The following two Iiiessages dictated by BABA were distributed to over ten thousandpeople who came to have BABA’S darshan on the first ofNovember, 1953, at DehraDun, India, that being the day he had allowed public darshan. BABA asked thatthey be reprinted in The Awakener.

ON PLAYING WITH ILLUSIONS

APPRECIATE THE FAITH, which has brought yeu here. I also appreciateyour love and devotion. It has made me very happy.

I know and understand your difficulties and problems, sufferingsand expectations. Not only the individuals, but the whole world is in thethroes of suffering. When suffering comes, it comes according to thedivinely established law of Karma. It must then be accepted with grace andfortitude. But it must be remembered that your actions are the cause ofmuch ofyour suffering. Through wise action, it can be minimised. What humanityneeds is spiritual wisdom; and for this, it must inevitably turn to thePerfect Masters and Avatars.

Suffering comes through ignorance or attachment to illusions. Most people playwith illusions as children play with toys. If you get caught up in the ephemeralthings of this world and cling to illusory values, suffering is inevitable. Itis not easy for little children to give up their toys, for they become thevictims of a habit, which they can not undo. In the same way, throughmillions of lives, you have got into the habit of playing with illusions; it isdifficult for you to get disentangled from them.

For ages and ages, the Atma (Soul) has been seeing its own shadow andgetting engrossed in the illusory world of forms. He gets addicted to thespectacle ofhis own creation and desires to see it through cycles and cycles ofcreation. When the soul turns inwards and longs to have self-knowledge,

it has become spiritually-minded. But even there, this habit of wanting to

see some spectacle persists for several livcs. The soul ulants to experience some

miracles or spcctacular phenomena, or in more advance-I stages, it wants to perform

miracles and manzulate phenomena. Even spiritually advanced persons find

it difficult to outgrow this habit of playing with illusions. Persistant attach

ment to miracles is only a firther continuation of the habit ofplaying with illusion.

It is not miracles, hut understanding, which can bring you true freedom.

If you have firm faith and unfaltering love for the God-man, your way to

the Abiding Truth is clear and safe. Then you have no time to waste in

playing with things that do not matter. Be ye guided by Love and Thith. This

is the simple way that leads to GOD. Not by endless manoeuvering of alluring

illusions, but by loyalty to the Unchangeable Truth, can ye hope to be

established in Abiding Peace.When I speak, it will be only one Divine Word; hut it will he the Word

of words or the Manifestation of Truth. This Word will have to be heark

ened to by the heart and not merely by the mind. It will go home to you

and bring you the Awakening.

M LOVE AND BLESSINGS.

THE REAL DARSHAN

I am happy to be in your midst.

It is the deep love of some of my lovers in Dehra Dun that has drawn• you all together today to have my darshan.

-

-But to have my Real Darshan is not easy.

- -

To see me at close quarters, to do obeisance to me, to offer me fruits and

flowers, to bow down to me and then to return to your homes, can never

mean that you have had my darshan.

• - S - Having seen me with your eyes you have still not seen me as I am. You

have not had even a glimpse of my true Being in spite of your having gone

Sthrough the convention of so-called ‘darshan.’

To have my Real Darshan is to find me.

The way to find me is to find your abode in me.

And the only one and sure way to find your abode in me is to love me.

To love me as I love you, you must become recipient of my grace. Only

my grace can bestow the gift of Divine Love.

To receive my grace, you must obey me wholeheartedly with the firmfoundation of unshakable faith in me. And you can only obey me spontaneously as I want when you completely surrender yourselves to me sothat my wish becomes your law and my love sustains your being.

Age after age, many aspire for such a surrender; but only very few reallyattempt to surrender themselves to me completely as I want.

He, who succeeds, ultimately not only finds me, but becomes me andrealises the aim of life.

My being in your midst today would serve its purpose even if one fromthis multitude has understood what I want you all to know.

I give my blessings to you all. MEHER BABA* * *

THE DIVINE BIRTH: AN EDIr0RIAL

HIS FEBRUARY, on the twenty-fifth, according to the Westerncalendar, MEHER BABA will be sixty years old.But the real BABA can never grow old; the real BABA is eternal.

Who is this “real BABA,” whom he says we have never seen?

This ‘real BABA” is our Real Self. . . the One, Divine Self that is in eachand every one of us, but whom we have not yet realized., whom we havenot yet joined, in the Eternal Marriage of Love, Knowledge and Bliss Infinite.

MEHER BABA is One with this Great Soul of the Universe; he is that

Divinity fully expressed in man. Some of us feel this intuitively.Some know

it by grace; that is, by the will of the Master, who floods the heart with this

blinding revelation of his Identity; as Saul knew the Christ, “not throughmy knowledge, nor the knowledge of any man, but through revelation in

Jesus Christ.” And some advanced souls or Pilgrims recognize him through

their spiritual or occult knowledge, as the wise men recognized the “Star”or Aura of the Babe in Bethlehem. Others, more humble, know him onlythrough faith, through the love he has awakened in them, by little signsand touches of his unfathomable mercy. “There have been Buddhas beforeme and there will he Buddhas after,” said the Gautauma, predicting thegreatest one would bear a name meaning Mercy. MEHER BABA means Fatherof Mercy. “Whenever there is a decline of virtue and a resurgance of eviland injustice in the world, I, the Avatar, take human form,” said Krishna.

Our namaskar to Him Who Has Come Again. . . The Awakener Divine!P.F.

,Cook Within Yourself...by DELIA DE LEON

You, yourself must make the çf/irt. Buddhas do butpoint the Way.”— Dhammapada

HESE WORDS HAVE a deep and profound meaning, but, like other

sayings of the same kind, they can be heard and read over and

over again without any real understanding of the process of

evolving development, that lies behind the words. The effort. . . for what?

And the way . . . where?The materialist makes the effort for material things, and in the process,

more often destroys himself, because he becomes enchained by his false

values; he is a slave to the things which can fail him at any moment, and

leave him utterly barren, for he is like a spoiled child wanting everything

for his own gratification.The self-styled spiritual person, on the other hatid, damages himself by

developing a spiritual pride and a feeling of exclusiveness. He does not

want to bring GOD to earth; his GOD is something afar off, and exclusive

to himself. He, too, shirks the issue.

The way must surely lie between these two extremes, but to find it, we

have first to face ourselves, and the problem of life on earth, with conscious

intelligence, as mature beings; for the whole evolutionary plan consists in

this descending unconsciously from GOD into the densest form of matter;

achieving full consciousness as man, and then ascending back to the source,

which leads to GOD-Consciousness. GOD becomes man, so that man may

become GOD.

“It is no game for the faint-hearted,” for the Path back to GOD is likened

to a razor’s edge, and needs endless love and courage, patience and humility.

The first requisite is to grow up. This necessitates seeing truly and imper

sonally our own vices and virtues. . . deciding our own way (different for

each of us); deciding what to do with our lives and what to give to life . .

facing the issues, digging deeply within ourselves, accepting all experiences

willingly, without running away. . . not thinking wishfully, but bit by bit

pulling down the false façades and facing ourselves squarely. Then we can

decide what is of real value to us, and eliminate the superfluous things

which clutter us up and blind us to the truth.

It is always difficult to sift the chaff from the wheat, the dross from the

gold because duality (maya s illusion) gives us such opposite feelings

we can love and hate at the same time, be spiritual and lustful, have fear

and he courageous. The balancing of these opposites, the finding of a

middle way, is the art of life. As we begin to ponder, “Where .am I going?

Why am I here? What does it all mean?” we will be helped to find an

answer to see the pattern When the pupil is ready the Teacher appears

Usually we have to get down to rock-bottom, with its attendant suffer

ing atici pain and tears; but when we cease to struggle against life and allow

it to flow through us ac eptmg whatc er it brings then often a small voice

gives us the answer, and truth begins to unfold like a flower. It is an

expanding of consciousness, this process of bringing GOD to birthfinding HIM iii the center and very core of our being, where HE has beenall the time!

Many great Masters in the past have given us their pointers: “Hatreddoes not cease by hatred at any time, hatred ceases by love: this is an oldrule.” . . . Dhaminapada; “What shall it profit a man if he gain the wholeworld and lose his own sOul?” . . . Jesus of Nazareth; “Whosoeyer for

saketh all desires and goeth onwards free from yearnings, selfless and without egoism, he goeth t peace.” . . . Bhaghavad. Gitâ; “Love your enemies,bless them that curse you, do good to them that despitefully use you andpersecute you.”.. . Jesus of Nazareth. The Masters of Zen Buddhism oftenjust said to their pupils, “Talk on,” or pointed to a Circle, or some othersymbol.

