MEHER BABA JOURNAL Volume 2, No.3 January 1940
A monthly Publication of The "Meher Editorial Committee
An Avatar Meher Baba Trust eBook April 2016
All words of Meher Baba copyright © 2016 Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust, Ahmednagar, India
Source and Short publication history: the Meher Baba Journal, a monthly magazine, was published from 1938 to 1942. This eBook reproduces the original edition of the Meher Baba Journal published by the "Meher Editorial Committee" (Meherabad, Ahmednagar, India).
Contents
MEHER BABA ON THE SEARCH FOR GOD 133
GITA—THE PHILOSOPHY OF DUTY M. Chakravarthy, M. A. (HONS.) 139 INSPIRATIONAL FRAGMENTS Elizabeth C. Patterson 141 PARALLELS BETWEEN THE TEACHINGS OF Dr. C. D. Deshmukh, LORD BUDDHA AND SHRI BABA M. A., Ph. D. (London) 142 CHIPS FROM A DRAVIDIAN-WISDOM C. V. Sampath Aiyangar 148 WORKSHOP MAN IN THE MAKING William J. Coquelin, St. Louis, USA (London College of Music) 151 THE INSTRUMENT DIVINE (Poem) Countess Nadine Tolstoy 155 ANNA KINGSFORD AND SYMBOLISM Will Backett (London) 156 IN THE WEST
SAINT KANHOPATRA Mrs. Indumati Deshmukh, M. A., B. T. 164 WHAT SHOULD A LAYMAN’S ATTITUDE Dr. Abdul Ghani Munsiff 167 BE TOWARDS SAINTS THE SPIRITUAL PATH Dr. William Donkin M. B. B. S. (London) 174 MEHER BABA: THE “DIVINE BELOVED” Dane Rudhyar 176 CEREMONIAL SPEECHES Delivered on the Foundation- 186 Laying of the Meher Baba Universal Spiritual Centre NOTES FROM MY DIARY F. H. Dadachanji 190
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Copyright © 1973 Adi K. Irani, King’s Road, Ahmednagar (M. S.), India Permission to reprint all articles by Elizabeth C. Patterson and Princess Norina Matchabelli given by Elizabeth C. Patterson, P. O. Box 487, Myrtle Beach, S. C. 29577. No portions of the material appearing herein may be reproduced in any Form whatsoever without prior written consent from the copyright holder, Adi. K. Irani, King’s Road, Ahmednagar (M. S.), India Printed in the United States of America by Sheriar Press, Inc., Crescent Beach, South Carolina.
“ I have not come to teach but to awaken ” —SHRI MEHER BABA
MEHER BABA JOURNAL
VOL. 2 JANUARY 1940 NO. 3
Meher Baba on The Search for God
MOST persons do not even suspect the existence of God and they are naturally not very keen about God. There are others who through the Grades of Beliefs influence of tradition belong to in God some faith or another and catch the belief in the existence of God from their surroundings; but their faith is just strong enough to keep them bound to certain rituals, ceremonies or beliefs and rarely possesses that vitality which is necessary to bring about a radical change in the entire attitude to life. There are still others who are philosophically minded and they have an inclination to believe in the existence of God either because of their own speculations or because of the assertions of others. For them, God is at best a probable hypothesis or an intellectual idea. But such lukewarm belief in itself can never be a sufficient incentive for launching upon a serious search for God. They do not know of God from personal knowledge and God is not for them an object of intense desire or endeavour.
134 MEHER BABA JOURNAL
A true aspirant is not content with such knowledge of spiritual realities as might be based on hearsay; nor is he satisfied with pure inferential knowledge. For him, the A True Aspirant spiritual realities are not the Seeks Direct Know- object of idle thinking and the ledge of Spiritual acceptance or the rejection of Realities these realities are both fraught with momentous implications for his inner life. So, he naturally insists upon direct knowledge about them. This might be illustrated from the life of a great sage. One day, he was discussing spiritual topics with his friend who was quite advanced upon the Path. While they were thus engaged upon this discussion their attention was diverted to a dead body which was being carried by their side. "This is the end of the body but not of the soul," his friend remarked. "Have you seen the soul?" asked the sage. "No" was the answer of his friend. And the sage remained sceptical about the soul, for he insisted upon personal knowledge.
But though the aspirant can not be content with secondhand knowledge or mere guesses he does not close his mind against the possibility of there being such spiritual realities as might not have come within his experience. In other words, The Aspirant has he is conscious of the limitations of an Open Mind his own individual experience and he refrains from making it the measure of all possibilities. He has an open mind for all things which are beyond the scope of his experience. If he does not accept them on hearsay he does not also rush to active disbelief in them. It is true that the limitation of experience often tends to restrict the scope of the working of imagination and a person comes to believe that there are no realities other than such as may have come within the ken of his past experience; but usually as a result of some incidents or happenings in his own life he may come out of his dogmatic enclosure and become really open-minded. THE SEARCH FOR GOD 135
This stage of transition may also be illustrated from a story from the life of the same sage who happened to be a Prince. Once, some days after the incident of discussion (mentioned An Illustrative above), as he was riding on horse- Story back he came upon an ordinary pedestrian coming towards him from the opposite direction. Since the way of the horse was thus blocked by the presence of the pedestrian the sage arrogantly ordered him to clear the way for him. The pedestrian refused to clear the way for him and so the sage got down from his horse and they entered upon the following conversation, "Who are you?'' asked the pedestrian. “I am the Prince” answered the sage. "But I do not know you to be the Prince," said the pedestrian and continued, "I shall admit you as being a Prince only when I know you to be a Prince and not otherwise.'' This encounter awakened the sage to the fact that God may exist even though he did not know Him from personal experience, just in the same way as he was actually a Prince although the pedestrian did not know it from his own personal experience. And now that his mind was open for considering the possible existence of God he set himself to the task of deciding that question in right earnest. God either exists or does not exist: if He exists, search for Him is amply justified; and even if He does not exist there is nothing to lose by seeking Him. But man does not usually turn to a real search Ordinary Man is for God as a matter of voluntary Indifferent to the and joyous enterprise; he has got Existence of God to be driven to this search by a disillusionment about those worldly things which allure him and from which he cannot take away his mind. Ordinary man is completely engrossed in his activities concerning the gross world; and he lives through its manifold experiences of joys and sorrows without even suspecting the existence of a deeper Reality. He tries as best as he can to have pleasures of the senses and also to avoid different kinds of suffering. 136 MEHER BABA JOURNAL
'Eat, drink and be merry' is his philosophy; but in spite of his unceasing search for pleasure he can not altogether avoid suffering and even when he succeeds Occasions which in having pleasures of the senses Provoke Thought he is often satiated by them. While he thus goes through the daily round of varied experiences, there often arises some occasion when he begins to ask himself, 'What is the end of all this?' Such occasion may arise out of some untoward happening for which a person is not mentally prepared; it may be the baffling of some confident expectations; or it may be some important change in his situation demanding radical readjustment and the giving up of established ways of thought and conduct. Usually such occasion arises out of the frustration of some deep craving of which he was possessed. If a deep craving happens to come upon an impasse so that there is not the slightest chance of its being ever fulfilled, the psyche receives such a shock that it can no longer accept the type of life which might have been hitherto accepted without question.
Under such circumstances a person may be driven to utter desperateness; and if the tremendous power which is generated by the psychic disturbance remains uncontrolled and undirected it may Unharnessed even lead to serious derangement Desperateness is of mind or attempts to commit Destructive; but suicide. Such catastrophe over- Divine Desperate- comes those in whom ness is Creative desperateness is allied with thoughtlessness, for they allow impulse to have free and full sway. The unharnessed power of desperateness can only work destruction. But the desparateness of a thoughtful person under similar circumstances is altogether different in results because the energy which it releases is intelligently harnessed and directed towards a purpose. In the moment of such divine desperateness man takes the important decision of discovering and realising the aim of life. There thus comes into existence the true search for lasting values. Henceforth the burning query which refuses to be silenced is, 'What does it all lead to? ' THE SEARCH FOR GOD 137
When the psychic energy of man is thus centred upon the finding out of the goal of life, he is using the power of desperateness creatively. He can no longer Divine Desperate- be content with the fleeting ness is the Beginn- things of this life and he is ing of Spiritual thoroughly sceptical about the Awakening ordinary values which he had so far accepted without doubt. His only desire is to find out the Truth at any cost and he does not rest satisfied with anything short of the Truth. Divine desperateness is the beginning of spiritual awakening because it gives rise to the aspiration for God- realisation. In the moment of divine desperateness when everything seems to give way, man decides to take all risks for realising any possible significance, which might so to say lie behind the veil. All the usual solaces have now failed him; but at the same time his inner voice refuses to reconcile itself completely with the position that life is devoid of all meaning. If he does not The Alternatives: posit some hidden reality which God or Nothing he has not hitherto known, there is nothing at all which is worth living for. For him the only two alternatives are either there is a hidden spiritual reality which prophets have described as God, or everything is meaningless. The second alternative is utterly unacceptable to the whole of man's personality therefore he must perforce try the first alternative. Thus man turns to God when he is at bay in worldly affairs. Now, since there is no direct access to this hidden reality which he posits, he looks upon his usual experiences as possible avenues leading to a significant Revaluation of beyond; and thus he goes back Experience in the to his usual experiences with Light of Posited the purpose of gathering some Divinity light on the Path. This involves looking at everything from a new angle of vision and entails a reinterpretation of each experience. He now not only has experience but tries to fathom its spiritual significance; he is not merely concerned with what it is but with what it means 138 MEHER BABA JOURNAL in the march towards this hidden goal of existence. And all this careful revaluation of experience results in his gaining an insight which can not come to him before he begins his new search. Revaluation of an experience amounts to a new bit of wisdom and each addition to spiritual wisdom necessarily brings about a modification of the general attitude to life. So the purely intellectual search for New Insight means God or the hidden spiritual Experimenting with reality, has its reverberations in Perceived Values the practical life of man; his life now becomes a real experiment with perceived spiritual values. The more he carries on this intelligent and purposive experimentation with his own life the deeper becomes his comprehension of the true meaning of life, until finally he discovers that as he The Finding of was undergoing a complete God is Coming to transformation of his psychic being One’s Own Self he was arriving at the true perception of the real significance of life as it is. With the clear and tranquil vision of the real nature and worth of Life he realises that God Whom he has been so desperately seeking is no stranger or a hidden and foreign entity. He is the Reality itself and not a hypothesis; he is the Reality as seen with undimmed vision—that very Reality of which he is a part and in which he has had his entire being and with which he is in fact identical. So, though he begins by seeking some thing utterly new he really arrives at a new understanding of the Ancient thing. The spiritual journey does not consist in arriving at a new destination in the sense of having what a person did not have or, in the sense of his being, what he was not; but it consists in the dissipation of his ignorance concerning himself and life and the gradual growth of that understanding which begins with spiritual awakening. The finding of God is coming to one's own self. ______
Gita – The Philosophy of Duty
BY M. CHAKRAVARTHY, M. A. (HONS.)
ACCORDING to Gita Duty is ledge of the Upanishads are both twofold. Duty is ordinary when it combined most beautifully in the concerns the individual in his Philosophy of Duty. relation to himself, to his home, The Philosophy of Action to his village or town or city, to leads us to the Law of Causation. his nation and the world. Duty is If a man does good he gets a good extraordinary when it concerns result; if he does bad he gets a God and God's Folk. The Vedas bad result. In the Philosophy of teach about the former and the Knowledge a man strives to know Upanishads teach about the latter. all about God, man and matter. How to live long, healthy, Naturally the real knowledge wealthy and wise and how to about Things drives man to enjoy the cup of worldly things to renounce the world and seek the full are told to us in the Vedas shelter in seclusion, because all and how to prepare this life for material things and contacts are the other world and how to think transient, pains-giving and dis- of God, meditation, concentration appointing. A sort of Renun- and contemplation, soul-Reali- ciation to Things Material comes zation and God-Realization are all over and man is tempted to run given to us in the Upanishads. Sri away. An intellectual appreciation Krishna has beautifully and and a yogic realization of the Soul harmoniously blended both the and Soul's potentiality brings to ordinary and the extraordinary the weary heart good solace and canons of Duty in his Bhagvad-Gita he indulges more and more in the and introduces us to a Transcen- play not of physical moods dental Realm which is purely (serene, dynamic and inert) but in "Divine". The Philosophy of the great and magnificent play of action of the Vedas and the The Cosmos. Sri Krishna, the Philosophy of Know- God-man,
140 MEHER BABA JOURNAL urges in the Gita that it is not only like. God has nothing to gain and possible to combine in this world He always works. See the Sun, the of ours both the Philosophy of Stars and the several forces in Action and the Philosophy of Nature. They all work, work and Knowledge but absolutely work but for the good of the necessary to lead such a life World. Even so man has to work wherein there is a harmonious and most efficiently too, but at the combination (cent per cent.) of the same time like a man who has essentials of the Philosophy of nothing to care for, to expect and Action and the Philosophy of to obtain. Knowledge. In other words, He Sri Krishna says again and wants us to live in the midst of the again that the only Way to World, do our best and still see become God-like is to do our duty that the Law of Causation does not for Duty's sake alone, not for not operate on us and bind us to personal satisfaction that we have the fruits of our action. This is discharged our duties but for the what He calls the Transcendental sake of God, i.e., the good of the Method. In this one can work World. Godliness is goodness and twenty-four hours like a machine goodness is Godliness. In the and still see that he is above all Philosophy of Action we have to Action and on the planes of deal with good, bad and knowledge. We all work, cannot indifferent causes and their results. but work and work is the law of In the Philosophy of Knowledge Nature and if we stop there only, we have to measure in the scale of work and its result lead us on and Insufficiency worldly wisdom and on to work and nothing else; but if worldly achievements; but in a we work and honestly too and yet Divine Life actuated by the transfer the good result that Philosophy of Duty and judged accrues for us to God, i.e., for the by the acid test of the good of the World, we become Transcendental method, there is Divine in the midst of Humanity. neither good nor bad, neither It means that the man of Action insufficiency nor disappointment. and the man of Knowledge are All is complete and everything is coalesced into One who is God- full in itself. Do little or do
GITA – THE PHILOSOPHY OF DUTY 141 more, you are not bound here but merge together in an absolute you serve God, i.e., the World. The surrender to God. This in essence only way to successfully practise is the Gita of Sri Krishna. The this Philosophy of Duty is to domestic song and the national annihilate the Idea of Self in us by song become here the Divine Song this Transcendental method and even like the song of the Cosmos. assume that we are only the Instru- This is India and this song alone ments in the Hands of God to leads man Onward in his orderly serve the World. Here all our march towards Perfection. actions become Divine Actions, all And this is what Shri Meher our knowledge becomes Divine Baba means, when he says, "I shall Knowledge and all our love bring about a happy blending of becomes Divine Love and all of the head and heart." them individually and aggregately
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INSPIRATIONAL FRAGMENTS BY ELIZABETH C. PATTERSON
How great is the love which knows no evil, Sees no defect, recognises only good ! How great is the compassion which lifts And loves and raises me far beyond Even the perfection which I sought ! There are heavens beyond my comprehension There is a God surpassing my fartherest desire, His love reaches to me, even to me. Parallels Between the Teachings of Lord Buddha and Shri Baba Part II
BY DR. C.D. DESHMUKH, M.A., Ph. D.
