Letters from the Mandalis
De Simple Silence.
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[modifier] LETTERS FROM THE MANDALI OF AVATAR MEHER BABA, 2 vol.
[modifier] Groups
Baba wishes to inform all concerned in your area about the following decision He has made in the matter of group meeting and gatherings in His Name and Love. As you know, the purpose of such gatherings is a communion in His Love in full heart and spirit. But though it is true that our hearts are one in love for our Divine Beloved our minds differ in the ways and expressions of it. In short, our hearts agree but our minds disagree, causing unnecessary dissension and disharmony and obstructing the free channel for His Love through us. Being all-knowing, Baba knows and understands this more than we can fathom ; being all-compassionate, He guides and teaches us through our very weaknesses, strengthening through difficulties our love for Him. For His work He makes the best use of the material at hand and whatever He wills or decides is for out ultimate best.
As there are different groups in the West, there are also many, many Baba-groups in the East, and often more than one group in one place. For the best scope for His Love and work He has therefore decided that the groups should work independently. Through the different groups, minds will be able to more harmoniously express their love in Baba. He is present wherever even a few meet in His Love.
We must keep in mind that all Baba-gatherings must be Baba-gatherings only. We are extremely fortunate to have the direct Love and Presence of the One who embodies all the past Great Ones and is the ever One Avatar coming amidst us as a man in His great Love for us. The person who guides or conducts the meetings must love Baba sincerely and must not do so on a monetary basis ; he or she will automatically receive the richest wealth in receiving His Love and Blessings. This does no apply to any one particular person, but to any and all of any and all Baba-groups. Baba sends His Love to each and all who receive this letter and His personal decision given herein.
26 November 1956
[modifier] On Being Raised To The Heights And Brought Down To Dust...
I know what a trying ordeal you have experienced recently in your efforts to come closer to Him. Yet at the same time, I wanted to tell you how fortunate you both are to receive this opportunity of effacement in the midst of your recent suffering. As I have often said, fortunate are those whom Baba raises sky high, but more fortunate are those whom He brings down to become dust at His feet. You have been given the opportunity to get closer to Him in your recent experience.
By being brave and relying on Baba as the sole source of your support, and accepting the suffering you have gone through, He will draw you closer to Him.
There is a ghazal by Seemab which, upon hearing some of the lines, Baba gave the poet liberation. Seemab was out of the body at the time. I would like to share some of the lines from this ghazal with you :
« Either peel off the layers of wounds of the heart and throw them out of sight, or accept the wounds (of separation from the Beloved) as positive indications of love. »
My dears, what else is there to do but accept every situation as given by Him, and allow yourself to be ground to dust cheerfully ? There is another ghazal that says that this life has been forced upon me, so why not keep happy ?
Welcome the gifts of effacement of the false self that He offers even though it hurts. In coming to Him, everything dear to us—our friends, our concept of the spiritual path, everything—has to be taken away leaving only Him. Believe me, nothing that anyone has done to you has been done with malice. Each thing done by those who seemed to have hurt you was done out of the sincerity of their perspective of how to serve Baba, no matter how limited that perspective might be.
This doesn’t mean that your feelings of being hurt are not genuine. It is just that we have to grant the sincerity of the motive of others. The nature of the spiritual path is that two people who disagree can both be right. You see, only He is right, and everyone else at best has only partial glimpses of the Truth.
You have been blessed because, in the pain of what you have experienced, a new enthusiasm to reach Him and fall only at His feet has been born in you. This is what is important. Don’t dwell on the past, don’t be bitter about what has happened, but strive with all your heart to be His. Give yourself completely to Him. He is responsible for your spiritual welfare, don’t be concerned about anything else. Remember Him, and automatically you forget yourself.
Adi
[modifier] A World Of Difference
Bindra House 29 May 1957
Yours of the 28th was received today and read out to Beloved Baba. I trust that this reaches you in time ere you leave for Matheran. When you see Mai, convey my salutation and adoration.
My dear, who am I to satisfy your difficulty and convince you what and how I feel? Nevertheless, I may mention here that there is a world of difference between God and Guru. And this difference comes into play when we human beings start to play with the differences in the personalities of Guru and God (Sakar). Had there not been any difference, Kabir would never have given out the following couplet :
Guru Govind Dovo Khaday, Kakay Lagu Pau Balihari Guru Apree, Gin Govind Deo Batai
In one breath, Kabir sings all praise for the Guru, who can show the ‘Govind’ ; and in the same breath Kabir very subtly points out that all praise is due to that Guru who personally leads his disciple into the very presence of Govind.
So my dear, it now rests with you to draw out any meaning you choose, according to your feelings. Personally, I think there is a difference between a Guru and God-Incarnate in the domain of duality, as long as we are ignorant of the Truth.
On the other hand, Baba has ‘said’ in one of His messages :
« Pay heed when I say with my Divine Authority that the oneness of Reality is so uncompromisingly unlimited and all-pervading that not only ‘we are one,’ but even this collective term ‘we’ has no place in the Infinite, Indivisible Oneness. »
We have learned that Sadgurus are the personifications of God. Then what need is there for God to descend unto our level in human form and mingle with us calling Himself the Avatar of the Age? Has not the Omnipotent the power and capacity to remain ‘Nirakar’ while wanting to handle the affairs of His creation? Undoubtedly He has. That is what we have gathered. But who are we to question Him on this point? This is part of His Divine Game and He has the absolute right to indulge in the Game of His own creation. Even while we, ignorant human beings, refute the authority of the Avatar, God, as the Avatar, indulges in this game of ‘hide and seek’.
To cut the story short, my dear, please check your mind from creating more misunderstandings. It is because of your own misunderstandings and consequent folly that you put dear Ma in this position.
So far no one has checked you from following Ma. On the contrary, Beloved Baba wants all her lovers and followers to hold fast to her through thick and thin. But who has the courage to follow the hints frequently given by Baba?
Why did you stand up in Meherabad wanting to fast as desired by Baba without at first asking Ma’s permission? Who forced you to go and ask Ma, once you volunteered to undertake the fast?
First of all, you ought not have volunteered to do so, and secondly when you took upon your shoulders the responsibility of following Baba’s instructions, who told you to go to Ma for a confirmation or change in the definite instructions given by Baba Himself?
So, my dear, under such circumstances, we become the originator of such conflicts and our own misunderstandings. However, all of this is of the past, and let us not brood over things lightly on spur of the moment enthusiasm. Now, what Baba wants you to note is that you should stop worrying about anything. He loves you very much and He does not want you to feel miserable any longer.
Baba also wants you to know well that He loves Ma very much and that she is close to His heart of Infinite Love. Baba would feel very happy if you love Ma and obey her wholeheartedly with undivided zeal and adoration. If you could do but this much, you will spiritually come to realize who Baba is.
If you do not feel like coming to Baba on 2nd June, you could have frankly written to Baba ; and He says He would have appreciated that very much and have even felt proud of your devotion to Ma, who is His Beloved ‘Yashoda’. There was no need for you to go to Matheran to seek her permission expressly to come to Baba.
Now Baba says, even if you come to Him, it would not be for Baba but for the permission given by Ma. Had you come to Baba directly, which you could have easily done, and had you shown your inability to follow Baba’s instructions, if He were to give any to you, and had you conveyed the same directly to Baba, He would have greatly appreciated all this rather than all your childish fuss about things which you yourself do not understand.
When you see Ma, Baba wants you to tell her that she is most dear to Baba and that Baba wants her lovers to hold fast to her under any circumstances. Also convey to Ma Baba’s LOVE.
With affectionate regards to you,
Eruch
[modifier] Faith And Trust
Meherazad 16 October 1961
About His ‘promise’ (which I very well remember), you first express surprise and uncertainty as to how such a thing can be — you ask yourself (which in itself is doubting) ‘can He break it’ — and on the very next page you write, ‘I shall have faith’!
Don’t you see my dear that is a contradiction? You cannot have one eye on doubt and one eye on faith — you have to close both your eyes and have full faith and trust or none at all. There is no compromise.
