A Matter of Perception The following discourse on 'perception' will equally serve as the perfect vehicle for Me to reveal the truth to the world about the enigma called AIDS. The time has come to put an end to the senseless suffering being proliferated by nothing more than simple ignorance. So many hypotheses about its origin. So many pursuits to solve the puzzle and rid the world of this 'plague,' as it is most commonly viewed. So much money being spent, which could otherwise be used. And, lastly, so much confusion and disagreement over what God delivered to the world—at man's own desperate request—as a sacred Gift.
Before I delve into the specifics of this condition called AIDS, it is necessary to establish a few fundamental truths to serve as the foundation for this discourse. There is no such thing as a terminal disease. The origin of the nomenclature 'terminal' comes only from man's false belief in mortality. 'Disease,' by definition, is a condition within the self with which one is not at ease. When the distorted thoughts and feelings within one's consciousness reach a certain point, the very same conditions manifest in the physical body—'as within, so without.' Why? The physical plane is the densest plane of creation and, therefore, the last plane upon which anything manifests. Thus, it is only after your soul has been whispering—many times screaming—a message to you and after the universe has sent you signs from every conceivable direction and, still, somehow you refuse to hear it or react to it, that your soul uses a circumstance on the physical plane as the lender of last resort.
There are no accidents, coincidences, or diseases. Every single thing that happens to you is carefully, meticulously planned and orchestrated by your soul. Distortion arises because the bi-polar condition of human consciousness perceives God's perfect will as 'good' and 'bad.' Separation is the gap between what Is and one's perception of what Is. On either side of man's fear-based perceptions of God's ever-perfect world lies pure, infinite love.
The easiest and best way to transcend this delusion which plagues the human mind is to re-program your own consciousness with this divine truth: Everything is a gift. Everything. A broken leg, a million dollars, birth, 'death,' marriage, divorce, getting fired or getting promoted, living in a palace or in a cardboard box… these are all gifts. While only some are perceived as gifts, and others as curses, in truth they are all the same. They are all of God. They are all gifts.
How you can discern whether you are intellectualizing the truth by simply saying, 'I know that already,' or living the realization of that truth is by observing whether or not you are living in the quintessence of gratitude in every single moment, regardless of—and because of—your circumstances, whatever they may be. Truly knowing that everything in life is a gift would render you incapable of feeling anything but gratitude in every single moment. As a further enticement into a life of eternal gratitude, be it known that gratefulness is the highest form of prayer. Gratefulness creates instant attunement to the will of God through its inherent confirmation of God's omnipresent and singular, loving creation.
Integration of this divine realization opens the door for one to finally establish the Divine breath as a way of life. When you can honestly have your every single inhalation resound 'I am blessed' throughout the universe and every single exhalation resound 'I am grateful,' you are breathing the direct prana of God. Through practice of this sacred breath, your earthly life will eventually reflect your oneness with Divinity.
Now that a precedent of truth has been established, I can address the controversial, albeit simple, subject of AIDS. Theories of its origin are as ridiculous as they are diverse: a monkey bite, the flight attendant from Florida, a government science lab conspiracy using genetic manipulation to eliminate certain strains of the human race and, of course, the ever-popular theory of the 'illuminati' of twelve dark and powerful families who rule the world. Have I covered them all? There is one commonality among all these theories. They are all distortion, all false, all fear-based, and all focused on the physical plane.
AIDS is a cure, not a disease. Before a dis-ease can affect a body, it must already exist within one's consciousness. The condition now classified as AIDS was made manifest as the cure for one of the most insidious, non-loving, and destructive diseases ever to touch this planet: Prejudice.
Using the same model I shared earlier in this treatise, when the distorted thought form of Prejudice and its subsequent behavior patterns reached epic proportions in the human collective consciousness, AIDS appeared on the physical plane to curtail and, eventually, eliminate this ugly disease. How more simple did God have to make it? Its very name means 'help.' How AIDS cures the disease of Prejudice is by gifting the world a vehicle to develop deeper and deeper levels of love and acceptance for self and others.
Why did it appear first, and in greatest number, in the communities of homosexuals and those of African descent? Because homophobia and racism are the two arenas of Prejudice which had reached the breaking point. What is the foremost in the consciousness of ones who have the disease of racism or homophobia? 'Get out of my sight. Get away from me. Go away.' Since whatever one resists persists and intensifies, what do these ones get in return? AIDS puts the very object of their malcontent in their faces, accompanied by the most hideous, 'will not go away, cannot ignore it' circumstances. It then infiltrated the media to bring this message to the whole world community. People call AIDS the disease? AIDS is the cure for a disease that was rampant on the planet. How dare anyone deny another the right to live or condemn another for the free-willed, free-loving choices they make, choices granted to them by their own Creator!
When you come into this world, your divine, masterful soul—carefree and unaffected by the world of illusion—simply scans through all potential human experiences and picks the ones that will serve it best. When your soul is looking at creating a life for itself, all the outer trappings of a human embodiment mean nothing, in and of themselves. Rich is the same as poor. Fat is the same as skinny. Aging is the beautiful next phase of a life, not the decrepit deterioration of one. Your soul just picks. Whatever experience it needs, it will choose and create, effortlessly and calmly.
