Meher Baba

Meher Baba

Meher Baba (25 February 1894 – 31 January 1969), born Merwan Sheriar Irani, was an Indian mystic and spiritual master who said he was the Avatar God in human form. Merwan Sheriar Irani was born in 1894 and led a normal childhood, showing no particularly strong inclination toward spiritual matters. At the age of 19, a brief contact with the Muslim saint Hazrat Babajan began his seven-year process of spiritual transformation. Over the next months, he contacted four additional spiritual figures whom, along with Babajan, he called the "Five Perfect Masters." He spent seven years with Upasni Maharaj, one of the masters, before beginning his public work .The name "Meher Baba" means "compassionate father" in Persian and was given to him by his first followers.

From 10 July 1925 to the end of his life, Meher Baba maintained silence, communicating by means of an alphabet board or by unique hand gestures. With his mandali (circle of disciples), he spent long periods in seclusion, during which time he often fasted. He also traveled widely, held public gatherings and engaged in works of charity with lepers, the poor and the mentally ill.

In 1931, Meher Baba made the first of many visits to the West, where he attracted many followers Throughout most of the 1940s, Meher Baba worked with a category of spiritual aspirant called whom he said are entranced or spellbound by internal spiritual experiences. Starting in 1949, along with selected mandali, he traveled incognito about India in what he called the "New Life."

Meher Baba was an Irani born in Pune, India to a Zoroastrian family. His given name was Merwan Sheriar Irani. He was the second son of Sheriar Mundegar Irani, a Persian Zoroastrian who had spent years wandering in search of spiritual experience before settling in Poona (now Pune).

He had an excellent singing voice and was a multi-instrumentalist and poet. Fluent in several languages,  he was especially fond of the poetry of Hafiz, Shakespeare, and Shelley.  Meher Baba used at least seven languages that we know of: English, Hindi, Marati, Gujerati, Persian (Farsi), hebrew, Arabic, Telegu, and his own personal silent system of hand signs, gestures, and mugging. Meher Baba’s major works have also been translated into most major languages on earth in his lifetime, and Meher Baba travelled and worked all over the world, so that it can be said that Meher Baba is the only Avatar we know of whose impact has been on the whole earth rather than on one region.

In his youth, he had no mystical inclinations or experiences, and was "[u]ntroubled as yet by a sense of his own destiny... He was more interested in sports, especially cricket, and was co-captain of his high school cricket team. Baba later explained that a veil is always placed over the Avatar until the time is right for him to begin his work.  At the age of 19, during his second year at Deccan College in Poona (now Pune), he met a very old Muslim woman, a spiritual master named Hazrat Babajan, who kissed him on the forehead. The event affected him profoundly; he experienced visions and mystical feelings so powerful that he gave up his normal activities. He also contacted other spiritual figures, who (along with Babajan) he later said were the five "Perfect Masters" of the age: Hazrat Tajuddin Baba of Nagpur, Narayan Maharaj of Kedgaon, Sai Baba of Shirdi, and Upasni Maharaj of Sakori.

Upasni helped him, he later said, to integrate his mystical experiences with normal consciousness, thus enabling him to function in the world without diminishing his experience of God-realization. In 1921, at the age of 27, after living for seven years with Upasni, Merwan started to attract a following of his own. His early followers gave him the name "Meher Baba", meaning "Compassionate Father"

In 1922, Meher Baba and his followers established "Manzil-e-Meem" (House of the Master) in Bombay (now Mumbai). There Baba began his practice of demanding strict discipline and obedience from his disciples. A year later, Baba and his mandali moved to an area a few miles outside Ahmednagar that he named "Meherabad" (Meher flourishing). This ashram would become the center for his work. In 1924, Meher Baba created a resident school at Meherabad that he named the "Prem Ashram" (in several languages "prem" means "love"). The school was free and open to all castes and faiths. The school drew multi-denominational students from around India and Iran.

( Meher Baba is too heavy as you will come to know. Let us have breathers in between in the form of jokes and his Gazals and stories)

(She went to the source

How foolish then must man seem who asks Him merely for material benefit, when He can give us such untold treasure. It makes me think of the story of the king who, in a sudden spontaneous impulse, announced to his subjects present in the palace to grab just one thing (anything within the palace) for himself or herself and they could retain possession of it. As you can imagine, there was a wild rush. Some made for the best jewels, others ran for the costliest thing they could see or had set their hearts on, while the king looked amusedly on.

Amidst this mad rush of people who were trying to make the most of their sudden but 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 enough to choose the right object for, owning me who is owner of all this, she possesses all that is mine. She went to the source.")

About Silence

From 10 July 1925, until his death in 1969, Meher Baba was silent. He communicated first by using an alphabet board and later by unique hand gestures which were interpreted and spoken out by one of his mandali, usually by his disciple Eruch Jessawala. Meher Baba said that his silence was not undertaken as a spiritual exercise but solely in connection with his universal work.

Man’s inability to live God’s words makes the Avatar’s teaching a mockery. Instead of practicing the compassion he taught, man has waged wars in his name. Instead of living the humility, purity, and truth of his words, man has given way to hatred, greed, and violence. Because man has been deaf to the principles and precepts laid down by God in the past, in this present Avataric form, I observe silence

Meher Baba often signaled the moment "that he would 'break' his silence by speaking the 'Word' in every heart, thereby giving a spiritual push forward to all living things.

When I break My Silence, the impact of My Love will be universal and all life in creation will know, feel and receive of it. It will help every individual to break himself free from his own bondage in his own way. I am the Divine Beloved who loves you more than you can ever love yourself. The breaking of My Silence will help you to help yourself in knowing your real Self.

( OSHO - And these are the two possibilities: whenever enlightenment happens, either a person becomes absolutely silent or he bursts into song. 