You cannot cover even an atom of doubt with however thick a layer of trust you might spread on it. You trust and never give it another thought, or you don’t. It’s as simple (and as difficult) as that. There are no categories to faith, no conditions.
He tells us that He never breaks a promise — it is only a lack of our own understanding of it that makes us think so. He says, « My Glory is from here to Eternity — let Me see how far you can see My Glory. »
He knows His own business and He knows ours — we see nothing beyond our little noses. We focus on the little wish we want Him to fulfill, and miss the stream of blessings that flow from Him.
Look at the number of promises that He did NOT make to you and yet granted — at every step while you were abroad, guiding you over every hurdle that loomed up, hearing every prayer that your heart asked but He did not promise!
You say you don’t understand — that is just what you should not do. He says, « I can never be understood just love Me. » And if, in gaining an iota of understanding we lose an atom of love, what a great loss is ours!
So count your blessings, and lay your little ‘promise’ at His feet — He will keep it, exactly on which day or month or year is for Him to decide who knows best and who has seen to your best first to last. Let Him worry about His part of it, let us only worry about our own part as Baba-lovers and see that we never fail.
When we must ask for something from Him, then let that only be LOVE — nothing else is worth our receiving from Him who holds us so close to Him.
Mani
[modifier] God And Guru
Poona 25 May 1957
Your letter of the 23rd was read out to Beloved Baba. Baba felt proud of your determination to adhere to your Guru, who is also Baba’s Beloved ‘Yashoda’[1]. Baba says that if by this time you are still ignorant of Baba’s love for Godavri Mai, then know well now that Baba’s love for Mai is too great for any expression and He loves her dearly.
Baba has never told you, or anyone for that matter, to leave Godavri Mai and come to Baba.
Baba does not have any pity for your plight but feels amused to watch the working of your mind and the consequent conflict of feelings in your heart. You must necessarily pass through all this until you become fully aware that Baba is no « guru » nor a « saint », but that He is the Avatar — the Ancient One — God Incarnate in human form!
Baba further wants me to add here that had you been fortunate enough to have that unwavering conviction that Baba is really the Avatar and that Godavri Mai is really your Guru, then there could never have been any chance of conflict to make you suffer so much.
It would then be obvious to you that Baba being God Incarnate, could never be just a « guru » and, as such, all who believed in Him could not be termed disciples. At the most these could be termed His « Lovers or Followers ». The Messiah — Saviour of mankind — never has any disciple in the conventional sense, though others may call themselves disciples.
My dear, Baba has so often affirmed that He is the Father of all Creation, that He is the Source of all things in existence and that His Infinite Love sustains the very existence of all beings and things in the domain of illusion. And Baba wants me to add here : All worship Him daily and pray to Him often without any conflict in head or heart, as long as they take Him for granted as God — Nirguna[2] and Nirakara — but no sooner does this same God affirm in His « Sagun » and « Sakar » « Swarup »[3], that He is the Ancient One, than there is a conflict and consequent suffering for those who believe in Him and also for those who are the non-believers.
Conflict and suffering of the non-believers is to be overlooked because they know not ; but the conflict and suffering of a believer is ridiculous.
Baba says that this creation and its affairs are one big joke and that Baba is the Matchless Joker!
Baba wants you not to worry in the least if you cannot come to Baba on 2nd June, because He is always with you.
If you happen to come to Baba on 2nd June, then Baba will clear your difficulties and you will get some relief from your conflicting thoughts and feelings for the Avatar of the Age and for your Guru, Godavri Mai.
If, however, it is impossible for you to be near Baba on 2nd June, then do not brood over it and do not get trapped more and more by the self-created conflict within your mind. Just remember this much, Baba says, « Give to God that which is God’s, and give to your Guru that which is Guru’s. »
Baba also wants you to remember well that Baba is Krishna and Godavri Mai is His Beloved « Yashoda » and that Godavri Mai is matchlessly pure of heart. Baba would feel very happy and proud of you if you can obey Godavri Mai in all respects. How could your obedience to her ever displease Baba? If you could but obey your Guru implicitly in all respects willingly and cheerfully, only then would it be possible for you to know Baba as He really is.
Baba sends His Love to you.
Eruch
P.S. Baba wants you to send a true copy of this letter to Godavri Mai.
[modifier] The Mynah Bird
5 May 1958
I must tell you of the talking mynah we had (a raven-black Nepali bird with a yellow beak, ear-flaps and legs) — she not only imitated speech, but also the exact tone of each one’s voice, the fretful crying of a baby and the wheezing asthmatic cough of an old man (this she picked up in the little Indian shop from where a Baba lover brought her to Baba).
So early every morning Mehera would go to its cage and repeat, « Baba, Baba darling. » The mynah picked it up in a few days and she said it so clearly and humanly that we’d turn round with a start every time those words rang out.
You can imagine how tickled Baba was, and He’d go to her cage and blow her a kiss through the bars! Then one morning there was an unexpected storm when we were not in the room. Before we could run out to cover her cage, she caught a cold and developed bronchitis and in spite of all our care she died.
But the most wonderful part was as she lay in warm flannel while we stood around her, with her dying breath she croaked feebly but clearly « B..A..B..A. »
Beloved Baba said we couldn’t have an iota of an idea how fortunate that bird was — that it would be a human in its next form!!
Mani
[modifier] A Semblance Of Harmony
Guruprasad, Poona 19 June 1961
I cannot emphasize too greatly the need among us ALL for a semblance of harmony and understanding of one another’s point of view by remembering the good intentions underlying one another’s actions, and by striving for a balance of ‘giving in’ on both sides at one time or another.
The part that money plays helps not only in spreading Baba’s message to others, but the involvement with it also helps His dear ones in practising greater patience, tolerance and understanding for each other in Baba’s Love. There is nothing like adjusting through compromise (now from one side, now from the other) to keep the ball of His work rolling.
As we are all His workers on this side of the fence, it is very necessary. This may sound like preaching, but I am simply speaking from experience, knowing such disagreement crops up in nearly all the groups in East and West who work for Baba’s cause.
I like to think of disagreement as a ‘tread’ necessary for a vehicle (or a footwear) while going up a steep incline, helping to increase our ‘grip’ and preventing a ‘slipping’ into carelessness — but disagreement should never grow into dissension to such an extent that it becomes an accumulated weight which slows down the progress of the vehicle and causes unnecessary jolts.
Mani
[modifier] Strive With All Your Heart
There is a ghazal by Seemab which, upon hearing some of the lines, Baba gave the poet liberation. Seemab was out of the body at the time. I would like to share some of the lines from this ghazal with you :
Either peel off the layers of wounds of the heart and throw them out of sight, or accept the wounds (of separation from the Beloved) as positive indications of love.
My dears, what else is there to do but accept every situation as given by Him, and allow yourself to be ground to dust cheerfully? There is another ghazal that says that this life has been forced upon me, so why not keep happy?
Welcome the gifts of effacement of the false self that He offers even though it hurts. In coming to Him, everything dear to us — our friends, our concept of the spiritual path, everything — has to be taken away leaving only Him. Believe me, nothing that anyone has done to you has been done with malice. Each thing done by those who seemed to have hurt you were done out of the sincerity of their perspective of how to serve Baba, no matter how limited that perspective might be.
This doesn’t mean that your feelings of being hurt are not genuine. It is just that we have to grant the sincerity of the motive of others. The nature of the spiritual path is that two people who disagree can both be right. You see, only He is right and everyone else at best has only partial glimpses of the Truth.
You have been blessed because, in the pain of what you have experienced, a new enthusiasm to reach Him and fall only at His feet has been born in you. This is what is important. Don’t dwell on the past, don’t be bitter about what has happened, but strive with all your heart to be His. Give yourself completely to Him. He is responsible for your spiritual welfare, don’t be concerned about anything else. Remember Him, and automatically you forget yourself.
