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11 f. ~ L ---'-=· =-~ =~~-=~ - -- ,=-~: : j: VOL. I ] FEBRUARY [ NO. 2 I! :i====,=~=co=-"'-"'=---= =-c.=~~~- ' ~-~"" ' ·'· '-''--- ~ '~'c" =-.,==--~.cc=='" " ~' o·"' = ' i !
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I.I .: ti l: ij !I il 'I !J II !, II 'I 'l II II those, who experience the gross world as real, aPe asleep. Only those, who experience it as unreal, can real· I lze Go~ and become awake, In the broad sense of the wol'd. ,, :! il ~ I The lVorlcl'.~ Leading Spiritual and PhilosophicJal Jl{onthly Pe1·iodic(~l THE MEHER MESSAGE Editor:-Kaikhushru Jamshedji Dastur, ~LA., tt.B.,
PURPOSE
( 1) THE MEHER MESSAGEacqua.intsthe whole world with the teachings a~1d activities of HIS DIVINE MAJESTY SADGURU .MEHER BABA. {2) THE .MEHER MESSAGE does its best to make materialistic persons spiritually-minded and to establish uni versal spiritual fraternity. RATES OF SUBSCRIPTION.
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N. B.-Shri Meher Baba is responsible for His; Own views only. It must not be supposed that He necessarily agrees with all . the opinions of the Editor of this Magazine. Addrus:-THE- MEHER MESSAGE OFFICE, Near Sarosh Motor Wot•ks NASIK INDIA ------' ' yv.G. I. P. R. EKRAPTURING 1\EV/ S
TO THE WORLD'S SPIRITUALLY-MINDED YOUTHS
His Divine Majesty ·. Sad guru Meher Baba will shortly tstablish
A GRA:nJ SPIRITUAL ACADEMY
FOR YOUNG SPIHITUAL ASPIRANTS OF ALL
CASTES, CREEDS ANH; COLOURS.
SPIRITUALLY-MINDED YOUTHS, WHO ARE NOT LESS THAN EIGHTEEN AND NOT MORE THAN THIR TY YEARS OF AGE, ~.ND. WHO ARE NOT MARRIED. MAY APPLY TO THt=: EDITOR OF THE MEHER MESSAGE. MEMBERS OF THE FAIR SEX SHOULD, NOTAPPLV.. ii . A NOTEWORTHY GUJARATI BOOKLET Shri Sadguru Meher Baba
EDITED AND PUBLISHED BY F. H. DADACHANJI
This is the first and the only booklet in the Gujarati' Language on the Holy Master. All Gujarati-knowing persons should read this free booklet. Only send one anna stamp to MR. F. H. DADACHANJI ._ N K W. India Near Saros h Motor Wonts, ASI , G.I.P.R
AND HE WILL SEND A COPY OF IT TO YOU.
Mr. MEREDITH STARR, a disciple of Shri Sadguru Meher Baba, has established A SPIRITCAL RETREAT at East Challacombe, Combe Martin, North Devon, England. Where Indian as well as 1.on-b~dian vzsitors to fSngla:nd are corJ~a~ly invited ~o stay, provided that they are smcere and wtllmg to medttate most of the time. A nu,mber of persons, wh? have vi:;ited this establishment have spoken highly of it. ,./ No charqes whatever are made except for board and lodging.. East Challacombe is situated in one , of the most bea?.ttiful and peaceful rc7ions of England, on the slope of a hill, one and a half miles from Combe Martin. Just Published. A RHM.-1/lKABLR PR!lSTAN MANUAL KASHFUL-HAQAYAQUE 'Vith au lntr·oduction hv Kt'i,.h!IHial :vtohanlal Jhaveri ll.A. , LL.B., Ex-Chief-Jndge, Small Cau:Oes Court, Bo1n~lity. BY KA IKHUSHHU E~ A],~AHI, B.A. (Teheran). · This is the first book in the Persian language on Shri Sadguru Meher Ba!Ja and His teachings_ In the course of his interesting Foreword to this hook. the renowned Hindu Scholar, Mr'. Krishnalal M. Jhaveri writes: - " The author has written this book in very elegant but simple Persian for information and guidance of such of his fellow Persians, who know no other language ex cept their own. He vouches for the truth of every inci dent, ordinary and extraordinarey, nan ated in this Nameh, saying that he has been an eye-witness of many of them...... Scoffers there will be of the Science of Mysticisw, which is as old as the world, and as new as for instance, a discovery of science of to-day. The very fact that it has survived the scoff of scoffers sp long proves it svitality and who knows but that what is to-day hidden from the gaze of the vulgar or the uninitiated, may tomorrow blaze out in its full effulgence just like the wonderful and unexpected discoveries of seience of the present day_! " PRICE Re. 1 only. Can be had of The A:UTHOR The Sarosh Motor Work$ . N~ik ( W.ludia. ) A Highly Instructive Forthcoming Booklet on the Divine Lord, Shri /Heher Baba The l\'Iasterr
AND OTHER ESSAYS
BY
ftis EutTopean Disciple
The Late Sadhu C.· Leik.
iN THIS BOOKLET, SADHU C. LEIK GIVES
AMONG OTHER THINGS, HIS OWN EXPERIENCES
WHICH HE RECEIVED AFTER COMING INTO CON.
TACT WITH HIS MASTER, SHRI MEHER BABA. CONTENTS
.~A.-YINGS OF HIS DIVINE MA.JEETY ~ADGl.JRU MEHER BABA
\VHA'l' IS GOD '! JJy Ili8 D-i·,ine .1/, ~jt • g fy Sr!rl!J'W"' J/t•!tr:t JJ ,~/,a 2 QL" SHAIUA'l' By l!is Divine .:llr!j eol?J Sady·wm 1VIehe1· l h1br! 8 ~; HE ~ILLY, SGURIULOUS AND MENDACIOUS PROPAGA:t:\DA AGAINST OUR HOLY BELOVED MA STER Editorial 0 miE EDI'l'OR'S DIARY OR 'l'HE NKWS ABOU"l' 'l'HE MA S'l'ER, HIS DIVINE MAJESTY 111EHE!~ BABA 22 W,£A-T I OWE '1'0 MY MM:i'l'ER By Sadhu C. Leik 3 7 .MY IMPRESSIONS By ~Meredith Starr. 42 liiyiNE LOVE By S. A. Abbas (Khat.:) 44 1NDIVISIBILI'l'Y By Meredith Sta?T 45 S~lRI'l'UAL ANECDO'l'ES 46 'i\) • SHRI MEHER BABA By Nargaret Ross 50 /:.· TRIOLE'l' FOR SHRI MEHER BABA By Esther Ros; so oJJ IDUGH'l'S SUBLI!IfE 51 HERE AND '!'HERE 54 REVIEWS 59
OUR SERIAL STORY The Meher Message WANTS AGENTS in all parts of the world.
SRI RAMAKRISHNA A MONTHLY MAGAZINE IN ENGLISH Gives :--Full informati9n of all the Ramkrishna Mission~ esta:.-< blished throughout the length and breadth of India & other continents. Publishes :--Very valuable articles written by eminent scholars almost all concerning religion and philosophy. Teaches :--Teachings of the great m~n such as Sri Ramakrishna, Buddha, Sankaracharya, Vivekananda. etc. etc . . Annual Subscription:-Re.one only. Amount to be paid in advance. · All communications t o :- Me. G. L. N. SARMA, Editor, "SRI RAMAKRISHNA " ADRA, Manbhum Dist. (India). N.B.-Wanted influentiai Agents e,·erywh ere. T erms etc. on application. ·THE PRITAM A Cheap, High Cl ass&. Illustt·ated Monthly PUNJAB! GURM UKHI JOURNAL Editor- S. GURBAK HSH SINGH NAURANG Special Contributions Every Month on : Social, Moral, Religious, Polit ical and Historical 'l'opics. Special Articles for Ladies. Elegrant Printing and fine get-up. Pages 124. Beautiful Pictures in Colours & interesting Cartoons on Current Topics and special features eYery month. · Best Medium for Advertizement 'PRI'l.'Ai\1 ' Ca 11 be l•ad from ali the A H . \Vbeeler Bookstalls and news a,.onts of eYery principal town. "' Annual Sub sc rt'p~10n Rs. 4 only. Fo r~ i gn Rs. 5 only. Six moilths Rs. 2-4 Single copy as 0-6·0 .&.pply to the Manage,·, THE P RITA M ( No. IS ). AMRITSAR, (INDIA). THE MEHER MESS'AGE S H A L L 0 N N 0 A C C 0 , U N T PUBLISH ALOOHOL A DVERTIZEMENTS; OUR NEXT NUMBER. His Divine Majesty Meher Baba will contribute ; ahoght-provoking and spirit-stirring article. His Holines Ghhota Baba wUl contribute an interesting and instructiv article. Editorial : Shri Sadguru Upasani Maharaj. "Woman As Seen Through A Woman's Eyes,; wil be the subj~ct of an interesting article by Miss Mar; Treamann (of Esthonia ). · And VARIOUS OTHER FEATURES. ~ ·~ · ·' v.~.~~~ _ _ :=.:::::--~~-- . - -.. _-.... ~-- ~ ==------.
On the 17th of February falls the thirty-fifth birthday of our beloved Master, His Divine Majesty Sadguru Meher Baba. May His Divine Majesty live long and convert thou sands of sinners into saints !