THE essence of Lord Buddha's To this charge, the answer of the Teaching is that in order to Enlightened One was "Sariputta, remove suffering from life we a commendation of the Accom- must eradicate the cause of plished One it is, when any one suffering. And the universal cause proclaims that 'the pith of the of suffering, he declares, is doctrine preached by ascetic Jammi Tanha, i.e., wretched Gotama is this, that if only a man craving. And this truth he will think and ponder sufficiently, declares on the sole authority of he will be led to the final ending Reason. It does not derive its of suffering'." We thus see that he validity from any superstitious or was a thorough-going Rationalist unintelligible quarters. Lord and did not want to be anything Buddha is a thorough-going else. Rationalist. In fact he was Shri Meher Baba also repeat- accused by his enemies as being edly points out that craving is nothing more than a Rationalist. necessarily the cause of suffering. Once Sariputta told the Holy One And this conclusion is arrived at that Sunakkhatta, the Licchavi by a searching psychological prince was, out of desire to analysis of the experience of defame him, proclaiming to all suffering. He says, ''It is your that his Teaching was not based right to be happy and yet you on any superior insight, “the pith create your own unhappiness by of it all being that if only a man wanting things. Wanting is the thinks and ponders enough, he source of perpetual restlessness. will arrive at the ending of If you do not get the thing you suffering.”
TEACHINGS OF LORD BUDDHA AND SHRI BABA 143 wanted, you are disappointed. object and thus to a fresh chain of And if you get it, you want more suffering. and more of it and become Thus craving leads to another unhappy. Say, I do not want craving ad infinitum and sustains anything, and be happy."* an unending chain of sufferings With the arising of craving in unless the chain is broken at some the human mind there arises in it a point by the deliberate eradication restlessness, a sense of emptiness, of craving. But most people a void; and this in itself is a state refrain from taking this step of suffering. And as a dictated by reason because their consequence of the arising of mind is caught up in the delusion craving there also arise fear, or wrong belief that craving may anxiety, worry, etc., which lead to pleasure. This delusion is complicate and intensify the sustained by the fact that experience of suffering. Further, occasionally the second alter- after the arising of craving in native of fulfilled craving does consciousness it can only end in lead to a certain amount of one of the following two ways. (i) pleasure or a sense of relief and It might be frustrated or (ii) it the mind ignores the fact that the might be fulfilled. Of these two pleasure or relief is only alternatives, frustrated craving al- intermittent and transitory. It is ways leads to the experience of momentary, unstable and insecure, suffering. And even the second and in itself it does not bring to a alternative of fulfilled craving man any lasting or real satis- more often than not leads to faction. But it brings about a suffering because the object of pseudo-fulfilment of life and craving often proves in attainment merely serves as bait for enter- much less than what it was in taining craving. And the mind is anticipation. In this case the deluded by these baits because it experience of disappointment in is moved by craving. Thus attainment often leads to the craving leads to delusion and arising of another craving for delusion in its turn leads to some other craving. And a man is
* Meher Baba Journal, Vol. I, No. 2, p. 4. 144 MEHER BABA JOURNAL caught up in this vicious circle heavy ship. When it is emptied with the result that there is no end then will it bear you easily away. to his suffering. When ye are free from hates and The clear perception that lusts, then shall ye fare swiftly craving must in the long run and towards Nibbana." on the whole lead to suffering There is no security in the and nothing else, does not readily world of changing forms as long arise in deluded minds because as the mind is clinging to them. when they have any experience Only through the utter ending of of suffering they do not attempt craving can one attain Supreme to understand its real cause which Security. We have seen that is craving. But instead of facing according to both the Seers the the experience of suffering and cause of the suffering of the discovering its root cause they individual is craving. And they seek an escape from that suffering both declare that we have to look by allowing their minds to be to that very cause in order to caught up in some other fresh account for social disharmony. It craving. The deluded mind is because of craving that an deceives itself by the unconscious individual or group of individuals belief that if this craving does not try to dominate another indivi- lead to happiness some other dual or group of individuals. We craving will. But a person who thus have private and organised has begun to understand exploitation. Then again, experience by submitting it to the obstructed or frustrated craving critical application of reason frees leads to hate and anger and these himself from delusion and clearly in their turn lead to conflicts, sees that craving is always the cause wars, and mutual destruction. The of suffering. And having seen this ending of craving will therefore truth about the cause of suffering also put an end to social chaos. he gradually emancipates himself The problem of securing from the chains of craving until social harmony is of course more he attains final Peace. This, urgent than the problem of therefore, is the exhortation of ending craving in the minds of Lord Buddha: "Lighten, O the individual. And it can not be disciples, this ignored until every
TEACHINGS OF LORD BUDDHA AND SHRI BABA 145 individual attains Nibbana. Lord We thus find Lord Buddha Buddha perceived this and giving the following injunction in therefore gave to his disciples an the Parable of the Saw: uncompromising commandment ''Ye disciples, even if highway to renounce hatred under all robbers with a two-handed saw circumstances. Lord Buddha was should take and dismember you an uncompromising Pacifist and Iimb by limb, whoso grew exposed the fallacy of the belief darkened in mind thereby would that hatred ean be conquered not be fulfilling my injunctions. through hatred. This erroneous Even then, disciples, thus must belief constitutes the unconscious you school yourselves; 'Unsullied philosophy of those modern shall our minds remain, neither nations who believe in armaments. shall evil word escape our lips. The principal tenet of this Kind and compassionate ever, we philosophy is as follows: 'In order will abide loving of heart nor to avoid war, be prepared for war.' harbour secret hate. And those But Lord Buddha clearly saw that robbers will we permeate with preparation for war can never be stream of loving thought unfailing; preparation for peace. He and forth from them proceeding declares:— enfold and permeate the whole Na hi verena verani sammatidha wide world with constant thoughts kadachana of loving kindness, ample, Averena cha sammati esha dhammo expanding, measureless, free from sanatano. enmity, free from all ill-will.' '' "Never can hatred be vanquished Shri Meher Baba also has through hatred, but only through non- clearly brought out the tremen- hatred; this is the eternal law." He dous importance of cultivating does not allow any exception to unfailing and unrestricted love. his commandment for renouncing He says: ''The life of the spirit is hate. He even goes further and an unceasing manifestation of requires that the disciples shall Divine Love and spiritual under- instead fill their minds with standing, and both these aspects thoughts of positive love even to- of Divinity are unrestricted in wards those who do harm to them. their universality and unchallen- geable in
146 MEHER BABA JOURNAL their inclusiveness. If there is lack one for himself. Moreover Lord of happiness or beauty or good- Buddha avoided detailed and ness in those by whom the Master positive descriptions of Nibbana is surrounded, those very things for the very reasons which made become for him the opportunity to him remain silent on the question shower his Divine Love on them, about the existence of God. A and to redeem them from the state purely theoretical curiosity on the of material or spiritual poverty. So subject does not help anybody on his every-day responses to his the Path. And what matters is getting worldly environment become on to the goal not merely whiling away expressions of dynamic and our time in fruitless and unending creative divinity which spreads guessings. We shall know about it itself and spiritualises everything when we get there. The Path has in which he puts his mind.*" been clearly laid down by Reason Lord Buddha has not given to itself. In the meanwhile, it is us much positive and detailed enough for us to have faith that information about Nibbana. Nega- there is a goal where we shall one tively it is emaucipation from day reach. “This principle of bondage and ignorance. But it is Nibbana, 0 King with its fullness not, as it has sometimes been of peace and blessedness IS. And misunderstood to mean, extinction if thou askest: 'What are the signs or a state of Nothingness. Mere of Nibbana?' I answer: 'Freedom extinction or nothingness can not be from danger and distress; the final goal of life. It is most confidence, peace, quietude, definitely a positive value the happiness, blessedness, delicacy, realisation of which surpasses all purity, spiritual refreshment.'” other attainments. But as it must From the above account it remain unintelligible to those who becomes clear that Nibbana as are still in bondage positive depicted by Lord Buddha is not descriptions are impossible. It is nothing although it is certainly not indescribable but it can be realised a thing. It is by every
* Meher Baba Journal, Vol. I, No. 10, pp. 7-8. TEACHINGS OF LORD BUDDHA AND SHRI BABA 147 a positive state of consciousness. the existence of suffering in life. It Further it is not a static condition is essentially an optimistic of consciousness. It is charac- outlook on life because it declares terised by “spiritual refreshment”. that there is a way out of this It does not become stale. It is suffering and there is the dynamic and creative. Shri Meher possibility of Nibbana. Nor can its Baba brings out this positive Teaching be criticised on the aspect of spiritual perfection quite ground that it does not add to the unambiguously when he says: material comforts and luxuries of “When there is a happy and life. Such a criticism can be most conscious blending of the finite fittingly answered in the following and the Infinite, we have words of Lord Buddha: ''The gift perfection. Then we have the of the Truth exceeds all other gifts. Infinite revealing itself through The savour of the Truth excels all the finite without getting limited other savours. The delight of the thereby; and we have the finite Truth surpasses all other delights. transcending its sense of The desire after emancipation limitation in the full knowledge of overmasters every sorrow." Shri its really being the revelation of Meher Baba also brings us to the the Infinite."* The recognition of Message of Hope concerning the the possibility of Nibbana leaves ultimate destiny of life, which, he no room for our regarding declares, is to enjoy eternally the Buddhism as a pessimistic reli- "Infinite Existence, Knowledge gion merely because it recognises and Bliss".
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* Meher Baba Journal, Vol. I, No. 9, p. 7, Perfection.
Chips from a Dravidian-Wisdom Workshop
BY C. V. SAMPATH AIYANGAR
II I-ness is Spiritual Death “mine” began to reign supreme in his heart. And this was the THE first Sloka (verse) in Bhagavat beginning of the end. Pride goes Gita is: before one's fall. Siriyattan “Tell me, 0 Sanjaya! Assembled therefore truly said that this I-ness on the field of Kurukshetra, the (the distinction between 'mine' and land of Dharma, desirous to fight, 'not mine') was the cause of the what indeed did my people utter destruction of the Kuru race. (mamaka) and the Pandavas do?” The pater-familias must set a This question was put by good example. The father Dhritarashtra to Sanjaya. This verse Dhritarashtra was full of I-ness. discloses to us some important His son Duryodana was influenced truths of spiritual value. The parties by his example. Their prarabdha are in a place which is the centre of karma was irresistible. True the spiritual activity. If only the old Perfect Masters Drona and Bhishma Dhritarashtra had exercised his were by their side. But if the Iswara-sense in him, he would have individual soul does not approach prevented bloodshed. But his I-ness the Perfect Master's feet with got the upperhand, He could not modesty, the latter cannot easily see that his sons and his brother's remove the effect of its prarabdha sons were the same to him. karma. That is why the Gitacharya His invidious distinction between emphatically said: "Relin-quishing “my sons” and “the Pandavas” all Dharmas take refuge in Me alone: is very significant. The idea of I will liberate you from all sins: Do not grieve" (Chap. 18. 66).