That is how your soul, as God, views the world. Is that how the world plays out? Far from it. On Earth judgments, criticisms, complaints, oppressions, punishments, and crime abound—all stemming from distorted perceptions of what is right and wrong, good and bad—and AIDS was woven into manifestation by those same non-loving energies as their cure. And, indeed, AIDS will not be removed by any pill, by any shot, by any genetic manipulation whatsoever, until the disease of Prejudice is sufficiently removed from the collective consciousness, if not cured altogether. And if, by some reason, an unyielding heart of humanity renders some commonly accepted, false 'cure,' while still avoiding treatment of the real disease, you can rest assured that another, even more heinous circumstance will arise to command the attention of mankind. Lava always finds the weak spot in the rock.
In every single case of someone who completes their embodiment via this vehicle called AIDS, that person becomes the nucleus of a community which forms around that one. As this community watches—and vicariously experiences—all the exile, pain, and suffering that this one draws unto him- or herself, their hearts get pierced in a way that they had never before experienced. Those whose gaze and focus are centered upon that nucleus watch their own lives go through unprecedented levels of transformation, as their hearts literally explode with love, mercy, forgiveness, and compassion. As they continue to serve, clean, care for, feed, talk to, and hold this one, their hearts just keep breaking and breaking. The often-hideous physical deterioration of the beautiful human body, coupled with the ostracism and exile imposed on the patient by so many who are stricken with fear and judgment, are powerful enough to override anyone's resistance to becoming unconditional love.
Once that physical incarnation is complete, the blessings that all those in that community have received continue to ripple out into their own communities—their families, friends, employers, etc. They now have an eye on the world which they never had before. They have a depth of compassion for others beyond their wildest dreams of what was humanly attainable. They, likewise, have evolved into a similar capacity for forgiveness and acceptance of others. And the levels of appreciation that those most closely touched by AIDS now find for each other, and for the gift of simply being alive, is astounding. To be present to the glory and the beauty of every moment is a priceless gift.
Consider (for those of you who have not actually had this experience) what it would be like to have darker skin than your next-door neighbor and to be hated for it? To be unwelcome, ridiculed, spit at, oppressed, assaulted, and even murdered? Allow your mind to move beyond the perception of 'black and white.' Those are connotations, flavors with which non-loving hearts 'color' the truth. The truth is that there are no black and white people. This planet is inhabited by one people, the human race. And every single person among that race has a certain amount of pigmentation in his skin, some more, some less. All have the same skin and the same pigmentation process. To see that racial prejudice actually arose over differences in pigmentation, not people, shows how absurd and insane it is.
Add to that prejudice over sexual preference, something as equally absurd, a choice which affects no one outside of those freely choosing with whom to engage and love. Now add to that the fact that your soul has neither gender, nor color, nor desire or preference and the insanity reaches a level for which classification does not exist.
The next obvious question is 'Why does the person who has AIDS contract it? AIDS is magnetized to an individual to heal conscious and unconscious internalized prejudice. Imagine if you were living in one of the above-mentioned circumstances. It is very easy to see how one would assume those negative thoughts, judgments, and feelings about oneself. How much homophobia could one withstand before becoming homophobic oneself (fearing being homosexual, because of what one would have to endure in the world, and then loathing oneself—and God—because of it)? The same goes for racial prejudice. How much of that abuse could one withstand before internalizing it and thus losing the ability to love oneself and others unconditionally… and eventually demonstrating the very same racial prejudice towards the oppressors and towards self, be it overtly or unconsciously?
It is for this reason that individuals draw AIDS into their bodies, in order to learn self-love and self-acceptance as the cure for internalized prejudice towards the self (which, in turn, is also often projected onto others). Then, there are those who draw AIDS to themselves via someone close to them who contracts it. It is by learning to unconditionally love and accept others that these ones will transcend their prejudices and ultimately attain greater self-love and self-acceptance.
It is only by curing the diseases of the human consciousness that one can cure the diseases which plague the human body. Finally, it is imperative that I address the misperceptions many have over the word 'cure.' Most people define 'curing' as 'please God, make it (this condition) go away.' But this fear-laden perception is linked to a chain of others. Nothing in this perfect world ever needs changing. It is only by changing your distorted perceptions of the world that its own inherent divinity is revealed to you.
Once realizing that you only need to change your distorted perceptions and not your circumstances, you would only have one question to ever bring to the altar of God: 'Please help me to understand why I created (the blessing of) this circumstance (for which I am so grateful) and what it has come to teach me?' Thus, the true definition of 'curing' is, 'To expand into a greater consciousness of Love through one's experience.'
It is entirely possible that physical conditions can remain—and even intensify—after a consciousness has been healed. It is simply a question of dharma. It is sometimes God's will for a soul to complete its incarnation under physically debilitating circumstances for the sake of the continued gifts they are bestowing unto the self and the world. Such was the case for St. Francis of Assisi and Lord Jesus. Their physical suffering had nothing to do with distorted perceptions or with a lack of attunement to God's will. Both lived in an ongoing and ever-expanding state of surrender. In point of fact, their 'suffering' (human perception) was the way they had contracted to serve God. Their hearts and minds were at peace and they lived in bliss. And their lives clearly demonstrated that they never allowed their temporary, physical circumstances to define their own divine, immortal nature. A heart at peace knows no suffering.
In closing, always remember to welcome and bless every circumstance and condition in your life, for you needed, wanted, chose, and created them. Ask yourself in every situation, 'What is this teaching me? How can I expand my consciousness and become greater Love, by way of this experience? Most of all, turn every inhalation into the mantra 'I AM blessed' and every exhalation into the mantra 'I AM grateful.' Do this and yours will be a world filled with peace, love, and joy.
- Bhagavan Sri Pranananda