[modifier] His Appearing In Our Dream
Meherazad 4 April 1979
I have your letter and have noted the unnecessary confusion created regarding dreams and Baba’s appearance in your dreams.
Baba says that all these things are illusion. When we come to know and realise the Eternal Truth this illusion vanishes like a dream in the night. The appearance of the Truth makes one realise that the illusory life one has led was nothing but a dream.
The ancient One comes in our midst time and again to point out to us that all this is a dream. We see dreams in our sleep and we call them sleep dreams. The illusory life that we lead while awake is a vacant dream. The Ancient One (Meher Baba) comes to us in this and tells us that it is a vacant dream. Even all this is a dreaming too ; yet this dream has significance because in this vacant dream Baba makes us aware of our dreaming.
Likewise, when one see Baba in one’s sleep dream, it is significant because even though we are asleep and dreaming we have the semblance of Reality and hence, His appearing in our dream has significance. This is what I have gathered from Baba.
Eruch
[modifier] Experiences The Soul Must Go Through
Your point about cancer and illness interested me — it is of course the old point of our lack of understanding that the enlightened ones have. We always see it from the material point of view, and they (experiencing creation as illusion) must act for the spiritual good. It’s far from the Divine Plan to have no illness of the body — after all it is one of the main mediums of experiencing pain which is the opposite of pleasure. Duality (however illusory) expresses itself in dual experiences, and misery is as much in the Divine Plan as is so-called happiness. They are both experiences the soul must go through some time or another.
Another way I look at it is this : even with all the misery there is, it is so difficult to ‘turn away’ from the world — well-nigh impossible to be disgusted sufficiently to turn to God alone. Just imagine if everything were fine and serene, no illness, no misery, we’d stick to our ignorance like leaches, and such a stagnant way would hardly serve the development of the ever-awakening soul! I remember someone remarking, « Why if there are spiritual masters in India don’t they do something about the backwardness and disease of the country? » Just as though they were a crowd of missionaries, or a society for the prevention of disease and dirt! I replied that although they did a sweeping job it was not on germs, but on our ignorance, and even if they do not completely wipe it out, at least they jolt us enough from our self-satiated complacency of accepting our illusory existence as the only and all.
[modifier] For Children
Satara 18 September 1955
I was very happy to receive your love- filled letter in your sweet language. I love all of you. I love children. Do you know why? Because your Baba is also a child. You are innocent and so am I. My very name is Bholanath. Just as your heart is soft so is Mine. You like to play games and so do I.
Now tell me whether or not I am a child. I am old, I am young, I am a woman, I am a man, I am a mother, I am father — and I am everything. But I am more like a child. That is why you should make Me your friend. But remember this : Always keep this Friend with you. Don’t forget. When you eat, remember your Friend ; when you play, remember Him. When you study, that time too first remember your Friend, and then study. When you sleep, remember Me and then sleep.
All of you say that when you call Me, I never listen. It is not true ; Baba is such a friend that even for a moment He is never away from you. When you remember Me I know, because I am with you all the time. When you play, I am also playing with you. When you go to school, I am also in school with you. I never leave you, but you are never aware of it. When you tell the truth — I know it ; when you tell a lie — that I also know. I know everything. So listen to Me, My friends, never tell a lie, live honestly ; if you don’t do this your Friend will be unhappy.
Now if you ask Me how it is that I stay always with you but you never see Me, I would say that I like to play games very much, and most of all I like to play hide-and-seek. In this game I am Ustad (Master) because I hide and see everything. In order to see and find Me, you will have to seach for Me. Look for Me, seek Me and try to find Me. Seek Me, find Me, defeat Me in this game, and you win!
But where will you look for Me? I am hiding in your heart, so search for Me in your heart. How will you search for Me? Always remember Me, call Me, make Me your dear friend. Because I am your friend I will respond to your call immediately.
Whenever people call Me I listen, but not so much as I do to children. Grown- up persons call Me a lot, they cry and they weep, but at times I remain as if I’m deaf. But if children call Me softly, I listen immediately to their sweet voices. My ears are very sharp to their call. Why is this so? Because I am so close to you and with you. That is why you should remember Me more and more.
If you remember Me I will be happy. If you lie I will be unhappy, so always try to keep Me happy by speaking the truth.
[modifier] Make Me Your Friend
Now tell Me whether you will make Me your friend. If you do I will reward you with a reward such as you have never received before. And the name of My reward is LOVE.
Always ask Me for this reward, but remember it is expensive. You will ask for more and more and once you have it you won’t be able to be without it. Children, your Baba has an endless store of this reward, and when you ask for it more and more, Baba will give it to you.
[modifier] Not To Learn But To Be Awakened
Some of the God-fire in your heart must have rubbed off on your letter I received last evening. I read it to Baba and the look on His face was very deep. His message for you is that you are very fortunate to experience this Love and that you should, « Plunge in, unafraid. »
It immediately brought to my mind something Baba told us one evening just before the accident and made us repeat it a few times. It is the lines of an Urdu couplet by a mystic poet : « Understand well this Love is no joke ; it is an Ocean of Fire in which you have to plunge deep and drown yourself. »
The road of the mind is narrow, and for a dnyani (seeker) it is a long journey. The road of the heart, however, has no limits and it’s the most direct to God. For the dnyani there are a thousand questions to all of which the bhakti (lover) has one answer — and it is all- sufficient and satisfying.
Baba says, « I have come not to teach but to awaken ; » but unfortunately only a few can say, « Baba, I have come not to learn but to be awakened. »
[modifier] Baba Is So Happy Here
Baba told this interesting fact the other day, that all four aspects of the four great Avatars were embodied in the present Avataric period. The Buddha—with his poise, peace, calm exterior, and renunciation—is present in all Avatars whether it shows itself externally or not. Today, however, the work of the Avatar has to be active. He is Mohammed in his strict discipline with the men, Krishna in his life up here [on Meherabad Hill] with the group, and Jesus in his work with the mad-men (masts), washing them, feeding them, healing them, etc., at the dispensary. This I thought was very interesting. Later on, by the time you [Dr. William Donkin] come, there will be here the leper ashram and an ashram for the distressed.
Baba is so happy here but He has caught a chill again washing all the masts. Also He has, as you say, such a sensitive body and His skin is so sensitive that the carbolic soap He uses and His having His hands so much in water does affect His skin and makes it very chapped and sore.
[modifier] The Hurdle Of The Mighty Mind
Any work that one undertakes with honest intentions and with love is Baba’s work ; and he who does His work for the Love of God is always His.
You cannot depend upon your colleagues in your venture for you will yourself have to continue at every step to set examples for others and for yourself in the path of love if you dare to tread upon it knowingly and consciously.
The paradox is pure and simple. Love in itself is « self » absorbing and it helps to lose one’s self completely ; how then can one help others actively by one’s own example of self absorption?
To help others through one’s example, one must first become not only drenched but drowned in love consciously. This is the duty of all Perfect Ones.
The prelude to all this is to attempt to create a balance between the thoughts of the mind and the feelings of the heart. Mind works much faster. It is like lightning. Lightning is seen first and then the report of thunder is heard much later.
To attempt an equilibrium, the mind must be made to function slower to keep pace with the feelings of the heart, and no amount of observing silence or fasting can help towards such an attempt.
If an individual desires to attempt the enforcement of equilibrium in a true direction, the most suitable means would be to attempt consistently to accelerate the feelings to such a pitch that they supersede the mind. For this the only efficient fuel is love—love unadulterated.
Unless one learns to love, purely for the sake of love and love alone, one cannot cross the hurdle of the mighty mind.
And for one to learn to love in its true sense, the only recourse is to dedicate one’s « self » to the Lord of Love. Unless one is determined to hold fast to the feet of the Avatar under all circumstances, all attempts in this direction lead one astray, rather than on the path of love and righteousness.