These are the two possibilities. When Meher Baba attained he became silent. Then his whole life he remained silent. When Meera attained she started dancing and singing. These are the two possibilities)

[A Story told by Meher Baba

The puddle jumper

When I was a boy in Poona, one of my friends was named Kaikhushru. He was an Irani who used to make and sell ice cream. He was in the habit of taking bhang, and once after drinking some, he went to sell ice cream.

On his way there was a small puddle, hardly half a foot wide. But to Kaikhushru that puddle was a lake. He actually ran and jumped ten fee over it in order to cross it.

Now if you had said to him, 'This is not a lake, but a tiny puddle,' do you think he would have believed you? He would have called you mad. To him it was a lake.

Similarly, to you, all this before you is matter. But to me it is nothing. Just as matter does not exist in your sound sleep, so it does not exist in my awake state. What you experience unconsciously in the sound sleep state, we God-realised persons experience in the awake state. Our awake state is real. Yours is false.

When you realize God, you will see for yourself. The existence of matter is due to the existence of the mind. When the mind disappears, matter also vanishes.]

Meher Baba’s first contacts with the West

In the 1930s, Meher Baba began a period of extensive world travel, with several trips to Europe and the United States. It was during this period that he established contact with his first close group of Western disciples. 

On his first trip to England in 1931 he traveled on the SS Rajputana, the same ship that was carrying Mahatma Gandhi, who was sailing to the second Round Table Conference in London. Baba and Gandhi had three meetings onboard, including one that lasted for three hours. 

On the journey he was interviewed on behalf of the Associated Press, which quoted him describing his trip as a "new crusade . . . to break down all religious barriers and destroy America's materialism and amalgamate all creeds into a common element of love

Baba was invited to the "Meherashram" retreat in Harmon, New York by Malcolm and Jean Schloss. A Time magazine article on the visit states that Schloss referred to him in uppercase as "He, Him, His, Himself" and that Baba was described by his followers variously as the "God Man," "Messiah" or "Perfect Master.

On 20 May 1932 Baba arrived in New York and provided the press with a 1,000-word written statement, which was described by devotee Quentin Tod as his "Message to America". In the statement Baba proclaimed himself "one with the infinite source of everything" and declared his intention to break his silence: "When I speak, my original message will be delivered to the world and it will have to be accepted." When asked about the Indo-British political situation he had no comment, but his followers explained that he had told Gandhi to abandon politics.

(The ring …

Meher Baba himself gave us this story of a king, his ring and his slave Ayaz. It is a beautiful story, and Baba repeated it many times.

The king was a spiritually advanced being; you could call him a saint or a spiritual master. He had a slave Ayaz, and this slave was so perfect a slave that he was even equivalent to his master. So close was he to the master, the king, that in all matters to do with the kingdom he had the final word. The king would ask his ministers for their opinions and then before a decision was made he would seek the advice of his slave. The ministers became more and more unhappy about this, until the king decided that they must have an explanation.

So one day in court, the king shows his signet ring and points out that ring is used as a seal to all orders and laws of the land. He puts the ring on the table before him, and asks all his ministers and courtiers, "What is the ring's worth? Tell me, what is the ring's value?"

So the ministers and the courtiers express their ideas on its value; even jewelers are called to help in making estimates. After all have had their say, the king turns to Ayaz and asks him the ring's worth. Ayaz says, "As long as the ring is on the table it is worthless; no sooner is it on the finger of my lord it is priceless."

After the story Baba would say: As long as you hold fast to me, you are priceless, even though no one knows your worth; no sooner your hold on me is lost, you are worthless, no matter what your greatness or wealth in the world. )

Work with masts

 Mast (Sufism)

In the 1930s and 1940s, Meher Baba did extensive work with a category of people he termed "masts", who are persons "intoxicated with God"According to Baba these individuals are essentially disabled by their enchanting experience of the higher spiritual planes. Although outwardly masts may appear irrational or even insane, Baba indicated that their spiritual status was actually quite elevated, and that by meeting with them he helped them to move forward spiritually while enlisting their aid in his spiritual work. One of the best known of these masts, known as Mohammed Mast, lived at Meher Baba's encampment at Meherabad until his death in 2003.

Who is a Must?

All masts are intoxicated with God; they are intoxicated by divine love. When a normal person is intoxicated by alcohol or drugs he enjoys this sensation so long as the intoxicant is in sufficient concentration in his physical tissues: a drunkard feels happy, cares not for anyone or anything, and has one dominant sensation of drunkenness, in which the past, present or future has practically no meaning. But as soon as the ordinary intoxication passes away, the drunkard suffers the reverse – the hangover. Stimulated physical intoxication is inescapably temporary, because it is limited by the very stimulant itself, the conditions of the environment, the cost of the stimulant and the resilience of one’s condition.

Now a person who is God-intoxicated experiences the same sensation that a drunkard enjoys, and cares for no one and nothing, in proportion to the extent of his inner intoxication; the vast difference is the mast’s intoxication is continual, that it may increase but can never decrease, and that it has no harmful physical or mental reaction. It is an inner state of permanent and unalloyed intoxication, independent of anything external.

The principal sensation of a mast is this permanent enjoyment of divine intoxication. The creation is full of bliss and the mast enjoys this bliss and thereby becomes intoxicated to an almost unlimited extent, virtually consuming him and absorbing him and thereby making the world around him vanish.  Absorbed in God, such a person is continually absorbed in thinking about God, and with that comes like a bolt of pure love consuming him further in a state of divine intoxication)

( OSHO - One of the greatest works Meher Baba did in his life — he lived just near Poona and he is one of the greatest masters — and never has it been done before: he traveled all over India for years, just making contact with such mad people. Not doing anything else, just doing one thing: moving from one village to another, making contact with such people who have gone mad, who are on a better ground than you but some help is needed — just a push. Just a push so that again rivers become rivers, mountains become mountains; again they achieve a new identity.)