Most of us give these words lipservice; that is why there is such chaosin the world today; for until words are illuminated by conscious: experience,they cannot truly be put iiito practice; they must he applied, in truth, toevery waking hour. It is a question of inner knowing and feeling.

Yet all who have trod the Path have left their signposts . . . poets, saints,prophets. The Masters have shown the Way because they were the Way. Tocome into personal contact with a Master is the greatest of all blessings, forhe is a gauge for all our conduct; by him we can measure and find truevalues. He is our hope and promise, our Light in the darkness. In lovinghim, we are helped to live outside ourselves, and the fire, once lit, can neverbe put out. However often we fall.. . he helps us out of his infinite compassion to rise again and again. He stirs and shakes us to the depth of our

being, so that we may awaken from our dream of maya and become con

scious vehicles for the furthering on earth of the Divine Plan of the great

Architect of the Universe. We may take heart from the words of MEHER

BABA, who says today to us all: “I have come to help you win the one

Victory of all victories, to win your Self.”

tJ3jj Pearls...Dictated by BABA on November 21, 1953, at the home ofMr. W’. D. Kain, India.

. “THERE ARE TWO KINDS OF EXPERIENCES . . . one external,the other internal. The external experience is to be had by gross

means. What we actually see of the gross world with gross eyes gives usa sort of conviction, but at times even this conviction is based on falseanalysis; for example when we happen to see a man drinking milk from abottle under a toddy tree we feel convinced that he is drinking toddy, whichis false. What is seen with the inner eye, however, gives an absolute anddefinite conviction which can never fail nor be false.

“When one actually sees GOD with the inner eye as the OmnipresentExistence, one only needs to become that Infinite Existence oneself. Whatis needed is not more theorising and reasoning but the actual experiencewhich gives eternal conviction and this can be had only through Love.”

. “JUST as GOD is Infinite, imagination is infinite and all that hascome out of imagination, which is called the shadow of GOD,

is also infinite. We can imagine anything and everything ad infinitum.“Science, as it is understood today, deals with energy and matter. This

material science is in the domain of the mind. There is also spiritualscience, which deals with the beyond-mind state. Material science andspiritual science both yield proofs . . . material science brings resultsthrough intellect, spiritual science through Love. When Love is experiencedfully, the Source of the spiritual science, i.e., GOD the Infinite, is realisedand all else is then found to be just illusory phenomena.

“Spiritual science, being based on Love alone and being beyond systematic mental understanding, is full of apparent ups and downs, vagaries andcontradictions which Love alone can face and overcome, because whereasmaterial science enhances the ego-life, spiritual science annihilates it.”

QUESTIONS BABA ANSWERED

Q. Will SHIRT MEHER BABA explain christ’s words concerning the “Second

coming”? (St. Mark xiii: 21, 26, 27.)

“And th’n if any man shall say to you, Lo, here is Christ; or, lo, he is

there; believe him not .

“But in those days, after that tribulation. . . then shall they see the Son

of man coining in the clouds with great power and glory. And then shall

he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds,

from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven.”

A. The gathering of the elect refers to the reincarnation and final assembling

of His close disciples and followers at the time of His Second Coming. It

is wrong to associate the Second Coming with the imprisonment of the

Devil and a thousand years’ peace, or with a literal interpretation of the

Last Day ofJudgment.All the great mystics have understood the word “clouds” as a symbolic

expression for states of consciousness or spiritual planes. When the Christ

descends from the Infinite, i.e., Seventh Plane, He brings with Him to earth

the Infinite Goodness, Wisdom, Power, and Love, and also the powers, signs

and experiences of the six lower planes. In the words of a great Sufi saint:

“Behold the sky, and clouds and the world:First is GOD, then the planes, the last is earth;

but all three are linked.”

We read in St. Mark ix: 2 and 7 that the Transfiguration ofJesus occurred

when He ascended into a mountain: “And there was a cloud that over

shadowed them: and a voice came out of the cloud saying, This is my

beloved Son: hear him.”Brother Leo relates of the Vision of St. Francis in Mount Alvernia that he

“saw coming down from Heaven a torch of flame exceeding beautiful and

light, which, descending, rested on the head of St. Francis; and out of the

flame there came a voice. . . “St. Francis explains to Brother Leo: “Then was

I in a light of contemplation, in which I saw the abyss of the infinite good

ness and wisdom and power of GOD.. . And in the flame that thou sawest

was GOD, who also spake in such a manner unto me, even as in old time HE

had spoken unto Moses.”On Mount Sinai GOD appeared in a thick cloud and with fire.

Therefore we see that “clouds,” “the house of clouds” (manzii), is a

symbolic expression among mystics for “the six Planes.”

Q. There have been and still are so many false Messiahs. lb w can we recognize

the “true” Messiah?A. The feeling and inspiration for things sublime and the Divine Love are

imparted by a real Messiah to anyone who comes in contact with Him.

A false Messiah cannot do this.Through His Divinity the true Messiah gradually attracts the world to

Himself, and people come to know and feel that He is REAL. The knowledge

and feeling of confidence in His words and works grow gradually into cer

tainty, and masses follow Him, drawn by an irresistahie force. A mirage

attracts the thirsty, hut 500fl it is discovered to be an illusion and not the life-

giving water. A false Messiah may attract the attention of the people through

outward appearances, by force of personality, or by intellectual disssertations

about spirituality, but he cannot do that which the true Messiah can do,

i.e., arouse the highest ideals in men and touch the hearts of millions.

Q. How is it, that the Master, being superhuman, still has hunger, thirst, and

the need ofsleep?A. The Master works on different Planes . . . spiritual, mental, astral and

physical. And in order to work with different individuals at different stages

of evolution, he comes down to their level. Even when in the physical

body, he can aid highly advanced souls on the mental plane, less advanced

souls on the astral plane, and ordinary human beings on the physical plane.

He uses the appropriate body . . . spiritual, mental, astral or physical, as

the medium for his work on the required plane.

It is rightly said that the true teacher is he who can come down to the

level of the student. The Master comes down to the level of this world for

its upliftment. The physical body, now his medium of work, has its

physical needs, food and rest, which must usually be attended to physically.

If necessary, he could live for days together without food or water. In fact,

he has often fasted for long periods. This attention to the requirements of

the physical body of the Master, although outwardly similar, is inwardly

different. It is not, as in ordinary men, actuated by any desire to satisfy

hunger, thirst or sleep, nor for the pleasure that man derives from eating,

drinking and other enjoyments. He tends to the physical needs of the body

merely to preserve it as a medium for the great work that he has to do for

humanity on this physical plane.

JVleher rBabas Fiery ‘zfeand External AtUvities

by RAMJOO ABDULLA

Concluding this remarkable eyewitness account of the Master’s FieryLife period, from November, 1952 to April, 1953.

PART EIGHT: MAST CONTACTS IN MADRAS.

HE LONG JOURNEY BY TRAIN from Allahhad to Madras, a verytiresome trip for all concerned, was relieved of its tediousness atone stage by an impromptu presentation at the request of BABA,

of a drama by some of the men who accompanied him. This was done, muchto BABA’S enjoyment, in spite of the fact that they hardly had space to move,being as usual crowded together in a third-class compartment.

BABA and his men stayed three nights and two days in all in Madraswithout letting anyone know, as BABA wished to remain incognito till hereached Andhra. They had comfortable lodgings, yet BABA kept his menawake for nearly thirty-six hours, not allowing them to doze off in betweeneven for a moment.

Long before they had arrived at Madras, BABA had begun to prepare hismen for hardships and inconveniences to be encountered. Unless and untilthe desired work was carried out, BABA warned them, such things as foodand sleep must be forgotten.

During the strictest fasts when BABA expects his people to completelyabstain from food for twenty-four hours or more, he always allows thedrinking of water and the free use of tobacco in any form for those whowish. But when on the first morning at Madras, BABA set out with his menfor the mast contacts, the instruction he gave them virtually placed anembargo on their mouths with the exception of breathing and talking.