CHIPS FROM A DRAVIDIAN-WISDOM WORKSHOP 149
The word ''all dharmas'' must be mind. Shri Baba says, "It is the properly understood. By "all sins" mind that makes us slaves to is meant "all bonds created by worldly desires. The mind also what we call dharma and adharma ''. can enable us to become the There is nothing like positive evil masters of destiny and to realize and positive good. When Shri the Supreme Self." Baba was asked, "Have you Mere renouncing the world is solved the problem of evil?" The not true renunciation. The story answer was, "There is no evil. of Jada-Bharata illustrates my There are only degrees of good''. point. (Vishnu Purana and Bhaga- Our actions—call them good or vata.) He renounced the world and bad—minus I-ness is real sacrifice: resided in the woods far away it is then you dedicate yourself to from the haunts of men. He Him. The "bond'' disappears, and became attached by affection to a you see the ''Iswara'' within you. deer, and it is said that he had to It required seventeen chapters to take the life of a deer. It is there- impress this Truth on even a fore clear that giving up 'I-ness'— willing sishya (disciple). And then attachment—is real renunciation. says Arjuna, "My delusion has Saint Nammazhvar exclaimed, gone" (18. 73). "I, not understanding myself, was In five simple words our dear attached to ' I ' and 'Mine''' Baba compressed the whole (Bhagavad-Vishaya). spiritual secret: "What is your The Christ said: ''If any man secret''? he was asked. The ready come unto Me and hate not his reply in a nutshell was, "The father and mother, and wife and elimination of the ego". He who children and brethren, and sisters, does work selflessly is a true yea and his own life also he sanyasi, true yogi (Gita, VI. 1). cannot be My disciple." This is Saint Nammazhvar says wrongly interpreted. The Lord (Tiruvaimozhi, 1. 2-3): "Pluck out Jesus does not ask us to hate our with roots the 'I-ness', 'My-ness' parents in the ordinary sense of in you, and join the Lord." This is the word. He who directs us not true renunciation. It is of the to hate even our enemies, would not say that we should
150 MEHER BABA JOURNAL hate our parents. The meaning is the path that leads to union with that we should not be unduly God,” says Shri Baba. Unless one attached to things material if we tries his best to conquer these wish to go on the Path chalked out wily enemies every minute of his by the Master. The whole of the life—at home first and then Bhagavat Gita is a sermon on true outside home—he can never hope renunciation. to enter the Path. He must be Persons on the Path must going round and round in the therefore beware of the demon I- whirlpool of Maya, and adding to ness. If he successfully lures them, his sanskaras. Sankaras, egoism. they are fallen. If not, they reach No sanskaras, no egoism. the goal. If the demon succeeds, it "The grace of a God-realized is the spiritual death of the Master works wonders, but one unfortunate aspirant. must extort this grace from him", "The chief props and agents of says Shri Baba. Maya are Kama, Krodh and Lobh Master Nanjiyar used to say, (lust, anger and greed). Unless and "Whenever I saw a saint I fell at until you subjugate them it is his feet. My hunger vanished"— impossible for you to enter upon for Saints are Gods on earth.
(To be continued)
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THE SAYING OF MEHER BABA
You yourself are the cause of your separation from the Beloved. Annihilate that which is called self* and you will thereby gain union with Him.
* Self means lower self. Man in the Making
BY WILLIAM J. COQUELIN (LONDON COLLEGE OF MUSIC) ST. LOUIS, U.S.A.
THE EXPOSITION They are symbolically rendered “LIFE is what we make it" is an in the Great Pyramid of Gizeh, by old saying, this is true, however, in the passage, Grand Gallery and a very limited sense only, as King's Chamber. behind it is "That Destiny which Balzak refers to them in his shapes our end, rough-hew it as "Louis Lambert" as instinctive, in we may." which man is below the level; It is to this evolutionary process abstractive, in which he attains to of growth and development we it, and Specialism, in which the must look to learn what is taking Infinite dawns upon him. The place under the surface. instinctive desires deeds, the Philosophers have distinguished abstractive terms to ideas; the the phases of life in its material, Specialist sees the end, he aspires psychic and spiritual aspects, and to God, whom he inwardly called them body, soul and spirit; perceives or contemplates. the finite, indefinite and infinite. Abdul Baha explains it as The Shankhya Philosophy follows: ''When we ponder over knows them as Svapna, Shushupti the Microcosm, its reality, we find and Samadhi. In Sufism they are that man is endowed with an outer known as Nasut, the physical plane; or physical reality. It belongs to Malakut, the sphere of thought and the material realm, the animal imagination, and Djabrut, the kingdom, because it has sprung sphere in which the soul is at from the material world. This home. animalistic reality he shares with In the Hermetic Philosophy, the animals. The human body, like they are called the animal, human that of the animals, is subject to and Daimonic states. nature's law. But man is endowed with a second
152 MEHER BABA JOURNAL reality, the rational or intellectual; world is enlightened through it, and the intellectual reality of man the whole of the Kingdom is predominates over nature. being illumined by it. It enjoys All these sciences which we the world of beatitude, a world enjoy were hidden and recondite which had no beginning and secrets of nature, unknowable to which shall have no end. That nature, but man was enabled to celestial reality, the third reality discover these mysteries, and out of the microcosm, delivers man of the plane of the unseen he from the material world. brought them out into the plane Escaping, he will find an of the seen. Thus while man's illuminating reality, transcending physical reality is captive to the limited reality of man, and nature, man is the governor of causing him to attain to the nature through his intellectual infinitude of God, abstracting power. him from the world of Yet there is a third reality in superstitions and imaginations, man, the spiritual reality. Through and submerging him in the sea of its medium one discovers the rays of the Sun of reality.'' spiritual revelations, a celestial THE KEY faculty which is infinite as Although I know the fore- regards the intellectual as well as going to be true from personal physical realms. That power is experience, yet I recognise the conferred upon man through the justifiable skepticism of the breath of the Holy Spirit. It is an intellectual. eternal reality, an indestructible reality, a reality belonging to the Where there is an end to be Divine, supernatural kingdom; a, achieved, there must of necessity reality whereby the world is be ways and means to that end, illumined, a reality which grants and when this process is unto man eternal life. understood, all fallacies of creeds This third spiritual reality it is and dogmas will have been which discovers past events and permanently eliminated. looks along the vistas of the Evolution involves the whole future. It is the ray of the Sun of of the Universe, but we will limit reality. The Spiritual ourselves to our own environ- ment comprising the
MAN IN THE MAKING 153 mineral, vegetable, animal, and like the spectrum which gives the human kingdoms. whole gamut of color, yet the As order, form and system are sunlight from which they are the earmarks of intelligence, we derived is itself invisible. may expect them to be charac- So it is with matter, which, teristics of this process. according to its atomic number As science is the analysis of the form the spectra or gamuts, while concrete details of natural ether is the primordial source phenomena, metaphysics and from which it emanates as an psychology the bridge that leads atomic nucleus. into the abstract syntax of Their place in the scale is philosophy, we may draw our denoted by their qualities, information from all three as far attributes and forms, as given in as they go. the Mendeljef spiral. The system employed by nature Here we have the "Forms, has three aspects, which are series and degrees'' as first different versions of the same enunciated by Dr Andrew J. thing; the mathematical, which is Davis in the middle of last written about in "Moore's century. Algebra", the Harmonic, with which I am more familiar, and the There is one more law to be Geometrical, as rendered in considered, i.e., that of Harmony, ''Geometrical Psychology", by an or rather Harmonics, which is at author whose name I have the bottom of all affinity, whether forgotten. chemical or human. The first law is that of Degrees, The relation of matter to ether "discrete degrees", as Sweden- as is that of the spectrum to borg would call them. sunlight, is like the relation of The relationship of these color to white. White is the degrees to each other is that of the WHOLE while its refraction is octave, and, like the octave, there the whole in its constituent parts. is a continuous scale from one to This gives us the entire varied the next. multiplicity of the material The degrees, however, are not universe, and in a part of the scale as in music. It is
154 MEHER BABA JOURNAL higher degree that of the mental and half the wave- vegetable, animal and length. The harmonic series human kingdoms. running as it does like the The basic urge in all cases common numbers 12345678 is a trend back to the primor- etc. is better understood when separated as oct ves. dial state, or conformity to it. a Since the primordial If one is a note or color, condition was white, and the say C or red, two will be the series colored, the most octave, also C or red, but with stable conditions are those in double the frequency and which the white or stable half the wave-length. condition is most simply The logarithmic mantissa attained, in other words of an octave is 301. By where an element associates dividing a circle into 301 with its complemcnt, the parts, the musical scale or stability being in direct color spectrum can be laid proportion to the complete- out according to frequency ness of the adaptation. or wavelength. This unit is These associations occur called Savart. subject to the law of Harmonics. This will enable us to find An octave has twice the the colors that correspond to frequency of the funda- the harmonics in music.
(To be continued)
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The Instrument Divine
BY COUNTESS NADINE TOLSTOY
I am an instrument of One string. One note is its ever sounding melody, One and the same Soul is singing its tune, One Perfect Artist is its Eternal Singer.
Eternal is that Sound, As it sings of the One Infinite Beauty. Deeper than all known tunes, As it sings the Innermost Secrets Of the Hidden Heart !
Sweeter than all songs of love, As it has only One Lover, And its Lover is One Love. Purer than any crystalline lake, As it can never be disturbed, Quieter than any known stillness, As it has to be discovered where no mortals seek.
The never ending Joy of that One Tune Is a wonder. It opens the Beauty never faced before. Unknown yet familiar and dear It takes your heart into Ecstasy, It makes you close your eyes In search of the seat of that mystery !
It reverses your steps From the outward into the inward, It makes you bewildered and Still.
In stillness of death for mortals, In Stillness of Bliss to the Immortals ! Still is the heart of the Single Tune ! Still is the Harmony of Oneness !
Anna Kingsford and Symbolism in the West* [Adapted by Will Backett (London)]
ANNA KINGSFORD’S prose whereof a flame exists in all writings are no less inspired than creatures and the Kosmos. (The the Hymns to the Gods, for she Apple in the hand of Venus, who writes with authority compelling is celestial harmony, represents by its innate power and without the Kosmos sustained and dogma. Of the relationship redeemed by Love.) between soul and body she The Kosmos is a tree of says:— innumerable branches, origin- ''Soul is the effect of the body, ating in one stem, and nourished for organism is before function, by one root. . . . Life is the and the mineral before man . . . . elaboration of soul through the Yet organism is the effect of idea various transformation of and mind is the cause of matter. . . . But for creation there evolution. So that spirit is before would be one vast diffused and matter in its abstract, but not in unindividuated consciousness. To its concrete conception.'' God, everything is good. It is As to the nature of God:— "Is only to men that evil appears God Impersonal? Yes, if the word positive." personal be taken in its radical To minds, seeking to quiet meaning, but personal in its their mental unrest, or disturbed highest and truest sense of that about orthodox limitations, such word, if the conception be of utterances bring a sense of essential consciousness. For God freedom, and wider vistas. Shri has no limitations. God is pure Baba warns us, however that and naked fire burning in infinity, "God-realization is not to
•
* Continued from December 1939 issue. N.B.- "Clothed with the Sun," Life of Anna Kingsford, published by Watkins, Cecil Court, Charing Cross, London.