[modifier] On Spreading Baba's Message Of Love And Truth
Satara 28 September 1955
Baba wants all His lovers to remember one thing : He does not want the Prachar (propaganda) of His name or His message of Love and Truth. Baba is always displeased with the propaganda value attached to anything connected with spirituality. What He wants is Prasar (propagation) of His Love and the Truth of Reality. His Love, which is for all alike, should spread and envelop all without discrimination and the Prasar of His Love can only be achieved by exemplary lives of love and humility led by His lovers. Unless and until a lover of Baba lives such a life, it is impossible for any lover of Baba to do much in the field of Baba work. Baba has repeatedly stressed that the greatest work one can do for Baba is for one to live the life of love, humility, sincerity, and selfless service. Live such a life without the least trace of hypocrisy or show—and Baba’s work is done. The rest automatically follows without exertion or propaganda. Let the lover’s own life be the poster for propaganda and let the lover’s life itself spread Baba’s message of Love and Truth. Such a love and such a life are vital ; they carry the weight of the highest responsibility and have a vital force behind their thoughts, words, and deeds. Of course, in the beginning, such an attitude towards life demands the highest type of discipline. This may seem as dry as dust, but it will automatically be transmuted into the very life of the lover—the kind of life and living which Baba desires all His lovers to have and spread among all other lovers of God. To cultivate discipline for one’s self, or to inculcate it into others, is not the responsibility of a teacher, guide, or guru ; it requires self-determination and an honest effort from every lover of God. To begin with, it is best to remember Baba as often as possible without neglecting the responsibilities we have shouldered ourselves—family responsibilities, our own commitments, our jobs, and such other things that do count in this world, even though they have no foundation of their own in the domain of Reality. — Eruch
[modifier] The Real Gift
What is meant by The Real Gift?
If a gift is real, then both the one who gives and the one who receives must forget about it completely.
To forget completely would mean that the giver should not feel that he has given, and the receiver should not know that he has received. If the giver does not forget, then he feels that he has obliged the receiver, and if the receiver does not forget, then he knows that he has been obliged by the giver.
Love alone comes as the Real Gift from God, because when God bestows the gift of Love and man receives it, both completely forget about it. Because of complete forgetfulness, man can ever strive to love God, and God has always remained as the Eternal Beloved for mankind.
But how can God forget when He is Omniscient?
When I say that God forgets completely I mean just that, because His Gift of Love is the Real Gift, and unless He forgets about it completely, the Gift of Love can never be the Real Gift. Man too is ever ignorant of the all pervading Love of God, and he never realizes the Gift of Love although he does realize Godhood ultimately.
When the Omniscient bestows the Real Gift of Love, He has to manifest His complete forgetfulness by becoming absolutely callous of His lover. Hence, untold sufferings on the path of love are experienced by the lovers of God, as also the unimaginable pangs of separation by those who have been gifted with Divine Love for their Beloved God.
God becomes callous to His loves because He is Omniscient and He knows the real meaning of the Real Gift. Therefore the lover who receives the Gift of Divine Love from God begins to love God so intensely that he completely forgets that he loves God and that this Love was a Gift from God.
The lover experiences the bliss of Divine Love in the midst of the fiery pangs of separation from his Beloved God, because he is completely oblivious of the Gift from God. As long as the lover does not forget the Gift of Love he is not happy, in spite of the Eternal Love of God on all alike.
[modifier] Carnal Cravings
(In reply to a Baba-lover who asked about « carnal cravings »)
1978
My dear, coming to the point of your letter, Beloved Baba has given us to understand that our carnal cravings are the legacy derived from our animal ancestry ; as such these cravings are inherent. If abstinence cannot be fully exercised to overcome them, at least exercise continence. To exercise continence is not repression. Repression is through fear and begets the experience of misery, while continence is through strength and results in giving confidence and joy.
Clean habits in life help keep a clean mind. Frequent remembrance of Beloved Meher Baba guards the mind and helps to « phase out » undesirable addictions. Eventually, as one ages, one gains more useful experiences and tires of the experiences of youth, and even ridicules them in one’s old age.
At this stage it is best for us to leave everything in His Compassionate Hand and to always dedicate our weaknesses and our strength to our Beloved Avatar Meher Baba and to remember Him constantly. We should strive not to let Him down through our way of life, but to uphold the trust He has reposed in His lovers. It is up to us to try. While one cannot observe total ‘fast’ (over lust, anger, greed, etc.) one must observe ‘strict diet’!
Wishing you all the best.
Eruch
[modifier] Recognize That Truth Is Universal
Yes, I gave your message to Baba and He nodded and made a quick gesture that I didn’t understand. But then we don’t always have to understand, it is enough that He knows and He always does.
I loved what you said about Baba—for He is both eastern and western, yet He is neither, for He is truly ‘universal’ in every sense of the word. I feel the most beloved trait in Baba is that He is not only for all, He is for EACH. Whether He is with children or grownups, with intellectuals or illiterates, with low or high, with poor or otherwise, with eastern or western, it’s fascinating to watch Baba make the outwardly different feel « He is one with us and one of us. » He does not try to westernize the East nor easternize the West, for that is no more important than the clothes one wears. It is the person within that matters and that He values. But for His work He makes use of the material at hand, and whatever we happen to be He works through us and our mode of life and expression.
Just as He « will bring all religions together like beads on one string, » He will unite all nations so that we can discard outward differences and recognize that Truth is universal.
Meherazad 22 April 1980
Your very intriguing dream intrigues me too, as does the priceless question : « What would please Baba? » There are as many answers as there are lovers who desire to please Him, for the relationship between the Beloved and the lover is specifically personal and delicate, and each one has to tune in within oneself. Fortunately for us it is an unending venture, for in the constant trying is the constant remembering. And remembrance is the key : the more we remember Baba, the more we forget ourselves, until His remembrance becomes as natural and as effortless as breathing—a joyous whole in which all the daily duties and responsibilities are absorbed.
You ask for a first step in pleasing Baba. The first step is not to do anything that would displease Him. Mind may say, « How do I know what might displease Him? » But the heart always knows, and whenever you have avoided displeasing Him you will see Him smile. The effort not to displease Him is in itself pleasing to Him—when the first step is taken the next step reveals itself. In reaching the Beloved’s pleasure we need to have His constant remembrance, absolute trust, and a lot of patience with Meher Baba who has such stupendous patience with us! So Baba says, « Don’t worry, » because once we are determined to be His, He takes care of it all.
Mani
[modifier] Prize
28 July 1957
Received your dear letter, and when the crossword popped out I got engrossed in solving it till I threw it up in despair. I used to try solving crossword puzzles a long time ago but gave it up after awhile as the published results never seemed to agree with my very clever efforts (ahem).
But as you must know by now I am quite good at nonsense. When we were in Satara I saw a contest—an advertisement for a toothbrush in which they gave an incomplete limerick and we had to fill in the last line. Prize? A gold watch worth one thousand rupees for just those eight silly words. Naturally I sent my entry in Goher’s name. We heard the results when we were in Poona, after Beloved’s accident, that we had won the prize out of thousands of contestants from all over India! They called on Goher asking her to attend a presentation ceremony in Poona. Poor Goher seemed quite distressed over it, having to leave Baba’s bedside and dreading the fact that she might have to make a speech! She is a shy and dear person but went of course in a borrowed sari, blouse, etc., as we hurried over from Satara with barely anything. A disciple bought the watch and Baba used the thousand rupees towards the poor program when He emerged from seclusion.
Mani
[modifier] On Doing Baba's Work
Meherazad 12 August 1965
I received your loving letter of the 4th, with all the clarifying enclosures. As I read through it all, I felt neither surprise nor distress, but a warm familiarity in the pattern it unfolded, as one who has witnessed the wondrous and manifold ways of Baba's working through the littlest things.
The result of any work we do in Baba's cause is not measured by any achievement on our part, but by the amount of ourselves we have put into the doing of it. Having worked hard and having done our best at whatever we set out to do in His Love, the result will be as He wills and wants. We try to achieve the one result we have worked at; He uses every step of our endeavor for manifold results through the action and reactions that follow and are churned up. Baba is our strength, and He uses our weaknesses for our good when we have surrendered to Him. Only then can we be truly instrumental in the doing of His work. To do our wholehearted best is our real concern — how it shall turn out is not our worry. The fact is that when we set out to do anything concerned with Baba's work, the impossibly difficult things are often made easy, while the simplest things become incredibly complicated — how often we have had cause to remark on this with exasperation and delight!
