Meher Baba Books Los Angeles

  
Weekly Reflections No. 9
from Meher Baba Books
(Los Angeles, California)
Greetings from Los Angeles -- Dear Friends and Companions: 

Happy New Year again! May 2015 be filled with more smiles from deep joy within, and more constant companionship with Beloved Baba. Sending you our warm greetings from sunny California.  

Welcome to the world of this mini-circular, which is now 9 weeks old! May Beloved Baba be pleased with it. This is only His idea and inspiration. As Eruch has said -- "Bear in mind that the doer, the cause and the deed are all emanating from Him." He is very active. We are happy to offer these weekly mini-circulars in the form of words from Meher Baba to all of you. This week's Reflections focus on Meher Baba's Divinity. Starting this week, we'd like to reflect on the life of Meher Baba, partly for sake of some of the newcomers who are now coming into His orbit of Love.
 
We hope you enjoy these small occasions for reflecting on the beauty and power of Beloved Baba's words. Enjoy His presence. He is the only doer. 

In His Divine Love,

Meher Baba Books
Mahoo
Reflection on Meher Baba's Divinity
Who is Meher Baba? (Part 1)

Meher Baba, the name given to him by his disciples in the 1920's, was born Merwan Sheriar Irani, into a Zoroastrian family. His father, Sheriar Irani, was a devout seeker of God. In Persia, after days of fasting and continuous meditation, Sheriar heard a voice tell him to stop seeking what he strongly desired and to head back home - one who was born to him would complete his search for God.

 

Sheriar then traveled to Poona, India, where his sister lived (Irani means "from Iran"). Ten years later in 1883, he was persuaded to give up his life as an ascetic and to begin a family life. Apparently at random, he chose a girl named Shireen, who at the time was five years old (Sheriar was thirty). After some minor debate between the families of the betrothed, the marriage took place when Shireen turned fourteen.

 

On February 25, 1894, Shireen and Sheriar had their second son, whom they named Merwan. He had a normal childhood, and was considered by Shireen to be her "most beautiful child." His friends found him to be charismatic and sometimes called him "Electricity." After graduating from St. Vincent's High School, he attended Deccan College in Poona in 1911. He studied literature and poetry, and was fond of Shakespeare, Shelley and Wordsworth, but focused on Sufi poets such as Hafiz. He was also an accomplished poet and musician.

 

One May morning in 1913, when Merwan was 19, he rode his bicycle to school, but felt compelled to visit an old woman beneath a neem tree. The woman's name was Hazrat Babajan, thought by many to be well over 100 years old. She was also considered to be a Perfect Master, one who is God-realized. Merwan and Babajan hugged briefly, then spent some time together in silence. Merwan then got on his bike and continued with his duties.

 

They continued to meet, often sitting in silence, until one evening in January 1914 the significance of these meetings became apparent when she kissed Merwan on the forehead. He rose and walked home, then went to bed. Shortly thereafter he experienced an incredible state of bliss mixed with pain, and then lost consciousness altogether. 

 

Copyright � 2000-2015 JaiBaba.com]