ANNA KINGSFORD AND SYMBOLISM IN THE WEST 157 confused with intellectual convict- There is a legend in connection ions, concerning God and Creation, with Jesus, that the horse refused just as head is not to be confused to carry Him, and the ass did so with hairs, or the substance with instead and was therefore blessed, the shadow." the horse being cursed and this Symbolism meets a need of may be a garbled representation of enquiring minds as well as the truth that the intellect alone awakening hearts opening new cannot realize the Christ. "It is the realms to both mind and aspiration, Christ Who is the culmination of and giving access to ancient truths, the human stream, which flows through a common language but upward into the bosom of the concealing from others spiritual Father, and in the Christ, man mysteries, for which however they finds his highest development as are being prepared by the imagery man, through whom also the and force which give true symbols manifestation Adonai of the Son potency. One aspect of Mars, but of God is possible.'' rarely conceded, is the association ''Strong art Thou, and adorable of the god of war with the horse, Phœbus Apollo, who bearest life which the Romans depict in their and healing in Thy wings, who sacrifices, and also in the chariot crownest the year with Thy bounty, drawn by a furious team. Horses and givest the spirit of Thy suffered death in war, as do the divinity to the fruits and precious warriors, and as the horse, no one things of all the worlds .... plane, symbolises the intellect, its ''Thy sign is the sign of the Son association with Mars (who re- of Man in heaven, and of the just presents the death of the lower ego made perfect, for they were of the pilgrim on the Path) constrained by Love to abandon emphasises that in death of the outer elements, and to seek the intellect, its pre-eminence being innermost which is undivided, dethroned, precedes the birth of even the Wisdom of God. And spiritual wisdom, and thus heralds Wisdom and Love are One.'' the age of the Intuition, which Shri Phœbus (the "Sun behind the Baba has told us, is approaching. Sun ") is further described
158 MEHER BABA JOURNAL by Anna Kingsford, figuratively, And upon thy feet are living in the Hymn from which the above wings, bearing thee fearless extract is taken, as ''Sons of the through space, because they innermost sphere, the Anointed of must be without dread to dare God, manifesting the Spirit of the void and the deep, who Wisdom", one aspect of the desire to attain and achieve.'' Godhead. To his neophytes, Hermes gives Describing Hermes, the this admonition:— ''Physician of Souls", the mediator “I would have you armed both between the outer and the inner, with a perfect philosophy and the spirit of understanding, the with the power of the divine Hymn to Hermes reads:— Life. "As a moving light between But knowledge cannot prevail heaven and earth, as a white alone, and ye are not yet cloud assuming many places, perfected. He descends and rises, he When the fullness of Time shall guides and illumines, he come, I will add unto you the transmutes himself from small power of the divine Life .... to great, from bright to When the word shall come to you, shadowy, from the opaque be ready to obey. image, to the diaphanous mist. There is but one way to power, Star of the East, conducting the and it is the way of obed- Magi, cloud from whose midst, ience ....” the holy voice speaketh, by day One may pause to ask, "Who a pillar of vapour, by night a and what manner of people are shining flame. these mystics and what is their I behold thee, Hermes, Son of place in every-day life?'' To Anna God, archangel, who hearest Kingsford, the ''body was the the rod of knowledge, by which chamber of ordeal, and in it her all things in heaven or on earth soul was tried". Few mystically are measured. inclined can maintain a busy Double serpents entwine it be- contact with the outer world and cause as serpents they must be people of Western outlook with wise who desire God. their restless aimlessness, without strain
ANNA KINGSFORD AND SYMBOLISM IN THE WEST 159 and suffering, made more sus- occasion, "Truth is only utterable ceptible when in touch with inner by God to God.'' spheres, where life is the spirit of Thus unfolded the new gospel the gods, and the music of the of Interpretation, which she and spheres mingles with the sorrows Edward Maitland devoted their of the world. She bore much with lives to placing before the World. patience and fortitude, and her It is no wonder that inspiration "Life" shows, Edward Maitland's came in this particular place, for self-effacement, for he says with Shri Baba has explained that it is deep understanding of her one of the great spiritual centres difficulties that the very intensity in Europe. Sixty years later Baba of her nature made her sometimes was to bring his Eastern and go to extremes, and she could not Western disciples there, for his always maintain the heights she own spiritual work, when he sometimes reached. pointed out to them in the When a student in Paris, the Cathedral and in its architecture, psychic conditions in the hospitals the plan of the work of the Avatar and laboratories for vivisection, in the world, and His relationship affected her so much that she was to His circle of closest disciples. unable to carry on her studies, and As a woman, Anna Kingsford's had to take a holiday in Italy to sympathy is shown when a recuperate. Beneath that clear medical student by her gift of sky, in touch with the manifold violets to a little patient in glories of art and nature, her hospital, in response to his appeal whole being seemed illumined, on his fingers, for he was deaf and and this culminated at St. Marks dumb, for something to counteract in Venice. Through its symbols the odours from the ointment on and emblems in architecture, his wounds. The physician in sculpture and painting, the work charge noticed the flowers when of the mediæval adepts, seers and making rounds of the wards, and prophets, she perceived the asked, somewhat severely, who fundamental truth of which all had given them. She hung back, religions are the veils, "Words are frightened by his tone, Veils," she wrote on another
160 MEHER BABA JOURNAL and a fellow-student replied for scientific, but because, she had her. She was much relieved to chosen an exposition of a hear ''Only a woman could have vegetarian diet in which she thought of doing such a thing. demonstrated the non-carni- Not one of your Messieurs, vorous nature of man, from his would have thought of bringing moral constitution and physical flowers to a sick child in the structure; though not directly wards." condemning vivisection it Unconsciously, she shone in obviously implied on moral that company. "Tall, slender and grounds that it also was graceful in form, she had the indefensible. She was told that appearance, almost, of a Greek the introduction of the moral goddess, fair and exquisite in aspect was against the attitude of complexion, bright and sunny in an important person in the expression, with long golden hair medical world whom they could and dark brows and lashes, mouth offend. Eventually the authorities and nose exquisitely formed and compromised by hearing the delicate, and eyes deep set and Thesis privately before a few hazel. Radiant she became in examiners and her friends, and speech, with a rich musical voice, one of the former, as compliment eloquent when dealing with a to her, invited her to a vegetarian subject dear to her heart. dejeuner. Her versatility is indi- Her intellectual gifts were no cated by another incident in the less marked. She passed all her hospital, when a professor asked exams with the highest credits, for a sketch of a new apparatus in the shortest possible time, in he was experimenting for the first spite of the handicap of sex in a time, and them in use which he city like Paris, where she had to had designed, and wished to have study, as London was barred to recorded. None of the students women medical students in those complied, but one who had seen days. The thesis she should have Anna Kingford's other sketches, delivered before the general persuaded her to attempt this faculty and medical students as a drawing. In a hour she returned whole, was refused at first, not with it, and the rush of students because it was un- as she entered the ward, made
ANNA KINGSFORD AND SYMBOLISM IN THE WEST 161 the professor ask to see what they Gazette, gave in his paper a were looking at. detailed account of the objects of "Comment Madame, c'est vous qui the Society, and Anna Kingsford's fait cela? Vous dessinez ce facon la?" activities. An American section Showing it to other doctors and was formed in Boston: in Paris, surgeons, he exclaimed heartily, ''If contact was maintained with the I were in your place, I would go in Anti-Vivisection Society, of which for art, not medicine. A young lady Victor Hugo was President and who can draw like this all in an Anna Kingsford a foremost hour, a medical student?” supporter, and she continued her lectures for them and on the same Some of her illuminations were subject in England. Her collected published in her earlier book The essays and lectures on Veget- Perfect Way, or the Finding of the arianism and her Dreams and Christ, which is probably wider Dream Stories also had a wide known, as it embodied a wider circulation. conception of the "Christ Within", than orthodoxy, and included many The Mystic sees in Demeter, of her lectures arranged in Pallas Athene, Hephaistos, and sequence to illustrate the growth Poseidon, behind and within the and culmination of consciousness, four elements of earth, air, fire, and which the Church teaching points water, as Anna Kingsford to, and the saints achieve. The expresses:— formation of the Hermetic Society, ''And Thou, Demeter, fair Earth after she had severed her Mother, whose bosom the patient connection with a movement that on treadeth, whose hands are full did not emphasize to the same of plenty and blessing .... degree the continuity of thought between the West and East, con- Angel of the crucible, guardian of tinued to bring her into touch the dead, who makest and leaders in the reforms that were unmakest, who combinest and taking shape at the end of the dissolvest, who bringeth forth life nineteenth century, and the late W. out of death and transformeth all T. Stead, Editor of the Pall Mall bodies…
162 MEHER BABA JOURNAL
Who makest the volatile to be looketh is changed into stone, fixed, whether in the great or in who feedeth upon the souls of the small, whether in the outer or men. the inner. Be praised O Athena, be Who yokest the cattle of the praised Thou and Thy wheel; field to Thy plough, for Thy be praised in the great and the dominion is of the field, O small, in the outer and the inner, Daughter of Time: Thou bindest invisible and immaculate spirit not the sons of the air and sea. of life." But to the gross Thou art gross, * * * and to the subtle, Thou art Anna Kingsford must have felt subtle." herself akin to Hephaistos as The Hymn to Pallas Athene, there was much in her own breathes the wisdom of Pente- activity and energy of a fiery costal prophecy and her spear and nature:— shield are fashioned for the soul "Hephaistos, whose symbol of man:— is the red lion, Lord of the "Immaculate Mother of the Serpent, the flame, and of the word of prophecy, symbol of secret parts of the earth. the holy essence, goddess of He blindeth and deludeth the ægis and the spear. the eyes of men, he encom- Spirit of the whirlwind, passeth the foolish with secret breather of wisdom, illusions, and smiteth the feeble fortifier of the soul inspirer of with madness. armies: Serve not the fire nor the Shining maid by whose crystal, and be not undone by spear we vanquish, for interior their secrecy. wisdom thrustest all things For the spirits of lust and through; by whose shield we illusion obey the crystal, and are covered, for interior purity they who love the light of it, preserveth from all contagion. shall fall under the dominion of By thine aid, O armed Lucifer. winged wisdom, Thy servant The fire shall be quenched shall smite the lust of the world, by the water, and the water upon whose beauty who so shall be resolved into spirit.
ANNA KINGSFORD AND SYMBOLISM IN THE WEST 163
By fire is the Initiate baptised, for the form of them passeth by fire the oblation is salted, and away. the flame shall devour the dross of Even as these are the the crucible……… incarnations of the Soul." That which endureth to the end, * * * the same shall be saved.'' The Seer whose wisdom is * * * preserved in the Chaldean Oracles, The mystery of Life, Anna has said:— Kingsford presents in the Hymn to "The Paternal Mind has Poseidon:— sowed symbols in the Soul. "Behold the manifold waves Having mingled the Divine of the Sea, which rise and sink, Spark from two according Which break and are lost, and substances, Mind and Divine follow each other continually: Spirit, as a third to these He Even as these are the trans- added Holy Love, the venerable mutations of the soul……… Charioteer, uniting All Things." For the soul is one substance, * * * as is the water of the deep, With the Coming of the Perfect whose waves thou canst not Love in Human Form, are all number, neither tell their shapes, symbols merged.
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THE SAYING OF MEHER BABA
True love means the dedication of one’s self or the complete surrender of one’s self to the Beloved. It seeks the happiness of the Beloved without the least desire of obtaining happiness from the Beloved.
Saint Kanhopatra
BY INDUMATI DESHMUKH, M.A., B.T.
DURING the great war between mother also never came in the the Pandavas and the Kauravas way of her devotion. She loved some person on the Kauravas her so much that although this side suggested the name of Karna, tendency of her daughter was not the great warrior for the very promising from the point of commandership. Although he view of her occupation in her was so great a warrior that future life still she did not check nobody except Arjuna could her in her devotion. Moreover she defeat him, he was supposed to thought that the devotion would be born of a low family and a do her good in the end; she was well-known king from the same convinced about the impurities of side referred to this and when the the life of a prostitute though she suggestion came in the meeting could not take herself nor her Karna is said to have made a very daughter away from that life; and brilliant answer to the remark. He this was one of the reasons why said, "To be born in a good she not only did not come in the family is not within anybody's way of her daughter's natural control; but prowess is dependent good tendencies but positively upon myself." encouraged her. Kanhopatra was Similar was the case with distinguished in singing as well Kanhopatra. She was the only as dancing and there was no rival daughter of a prostitute named for her in point of beauty. When Shyama. They were living in .a she became young her mother village named Mangalwedha. wanted her to enter her Kanhopatra was the most profession, but Kanhopa showed beautiful girl in her village. Since no inclinations towards it, and at her childhood she was attracted last she told her mother that she towards God and used to worship would never lead the life of a the image of the Lord. Her prostitute
SAINT KANHOPATRA 165 and that she would lead a married Divine Beauty of which they sang life if she finds a suitable match. and she expressed her desire to She also said that the person who accompany them to see the Lord, wished to marry her must excel and asked them if they could let her in point of beauty, and her her do so, as she was the daughter mother agreed to that. This of a prostitute. They consented to determination of Kanhopatra gave take her with them and told her a good turn to her life. She was not to mind her caste, as God never able to find a suitable man recognises no distinctions and with whom she could marry. Once anybody who loves Him can see her mother asked her about going Him. Kanhopatra was glad at this to the king of this little kingdom and taking the permission of her and staying with him, but she mother she went with them to reminded her of her determination Pandharpur. She was overjoyed and told her that she could not do when she saw the beautiful image so as the king was not very of the Lord. She passed all her handsome. time in meditating and singing for Once, some people while going the Lord. on foot to Pandharpur were Once the fame of her beauty passing through Mangalwedha, reached the ears of the Ruler of the place where Kanhopatra lived. Bedar and he sent his men to fetch They were preparing their food by her. They came to Pandharpur and the riverside when she happened told Kanhopatra that she was to come there. While working, ordered by the king to accompany they were singing in praise of the them to Bedar and that if she Lord and describing His beautiful refused to do so willingly, they form. When she heard that, she would take her by force. Kanho- enquired where they were going patra knew about the purpose she and whom they were describing. was to be taken for; but instead of They told her where they were giving them her flat refusal, she going and that they were told them that she was willing to describing the Lord. Kanhopatra go with them provided they was very much enchanted by the allowed her sufficient time for singing her
166 MEHER BABA JOURNAL last prayers to the Lord. They told the royal soldiers what had agreed to that. Then she went happened, but they did not near the Image and clasping its believe it. They accused the feet by her hands began to sing: persons of hiding her and arrest- ''The wretch is chasing me. ing them took them to Bedar. What shall I do now? Because They then told the king what had you are the Mother of the world, I happened. He also did not believe am clasping my hands round your it at first, but went in person to feet. I request you with my hands Pandharpur where he was folded that I should now leave convinced of the truth of what this body. How can you help it if they said. it is predestined? I have tried in The life of Kanhopatra is not vain for that which I cannot very eventful. She had no achieve. Lord, do not test me any spiritually eminent person as her more and save me from the master nor was she contemporary present calamity. There is none to any of the other famous saints. else except You who could save Her caste also was not respected me from this.'' Saying this she by the society. But still only out placed her head on the Divine of her ardent devotion and love Feet and became One with the for the Lord, she went to Pan- Lord. dharpur and remained there. Her The men who used to worship good impressions or sanskaras the Image were present there. saved her from joining her They took the dead body and profession, and combined with buried it in the premises of the strenuous efforts, devotion and temple lest the soldiers might love, they achieved the highest touch it which they did not want. goal of human life for her. She The soldiers waited and waited has written some poetry, but very and at last they enquired why little of it has been preserved. It is Kanhopatra did not come out for simple and mostly expresses her such a long time. The men therein own feelings towards the Lord.
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What Should a Layman’s Attitude be towards Saints
BY DR. ABDUL GHANI MUNSIFF
Ba khuda masti kun-o Ba awliya hoshiyar bash. (With God the Absolute, do what you dare; But in dealing with saints forsooth beware.)