About the New Life Meher Baba wrote:

Meher baba samadhi

This New Life is endless, and even after my physical death it will be kept alive by those who live the life of complete renunciation of falsehood, lies, hatred, anger, greed and lust; and who, to accomplish all this, do no lustful actions, do no harm to anyone, do no backbiting, do not seek material possessions or power, who accept no homage, neither covet honor nor shun disgrace, and fear no one and nothing; by those who rely wholly and solely on God, and who love God purely for the sake of loving; who believe in the lovers of God and in the reality of Manifestation, and yet do not expect any spiritual or material reward; who do not let go the hand of Truth, and who, without being upset by calamities, bravely and wholeheartedly face all hardships with one hundred percent cheerfulness, and give no importance to caste, creed and religious ceremonies. This New Life will live by itself eternally, even if there is no one to live it

After a period of seclusion and fasting Meher Baba ended the New Life in February 1952 and once again began a round of public appearances throughout India and the West.

On 31 January 1969, Meher Baba died, conveying by his last gestures, "Do not forget that I am God. In time his devotees called this day Amartithi (deathless day). Meher Baba's body was laid out for public viewing at his samadhi (tomb-shrine) at Meherabad.

[A Story told by Meher Baba

Blessed or Cursed

A Sadguru once set out with his disciples for begging. He approached a rich merchant, who instead of giving alms, shouted abuses and obscenities. Nevertheless, the Sadguru blessed him, saying, ‘Your profits will double.’

The Sadguru then approached another wealthier merchant, who mistreated him even more badly. He, however, blessed this man, saying, ‘Your profits will quadruple.’

Then the Sadguru, with his disciples, approached the shop of a poor old man, who received them with reverence, and offered whatever he could provide from his meager store. The old shopkeeper had only one son, whom he loved dearly. Before leaving, the Sadguru cursed him: ‘By the power of God, I pray that your son dies soon.’ The next day the son was found dead.

When the Sadguru’s disciples found this out, they were bewildered by their Master’s behavior. The only man who had received them with humble reverence had been cursed, not blessed.

Afterward, the Sadguru explained: ‘Both merchants were immersed in the mire of worldliness, and did not want to be extricated. For that reason, I had to submerge them even more in the mire of the world by my blessings, so that one day they will cry to be pulled out. The poor shopkeeper was spiritually inclined. However his love for his son was much too binding. It was an obstruction to the old man’s progress on the Path. The son was, unknowingly, a thorn in his father’s side, and so I opened the door to the Path by removing his son. Now you tell me, who was blessed and who was cursed?’]

Metaphysical views

Meher Baba's metaphysical views are most notably described in his book God Speaks, The Theme of Creation and Its Purpose. His cosmology incorporates concepts and terms from Vedanta,Sufism, and Christianity. Baba upheld the concept of nonduality, the view that diverse creation, or duality, is an illusion and that the goal of life is conscious realization of the absolute Oneness of God inherent in all animate and inanimate beings and things. Meher Baba compares God's original state to an infinite, shoreless ocean that has only unconscious divinity — unaware of itself because this original unconscious state has no means for any self-knowledge. From this state, God had the "whim" to know Himself, and asked "Who am I? In response to this question, creation came into existence. In this analogy, what was previously a still, shoreless Ocean now stirred, forming innumerable "drops" of itself or souls. Baba often remarked, "You will find all the answers to your questions in God Speaks. Study the book thoroughly and absorb it.

Quotes by Meher Baba

·         The easiest and shortest way to God-realization is through the contact of a Sadguru, which means keeping the company or ‘sahavas’ of such a Master, obeying him and serving him. This remedy is like a special express train which carries you straight to your destination.

·         The book which I shall make people read is the book of the heart, which holds the key to the mystery of life.

·         Life becomes meaningful and all activities are purposeful only on the basis of faith in the enduring reality. … The greatest romance possible in life is to discover this Eternal Reality in the midst of infinite change. Once, one has experienced this, one sees oneself in everything that lives, one recognises all of life as his life, everybody's interests as his own. One is no longer bound by habits of the past, no longer swayed by the hopes of the future — One lives in and enjoys each present moment to the full. There is no greater romance in life than this adventure in realization.

·         All illusion comes and goes, but the soul remains unchanged. What is meant by God-realization is to actually experience this important thing — that the soul is eternal.

·         The Avatar appears in different forms, under different names, at different times, in different parts of the world. As his appearance always coincides with the spiritual birth of man, so the period immediately preceding his manifestation is always one in which humanity suffers from the pangs of the approaching birth.

 ( Sanskrit

yada yada hi dharmasya 

glanir bhavati bharata 

abhyutthanam adharmasya 

tadatmanam srjamy aham)

(In English

Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligion--at that time I descend Myself.)

·         True knowledge is that knowledge which makes man after self-realization or union with God assert that his real Self is in everything and everybody.

·          When we say he has created this illusion, we lower him and his infinity. He is beyond all this.
Only when we find him in ourselves, and even in our day to day life, do all doubts vanish.

·         To love God in the most practical way is to love our fellow beings. If we feel for others in the same way as we feel for our own dear ones, we love God.

(How do you like my painting

An artist came and asked Meherbaba - I want a better opening for the expression of art, something spiritual.

In my Soul there is a temple, a shrine, a mosque, a church where I kneel.
Prayer should bring us to an altar where no walls or names exist.

Is there not a region of Love, where the Sovereignty is illuminated nothing,
Where ecstasy gets poured into itself and becomes lost,
Where the wing is fully alive but has no mind or body?

In my Soul there is a temple, a shrine, a mosque, a church that dissolves,
That dissolves in God.

I carry a torch in one hand
And a bucket of water in the other:
With these things I am going to set fire to Heaven
And put out the flames of Hell,
So that voyagers to God can rip the veils
And see the real goal.

Meher Baba said,  it will come. For the present, do whatever you think appropriate for expressing your art, and when you feel something better to express, then automatically and by itself it will open out to you....