You have done your best and dedicated the work to Baba — so it is no longer a 'personal' matter, and you must remain undisturbed and be a watcher to the work He is doing through it and through all who are drawn into it. I am sure all this sounds rather like 'teaching and preaching' on my part — but actually it is just that I am thinking aloud, reviving some of the grains of knowledge harvested from the experiences of many of us.
Mani
[modifier] On Becoming Dust
1979
I know what a trying ordeal you have experienced recently in your efforts to come closer to Him. Yet at the same time, I wanted to tell you how fortunate you both are to receive this opportunity of effacement in the midst of your recent suffering. As I have often said, fortunate are those whom Baba raises sky high, but more fortunate are those whom He brings down to become dust at His feet. You have been given the opportunity to get closer to Him in your recent experience.
By being brave and relying on Baba as the sole source of your support, and accepting the suffering you have gone through, He will draw you closer to Him.
There is a ghazal by Seemab which, upon hearing some of the lines, Baba gave the poet liberation. Seemab was out of the body at the time. I would like to share some of the lines from this ghazal with you:
"Either peel off the layers of wounds of the heart and throw them out of sight, or accept the wounds (of separation from the Beloved) as positive indications of love. "
My dears, what else is there to do but accept every situation as given by Him, and allow yourself to be ground to dust cheerfully? There is another ghazal that says that this life has been forced upon me, so why not keep happy?
Welcome the gifts of effacement of the false self that He offers even though it hurts. In coming to Him, everything dear to us — our friends, our concept of the spiritual path, everything — has to be taken away leaving only Him. Believe me, nothing that anyone has done to you has been done with malice. Each thing done by those who seemed to have hurt you was done out of the sincerity of their perspective of how to serve Baba, no matter how limited that perspective might be.
This doesn't mean that your feelings of being hurt are not genuine. It is just that we have to grant the sincerity of the motive of others. The nature of the spiritual path is that two people who disagree can both be right. You see, only He is right, and everyone else at best has only partial glimpses of the Truth.
You have been blessed because, in the pain of what you have experienced, a new enthusiasm to reach Him and fall only at His feet has been born in you. This is what is important. Don't dwell on the past, don't be bitter about what has happened, but strive with all your heart to be His. Give yourself completely to Him. He is responsible for your spiritual welfare, don't be concerned about anything else. Remember Him, and automatically you forget yourself.
Adi
[modifier] Spiritualism And Spirituality
20 September 1956
Did you as a child ever play that game where you are blind-folded and have to try and catch your partner by the sound of his voice? Well it's something like that now — no sooner do I focus on you in one place than I hear your voice coming from somewhere else. This armchair travelling with you has been great, your sketches throb with life for you colour them with the heart of a people and I loved all those you mentioned.
I have just been replying to a couple of lengthy letters full of sky high questions, each one requiring an answer at least as long as one of those 'after dinner speeches' made immortal in jokes. One man asks Baba to send a representative who will perform a 'miracle' (paranormal phenomena) so it can be proved, witnessed (tabulated and catalogued) in order to help non-believers to believe. He writes in good faith and thinks himself a seeker, but got 'spiritualism' and 'spirituality' so mixed up I couldn't pry it apart for him with a lever. It's not easy to show the ABC of spirituality to intellectual giants (even if we can have a mite of the infinite patience Baba has with us). Heaven save us from these 'brainy' seekers who don't know that they don't know — I'm all for the unencumbered spontaneous ones who listen to their intuitions and read sermons in stones.
Baba-news has been going as usual in regular letters to one or another in America, and no doubt you will be getting them all on your return. The latest was full of the pre-plans for the coming November. Frankly I couldn't help feeling (perhaps as others) that the plan might be postponed or cancelled by the time November '57 comes along — but then perhaps that is just why He will see it through. For how often, when we feel smug and complacent in our estimate of certain things, feeling that by now we know Baba's ways, He shakes us out of it by doing just the opposite! At least one learns that with Baba one should never be caught napping, and certainly at the moment He seems very serious about the November congregation. Many of the women in India have been quite justifiably grousing about their being left out of the Sahavas gatherings so far and these dames will be jumping for joy!
Baba has gone over to Jal Villa to work in seclusion with Kaikobad. Tottering fortunate little Jal Villa, but like those He has gathered around Him (whom He sometimes refers to as 'pearls' but more often as 'second-hand furniture') He seems to like it that way.
Mani
[modifier] On Silence And Chasing Desires
22 May 1957
What can I say to your letter; it was more than a letter, more than a poem, an expression of the inner silence, as gentle and as deep as I have found you to be through your beautiful writings.
I have often repeated to myself the answer to man's misery, in the words, "Ye have asked enough" — for only when man stops asking and is ready to 'give' will the universal brotherhood of God's creation come into being. When will man stop asking for himself, stop the mad race for chasing transient desires, stop hating and wanting, stop the constant chattering of his mind that deafens him to the voice of God? That is to me most symbolic of Baba's Silence. Baba once said, "When I break my Silence I will speak the One Word and the whole universe will hear. But man has yet to go through much suffering before he is ready to listen."
Makes me think of the story I read about Gautama Buddha. He was once walking through the jungle, and was accosted by a dacoit who earned his living by murdering and pillaging passersby in that remote wood. The thief ran after Buddha as a possible victim, but hard as he ran he could not come up to Buddha who was walking at a slow and leisurely pace. At last in desperation he cried, "Stop, stop!" Buddha stood still and turned round smiling, saying "I stopped long ago son. It is you who must stop." The end of the story is that the dacoit fell on his knees in anguish and gratitude. He stopped his nefarious deeds, spent many years in meditation under a gnarled tree where Buddha asked him to sit, and finally became spiritually enlightened.
Mani
[modifier] On The Dhuni
In Sanskrit dhyan means meditation; dhyani means one who meditates. The Hindi word dhuni might have been derived from the Sanskrit word dhyani. Again in Hindi dhoon means repeating the name of God aloud, in a sing-song manner. In India the saints and masters who left the towns and sometimes lived in the jungles, usually kept a dhuni burning for all the twenty-four hours.
Some points about Baba's Dhuni:
a) Baba first lit the dhuni at Meherabad (according to Padri) in the month of September 1925.
b) In 1926, when it was again lit on the same day, Arangaon had plentiful rains.
c) In 1941, on December 12, Baba asked Gustadjee to light the dhuni in His presence. Since then Baba gave specific instructions that whether He be at Meherabad or elsewhere the dhuni should be lit on the 12th of each month.
d) On January 12, 1942, after the passing away of Upasni Maharaj (on December 24, 1941) Pappa Jessawala lit the dhuni in Baba's presence.
e) On September 24, 1954, when Baba's western disciples were staying on the Hill at Meherabad, Baba had a programme of lighting the dhuni.
f) On November 12, 1955, during the sahavas when His lovers from Andhra were present, the dhuni was lit in Baba's presence and He asked each sahavasi to put a splinter of sandalwood in it with a sincere wish to burn that particular desire to which one is attached most.
g) The dhuni at Meherabad reminds us of the work of the Avatar which can be likened to fire. Baba once composed a poem with the title: Baba is Fire:
Baba is Fire
When you feel cold,
And sit near the fire;
It drives out your cold,
And makes you perspire.
When you feel hungry,
And cook on the fire;
It gives you your food,
For which you aspire.
But if you like a fool,
Try to play with Fire;
It may burn you so badly,
That would make hell admire!
[modifier] On Baba's Silence
Meherazad 14 July 1969
I have with me your very loving letter and a typed copy of "a note from the publishers" — Meher Baba.
I can quite understand your personal feelings and your mental conflict over the issue of the breaking of Beloved Baba's Silence.