THE above Sufi couplet throws a flood air, life and health. On the contrary, of light, on what one’s attitude should one is surprised to find that non- be towards saints. In spite of the believers very often, are much more inexorable functioning of the Law of successful in life—material, than the Causation, it does not frighten people believers. Hence, in one’s actions, so much, because the possibility of good or bad, criminal or righteous, ultimate retribution therein, is looked pious or blasphemous, one feels upon as a future eventuality and not a comparatively safe, as the prospect of thing that should be allowed to immediate reaction to such attitudes is embitter the present. It cannot be not there. denied that in one’s relationship with The reason for this state of affairs is God—the Absolute, people are prone that the whole evolutionary process, to take all sorts of liberties and the atomic or cosmic, particular or general, thought of behaving in any way wrong, individual or collective, is governed by does not bother them at all. If a man be a cosmic law which is synonymous a theist or an atheist, agnostic or a with God—the Absolute—the Imper- cynic, believer or an heathen, it is sonal. Not only the different states and every-day experience that God—the stages of the evolutionary struggle as Absolute does not withold from any, represented in the stone, the vegetation His blessings and favours such as light, and the animal are governed thereby,
168 MEHER BABA JOURNAL but even the so-called human lations, which very few survive beings who are ignorant or who unless helped and guided by refuse to be aroused to their living Masters. original state and pristine glory, The question here arises as come under the operation of this why only living Masters are cosmic law. capable of doing and undoing This situation however under- things and not the disembodied goes a radical change when the ones. The reason being that after process of involution—the return disembodiment, Perfect Masters to the original source—begins to automatically become one or get operate. No sooner a human identified with the cosmic law of being begins to question the why evolution and cease to release and wherefore of existence and and operate the active principle, insists upon an answer to these which sets the involutionary questions in this very life, then in struggle in motion. For instance a his case the process of involution magistrate or a judge after (the return journey), may be said retirement from active service to have begun. And this involu- continues to know and under- tionary process comes under the stand law as ever before, but the direct influence and jurisdiction power to execute or translate the of the personal Gods, viz., the same into action is absent. Prophets, Avatars or Saints living Similarly disembodied souls of in flesh on earth. the Perfect Ones are as spiritually The evolutionary process is alive as ever but the power and involuntary and proceeds un- authority to do spiritual good to consciously and the involu- others, which they had in their tionary process, though volun- life-time, is not there. Hazrat tarily and consciously undertaken, Naqshband raises this question in is yet a very painful affair and a Persian quatrain when he says: fraught with dangers and pitfalls "How long you'll waste your when attempted alone. It is for precious years, this reason, the return journey In pilgrimage to tombs of this (involution) of the individual and that; soul to the over-soul is attended Against a thousand lions—dead with unimagined trials and tribu- and gone
A LAYMAN’S ATTITUDE TOWARDS SAINTS 169
More spiritually alive is an uddin Dahriya (an atheist) called Adept's cat." on Ghaousali Shah Qalander who It should not however be forgot- was at the time seated near the ten that the spiritual blessedness shrine of Makhdoom Ali Ahmed and grace to the world of such Sabir of Kalyar. After indulging saints even after disembodiment in an uninvited sermon on the continues to influence and affect futility of worshipping the tombs the universe whether they are of departed saints, this atheist, invoked or not. even went to the length of demon- strating his non-belief in the When people say they have spiritual potency of the departed derived benefit from the Samadhi saints by desecrating the tomb of or the tomb of a certain saint, it is Ali Ahmed Sabir, before he could almost always material benefit be prevented from perpetrating that accrues from such a source. this sacrilege. And this benefit is in proportion Ghaousali Shah chased away to one's devotion and faith this atheist and after his departure towards the personality behind began to bathe the shrine with a the shrine. lt is simply the few bucketful of water. When the reaction of one's mind to devotees of the enshrined saint influences and impressions good inquired the reason of this or bad that brings about a result unusual bath, he, fearing breach desirable or unhappy. The shrine of peace, tactfully explained away of the saint only serves as a the situation by saying that a medium for the rousing of the monkey happened to urinate on latent atrength and potentiality of the shrine. the mind and the result, very Once while relating this inci- often material in character and dent to his disciples, Ghaousali form, is happy or otherwise in Shah said, ''The Saint Makhdoom accordance with the susceptibility Ali Ahmed Sabir has not allowed of the mind, to such reactions and any the slightest misbehaviour on impressions. The following inci- the part of visitors to go dent in the life of a Muslim saint unpunished; but this Karimuddin will illustrate the point under (atheist) was made of a sterner discussion. stuff and never Once a man known as Karim- 170 MEHER BABA JOURNAL believed in the saintliness of any Scientists will tell you that the man however great. If he had in indirect (alternate) current of him even the slightest suspicion electricity is much more danger- of fear or faith in such matters, ous than the direct current. The the reaction would certainly have indirect current when touched, followed. But all need not and very often kills which the direct dare not emulate successfully current seldom does. And further Karimuddin the atheist, and so the earthing process that is the much the better for their ultimate burying of a copper wire in the good and spiritual benefit. It is earth serves to neutralise the extra truly said, 'If you have faith then load on the current, with the even the stone is a god'." No magnetism of the earth, thereby doubt there have been a few making the machinery and the notable instances of people, surroundings comparatively im- deriving even spiritual benefit mune from damage and harm. from the souls of departed saints. Similarly the spiritual powers This happens only in special of the Masters after disembodi- cases, where the earthly ment are merged (neutralised) connection of the receiver and the with the universal and infinite giver of spiritual benefit has been powers of the Almighty God, cut short by unavoidable which sustain unceasingly the circumstances. But such cases are process of evolution. But the rare and far between—more an living Masters are the spiritual exception than the rule. power-houses round which the When such is the spiritual atmospherics (Tajalliyat-shaktis) are potency and influence of en- much more active and powerful. shrined saints, it can be imagined Spiritual Masters are con- what must be the atmosphere cerned with and emanate both the round about a living saint. spiritual currents (Tajalliyat-shaktis) Treating the subject from the direct or indirect The direct one is analogy of electricity, the diff- their divine aspect of Jamal erence in the spiritual potency of (Divine Beatitude) which takes buried saints and living saints will cognisance of devotion, Bhakti and be made much clearer. love on the part of the seeker and
A LAYMAN’S ATTITUDE TOWARDS SAINTS 171 rewards him in proportion to and they requested the saint to the sincerity and intensity of perform the valedictory pray- longing. While the indirect ers (Namaz-e-Janaza) for the one is the aspect of Jalal dead one before him. The idea (Divine Glory) which was to fool the saint and responds quickly and irrevo- maltreat him for not being cably to any mischievous act able to find out if the bier or intention towards them. contained a living being or a And the power-houses—the dead body . Spiritual Masters, though The saint tried his best to presenting these two aspects evade the situation forced in their lives on earth, are yet upon him by saying that he above and beyond them. It is was not a priest and someone in this sense, the Sufis say else qualified for the job be that Spiritual Masters neither approached. But no excuses bless nor curse anyone. prevailed and the saint was Whatever reactions good or forced to conduct the vale- bad that people experience dictory service. When he had when contacting such Masters, finished prayers the saint non- are the result of and due to the chalantly asked the people to response of the numerous remove the bier with the dead powers (Tajalliyat-shaktis) that body therein immediately to are alive and active round the burial ground. such personalities. When the mischief-mong- The mythological lore of all ers opened the coffin they religions will be able to expected their living friend to furnish numerous examples of jump out of it, simultaneously people inviting reaction on exposing the hollowness of themselves being indiscreet in the saint's claim to spirituality. their attitude towards saints. But lo, to their horror, no For instance a Muslim saint, living being jumped out and who was very much misun- the man lying in the bier was derstood in his surroundings, as cold as a corpse. The was one day approached by a people when they took in the few riff-raffs from the town, situation felt painfully peni- bent upon mischief. These tent and fell at the saint's feet people had a bier (coffin) beseeching forgiveness and ready with a living human mercy for themselves and the being made to lie inside dead person. The saint was 172 MEHER BABA JOURNAL however inexorable and said, vision is perplexed and weak will "The arrow has left the bow; it not be too ready to laugh; and he cannot be recalled—it was will first ask whether that soul has predestined.'' come out of the brighter life, and As to why saints are very often is unable to see because misunderstood and some of their unaccustomed to the dark, or actions and behaviour in the eyes having turned from darkness to of the laity appear ridiculous or the day is dazzled by excess of incomprehensible, the philosoph- light. And then he will count one er Plato tries to explain away in a happy in his condition and state beautiful passage when he says:* of being. " ''And you will understand that The above explanation by the those who attain to this beatific Greek philosopher in some vision are unwilling to descend to aspects may be true of saints, but human affairs; but their souls are it certainly does not bespeak the ever hastening into the upper whole truth about Spiritual world in which they desire to Perfection which is the experi- dwell. And is there anything ence of feeling and being infinite surprising in one who passes from and finite at one and the same divine contemplations to human time. The more a saint after God- things, misbehaving himself in a realization tends towards normal ridiculous manner...? consciousness, the more he Anyone who has common evinces his spiritual greatness and sense will remember that the perfection. bewilderments of the eyes are of When once it is conceded and two kinds, and arise from two recognised that numerous spirit- causes, either from coming out of ual powers are functioning around the light or from going into the the personality of living Masters light, which is true of the mind's —and this fact is recognised in eye quite as much as of the bodily the esoteric teachings of all eye; and he who remembers this religions—then it remains to be when he sees the soul of anyone determined as to what should be whose one's attitude
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* The Dialogues of Plato, translated by B. Jowett (Scribner's).
A LAYMAN’S ATTITUDE TOWARDS SAINTS 173 towards saints and spiritual per- It is only those who are fired sonages. The following attitude with a zeal and longing to solve sounds perfectly safe and reas- the riddle of existence, if possible onable: in this very life, even at the cost of The worldly people would be sacrificing mentally and physi- well advised to follow the tenets cally everything they hold dear and formalities of one's own and precious, that should try to religion and allow destiny to take contact and seek the grace of a its own shape, either in this life or Spiritual Master. It is the living the next. Masters alone that can unlock the They should scrupulously avoid gates to the Kingdom of Heaven contacting saints out of idle which is within everyone. curiosity as there are greater chances of their misunderstanding When Meher Baba was asked, such spiritual personalities, with a as to what should be the correct consequent bad reaction. and safest attitude of people towards saints, he very knowingly When experience, as a result of recalled the significant words of hard knocks from the world, the Persian poet, Hafiz: sobers people down, resulting in a feeling of disgust and renunciation '' Ya makun ba peel-banan dosti; and a longing for something stable Ya bina kun khana-e dar and unchangeable, then very often, khurde peel.'' it is the Master who seeks out such (Either do not form friendship aspirants and satisfies them with an elephant driver; Or be spiritually according to each one's prepared to receive his elephant preparedness for the Path. as well.)
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The Spiritual Path
BY DR. WILLIAM DONKIN, M. B. B. S.
SHOULD those embarking upon without feeling and thinking the Spiritual Path serve at the feet deeply about life as they have of a Master, or should they, by contacted it. And does not life their own efforts, advance upon a include our fellow-men and their solitary pilgrimage of personal opinions and advice, and there- spiritual development? fore also those who are spiritually There is a room for a multi- perfect, or at least more advanced tude of tastes in this varied world, than ourselves? and in this matter also there can It is principally those who be more than one opinion. But in eschew the personal guidance of most cases the contact of a a Master, who are in fact the most Master is necessary not only in careful students of scriptures and the worldly achievements of art writings of the philosophers. But and science, but also, and indeed what are books save the husk of especially so, in that most wisdom compared to the living perilous and uncertain of all example of a Master? A man is adventures, the search for God. unlikely to become proficient in Every unit of creation is so medicine unless he studies not inter-dependent, that it is less a only from books and from the matter of hitting a solitary trail patients themselves, but also through the spiritual realms than submits himself to the sympa- the problem of joining without thetic guidance of an expert fellow-men in an effort to clinician. And in the art of music, achieve spiritual progress, not for can a man move us to ecstasy by one's self alone, but for humanity his mastery of an instrument at large. unless he has practised under the Even those who stress that relentless eye of a personal progress is achieved only by teacher? In spiritual matters it is solitary efforts, cannot advance the Master who kindles that real
THE SPIRITUAL PATH 175 enthusiasm which is so valuable to Only those can help us who have the disciple's progress. The flaming realized Truth, and freed them- heart of the devotee gives a selves from the grooves of Maya. greater impulse towards Truth than Out of their infinite love for us they any intellectual meditation upon enable us to become free as they divine themes culled from a printed are. page. Our indwelling souls, screened Let those who insist upon from sight by creation, should carving their own path in spiritual welcome the guiding light of one matters bear in mind that they are who is free from all bindings. Such not in any degree the masters of a one lives vicariously in us, and their fate, but are limited knows, because of his universal unceasingly by the laws of body, consciousness, all that we experi- emotion and thought, which are ence. When the Master helps thrust upon them whether they wish humanity it is one part of life which it or not. In order to reinforce this is free, rendering help to another remark we may quote the following part which is bound. Thus does the limerick : Saviour help creation to realize “ There was an old man of Siam, itself. Let us therefore show our Said it seems to me now that gratitude to the Spiritual Guides of I am, mankind for the work they do for Just a being that moves, in deter- us, and submit ourselves to their minate grooves, guidance, in all humility of heart, Not a bus, not a bus, but a tram.” until we become liberated as they are.
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Meher Baba: The “Divine Beloved”*
BY DANE RUDHYAR
Part II†
ASTROLOGICAL data, it total or partial as the case may be. should be clear to anyone, can in Thus what we are discussing no way furnish proofs of the now is not Meher Baba, the veracity of claims such as Meher possible "Incarnate God", but Baba makes. It is obvious that only Meher Baba, the human quite a number of people were being or personality. Likewise born, in India alone, with birth should we study the birthchart of charts so closely similar to his a pope or an emperor we cannot that they could not be diff- see in it papacy or imperial erentiated in the type of analysis majesty, but only the character made by modern Western and destiny, the strength and astrologers. It is even probable weaknesses of a human person that at least a handful of people who became invested with super- in the world were born with personal power and attributes. charts identical to this. All that However, the interesting thing is astrology can do is to study the that one can deduce from the physio-psychological structure birth-chart of this ''human, too and development of personalities human" person the fate of the and their destinies. It can never office he held while be held it. perceive purely transcendent fac- This is ordinary astrological tors or discover whether or not practice. The chart of the Kaiser these physio-psychological char- told significant things about the acteristics can or will be the outer German Empire while he was bases of a divine Incarnation— emperor;
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* Part VIII. A Series of Astrological Symbolizations of contemporary Leaders in Spiritual Thought entitled MOLDERS OF THE FUTURE from American Astrology, March 1938. † Continued from December 1939 issue.