- - . ( 6 ) The existence of almost all persons is under the control of the mind, but scarcely one out of every tE;n thousand peJ.•sons controis the mind, and thus masters the very existence itseif. ( 7) Happiness and misery, virtue and vice; plea· sure and pain, heaven and heH, birth arid death are .the creations of the mind and dependent on the mind. ( 8 )· It is the mind that makes one the slave to worldly desires. It- is also-the mind that -releases one · from the clutches of the worldly desires and makes one the realize~· of the Supreme Self and the master of destiny. . ' · ( 9) It is one and the same Universal Being (God) Who plays the different roles of stone, metal, vegetable, dumb animal and human being, and through the exis-· tence of each of these experiences His own gross and subtle manifestations; and again it is the same indivisible Being, Who, th1•ough the existence. of a .realized or spiritually perfect personage, experiences His own real state which is beyond both the gross and the· subtle~ ( 10) God reveals Himself only to that mind which is entirely devoid of egoism and'·egotism. . ' ( To he C01 i, tinw~d ) _ . WHAT I S GOD ?. ( JJy H is Divine J fajcsty Sadgw·u Jiehe? ' BcdiCt ) It is possible for, and indeed is the birthright of, every man and woman, black or brown, yellow or white, old or young, of every caste and creed, of every class and country, to realize actuallyor experience personally the One Spirit underlying the reply to this question, which can be answered by word of mouth and in black and white, in an infinite number of ways and words. This may appear to be empty idealism in this so called practical world, in which only a few care to think of and ponder over this vital question, fewer feel the Spirit underlying it, and still fewer have ·realized the Spirit through personal expeyience. But though God has been realized only by a few, the idea can never be called an unpractical ideal, inasmuch as it is possible for everyone to be spiritually perfect. To realize God is quite practical, but on account of its difficulty it is a task to which only real heroes and heroines take. A D Let the readers ca1•efully note that in the above diagram the alphabetical letters denote ;- THE ME 1-LEH ~1:ESSAG E conscious as the Creator, but not of being the infinite ocean of Truth that. He actually ; is. Consequently, although He is the shoreless ocean of Truth, He, as the Creator, does not know that He is That, and so has concern (see the diagra,m) not with A and D, but only with C the creation, which He creates, preserves and destroys. As He is conscious of being the. Creator, and not of being the ocean (A), He is· not beyond .cause and effect, time and space. The creation is the effect of the cause of His consciousness; the time of the duration of His existence is one divine cycle, and the space for His acti vities is the entire creation. C= The Jivatman : He is the same Almighty, and like the creator (B) he is both conscious and unconscious. He is unconscious of his real self, Atman, and does not know that he is the shoreless ocean of Truth, but h~ is conscious of the limited existence of, say, a drop. in a bubble. Therefore, the Jiva.tman, too, like the Creator (B), in spite of being the infinite One, is not infinite but is finite. He is not only not beyond the law of causation but is restricted by it, and is bound by time and space. His life is the efl.ect of the cause of his consciousness. The duration of his life is as long as the divine cycle or till he becomes fully conscious of his Self, i. e. he realizes that he is the Almighty (A) Himself. The Jivatman, i. e. iite plw;; soul. must iose the jiva or life, if he wishes to become Paramatman. But losing the life does not mean ordinary dying or co~mit- W ll . \'1' · 1. ~ U ()l) ti ng suicide. I have used the word, iife, in the sense of woridiy desires. One must be free from all worldly cl esiPes, both good and bad, and the:i' renunciation amounts to iosing the jiva Ol' iife. Let it be carefuiiy borne in mind that desires must be done away with consciousiy. In other words life must be given up while living. Otherwise Jivatman minus jiva aiways was, i>, and ever wW be the unconscious Aimighty. The renuncia tion of desires of body, mind and the world, retaining the consciousness of the unconsciousriess, ·is the goal. In ordinary sound sleep every Jivatman loses life (desires), but not consciously; and so he has to get up again. For the same reason ordinat'Y death is no death a.t ail. It is a longer sound sleep, and one has to get up again. The ordinary death thus does not .tiberate the Jivatman from the chain of worldly desires. The Jivatman must die and stili be living, i. e. he must become fully conscious of unconsciousness, conscious of the pure, infinite, sexless Self, and unconscious of body, mind and the universe. D=---= The Shivatman : When a Jivatman succeeds, through the network .of the existeuce of the Creator and the creaticm, in knowing Himself as the Almighty (A), he becomes the Shivatman. It is then that He becomes what _ He really was and will eveP remain the same One Infinite Ocean of Truth (A). For Him now the jumb1e of the Creator and the creation no ionger exists. He is no longer finite, and He knows Himseif as the Almighty, the One Infinite :Ocean that has always been in existence cont.inunm:hr without any change or division and will remain so for ever. The Shiilatman now knows that, aithough He was in stones, metals, vegetables, trees, birds, beasts and human beings, _Be ~-vas also aJi the time that what He is now. ....,,. Thus it will be seen from the above that the Shivatman is none else but the same One Paramatman pl~1.s knowledge and consciousness. . He is the perfect wakeful state. He is Knowledge, Knower and the Kno'('in. He is Love, Lover and the Beloved. The Shivatman knows that He is "in every Jivatman, and that evet•y Jivatman is in Him. The Shivatman experiences this, while the Jivatman does not. Both are the same, and, yet what a . difference! The Former knows that He is the All in All in existence, that in existence He always was and will ever remain the same one infinite ocean of Truth; . while the latter, though he is the same ocean, does not know whence he came and where he wiH go. To sum up, it is· the same One Paramatman, Who is playing the different pai~ts of the Almighty, lshwar Jivatman and Shivatman. In the Paramatman state, the Almighty is One, Indivisible and Infinite, unconsciously experiencing and sustaining Infinite Powers, Eternal Exhtence, Unfathomable Bliss and Universal Complete· ltncwiedge. As Ishwar, He possesses th~ same powers ete. but experiences Hiinself as en:gaged in creating, pre sel'Vtng and destroying the creation. As ~ivatman, though He is possessed of ali powers, etc. He limits Himseif with desires and therefore experiences Himself as finite. But as Shivatma,n, and it is only in the state of Shivatman tha~ He realizes an infinite pGwers etc.,· in fuii consciousn.ess. ,... WHA T IS GOD I Now fot' a Jivatman . to ·lose the jiva and become Shivatman, it is absolutely necessary that he must ac quir~ Love, divine Love,· Love for the indivisible infinite Paramatman, Who is beyond the realm of thought and reason. As th~ Paraniatman is beyond ail things includ ing the intellect, the _intellect cannot gain Him. But divine love, free from the dross of maya can gain Him as it is beyond intellect and reason. In the next number -of the Meher Message we shall see what love is. SPIHlTUAL· SPEECHES OF IUS DlVJNE MA.JEST\. S.\DGUHU MKHER BABA (2) ON SHA~IA ' I' All Prophets and Sadgurus made the disciples of Their inner ciroles spiritually just as perfect as They Themselves were, i. e. made them realize God and thus freed them from the ceaseless round of births and deaths. To the disciples of Their outer ciro1es They showed the paths of Bhakti and Seva ( Devotion and Service ), and instilled into their minds certain esoteric facts. For the masses of people they left the shariat or the ceremonial side of religion and taught them doctrines which they could understand. But even the shariat, which the great Masters ani Avatars taught ordinary peopie, is, if properly understood, full of deep significance. The l~v.. ~ti ceremony of the . Zoroastrians, the Ud-l,/u:r:fan of the Hindus, and the nirnaz of the Mahometans are nothing but beautifui remedies for the removal of sanskaras, which are the direct effects of thoughts, words and deeds, and which form the greatest obstacle to the aspirant on the path which leads to G:>d -realization. Take the bu.st: i ceremony of the foilowers of Zoroas ter. The three knots, that are tied when performing this ceremony, indicate htmt.u.f((.. h·u.!.:hto. and h-rrwshtct, or good thoughts, good words and good deeds. The striking ON SHA RIAT 9 off, as I may call it, of the sacred thread; while reciting the kusti prayers has also great significance. From the material standpoint; it means the removal of the dust that may be mi the thread (outward manifestation); from the exoteric religious standpoint, it signifies the act ~f driving away of bad desires and bad thoughts (mental manifestation); and fJ;"om the esoteric spiritual stand point, it signifies the wiping out of sanskaras. If the lcust'i ceremony is performed in right earnest a~d with great sincerity of heart, it certainly wipes out some of one's sanskara::.. But if one performs it a thou sand times a day only mechanically, just for show or for the observance of customs, it will be of no avail. One kust'i ceremony performed with genuine devotion will do J..tr more good than one thousand kusti ceremonies per formed without genuine devotion. ( To be coidintted) EDITOIUA~ TI-lE SII_,LY, SCUHHILOUS AND ~IENDA CIOUS PROPAGANDA AGAINST OUR HOLY BELOVED MASTER We are not only confident but also certain that most, if not all, of our .readers will enter into our feel ings, when we assert that whenever we shall have to criticize adversely' anyone, we shall do so with a heart · full of·sorrow. But though the duty of taking others to task shall always be unpleasant and painful to us, we shall never flinch from it. That is why, though our heart is imbued with sorrow, we have unhesitatingly taken up our pen to perform the painful duty that lies before us today. That our Holy }faster should be subjected to ad verse criticism in the press is not at all a matter for' surprise. Almost every great Master was reviled and ·maligned by addle-brained fanatics and hollow-heai·ted wretches. Shri Krishna was accused of being a blood thirsty wretch and a hopeless debauchee. Lord Zoro aster was charged'-' with practisinO'0 black maO"ic,b and · was without a trial imprisoned. Lord Buddha was sneered down as a worthless, ,.,O'OOd-for-nothinO' "' rn.endi- cant. The