When they arrived in the locality known as the Beech area, it was nearlytwo P.M. More than four hours had passed since they had started trudging,without rest or refreshment. Leaving some of his men outside, BABA, withthe few who had actively worked in the search for masts, went into the compound of the residence of a rich Moslem who was sheltering the mast called

Moti Baha. After some time BABA came out, appearing very happy, and

told all his men to go in and look at the mast. ‘Be quick, you are now

going to get food,” he added. The men came to know afterwards that when

Moti Baba came before BABA, the first words he uttered were, “Now let

them eat, feed them.”BABA continued his work with the masts, one of the first to be contacted

being a Moslem. After a good deal of walking through lanes and by-lanes

bearing names which were as difficult to remember as to pronounce, BABA

contacted this mast inside the house of a Hindu family who, though un

aware of BABA’S identity, readily allowed him to go in. Afterwards the mast

came out and passed before BABA’s men. He was a robust man of over

sixty years, and although a Moslem, he was loved and revered by the

people in the locality, which was predominantly Hindu. He appeared to

be very happy after his meeting with BABA.

The only other mast whom BABA particularly wanted his men to see was

Arabshah. He was found living in the small out-building of a public school

in the Dock area at the other end of Madras. According to BABA, Moti Baba

and Arabshah were the best amongst the masts in Madras. Although BABA

contacted a number of masts it was observed that the main object of this trip

to Madras concerned particular types of masts, and not just masts in general.

PART NINE: ANDHRA OUTBURST OF LOVE AND DEVOTION.

The river Godaveri, which originates in the hills near Nasik in the

Western State of Bombay, has its estuary in Andhra Pradesh on the Eastern

shores of India. Two of the richest districts of Andhra are divided from each

other by this river and are called the West and the East Godaveri Districts.

Together with about eight other districts they form a large and compact

Telegu-speaking area, almost midway between Madras and Calcutta, on

India’s vast east coast. At the moment Andhra forms part of Madras State,

but it is shortly to become one of the autonomous states of the Republic

of India.Due to the devotion, for over twelve years, of a few Andhra men who are

very rich in their love for BABA as their Master, Andhra had already made

its mark on the illimitable map of BABA’S special world. Since BABA

had been repeatedly invited to bless with his presence their homes and their

public activities concerned with his cause, but it was not till the time of the

congregation held at Meherabad in November, 1952, that a definite plan

was chaJked out for BABA’s first visit to Andhra in January, 1953.

On the morning of the i6th of January, BABA and his men left Madras

for Bezwada, the only railway junction station in Andhra, where those who

were invited from Ahmednagar, Bombay, Delhi, Saoner, Hamirpur, Am

raoti, etc., to attend the Andhra program were expected to join BABA.

Before BABA and his men, who now numbered over fifty, left Bezwada

for Wst Godaveri on the afternoon of January i7th, their identity neither

remained a secret, nor were any attempts made to conceal it any longer.

Beginning with a small crowd of about three hundred people who saw them

off from Bezwadam, over one hundred and fifty thousand people must have

had BABA’S darshan and at least fifty thousand men, women and children

received prasad at his hands before he passed through Bezwada again on

January 29th at the end of the public program originally chalked out on

the eve of BABA’S Fiery Life.The response received by BABA from all classes of people, rich and poor,

literate and illiterate, officials and businessmen, politicians and social

workers, was beyond the expectations of the organizers. According to them

the beginning of this deep response had taken place months before BABA’S

actual arrival in Andhra. Many people who had never before seen BABA had

begun to know about him not only through the literature on BABA, but also

from personal inner experiences, visions, and dreams. There was therefore

some particular significance in an address presented to BABA at Tadepal

ligudem on January i9th. In the course of the expression of their love and

devotion, they said. . . “Thou hast been transmitting tremendous power

from Thy infinite, inexhaustible dynamo, silently awakening Love throughinner contact by continuous telepathic radiations . .

Likewise at another reception, the members of the bar, leaving all

thought of their profession aside, addressed BABA in all simplicity, saying‘Yea, though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we fear

no evil, for Thou art with us, Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort us..At Tadepalligudem, after he had finished bowing down to seven poor

persons and given them each Rs. 50/ as prasad, and instead of returning tothe Dak bungalow, BABA slipped away and walked in the opposite direction.After going about fifty yards, he selected a particular house and sat downon the plinth near the doorway, to the utter joy and amazement of theinmates at this unexpected Grace of the Master. BABA remained there

II . .

smiling at them until his men arrived. This house was a “Yeruka,” i.e., a

house belonging to a very poor depressed-class pig keeper.BABA often gave extempore messages for unexpected gatherings; this at

a wayside village called Pippra, while on his way from the West to the East,

Godaveri district, BABA dictatcl the following through his alphabet hoard:

I feel very happy to be amongst you all today. My message since

eternity has been of love. GOD alone is real, and to know Him, we must

love Him. GOD resides in us all equally; He needs our silent love within.

We can also love Him by loving our fellow-men. If we love GOD honestly,

all our doubts and worries vanish. I give you my blessings so that through

love you can see me in everyone and everything. My coming here will be of

value if at least one of you becomes worthy of this blessing.”The Telegu language was a problem for all concerned. It was difficult to

understand or be understood by the people unless both sides knew English

or Telegu. Ordinarily and outwardly BABA appeared to depend on inter

pretors and translators, but once he proved that he could understand the

purport without following the words. This came to light during a meeting

between BABA and his local devotees. BABA allowed them to carry on the

general discussion in Telegu as all of them could not follow English. BABA

would express himself in English, which was then translated into Telegu

for the benefit of all. Once, during a translation, BABA stopped the trans

lator before he could finish, and showed how he had erred in his translation;and those who knew both English and Telegu agreed with BABA.

BABA, during the course of the journey home, gave a discourse to hismen, as follows:

“You do not know me. You have not seen me. I am not this body whichyou see. I am not what you hear. Physical existence is not GOD. GOD is ineverything, everwhere, all the time. Your body also is not you. Even if aleg or an arm is cut off, you will still feel within you that you are whole.As a child, as a boy, as you are now and as you will be, you have beenchanging and will go on changing. Yet you continue to feel your same self,neither more nor less. Your very existence continues unchanged. In spiteof the oft-repeated gaps during deep sleep, you do not feel any break in thecontinuity of this existence at the moment of your regaining perceptibility

• Why is it I am GOD and you are not GoD? It is because I am conscious

that I am GOD, and you are not. .

Is There a UniversalJVIind?By ANTON BAARSLAG

‘Je ne sais as ceque c’est que la vie eternelle, mats ce/Ic ci est uiie

mauvaise pIaisaiiterie’

HESE WORDS OF THE AMIABLE FREE-THINKER, Voltaire, came tomy mind when I read in the October issue of The Awakener, that

to one who asked keenly, “What is life?”, MEHER BABA smilingly

replied, “Life is a Mighty Joke .

At first sight it would seem strange that two men of such widely differentphilosophies of life, one, a typical Western, matter-of-fact thinker, the otheran Oriental mystic, express the same opiflion about “life.” I am now inclined to doubt the veracity of Kipling’s line:

“East is East and West is WestAnd ne’er the twain shall meet,”

though I firmly believed it when I lived, years ago, in the East, on thebeautiful island, Java.

I did not enjoy life in the tropics. The Europeans living there could bedivided in two groups; those who loved it and those who disliked it

intensely. There was no middle way. I belonged to the latter variety. Notonly the hot climate without relief, even at night, but the whole atmossphere bothered me. I cannot express it differently than by saying that it

was threatening: the deep-blue volcanic mountains, the ominous tropicalsilence at night, which by the way, is no silence at all but just a reminderthat there is a threat somewhere. Then there was the attitude of the nativepopulation in whom, friendly and subservient as they seemed, I sensed a(maybe imaginary) resentment. I felt that I just had no business to be there.

I was conscious of goings-on in the air in which I did not participate,supernatural forces. I sensed a smattering of that which makes the Orientalmystical to a high degree, and I came strongly under the spell of themysterious circumambience, and joined a group of people who studiedTheosophy. It was in the days that Krishnamurti, (then still a small boy)came to the fore and we had a regular correspondence with Annie Besant,asking her opinion and advice in various matters. There I learned the power

of meditation and of silence. Not the silence which goes with meditation,

but the one which Thomas Carlyle eulogizes: “Silence, higher than the

stars, deeper than the mystery of death.”