Please note one very simple fact — that whatever I may say verbally or in writing on the subject of Beloved Baba is my own personal viewpoint, as from a layman, and it does not carry any stamp of authoritative statement. Personally, I feel very reticent to mention anything about Beloved Baba. Understanding fails to fathom His ways and "utterances," and I frankly admit that I do not know nor understand His ways and "utterances" and on my own I do not even try to do so. Beloved Baba has often told me that the moment one feels that one understands anything about God, one has surely misunderstood it! So best is to keep mum.
When some close ones press me to answer their queries, I say whatever I personally think or feel about them at the moment. Likewise, when you wrote me in your previous letter, I replied as one person to another in Baba's Love. My reply must not be misconstrued as expressing the views of the mandali in general.
So, dear brother, please do not take any of my statements in my personal letters as having any stamp of authority. I have to make it clear to you also that whatever may have been mentioned in « The Glow » or elsewhere on the issue of the breaking of Beloved Baba's Silence has nothing whatsoever to do with what I say on the subject. Therefore, please do wipe off any doubts created in your mind due to what I have mentioned in my letter to you and know once and for all that I do not know anything for certain on this issue or on anything pertaining to Beloved Baba's "utterances"; and that each one is absolutely free to have his or her interpretation of Beloved Baba's "utterances."
When you wrote to me asking me about Beloved Baba's uttering the WORD and the breaking of His Silence and His Manifestation, I was reminded of the very first sentences in the text of the New Testament:
In the Beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God... And the Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us, and we beheld His Glory, Glory as the only begotten from the Father, full of Grace and Truth...
Accordingly, I expressed in my reply to you another angle on the issue, as I felt at the time of writing to you. I would like to express it once again more clearly in this letter as follows:
The Silence of Meher Baba in His Man-form was the personification of the Silence of God, and His being in our midst as the God-Man is the "WORD made flesh." His having dropped His Man-form is the act of releasing the WORD (i.e. the WORD that was encaged in the Man-form of Meher Baba was released when the body, which encaged it, dropped) which simultaneously is tantamount to the act of breaking the Silence.
Now, please do not take this as a statement of facts. It is just one morsel of food for thought. That is all and nothing more! So don't become so serious about what you hear from me in reply to what you ask. I am not a master who can give an authoritative statement.
Eruch
[modifier] On Pleasing Baba
12 October 1976
The important thing concerning your life is that you do whatever draws you closer to Baba. The details of one's profession and career are not so nearly important as maintaining and increasing the connection one has with Him in the abode of the heart.
Baba will be with you no matter what you study. Try your best to decide in your heart what Baba wants; then make a decision, and as long as you take His name with you, you will be doing the right thing.
All the divisions you speak about exist in the mind only. The heart is only one. See from the heart, not the mind. It is the mind that wants to divide and separate. It is the heart that is one. Through your constant remembrance of Him, His grace will flow to you to help you seek and experience everything as one, as parts of the whole unity of life.
In deciding not only what to take in school, but what personal relationships to develop in friends, and what life partner to choose if you decide to get married, ask this question: Will this relationship help bring me closer to my heart's desire: Meher Baba? In deciding where to live, where to go for your vacations — in virtually every decision in your life — the criteria for making the decision should be: Will this action of mine bring me closer to Him, and will it please Him? Or can I do something else which, although it isn't something I like, will please Him and will bring me closer to Him?
If you do this with the attitude of a child, looking to its parent to see what the parent would be happy with, then Baba will guide you and His Grace will be upon you.
Adi
[modifier] On Faith And Trust
Meherazad
16 October 1961
About His 'promise' (which I very well remember), you first express surprise and uncertainty as to how such a thing can be — you ask yourself (which in itself is doubting) 'can He break it' — and on the very next page you write, 'I shall have faith'! Don't you see my dear that is a contradiction? You cannot have one eye on doubt and one eye on faith — you have to close both your eyes and have full faith and trust or none at all. There is no compromise. You cannot cover even an atom of doubt with however thick a layer of trust you might spread on it. You trust and never give it another thought, or you don't. It's as simple (and as difficult) as that. There are no categories to faith, no conditions.
He tells us that He never breaks a promise — it is only a lack of our own understanding of it that makes us think so. He says, "My Glory is from here to Eternity — let Me see how far you can see My Glory." He knows His own business and He knows ours — we see nothing beyond our little noses. We focus on the little wish we want Him to fulfill, and miss the stream of blessings that flow from Him. Look at the number of promises that He did NOT make to you and yet granted — at every step while you were abroad, guiding you over every hurdle that loomed up, hearing every prayer that your heart asked but He did not promise! You say you don't understand — that is just what you should not do. He says, "I can never be understood — just love Me." And if, in gaining an iota of understanding we lose an atom of love, what a great loss is ours! So count your blessings, and lay your little 'promise' at His feet — He will keep it, exactly on which day or month or year is for Him to decide who knows best and who has seen to your best first to last. Let Him worry about His part of it, let us only worry about our own part as Baba-lovers and see that we never fail.
When we must ask for something from Him, then let that only be LOVE — nothing else is worth our receiving from Him who holds us so close to Him.
Mani
[modifier] The Avatar's Work
"Baba once told the mandali that 'all you find and see of My Work while I am Meher Baba was planned and chalked out at the time when I was Mohammed.'
"All those whom He met as Meher Baba and all that He did as Meher Baba He had planned for when He was Mohammed. It was all so to say, 'filmed' at the time He was Mohammed, and was 'projected' while He was Meher Baba.
"All that has happened since 31st January 1969 was planned while He was Meher Baba. It was 'filmed' then and is being 'projected' now."
Someone asked about those who had met Baba for only a short time, towards the end as it were. Eruch said: "Your meeting with Him in 1962 was planned when He was Mohammed, and what you have done since He dropped the body was planned while He was Meher Baba.
"So for all who met Him as Meher Baba there is an overlapping, a continuing, of His ministry as Mohammed and His ministry as Meher Baba. Those who have come to Him since He dropped the body, He planned for as Meher Baba, and those whom He meets and all He does as the next Avatar has been planned while He was Meher Baba."
[modifier] Dhuni 1925 Meherabad
It was the month of September — the tail-end of the monsoon here. The rains during the first three months beginning from the first week of June, had been very feeble which foreboded a drought if the tail-end or secondary monsoon current failed to arrive.
These secondary, September rains are very essential, for during this period the major crops of jowar, wheat, gram, etc. are sown. These crops are helpful, most helpful, to the farmers because they give the farmers their staple grain plus animal fodder in plenty. And since the primary current was feeble, the primary crops had failed in many places, in fact the primary crop was almost lost. Now, if the secondary current also failed then there would be a drought.
Being this kind of situation some far-off villagers who had suffered most came in a bunch singing bhajans to Baba in Meherabad in the old bungalow where He was occupied with the Mandali during the day. This bhajan party is called "dindi" where a number of people with musical instruments and a slender two-ended drum and brass taals (a type of brass castanets, which give a sweet metallic sound) play on the instruments and the singers sing bhajans (devotional songs) in unison.
Such dindi came to Baba with their tale of sorrow, that is, the failure of rains, and invoked Baba to do something about it. Baba, being the Compassionate One, gave them a patient hearing and told them to return immediately to their village and not to worry. Then He ordered the Mandali to make preparation for a dhuni to be lit.
Due preparations were begun — wood, sandal wood, clarified butter, etc. were accumulated. A shallow pit was also dug in the ground for the fire. A dhuni fire always has a very shallow pit to receive the glowing coals which ultimately turn to ashes. These ashes have their own value for devotees to be applied to the forehead and to be taken home to be distributed amongst others as they come from a saintly abode.
So, at about 5 p.m., the first dhuni was lit in the presence of the Master who then told the Mandali to sing Upasni Maharaj's Arti. The Mandali did so and when the Arti was almost half over, it began to drizzle which in turn developed into a very good shower, cooling the earth and drenching the Master and the Mandali. Later we received information that the dindi also got drenched on their way home as they too received good rains. Thus their prayers were answered.