Pharise~?s accused J eflus the Christ of being a gluttonous man ).mel a wine-bibber, an ambitious re_ volntionary and an irreligious man . They openly do_ clared that Jesus cast out devils by Beelzebub, the prince of devil~:~, an?, as if all this was not enough,· they finally· subjected Him tt> bloody persecution and EDITORIAL 11 roercilessly crucified Him. How shamefully Hazarat .Mahomet wns treated by His own compatriots is known to all, and we need not sny anything about the mal treatlllent. to whic;h ;-arwus othor J'dasters were subjected. It must be said iu fairness to the ndverse critics of His Divine J\'fajesty :Meher Baba that they have not ln public said o,r written anything that would constitute a lega) libel. Nevertheless they, especially a lieutenant colonel, have hurt the feeling-s of thousanas of His · devotees by calling in question His undoubted divinity, by trying to depreciate the great work that He has been doing since 1922,and by distorting various facts of His life and of the grand Mehera3hram Institute. We assure the critics and revilers of ou-r beloved Ma11ter that they are unworthy to stoop down and unloose the fatchets of His shoes. They may be in Logic great critics and may have the power to distingu.ish and divide a hair 'twix:t south aud south-west side, but they are not better and probably worse than the man de$ cribed with gren.t pity by Wordsworth : "A primrose by the river's brim A yellow primrose was to him And it was nothiag more:" Those who touch pitch are themselves defiled. Shri ~1eher Baba, being a· God-man and man-God, cares not a stra'v whether He is praised or abuse'd, appr.eci~ ated or condemned, applauded or attacked. The perverse-minded wretches, who have the stupidity and rascality to. speak or write ill of IIim;harm themselves and not Him. They would do well to commit the fol lowing \vm:·ds of Jesus Christ to memory. "0 gene r~tion of vipers, how can ye, being evil, sp~ak good things ? For out of the abundance of the h~a;t the • 12 THE MEHER MESSAGE mouth speaketh . . .. But I say unto you that every idle ,,.ord that ye sha'll f! peak, ye shall give accon_n t thereof in the day of jt1dgment." . Now let u 1; deal' wi th som e of th'e erities of our beloved 1>iaster. · L ast year, in its issue of July 19, the Times of India, in its editorial, under the guise of reviewing the second edition of our booklet on the Holy Master, which was published under the title, ''His Holiness Me her B!tba ·and Meherashram," made an !'l.ttack on the spirituality of India in general, and of our beloved Master in . particular. The writer of the editorial stuffed his fingers in his ears in aftected horror at the titles, His Holiness and Her Holiness, which we put respectively before the names of Shri Mehet· Baba and Hazarat Baba Jan. We must say that by. calling the spirituality of India in question the Times of India imitated Miss C. Mayo ; and by tt-ying to ridi cule Sadgurus like Sln:i Meher Baba and Hazarat Baba Jan, it exhibited both ignorance and vulgarity. If Hazarat Bab<1 J au does nut deserve to b~ callt:ld Hel' Holiness and our Holy Maste'r His Holiness, then the Times of Indico does not merit the name of a newspaper. \Ve have as much justification in calling Hazarat Baba ·Jan Her Holiness and Shri Me her Baba His HolinBss as the Times has the justification of being regarded as a newspaper. ' A better title than even His Holiness for om: beloved Master is His Divine J\{a.iesty, for as a SadO"uru J ' b He has already done extraordinary work and in the Avataric period, ·'vhich will beg.it~ in near future, He will have to perform the duties of an j\satar or a \Vorld Proj)het. Unlike the T£mes 4 hul-ia., the .Jav~rc-Jarn~>hed, ·which is the·leading Parsi 'Ternaculur newspaper, has no~ EDITORlAL 13 objection to our ~-faster be'ing called His Holiness. But the t\tle, His Divine Majesty, seems to have set up its editor's bristles, for very recently he adversely eriticir.ed the Holy Mi1"'ter more than once. The Jam-e .lamshed wonders \\'hy Shri Meher Baba should estab lish a dispensary, when His diciples say that He has got the powers of -curing all sorts of diseases. Yes, He has those powers, but that does not mean that He should ~ure each and every digeased person by perform ing miracles. He exercises these powers only when, He thinks it necessary to do so. There are a number of persons, who can testify that when they were tottering on the brink of the grave Shri :M~eher Baba literally snatched them from the jaws of death. There are hundreds of persons who are ready to declare that they were CUred of their diseases not SO much .by medicine aR by His blessings. A Sadguru has all sorts of powers, but.He does not like to make use of them freely. Jesus the Christ raised only two dead persons and Zoroaster did n~t raise even o~1e, tho~gh They could have re stored the liveR of thousands of dead persons. There is also no reason why a Sadguru should exhibit His powers when a foolish fellow doubts them and throws down the gauntlet to him to prove them. Will Mr. P J. Marazban show hi::; M. A. certificate to any fellow who declares that he i::; not a 2'1faster of Arts of the Bombay University? Vv e do not wish to be severe with the editor of the Jam-e-.Jamshed, for were it not for 11 certain utter a nco of Shri U pasani Ma4araj. with which we intend to deal in our next number, he would never have I>;:u;sed anv., remark;; a liis first article. Mr. Vima.dalal remarks that it- is stranae. b that so many peopele should regard His Divine Majesty Meher Baba and His H oliness Upasani Maharaj as Sad gurus. After expressing his doubts as to Their perfect sainthood, he is wise enough to remark that only a Sad. guru can understand a Sadguru. Yes, oqly a Sadguru can fully understand a Sadguru. Then why did Mr. Vima daJal go out ·of his way · to sit in judgement ·upon EDITORIAL 15 per"ona:ges wh~ are ~·e 7;n:c~ed not merely rts saints but also as w c: arnntwns ot (_,od oy thousands of persons? Mr. Vimadalal i" sp iritually a Lilliputian, and yet he cb.red to cri ticiz e sp ir:tnally RroL,din g nagian perso nages like om· H oly beloved :Jbsto t:. \Vhwt we know of Mr. Vima da.bl makes us say that it was in his eagerness to oblige a certain friend of his-by writing against Sadgurus that he ran counter to his o\yn sensible beliefs and acted e,O"ainst the dictates of his commonsense. There iH p~acti ca ll y nothing . objectionable in the second article of Mr .. Vimadalal. The opinions that he has expressed on miracles are exactly the same as those which we hold and which we have already expressed in our booklet on the Holy Master. He observes that the man who performs miracles should not neces sarily be regarded as a holy person, and in thiB opinion we concur. Yv e have explicitly written on page 13 of the booklet, "All those who are God realized have the power of performing miracles, but all those who have th~ poweJ.: of performing miracles are not God-realized." l\Ir. Vimadalal has rig~tly laid emphasis on the path of purity, but he ought· not to have dissuaded his readers from . rendering service to saints. Mr. Vimadalal does not need to be told that without the grace and guidance of a perfect Master none can make spititual progress, fot in an article, entitled" The Gl\at of Yama ", which he contributed to the Sa?I:J. Vartaman Pateti number of 1927, he himself rem11rk ed, "Before how(wer tliis happy goal i;; reached, tho so ul has to obtain the guidance of the G uru, the Spiritual Teacher, of Hini who has personal knowledge and experience of the soul's great journey, and who alone can show him the way to cross over the Y~ . 1na- Gh11 t, the stormy currents where the 16 THE MEHER MESSAGE g run God of Death reigns supreme," and rendered < .-oug of Shri K auir iuto Euglish thus : ·• Save the Guru •:; ho sh all sho;v the " ·ay The awiul Ghat of Yama safely to cross? Stretches long the river dark of ignorance, Sky-high rise the roaring waves of Egoism: Torrents pour down of jealousy and pride, And the stormy winds of Maya from ali quarters blow l Save the Guru who sha II show the way ? Mountains of Passion and Wra~h rise high and steep; Avarice the sly thief, is constantly on the heels; Sayeth Kabir, listen brother Sadhu, How may this river be crossed ? Save the Guru who shall show the way!" We are bound to say that in casting reflections upon the sainthood and divinity of our beloved Master and Shri Upasani Maharaj, .Mr. Vimn.dalal committed the greatest mistake of his life. Just as the poor woman in the story ·made an appeal to Philip of Mace donia to grant her justice by remarki11g, ".From Philip drunk to Philip sober," so we appeal to Mr. Vimadalal by remarking, "From Vimadalal misled to Vimadalal sensible" to withdraw the remarks that he has passed against Sadgurus. The chief among the nonentities who oecasionallv· take it into their heads' to conduct scurrilous and mei; (lacious propaganda against His Divine Majesty Meher Baha, is a J>arsi lieutenant·Cl)lonel, who benrs the name of 1ferwan Sorab Irani. .Just as CaritV scr ib blinst of articles rw:;inst Sadcrnrns fur -re li Q· ion. He ~ , n v ~ / seems to he poss:.;ssed of 1Jnm tdless andneity, but abso- lutely desL itute of s.ense nf proportion. His aud acity amounts to efi't·ont ory, illld ns he lt:t s t:tke n leave of hi;; .;ense of proportion his effrontery clt·ives him to make free use of vulgar indecent expressions. The holding of peace by the. Master he calls unnatural dumbness. A peculiar so rt of table, whose length is 151 feet, breadth 5~ feet and . height 4~ feet, and under which the Master formerly used to lie down at night for rest, he pretends to consider a cage fot· barndoor fowls. In an article, which this man contributed to the Jam-e Jamshecl, in its issue of 22nd Sept., he expressed his surpnse as to the reaso n which led our beloved Master to lie down unde r this t:1ble, and hinted that the man who did not lie down on a comfortable costly bedstead could not be a Sadgnru. From this it is as clear as dayli ght and as plain as a p1:oposition in Euclid that this Lt.-Col. cann ot regard Shri Ram chandra, Lord Zorof1ster,. Lord Buddha, Hazarat Maho,11 et, Shri Chait<:tnya, Shri Ramkrishna and such other God-realized personages as Sadgurns, for like our beloved J\f aster, they, too, lived humbly and did not. use to lie down on costly bedsteads. It goes without "aymg that he also cannot regard Jesus t he Christ as a Sadguru, for J esus explicitly said, "Foxes have holes, a.nd birds of the air h <:tYC nests ; but t he Son of man hatl1 not 'Yhere to by his head. " This wisdom-claiming and s~ ints-c riticizing Lt.