Meher Baba Books Los Angeles

   

"Keep Me as Your Constant Companion. Never be in doubt and absent from me."

 

~ Meher Baba   

 

Weekly Reflections No. 14
from Meher Baba Books
(Los Angeles, California)
Greetings from Los Angeles!

Dear Friends and Companions: 

Hello again with a smile from us to you. Wishing you happy times in Baba's Love.

Welcome to the world of this mini-circular, which is now 14 weeks old!  May Beloved Baba be pleased with it. This week's circular is dedicated to "Pearls of His remembrance."

Spontaneous remembrance of Baba with love is what helps throughout the day. Baba stated, "Love the one in the many, and not the many in the one. I am the only friend who will never let you down."  His remembrance is our opportunity, as this is His manifestation period which has started ever since He dropped His beautiful body. Pure Love always seeks the will, the happiness, the pleasure and the commands of the Beloved. His constant remembrance is like a doorway to earning His grace of Love. So what are we waiting for? He is ever present in our lives, and His words on remembrance are encouraging, as it feels that He is here with us and never leaves us. Baba is our best friend ever. 
 
Remember His famous saying? "Don't Worry; be Happy! Remember Me; I will help you." We are so fortunate to know the Avatar's divinely human side. 
 

As you may have noticed, we have been reflecting on the life of Meher Baba, and this week we continue with Part 5. 

 
We hope you enjoy these small occasions for reflecting on the power and sweetness of Beloved Baba's words. Enjoy His presence.
 
In His Love and Service,
 Meher Baba Books



Who is Meher Baba? (Part 5)

 

. . . In Nasik, India, Baba set up another ashram, this time for his Western devotees. This ashram was part-way between the full rigors of Meherabad as experienced by his Eastern disciples, and the conveniences of the Western world. They underwent certain hardships, but were under the guidance of Baba's love. Perhaps the most difficult thing for them to learn was how to get along with each other. Often they had conflicts, but Baba said, "If you cannot love each other, then learn to give in." They did learn to give in, through love. Until 1941 Baba worked between the Nasik ashram and the few mast ashrams; but the arrival of World War Two contributed to the necessary dismantling of all ashrams except for Meherabad.

 

Though the war was under way, Baba continued with his spiritual work, while seeking masts throughout India on a series of whirlwind tours. He stated that the God-intoxicated souls have a connection with the state of the world, that it was necessary to continue directing them even closer towards God. Intensive mast work continued until 1948, aided by extensively tours throughout India to contact masts and sadhus (spiritual pilgrims).

 

Enigmatically and with little warning in 1949, Baba declared that all of his "possessions," including ashrams, should immediately be disposed of, except for his tomb which was already built atop Meherabad Hill. The newly operating American retreat center dedicated to Baba was to run its own course without Baba's guidance. He stated that from this year forward he was to embark on what he termed the New Life, relying solely upon God.

 

Through this most enigmatic and to this day unexplained phase, Meher Baba may have established the groundwork for man's search for God. Perhaps to convey this, Baba dropped his role as Perfect Master and became a common man, or Perfect Seeker. Only a handful of his close disciples were permitted to accompany him on his New Life.

 

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

  

  To Be Continued ...

1949 - Baba begging in the New Life carry a satchel and Brass pot  

 