It was a painter in India. He came to me and showed me his paintings. They were fantastic. Though I saw and knew they were not good, yet I said, "It is good, go on." After a year or so, he came back to me and showed me some more. They were marvelous. Yet I did not say they were marvelous. I said, "Go on," and today he is one of the greatest artists of the East. So whatever you feel like doing, go on doing. It will go on developing by itself.)

(When I say I am the Avatar, there are a few who feel happy, some who feel shocked, and many who hearing me claim this, would take me for a hypocrite, a fraud, a supreme egoist, or just mad. If I were to say every one of you is an Avatar, a few would be tickled, and many would consider it a blasphemy or a joke. The fact that God being One, Indivisible and equally in us all, we can be naught else but one, is too much for the duality-conscious mind to accept. Yet each of us is what the other is. I know I am the Avatar in every sense of the word, and that each one of you is an Avatar in one sense or the other.)

• It matters very little to dispute whether there have been ten or twenty-six or a million Avatars. The truth is that the Avatar is always one and the same, and that the five Sadgurus bring about the advent of the Avatar on earth. This has been going on cycle after cycle, and millions of such cycles must have passed by, and will continue to pass by, without affecting eternity in the least.

·         The happiness of God-realization is self-sustained, eternally fresh and unfailing, boundless and indescribable. And it is for this happiness that the world has sprung into existence.

·         Being the Avatar, I have come to awaken mankind, and would like the entire world to come to me. Real saints are dearest and nearest to my heart. Perfect Ones and lovers of God adorn the world, and will ever do so. 

·         This New Life is endless, and even after my physical death it will be kept alive by those who If God can be found through the medium of any drug, God is not worthy of being God.

·         One of the most difficult things to learn is to render service without bossing, without making a fuss about it, and without any consciousness of high and low. In the world of spirituality, humility counts at least as much as utility.

·         To love Me for what I may give you is not loving Me at all. To sacrifice anything in My cause to gain something for yourself is like a blind man sacrificing his eyes for sight. I am the Divine Beloved worthy of being loved because I am Love

·         External silence helps to achieve inner Silence, and only in internal Silence is Baba found — in profound inner Silence. I am never silent. I speak eternally. The voice that is heard deep within the soul is My voice — the voice of inspiration, of intuition, of guidance. Through those who are receptive to this voice, I speak.Do your best, then don't worry; be happy and leave the results to God.

Consciously or unconsciously, directly or indirectly, each and every creature, each and every human being — in one form or the other — strives to assert individuality. But when eventually man consciously experiences that he is Infinite, Eternal and Indivisible, then he is fully conscious of his individuality as God, and as such experiences Infinite Knowledge, Infinite Power and Infinite Bliss.

( It is real serious this time ….

Mulla Nasruddin's wife drags him to a movie house. And in the picture which is shown the hero hugs and kisses the heroine so gracefully, so sweetly, that immediately Mulla Nasruddin's wife turns to him and says, "You never do that to me."

Mulla Nasruddin said, "You don't understand -- he is paid. Am I paid?"

But the wife was also a rare personality. She said, "Paid or not paid, you don't know that in real life also they are husband and wife."

Mulla said, "My god! If in real life also they are husband and wife, then he is a great actor. I can certify that he is a great actor.")

[Meher Baba was a great lover of sacred poetry, inspiring many poets and translators, including Francis Brabazon and Daniel Ladinsky (well-known for his poetry in the spirit of Hafiz). Perhaps less well known is that Meher Baba composed his own songs and poetry. A little taste of his poetry ….

THE MASTER MUSINGS

Meher Baba's Ghazals

Translated by Naosherwan Anzar

Ghazals were written and sung by Meher Baba during his years of intense spiritual training between January, 1914, and February, 1922.

Ghazals, usually sung in Persian or Urdu in the sufi and Islamic traditions of spiritual discipline, have a very formal structure of two-line verses, each line divided in two parts. The last part usually ends with the same words throughout the entire song. Meher Baba wrote in Persian, Hindi, Urdu and Gujerati.

It is customary for the author to identify himself by name in the last verse. Meher Baba's literary name, Huma, refers to the Persian "bird of Paradise," similar to the Egyptian phoenix, which is superior to all other birds in ability to fly, and which consumes itself in fire every few hundred years, only to rise anew from the ashes. It joins both the male and female natures together in one body, each sharing a wing and a leg. It avoids killing for food, rather preferring to feed on carrion. The Persians teach that great blessings come to that person on whom the huma's shadow falls.

Baba has written a number of Ghazals Taste a few of them, imbibe them ….

The Slave

Having renounced the world,

I have become a seeker of God.

The flame of desire is extinguished,

the Divine Light is kindled.

For the sake of God,

I have starved my appetite, declined comforts.

I no longer crave for the material.

My thirst is for oneness with God.

Love with devotion;

through devotion, salvation.

All attachments are severed,

now that I am drawn towards Him.

When one is reduced to less than dust,

one can attain God.

In the service of God's server,

one can truly serve God.

Through suffering I have gained

a claim to godhood.

With the pricking of thorns has come

the fragrance of flowers.

Huma* bestows all his love

on the true slave of God.

Your self is separate from the slave,

but you are becoming God's chosen slave.

*Huma – Baba’s name for his Gazals

Baba saya ...

·        Infinite God, age after age, throughout all cycles, wills through His Infinite Mercy to effect His presence amidst mankind by stooping down to human level in the human form, but His physical presence amidst mankind not being apprehended, He is looked upon as an ordinary man of the world. When He asserts, however, His Divinity on earth by proclaiming Himself the Avatar of the Age, He is worshipped by some who accept Him as God; and glorified by a few who know him as God on Earth. But it invariably falls to the lot of the rest of humanity to condemn Him, while He is physically in their midst..