Years have past since I have read anything connected with Theosophy,

but my experience is that whatever we learn is very seldom lost. I realized

this when I met MEHER BABA, whose house in Meher Center “On-The-

Lakes” is practically next door to my present home. When I was included

in the people who were invited to come and meet him, I was glad that my

theosophical studies of so many years ago had acquainted me a little with

Eastern religious thinking. It was quite an event for me to be at last in the

presence of an exponent of that profound philosophy, and, though we

weEe allotted only five minutes each, it left a deep impression on me. It

brought back to me memories oftheOrientand I thoughtof the little serious

group which so ardently studied the Bhagavad Gitá, and of the discussion

that followed those gatherings which goaded us on to further studies

Though at first it seems difficult for a Western-trained mind to obtain a

clear conception of the underlying principle of Oriental philosophy, such

studies reveal the amazing fact that fundamentally these religious teachings

are not so alien to our ideas as is commonly believed A better authority

than I confirms this. Eckermann, in his Conversations with Goethe, tells us

how, talking about the spiritualism of the French philosopher, Victor

Cousin, the convetsation turned upon Indian philosophy. “This philo

sophy,” the great German poet-philosopher said, “contains absolutely

nothing foreign. On the contrary, all epochs through which we pass our-

• selves are being repeated in it. ‘X”e are sensualists, as long as we are children;

, idealists when we love and attribute qualities to the beloved object which

• really do not exist. Love falters, and we doubt its faithfulness, and we

become sceptics before we realize it. The rest of life is immaterial, we just

let it go at its will and we end up with quietism like the Indian philosophers.”

‘Quietism’ was the nickname applied in Seventeenth-Century France to

that mystical movement of which the outstanding figures were Fénelon and

Madam Guyon. This quietism, outwardly so different from the Indian

mysticism and asceticism, is inwardly and spiritually identical. The German

philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer, points our that one of the writings of

Jeanne de Ia Motte Guyon gives, in abbreviated form, exactly the teachings

of Vedanta, and even using the selfsame metaphors. It is absolutely

impossible that Madam Guyon, about i68o, could have been acquaintedwith the writings of the Vedantists.

In his lV3itals 7illq und Vorstellung (The World as W1l1 and Idea), Schopenhauer goes to great length to show that Brahmisna and Buddhism, spiritually and ethically, are akin to Christianity, more so than Judaism. He evengoes so far as to say that the Christian religion has fundamentally taughtto the Western world that which the entire Orient knew already for ages,namely, the metaphysical meaning of life. ‘ If,” he says, “the paradoxesand the concurrence of my philosophy with quietism and asceticism areresented by my contemporaries, it would mean to me another proof ofits correctness and truth. . . Because not only the Oriental religions but alsotrue Christianity has fundamentally the same ascetic character, which isbeing clarified by my philosophy of “negation of the will to live...”

Here I am tempted to go further into the elaborations of Schopenhauerin his Parerga and Paralipomena on this subject, but that would lead me toofar. I must quote however a curious fact observed by that philosopher.That there is an identity between Buddha and Wtan woul4 seem likelybecause Wednesday (Wotans day) is dedicated to Buddha. An even strongerlink between Eastern and pre-Christian European religions is, that theplanet Mercury is sacred to Buddha and to a certain extent is identified withhim. Now, Wednesday (French: Mercredi,i.e.,Mercury day) is Buddha dayand Mercury is the son of Maia, whereas Buddha is the son of Queen Maja.This can hardly be a coincidence.

But we don’t have to go so far from home to see how Oriental andWestern thoughts are interrelated. Our own New England Transcendentalism shows the unmistakable traces thereof, especially in Emerson’sOversoul and compensation.

The above necessarily brief exposé should however suffice to show that,far from being alien to our religious feelings and thoughts, a study ofOriental religions, and I refer here specifically to MEHER BABA’S teachings,should serve to enrich our spiritual life. It would be trite to elaborate on thefact of how much we stand in need of development of our spiritual potentialities, now that our mind is keyed entirely to the material accomplishmentsof our civilization.

Dr. Truman Douglass, in his powerful book, Mission to America, whichshoeld be on the bookshelf of every serious ( . .

. Continued on page 36)

few

BHAJANS”

for BABA on his

60thBIRTHDAY

FEBRUARY 25, 1954

LYVfemories of The ‘Beloved:

“THERE IS A SAVIOUR RARER THAN RADIUM”

His Eyes: Black diamonds blazing Love

PiercingThe self’s illusion

His Hands: Spelling. . . out . . . Truth . . . at us

SignallingBlessedness .

Hands to kissThat smell of rose .

His Body: 0 Too frail cloak for Radiance supreme!

God’s beauty beautifiedBy sacrifice.

His Feet.’ White lotus FeetWhere God touches earthRunning and running as on a Path of Fire...

— Anonymous

Fragment: Forever I -4m’

Forever I AM

Forever My Light Springs from Me;Forever My Suns are My Creations born in Me, yet,These are not the SELF of Me,THEY ARE FOREVER IN ME.

Forever I AM

My Suns Forever re-create in Me, yet,These are not the SELF of Me,Their coming and going Is,Forever IN ME.

Forever I AM

Forever My Central Suns Centered in Me,Forever THE CENTER, THE CAUSE...

Forever I AM CENTERED EVERYWHERE...

THE ALL IS FOREVER CENTERED IN ME,

The Unconditional One.

In Me, two opposites are. . . the Light and the Dark...Yet, both are as One IN ME, the Unconditional.The Light of day, the dark of night,Both are One IN ME, yet, I AM no darkness at all.My Attributes are forever coming and going IN ME,

Yet I move not nor change.

I AM Forever LIGHT; darkness comprehendeth Me not;I AM Forever the Illumined, the UnconditionedSELF— THAT, which forever disperseth the dark.Forever the All Springs from Me...Is FOREVER IN ME.

Frank Simon HendrickReprinted by special permission from “Forever ‘I AM”

Song of Myse1f

Going my waywith the Name of my Master

on my lips,with the presence of my Beloved

(oh, beyond fairness)in my heart.

Behold me, one who loves adversity, whowelcomes defeat;

who is bent upon loss,and is eager to strip himself of possession of himself.

I am ready to laugh with you in your joy;to weep with you in your tears.But my laughter and weeping have no meaning

except in His love.

What I say from myselfhas not the minutest particle of value;

But what I say because of Him,do not take that lightly,

or he absentwhen it is said.

And oh.tell GOD in your prayers

(if you pray),that I do not know how much longer I can endure

this pain, .

But that if He removes it, even for a moment,I will never again call Him compassionate.

Francis BrabazonReprinted by special permission from “Proletarians . . . Transition”

.

4.

Memories of theA1af/erWe coiltinue our scrapbook of memories of BABA . please send us those you may

fel like sharing His Treasure ‘increases when shared with others!”

Dee rieg the three wondrous days when BABA was receiving some hundreds

of people at our apartment, it was a remarkable experience to watch His

dynamic change of mood and tempo every passing minute. The people came

from all sorts of places and all walks of life, for their two or three minutes

with B3\. It seemed as if some were almost dead, but they walked out

teansfigured and newly alive. Some smiled, some wept heartbreakingly.

BABA asked for a bowl of fruit to stand beside His couch, and this He

would dispense with a divine smile to the people who came, a grape or a

cherry, to impart His divine love, His prasad*. The heat was terrific and He

had nor slept for many nights, and was most uncomfortable in his leg-cast,

bLtc afrer the first two or three interviews, He beamed: ‘You see, so much

love has revived me.’

‘The first afternoon, much to the latter’s astonishment, He spelled on

His hoard, ‘You knowJ. . B. . . has been saying for some time, When

are we going to have tea?’

When BABA pulls a joke He looks so hilarious with a sort of Olympian

glee. that OU just feel He has said the funniest thing in the world. Once

He looked at me with this infinite mirth in His eyes while I was saying

something; and I not only felt like a child prattling about its toys, but I

thought how different the Master’s silent laughter was from any other on

earth, because it is so innocent and yet comprehensive, untinged with self.