-Col. does not see n1 to be on S]Je akirw tern1s with truth for ~ ' he oft no:J-coopenttes with it, aucl that too, more vigpr- ously _than Ma hatma Gan4hi non-coopet:ates witrt the G0vern1uent of India. He would have his readers believe that l1 e has come into close contact with His 18 THE MEHER MESSAGE Divine Maj e:.;t? lV[ elt.e r B n. ba. The facti:.; that he has nc,·cr in his life even seen unr bel() vc d :Master. In the artiele referred to n h ~ ,-e . this mnn has frankly n. dmitted that he is !ttateriali ~ t i c · . L11t. still lt e lt as the ancl acity to claim that he has rece ivctl a heaveuly Jtte~ s~ t ge. About this so-called heavenlvJ messaO'et'> we content ourselYes with saying in the words of the Swan of Avon, " Methinks the gentleman protests too much." It was to this truth-perverting and facts-distorting, swollen-headed rind perverse-minded; sensation-lov'ing and popularity-hunting Lt. Col. M. S. Irani that Miss Bai Palamkote ~av ·e our booklet on the Holy Master for reviewing in her magazine, "Hindi Graphic". Miss Palamkote, who only a few months ago requested Shri Meher Baba to allow her to publish the poems which He had formerly composed, who published those poems as if the Holy Master had specially composed them for her monthly, and who requested Mr. 8orabji M. Desai to write articles on the Holy Master for her magazine, could not find a be.tter man, i. e. a fit man for this work. That is why she entrusted this mate rialistic man, who regards the Adva.ita philosophy as blasphemous, 'vho does not know the A B C of the spiritual path, who has not read the works of Mahom~tan Sufis and Christiau mysticH, whose con'cep tion of · God is not better than that of the · Santo. Domingans and of religion not better than that of the fanatical monks of the Dark Ages, who no- more under;; >tands yogas than hieroglyphs, who has not even read the mystical Zoroastrian scriptures, and not understood, though read, the non-mystical sc ripture;; of the P arsis, with the work of reviewing· om· spiritual booklet ori the Holy Master. This Lt.-Col. can no more appreciate it than the cats and clogs of l\fatheran. Hncl he written EDITORiAL 19 a single word in favour of it, we avow wo would have got fL shock of our life. Our Hindu readers will not' be surprised to learn that thi:; 111nn, in the beginning of · his :;o-ealled review, has dcebred that the Hindus are backward and i.meivilir.:e(l. Yes, he regards the Hindus as uncivilized, simply because they are spiritu:tlly-min_ded, and a large number of them believe that it is p9ssible for a human being to be one with God. It is but natural that this Lt.-Col. s}10uld regard the Parsis highly civilized and progTessive. He regards the Parsis:as the most advanced and civilized community on this earth; prob~.~.bly because a large number of them believe that Zoroaster wafl the only true Prophet nnd all others were hypocritical, because most of them are steeped in materi:alism, and because the average pleasure-hunting Parsi, by good, means good to eat, good to drink, and good pny for the bad work he does. We have written in our booklet, "As soon as Meher began e1~joying the bliss qf the seventh plane, he became unconscious of everything except his one d~vine self, and for full nine months he remained so ... , At the end of the above period He recovered a little conscious~ ness of His, which '~'<: Ls sufficient enough to make Him cognizant 0f His actions. His full consciousness was restored to Him ... at the end of 1921, i.-e. ne~-rly eight years after He became God-realized." The Lt.-CoL calls this statemeut ·in question, becatl.se pripr to the complete restorati~m of His gross and subtle conscious ness He was erwao·edb 0 for some time • ·in the toddy busi- ness. All God-realized persons, when a pm·ticular stage in the process of descent from the seventh plane is· reached by them, are {rresistibly led to do manual work of the nwst lowly type. It was with a view to gratify this in·osistible craving for such work thn;t Shri Meher ~0 THE MEHER MESSAGE Baha kept a toddy shop, and not wi t l1 a ,·iew to lay up moJwy, fo r wltic lt He hm; had not l'fing short of trans.. en ·de nt There is not tlte sli,rltt;.;t. necessity fo1· us to do su, but :t!Jllo.:;t all our re<:d. E) I'H will l1 e ,;·tone with us wheu we snY tlutt it is nhsolutel.\· Jt ecessar.\· f()]' this 1..t.-CoL to clu.tJJg·e l1i.-; ll!eublit.\·. Tl1i s wrotcltucl lll J:)th Deeemuer, 1928 to lCi:h Ja nnc~ 1·y, J !J 2D 15th December. The Master fed the selected boys of the Meherasln·am, who are called and whom I shall henceforth call the Premashram boys, on spiritual knowledge, in the endy hours of the morning. ~he . number of subsrrihers to The :M ehet· l\fessage goes on . ~ incre asmg. 16th December. The "1\'roiser ..i-IIi n(l " published a letter from the pen of Mr. B. F. Bharucha, in which he. takes exception to the title His Divine Majesty, which I put before the name of my beloved Master. According to ::\fr. Bharncha, only God should be called Divine Majesty, and -not a.ny human being. I was much amused by Mr. Bharucha's letter. It is evident that he is unaware of the · High spiritual position of my beloved Master. 17th December. The Holy Master was busy throuocr hout the whole davv . I sent a letter to the Edi-. t or of the Kaise1·-i-Hind, in t:eply to that of JV[r. B. F. Bharucha. In the course ofi t I asserted ; "As God is ·.nnnl ess and lmeless, it is nllt proper t o set hounds to J:I is infin itwle. God :-;]!Onlcl not he e< ~ll e d Hi;:; Divine Mnjesty, but a man-God like Shri Mehel' Baba may justly be call ed hy this t itle. If it is not wt·ong to call a real independent king of a country His Majesty, TliE EDJTOKS DlAHY \Yil\· sllt\ul ll it l1e l'on,;idered \\T<>Ilg' t •1 cnll ''· real Sad!l·uru Av~ttar I li .-: Di'i11g ~l. "Before I return to Eno-l'and;:, I would like to tell You how very glad I mn that Meredith came to Yon. All his life h e has been seeking You, and just before we met· Rustam in Eng1nnJ it seemed as though eYerything had been taken away from Him ; it is wonderful to see him growing: nearer to You everyday ...It bas been a wond.e r fulliving at the Ashram in Your presence; but I knm\· that You will he with us always wherever we are, and I shall meditate on You more. I have not felt strong enough to meditate \Yith Cl.mcenh 19th December.' I rece iY ed 11 n interesting letter from 1dr. Sor 11 hji M . De~ai. In t l10 cmu·se of it he writes: " I sin c: e1·e ly hope yon 11re doing well. P erhaps ou mi •,.l1 t lta\·e r e t < t llll \ ~ Hrti<:lo Son eri .T il ll ltl r!O , in t he •Y b "' ' Hindi Graphic, the-editress of which has done me injustice by curtailing and putting some audacious sentances in my mouth which I had not written at all in my article. I have stopped wr.iting for her monthly, . and. you will not see any· article for the pre·sent until she, ex presses her regret." The number of subscribers goes on increasing. Tho Master delivered .a spiritual discourse before some of the disciples, and imparted instruction to the Premashram boys. 20th December. Sadhu C. Leik received an interest ing postcard from the Swami Nixhayananda of the R amkrishna Mission Sevashram. The Swamiji '~rites, " Our India is at present in great need of such a noble institution as the Meherashram, for the welfare of the young generation, ·who will represent her true glory, spirituality, before the world in future, to bring peace and consolation everywhere." The Master imparted spiritual instruction to the Prernashram boys from five to eight in the evening. 21st December. A number of Hindus 9ame to worship and t o seek the blessings of the H oly Master. For no less than four hours the Prernashram boys got· the benefit of the Master's company and instruction. 22nd December. A few highly !3ducated Parsis, belonging to the upper middle class came in the pwrn ing to revere the Master. One of them, who had never before come, remarked just before departing, ''l must say that I feel something extraordinary here." 23rd December. I was in spiritual bliss tlm:iugh THE EDITOR'S DIARY 25 ont the whole day. The ·Master d·e livered a discourse before His disciples ;~ nd imparted instruction to the Prema;:;hram boys. 24th December. I learnt that the Kaiser·-i-HinJ ha:d I~ot puL\ished i11y reply to Mr. B. F. Bhurucha. What has its editor to say about this injustice which he has thereby done to the Master and to me? A Hindu lawyer came from Nasik to worship the Master. After worshipping the Master he became ex tremely joyou~ and uttered for a number of times. the words, "Sadguru Nath! ". The Master said that he was a good man, aud gave him the prasad of an orange. The devout lawyer accepted i"'.i promptly and joyously, and snid, "I am, indeed, lucky. That's why I have got this orange from you, 0 Sa~guru Maharaj ! " . 25th December. I received an interesting letter · from Mr. M. M. Banaji, the author of" Sublime Though Blind " and five or six original interesting Gujarati novels. Mr. Banaji writes : "My dear Mr. Dastur, I chanoed to get yesterday your print13d handbill re : the Meher Message journal. It set me a-thinking if it is from the same young gentleman with whom I had communications on various matters.· I have almost decided you are the same persop.. .:Methiitks you had told when you last saw me at my house, about 1;wo years ago, that you were about to leave for Eng~ land .... I wonder what has led you to be a disciple of Shri Meher Baba-such a promising mid highly erudite. and clever young man to bind himself for life to Sadguru ~nd spiritualism seems to me to be passing strange. I should be gbd if you could deign to · ex- 26 THE MEHER :MESSAGE plain the mi1·acle. I~ is little short of that .... I ~ lJ o lll l l \ •e glnd t(l kn(m if yon 11 re a men.iher · of the In(lian Spiritnali~ti e s'oc~ i ety . .. . . - - ./ 1 ) _ <1\ll',.; S rll<'C I'O .)', .M. NL Banaji." The :!\Taster i111pnrted instruction to the Premaah ram boys from 5 to G a. 111 . , !! to 12 a.m. and 5 to 7 p. m. 26th December . . A number of persons came to worship the M1:L;;ter. The Master devoted more than three hours to feeding the Premashrani boys on spiritual knowledge. . 