Dictionary of all Scriptures & Myths

Understanding Biblical Symbolism


Home
Preface
5 Planes of Existence
Introduction
Five Planes of Manifestation

A to Z

Related Information

BIBLE VERSES

FIG-FRUIT

A symbol of the sweet fruit of the Tree of Life, i.e. the blissful results of the experience of the Self in its course through the lower nature. The "fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, etc." (GALATIANS v. 22), which are emotions transmuted through the Holy Spirit (Buddhi). This "sweet fruit" is garnered and enjoyed on the buddhic plane to which the consciousness rises after the lower nature is transcended.

"Two birds (the Paramātman and the Jivatman, or Supreme and individual souls) always united, of the same name, Occupy the same tree. One of them (the Jivātman) enjoys the sweet fruit of the fig (or fruit of acts), the other looks on as a witness." - Mundaka Upanishad, III. 1, 1-3; MON. WILLIAMS, Indian Wisdom, p. 42.

The "two birds" are the Higher and the Lower Selves which are essentially one, but dual in aspect respecting manifestation, only the lower aspect being in active relation with the soul as the Divine Indweller. It is the Divine life (jiva), the Christ within, who strives and eventually conquers the lower nature of the soul, and afterwards rises in his saints to partake of the fruit of the life process.

"There are hints which lead to the truth that it is only the lower self which suffers; the higher ego in us, 'the angel' which always beholds the face of the Father,' goes scathless, awaiting the uniting of the lower self with it." - K. C. ANDERSON, Serm., The Buried Life.

There sits a silent watcher within each of us, an entity unaffected by the swift, tumultuous passing of the years, yet carefully gathering up and storing within itself the tribute that they bring. It forgets nothing, loses nothing, allows nothing to escape that has ever come within its ken. And all this treasure is being accumulated for eternity; inner self of every soul cares only for the things of time as they bear upon its return to that state in which time is not. Language is of necessity inadequate here to express a fact which transcends our powers of thought. But I repeat that that timeless, ageless principle, that point and centre of being, which alone deserves to be called you, deeper far than your present consciousness of yourself, and greater than you have or could have any conception of while you are enclosed and battened down in your physical body, derives immediately from the eternal Son of God." - R. J. CAMPBELL, Serm., In Change Unchanged.

 

See Also

ATMAN
BIRDS (two)
EXPERIENCE
FRUIT OF SPIRIT
HARVEST
HIGHER-LOWER (Self)
INCARNATION (Souls)
INCARNATION (Spirit)
INDIVIDUALITY
JESUS (Son of God)
PERSONALITY
SAINTS
SELF (Supreme)
SELF (lower)
SON OF GOD
TIME
TREE OF LIFE