When we offered Him the refreshing mineral water known as ‘Seven-Up,’

He held His good arm over His head in a cute gesture and merrily dashed

off on the board: ‘I’m seven-up already.” Such a light moment with our

Beloved was as heart-expanding as sharing His more serious anecdotes,

such as when he stopped interviewing for a few minutes one day, and calling

in some of the older devotees, related the following story . . . on His

alphabet-board, of course:

“King Janaka, who was Sita’s father and Rama’sfather-in-law, was a great

Master. A poor aspirant, learning of this, walked hundreds of miles across the

*Prasad: Gift from the Master.

difficult terrain to find him, so as to offr himself as a disciie. He went many /ays

without food, and reached the castle footsore and startling. The guards, not liking

his looks, refused to let him in, so he screamed, ‘Janaka, Janaka,” and the kinç,

being a Master, heard, and sent for him. But then, instead ofsuccorinç the poor

wretch, the king consigned him to prison where he was for eight deys more without

food. Naturally he was bewildered and wondered what kind ofa Master this was.

Eventually Janaka had him brought forth from his dungeon. The night before

he had commanded that the whole city be filled with entertainments, dancing and

merriment and music on that day. The poor aipirant, thought, it the siçrht of such

luxury, “How can Janaka, who is dwelling in the midst of such enjoyment, be a

Sadguru ?“ King Janaka. reading his thoughts, then called f)r a glass of milk

‘full to the brim.” But as it was placed in the man’s hands the king said, “Look

behind you!” There stood two executioners with great drawn swords. “Now,” the

king went on, “You must carry this niilk all over the city and not spill one drop,

for ifyou do, these men will cut off your head.”The poor man, hungry and woebegone, grasped the glass of milk in both handj.

and walked carefully throughout the entire city, follo wed by the executioners.

When he returned, King Janaka said to him, ‘What did you think of all the

entertainment and music going on in my city?” The poor man replied he ha,! not

been aware of any as his eyes had been on that glass of milk the whole time.

The King then pointed out that so he, the Sadguru, was absorbed in the Infinite,

and paid no attention to outer things. So also, should the aspirant for God-Real

ization live. . . in the world, but not of it, with his eyes and heart fixed on God all

the time. Then he took the man as a disciple.”—Ivy Duce.

FROM A LETTER: “The most wonderful thing of my life happened today.

I have met BABA personally. It was all so wonderful and so soon. . . I have

only just got back to earth. His gracious radiance enthralled me; I was

speechless and yet I can still hear: ‘BABA loves you. I know you understand.

I will help you.’“What more can life give me. I ask nothing more, but that I may be

made more worthy of that Divine Love. . . My heart sings to my Soul in

loving gratitude for the Love and Beauty and Wisdom of GOD, revealed

to a tiny little human heart.”

L’uc/y by

‘€ This amusing incident shows how the Master workswith other creatures in the “Divine Theme” of creation.

UCKY” IS A MONKEY. . . I don’t know where he is now, but I had the“ good fortune to ‘mother’ him during his significant stay in the

Ashram on Meherabad Hill. This incident is hard to believe unless

one realizes the effect. MEHER BABA sent out a call for him, but then he

described him merely as a monkey that would respond to him.

So, through all the four corners of India, friends and disciples were

mobilized to detect such a promising creature, which, after we read the

Divine Theme, we realize is part and parcel of it. . . like any one of us.

Now, monkeys after monkeys were sent for and brought up the hill. As

I had to carry them down the hill again it meant that none of them was as

yet the one for which BABA sent out a call. And then, one day, most un

expectedly, a tiny case arrived down at the men’s quarters, below the hill,

from an unasked source, and in it was a small creature, no bigger than a

baby squirrel with huge sparkling eyes and long eyelashes. The news wasrushed up the hill to where BABA was at the time. His reaction was ‘spontaneous rejoicement.”

At once, the following plan was set by BABA: . . . the men down the hillwere to squat in a circle with BABA hiding himself in their midst, and at agiven moment BABA was to give the sign for the cage to be opened. Shouldthe monkey, without hesitation, jump into BABA’s lap first, that would bethe chosen one. The momentous order became fact. The monkey shotstraight on to BABA’s left arm, sitting right under his heart, and was givenforthwith the name of ‘Lucky’ amidst great enthusiasm of all present. Whatperfect instinct!

By chosen one, I understand the one whose evolutionary striving wouldbe speeded through contact with the Master.

On the same afternoon of the momentous arrival of the monkey, BABA,

followed by all the members of the Ashram, brought him up to me where Iwas temporary invalided by having strained a ligament on my right footand therefore had to stay in bed in the upstairs dormitory under a mosquitonet. BABA introduced me to ‘Lucky’ as his temporary mother with ordersto look after him. But how lucky were we all because BABA would spend

a playful half-hour unstairs with ‘Lucky’ an us.During this period BABA would take ‘Lucky’ from me, hold him, caress

him, let the monkey kiss his neck, hide under his jacket or in his pocket

until he became too posessive and intolerant in wanting ever more of BABA’S

warmth and light, when BABA would come up to me and I would have to

tear the monkey out of BABA’S grasp. Of course, the monkey rather resented

it, so our part-time life under the mosquito net became rather strained.

‘Lucky’ slept in a box at the head of my bed. I had to hear him snore at

night and of an afternoon he insisted on sitting on the palm of my hand for

his afternoon nap. At times, he would escape from under the net, then it

was havoc. Tooth paste, powder boxes, fountain pens, belonging to others

in the dormitory were squeezed open and thrown down. Finally, an ingen

ious trick helped to bring him down from a high rafter near the ceiling. By

arousing the jealousy of this most lovable creature, I put my arms around

my neighbors’ and administered loud, spectacular kisses which aroused

his jealousy at once and down he jumped between us. Then I would catch

him and put him back into his cage. These are just a few of the little

difficulties encountered during BABA’S ‘doings and undoings’ with ‘Lucky’.

However, BABA continued coming and ‘Lucky,’ always feeling BABA’s

approach from afar, would become excited and shriek and call, but would

find at once his heaven on earth when back in BABA’S arms.

It would seem though, that this divine treatment through love could

not last forever.One day, ‘Lucky’ broke all discipline and escaped through the window

on to the roof enjoying an illusionary freedom and when BABA called to

him, by clapping his hands, he did not obey. When he did finally come

down, BABA threw a stick between himself and ‘Lucky’ which apparently

put an end to the episode. To us, it seemed as though BABA’s work in

close contact with ‘Lucky’ was temporarily finished.

BABA, some time later, sent ‘Lucky’ off to a new home to be taken good

care of where he grows and prospers, in time, from his perfect instinct to

some higher sense-perception.Being ‘part and parcel’ of the Divine Theme which has one goal for all

creation. . . GOD, ‘Lucky’ has received, through this Divine adventure, his

evolutionary push, due ‘in time’ to all, from the inarticulate form to the

conscious-human form, that comes in contact with the God-man.

...22...

EDITORIAL NOTE:

(In this great Discourse on Meditation, first dictated by BABA in 1936, and usedconstantly since for meditation by his devotees and disczles (In 1942 BABA askedthem to meditate on it for one hour every day for forty-six days, BABA gives us the“summa” of the Divine Theme of Creation from beginning to glorious end, insimple language that all can understand. W’e are happy to reprint it here in theoriginal form . . . perhaps for meditation on the Beloved’s Birthday . .

. )

Shri Jvleher ‘Baba on

JVIeditationINTRODUCTION

THE VALUE OF MEDIyATION:

EDITATION,” says SHRI MEHER BABA, “is one of the wayswhich lead the aspirant to the Divine Path. For those whoare in contact with a God-realised Master, meditation is

unnecessary. It is enough for them to be under His guidance and to havelove for Him. Also for the few who are in an advanced spiritual state, thispreliminary process is unnecessary; while those rare Beings, who are self-realised, themselves become the object of meditation.

MEDITATION AND CONCENTRATION:

Meditation should be carefully distinguished from concentration. Meditation is the first stage of a process which gradually develops into concentration. It consists in thorough thinking about a particular subject to the exclusionofevery other irrelevant thing, while concentration is a natural process of fixingthe mind upon one particular thing, in which there is the peaceful intermingling of love and longing for the object of concentration (and not amere mechanical process, in which there is a regular, drill-like rigid monotony). Further, the subject-matter of meditation, unlike the object ofconcentration, cannot consist of a single form, or a pithy and terse formula,but must consist of a reasoned exposition.

...23...