27th December. I sent the following reply to the Jetter of Mr. ::VI. M. Banaji quoted above : ' MEHF.RASHRA)!, ARANGAO:-<, Ahrne(lnaga1·, 27th DecernlJe-r, 1928. My dear Mr. Banaji, I _acknO\vl~dg e with delight and not without thanks the receipt of your letter of the 24thinst. Yom conjecture is quite right. Yes. I am the same young gentleman with whom you had communications on various matters. Your renHtrk, "I wonder what has led you to be a disc inle of Shri Meher Baba . . . . such a promisin Mn n vVho made me renounce my worldly ambitions, -,o u kn ow very well what a 1 u biti o n ~ I · bad in those da}rs- the .Man v \V h ~ ef!'eeteJ a revolution in my outlook on life, the Man \Vho maJ e a ~~Te a t awe descend upo nJ JJ e wh en 1 met Hin1 on the fi rst o ccusion, the :Nl au vVh o convi nc ed me that I would se rve humanity far bet· ter after realilling God tlvm before, that this world is but maya and the spiritual life is the real life of man, must be not arl ordinary mortal but a super-man. You must be remembering· that when I last met y ~u in Bombay I told you that two books, one politica] and the other didactic, which I had written and the manuscripts of which I had sent to Messrs. Arthur Stockwell & Co. of London for publication, would shortly. be published. But why have they not been publi s hed~ -' After coming into contact witl{ the Holy Master, it occured to my mind that it would he highly improper on my part to thrust them on the reading public, as the ideas expressed in them I could no longer concur m, and those who would read tl1em would not be bene- fitted. I acted a cco~·ding t ~ the dictates of my con- science and prevented them from being published. You would not at all wonder why I have become a disciple, a devoted and loving disciple, of Shri 1leher Baba, were I to acquiant you with all my fee lings, with the spiritual bliss 1 occasionally enjoy, with the spiritual agony I have undergone, with · my unco ntrollable desire t o sing the praises of my beloved Mester, and with my aspiration afte 1· _God-re alization. I go fu rther and · say t hat if you we re t o experience only one-tenth of what I have ex perienced spiritually at the hands of Shri Meher Baba, a nd if you '\vere to get only one of the many proofs which H e has givei1 me of H is dtv inity, then, I am sure, my deai· Mr. Banaji, :2.8 THE MEHER MESSAGE t.h n.t you would devote .h alf of your t< pare time to sing ina the Jlraises of Shri !Vfeher Habi1 and the remaining C! • ltalf to meditating ur;on Him. My dear nh. Banaji, you re: uind 111 8 tll I shall IJ erh aps quote y our lette1; and this reply to it in t he February nu)nber of The Afche1· A1essagc. \Vitl1 kind reg·n rds and blessin gs of peace, 1 am, ~:fin e e rel y and affectionately yours, K. J. DA.STUR. 2tith December: Profound is the love of the P~ema shram. boys for their Master. If their parents were to take them nway from the Ashram, I am sure they would come back despite difficulties and obstacles. As a matte r of .fact a Mogul boy, nm_ned Ahmed Mahomet, totally agniust his will , was snatched away by his guardian from the A shram on the 20th of August and talen to his h ou;:: e in B ombay. In Bombay the boy felt like a fi sh out of water. He could think ofnothing ~nd nobody but hi s R ~ loved a!ld how to return to Him. He was on the look-out for an opportunity to run away fr 01n his guradian's place. On the 23rd of this month he found a11 opportunity, and he availed himself of lt, thouglt l1 e llad not a pie in his pocket. After six: ti::tys' j ourney , nH, stly on foot, this hercic spiritually mi nded boy arrive d t oday at Arangaon and joined his Beloved. This l1 ov t ett ches us that the love divine knows nn diffi c ulti e ~ a nd triumphs over all opstacles. 29th December. , In the early hours_of the morning th e J\f m:t e r fed lh e r,·cmashram boys on the kernel of .~ p iritu n l l.::n owl edge. L zct e 1· on H e talked with some of t he disciples about tlre silly and mendacious propa grwd u e<.. Jdueted against Him by ignm-ant busybodies. As the discipl es, in the course of the conversation, gi·ew 30 THE ME!{ER.MESSAGE excited against Lt. Col. M. S . Irani, His H oliness calmed t hem :;ay ing, : "Yon s lto ~dd not ·hat e him. The ma n deserves to be pitied. D ou't think that he i;, h ~ u: mill g Ill\' (o ause . · Par a do :c-i~· al n,; it 111 ay ;;oe m, lw i>' serving' it ~n c or;s ~iou s l y in oue i· esped. . Don't forg ot the proverb that out of evil cometh good." Mr. Meredith Starr wrote the follo\',·ing :~ · " TO SHRI MEHER BABA. I cannot thank thee as I ought In any words or even thought. If Tholl wilt know how dear 1'hou art, Then read the silence in my heart." 30th December. For no less than seven hours the Master was busy preparing the Premashram 1oys for their spiritual enlightenment. A number of pet·sons came to worship the Master. 31st December. The Muster did not seem to be well today, but still He imparted spiritual instruction to the Premashram boys. 1st January. Each of the Premashram boys has· a separate room for himself, so that he may meditat~ properly: The Master went into the room of each boy, and gave instructions to him on meditation. A Zoroas trian boy, named Aspc:mdiar Sarosh Irani lost his gross consciousness on account of constant deep meditation; . The }.1aster restored his consciousness within half an hour. 2nd January. The Master's European disciples, Mr. Meredith Stat:r and Sist ers Margaret Ross and Esther Hoss left India today for their native couutry, England, after staying . for nearly six months in the Master's durbar. Each of them considers this period o£ six months as the be st of his or her life. Thou.gh THE EDITOR'S DIARY 31 the\· have left the .:\faster's clurbm, they feel that the Master is "·ith them· nnd ,,·ill :dways he with them. As ?lh. Sbrr \note· :1 <·ouple of d;tys prior to his depnd11re: " Yet, Love, Thy will be done On earth· as in the sun, If Thou wilt make us one ! So be it then. From Thee I cannot flee, 0 dear Divimty; I give my life to thee, And cry Amen !" 3rd January. A few months back some E)ducated and famous Pole ! formed a committee in Poland with a vtew to acquaint the Polish people with Shri Meher Bab~t. Today the Master received a telegram from a young Polish gentleman who calls hirr1self Bilski. The telegram contained the following news; ''Three new members ndmi.ttecl. If help received, willing to start immediately." Late in the evening the :Master uddressed His dis· ciples about His future work. He concluded by say ing, "Balm Jan's prediction about My future work will be fulfiHed. Time is drawing near, when the_ world shall have to pay attention to "·hat I shall say. The message that I shall send forth will not be· a cry in the wtlclerne.ss." In passiug it may be stated that the Holy Master oft says tlwt'un ex.traordinarily.blocdywar will ue \Varrecl in 11C LII" future, and that when it will Oe at ·-::> its height, He will manifest JiitnsP.lf bP.for8 the world us aP Avatar. 4th~ January. The Master fed the Premashram boys on spiritual lore in Llie evening. In the afternodti 32 · THE MEHER M ESSAGE a Hindu vi ll ager, whose. daughter was t o l>e Ili write ill of Him, the M n,ster said" They should not be hated. As I oft say,· they too are unconsciously serving my cause. .T ust as, ·y on are keeping connection with Me, so they t oo. ;Jft t llillk of ,:;\Ie." · " The Smi Annual " of this year was received today. Among several phot oes, those of Her Holiness :Saba J an and the M astet· are baiven in it. Beside. the photo of His Divine Majesty the following words are published : " Meher B aba: A saint who is at present residing in Ahmednagar District. He is a follow~r and a devotee of the well-known Baba Jan of Poona, who is· supposed to be over 100 y ears old. He received his initiation from Baba Jan. It is said that he has under- . gone great sufferings and has at present ~any disciples and devotees." 7th January. The Master devoted five hours to imparting spiritual instruction to the Prema!>hram boys. In the evening He talked with various disciples about the Ashram, 8th January. The nmi1ber of subscribers to this Magazine goes on increasing. The Premashram boys got the b8nefit of the .Muster's compmiy and instruction · for four hours in the morning. A n~mber of Hindus. came to worship the l\faster. 9th January. In the morning the Master was. bu~y with the Premashralll boys . . In the evening the First Class Sub-Judge of Alunednagar and · Mr. Saptarshi Vakil came t o revere the Master and to see the Mehe:r ashram. After pay': ng their respects- to the Master both t he gentlemen talk ed with me for about half an hour. They ask sd we . various questions abo.ut the, Master and m,yself. B oth of them were sa tisfied with my r e pli e~ . In .the course of conversation the Sub,Judge observed, " One must receive some enlight~nment by 34 THE _MEHE R MESSAGE coming into conbct ,\,ith a perfect }\Lt st or, of course pwviuod UllO Cil l' l'i e,.; vut U is \\·ill. " · 10th January. -s,,d!tu C. L uik rec: oivo d 12th January. A unmher of Hindu ladies aud g entlemen came t n worship the Master. I received the Decelll lJer nmnbet' of " The Yaitarani" which is the only E ngli:-;J.l lll onthl y of Orissa. Its ahle editor has (1 8 ,·qtcd ; t p:tr < t .~r ;~ p h in it to the :Master, -~Nh o m he regards as "a wond erfully spit·itualman." In the early hours of the morning the Master gave instruction to the Prem ashrarn boys. The Master spoke to me that he had finally resolved to leave Ahmednagar with about twenty of His disciples with a view to tra,vel on foot, to cl ose the Ashrani tem porarily, and to reopen it after ·a, month or two. As I could not accompany Him on account of this Magazine, He asked me to stay here. 13th January. The Master acquainted the boys with His resolve to go on a tour, and to give vacation to them for a couple of months. They were thunder struck and became sorrow-stricken. Though the Master told them that H e would call them back as soon as poss ible [llld not t o \Yorry about their spiritual future, many of the boys cried as if their heads would break. Divine love has its pleasures, but it has its pains too. It is diffi cult f~ r tme lovers to bear the separation of the Beloved. The }\laster devoted a goo·d many hours to giving instruction to the Premashram boys. In the evening nearly three-fourths ofthe number of boys WE;lre ~e nt to their guardians' places. 14th January. I received an interesting letter from Dr. R am Na r ~ty::m a , the author of" Dream Prob lem " 0 f w readers firm in body cannot trayel so f II In those early days, before the SELi' . revealed ITSELF to me, I used to plead with It thus: Come, oh come my beloved. SELF and teach me, how I can realize Thee. Thou art not tL stranger, but my own SELF and knowest, how I long to be united 'Yith Thee. Why art Thou hesitating~ If there is a barrier between us, teach me how to surmount it, for I am blind and ignorant and can do no more tli'an pray, that Thou mayest show me the way to Thee. L ater on when the SELF had revealed ITSELF as the SELF of all, I prayed again: Teach me, oh be loved SEL]' to alway-s, dwell· on Thee, that all sense of separateness may leave me and I may love and serve Thee in and through all beings. At that time the term SELF appealed to me most. It seemed to bring me the source of all being so near to my heart. All other names, such as.BrahmaJ?, Atman, Om , That~ God, F ather in Heaven sounded so distant and as if something quite apart.fro-m me. Yet there came a time, when the idea of SELF had disappeared 'as so mething of [L personal nature and a limitation in the limitl ess. Quite unconsciously I had grown into what is call ed the Existence, Know ledge and Bliss absolute. All else seemed relative and everchanging in this R eality and unchangeableness. But somehow the term ' Bliss' has always catJsed some 38 THE MEHER ·:MESSAGE eonfnsion to me. At t im es I in terpreted ii; as the acme "f. love urcl1i ns crowd ;u·uull(l Him', " ·h e n l{e is near their donni t or _,-. They rush. fwnt the ir l1ed,;, t o ki;.;s B a lm's sacred fo3t a nd phce t h e i1· t inv nrn1 ,; 1· omtd His wa i:> t. Aud B a Ll a Hillt;:;o lf, _jn-:t li k~ S l1ri H. <~ nwkri :-; hna in the t e inple gn rd cn of D a b ·dtjn o:-; lt\·ar, one uf t h e ir m 1·n , Jn:tkibg them l'tngh and fill tlteit· h earts wi th boyish glee. The other day a -boy anived at J.