·        The Avatar is always one and the same, because God is always One and the Same, the Eternal, Indivisible, Infinite One, who manifests Himself in the form of man as the Avatar, as the Messiah, as the Prophet, as the Ancient One — the Highest of the High. This Eternally One and the Same Avatar repeats His manifestation from time to time, in different cycles, adopting different human forms and different names, in different places, to reveal Truth in different garbs and different languages, in order to raise humanity from the pit of ignorance and help free it from the bondage of delusions.

·        Know you all that if I am the Highest of the High my role demands that I strip you of your possessions and wants, consume all your desires and make you desireless rather than satisfy your desires. Sadhus, saints, yogis and walis can give you what you want; but I take away your wants and free you from attachments and liberate you from the bondage of ignorance. I am the one to take, not the one to give, what you want as you want.

·        Mere intellectuals can never understand me through their intellect. If I am the Highest of the High, it becomes impossible for the intellect to gauge me, nor is it possible for my ways to be fathomed by the limited human mind.

I am not to be attained by those who, loving me, stand reverently by in rapt admiration. I am not for those who ridicule me and point at me with contempt. To have a crowd of tens of millions flocking around me is not what I am for.

·         Age after age, when the wick of Righteousness burns low, the Avatar comes yet once again to rekindle the torch of Love and Truth.

(Only an human can laugh, no animal …. Right?

Mulla Nasruddin's wife drags him to a movie house. And in the picture which is shown the hero hugs and kisses the heroine so gracefully, so sweetly, that immediately Mulla Nasruddin's wife turns to him and says, "You never do that to me."

Mulla Nasruddin said, "You don't understand -- he is paid. Am I paid?"

But the wife was also a rare personality. She said, "Paid or not paid, you don't know that in real life also they are husband and wife."

Mulla said, "My god! If in real life also they are husband and wife, then he is a great actor. I can certify that he is a great actor.")

Age after age, history repeats itself when men and women, in their ignorance, limitations and pride, sit in judgment over the God-incarnated man who declares his Godhood, and condemn him for uttering the Truths they cannot understand. He is indifferent to abuse and persecution for, in his true compassion he understands, in his continual experience of Reality he knows, and in his infinite mercy he forgives.

God is all. God knows all, and God does all. When the Avatar proclaims he is the Ancient One, it is God who proclaims His manifestation on earth. When man utters for or against the Avatarhood, it is God who speaks through him. It is God alone who declares Himself through the Avatar and mankind.

How Wonderful is the murderous mercy of God!

A poem by Meher Baba

(English version by Bhau Kalchur)
Original Language Persian/Farsi or Urdu or Hindi

How Wonderful is the murderous mercy of God!
     His mercy has graced the rose with thorns.
How justice manifests in the glory of God!
     Cruelty is hidden in His kindness.

It matters not whether wine is accepted by any religion -
     I long for the intoxication of love.
Oh God! What bliss lies in love's intoxication!
     The wine of man can never bestow bliss.

One cannot experience love by reading books -
     Love can never be described in words.
I have never read about real love -- for it cannot be written.
     Love is portrayed with the blood of one's heart --

          only then will it be yours (the devotee's).
Oh God! Grant me the gift of Your union --
     I have died in Your separation.

But in Your ledger You need not count the pains
     I have felt away from You.
Blood is spilling from my heart
     which has become like minced meat!
But missing is that salt which You sprinkle
     in the wounds of the heart.

Why should one question the lovers of God about Him?
     One should wish to ask God directly!
Oh God! You are found in the question
     as well as in the answer.

I have seen God, He is the same God everywhere!
     His abode is in every heart.
God is the wine-seller in the house rich in purity,
     however, He is living in the house of ruination.

why should one feel restless experiencing misery, cruelty
     and the difficulties of the world?
Oh Huma, if God showers His mercy upon you,
     then bliss is felt in the pain.]

·         I tell you all, with my Divine Authority, that you and I are not “WE,” but “ONE.” You unconsciously feel my Avatarhood within you; I consciously feel in you what each of you feel. Thus every one of us is Avatar, in the sense that everyone and everything is everyone and everything, at the same time, and for all time.

There is nothing but God. He is the only Reality, and we all are one in the indivisible Oneness of this absolute Reality. When the One who has realized God says, “I am God. You are God, and we are all one,” and also awakens this feeling of Oneness in his illusion-bound selves, then the question of the lowly and the great, the poor and the rich, the humble and the modest, the good and the bad, simply vanishes. It is his false awareness of duality that misleads man into making illusory distinctions and filing them into separate categories.

·         Awaken from your ignorance and try at least to understand that, in the uncompromisingly Indivisible Oneness, not only is the Avatar God, but also the ant and the sparrow, just as one and all of you are nothing but God. The only apparent difference is in the states of consciousness. The Avatar knows that that which is a sparrow is not a sparrow, whereas the sparrow does not realize this and, being ignorant of its ignorance, identifies itself as a sparrow.
Live not in ignorance. Do not waste your precious life-span in differentiating and judging your fellowmen, but learn to long for the love of God. Even in the midst of your worldly activities, live only to find and realize your true identity with your Beloved God.

·         Be pure and simple, and love all because all are one. Live a sincere life; be natural, and be honest with yourself.

·         Honesty will guard you against false modesty and will give you the strength of true humility. Spare no pains to help others. Seek no other reward than the gift of Divine Love.

( Nasruddin buts in again …

Mulla Nasruddin's twenty-fifth wedding anniversary came, and he was going out of his house that day. His wife felt a little peeved, because she was expecting he would do something and he was just moving in a routine way. So she asked, "Nasruddin, have you forgotten what day it is?"

Nasruddin said, "I know."

Then she said, "Then do something unusual!"

Nasrudin thought and said, "How about two minutes of silence?")

What Baba Means by Real Work

If instead of doing the real work of love you start doing organized propaganda work for me, it is absurd. I need no propaganda or publicity. I do not want propaganda and publicity, but I do want love and honesty. If you cannot live the life of love and honesty, you should stop working for me. I am quite capable of doing my Universal Work alone.