Persons who are not gifted with the capacity of intense concentration

have to begin with meditation, whereas for those who are gifted with the

capacity of concentration, meditation is unnecessary. “It is sufficient,” says

SHRI MEHER BABA, “if they concentrate their minds on the mere form of aGodman*, or some simple formuJa like ‘I am neither Sharira (gross body),

nor Prana (the subtle body which is the seat of desires and vital forces), nor

Manas (mental body which is the seat of the mind); I am ATMAN (soul)’.”

CONDITIONS OF INTELLIGENT MEDITATION:

Meditation has often been misunderstood as being a mechanical process

of forcing the mind upon some idea or object. It is therefore hut natural

that most people should find great difficulty in their attempts to coerce the

mind in a particular direction, or pin it down to some particular thing. Any

purely mechanical handling of the mind is not only irksome but is ulti

mately bound to be unsuccessful.The first principle which the aspirants, therefore, should remember is

that the mind can be controlled and directed in meditation only according to

the laws inherent in the makeup of the mind ilseif and not by mians of the

application of any mechanical or semi-mechanical force.Many persons who do not technically ‘meditate” are oftentimes found

to be deeply and intensely engrossed in systematic and clear thinking about

some practical problem or theoretical subject, and their mental process is,

in a sense, very much like meditation, in as much as the mind is engrossed

in intense thinking about a particular subject-matter to the exclusion of

all other irrelevant things. The reason why meditation is often easy and

spontaneous in such mental process is that the mind is dwelling upon a

subject in which it is interested and which it increasingly understands. But

the spiritual tragedy about ordinary trains of thoughts is that they are not

directed towards things that really matter. On the other hand, the object of

meditation has always to be carefully selected, and must be spiritually important.

It has to be some divine person or object, or some spiritually significant

theme or Truth. But in order to attain success in meditation, we must not

only get the mind interested in the divine subjects or truths, but we must

also begin by trying to understand and appreciate them. Such intelligent

meditation is a natural process of the mind; and it avoids the monotonous* See Appendix, page 32

...24..

rigidity and regularity of mechanical meditation. It therefore becomes not

only spontaneous and inspiring, but easy and successful.

THE NEW FORM OF MEDITATION:

Since intelligent meditation consists in thorough thinking about a particular subject, it follows that the best help for meditation would be a briefand clear exposition of the object of meditation. SHRI MEHER BABA, therefore, offers to the world a concise exposition of the Divine Theme, whichcomprises the whole story of creation, as well as a complete account of thePath and Goal of Seif-realisation. The aspirants can intelligently read theexposition and assimilate the sublime truths which it embodies.

The process of meditation which SHRI MEHER BABA recommends hasthree stages:

i. In the first stage, the aspirant will have to read the exposition daily,and simultaneously think about it thoroughly.

2. In the second stage, actual reading would become unnecessary, butthe subject matter of the exposition will be mentally revived and thought overconstantly.

3. In the third stage, it will be quite unnecessary for the mind to revivethe words or the thoughts in the exposition separately and consecutively,and all discursive thinking about the subject-matter will come to an end. Atthis stage of meditation, the mind will no longer be occupied with anytrains of thought, but will have a clear, spontaneous and intuitive perception ofthe sublime Truth, which is expressed in the exposition.

ADVANTAGES OF THE NEW METHOD:

The difficulties which the aspirants experience in connection with meditation are either (a) due to the unwieldiness or vagueness of the subjectmatter of meditation, or (h) due to some flaw in the method which makesit mechanical or uninspiring, or (c) due to the fact that the method ofmeditation is not adapted to the subject-matter of meditation. The form ofmeditation which SHRI MEHER BABA recommends avoids all these causeswhich vitiate meditation, and make it unsuccessful.

SHRI MEHER BABA has thus offered to the world of aspirants a new andbeautiful form of meditation, in which the process of meditation as well asits subject-matter are specially adapted to the requirements of intelligent

meditation, and which is extremely easy and useful, owing to the fact thatreading of the subject-matter and thinking about it have to be done simultaneously. Further, in making the exposition of the subject-matter clear andconcise, he has eliminated the probability of any disturbance owing toirrelevant thoughts, which are almost unavoidable when the exposition isunnecessarily long-drawn. It is extremely difficult to avoid the disturbanceof irrelevant thoughts while meditating upon the subject-matter of somelong-drawn article or book, even if it is committed to memory; and spontaneous meditation about it, therefore, becomes impracticable.

Further, the appearance of irrelevant thoughts in the mind becomes veryprobable not only in a long-drawn meditation of abstract thoughts, but alsoin a meditation of some concrete object ofexperience. On the contrary, irrelevantthoughts are extremely improbable if the subject-matter of meditationconsists of a brief exposition of the Super-sensible Truth.

It is therefore confidently expected, that if the aspirants sincerely meditateupon the subject-matter of the following exposition (in the manner whichhas been elaborately indicated above), meditation will become for them notonly spontaneous and easy, delightful and inspiring, but also helpful andsuccessful. And they will be thus taking a very important step towards therealisation of the goal of life.

* * * *

915ê ‘Divine Theme for JYleditation...,JOURNEY OF THE SOUL TO THE OVER-SOUL

(THROUGH CREATION)

THE SOUL AND ITS ILLUSION:

TMAN OR THE SOUL is in reality identical with Paramatman or theOverSoul,* which is One, Infinite and Eternal. The soul is infact beyond the gross, subtle and mental worlds;t but it exper

iences itself as being limited owing to its indentification with the Sharira or

the gross body, Prana or the subtle body (which is the vehicle of desires

and vital forces), or Manas or the mental body (which is the seat of the

mind). The soul, in its transcendental state, is One, Formless, Eternal and* See Appendix, page 34, A t Appendix C Appendix B

Infl;iite, and yet it comes to identify itself with the phenomenal world of

Jrms which are many and ftiite and destructible. This is Maya or the Cosmicillusion.

STATES OF THE PHENOMENAL WORLD:

The phenomenal world of finite objects is utterly illusory and false. It hasthree states: (i) the GROSS, (2) the SUBTLE and (a,) the MENTAL. Althoughall these three states of the world are false, they represent differentdegrees offalseness. Thus, the gross world is farthest from Truth (GOD); the

subtle world is nearer Truth; and the mental world is nearest Truth. But allthree states of the world owe their existence to the cosmic illusion whichthe soul has to transcend before it realises the Truth.

TI1E PURPOSE OF CREATION:

We have here to discover the purpose of creation. The sole purpose ofcreation is that the soul should be able to enjoy the Infinite state of theOver-soul consciously. Although the soul eternally exists in and with theOver-soul in an inviolable unity, it cannot be conscious of this unity independently of the creation which is within the limitations of time. It must,therefore, evolve consciousness before it can realise its true status andnature as being identical with the Infinite Over-soul, which is One withouta second. The evolution of consciousness required the duality of the subjectand the object . . . the center of consciousness and the environment, (i.e.,the world of forms).

THE GENESIS OF THE COSMIC ILLUSION:

We are here faced with the problem of accounting for the cosmic illusionwhich is caused by the world of forms. How does the soul get caught up inthe illusion? How did the Formless, Infinite and Eternal Soul come toexperience itself as having form, and as being finite and destructible? Howdid the PURUSHA or the Supreme Spirit come to think of itself as PRAKRATI

or the world of nature? In other words, what is the cause of the cosmicillusion in which the soul finds itself?

To realise the true status of the Over-soul which is One, Indivisible,Real and Infi’nite, the soul needed consciousness. The soul did get consciousness, but this consciousness was not of God but of the Universe; notof the Over-Soul but of its shadow; not of the one but of many; not of the

infinite but of the finite: not of the Eternal hut of the transito y. Thus, thesoul, instead of realising the Over-soul, gets itself involved in the cosmicillusion, and hence, though really Infinite, it comes to experience itself asfinite. In other words, when the soul develops consciousness, it does notbecome conscious of its own true nature but of the phenomenal worldwhich is its own shadow. -

THE ORGANIC EVOLUTION AND DEGREES OF CONSCIOUSNESS:

In order to become conscious of the phenomenal world, the soul mustassume some form (as its medium) for experiencing the world; and thedegree and the kind of consciousness are determined by the nature of theform which is used as a medium. The soul first becomes conscious of thegross world by assuming a gross body. The consciousness of the grossworld which it has in the beginning is of the most partial and rudimentarytype; and correspondingly, the soul assumes the most undeveloped form(e.g., that of stone), with which evolution begins. The driving force ofevolution is constituted by the momentum which consciousness receivesowing to the conservations of the impressions (samskaras) left by diversedesires or conations. Thus the samskaras cultivated in a particular form haveto be worked out and fulfilled through the medium of a higher form anda correspondingly more developed consciousness of the gross world; andthe soul, therefore, has to assume higher and higher forms (like metal,vegetable, worm, fish, bird and animal) until at last it assumes a human form,in which it develops FULL CONSCIOUSNESS (i.e., all the aspects of knowing,feeling and willing) of the gross world.

