"I belong to no religion. Every religion belongs to Me. My personal religion is My being the Ancient Infinite One, and the religion I impart to all is love for God, which is the truth of all religions."
Meher Baba
The Awakener Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 2 (1954), p. 13
Weekly Reflections No. 18
from Meher Baba Books
(Los Angeles, California)
Greetings from Los Angeles! Greetings from our minds and hearts to yours across the Globe.
Welcome to the world of this mini-circular which is now 18 weeks old. Thank you Baba.
I would like to start with this passage:
From the CIRCULAR No. 10 on the Life of Meher Baba,
issued on March 5th, 1953, from Ahmednagar, India:
"BABA desires that all those who get this CIRCULAR or get the information contained therein, should wholeheartedly, from the depths of their heart, repeat audibly, one Name of GOD, for one hour without break, from four to five o'clock, early morning of the tenth of July, 1953. Hindus say PARABRAHMA PARAMATMA; Muslims say ALLA-HU-AKBAR; Parsis say AHURAMAZDA; Iranis Say YEZDAN; Christians say GOD ALMIGHTY."
The Awakener Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 1 (1953), p. 1
May we repeat His name continiously. Jai Baba.
This week's circular is on "
The Lover and the Beloved". Baba says, "
Pure love is not a thing that can be forced upon someone, nor can it be snatched away from another by force. It has to manifest from within with unfettered spontaneity." [Discourses, Vol. III, p. 172]
We hope you enjoy these small occasions for reflecting on the power and beauty of Beloved Baba's words. Enjoy His presence, while living in the world yet not be of the world.
In His Love and Service,
Meher Baba Books
Who is Meher Baba? (Last Part)
.... In January, 1969, his health was such that he was suffering immense pain, but he commented that his work was one hundred percent complete. On January 31, 1969, a few minutes after noon, Baba conveyed "Do not forget that I am God." Then at 12:15, Baba stopped breathing. One of the mandali (close disciples) gave him mouth to mouth resuscitation. Thus, Meher Baba dropped his body, his silence still unbroken.
For seven days following his passing away, people from all religions, creeds and castes, from the East and the West, entered Baba's samadhi (tomb) for a final glimpse of his body before his coffin was sealed. And from April to June 1969, the Great, last darshan that he had promised took place in Poona and at the samadhi. Thousands, including many young westerners who had just heard about him, came to sing in devotion or sit in silence. Though it was the end of Meher Baba's physical presence on earth, these darshans signified the continuation of humanity's yearning for God.
God is Love. And Love must love. And to love there must be a Beloved. But since God is Existence infinite and eternal there is no one for Him to love but Himself. And in order to love Himself He must imagine Himself as the Beloved whom He as the Lover imagines He loves.
Beloved and Lover implies separation. And separation creates longing; and longing causes search. And the wider and the more intense the search the greater the separation and the more terrible the longing.
When longing is most intense separation is complete, and the purpose of separation, which was that Love might experience itself as Lover and Beloved, is fulfilled; and union follows. And when union is attained, the lover knows that he himself was all along the Beloved whom he loved and desired union with; and that all the impossible situations that he overcame were obstacles which he himself had placed in the path to himself.
from
The Everything and The Nothing (1964) by Meher Baba, p. 1
Separateness exists only in imagination
When the rays of the sun are made to pass through a prism, they get dispersed and become separate owing to refraction. If each of these rays had consciousness, it would consider itself as being separate from the other rays, forgetting entirely that at source and on the other side of the prism it had no separate existence.
In the same way, the One Being descends into the domain of maya and assumes a multiplicity which does not in fact exist. The separateness of individuals does not exist in
reality but only in
imagination. The one Universal Soul imagines separateness in itself, and out of this division there arises the thought of "I" and "mine" as opposed to "you" and "yours." Although the soul is in reality an undivided and absolute unity, it appears as being manifold and divided owing to the working of its own imagination. Imagination is not a reality. Even in its highest flight, it is a departure from truth. It is anything but the truth. The experience which the soul gathers in terms of the individualised ego is all imagination. It is a misapprehension of the soul. Out of the imagination of the Universal Soul are born many individuals. This is
maya or ignorance.