[Copyright � 2000-2015 JaiBaba.com]    

 ~~~~~~~

Pearls of Baba's Remembrance

   

 

I am always with you and I am not away from you. I was, I am and I will remain eternally with you. You can never escape from Me and if you try to escape from Me, it is not possible to get rid of Me.
 
(Lord Meher, revised online edition, p. 3651)
    

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My loving remembrance will gradually awaken discrimination in you, which will give you the required strength. Just think how many times you have assumed male and female forms, how many children you had, how much you have worried over them and that it was all self created. If you think you are bound, bound you are. With trust in Me if you think you are free, free you are. Don't lose heart. Remember Me

and love Me more and more.

  

(from Bal NatuGlimpses of the God-ManVol. VI (1994), p. 196)
  
 Painting by Laurie Blume

 

Cling to Me, rely on Me. Throughout your life, not just this life but the many life times you have been gambling. You think you have plenty of time, but you never know just when you might die. So, since you are gamblers, why don't you gamble on this: surrender, hold tight to My daaman. You won't be a loser.


(Avatar Meher Baba Pearls, Vol. VI (2011), p. 2)



I reside in your heart and am dozing. If you often think of Me and call Me, I remain awake and will not sleep.

 

Meher Baba

 

(Avatar Meher Baba Pearls, Vol. IV (2011), p. 5)



Whenever you are in difficulty or have a problem, think of Me and call Me honestly and I am always ready to help you. But you should do your duties honestly and sincerely to the best of your ability and I will guide you and always be by your side in all that you do.


 (Avatar Meher Baba Pearls, Vol. IV (2011), p. 3)

 

 

 

 

Do the best you can. Don't worry. Be happy. Face life boldly. Do not try to become an escapist. Whenever you find yourself helpless, you call Me for help and I am prepared to give it to you. I am in everyone, I love everyone. You love Me and that establishes a bridge between you and destiny but I can bring a lot of modifications.

I am the Ocean of Energy, Ocean of Love and Ocean of

Everything. If you link yourself with Me even with a s small pipeline you can draw all the energy for yourself.

 

(Avatar Meher Baba Pearls, Vol. IV (2011), p. 3)


                                   

HOW WILL YOU REMEMBER ME?

Eruch Jessawala

One day during a darshan programme in North India, Meher Baba said, "I have come once again in your midst as the same Ancient One. Time and again, I come in your midst with the same message, 'Love Me, love God.'" Then someone from the crowd called out, "Baba, how shall we love you?" Baba replied, "When you got married, did you ask Me how you should love your wife?  

You saw her and you fell in love with her, but when you see Me you really do not see Me as I truly am for this body is only a coat that I put on. When you see Me as I really am, then you will fall in love with Me."

 

Baba continued, "The question then is: 'How will you be able to see Me as I really am?' In the world, men and women fall in love with one another but in order for this experience to happen, the man or woman must first see the other. Don't you believe that?"

"Yes!" the man answered.

"What happens after that," explained Baba, "is that the mind goes crazy with the desire to please each other. Each one wants to put the best front forward in order to please the other for the entire world now revolves around the person you love. This in turn means that you remember your beloved all the time, you think only of possessing the one you love and you think of ways and means of being with that person all the time.

 

"But in loving Me, it is just the opposite. Whereas in your world you can see and fall in love, you cannot see Me as I really am. So in order to love Me, you must start with remembering Me all the time, then you will see Me as I really am and only then will you truly fall in love with Me."

"Then how can we remember You, Baba?" asked the man.

"Now that you have seen Me in this coat, this form, keep My photographs or whatever will remind you of Me and help you to continue remembering Me. Keep My picture in your house and in your toilet also, so that even there you can remember Me all the time. Before you start your day, remember Me.

 

"Remembering Me now becomes a mechanical process but mind wants variety. So you can then read all the books that have been published and read the magazines too which narrate My life and My work. This is another way of remembering Me.

"But still the mind craves for something different and prompts the seeker to go on a pilgrimage to all the places where the Master has visited and spent time. The pilgrim is happy in the thought that he is able to spend time at all those places which have been blessed by the Master's presence, and thus he remembers the Master more and more as he goes from place to place.

 