·         The time is very near for the breaking of my silence and then, within a short period all will happen — my humiliation, my glorification, my manifestation, and the dropping of my body. All this will happen soon and within a short period. So, from this moment love me more and more.

·         Do not propagate what you do not feel. What your heart says and your conscience dictates about me, pour out without hesitation. Be unmindful of whether you are ridiculed or accepted in pouring out your heart for me, or against me, to others.
If you take "Baba" as "God-Incarnate," say so; do not hesitate.
If you think "Baba" is "the devil," say it; do not be afraid.

I am everything that you take me to be, and I am also beyond everything. If your conscience says that "Baba" is the Avatar, say it even if you are stoned for it. But if you feel he is not, then say that you feel "Baba" is not the Avatar. Of myself I say again and again, I am the Ancient One — the Highest of the High.

If you had even the tiniest glimpse of my Divinity, all doubts would vanish and love — Real Love — would be established. Illusion has such a tight grip on you that you forget Reality. Your life is a Shadow. The only Reality is Existence Eternal — which is GOD.

(The Kasturi-Mriga

Once, while roaming about and frolicking among hills and dales, the Kasturi-mriga was suddenly aware of an exquisitely beautiful scent, the like of which it had never known. The scent stirred the inner depths of its soul so profoundly that it determined to find the source.

So keen was its longing that, notwithstanding the severity of cold or the intensity of scorching heat, by day as well as by night, it carried on its desperate search for the source of the sweet scent. It knew no fear or hesitation, but undaunted went on its elusive search, until at last, happening to lose its foothold on a cliff, it had a precipitous fall, resulting in a fatal injury.

While breathing its last, the deer found that the scent which had ravished its heart and inspired all these efforts came from its own navel. This last moment of the deer's life was the happiest, and there was on its face inexpressible peace.]

The Final Declaration

·         The universe is my ashram, and every heart is my house, but I manifest only in those hearts in which all other than me ceases to live.

·         When my universal religion of love is on the verge of fading into insignificance, I come to breathe life into it, and to do away with the farce of dogmas that defile it in the name of religions, and stifle it with ceremonies and rituals.
The present universal confusion and unrest has filled the heart of man with greater lust for power and a greed for wealth and fame, bringing in its wake untold misery, hatred, jealousy, frustration and fear. Suffering in the world is at its height, in spite of all the striving to spread peace and prosperity to bring about lasting happiness.

·         For man to have a glimpse of lasting happiness, he has first to realize that God, being in all, knows all; that God alone acts and reacts through all; that God, in the guise of countless animate and inanimate entities, experiences the innumerably varied phenomena of suffering and happiness. Thus, it is God who has brought suffering in human experience to its height, and God alone who will efface this illusory suffering and bring the illusory happiness to its height.

·         Whether it manifests as creation or disappears into Oneness of Reality, whether it is experienced as existing and real, or is perceived to be false and nonexistent, illusion throughout is illusion. There is no end to it, just as there is no end to imagination.

[few more Gazals cannot be included (for want of space? we however be delighted to do so), we are including some bits and pieces of them.

The Intoxicated

.

My body is His, so is my heart and soul.

In a way it's He who's always in man's servitude,

for in reality each of us is a guest

in the house of God.

Recognition

Out of clay you have fashioned this image

and strangely enough breathed life into it.

In this statue you have nurtured

the urge to be one with you.

In your nature's workshop

is the master-craftsman, Iblis, (Devil)

A moment's strife, a brief struggle,

this life's drama is indeed short-lived.

Like Adam, you have made me a two-day guest

in the world's waiting room.]

These ghazals express the voice of the heart, the pain of separation, the longing for Union, the attitude of the Beloved, and the game of love between the lover and the Beloved.

The Universal Message (1958)

·         I have come not to teach but to awaken. Understand therefore that I lay down no precepts.

Throughout eternity I have laid down principles and precepts, but mankind has ignored them. Man’s inability to live God’s words makes the Avatar’s teaching a mockery. Instead of practicing the compassion He taught, man has waged crusades in His name. Instead of living the humility, purity and truth of his words, man has given way to hatred, greed and violence.
Because man has been deaf to the principles and precepts laid down by God in the past, in this present Avataric form I observe Silence. You have asked for and been given enough words — it is now time to live them.

·         All this world confusion and chaos was inevitable and no one is to blame. 

     What had to happen has happened; and what has to happen will happen. There was and is no way out except through my coming in your midst. I had to come, and I have come. I am the Ancient One.

·         God is Love. And Love must love. And to love there must be a Beloved. But since God is Existence infinite and eternal there is no one for Him to love but Himself. And in order to love Himself He must imagine Himself as the Beloved whom He as the Lover imagines He loves
.

·         To attain union is so impossibly difficult because it is impossible to become what you already are! Union is nothing other than knowledge of oneself as the Only One.

·         If you are convinced of God's existence then it rests with you to seek Him, to see Him and to realize Him.
Do not search for God outside of you. God can only be found within you, for His only abode is the heart.

[The Secret

Once when Buddha was not yet unveiled, God-conscious - after he had renounced his kingdom, wife and child, and had gone into the forest, where he remained doing penance and fasting - he encountered an old woman who was advanced on the Path. She told him that he was bound more than ever before. Before they were fetters of iron, now they were of gold. But both were binding all the same. Then she told him the secret. Good and bad are mere terms.]

·         Good and bad are just man-made expressions. Real freedom can only be obtained when you give up all desires. You have to renounce them all to attain freedom

·         Absolute honesty is essential in one's search for God (Truth). The subtleties of the Path are finer than a hair. The least hypocrisy becomes a wave that washes one off the Path.
It is your false self that keeps you away from your true Self by every trick it knows. In the guise of honesty this self even deceives itself. For instance your self claims, I love Baba. The fact is, if you really loved Baba you would not be your false self making the self-asserting statement!

