancient Jerusalem, the veil of illusion was symbolized by a curtain hanging across the entrance to the Holy of Holies, the inner sanctum of the great temple. The curtain blocked the assembled from seeing the Ark of the Covenant through which Jehovah, God, spoke.

Only once a year was the High Priest allowed to enter and hear the word of God.

In India to this day, in Vaishnava temples, a veil is stretched before the image of Krishna which is located in the garbha, the dark womb of the structure. Only the faithful who sing praises to God for hours are there when the priest suddenly throws the veil aside, revealing the face of God, the Truth itself.

A few moments later the priest again draws the veil across the image of the symbol of Divine Love.

The builders and operators of these temples of Truth are not trying to hide the Ultimate from the less qualified. They are only symbolizing the truth of the matter, that God, the Absolute Truth, Divine Love is not usually available by way of the senses. It is only after qualifying one’s self by devotion, purification, knowledge and dedication that the veil of illusion is lifted. Then one can see the face of God.

Even then, it is usually only for a few moments before the veil again covers the Original Existent One.

In the Orthodox Christian Church, a screen separates the common worshippers from the Altar of Christ, the Deliverer. Only those who have given their entire life to Ultimate Truth may pass through the screen and enter the Holy Sanctuary. In the same way that the altar and sanctuary are symbols of sacredness and are not really, as material objects, sacred, the priests may also be only symbols of the people who have transcended the material world and see only God.

When Jesus was crucified, his sacrifice resulted in the tearing of the veil in the temple; that is, his example of loving us so much that he died to reveal the truth to us, gives us a small opening in the veil of illusion so that through his example we can see God—at least fleetingly.

In Shiva temples, a god and goddess guard the entrance to the place of the Ultimate Reality. To enter, a seeker of that Reality must pass by the god, Ganesha, and the goddess, Kali. Ganesha is the god of wealth. The wealthy stand outside the inner sanctum, propitiate Ganesha from a distance, and keep their wealth. In order to pass by Ganesha, located to one’s left, one must lay down all one’s wealth at his feet. In order to pass by Kali, the goddess of death, located on one’s right, one must be willing to sacrifice one’s whole life for God, for the Absolute, for Divine love.

Only then does one pass through the ante chamber and enter the God Place, the place of directly experienced Reality.

In the Great Pyramid in Egypt, the initiate upon entering the ante chamber of the inner sanctum was immediately barred by a granite stone slab. She had two choices. One was to humble herself by bowing down and passing under the granite slab; the other choice was to grind her way though the slab by suffering all her bad karma year by year and lifetime by lifetime. Either way she would eventually stand in front of the three portcullises or closed gates that barred her from the inner chamber where she could live in union with God.

Each portcullis veils her from a different aspect of the Ultimate. The first hides from her the true nature of her own self; the second veil hides what the material world really is; and the final veil hides the truth of Ultimate Reality.

How does one get these veils, these three portcullises, to lift?

The short answer is, “By abandoning that which causes the veils to be there in the first place.”

We have placed the veil of ignorance over the Truth in order to play—to play the play of the gods. To remove the veils, to lift the portcullises, we have only to have had enough of playing.

Unfortunately, even many sincere seekers of union with God try to lift the veils by force. That is to say, they try to abandon the world of illusion and keep it at the same time. Instead of giving up the pleasures and pains of playing life as a game, they vainly hope and pray that some how they can have both, both the illusion and the Truth.

Instead of sacrificing their lives for others out of love, they act sanctimoniously, hoping no one will notice the results of their real actions.

Of course, such substitutes don’t work. Such people do not come to know the Absolute; they do not directly experience the Truth because the veils are not removed. The portcullises do not lift for them.

Even scientists who use their wills to sincerely seek the truth only get relative truth.

If one abandons seeking to fulfil one’s desires, doesn’t injure others, humbles one’s pride and thus one’s ego, and sincerely seeks God by giving up one’s life, eventually one by one, the veils will actually be lifted. First, one will directly know what one truly is; second, one will live in the state in which the material world is directly known as an illusion; finally one will realise God and live accordingly.

Just having an intellectual understanding of what you are, what the world really is. It is not the same at all as directly experiencing and living these things for one’s self.

Intellectually Lifting the First Veil

The first veil is one’s identification with that which one is not. Most people think that they are a human being. A human being is not what you are. A human being is made up of four parts; a body, including the brain; a mind, conscious and unconscious; the center of being or the soul or viewpoint; and the real You.

You are not an animal body of the species homo sapiens; nor are you a part of a body, an eye or a mouth, an ear or a brain. You are not a thought; you are not the thinking nor the judgement faculties; and you are not your conscious mind nor any part of the mind. You are not any mental process. You are not consciousness. Yes, you are that which can be conscious. You are not a soul, a viewpoint somewhere in your mind; you are not located anywhere in space or even in time.

When the veil that covers your true nature is removed by personal and direct realisation, you will know that you are a non-physical individual that can make non-physical choices to deny or not deny each of he other non-physical individuals that are just like you. Then you will be able to understand the second Truth.

Intellectually Lifting the Second Veil

The world we all experience is created by each of us as non-physical individuals, non-physically choosing to deny billions upon billions of other non-physical individuals and choosing no to deny one, two or perhaps three of the others. Through the few non-denied others, each of us is indirectly connected to all the others; however, because we are only in-directly connected to most of the others, we don’t know that they are non-physical individuals. Instead, we experience them collectively as the totality of this physical universe of things and bodies.

Unless the first and second veils have been lifted for you, you won’t be able to understand the third Truth.

Intellectually Lifting the Third Veil

The Ultimate Reality cannot be experienced or seen; it can only be directly known by choosing not to deny that it exists. The Ultimate Reality is our non-physical Divine Love for each other as nonphysical or Divine Individuals. Divine Love is not a matter of what one chooses. Even if one denied everyone else, one would still be in Divine Love with everyone else, but just would not know it. This is what hell is! Heaven is choosing not to deny that anyone else is the same as one’s self. Then one knows all of the others as non-physical individuals who have the power to choose to deny or not each of the others, including one’s self.

The Ultimate Reality is the power to choose to deny others or not which is what we all are. There is only this one power which each of us can exercise individually. The Ultimate Reality then is—one.  All of us as non-physical individuals are one.

One can realize these Truths by directly experiencing. [source]

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