"Next, the seeker meets people who lived with the Master or spent time with Him and he craves to know all about the Master. Soon the mind gives place to the heart and as the heart begins to yearn for the Master a faint trace of love for Him is born.

"This is a message to the seeker to love Me and the creation serves as that constant reminder to remember Me. Then his mind satiated with all the memories of the Master, the seeker goes back to the routine of his daily life with a heart awakened to love for the Master and each day and in every act the seeker finds some trace of the Master and thoughts of Him fill his waking hours.

 

"Just as you see this creation around you to help you to think of God, similarly every act of yours will help you to think of Me. Likewise, when the heart opens more and more by remembering Me, eventually the heart will glorify the Master in anything and in everything. Finally a stage will come when you will be overwhelmed by the glory of the Master that is the time when I will give you the gift of Love.

 

"And what is that gift? That gift is the moment when you see Me as I really am. You see My effulgence, you see Me and you stop seeing anything else. That is the experience of the sixth plane of consciousness and when you see Me as I really am, then for the first time you fall in love with Me. At last you begin your life of love for which you were created, and the more you love the more you will want to please Me, just as when a man falls in love with a woman he makes every effort to please her in more intensive ways.

 

"Eventually a momentous event takes place. Seeing the lover love the Beloved to such a degree, the Beloved falls in love with the lover and the lover is raised to the pedestal of the Beloved while the Beloved comes down to the level of the lover. The mind is annihilated, the lover and Beloved are merged in each other and that union is God-Realization."

  

(from Naosherwan Anzar, The Ancient One (1985), pp. 97-99) 

                                            
                
Prayer/Arti Corner

BUJAVE NAAR

 

An Arti is a devotional song sung to a Perfect Master. Meher Baba's Mandali wanted an Arti in Gujarati that they could sing before Baba. Baba told them to write one. Several were attempted, but none of the songs satisfied Baba. Finally Baba wrote a Gujarati Arti on January 11, 1926, entitled Bujave Naar. This is an English translation:

O God, command that the fire of our ignorance be extinguished.
Your lovers yearn for you to bestow upon them the light of faith.
 
O Murshid Meher Baba, we lay our heads at your feet.
O Meher Baba, you have made yourself perfectly aware of your Godhood.
You are the lord of Truth, you are the beloved and lover in one.

Being the torrent of infinite knowledge, you are the ocean of oneness.
O Master, bestow upon us, the wayfarers, the knowledge of Ezad
(the only one worthy of worship)
For you, O Paramatma, are omniscient, and are divine knowledge itself.

Give us to drink of the cup of God's love that we become intoxicated.
O Saki, we offer our lives in sacrifice to you - give us this draught.
Only if you steer our ship while in mid-ocean can we remain afloat.

O Meher Baba, the captain of our ship, you are our protector.
O Meher Baba, the captain of our ship, you are our protector.

(see, for instance, Lord Meher, revised online edition, p.. 634)

Bujaawe naar jallatani aye kar kudratnay farma too
Chhe laagi aas bhaktoney kay bakshay nooray ima too
Aiya moorshad Meher Baba charanpar toojna dhariyay sar
Khoodana zat thi vakef thai betho Meherba too
Too chhe malik hakikatno too aashek bhi nay aaref bhi
Too chhe dariya aye vahedat marefat no hoi toofa too
Humo raherav nay aiy saalek bakhash jay gnyaan eezad noo
Kay too Paramatma gnyaani chhe nay mookhtaar irfaa too
Khoodana premno pyalo pilaavi must hamnay kar
Chhe toojapur jaan sadkay saakiya aapi day paima too
Humaari naav bhar dariyay taraavay tow humay tariyay

Humaara nakhooda aiy Meher Baba chhe nighebaa too. 

Humaara nakhooda aiy Meher Baba chhe nighebaa too.


 

~Women Mandali Sing Arti -- April 1, 1969 ~

    

                        Video Corner 

Avatar Meher Baba's Samadhi in Full High Definition

Avatar Meher Baba's Samadhi in Full High Definition

The song in the video, the "Gujarati Arti" or "Bujave Naar," was written by Meher Baba. It is sung by Jane Brown in cd The Best of Bob and Jane Brown.

See you all next week. Keep Happy in His Love.
Jai Meher Baba! 


Meher Baba Books (Los Angeles)

 

www.meherbababooks.com

Avatar Meher Baba Center of Southern California 
1214 S. Van Ness Avenue 
Los Angeles, CA  90019 


Like us on Facebook