THE DRIVING FORCE OF EVOLuTION:

The manner in which samskaras result in the evolution of consciousnessand the corresponding form has a useful analogy in ordinary experience. Ifa man has the desire to act the part of a king on the stage, he can only

experience it by actually putting on the garb of a king and going to thestage. The same is the case with other aspirations and desires, which canonly be worked out and fulfilled by bringing about an actual change in theentire situation and the medium, through which the situation can be adequately experienced. The function of the samskaras in bringing about theevolution of consciousness and its corresponding form is not conscious as

in thc above analogy; hut the parallel will he very suggestive iii understand

ing the driving force of evolution, which is not mechanical but teleological.

IDENTIFICATION WITH THE FORM:

The samskaras are not only responsible for the evolution of the form

(body) and the kind of consciousness connected with it, but they are also

responsible for the rivetting of consciousness to the phenomenal world.

They make emancipation of consciousness (i.e., the withdrawal of consciousness from the phenomenal world to the soul itself) impossible at the

sub-human stage and difficult at the human level. Since consciousnessclings to the previous samskaras, and since experience of the phenomenalworld is conditioned by the use of an adequate form (body) as a medium,the soul, at every stage of evolution, comes to identify itself with the form(for example, stone, metal, vegetable, animal, etc.). Thus the soul, whichis, in reality, Infinite and Formless, comes to experince itself as finite,that is, thinks of itself as being a stone, or a metal or a vegetable, a worm

or a fish, a bird or an animal, according to the degree of the development ofconsciousness; and finally, while experiencing the gross world through thehuman form, the soul thinks that it is a human being.

RE-INCARNATION AND THE LAW OF KARMA:

The soul develops FULL consciousness in the human form, and therefore,there is no need for any further evolution of the gross form (body). Theevolution of forms, therefore, comes to an end with the attainment of thehuman form; and to experience the samskaras cultivated in the humanform, the soul has to re-incarnate again and again in the human forms. Theinnumerable human forms, through which the soul has to pass, are determined by the Law of Karma, or the nature of its previous samskaras, (ie.,according as the samskaras are of virtue or vice, happiness or misery, etc.);and thus, while experiencing the gross world, the soul identifies itselfwith thegross body which is destructible, although, in reality, it (soul) is itself Eternal.

THE SUBTLE AND MENTAL BODIES:

While developing full consciousness of the gross world in the humanform, the soul simultaneously develops the subtle and the mental bodies; butas long as its consciousness is confined to the gross world alone, it cannot

use these bodies consciously in wakefulness. It becomes conscious of these

bodies and the corresponding worlds only when its full consciousness”

turns inwards, i.e., towards itself. When the soul is conscious of the subtle

world through the subtle body, it identifies itself with the subtle body, and

when it is conscious of the mental world through the mental body, it

identifies itself with the mental body, just as when it is conscious of the

gross world through the gross body, it identifies itself with the gross body.

THE PATH:

The homeward journey of the soul consists in freeing itself from the

illusion of being identical with its bodies (gross,suhtle and mental).When

the attention of the soul turns towards self-knowledge and seif-realisation,

there is a gradual loosening and disappearance of the samskaras which keep

the consciousness tutned towards and rivetted to the phenomenal world.

The disappearance of the samskaras proceeds side by side with the piercing

through the veil of the cosmic illusion, and the soul not only begins to

transcend the different states of the phenomenal world, but begins to know

itself to be different from its bodies. The Path begins when the soul tries to

find itself and turns its “full consciousness’ ‘ towards Truth (GoD.

At the first stage, the soul becomes otally unconscious of its gross body

and of the gross world, and experiences the subtle world through the

medium of its subtle body with which it identifies itself. In the second

stage, the soul is totally unconscious of its gross and subtle bodies and

also of the gross and subtle worlds, and experiences the mental world

through the medium of its mental body with which it now identifies itself.

At this stage, the soul may be said to be face to face with GOD or the Over

soul, which it realises as being Infinite. But even while it recognises the

Infinity of the Over-soul, which it OBJECTIFIES, it looks upon itself as

being finite because of its identification with the mind or mental body.

Thus, we have the paradox that the soul, whjch, in reality, is Infinite, sees

its Infinite state, but still continues to regard itselfas finite, because, while seeing

it, it looks upon itselfas the mind. It imagines itself to be the mind, and looks

upon the object of the mind as the Over-soul; and further, it not only

entertains the longing to be one with the objectified Over-soul, but also

tries hard to fulfil that longing.

THE GOAL:

In the third stage, the “full consciousness” of the soul is drawn evenstill further inwards (i.e., towards itself), and it ceases to identify itself evenwith the mental body. Thus, in the third and the last stage, (which is thegoal), the soul CEASES TO IDENTIFY ITSELF WITH ANY OF THE THREE BODIES

(mental, subtle and gross), which it had to develop for evolving full consciousness; and now it not only knows itself to be formless and beyond all•the bodies and worlds, but also realises, with full consciousneess, its ownunity with the Over-soul, which is One, Indivisible, Real and Infinite. Andin this realisation of the Truth, it enjoys “Infinite Bliss, Peace, Power andKnowledge,” which is the real state of the Over-soul.

SUMMARY:

In the beginning, the soul was unconscious of its identity with the Oversoul, and hence, though a part and parcel of the Over-soul, it could notrealise its own identity with it, or experience Infinite Peace, Bliss, Powerand Knowledge, because it had not evolved consciousness. Even after theevolution of consciousness, it cannot realise the state of the Over-soul(although it is all the time in and with the Over-soul), because its consciousness is confined to the phenomenal world owing to the samskarasconnected with the evolution of consciousness. And even on the Path, thesoul is not conscious of itself, but it is conscious only of the gross, subtleand mental worlds, which are its own “illusory shadows.” But at the endof the Path, the soul frees itselffrom all sa7nskaras and desires connected withthe gross, subtle and mental worlds; and it becomes possible for it to freeitselffrom the illusion of being finite, which comes into existence owing to itsidentification with the gross, subtle and mental bodies. At this stage, thesoul completely transcends the phenomenal world and becomes SELF-

CONSCIOUS AND SELF-REALISED. For attaining this goal, the soul mustretain its “full consciousness,” and at the same time know itself to bedifferent from the Sharira (gross body), Prana (subtle body, which is thevehicle of desires and vital forces) and Manas (mental body, which is theseat of the mind); and also as being beyond the gross, subtle and mentalworlds.

It follows, therefore, that the soul has to gradually emancipate itself fromthe illusion of being finite by (i) liberating itselffrom the bondage of the sam

--.3’...

skaras, and (2) knowing itself to be different from its bodies (gross, subtle and

mental.) It thus annihilates the FALSE EGO (i.e., the illusion that ‘I am the

gross body; I am the subtle body or I am the mental body’). While the soul

thus frees itself from its illusion, it still retains “full consciousness,” which

now results in self-knowledge and REALISATION OF THE TRUTH. Escaping

through the cosmic illusion and realising, with full consciousness, its identity

with the Infinite Over-soul is the goal of the long journey of the soul.

* * * *

APPENDICES

THE GOD-MAN

THE SADGURU OR PERFECT MASTER:

God-realisation is the goal of human life; but from the point of view of

the world, the God-man or the Sadguru (ie., a Perfect Master) has a

special importance.Being unconscious of the different states of the phenomenal world con

stitutes different states of consciousness through which the aspirant has to

pass before he attains God-realisation. But after God-realisation, the soul

can again ‘descend’ or ‘come down,’ and become conscious of creation

without in any way jeopardising his God-consciousness. What is spiritually

disastrous is not mere consciousness of the creation, but the fact that the con

sciousness is caught up in the creation because of the Samskaras, and is

consequently covered with ignorance which prevents the realisation of the

Divinity within. In the same way, what is spiritually disastrous is not the

mere consciousness of the bodies but IDENTIFICATION with them owing to

the samskaras, which prevent the realisation of the Infinite Soul, which is

the Ultimate Reality and the ground of all creation, and in which alone is

to be found the final meaning of the entire creation.