\1ehern.slm:un with all sig ns of exha ustion. And uo wonder t Seven days earlier he had set out o~ a hundred miles journey without 1he least pro\-isions. for his tnunp. His home w~s in Bombay, but his heart was with his beloved Baba at Meherabad. Anothet· boy had so often run away from his home to stay with Baba, that legal measures proving to be of no antil the father had in despair handed the boy over to Baba's care. '¥hat depth of affection in the hearts of these two, who lwve just entered their teens! And they are not the only ones. Some of the boys li terally worry thernse lves lest B aba should send them away. It takes all one's power of persuasion to pacify their little minds by .convincing them of the contrary. S ometimes in the evenings when going on night duty in the boys' dormitory, .I cannot get them to go to sleep if B aba happens to move in the neighbourhood. They watch with all the puerile eagerness for a chance t n rush out, t o be embraced and patted by their beloved Baba: 'Vha t better lesson is needed beside such loving exawple of love divine ?. An adult can be a hypocrite and full of cunning, but in a boy of tender years all the affec tion manifested is free from all nrtifis; iality . . He does not know to put on anything. . Tl1e ShastJ ·ws tell us how an Incarnation should be. Our B a ba has no need for such dead letter guidance, for H 8 is us natuntl a nd as hom0ly as nnyone could be . . His ve ry presence is suffi cient t o prove His high calling as a 40 THE :MEHER ME SSAGE Teaeh er of humani ty. '?lby t iH lSO, who ]w\·e eyes, see H.im in H i~ glory aud tl 10~o, wl1u •· n11 l1ea r, illllJilJe dis ·] or Sadguru as my !Jeloved .Master, Slu•i Sadguru Meher Bal>u, t hat REPLIES TO CORRESPONDENTS Dr. Ram Nar As one of the few. Europeans who have lived in an [ndian Ashram under Indiim conditions, I have been asked to give my impressions. For nearly ~ix montlu.; [ have been with. my beloved Master Shri Sadguru Meher Baba in His Ashram. It has been an experience I would not have missed for anything in the world. As I have always been in sympathy with Eastem peoples and ideas I did not find the slightest difficulty in adapting myself at once to the life at the Ashram, and after a few weeks felt as if I had been thet'e for years. I was probably assisted by the fact that I have uever had a nation[Ll consci,ousness due no doubt to living abroad and travelling constantly during my youth a.nd subsequently. I have always believed that it is possible for a man on earth to reach a stage of consciousness, in which he becomes endowed with super-human wisdom and with the ability to help others to reach the state he has gained himself. In Shri Meher Baba !have found such a n'.an. He is a super man in tl~e true sense of the word, a bridge between man and that inscrutable power which upholds the universe and which men call God. Jesus, Buddha, Mahomet, St. Francis, Socrates and others demonstrated each in his own way that conscious union with the root-principle of all life ( caiJ :\fY LM PRESS I ONS 43 it what we " ·ill ) can Le achieved. Shri M eher Baba is nlso a liv in g witness nt' t his f<~ c t, and His only aim it life is to help others <,t lso to gain t his r eali zat ion which is t lte t rne go;•l ()f 1if o. . lit(lin (<~ II(] tile rest 1l tho worl (l ) needs such nvm They are the salt of t he ea rth and t he progress of hu manity depend;.; chi ?- fl y upon the ne\v spiritual impetuR they alone can give . While living in the A shram I was treated by all with the utmos t-consideration and kindness. One great relief was the complete absence of intc1e Ft in politics activities. I dislike politics in any sh ape or form. Politics are merely patch-work. They do not go to the root of the matter and at present divide men far more than they unite them. The future of this planet depends t o a great extent upon E ast and W est finding a common basis of nndet standirtg and toleration. Instead of continually harping on differences they should pract ise good will and try to understand one an.other. But that r equires patience an d humility on both sides . . And it is as well to re. member that ari ounce of example is worth tons of talk. The power of example is probably the greatest force ic: visible universe. The fact that Shri M eher B aba is a living embodiment of ideals which others only worship from a.f ar (or i0o· nore ) t o0o· ether with His profound- wis- dom and all embracing compassio!l, explain the extra- ordinary devotion H e inspires in all wlro come clom~ ly in contact wit h H im. F ortunat e inclo·ecl are t hose \\" ho gain H is company and still more foi.'tunate are t hos e wh o foll ow H is advice and r ece ive H is g race. DIVINE LOVE (By'S. A. Abbas (JOwL)) 0 Love Supreme I True light of mine eye I Essence of all that is high' and low · In heaven ~bove or on earth below! The arrow of light from thy half-drawn bow, Has stayed in my heart, ~nd set it aglow, Revealer of all that is noble and high! 0 Goddess of Love and Eternal Bliss! Mysterious Power, whose love sublime For guidance of hearts doth abide its time ; Whose prophets appear in many a clime And utter thy· message, ~nd chant thy rhyme ; On thy lips, 0 Love, let me plant a kiss! 0 Love, tbe Union of Souls Divine ! Separation my longing alas, did thwart ! And pierced my .soul with relentless dart ; They say thou knowest the tongue of theheart. I have played and lost. Now play thy part ! Give me thy heart ! I have given thee mine. l NDr\rrs i BILITY ( By )J1e?·eclith Stan· ) The deepest Truth, the purest love, Are one below and one above ; In the last, supreme endeavour Love and Truth unite for ever. Indivisibility · Is the final fact for thee. Thus the Highest Will is done On the earth as in the sun. Thus the map returns to God, And the king becomes a clod, And ·the clod becomes a king, Lord of life and everything. Though manifest in diverse ways In the world's enchapted maze, Truth and Love are really one On the earth as in the sun, All degrees are lost in this World-annihil ating bliss. Indivisibility Is the fin al fact for thee. SP I H LT l r ~ \ L .\ "\" J·:C DOT F: S A ccording to Priyn Da,;, one day so me thieves went at ;1io·ht to steal the \rtlidtlt of Tulsi Das, but be held a clot.:d-dark fon11 with IJOw aud arrows in his hand. Wherever they moved;the form approached them with ready shaft ; they were terrified; and although they went round and round, they could not get rid of this watchman. At daybreak they called upon Tulsi Das and asked : " 0 Sir, who is this dark-complexioned lad of yours? '' On hearing this When Sndguru Kabir app1 wtehed Sikandar L odi, the Enl)>eror's courtiers ast ed him tu make obeisance to t l1 ei r .:\ b ster. Kahil· replied: " I mn not ucc ustomed t6 court;; a nd d o uot kno\\' how to lll ake prostratio11 s. I have 11 0 business ·with the Emperor; I only know the name of God, \¥ho is the Support of my soul and the only Sovereign of the world." The suge asked -the Spirit of Wisdom, " How is it possible to seek the preservation and prosperity of the body, without injury to the spiritual growth, and the deliverance of the soul without injury to the body ? " The Spirit of Wisdom replied : "Slander not, lest ill-fame and wickedness come to thee therefrom; for it is said that every demon attacks in the fr ont, except Slander which a:- snults from behind. F orm no covetous desire, so that avarice may not deceive thee, and that the benefit of the world may not. be tasteless to thee, mid that · of the spirit unheede.d Practise not wrathfulness, since a man, when he pra ~ti s e s wrath, becomes forgetful of his duties and good works. Suffer not anxiety, since he that is anxious is heed less of the enjoyment of the spirit and his spiritual. crrowth comes to a stop. " Commit no lustfulness, lest from thine own actions injury and regret com.e to thee. Bear no envy, so that life mny not be tasteless to thee. Co mm it no sin through shame. Practise not slothful sleep, lest the duties and O'Ood · b •vorks, which it is IWC€ssary for thee to do, remain undone. U tter no ill-timed gossip. 48 THE MEHER ~1:ESSAG E Be cl eligent and disc reet, and eat of thine own re g·ul<:n·· industry, a w.l form a portion fen· God and the good. This practice, in thy occupation , is the greatest good work. Plunder ri ot from the wealth of others, _lest thy own industry become unheeded; since it is sai~ that .a worldly-minded person, who eats anything not from h1s own regular industry, but ~rom another, is as one who devours men's heads . . With enemies struggle with equity. With friends proceed with approbation. ·With a malicious man, carry on no conflict and no wise molest him. With the covetous man b'e not a partner, and trust him not with the leadership. \Vith an ignorant man, be not a confederate; with a foolish man make no dispute; fro ::n ill-natured nwu, take no loan. With a slanderer, go not to the door of kings. " * - . An ag nostic once asked a Bedouin, " How know- est thou that God· exists ?" The Bedouin replied, " Does the dawn then need a torch to be seen?" * B abu Kristodas P al, the editor of the Rindt Patriot and one of the leadet·s of India, one day calle< upon Sh:::i R amakrishna P an:uuahamsa. _ The topic ·o. renunciat ion being raised, }\ir. Pal remarked to th1 Sndguru : " Sir, t his cant of r enunciat ion has almos ruined the country., For this reason th e I ndians are subject nation today. D oing good to athens, bring in education t o the door of t he ig norant, and, above all, in proving the mrtterial condition of the country ...... thes SPIRlTUAL 'ANECDOTES 49 should be our duties nO\\·. The.cry of religion and re nunciation, would, ott· the contrary, only weaken us. y on should advise the yo ung men of Bengal t o resort to such acts only iLs will uplift the co untry." To this Shri Ramakrishua rer5lied: " You appear to be a man of poor .understanding. You dare to slight in these terms a thing which all our scriptures desoribe as the greatest of all virtues ! By reading two pages of English you think that you have l~nown everything of the world. You seem to think you are omniscient. Well, have you seen those tiny carbs just born in the Ganges when the rains have set in? In this big univ~rse you are more insignificant than even one of those little creatures. How do you dare to talk of helping and serving the world ? .... Let man first realize God. Let him get His authority and be endowed with his power; then and then alone he can think of doing good to others. A man should first be purged of all egoism. Then alone the Blissful ~1.other will ask him to work for the world.'' TO SHRI :MEl--I ER BABA - ·- : o :-- ( Bv 'iliM;;ctr et Hoss ) I thirst and yet I cannot drink I hunger yet I cannot eat; 0 let my fainting spirit sink Into the dust beneath Thy feet. My soul is like ·a fallow field That bears for thee no golden grain Do Thou Thy dews of mercy yield, And it shall blossom forth again. A TRIOLET FOR SHRI MEHER BABA --:::=::::- ( By E sther Ross ) A garland of gold To die on your heart: Let my Lov.e so unf old, A garland of gold. Lonely buds on the wold Would rather be part Of a garland of gold To, die on your heart. THOUGHTS SUBLIME There is in reality -only th e one S elf which we are , nothing besides it; and since there is nothing besides the Self, you cannot consistently say that you are a part. But it must follow that you are the Self entire. There is no division in the Truth. You are the Truth now. Swami R am 1'irthr,. Once did I beg and could not get even a cracked cowrie in aim'· Who wanted me then for any need ? But Rama, the cherisher of the poor, made me of great price. Saith Tulsi : Then it was without Rama; n ow Rama is my helper. J'ulst Das.· If Thou art a Hill, then I am Thy Peacoclc; If Thou art the Moon, then I am Thy Chakor; If I break with Thee, whom shall I join ? If Thou art a lamp, then I am Thy wick 'If Thou art a Place of Pilgrimage, then I am Thy Pilgrim; I have joined true love with thee; Joining Thee I have broken with all others; Whenever I go, there is Thy service; There is no other God like Thee, 0 God ! By worshipping Thee, Death 's noose is cut away: R avi Das singeth to obtain Thy service. Ravi Das . " • .. 0 se rv ant, where dost .thou seek Me ? Lo! I am beside thee: - I am neither in templ e nor in mosque; I am neither in Kaaba nor in K ailash; Neither am I in rites and ceremonies, Nor in yoga and renunciation. If thou art a true seeker, thou sh all at once see Me: thou, sh alt meet me in a moment of time. 52 THE :MEHEH MESSAGE R ise above th e body, burn up this personality of yours, si nge it. consume it, burn it up: then ~ n d th en only will you see your d esires ful fill ed. In other word s, "Deny ycur se\f, .. H e w ho knows Love becomes Love , and he knows All beings are himself , twin-born 0f Love, M elted in Love'so wn fi re, his spirit Rows Into all e arthl y forms, below, z. bove; H e is the breath and the g lamour of the ro~ e. He is the benedic:ion of the .d ove. Elsa Bar l;er .. • 0 little lark. yo u need not Ay T o seek yoU\' M aster in the sky, H e treads our native sod ; Why should you sing aloft , a part ? Sing to the heaven of· my heart; In me, m me, rs G od. I am come Into this darkn e ~ s to atta.in the light; T o gain my voice I make myself as dumb: That I may see I close my outer sight : So I am here. Alei.ste·r C1·owl'ey. Open the door lo-night W ithin your heart, a nd light The la nte'rn of I.Jve there to shine afar, O n a tum ultuous sea - Some strainin g_ Cl' aft. may be, W ith bearings l o~t. shall sight love 's sil ver star. Bliss Cc~ ·r man , • THOUGHTS SU BLIME 53 And we perceive, not awe But love is the g reat law T hat binds th e world log ether safe and whole. T he splendid planets run T heir coqrses in th e sun ; Love is th e gravitation of th e soul. Bliss Carman . .. breathe the breath of the morning. I am one with the World-Soul. live my own life no longer, but the life of the living whole. Edmond Holmes • .. Unstilble as the w ater on a lotus leaf, so is the life of man. The company of Sa dgurus in this world, even fo r a moment, can be like a boat to cross the sea of birth. Sankaracharya. ' .. .. Thou shouldst not b ecome presumptuous through much treas ure · ar.d w e alth, for in the e:.d it is necessary for thee to leave all. Thou shouldst not bocome p?esu mptuous through any happiness of the world, for the h appiness of\ the world is like a cloud that comes on a rainy d ay, which one car.n ot ward off by any h-ill. Thou shouldst not become presumptuous through life, for death c.omes upon th ee at last and the perishable p 3. rt falls to the -ground. Zo<"0:4ster.· Ccd was made man th at m«n mig ht become Cod . St. A 16!J.ustine. I-IEl\E AN D THEI~E SURPRISE A'!' K~;DG AON In its issue of January 5, The lrul7·an Daily Mail published the following ·news wired by its correspondent of Poona. . ' '' At Kedgaon Bet, the abode of Shri Narayan Maharaj, this year's Datta. Jayanti was celebrated on a larger scale than usual. Hundreds oi devot~es and disciples of Shri Narayan had thronged to that place on this occasion. A very largely crowded fair was also held there. But as large nnmbers of people had gatherecl there to have a darshan of Shri Narayan Maharaj, thieves and pickpockets also seemed to have had a good opportunity to carry on their practices. A number of thefts were reported te have been committed during the two or three days of the celebrations. In fact, some of the visitors had the experience of having their pocktes cut off from their coats, in the thick of the crowds. Ornaments were snatched av,ray from the hands and necks of the babies and children and several complaints of. women having been relieved of their jewellery had · reached the ears of Narayan Maharaj. On the last day of the celebrations the pilgrims, one by one, started on their retun1 journey, ea_ch after having taken the darshan of the saint. It was a goldsmith's turn to approach the sage and to take leave of him after paying his respects. What helped the sage to single out this particular goldsmith as a susp.ect was indeed a matter of surprise to many. For, ruerely by looking at the face H ERE A ND THERE 55 of the goldsmith , he seenied to have at once suspected him as a person responsi ble for some of the offences that were reported to have been committed during the two days of the ce kbraliOJ1S. H e asked the goldsmith to stop by hi s side f or some time, and he sent for the police immediately. \ iV hen the poli ce searched the suspect's pe rson, his bag and baggage, as also of thost-: belonging . to his accomplices, many of the ornaments reported to have been lost, were f ound. Tht goldsmith and three other suspects, one () f whom W ;;S a WOman, were tfl.ken to police custody and were further sent to Supa to be pre sented before the Sub-Divisi-onal Magistrate.'' C HAR ACTEIU ~ 'l' I C S 0 1>' HINDFISU In a lecture which he deli vered at the Ramakrishna :Nlission Vaidyesh wara Vidlaya H all , J a ffna, Ceylon, the Swami Y atiswarananda observed : "Hinduism does not owe its origin to any single individual. It may be said to be the product of the spiritual genius of the.entire Hindu race. It is certainly a revealed religion_, but revealed not to a particular person or set of persons, but to innumerable prophets, saints and sages. It is based not on personality but on the Divine Principle tha t is embodied more or less in all the great spiritual men and women of the world. In this ·res p€c Hinduism differs widely from other re]igions. Fort . Buddhism without B uddha is unthinkable ; Christianity, without Christ falls to the g round ; M ahometanism without Mahomet loses it s meaning . 13ut such is not the ca se with H ii1dui sm, vvhich , f ounded as it is on the bedrock of E ternal V erity, has yet place f or a ny number of personalities, prophets and teacher s. H induism does not therefore be)i eve with Christianity in the theory of the 56 THE l\fEHER · :MESSAGE only begotten Son of Gocl. nor \\ ith lVIahometaiJ;sm in the Messenger with !i na! and complete re\·clation. It hol ds. ou the other ha11cl. that. as the human society is a _]i,·ing ami e\·o h iu g orgauislll and. need :.; rcacl juslmcnts with the change of . time and circ umstances, there must flourish newer prophets who as declared in the Bhagvad Gita, are embodimeti. ts of the One Divine Being, and appear in different ages for the preservation of good and destruction of evil, in short, for the establishment of righteousness on earth.·" - .-- RELIGION In a lecture which he recently delivered in America, Swami Omkar, the founder and president of Sri Santi Ashram, remarked, "As you know, in every reli gion on the face of the earth, there are two things, namely. esseniials and non-essentials. The essentials are the same in all religions. But the non-essentials differ in every religion. One who has 1·ealized the essentials in his own. religion.. will not fail to feel the same Truth in all religions also. But one who is satisfied with the non-esseentials cannot help but be seeing differ ences ii1 all religions, for he 1i ves on the surface. How can· we call one religion great and ~ nother small? Is not God the basis of all r eli gions ? Is not God all-pervading? Are we not repeating that He is omnipresent~ - If we . beiieve that he is everywhere, then why ca!l vve not feel H im in all religions ? So long as we li ve surface lives, we cannot help but behold the cli fi' erences. But in spite of the diffe rences, all rel igions have a common basis, namely Gocl. Suppose we take a garland. In a garland every flower appears-as di ffe rent from the other. But are not the flowers connected with thread or wire? Thus all these H ERE A :;D T HERE 57 cli ffcrclll religions are connected with the same Universal Love. Evcry re li g ion has irs own sublime beauties. No reli;.;·i un n c , ~ d ],o;t s l of its superi ori ty over another . C{) lll p : tr i li.~: ( l l o cccb (; r reli gions \\ ith the spirit of critici slll , ca ll ing c.m rciig inn al 'l'Hli H UmHJt : OF '1'.