After we had finished the Arti, we all ran for cover nearby in the first school opened for Arangaon village boys by Baba. There we all sat down on the ground and Baba then told us all to write a poem in praise of dhuni. The attempts by some were good, while others fell flat. Anyway, being an order, everybody attempted according to his capability.
From that time until we all again left Meherabad for some other place, the dhuni was alight 24 hours a day. But during our absence, since none remained at Meherabad, the dhuni became cold. After our return, it was revived by Baba who ordered the Meherabad residents to light the dhuni on the 12th of every month. This order has been carried out to this day.
[modifier] On Disagreement
Guruprasad, Poona 19 June 1961
I cannot emphasize too greatly the need among us ALL for a semblance of harmony and understanding of one another's point of view by remembering the good intentions underlying one another's actions, and by striving for a balance of 'giving in' on both sides at one time or another. The part that money plays helps not only in spreading Baba's message to others, but the involvement with it also helps His dear ones in practising greater patience, tolerance and understanding for each other in Baba's Love. There is nothing like adjusting through compromise (now from one side, now from the other) to keep the ball of His work rolling. As we are all His workers on this side of the fence, it is very necessary. This may sound like preaching, but I am simply speaking from experience, knowing such disagreement crops up in nearly all the groups in East and West who work for Baba's cause. I like to think of disagreement as a 'tread' necessary for a vehicle (or a footwear) while going up a steep incline, helping to increase our 'grip' and preventing a 'slipping' into carelessness — but disagreement should never grow into dissension to such an extent that it becomes an accumulated weight which slows down the progress of the vehicle and causes unnecessary jolts.
Mani
[modifier] Quality Of Baba Lovers And The Inner Aspect Of Divine Love
27 December 1955
Yesterday Baba asked for the copies of « God Speaks » and gave some out to us — the signed ones to Mehera and myself, and one for the others. We are so thrilled. He has asked us, however, not to actually read it before the 7th of January. I am wondering at the significance of this.
Although your letter was read to Baba, He didn't seem to want me to read the one from your friend. Every time I mentioned it He said 'Later' so there you are. Of course I can understand his disappointment — there's no worse rut than that of the mind in which one has already made deep grooves along a certain track, refusing to be guided out without derailment. It is indeed difficult from his point of view, he cannot 'feel' Baba despite reading everything about Baba. If one could understand and love Baba just through literature there would be very few followers indeed! Then when he tries to measure Baba's magnitude by the number of people who flock for His darshan, he fails to see the quality of the emotion that draws them. To give an instance — when Baba drove away after a darshan programme, men who arrived late ran for miles after Him, unknown to us who were in the car with Baba. Suddenly Baba had the driver stop the car for no apparent reason and waited for we knew not what. Only when we saw the panting men arrive and throw themselves at Baba's feet did we realize it was for them that Baba had stopped the car. The Beloved always responds to the love of His lovers.
It is indeed a pity the 'benefit' cannot be seen with outward eyes, but generally Hindus, even illiterate ones, are more learned in the ways of God and God-Men than a lot of others. They know, as Kabir has said:
"One second, half a second, nay half of a half second spent in the company of a Perfect One, will wipe out crores^ of your sanskaras."
Many I could name want results 'on the dot' — tangible, something one can measure or label. It is not their fault — I believe that those who love and accept Baba without reservations, often without having seen Him in the flesh, have prepared the ground from previous lives. Hence they are 'ready' for Jesus when He comes again — the others are not.
Talking of people who want quick results of a certain kind makes me think of the story (from ancient Hindu literature) where a Perfect Master was taking a short cut through the forest one day when he came across a sanyasin who had renounced all and was sitting in the hot sun meditating. At the approach of the Master's footsteps the man asked, "At this rate how long will it be before I get God-realization?"
The Master replied, "See that tree over there? You'll have as many lives as there are leaves on that tree." The man thanked the Master deeply and was beside himself with joy. Going a little further the Master met another such sanyasin who asked him the same question. This time the Master answered "only fifty years more for you."
"What?" said the indignant man. I have spent thirty years of my life, indeed I might call it my whole life, in solitude, leaving everything, renouncing all, mortifying my body, undergoing so many hardships, and if that were not enough, I have to do it fifty more years!"
The end of the story is that the tree whose leaves represented the lives that the first man had yet to go were shed off, and by the Perfect Master's Grace he was given realization then and there, while the other had many more lives before he could become so small as to enter the Kingdom of God. For it is said (as you know) that the gateway to God is as small as a needle's eye and unless we have shed all the cumbersome things we carry (pride, lust, anger, greed, and all the paraphernalia called the ego) and become 'small' enough we cannot enter God's Kingdom.
Your point about cancer and illness interested me — it is of course the old point of our lack of understanding that the enlightened ones have. We always see it from the material point of view, and they (experiencing creation as illusion) must act for the spiritual good. It's far from the Divine Plan to have no illness of the body — after all it is one of the main mediums of experiencing pain which is the opposite of pleasure. Duality (however illusory) expresses itself in dual experiences, and misery is as much in the Divine Plan as is so-called happiness. They are both experiences the soul must go through some time or another.
Another way I look at it is this; even with all the misery there is, it is so difficult to 'turn away' from the world — well-nigh impossible to be disgusted sufficiently to turn to God alone. Just imagine if everything were fine and serene, no illness, no misery, we'd stick to our ignorance like leaches, and such a stagnant way would hardly serve the development of the ever-awakening soul! I remember someone remarking, "Why if there are spiritual masters in India don't they do something about the backwardness and disease of the country?" Just as though they were a crowd of missionaries, or a society for the prevention of disease and dirt! I replied that although they did a sweeping job it was not on germs, but on our ignorance, and even if they do not completely wipe it out, at least they jolt us enough from our self-satiated complacency of accepting our illusory existance as the only and all.
~Mani
^millions
[modifier] On Baba Gatherings
The first thing about Meher Baba gatherings is that they should be specifically about Avatar Meher Baba. Whether they are about His life or messages makes no difference. Sometimes some Baba lovers in all sincerity will say that Baba is in everything, so why not study the other paths as Baba is there. This is true: Baba is everywhere, but the point is where can I find Baba? It is practical to find Baba in gatherings about Him.
This question had come up during Baba's lifetime and He wanted gatherings to be about Him. Sometimes there can be discussions about the life of Perfect Masters or saints associated with Baba, but this should be kept to a minimum.
As far as decisions over practical matters: Baba has said that decisions should be made by democratic vote. The members of the group should elect the officers, and then those officers are empowered to make the decisions. No one has the right to make authoritarian decisions.
One very important thing is that anyone who is elected an officer or has any position at the Center, should do so only in an administrative capacity, and not in any spiritual capacity. There is no hierarchy in Baba's outward work. There is only Baba and His lovers. Everyone has an equal position. Baba has no chargemen on earth. He communicates equally to all of His lovers in the heart.
Baba has not appointed anyone or any organization to represent Him in a spiritual sense. Certain centers and individuals have been given specific orders and responsibilities by the Beloved, but this is between Baba and that person or organization. No one has the right to impose anything on anyone else. Each heart is free to relate directly to the Beloved in his or her own way.
The best guide is the heart. Baba has said, "Think of things that you would not hesitate to think in my presence, speak words that you would not hesitate to speak in my presence, and do things that you would not hesitate to do in my presence!"
Whenever His lovers gather together, Baba is there. Therefore, when you have Baba meetings, Baba is there. Act accordingly.
The purpose of meetings is to serve as a channel to awaken His Love. The meetings have no other purpose. The problem with traditional religions is that their gatherings start to assume a purpose of their own, rather than as mediums for awakening His Love. As long as some activity serves the purpose of awakening love, it has a value. But the moment it starts assuming importance of its own, it should be dropped.
For example, silence at a meeting. Keeping silence for a few minutes can be useful to remember the Beloved. But there is no value in silence for silence's sake unless it is used to remember Him. Singing, plays, etc., all have a value as long as they point to Him.
