What is the role of Prakriti or the phenomenal world in our spiritual journey? Bhagawan beautifully explains today, with a memorable example.
There are only two entities at first: "I" and "You", Tat and Twam, Aham and Brahma. But a third, this Prakriti (world), has come between, or rather deludes us as being in between. You know some people who go about carrying proposals of marriage, the middlemen. They go to the bride’s parents and suggest a certain groom and they praise him to the skies and create a desire for securing him in marriage for the daughter; then they move on to the bridegroom’s village and persuade that party to insist on a large sum as marriage-settlement before agreeing to accept the daughter of the first party; when at last the marriage is concluded, they disappear. Prakriti is like this middleman. When "I" and "You" have united, Prakriti disappears. Its role is to reveal the "you" to the "I", that is all. As a matter or fact, the "I" is of the same nature as "You," like the river and the sea, or like the wave and the sea.
- Divine Discourse
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