The samskaras might be compared to a chain that ties the soul to the

world of forms by means of creating the illusion consisting in the identification

of the soul with the bodies. The perversions in the expression of the will and

the disharmony within consciousness arise out of this identification with

the bodies (due to samskaras), and not merely due to the consciousness of

the bodies. Since the Sadguru is free from all samskaras, he is constantly

COnSCiOUS of being different from bodies, and uses them harmoniously

as mere instruments for the expression of the Divine Will, in its Purity. In the

same way, the Sadguru knowS himself to he Infinite and beyond all forms,

and can, therefore, with corn/iletc detachment, remain conscious of the creation,

WithoUt being caught up in it.

The falseness of the phenomenal world consists in its not being under

stood properly, i.e., as being an illusory expression of the Infinite Spirit.

Ignorance consists in taking the form as complete in itself, without any reference

to the Infinite Spirit, of which it is the expression. The Sadguru realises the

Truth. He is conscious of the true nature of GOD, as well as the true nature

of creation, and yet this does not involve for him any consciousness of duality,

because for him, creation does not exist as anything but the changing

shadow of GOD who is the only Eternal, Real Existence, and who is at the

heart of creation. The Sadguru can, therefore, remain conscious of creation

without involving himself in any deficit of God-consciousness, and he

continues to work in the world of forms for the furtherance of the primary

purpose of creation, which is to create full self-knowledge or God-realis

sation in every soul.

Tue GREAT OFFERING:

The Sadguru knows himself to be one with all the other souls in bondage;

and although he knows himself to be identical with GOD and is thus eter

nally free, he also knows himself to be one with the other souls in bondage

and is thus vicariously bound. And though he constantly experiences the

eternal Bliss of God-realisation, he also vicariously experiences suffering

owing to the bondage of other souls, whom he knows to be his own forms.

This is the meaning of Christ’s C;-ucifixion. Although in the Sadguru, the

purpose of existence is completely realised, he retains his bodies and con

tinues to use them for the emancipation of all other souls from ignorance

and for helping them to attain God-consciousness.

THE HELP OF THE SADGURU:

The soul in bondage is caught up in the universe, and the universe is

nothing but imagination. But since there is no end to imagination, he is

likely to wander indefinitely in the mazes of false consciousness. The

Sadguru can help him to cut short the different stages of false consciousness

by revealing the Truth. In the absence of the perception of the Truth, the

mind is likely to imagine all kinds of things. For example, the soul can

imagine that he is a beggar or a king, a man or a woman, etc. The soul thus

goes on gathering the experiences of the opposites. Wherever there is

duality, there is a tendency to restore balance through the opposite. For example,

if a person has the experience of being a murderer, it has to be counter

balanced by the experience of being murdered; and if the soul has the

experience of being a king, it has to be counter-balanced by the experience

of being a beggar.Thus the soul may wander ad infinitum from one opposite to the other

without being able to put an end to his false consciousness. The Sadguru

can help him to arrive at the Truth by giving him perception of the Truth

and cutting short the working of his imagination which would otherwise

be endless. The Sadguru helps the soul in bondage by sowing in him the

seed of God-realisation, hut it always takes some time for the latter to attain

God-realisation. Every process of growth in the universe takes TIME.

(A) THE OVER-SOUL:

“Over-soul” is the English equivalent of the Sanskrit term ‘Paramat

man,” which means “God, whose cosmic and universal life embraces all things.”

(B) THE MENTAL BODY:

The Mental body is often called Karana Sharira, or the causal body,

because it stores within itself the seeds or the causes of all the desires. The

mind retains all impressions and dispositions (i.e., samskaras) in a latent

form. The limited I or the ego is composed of samskaras. However, the

actual manifestation of samskaras in consciousness (i.e., the differentmental processes) takes place in the subtle body.

(C) THE GROSS, SUBTLE AND MENTAL WORLDS:

Nature is much bigger than what a man can perceive through the ordinarysenses of his physical body. The hidden aspects of Nature consist of finermatter and forces. There is no unbridgable gulf separating the finer aspectsof Nature from its gross aspect. They all interpenetrate one another andexist together. The finer aspects of Nature are not perceptible to man, but

they are nevetheless continuous with the gross aspect, which is perceptibleto him. They are not remote; and yet they are inaccessible to his consciousness. This is due to the fact that his consciousness is functioning throughthe physical senses which are not adapted for perceiving those aspects ofNature which are finer than the gross aspect. He is unconscious of those“inner planes” just as a deaf man is unconscious of sounds; and naturallyhe cannot also deal with them consciously. For all practical purposes,therefore, they are for him other worlds.

The finer and hidden part of Nature has two important divisions, viz.,

the subtle and the mental, corresponding to the subtle and mental bodies ofman.The whole of Nature might, therfore, be conveniently divided into threeparts: (i) the gross world, (ii) the subtle world and (iii) the mental world.The plane on which one can possess physical consciousness is the gross world.The plane on which one can possess the consciousness of desires is the subtleworld. And the plane on which the soul can have mental conscioisness is themental world. The source ofdesire isto be found in the mind which is on this(mental) plane. Here, the seed of desire is attached to the mind (i.e., thedesire exists here in an involved form just in the same way as the tree islatent in the seed). The ordinary man is only conscious of the gross world;but as he advances on the path, he develops certain capacities which arelatent in him, and by means of which, he can consciously experience thesubtle and the mental worlds also.

NON-ATTACHMENT

Non-attachment to an action means that even during the course of the actionthere should not be the slightest thought that the particular Karma is being performed; nor any desire to be concerned about the result.

A Perfect Master is universally non-attached.Although a Sadguru is non-attached to the universe, the universe is certainly

attached to Him, the centre ofall existence.Serve Him who serves the whole universe; obey Him who commands the whole

creation; love Him who is Love itself follow Him in every walk of life. The morethe attachment to a Sadguru the greater the chances ofattaining that perfect stateof non-attachment which is nothing but God-Realization.

BABA.

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(Contmuea’from page 15). . . American, puts his finger on what ails us when

he writes: “ . . . It is a dangerous illusion to assume that the majority

of citizens in the United States are Christian in the original sense .

Intertwined with the story of America’s material enterprise, the conquest

of the continent, the exploitation of its natural resources, the outreach of

American trade, inventions and economic influence in every part of the

world, there is the other story, the story of spiritual courage and self-denial

and self-giving. Dr. Douglass comes to the conclusion that now that the

land in hard truth is for the most part not Christian at all any more, a

Christian mission has to be undertaken in a wholly original spirit.

Would not a return to quietism be conducive to rejuvenating our spiritul

life, to bringing our ethics and our entire conduct to the same level as our

technical achievements? I am satisfied that a study of Indian religion will

reveal that, rather than being antagonistic to our Christian way of thinking,

it will deepen, widen our spiritual life. We are so full of ourselves, of our

knowledge, our achievements, our virtues, that God finds no place where

to enter into our souls and make Himself heard. Let us listen to the Teacher

who is the Soul of our soul and in the profound stillness of the whole soul,

we may hear the “still small voice” of the Divine Teacher who dwells in

all of us. We may then learn to understand what it is to “lose one’s self in

order to find one’s self.”To live such a life, we do not have to become hermits. The most impor

tant lesson which can he drawn from the Bhagavad-GItá is that spiritual

man can reach at-one-ness with divine Life in the midst of worldly affairs.

The impediments to that at-one-ness are not outside, but inside of our

selves. From the little I know of MEHER BABA’s teachings, I would say

that this conforms with his message.* * *

Sayings ofThe MaFter• “There is greater valour in conquering the heart of a single enemy than

in gaining victory over the bodies of thousands of enemies. The mind is

capable of turning the bitterest enemy into the sweetest friend by con

stantly thinking well of him.”• “Never think you are obliging anybody by rendering any kind of help

or giving anything in charity to him. On the contrary, believe that the

recipient of your generosity gives you a chance to serve yourself.”