MEHER BABA: THE “DIVINE BELOVED” 177 because the fate of the man- can see to-day by Baha'u'llah last emperor could be taken as a century, makes the matter a very symbol and "signature" of the fate obscure one. Astrology—I must of the empire, while he was repeat—can be of no value in emperor. deciding it. If, then, Meher Baba should be What, nevertheless, could be what he claims—either wholly or the personal, psychological char- within certain limits—he would acteristics in Baba's birth-chart thus be, as a human person, the which could show him ready to symbol of the era of which he assume, or to be invested with, could be considered—as a divine such an exalted part? We might Incarnation—the Spiritual Centre. find an answer by studying first Thus to study the chart of such a the main factors of the chart taken significant Personage, while singly—then the most important invested with such a cosmic aspects. function, would be to study the The Sun is in Pisces 6.22' on a character and destiny of an era. degree symbolized (in the Sabian Readers of this magazine may system which I use exclusively) as remember my analysis of the follows: ''Fog hides the shore; but Victorian Era in terms of Queen on a clear rock a cross rests. Victoria's birth-chart. We find Concentration of values amidst ourselves facing a similar though the chaos of outer living. Clear not identical—situation. Only we light of high realization. have no way of knowing as yet— Acceptance of life's limits at least I have not—whether or (negative meaning)." not Meher Baba is right in This symbol is very interesting claiming to be a spiritual as it may mean various important Personage of world-significance, things. It may substantiate—if a total and all-encompassing taken in its highest symbolical Divine Manifestation. The fact meaning—a claim to divine emb- that the claim is being made by odiment; the "cross on the clear other contemporary figures, that it rock" representing symbolically was made—with much greater the "Incarnation", the Christ-like historical significance as far as we being. The cross rises above
178 MEHER BABA JOURNAL the fog; that is, the divine Entity basic life-dualism. If the Sun manifests and pierces through the represents the operation of the confusions of the emanations of Life-force and of the integrating the collective Unconscious (the Self within the individual man, symbolical ''sea"). While the race then we may realize that Baba's is thus clouded in mist, in delu- life is one of overcoming of the sion, in psychic veils, the Christ- "fog" which so well characterizes being stands clear, based upon the psychic atmosphere of India the "rock'' of truth and divinity. filled with the emanations of a Let us not forget, however, that particularly active collective in Meher Baba, as a strictly Unconscious. He is the cross human person, we may thus shining through the fog, and thus expect to find both the fog and may well be considered as an the cross. A divine Incarnation is Avatar, that is, as a divine human as well as divine. He is Manifestation to his race—and the racial need as well as the di- possibly to the human race. More vine answer to that need. If he is strictly speaking, what is to save mankind he must assume indicated here in the Sun symbol the character, DESTINY and is the tendency in Baba to assume limitations of the human race— or to be invested with such a and particularly of the nation or function. racial group in which he is born. If the exact rising degree I Jesus was born a Jew, because have chosen for his birth is the Jewish race needed most the correct, the symbol for the Christ spirit and Christ's message. Ascendant corroborates the above But the Jewish limitations were statements: It reads: ''A world- in Him, until He fulfilled and leader is seen guided by his thus overcame them, releasing ancestors' spirits.'' Here is Baba’s the Christ spirit to bring a new dharma, that is, the power which Gospel to the Jews and to all he is to use in fulfilling his true mankind. destiny. He is shown as the Thus we may say that the fruition of a long ancestral symbol of Mehor Baba's natal tradition; possibly thus an Avatar Sun indicates an inherent and fulfilling the spiritual destiny of the ancient Iranian race.
MEHER BABA: THE “DIVINE BELOVED” 179
The Mid-Heaven's degree- wayward, moody efforts at great- symbol is also significant: "A ness.'' The Moon is the synthesis woman, fecundated by her spirit, 'is of the past of the individual, the great with child'. Fullness of Self- symbol of the psychic nature, of reliance and individual destiny. the mother, of the life of feelings, Co-operation between spiritual etc. Its closeness to Uranus in the and material agencies. Pure self- ninth house stresses the regene- revelation." It is a symbol of ration of the nature of feeling "immaculate conception,'' and as through spiritual understanding. It the Mid-Heaven refers to the shows the influence of a spiritual public destiny, as moreover it is in "mother"—in this case Hazrat conjunction with Uranus (ruler of Babajan, whose kiss opened to the chart), one might find in these him a new life, points another corroboration of If we take together the symbols Baba's ''sense of destiny''. and positions of Sun, Ascendant, The symbol for the Nadir point Moon and the mutual relation- and the Descendant are also ships they form we get thus a very significant as they show respec- suggestive picture, full indeed of tively a spiritual struggle for spiritual implications. Another righteousness associated with all fact—or at least a possibility—is divine Manifestations and a sense worth mentioning. It refers to the of relationship based on the position of the vernal equinox realization of permanent and all- according to the cycle of enduring values. precession of the equinoxes. Such The Moon, trine the Sun (a fine a position is a much discussed symbol of personal integration matter and no consensus of and spiritual vision) is in opinion can be found; Ncver- Scorpio and in the ninth house. Its theless there are many astrologers symbol is also revealing: ''A high who claim that the point Aries 0 mountain lake is bathed in the full degree (vernal equinox) is now to moonlight. Illumination of the be found approximately on the soul by transcendent wisdom. ninth degree of the constellation Quiet touch with cosmic Pisces. I believe Hindu astrologers strength; or concur more or less
180 MEHER BABA JOURNAL with this view, and thus, as Meher not, however, forget two impor- Baba is born in India, the matter is tant things; first, that the Aquarius even more significant. considered here is not the zodiacal If Aries 0 degree corresponds to sign, but the constellation; the ninth degree of the constel- therefore, that whatever is meant lation Pisces, this means that by this "Avatar in Aquarius" does Pisces 6.22' (Meher Baba’s Sun) not refer to the usual personal corresponds approximately to the realm of life (represented by the fifteenth degree of the constel- surface of the earth and the things lation Aquarius—the difference living on and from it) but to the between the two zodiacs (of signs planetary cosmic realm (repre- and of constellations) being about sented by the polar axis of the twenty one degrees. Now the earth, the gyration of which causes fifteenth degree of Aquarius is a the precessional movement of the very .significant degree. It is so at equinoxes). In other words where least in the zodiac of signs, and if zodiacal signs are considered we the reader reads what I wrote in deal with earthly man and his the first ''Meditations at the Gates of physio-psychological rhythm as a Light" (July 1937, issue of American personality; whereas if zodiacal Astrology) concerning the “Avatar constellations are meant planetary in Aquarius” he will realize the and divine factors are considered, meaning of this mid-point of either within the spiritual part of Aquarius: a point of descent of individual man or in terms of spiritual power, an "Avataric cosmic organization. An important Gate" symbolized by "Man" in the point, which it is unfortunately not fourfold symbolism of the Gospels possible to develop in this (Bull, Lion, Eagle, Man)—Man article—and with which, I know, pouring himself out; and, in a some astrologers will not agree . more universal sense, Power The second important thing to flowing from a higher to a lower remember is that not everyone potential, from Sky to Earth. born with his or her Sun in In reading the above one must Aquarius 15 degrees (whether reckoning by sign or by
MEHER BABA: THE “DIVINE BELOVED” 181 constellation) can be, even to the these disciples will reach the slightest degree, an “Avatar”! The highest that they could possibly point is obvious, yet I want to reach, considering what they were make sure that my readers with when they met him or they will be such a natal Sun will not all jump led to illusory atonements with but to the conclusion that they should temporary gods; that, I cannot begin to feel themselves being tell—and astrology cannot tell. "divine Manifestations". That I must also leave every would be just too tragic for words! astrologer and student free to make I do not know, even in the least, his or her own interpretation of who or what Meher Baba is. All such natal aspects as a square of that is evident to me, from the Sun in Pisces to Pluto and numerous relations which have Neptune conjunct in Gemini. Some been made to me of his activities may say that the aspect is nefarious by close associates and from my and leads to illusions, dangerous own impressions received during psychism, and all sorts of glam- brief contacts, is that here is a most orous self-intoxication. The cross unusual personage—at least from formed by Uranus opposing Jupiter our Western point of view. His and squared by Venus in the fixed psychological gifts and technique signs Scorpio, Aquarius and Taur- are amazing and the manner in us, and very close to the angles of which he has become for many a the chart may seem also to enhance living symbol of Deity and an the possibility of great emotional integrating force (at least from an upsets and of peculiar types of external point of view) must human relationship. It symbolizes, command in any case the attention at any rate quite accurately, the even of the most critical mind. emotional tensions of our age. Whether the ultimate spiritual All this, I believe, can hardly be results of his methods and of his denied. But then if one studies dominations over nearly every Meher Baba’s life and behaviour detail of his disciples' lives are with his disciples, it is evident that good or evil, whether through him they are utterly fantastic (accor- ding to
182 MEHER BABA JOURNAL rational standards) and bewildering. psycho-analysis which C. G. Jung It is evident that he not only makes is emulating in a way adapted to use of emotional tensions in others, our modern conditions of living. and in the relations between him- H. P. Blavatsky used somewhat self and others, but that he similar methods with her disciples, deliberately plans in the most forcing them to face themselves to subtle manner situations which will face their unconscious depths, their produce emotional psychic, failings, their evil—to the end that spiritual tensions. His psycho- (this being done under her super- logical techinique, I repeat, is vision) they could overcome fear amazing; but he undoubtedly and ignorance . . . . and become seems to know at every moment whole. what he is doing and to what It is true that Baba demands precise end. And who could expect absolute obedience from the a "divine Manifestation'' to act disciples; but in this he also follows according to our earthly standards! the old Hindu tradition. It is true Moreover, this mystic of mys- that he becomes the center of tics who according to all Western integration of the disciple, who standards, was for years out of his seems to be controlled from mind (as many yogis, of course, outside, to rejoice or be depressed are for more or less lengthy at the bidding of Baba. But perhaps periods—witness Ramakrishna and no integration or discipline would countless others)—this God-intox- attained in any other way. We are icated man, is most meticulous in in an era of dictators, order being practical details of household, of imposed upon chaotic masses from individual diet, of financial matters; the outside. Yet what appears to be not only meticulous, but most outside, from the point of view of perspicacious. He asks of all his the individual may also be disciples almost the impossible— considered as innermost from the but they do it. He puts them often point of the larger group or whole. in conditions where they reveal A Mussolini, if he be considered as their worst, but that is an old occult an Avatar of the national spirit technique: a kind of Eastern
MEHER BABA: THE “DIVINE BELOVED” 183 of Italy according to the imperial one connected with Neptune image of ancient Rome, is not refers to a "Newly opened real ''outside'' of Italy, of which he is estate subdivision," to the the center of integration; though, opening of a new domain of life of course, he is outside of any to be organised by the will and particular Italian individual consi- intelligence of the pioneer. If dered in his capacity of human Meher Baba is, as he claims, a individuals. manifestation of the Universal Who knows, Baba may be this, Spirit, then the new field of a "divine Dictator" moulding the activity symbolized might be a human race, or a portion of it new human and planetary era. specially ''belonging" to him, The great square formed by according to a divine Image. Or Uranus, Venus and Jupiter he may be self-deluded. If the represents well his peculiar first hypothesis is true, some may psychological technique, based on think that such a method belongs extreme emotional release. Many to the past, together with Fascism people, even of strongly intellec- on the political plane. They may tual type, men as well as women, stand for spiritual democracy, as have crises of weeping for hours well as political democracy. or days after they come close to There is room for many opinions him. He is indeed a strong and I am not presenting here my catalyst to psychological combus- opinion, but merely trying to tions. What he demands of all is: understand facts and interpret love. Any type of love, he says, claims in the light of astrology. can be used by him in his great The square of Sun to the and mysterious "work"—from the conjunction Pluto-Neptune may most personal to the most sublime. be taken in its positive higher He has the gift to appear to each meaning—as the incarnation of a disciple as if he loved him universal Spirit represented by the specially and particularly. Yet he Pluto-Neptune pair. The symbol does this for every disciple in turn. for the degree of Pluto denotes He brings them to extreme extreme readiness for conquering emotional pitch, then action on the basis of training; the
184 MEHER BABA JOURNAL he goes—and they are bereft of while giving their nation inte- happiness. They must raise gration and prestige. themselves up painfully, under Yet the birth-chart of Meher most exacting psychological Baba presents most constructive conditions imposed by him. and integrative aspect Trines The astrological student will (symbols of vision and expansion) note the square by Uranus to are conspicuous: Sun to Moon Venus rising—both retrograde. He and Uranus, Saturn to Venus, will study the symbols for each of Mercury to Uranus. Sextiles these planets (cf. my book strengthen all these trines. An Astrology of Personality) and try to interesting septile of Saturn to read for himself the deeper Mars may suggest a striking meanings of the way in which spiritual message. Mars, ruler of these planetary factors operate. the house of public activities, is Obviously, the Western world is very well aspected; placed also on bound to misinterpret the emo- a degree of happiness through tional technique of this "Divine integration. The degree-symbol Beloved". It has done so. We are for Mercury suggests the religious not used to this handling of the reformer's mind; that for Jupiter, a power of love; at best we can soul deeply rooted in the correlate it with the mystic achievement of a racial past, the ecstasies of Christian Saints. fruition of a spiritual and cultural But to think of a Jesus in the tradition. flesh leading modern St. Teresas For every aspect of tension from emotional pitch to higher there is a balancing aspect of emotional pitch seems rather too harmony and integration. Espec- fantastic. Perhaps it is. It is ially if the degree-symbols are certainly irrational. But so was deeply studied, in the general the faith of early Christian picture they reveal, the chart is a martyrs, the amazing Crusade of striking one. It shows struggle and the Children in the Middle Ages, the possibility of self-deceit, but the devotion of Bahai martyrs in the struggle which Baba had nineteenth century Islam—and so coming back to earth-conscious- are modern political religions ness after the mystic kiss leading millions to horrible deaths
MEHER BABA: THE “DIVINE BELOVED” 185 of his old woman-teacher, is said that each seems to fulfil to have been terrific indeed. We something very real in the may call the experience madness; unconscious experience of his but Baba to-day is too conscious own race or group, and at the and deliberate in his use of same time attracts devotees from psychological forces to be called many lands and conditions. mad. In a peculiar way, his self- Can they all be right, and all be lessness is evident. Whatever he wrong at the same time? May the is, his physical, rational being is ''Divine Manifestation'' be so far assuredly only a portion of his beyond our comprehensions and total being. What is the unknown, standards that it may have to be unrevealed part? Who knows? sought beyond, yet at the core, of Many swear that they “know” by each and all these particular direct experience that he is indeed "revelations"? Can it be multi- the Supreme Spirit. What they dimensional, yet reflect itself in mean, however, is rather that the many personalities in which it they have felt it to be so. Proofs? takes single dimensions which Who can tell what are the proofs appear to be the whole whereas by which we can ascertain the they are only the parts? Can the divine contents of a human irrational be ever susceptible of personality? adequate rational formulation? The curious facts, however, Puzzling questions these are. are—I must repeat—that several Our age is indeed much like the persons to-day claim at the same centuries that followed the time to be each the only beginning of the Christian era. manifestation of God; that they Has then the World-Saviour or have convinced many followers World-Teacher for the future era of the truth of their statements by already appeared? Or has he ''direct experience," that they appeared in part, and this offer significant "proofs" of their appearance be yet not complete, claims—significant in varying so that a new phase of it is now ways to varied groups of people; operating or about to operate?