·         The experiences are so innumerable and varied, that the journey appears to be interminable and the Destination is ever out of sight. But the wonder of it is, when at last you reach your Destination you find that you had never travelled at all! It was a journey from here to Here.

·         The seeker asking, Where is God? Is really God saying, Where indeed is the seeker!

·         God is Infinite and His Shadow is also infinite. The Shadow of God is the Infinite Space that accommodates the infinite Gross Sphere which, with its occurrences of millions of universes, within and without the ranges of men's knowledge, is the Creation that issued from the Point of Finiteness in the infinite Existence that is God.

·         The Infinite alone exists and is Real; the finite is passing and false.
The Original Whim in the Beyond caused the apparent descent of the Infinite into the realm of the seeming finite. This is the Divine Mystery and Divine Game in which Infinite Consciousness for ever plays on all levels of finite consciousness.

·         Infinite consciousness is infinite. It can never lessen at any point in time or space. Infinite consciousness being infinite includes every aspect of consciousness. Unconsciousness is one of the aspects of infiniteconsciousness. Thus infinite consciousness includes unconsciousness. It sustains, covers, pierces through and provides an end to unconsciousness — which flows from, and is consumed by, infinite consciousness.

·         Before he can know Who he is, man has to unlearn the mass of illusory knowledge he has burdened himself with on the interminable journey from unconsciousness to consciousness. It is only through love that you can begin to unlearn, and, eventually, put an end to all that you do not know. God-love penetrates all illusion, while no amount of illusion can dim God-love. Start by learning to love God by beginning to love those whom you cannot. You will find that in serving others you are serving yourself. The more you remember others with kindness and generosity, the less you remember yourself; and when you completely forget yourself, you find me as the Source of all Love.

The Beloved's Face

Some say God dwells in the temple,

others put him in the mosque.

What do you seek abroad, ignorant one?

Realize, oh Huma, God is within you.

Sometimes

How can anyone know my condition?

Sometimes I struggle, sometimes I rest,

sometimes sail on the wave of love,

sometimes founder on the sea of desire.

Of all this only God is free,

sometimes in unity, sometimes separate.

You have to journey eternally,

but finally merge in Him. ]

·         Give up all forms of parrotry. Start practising whatever you truly feel to be true and justly to be just. Do not make a show of your faiths and beliefs. You have not to give up your religion, but to give up clinging to the husk of mere ritual and ceremony. To get to the fundamental core of Truth underlying all religions, reach beyond religion.

·         Through endless time God's greatest gift is continuously given in silence. But when mankind becomes completely deaf to the thunder of His Silence God incarnates as Man.

·         God has come again and again in various Forms, has spoken again and again in different words and different languages the Same One Truth — but how many are there that live up to it? Instead of making Truth the vital breath of his life, man compromises by making over and over again a mechanical religion of it—a handy staff to lean on in times of adversity, a soothing balm for his conscience or a tradition to be followed.

·         There is only one question. And once you know the answer to that question there are no more to ask. That one question is the Original Question. And to that Original Question there is only one Final Answer. But between that Question and its Answer there are innumerable false answers.

These false answers — such as, I am stone, I am bird, I am animal, I am man, I am woman, I am great, I am small — are, in turn, received, tested and discarded until the Question arrives at the right and Final Answer, I AM GOD.

·         The Avatar draws upon Himself the universal suffering, but He is sustained under the stupendous burden by His Infinite Bliss and His infinite sense of humour. The Avatar is the Axis or Pivot of the universe, the Pin of the grinding-stones of evolution, and so has a responsibility towards everyone and everything.'

·         The Avatar does not as a rule interfere with the working out of human destinies. He will do so only in times of grave necessity — when He deems it absolutely necessary from His all — encompassing point of view. For a single alteration in the planned and imprinted pattern in which each line and dot is interdependent, means a shaking up and a re-linking of an unending chain of possibilities and events.

·         Forgiveness is the best charity. (It is easy to give the poor money and goods when one has plenty, but to forgive is hard; but it is the best thing if one can do it.)

·         Supremacy over others will never cause a man to find a change in himself; the greater his conquests the stronger is his confirmation of what his mind tells him—that there is no God other than his own power. And he remains separated from God, the Absolute Power.

But when the same mind tells him that there is something which may be called God, and, further, when it prompts him to search for God that he may see Him face to face, he begins to forget himself and to forgive others for whatever he has suffered from them.

And when he has forgiven everyone and has completely forgotten himself, he finds that God has forgiven him everything, and he remembers Who, in reality, he is.

·         There are no divisions as such, but there is an appearance of separateness because of ignorance. This means that everything is of ignorance and that everyone is Ignorance personified.

·          

·         When the bubble of ignorance bursts the self realizes its oneness with the indivisible Self.
Words that proceed from the Source of Truth have real meaning. But when men speak these words as their own, the words become meaningless.

·         Good and bad are just man-made expressions. Real freedom can only be obtained when you give up all desires. You have to renounce them all to attain freedom.

( A break for you, the  tired one

How do you like my painting?

An artist came and asked Meherbaba - I want a better opening for the expression of art, something spiritual.

Meher Baba said,  it will come. For the present, do whatever you think appropriate for expressing your art, and when you feel something better to express, then automatically and by itself it will open out to you....
It was a painter in India. He came to me and showed me his paintings. They were fantastic. Though I saw and knew they were not good, yet I said, "It is good, go on." After a year or so, he came back to me and showed me some more. They were marvelous. Yet I did not say they were marvelous. I said, "Go on," and today he is one of the greatest artists of the East. So whatever you feel like doing, go on doing. It will go on developing by itself.
How do you like my painting? (The artist looked round when Baba pointed to the beautiful scenery outside.) 

All this is my painting. 
 

Lord Meher 

·         This whole universe, with all its vastness, grandeur and beauty, is nothing but sheer imagination. In spite of so many discoveries, researches and scientific knowledge, the creation remains a great unsolved riddle.

·         You know that you are a human being, and I know that I am the Avatar. It is my whole life!