There is the old story of a disciple asking his master where the moon is. The master points to the moon with his finger, and the ignorant disciple thinks the finger is the moon.
Likewise, so often His lovers tend to forget the purpose of His work. The purpose of Baba's messages is to awaken love in the hearts of His lovers. So all activities should continue on as long as there is love in them; otherwise they should be given up. Baba wants love in the hearts of His lovers.
Baba's medium is the heart, not organizations. No organization, no group should be established to assume importance on its own. More important than all the archives, books, movies is the heart of the one true lover of the Beloved. All of these outward activities have a value and should be taken care of, but not to neglect what is most important.
It is like the comparison between the heart and the feet. The feet have a place and are very useful; yet if one loses one's feet one would still love. But if one loses one's heart, then one cannot live. Baba activities — like publishing, forming corporations, centers, etc., are like the feet. They have a value, but the feet cannot be compared to the heart.
If the world fell apart and disaster struck and all the books, movies, archives and centers disappeared — that would not affect Avatar Meher Baba's Love. Baba uses all of these things, but does not need anything or anyone. His work is independent.
During the New Life Baba said, "This New Life will live by itself eternally, even if there is no one to live it." So it is with all of Baba's work. Do the work, participate in the activities, but don't think that the work depends on anyone.
I remember that during one of my visits to the West an old-time Baba lover in reference to the apparent lack of response to her from Baba said, "What has Baba done?" It is like a cell of one's body saying, "What have you done for me?"
Meher Baba is the Avatar, God personified. His being permeates and sustains the entire illusion. The poet says, "One thing I could not understand: It is Meher Baba who gives me love, yet I am called the great Baba lover!"
Often, I have heard importance and appreciation for some work and activity being given to someone other than Baba. This doesn't mean you should not have Baba meetings because of concern about taking one's self or the actual meeting as more important than Baba.
A Baba lover once asked the Beloved: "Suppose one feels that meditating by oneself is service. I like to visit the group but not all the time." Baba replied, "I would like you all to belong to certain groups. Why? Because you can cooperate and tell others about me and share your thoughts. You learn much more than when you remain by yourself. When you listen, exchange thoughts, prayers, my Presence is there."
The thing to do is to always keep Baba at the meetings, remembering that the point is to be with Baba.
In your letter you asked for a general set of guidelines. Please feel free to ask me more specific questions and I will be happy to respond to them.
~Adi
[modifier] On Baba-Group Meetings
Meherazad 23 October 1978
Undoubtedly, there must be set discipline in any Baba group meeting, but this discipline must not smack of regimentation.
There should prevail a feeling of give-and-take during any group meeting held in love of Beloved Baba and conducted to further His Cause.
Just as a doormat is necessary to keep our apartment clean from dust, likewise a spirit of humility and tolerance is essential and necessary to keep our hearts clean of prejudice, ill-feelings, fraying tempers, and harsh words of anger.
Beloved Baba did want us to gather in His Name and Love; He did exhort us to sink our differences — at least on such occasions — in the Ocean of His Love. He said that this would not only please Him, but also would make His Presence felt more strongly. The qualifications of a board member or any lover of Meher Baba when attending Baba-group meetings or otherwise (according to what we have gathered at the feet of Beloved Baba) should be that of a broom or a doormat — humility, tolerance, understanding of the problems of others, and a sense of humour — are all of paramount importance. And of course, love for our Beloved Baba is the very basis of a Baba lover.
Mani has read this letter and said: "This reminds me of Beloved Baba who would often say, 'I want one heart with many hands to work in my Cause'."
Eruch
[modifier] On Music And Meditation
1 October 1978
Your view about music is appreciable, and your attempt to compose music to inspire people to soar higher in thoughts is laudable. The music should have a combination of charming notes and verses which contain spiritual truths and the pangs and joys of love. The enchantment derived from music should not end with one becoming impractical and a burden on society. However high the thoughts may soar, the feet should be on earth. This is what Meher Baba indicated regarding maintaining a balance.
Meher Baba has delineated meditation in His « Discourses », but He has not specifically said one should meditate. Meditation can be useful to make a man clear in his thinking and maintain health and energy, but meditation cannot solve the problems of life. Meditation cannot make one free from the bondage of illusion and give the experience of the "I am God" state unless it is aligned with the Avatar of the Age, Avatar Meher Baba. The Avatar is the same at all times born in different bodies under different circumstances, speaking different languages, giving messages which are apparently different but pertain to one Truth. Zoroaster, Rama, Krishna, Buddha, Christ, Mohammed, and Meher Baba are the same.
The difficulty with meditation to realize the Ultimate is that man is caught up in a cage of ignorance of his body, mind, and imagination. He talks about transcendental meditation. Is this about that which is beyond the mind and imagination? If it is, then it is not possible to come out of the cage and gain the freedom of the beyond-the-mind state through meditation. A man sitting in a cage meditating upon freedom outside the cage calling it transcendental does not help himself to come out of the cage unaided by the Avatar. He may meditate and meditate within the cage but the freedom that he will subjectively enjoy will be within the confines of the cage. At the most he may, by sheer force of one-pointed meditation, move hither and thither in space along with himself — the cage of his body, mind, and imagination — wherever he goes. He may get a false sense of freedom but not the freedom that could be achieved by coming out of the cage.
Adi K. Irani
[modifier] On Material Possessions
I'm basking in the profound depths of our Beloved's book God Speaks which He has told us to read. The explanations He gives to us are a glimmer (if only intellectually) of the immeasurably vast pattern of creation which is but a shadow of His Glory. But most of all it increases our eternal gratitude to Him for awakening our hearts with the divine breath of His Love.
How foolish then must man seem who asks Him merely for material benefit. It makes me think of the story of the king who on a spontaneous impulse announced suddenly to the subjects present in his palace to grab just one thing (anything within the palace) for himself, which he could then retain possession of. As you can imagine there was a wild rush - some made for the best of the jewels, others ran for the costliest thing they could see or had set their hearts on, while the king looked on. Amidst this mad rush of people who were trying to make the most of their sudden and short good-fortune, a slave girl walked quietly to the king and held his hand…later the king said, “She's the only one who had sense - owning me who is he owner of all, she possesses all that is mine - she went to the source.”
[modifier] Letter To A Girl In School
1958
Even though I wasn't able to reply personally to your lovely letters, I know you know I always enjoyed them. Your letter made me recall my own school days, and one of my favorite doodlings in between lessons was mirror writing (writing backwards — to read it you have to hold it to a mirror or against the light) — I still do it sometimes.
So you like French? It was one of my favorite subjects too. Another thing we share — I just love storms, perhaps because here too it comes after a stifling spell, and then changes the countryside like a fairy's wand.
Perhaps you can make a cake by now. I love to make cakes too, except the icings; they always go funny, and usually in the end there's more on my hands (and face) than on the cake. But still, the proof's in the eating.
Mani
[modifier] Let His Love Soak In Our Very Being
Your letter brought deep joy — the joy that comes when one feels His love reflected in the heart of another. Beloved Baba has said that although He has come for the many, He is for the few. We have seen that when the time comes He awakens His few through some outward medium, and the door of the heart opens at the knock of one or another of His many 'hands.'
Although Baba's love for us is as silent as His Silence is eloquent, we find a need in expressing our little love for Him in one form or another — but this is truly best done when we let His Love soak into our very being so that everything we do and say expresses that love as naturally and as simply as a flower unfolds its petals. Hence the part of your letter that touched me was your saying, "I shall try my utmost to put His message of Love and Truth in my day to day life." May Baba's Love bless you to carry it out.
Remember never to despair at lapses or so-called 'failures' — just try your best and leave to Him the rest. A whole span of life, or even eons of lives spent towards achieving true obedience and surrenderance to the One cannot be too much when measured by His Love and Compassion.
Ed. Jim Mistry. Published by Sheriar Press. © 1981 AMBPPCT