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Ceremonial Speeches (Delivered on the occasion of Foundation-Laying of the Meher Baba Universal Spiritual Centre)
I and let live: Suum cuique (let each have his own). MR. C. V. SAMPATH AIYAN- GAR, Retired Judge, Madras To-day, in the presence of a Judicial Service, spoke as follows: great, far-seeing bold statesman— Dewan of this model, most MY DEAR MASTER, fortunate State of Mysore, where various religions have been At a time when this beautiful flourishing from time immemorial world is torn by sin-thoughts, side by side, humble I, on behalf fear-thoughts and worry-thoughts, of the suffering humanity, request your all-embracing Love to you, the great Master of Peace and humanity will soon bring into Good-will, who has come to existence a Spiritual Centre, a awaken, to lay the foundation of unique Spiritual Centre, which this Universal Spiritual Centre, will be the house of spiritual where earnest spiritual aspirants beauty, justice and Love. Humble will benefit, in your blessed, I, with all the emphasis of one mothering Presence. I have no who has been your faithful doubt that in them you will lay the disciple for thirteen years and foundation of head and heart, on more, who has no axe to grind, which, in course of time, will rise say so without any fear of contra- the beautiful edifice of self- diction. I have weathered many a realization, the summum bonum of spiritual storm, and to the sceptics a true spiritual life. in this land of religious tolerance, Dear Master, I once more would on bended knees appeal— humbly request you to perform Please wait patiently and see: live the ceremony.
CEREMONIAL SPEECHES 187
II The world, at present, is in a state of transition. We are either MRS. V. T. LAKSHMI, M.A., indolent or selfish. We do not L.T., F.R.ECON.S., M.R.A.S., Pro- understand the true significance of vincial Woman Welfare Worker the term 'religion', nor are we and Superintendent, Central Res- sufficiently tolerant of religions, cue Home, Madras Vigilance other than our own. Bigotry and Association, then recounted the sectarianism have long retarded circumstances of her contact with our progress. They have hurled us Shri Meher Baba and the resultant into violence and antagonism. reaction, feelings and experiences They have given rise to the dismal connected therewith. During her inequality of man and man and talk the speaker remarked as predominance of man over woman. follows: All these are the ultimate results of "My Master's mission is not to our ignorance, selfishness and found a new religion. He has come narrow-mindedness. Time has to awaken people from their luckily come, when the deliver- spiritual lethargy and idle dreams ance of the world from these evils and to remind them to take to might be expected. And we incessant selfless service to win strongly believe that Shri Baba the freedom which is the fruit, not would give the necessary spiritual of conquest over others or other push to it. countries, but the glorious con- Shri Baba's unique teachings are quest of one's own self. Shri Baba based upon universal Love and he does not condemn any religion. To impresses upon us that the idea of him all the religions alike, from sin is the greatest human curse. He the lowest fetishism to the highest is doubtless for those, whose feet absolutism, are only so many are weak and whose hearts are attempts of the human beings to faint. He infuses new life even in grasp and realise the Infinite. the so-called worst materialist or Hence, among his followers, you sinner by saying: 'You are always see the protagonists of all religions, good; but try to be better, and I castes and colours. will help you spiritually.' According to Shri Baba, to
188 MEHER BABA JOURNAL go on the Path, every spiritual III aspirant must start with selfless ACHARYA M. CHAKRAVARTHY, service. This service to others M.A. (HONS.), the great exponent of develops love, which takes the Vedanta, spoke as follows: aspirant nearer and nearer to God, “SHRI SADGURU MAHARAJ, Who is the embodiment of BELOVED DEWAN SAHEB, Universal Love. By personal LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: contact with a Master, that is by Whoever has studied the Vedas our love for and service to Him, and whoever has brought the great such realization becomes not only truths of the Upanishads into possible, but definitely easy. practice in his own life, cannot but remember one of the greatest We believe that the Universal realistic verities of practical life in Spiritual Centre is founded in the connection with to-day's function. Mysore State, in order to help the There is a quotation in the spiritual aspirants, from all over Upanishads which means to say the world, to practise under the that wherever there is a spiritual personal supervision of Shri Baba, power working in harmonious all the ethical, moral and spiritual combination with the temporal principles necessary for their power there are all kinds of spiritual uplift. We have no doubt prosperity in the world. Now Shri that by this instrumentality, my Sadguru Maharaj representing the beloved Master will effect the spiritual power of the modern spiritual regeneration of humanity. world and Sir Mirza Ismail the executive head of His Highness This is, our beloved Master, the Maharaja's Government repre- Shri Meher Baba the God-man, senting the temporal power of the whose self has expanded into the Model State of Mysore, I see in self of the world and from whom this harmonious combination the love and hope flow towards each great nucleus of the greatest and all, as naturally as the light prosperity not only of the State but radiates from the sun. Let us learn of the real, spiritual uplift of to love him and be blessed.'' humanity through Mysore.
CEREMONIAL SPEECHES 189
History has repeatedly proved most ordered Government, of the the significance of the great most efficient Model State of statement. Shankara and Sudhanva, Mysore we can never doubt that Ramanuja and Vishnuvardhana the future Mysore must certainly (whose state is now being presided become the spiritual capital of the over by our illustrious Maharaja world. Saheb), Madhwa and Jayasena Mysore has always been fam- were examples of this harmonious ous for her hospitality, charitable combination of the spiritual and temperament, decent behaviour, temporal powers of those respec- excellent characteristics of the tive times. Even recently in the State and her people and such a kingdom of Vijayanagar we find State should always see both sides the great Madhavacharya, who of the question and embrace later became Sri Vidyaranya, without hesitation whatever is working harmoniously with Maha- good for the good of the world and raja Hukka and the result is the eschew whatever is bad for the never-to-be-forgotten Vijayanagar world and therefore I request that empire. In Maharashtra, we see all my friends, the rulers and the again Ramdas and Shivaji ruled, shall always evaluate things working together for the Maratha on their own merits. With these empire. Now to answer the needs few words I have the greatest of the present-day international satisfaction to say that my life's situation, if under the Divine dream of the spiritual uplift of Dispensation, the spiritual auth- humanity has seen the dawn of a ority of Shri Meher Baba were to glorious and effulgent Light under harmoniously work with the the ægis of Shri Meher Baba and temporal authority of this most Dewan Sir Mirza Ismail. efficient,
______Notes from My Diary F. H. DADACHANJI
THE NEW CENTRE effective and modern method to APART from the special work make the project known to the which Meher Baba carries on world is publicity. But surpris- privately with the God-mad in the ingly enough this very word mast-ashram, where even his own appears like a “red-rag" to so mandali has little access except many who feel shocked and when called for special duty, the question, “A Master . . . and other activity through which he is publicity? How absurd!” Of the known to the world outside here many and varied whims and is his Universal Spiritual Centre, weaknesses of the human mind, for which he came over to this even amongst those spiritually- side and the foundation of which inclined, are there very vague he laid with his own august hands ideas about Saints and Masters last month. and their lives and workings of "No Prophet was ever known in which they know so little yet His own Time and in His own claim so much. Place." Most of these Saints and Meher Baba lives in a modern Masters do indeed prefer seclu- age and his external work through sion and even obscurity from the Centre, which has a world- public gaze and contact. It is the wide scope, must necessarily be true aspirant and seeker who goes done in modern ways, if it has to out in search of them for advice invite and appeal to the intelli- and guidance. But there have also gentsia of our modern times and been Saints and Masters who the masses. And unless the object have openly come out into the and ideals of this great institution world, preached in the market- are known, how could the people places, gathered crowds around be interested? The only them and have created mass appeals
NOTES FROM MY DIARY 191 through such external contacts. In tains and later, when exigencies fact, the ascetic type of Saints and demanded, greater parts of their Masters have very little to do with lives spent with and amidst the the outside world, their work masses whom they had to awaken being mainly internal; hence their to spiritual consciousness. Invar- preference to retirement in iably, however, these unfath- seclusion and quietude. But there omable Beings who were are a few of these who have a apparently human but really great mission and have come for the Divine, were misunderstood, upliftment of mankind every- molested, even agonised and where. They have much to do murdered. "No Prophet was ever with the world outside at one time known in his own times or in his or the other of their life and must own place." Yet in the teeth of a necessarily be available to all, and world of opposition and even even mingle amongst them. It all when ridiculed, stoned, cruelly depends upon the nature of their beaten and persecuted, and mostly work and mission at different from their own people, these great times, places and circumstances. Avatars persevered preaching both To give glaring instances of a few in private and in market-places. If of these world-teachers—Christ, these personal contacts and Krishna, Buddha, Mohamed, lectures in public were found Zoroaster—how could mankind necessary in olden times, when have ever had the great religions publicity as such was practically and messages from God, had unknown, a Master who has to those Avatars not come out freely work in this civilized age when and openly, avoided mass contact publicity forms one of the most and preferred seclusion in caves essential factors to bring into light or mountains? They had to do any new project, must necessarily both at different times according resort to means which bring him to the needs and conditions of and his work in the know of the mankind, certain periods of their public and help him open the way lives being spent in retirement in to contact those who need him. caves or moun-
192 MEHER BABA JOURNAL
PREPARATIONS FOR THE from Bangalore, Mysore and other FOUNDATION-DAY FUNCTION places in the State, miles away, for a public gathering and to make To focus the attention of the elaborate arrangements for a public on Baba's activity before public function under such the people on this side, no conditions, was indeed a task that occasion would have been more demanded most careful consi- appropriate and welcome than the deration of the various practical laying of the Foundation of this details to be worked out. great Spiritual Centre. It was for The principal question was of the first time that Baba's work transport of men and material to through this institution was to be this distance of 22 miles from made publicly known. To make Bangalore proper, from where the function of laying the Founda- everything necessary for such a tion of this great Centre a success, large gathering of several his group had to work very hard thousands had to be carried in cars for over a month and with the and buses. For visitors invited and most appreciable spirit of whole- others desirous to participate in hearted cooperation from all sides. the function, it was decided to run But even with the best of buses direct from different centres intentions and spirit of cooper- in Bangalore City and Canton- ation, there were great practical ment to Byramangala and return difficulties in this undertaking to the respective centres with here. The site of Byramangala same passengers. where the Centre is to be established is rather a remote spot GREAT PUBLIC INTEREST AND near a village, 3 miles from a ENTHUSIASTIC RESPONSE small town and railway station of Bidadi. Except for the gang of Before this arrangement for labourers and other staff working free bus service was placed in there for the Mysore Government public, there was such a demand irrigation reservoir now under for the seats that 500 passes were construction, there is no other distributed within 3 days and public activity. To invite people further accommodation for
NOTES FROM MY DIARY 193 an equal number had to be people of all shades, opinion, immediately arranged. This was culture and nationalities collected managed, though with difficulty, as for one supreme aim in life—Self- the number of buses available was Realization. limited. Yet even this could not A MEMORABLE DAY suffice and hundreds of people had to be refused. Had there been Sunday, the 17th December proper transport arrangement from 1939, may be said to be a Bidadi station to Byramangala site memorable day for Meher Baba’s of the Centre, special trains would group in that it saw the have been surely arranged and inauguration of an institution thousands would have attended. which is designed to embrace the However, in spite of these external aspect of one of the transport difficulties, over a greatest public mediums of his thousand came by buses while an work—a unique institution which equal number came by private cars. is to be the centre focus of all his Besides, crowds from Byraman- external activities for the spread of gala and other surrounding villages his sacred Cause. For the Mysore- numbered over two thousand, ans, it was the foundation day of comprised of people of all walks of another ideal scheme of inter- life and creeds from the State. The national importance that would add distinguished Dewan of Mysore one more jewel to the others that and also his subordinate Govern- already shine in its crown of ment officials were present. This cultural and artistic developments cosmopolitan gathering of over in their Model State. 4,000 of the elite and cultured From 2 O'clock in the afternoon, element in and around Bangalore crowds began to rush towards the together with the poorest peasants different centres in Bangalore from and villagers, wonderfully harmon- where the buses were to start. By ised with the great aim and ideal of 2-30 all the buses were quite this Centre from the very outset— packed up, ready to move. A to bring about a spiritual unity and regular fleet of about fifty buses, brotherhood of humanity—with specially reserved for the