·         To gulp down anger is the most courageous act one can perform. One who does it becomes humble.

·         Happiest is he who expects no happiness from others. Love delights and glorifies in giving, not receiving. So learn to love and give, and not to expect anything from others.

·         Remember that the first step in spirituality is not to speak ill of others. All human beings have weaknesses and faults. Yet they are all God in their being. Until they become Realized, they have their imperfections. Therefore, before trying to find faults in others and speaking ill of them, try to find your own weaknesses and correct those.

·         Hopelessness means renunciation of all hopes. Aimlessness means renunciation of all aims. Helplessness means renunciation of all help. No master, no disciple, means renunciation of spirituality. And the New Life I have in mind eventually means absolute renunciation. Therefore, if any one asks you what this New Life is, say, 'Absolute and perfect renunciation.' If they ask, 'Renunciation of what?' say, 'Of everything — aims, hopes, help and life itself.

·         God is eternally free. To realize God is to attain liberation from the bondage of illusion. The greater the strife and the more intensified the struggle to attain liberation, the more the shackles of illusion are felt, because this very action brings greater awareness of the illusion, which then becomes all the more impressive and realistic. All actions, whether good or bad, just or unjust, charitable or uncharitable, are responsible in making the bond of illusion firmer and tighter.
The goal is to achieve perfect inaction, which does not mean merely inactivity. When the self is absent, one achieves inaction in one's every action.

·         Live more and more in the Present, which is ever beautiful and stretches away beyond the limits of the past and the future.

·         You are a man. Is it necessary for you to tell others that you are a man? No. But if you are living among donkeys, you would vehemently declare that you are a man. In the same way, I am God, but I have not to speak of it, because it is quite natural. Yet sometimes, I have to declare it.

·         I am the Avatar of this Age!

A story now by Meher Baba himself …

ACCEPTANCE

There was once a Perfect Master who was walking along a rough country path which wound its way between and under trees of many varieties. The Master came upon a man seated under one of the trees in the act of meditation.

The man, becoming aware of such a strong spiritual presence, opened his eyes. He immediately reacted to this advanced being with a cry of, "Oh, Master, will you tell me how many more lives I must pass through before realizing God?"

The Master looked at him and replied, "It will be four more lives before you reach your goal." The yogi reacted badly to this, complaining that it was too long; especially as he was working so hard to obtain his freedom.

The Master then continued his walk through the trees. After a time he came across another yogi who also opened his eyes and asked the same question as to the amount of time that must pass before he would receive God-realization.

On being told that he had about 300 more years before this longed-for event, he also grumbled, but was not as aggressive as the first yogi had been.

Again the Master walked on, and again a meditating yogi asked the same question.

The Master looked at the tree under which the man was sitting, and saw that it was covered with thousands of small leaves and then replied, "You will have as many lives as there are leaves on this tree."

The yogi reacted by joyfully saying, "Oh, thank you Master, thank you; it is such a wonderfully short time."

Immediately at such submission to the will of God, this yogi received the longed-for realization.

Don't worry, be happy.

·         Do not worry about anything, always be happy.

·         "It is better to deny God, than to defy God."

·         It is better to say there is no God, than to go against God.

·         "To love God in the most practical way is to love our fellow beings. If we feel for others in the same way as we feel for our own dear ones, we love God."

·         : There are many ways to love God, but the best way is to love everyone the way you love your own family.

·         : I am not trying to teach people new things, but instead I am trying to wake them up to the old truths.

·         "To penetrate into the essence of all things and significance and to release the fragrance of that inner attainment for the guidance and benefit of others, by expressing, in the world of forms, truth, love, purity and beauty—this is the sole game which has intrinsic and absolute worth. All other happenings, incidents and attainments in themselves can have no lasting importance."

·         : To look deeply inside yourself and discover a great truth, and then to express that truth to the world to help others — that is the best thing that a person could ever do. Things that you can possess don't last, but making others happy or bring knowledge to the world goes on giving as people pass it on to others.

·         "Live more and more in the Present, which is ever beautiful and stretches away beyond the limits of the past and the future."

·         Live more in the present, because at any given moment yesterday is gone, tomorrow hasn't happened yet, but the present is constantly happening and fresh. If you think about it carefully, you'll see that it is always the present at every single moment of your life, and never yesterday or tomorrow. So the present lasts forever, while the past and future are limited to their single moment. In this way the past and future are limited, but the present is forever — as it is always the present.

·         "These false answers — such as, I am stone, I am bird, I am animal, I am man, I am woman, I am great, I am small — are, in turn, received, tested and discarded until the Question arrives at the right and Final Answer, I AM GOD."

·         : Evolution is really God trying to discover who He really is. He tries all the wrong answers before He gets it right — that He is God.

Baba Towards the end of his Life

Everything has come to pass.

I am now breathing my last.

Huma's feathered spirit is trapped

in his body's cage.

Liberate me, O Lord, from this physical prison.

( Did we forget mulla ..

"Everybody has something to be thankful for," the minister said to Mulla Nasrudin, who was sitting in his office telling a tale of woe. "Look at the man across the street from you who just lost his wife in an automobile accident." "YES," said Nasrudin, "But everybody can't be that lucky, sir."

"This is a lesson in logic," said the old professor in the teahouse. "If the show starts at nine and dinner is at six and my son has the measles, and brother drives a Cadillac, how old am I?" "You are eighty-four," replied Mulla Nasrudin promptly. "Right," said the professor. "Now tell the rest of the fellows here how you arrived at the correct answer." "IT'S EASY," said Nasrudin. "I have got an uncle who is forty-two and he is only half nuts, sir."

The two burglars worked as a team. One stayed outside as a lookout, while the other robbed the house. One night, when the inside man returned, his buddy said, "How much did you get?" "Nothing," the other said. "This is the house of Mulla Nasrudin." "GEE!" said his buddy. "Then how much did you lose?")