\ LK IC\ G WITH 'l'HJ·; RPII~ l'l'S OF 'l'HE DEAD M r. C. K. Chesterton recently said, " Spiritualism is one 'of those trap5 scattered over the course of history and daily human li fe which ult.imately lead to people \Vasting their time, and sometime far more important things. I do not beli eve anybody can tell n1e anything said by any spirit or at any seance that has the ring or shar pncse of one of the epig ram s of one of the great sai nts or theologiaus." I U~LI G 10:\ . AS IX:\ Bg 'S X l'E ltl Excg D r. R d>i ndmuath T agm e is reported to h ave said r ecent ly to Mr. D oremus S cudder, "We Indians meet God in nature as Love a nd J oy rather thau as L aw. We have something in out llldiall n1 entu1ity which I may call ·a U nivcr :-; e conscimb ll Css or cosmic fe eling. If \Ve h av·e not a fe eling of kinship with nature, we lm;e something ve ry vitaL T he U niver;:;e, t h is ear th , sky, star all come from O na Ce nteal C reative P ersona lity_ and this same creative will lw.:-; ,i b 11w 11 ifesta tion in our own conscious ness; h ence t h e re i;;s nes t his souse of relatiou::; hipbet ween t he inner self and the out et· world. I belie-v e that J e~m s reach ed brotherhood t h r ough fatherbood, and t hat this ha :-~ dono gre:1t good and lws b e ~,. ott en humanitarianism. ' ·-' \..__) 1..) 58 THE lVI EHE R MESSAGE , l l d ,_ . t t - (--.o cl t lJ oU•r h the\· Yet ,,-e fi JI ( m en w lO · o no" gc o x · ' · " ·· . ~ 1· · .. t l1e L 111 o·h t . !I ILIV J1 e <> Tent [0\'CI' S o f. Il! O ll. h .o lg" !O ll l ,, l.l l llO · r- • , " . .~ . . . . _ . ·l · ,. . 1·,,. · He It - .Teaclun g ,J11 o n t r olig:Ioit 1:-> uut t e <~ . c u n~-, t e 1,.._ 1"0 11 ' gi u1 1 1 111 1 ~ i he il lljl<~l' te d l'm 111 ~;p i ri t tn 0] 11 1'1!. A ~ L\ HO ~!E'l' A N 0:\' ISL.-D[' ::; SI'IRI'l' UAL S[))E U nder the auspices of the Cresce nt Society, the Hon'ble Justice lVL K. Akbar of Ceylon High Court - delivered a lecture, on J anu ary 4 in the L awley Hall, Madras, on ''Islam and its significance in the twentieth century." The lecturer spoke at length on the spiritual side of life and the waj to get at the truth. He asked them to reflect upon the seriousneso; of this life and the mighty force be hind this whole world. They saw and knew things according to t heir individual abilit_y. This world was nothing but a refl ection of \\'b at is in them. If they pond ered deeply they would realize that nothing was done by their effor t. God is one for all. All reli gions were alike. I slam was eiwugh for them, for they were born in it. They should be si.ncere in their heart. If they gave deep atter:tion to many of their religious teachings, they would realize that in their degree of perce ption a stage would reach when in thifl world there would onlJv exist God and nothin 0o · else . To 0o- uide. them . through those region;.: they would require the assistance of a Guru. God was love. They should not hat e anybody . God was as much theirs as of Hindus and Christians. The 'speaker i.n conclusion appealed to t he youths t o st udy and und~ r s ta n d hotter tl~ e ir re1igiom ·teachings and use them m a proper \l·ay l ll t he conduct of their lives. " " Hindu" 'J'llH JJH X U! PROJ3!1K11: ( l ·uh v111e Sccu'JI{ I P r(.?'t One) 13y D l'. Hwn. Nr wny r ~, , ,, L. J[. 8. ·1"!;c,U:O?',, l ' · '' l)rrr<:ficel. J fedir ·ine." ( P ?IJ ,Ii she?·s, " I )1·r;,cticnl Jliedir.ine " NuJ Se.n rL Delhi ) This book, w hich contai:1s ne:::r ly 650 p:J.g es and which is divided into h e parts, vi z. ( I ) Editori al, ( 2 / Dialogues between Sage V asis ht a and th e d reame r, ( 3 ) C ontributions in answ er to the 14 Points ( 4 ) Brief <: nswers to the 14 P oints, an<;! ( 5 ) Notable com ment-s and views, is at once interesting a nd i.:structi ve , so much so th at its a uthor, Dr. R am N arayan, may justly be said to have served these w ho arc in the i:Jtcllectu :J. ! quest ofT ruth The object of thi s book is to search afte r the ultim ate Truth from the study of three -states of co n scio n s n ~ss - wa ki ~g , d reaming a nd d eep sleep the ca ily experi e::ce cf e ve ry human being. The first p art of the book is the mos t ir.structive, and we assure Dr. R a m N arayan that he has already grasped the ultim ate Truth by his powerful intellect, and that all that he h as to d o now is to reali ze it by spiritual growth with the g race and gui ancc of a S a d g u~u . The learned auth or believes in Abos lute Truth as one; in rei a ti ve truths as many ; and in untruth or non-exister.ce as rw ne . The A bsolute Truth· is that- which is ever prese r_t; rei a tive truths are these w hich appear to our senses at one time ar.d disap pear at another; and the onl:r u::ltr!.!th i? thai which ne ver a ppea. s or comes into cog ni zance of our senses. The Ia w of Polarity is th e key-note of the author's ph ilosophy, and he holds that good reason and fall acy, like other pairs of opposites, are the two poles of one and the sa me thing . By the law of P ola rity the author me ans nothing but maya; a nd h e would certainl y have used the latter term GO THE :\IEHER )JESSAGE were it r: ot fe r the fact {h at ce rt a in p e r s o :J~, ~ s soon as th ey hapr e ; to hear or see thi s word , l< ne a tc::dc::•:)• to lose th eir mental bn;ance and b ecome hyste ri cal. D r. !~;; rn Narayan reg ards this world as maya . and the oc;: c . : l k ~ l ·:/ :d: it'g st .,. tl: "' clr c: :nn. H e rig htly il sscrts, •' What keeps us fo rgetf ul or ob li v i c u ~ to cur R eali ty is ''·!I!J"n or ignorance, the opposite pole of !J.'f'" t or urw. The lea rned author, in his youth learned the art of controlling drea ms by practice along t he lines of auto-suggestion und to this he owes the appearance of the S ag e V asishta in h is d reams. The second part of the boo k is devoted to th e second d ialog ue between the dreamer and th e S age. It is as interesting as instructive. Almost every line of th e dialogue breath es sanctity of thoug ht. We would fai n quote some of the passages, but space forbids us to do so. The dialogue is followed by contributions in a n~wer to the 14 Points in the Dream Problem by Indian ·and Europea r; writers. A few of the contributions are simply rubbish, but the majority of them are ;really worth reading. Dr. R am Narayan has kindly requested us to send our an swers to the I 4 P oints to him. As we intend to respond to his request, we need not discuss those poir:ts he re and now. It rests for us n0w only to commend this book of D r. Ram Narayan to our readers and assure them th at it is worth re ading. NE W MENACE TO :tOBOASTIUANlSJ.vf COMING FR OM A THo'UGHTLESS 1-IINDU J.l1EMBER OF THE LLGISLATJVE A SSEMBLY: By M1·. Far ecl1;, n K. D clclachanJi. ( Frctsho ganl P ress , Fort, Bombay) T he purpose of this brochure of fift een p ages, written in trenchant language is to show, fr om the orth odox P arsi vi ew-point, the h arm that D r. Sir I-l ari S ing h Gaur's Special M atriage A mendent Bill , for amend ing A ct Jll of 1872 of the Government of India , w~ul d do to th e P a rsi commut1 it y, if it is passed . The proposed Bill of D r. G our the author regards a s a violent d irect att ack on Zoroastrian religion, rites, c u s ~om s , and the e nti ' e Parsi social fabric. As the P arsis are ag ainst this Bill D r. Gaur woul d do well to omit them from its application. It would not do to say that it is pe rm i ssi ~e . ·A Highly Interesting Forthco1ning Publication SOBS AND THROBS OH. Some Spiritual Sidelignttts With a Foreword by Mr. Mazharul Haque, Bar·at·1law BY A. K. ABDULLA (Hamjuu) Price Annas 8 only Can be had of THE AUTHOR, Akbar Cotton PrGss, AHI\1ECNAGAR. A BOOK BARCAIN Hartmann's Who's Who In Occultism, New Thought, Psychism and Spiritualisn (BRAND NEW COPY) ORIGINAL PRICE TO BE D-ISPOSE.D OF AT RS. 68 RS. 9 ONLY. PL]~Af::ll~ APPLY TO--·- Wlr. VISHNU, Akbar Cotton Press, Ahmednagar. The following two Books by the Editor of THE MEHER MESSAGE will be published next year: (1) Love~s Loot and Fruit OR The Boy=Lovers of Shri Meher Ba ~ a The Messiah (2) The Newer Testament OR The Book of Divine Knowledge THE VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY By SRIDHAR MAJUMDAR. M.A. With original Susttas, th eir word for word meaning, explanatory quotations and an unbi asse d and th ouohtful exposi ti on in mo~t clear and lucid English, highly spoken of by th e Press, l'rt~ !J ib ddlu , JJiwrnlo. . 'J"Iu· r~d'.LU I< I X l'sa t" i, J'lt e S tlli''·;man, l'hc }rfoo'c-rn R n•icw, 1'he .-hwr il£! B a:::m· P1r,lr i k<~ , 'l'luJ i ndian lJr THE PRITAM A Cheap, Hi)::h Cbss & Illust!·aLe< l "'Iont hly l'U~.JABI UUUI! UKHI .JOUH1\AL Jl:ditM" - S. G URBAK HSH SJNG H NAURANG S p ecial c.:unt ribuLio1 '" F,,·ery ~I on t h on: Social, Moral, r: ul i .~iu u ..;, l'ol itic: al :IIIII Hi,;t;ori cal T opic". Specia l Arti c l e~ for Lad ie>' . E l"C:>UI L P1 · in r in~ a nd tin e ~ et .up. Pages !:H . Boau t ifui . Pi ct. ur o~ in Colour.-= & in t.en~ :-:L in~ Ca!'too n ~ o n Cu r r e nt T opie ~ and - s per:ial f e a tu r e ~ e,·nry tnunt h. Best M e dium for Aclve t•tize m ent. 'PRI'l'AM ' Ca.,. '"' hnd from ;\I I Lhe A. H. \ Vh ~:ulc i" B ookstall,. ."'"l n u w8 a go 11 t s of e very princ ipal t own. Annua l Subscr iption R ~. 4 011l y. F nreig 11 R~. ,; only. S ix mo 11 t h > i{ s. :2 .4 Sing le copy " ~ 0 -ll -0 A p]'iY to the M !t1W.JG >" , THE P RITA M (No. IS). AMRITSAR, (1:-\DIA). THE MEHER MESSAGE DOES ON NO ACCOUN'f PUBLISH ALCOHOL ADVERTIZEMENTS. JUST PUBLISHED. A R emcwkctble B ook in Co nnectio n with S onw S])iritua~ lV cwkings of fU\ZH~tH p,!EfiE~ BHBH $Db~ )UUl ~Jtrcb5 Olt $.0 tU t -~ · ~ al t l i glt t ~ By A. K. ABDULLA ~-®-~ CON'l'EN'l'S C h r ~pt n· Ch''l't r. ,· 1 Love S p a r k ~ x i T he F irst \\"onderfn l E scape H 'l'he Gum of an Ins f. it ut ion XII T r ut h 'fell s III The H ero X lll T he I nevi t abl e Hcnction IV The Divi ne Lift X! Y 'l'wo n l a~ t en Meet v All Afl ame xv The 'l'ra nsfet·enco t,o Toka n Beyond the O r o ~ " x YI 'l'hc ~ I i'"ion to the \Vest, VII 'l'he D e , · i l ' >~ W nrk x nt H istory Repented nu T he Hosult xY!II 'l'ho Seco nd Bi< l for F reedom I x S nat ched Away x 1x 'l'he Chapt er of ~la n y E , · e n t~ x Six J) ay~ of Separation xx LoYC 'l' ri u m p h ~ Aga in x xi Fresh F low of :S piriLua lity XX II Tho P u lsating Impul'e XX III 'l'he 1\l e 's " n .~ e r " of Lo,·e xxi v 'l'he St ra ngo End of a Strango Stot·y One h1.md1'Cd cmd sixty-nine p ayes of lit:ing spirit1w.l ?'Orn.ance (~( a th1·oM1:n.r; hccwt, ·with fmw m ·t-page ·illnstratio'i i,S. MOULANA MAZHA RUL HAQUE writes ir. the foreward to this book : " This book is a prose-poem. wherein the Divine Love manifests itself in its d eepest significat ion . . . . . God·Love is the theme of th is work and one has to tune himself with the Infinite to behold th e superb par.orama of exq uisite beauty and Infinite Love displ ayed in H is creation. A message o ~ G od Love is being given to the world th(ough the instrumentality of His Holi ness M eher Baba .... · The book is well-written and is sure to appeal lo the reading public. I commend it to thoughtfu! read er's. '' Price Re. 1. CAN BE H A D OF THE PUBLISHER. N. N. SATHA, Akba:r Cotton P·ress , A hmcdrwqa1· City (Deccan) ---~ Printec t The Mohan Printing Press, and published frorri The Meher Me ~$a ge Office, Arang aon, Ahmednagar, by the Proprietor and Editor, Kaikhushru Jamshedji Dastur.