194 MEHER BABA JOURNAL occasion and having placards of attendance. They were all accom- the Meher Baba Universal Spirit- modated in specially erected ual Centre at Byramangala moved pandal and shamiana which were out of Bangalore towards the artistically arranged in a circular Mysore Road which, with dozens arena with Meher Baba's seat in of other private cars all full of the centre and the Dewan and visitors vending their way towards officials facing him. For such a Byramangala from Bangalore that huge gathering to be accom- afternoon, was a sight to see. modated and controlled without With a large gathering of any hitch much of the credit goes several thousand, the little quiet to the efficient co-operation of the village of Byramangala was officials and the police. buzzing that afternoon with life The programme for the even- and animation—a prelude to the ing commenced at 4-30 p.m. with immense activities and movements the arrival of Meher Baba who was that the place will have in future to immediately escorted by his witness. It was like jungle me disciples to his seat. In the mangal. meanwhile, the gathering was DESCRIPTION OF being entertained by a Kirtan party THE FOUNDATION DAY and village band. No sooner Sir FUNCTION Mirza Ismail the Dewan arrived and occupied his seat accompanied By an Observer by the officials of the State, Meher The Foundation-laying cere- Baba was garlanded and the mony of the Universal Spiritual customary bouquet was presented to Centre was performed by Meher the Dewan. This set the whole Baba in the presence of the Dewan, programme arranged for the Sir Mirza Ismail, and the elite of afternoon into motion. Mysore State, both officials and A poetical composition welcom- civilians, on Sunday, the 17th ing Meher Baba was read out in December 1939. Persian by the Author, Mr. A. K. In spite of a distance of about Syed Rasul (Arif), a retired head- 22 miles from Bangalore the master in a Municipal school. This function was a huge success as was about 4,000 people were in
NOTES FROM MY DIARY 195 followed by a speech from Mr. C. followed by another speech by V. Sampath Aiyangar (Retired Acharya M. Chakravarthy, M.A. Sub-Judge, Madras Judicial (HONS.), the great exponent of Service) who recounted the Vedanta, who explained and circumstances of his contact with welcomed Meher Baba’s Centre the Master and his conviction that Scheme to the Mysoreans. it is Meher Baba who is destined After the function, a regular to give the Message of Love and rush was made by the disciples Peace to the worried world. After and devotees, who had arrived in this, he requested the Master to quite a good number from the lay the Foundation. Bombay Presidency, to possess a Meher Baba walked over to the handful of earth that was touched Foundation seat and seating by Meher Baba with his shovel. himself on the beautiful stone- After the function was declared piece, with the shovel specially closed, the guests were requested prepared of seven metals and to move over to partake of light provided on the occasion, refreshments provided in the upturned the earth at a spot where spacious grounds nearby. At 6-30 the Foundation seat will be p.m. the guests began to disperse. embedded in the masonry. When The Message of Shri Meher Baba resumed his seat on the dais, Baba has already appeared in our his special Message, prepared for last issue. The speeches by the the occasion, was read out in three speakers of the day are English and translated into published elsewhere in this issue. Kannada. Eloquent speeches were then delivered. Mrs. V. T. THE MASTER SEES PEOPLE Lakshmi, M.A., L.T., F.R.ECON.S., M.R.A.S., Provincial Woman Ever since his arrival in Welfare Worker and Superin- Bangalore, Meher Baba has given tendent, Central Rescue Home of interviews to very few earnest Madras, recounted the circum- aspirants who sought his advice stances of her contact with Shri and guidance in matters spiritual. Meher Baba and the resultant The desire however for these reaction, feelings and experiences interviews connected therewith. This was
196 MEHER BABA JOURNAL grew very keen in many who the subtle and significant wanted to have a personal contact exchanges of loving glances and with the Master and through that expressions with the depth of earn his Grace, and enlightenment feeling aroused in the lovers for on many a problem in life both the Divine Beloved. Many interes- material and spiritual. These inter- ting talks on spiritual subjects also views were kept pending until ensued and number of questions after the foundation-day due to the were answered by the Master Master's time being fully occupied which throw much light on the in the preparation for the Centre Path and some of the important Scheme with its multifarious subjects that deal with life here details. and hereafter. Our readers may This request of the public and rest assured of some interesting the demand for interviews for readings derived from these talks enlightenment and guidance by in our future issues as time and many a true seeker on this side of space permit. Meher Baba also India were duly responded to and gave private instruction for personal meetings and interviews spiritual meditation to certain indi- were allowed from the 18th of viduals who sought and needed December onwards. During the these. two hours of the day specially What impression those who fixed for these, crowds came in thus met him gathered, is a matter daily for the Master's darshan of individual inclination, tempera- and interviews and went on in- ment, and tendency. It is for him creasing in number day after day as a Master to give, it is for the till the end of December. others to receive, retain and There were some real and realize. genuine seekers and aspirants * * * amongst these crowds who truly As Baba wanted to go out of needed the Master's spiritual help Bangalore for his work in South which he lovingly gave during India during January, these many heart-to-heart talks. It is interviews were postponed till his indeed a privilege to watch this return by the end of the month. He divine game of give-and-take and may give darshan and interviews
NOTES FROM MY DIARY 197 to the public again from the 1st of in sooth, much of a store-house of February. information rather than a reservoir * * * for things substantial and a In this age of logic and medium of true understanding. reasoning, everyone wishes to None knows this better than Saints argue. This attitude of going into and Masters who have dived much the pros and cons of Saints and deeper into the realms of true Masters, so far as it aims at knowledge of life ever-Iasting and finding the Truth, is appreciable who know things as they are and and quite welcome. But with not as they appear. This is one of hundreds of people, with their the very many reasons why peculiar whims and weaknesses Masters and Saints prefer seclu- even for the highest of ideals they sion and avoid public contacts to cherish, to enter into arguments on be away from curiosity-seekers intellectual basis for subjects and parrot-pandits. They are how- beyond intellect would be futile ever never reluctant to guide and and endless. After all spiritual help true seekers. Rather they understanding is something much want such sincere souls who have deeper than mere intellectual nothing to ask for themselves nor grasp of things which remain only for their family and friends of the on the surface. It is much a matter world, but who cherish a desire to of feeling and inner experience be enlightened on the Path Divine rather than outer expressions in and helped and guided in their words or explanations. In fact, the efforts for the attainment of Path of spirituality is one of spiritual Truth and Union with devotion rather than discussion. God. But such are ever so few— With this fundamental difference hardly one in a thousand—as the and diametrically opposite view- Masters know and say. point at the very outset, it is so It could therefore be easily difficult to enter into arguments on imagined how difficult it is for any subject. These extend to leng- Masters of Spiritual Perfection to thy talks and discussion into explain and pacify thousands. details that are as worthless as who approach them with one endless, with conflicting ideas and difficulty or the other, almost ideals of a modern mind which is,
198 MEHER BABA JOURNAL all of earthly nature. Those who from Rahuri to Meherabad near have witnessed such instances of Ahmednagar in 1938, and from crowds coming to the Master Meherabad to Bangalore recently. with all sorts of material cravings, Over a hundred of these God- desires and wants, and how mad have come and gone, after lovingly he has met all, pacified having the Master's personal and blessed them, have really contact, some for days, some for wondered what suffering it must months. Some Baba has retained. be to him to come down to the He has said that eventually he Mayawik plane again and satisfy will have one of every type and the ignorant souls still struggling that they be used as mediums in for existence in pursuit of their particular sphere for his Mayawik pleasures. Apart from Universal Work. the Masts and other true aspirants, Even after coming to Banga- Baba has seen thousands of these lore a number of new masts have really struggling for material been contacted locally from existence in this life and has around Bangalore and also helped so many to overcome brought over from other places in their difficulties, and with his South India—from Madras, timely advice, guidance and bles- Mysore, Mangalore, Belgaum. sings consoled their bleeding Some were given bath, some hearts. He will be glad to see all food and clothing and sent away, who truly seek and need his whereas a few rare types are still Grace and guidance, for that is kept near him. Two of these are his Divine Mission of Love in very highly advanced souls and life. have reached the sixth plane of THE MASTER'S WORK WITH Spiritual consciousness which places them in the category of THE GOD-MAD Saints, who are actually wor- Ever since the establishment shipped as such in their own of the special Ashram for the God- places where they have large mad at Rahuri (in Ahmednagar followings. They are however District in 1936) Baba's work apparently indifferent to their with these masts has been own selves, and oblivious to their continued, even though the surroundings and to the world in Ashram itself has shifted twice, general.
NOTES FROM MY DIARY 199
Who but those that have faith and for the infinite love he has and understanding or an open receptive wishes to impart to all. heart to feel or have eyes that see To the mandali staying with the can appreciate this divine drama Master and who have seen him enacted in a quiet corner of his work with these masts all these abode? In this simple spiritual years. it is a daily occurrence and nursing home are nourished and an object lesson in real, loving treated some of the rare souls who selfless service; to others who have are spiritually-dazed and stranded had the privilege to see him work somewhere in the higher planes. during the last few days, it is a They are discovered and brought sight unforgettable, an experience over to the Master to be in his inexplicable, in different degrees personal loving care and treatment. of their understanding, as they Here in the unique spiritual have themselves given out unasked. laboratory, the world's truest To write a detailed history of all servants and benefactors as the this sublime work would form a future torch-bearers of mankind in volume in itself, and highly the spiritual realm are in the interesting too as evinced from the process of preparation under the splendid details gathered. That will personal care, training and be done in due course. Meanwhile guidance of a Perfect Being, whose this passing reference in general special mission in life is to make will suffice just to give our readers others perfect and divinely and others who want to know of conscious of their real Self, as he Meher Baba's daily routine work himself is. He, as the greatest and chief activities at the moment, servant of humanity, works so that this particular phase of his selflessly, silently and without a activities has a special significance word of mouth, to help humanity and a great bearing on his future in their struggle of existence, in work through those of the God- every phase of life, unperturbed mad who have already contacted even by those who refuse to under- the Master and passed out of this stand or misunderstand, blessing Ashram, as well as those who equally all who come to meet him, have still
200 MEHER BABA JOURNAL been kept with him, and to whose and adjustments that he works out service he devotes some four to six in them in this spiritual laboratory hours a day, regularly, and with of the present-day living saints clock-wise precision, in spite of the whom an ignorant world has pressure of other works that regarded as crazy or mad and demand his attention. mercilessly thrown out. This subtle process of the These amazing references and Master’s working in this laboratory significant words of Baba are too for the training and preparation of difficult for the world now to grasp, the masts may sound and seem but they will certainly be divulged quite unintelligible to our human at the proper time by the Master intellect. But the significant himself—and then the world will utterances and expressions of these know. lovers of God, spontaneously given It might be explained at this out from time to time, as also the juncture that from all apparent marvellous changes we witness in signs and indications, the their consciousness, give us as Byramangala Centre Scheme now casual observers, some idea or hint taking practical shape, touches the as to the trend of the Master’s external aspect of Meher Baba’s working with and through them, activities for the world outside, individually and collectively, whereas his work in the personal which is otherwise impossible for treatment and contact with the outsiders to grasp. Besides Baba’s masts indicate the internal aspect own passing references and of his work—a process of explanations given at times also preparing his great mediums for help us to understand something, if his future work. not much, of the amazing changes ______
Register of Editorial Alterations Vol. 2, issue 3
Page 136, para 2, line 13, change desparateness to desperateness Page 137, para 1, line 11, change spritual to spiritual Page 137, para 2, line 14, change wordly to worldly Page 146, col 1, para 1, line 10, change wordly to worldly Page 149, col 2, para 1, line 3, change worldy to worldly Page 151, col 1, para 1, line 5, change roughew to rough-hew Page 153, col 1, para 3, line 5, change synthax to syntax Page 154, col 2, para 1, line 6, change octives to octaves Page 159, col 1, para 2, line 7, change recouperate to recuperate Page 160, col 1, para 3, line 3, change examens to exams Page 162, col 1, para 4, line 2, change widsom to wisdom Page 164, col 2, para 1, line 7, change furture to future Page 167, col 2, para 2, line 10, change therby to thereby Page 168, col 1, para 3, line 2, change aEd to and Page 168, col 2, para 2, line 26, change quartrain to quatrain Page 169, col 2, para 2, line 5, change enshirned to enshrined Page 170, col 1, para 1, line 8, change aethist to atheist Page 171, col 1, para 2, line 11, change rif-rafs to riff-raffs Page 171, col 2, para 3, line 4, change of to out of Page 172, col 2, para 1, line 11, change being. to being.” Page 173, col 1, para 2, line 1, change wordly to worldly Page 173, col 2, para 1, line 9, change Spirtual to Spiritual Page 174, col 2, para 1, line 4, change felllow to fellow Page 174, col 2, para 1, line 6, change spiritully to spiritually Page 174, col 2, para 2, line 16, change ecstacy to ecstasy Page 178, col 2, para 2, line 7, change ancesters’ to ancestors’ Page 180, col 1, para 2, line 5, change corsesponds to corresponds Page 181, col 1, para 2, line 4, change numerations to numerous (or numerations of) Page 181, col 2, para 2, line 6, change Gimini to Gemini Page 183, col 1, para 2, line 13, change mny to many Page 184, col 1, para 2, line 3, change retrogade to retrograde Page 184, col 1, para 3, line 2, change Terasas to Teresas Page 191, col 1, para 1, line 20, change Chirst to Christ Page 194, col 2, para 1, line 7, change afficials to officials Page 194, col 2, para 2, line 5, change discilpes to disciples Page 194, col 2, para 2, line 13, change boquet to bouquet Page 196, col 1, para 2, line 11, change darshana to darshan Page 196, col 2, para 3, line 6, change darshana to darshan Page 197, col 2, para 2, line 4, change passify to pacify Page 198, col 1, para 1, line 6, change passified to pacified Page 199, col 1, para 1, line 25, change himslef to himself