Nitpicking God Speaks

Nitpicking: looking for small or unimportant errors or faults, especially in order to criticize unnecessarily: a nitpicking legalistic exercise.

IN the 1973 print second edition of God Speaks there is some over-zealous editing that frankly does more harm than good to readability.

One of the hardest parts of God Speaks to read is between page 12 – 27, where it keeps using the phrases "most-first," "most-next," and "most-last."

That these were an addition to the original text is attested to in a footnote on p. 15. The argument given by the editor is amateur.

At least 90% of the 'most's impede reading, and convey no information that would not be perfectly clear from the context. There are a couple cases where they are helpful, near the beginning. And I believe that terms 'most-gross' and 'most-finite' are in fact very necessary, and likely came from Baba's dictation. I say this for reasons too hard to get into here, but it is supported by the fact that "most finite" is found throughout the Intelligence Notebooks, written earlier. In "most finite" appears 409 times there, and "most-gross" in God Speaks makes sense to me in the context as it always refers to stone form.

Anyway, while people will not likely agree with me now, in time others will see I'm right.

I copy a slice and show it with the mosts and without the mosts. This is from p. 21, picked almost at random.

Therefore the consciousness of the soul, being centred in the impressions of the most-last species of worm-form, associates with an appropriate medium and tends the soul to identify itself with the most-first species of fish-form in order to experience and exhaust the impressions of the most-last species of worm-form. This most-first species of fish-form is nothing other than the consolidated mould of the impressions of the most-last species of worm-form. As soon as the impressions of the most-last species of the worm-form are exhausted through experiences, the most-first species of fish-form is dropped or shed because the consciousness of the soul dissociates from this most-first species and the conscious soul no longer identifies itself with that species.

Now take a look at it with the 'most's taken out. It is more clear, and no ambiguities are produced by the omission.

Therefore the consciousness of the soul, being centered in the impressions of the last species of worm-form, associates with an appropriate medium and tends the soul to identify itself with the first species of fish-form in order to experience and exhaust the impressions of the last species of worm-form. This first species of fish-form is nothing other than the consolidated mould of the impressions of the last species of worm-form. As soon as the impressions of the last species of the worm-form are exhausted through experiences, the first species of fish-form is dropped or shed because the consciousness of the soul dissociates from this first species and the conscious soul no longer identifies itself with that species.

I once wrote a long paper on this, but believe I've lost it. If I ever have the energy and time, I'll try to at least summarize its points.

Personally I never could follow this chapter until I began to not read the 'most's. Then it became perfectly clear what Baba was saying.