From left to right: Merwan (Meher Baba), Behram, Khodadad (Baba's paternal uncle), Jal (standing at top), Ardeshir (Adi Jr.), Shireen (Baba's mother), Jamshed (Baba's elder brother).   

 ~~~~~~~   

 

"To One and All"


"I am equally approachable to one and all, big and small

To saints who rise and to sinners who fall,

Through all the various paths that give the Divine Call.

I am approachable alike to saint whom I adore

And to sinner whom I am for,

And equally through Sufism, Vedantism, Christianity,

Or Zoroastrianism and Buddhism, and other Isms of any kind,

And also directly through no medium of Ism at all."


Meher Baba 

Lord Meher (revised online edition, p. 3110)



Twelve Ways . . . of Realizing Me

By Meher Baba    

 

The Master points out Twelve Ways in which the spiritual Seeker may realize his own Divine Self, which is One within all and which is completely manifested in the Perfect Master.

 

1. Longing . . .

IF YOU EXPERIENCE that same longing and thirst for Union with Me as one who has been lying for days in the hot sun of the Sahara experiences the longing for water, then you will realize Me.

 

2. Peace of Mind . . .

IF YOU HAVE THE PEACE of a frozen lake, then too, you will realize Me.

 

3. Humility . . .

IF YOU HAVE THE HUMILITY of the earth which can be molded into any shape, then you will know Me.

 

4. Desperation . . .

IF YOU EXPERIENCE the desperation that causes a man to commit suicide and you feel that you cannot live without seeing Me, then you will see Me.

 

5. Faith . . .

IF YOU HAVE THE COMPLETE FAITH that Kalyan had for his Master, in believing it was night, although it was day . . . because his Master said so . . . then you will know Me.

 

6. Fidelity . . .

IF You HAVE THE FIDELITY that the breath has in giving you company, even without your constantly feeling it, till the end of your life . . . that both in happiness and in suffering gives you company and never turns against you . . . then you will know Me.

 

7. Control Through Love . . .

WHEN YOUR LOVE FOR ME drives away your lust for the things of the senses, then you realize Me.

 

8. Selfless Service . . .

IF YOU HAVE THE QUALITY of selfless service unaffected by results, similar to that of the sun which serves the world by shining on all creation . . . on the grass in the field, on the birds in the air, on the beasts in the forest, on all mankind with its sinner and its saint, its rich and its poor, unconscious of their attitude towards it . . . then you will win Me.

 

9. Renunciation . . .

IF YOU RENOUNCE FOR ME everything physical, mental and spiritual, then you have Me.

 

10. Obedience . . .

IF YOUR OBEDIENCE IS SPONTANEOUS, complete and natural as the light is to the eye or smell is to the nose, then you come to Me.
 

11. Surrender . . .

IF YOUR SURRENDER to Me is as wholehearted as that of one, who, suffering from insomnia, surrenders to sudden sleep without fear of being lost, then you have Me.

 

12. Love . . .

IF YOU HAVE THAT LOVE FOR ME that St. Francis had for Jesus, then not only will you realize Me, but you will please Me.  

 

 ~ The Awakener, Vol.1, No. 1 (July 1953), p. 18



The Highest of the High

by Meher Baba

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

 

Of the most recognized and much worshiped manifestations of God as Avatar, that of Zoroaster is the earliest - having been before Ram, Krishna, Buddha, Jesus and Muhammad. Thousands of years ago, he gave to the world the essence of Truth in the form of three fundamental precepts - Good Thoughts, Good Words, and Good Deeds. These precepts were and are constantly unfolded to humanity in one form or another, directly or indirectly in every cycle, by the Avatar of the age as he leads humanity, imperceptibly, toward the Truth.

 

To put these precepts of Good Thoughts, Good Words and Good Deeds into practice is not as easily done as it would appear, though it is not impossible. But to live up to these precepts honestly and literally is apparently as impossible as it is to practice a living death in the midst of life.

 

Dehra Dun, India, September 7, 1953 (Zoroaster's birthday)

~~~~~

from Lord Meher (revised online edition, pp. 3392-3393)



  

God is nearer to you than your own breath, but at the same time, He seems so far away from you. I know by actual experience that I am God, and that you all are God. This my Experience, is a continuous Experience without a break. 

You do not have this experience because there is a veil between you and God which separates you from God and prevent you from knowing Him. And this veil of separateness is you yourself! This makes it so difficult and impossible for anyone to know God.

  

Only the grace of Perfect Master can make you experience the God-State in a flash after he makes you drink the wine of his divine love, and when you have imbibed that wine, you lose all consciousness of all your worldly attachment and gain the consciousness of God, who is the only Reality. That state is beyond description. 

 

Until you drink that cup of wine of divine love, your mind plays tricks with you. Your desires fill and dirty your heart; they prevent your heart from being cleansed and you cannot see God. Once the desires are swept away, your heart becomes pure and you see God. But this needs the grace of the Perfect Master.

 

Avatar Meher Baba

  

(from Lord Meher, print edition vol. 8, p. 4358; revised online edition, p. 4930)


Meher Baba with Bill Le Page (India, 1954)

A Selfless, All-Embracing Love

An all-pervading aspect of His presence is a selfless, all-embracing love that immediately lightens the spirits, and gives hope, courage, and a longing to embrace all with that same love. Never at any time did He express any thought or feeling that He was seeking anything for Himself. 

 

I can recall during my first contact with Him being most moved by the expression in His eyes, and the realization that came with that feeling that here was One Who only sought in a philosophical sense the highest good for each, and in a personal sense a home in each heart.

 

Bill LePage [from The Turning of the Key (1993) pp. 39-40]

By way of conclusion, we'd like to offer a musical meditation on the Names of God throughout history, tradition and culture, with an emphasis on Meher Baba's "seven names of God."
 
Music by Jim Meyer. Video by Robert Fredericks
 
Meher Baba Books carries this DVD
(the full length of which is 35 minutes)

Names Of Love
Names Of Love
 
See you all next week.
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