Meher Baba
from "God and the Individual,"
Discourses [6th Edition, online], Vol. I,
p. 37
Artwork by Shaheen Khorsandi
All Else But God Is Illusion
Meher Baba
From the beginning of all beginnings I have been saying, I say it now, and to the end of ends I will say it, that
HE WHO LOVES GOD BECOMES GOD.
It is a fact that I have come amongst you. One of these days the whole world will come to realize how I have come, where I have come from and the purpose of my coming. I repeat once again I have come neither to establish panths and jaats (groups and classes) nor to establish mandirs, masjids, churches and ashrams in the world. I have come to receive the beauty and give the blessings of love. All else but God - whether rites, rituals or ceremonies in the name of religion, worldly possessions, family, money or one's own physical body - all else but God is illusion....
How can one explain love? There are as many ways of explaining love and obedience as there are men. There can thus be no end to the understanding of them except through obedience based on love, and through love itself. All great saints, teachers and masters say the same thing in one way or another when the emphasis is laid on love for the sake of love, or failing that, on obedience in the cause of love.
For spontaneous surrender the heart must, so to speak, be worn on one's sleeve. One must be ever ready to place one's neck under the ever-sharp knife of command of the beloved, and the head should figuratively be detached in order that it might be completely surrendered at the master's feet. Obedience should be so complete that one's concern with it makes one as much awake to possibilities as it makes one deaf to impossibilities - as envisaged by the poet:
Darmiyane qahre darya, Takhta bandam karda-ee
Baad mi gu-ee kay, Daaman ter makun hoshyar baash.
I was tied to a raft and thrown in the ocean and then
I was warned to be careful not to let my robe get wet.
Meher Baba
from Listen Humanity (1957, 1985), pp. 240-241
Gifts of Love
Love is a gift from God to man. Obedience is a gift from Master to man. Surrender is a gift from man to Master.
One who loves desires the will of the Beloved. One who obeys does the will of the Beloved. One who surrenders knows nothing but the will of the Beloved.
Love seeks union with the Beloved. Obedience seeks the pleasure of the Beloved. Surrender seeks nothing.
One who loves is the lover of the Beloved. One who obeys is the beloved of the Beloved. One who surrenders has no existence other than the Beloved.
Greater than love is obedience. Greater than obedience is surrender. All three arise out of, and remain contained in, the Ocean of divine Love.
Meher Baba
from
The Everything and the Nothing (1964), p. 5
1989 � Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust
1960s , Guruprasad,Poona, India
coutesy of Meher Nazar collection
What Is A Baba Lover?
Dr. Harry Kenmore
A Baba lover is not one who goes about babbling about his love for Baba -- succeeding only in making you conscious of his babbling rather than of his love for Baba. This conduct of over-vocalization is usually the enthusiastic behaviour of the fledgling aspirant on discovering in his world of need, the Advent of Meher Baba....
This is the first and only time in the history of our Cosmos the Avatar has appeared and appealed to humanity directly and revealed to us that the secret of all life is not only to love God, but to become actually and personally involved with Him as His lover - a lover of God. In this Advent He has smashed this eternal and perennial fairytale that God is some guy up there out beyond, or down below.
Nor is He a long bearded guy occupying a hunk of sky somewhere. He's no person, place nor thing. God is your real Beloved. To gain everlasting Union with our real Beloved (who indeed is our real self) we must surrender all our possessions.
Initiates labor under the misleading notion that their possessions are their property, stocks and bonds, bank deposits, hi-fi equipment, wife, husband, sweetheart, children etc. Surrendering our real possessions means to abandon our habit patterns of desire-thoughts, want-cravings, the whole of our illusion-perpetuating ego - all of our impression-ridden mind....
Please remember this is an ego-liquidating romance that happens inside an individual. Now God is where He's always been and always will be - invisible, silent, and fast asleep within us. This is the God the Divine Beloved, with whom we must fall in love. Meher Baba, the living Personification of the Divine Beloved, has come to awaken us, to awaken our hearts, to the Presence of His Divine Residence in us. When we constantly think of Him, silently calling out His Name again and again, He will be compelled to stir, to awaken, to rise up in response to our persistent call.
Modern psychology avers that one of the reasons why mankind has gone wild, flying off on a tangent, is that it suffers from the absence of the giving and receiving of love. Now, actually, the only one you can ever love is yourself. You don't love another person - you can express love, you can beam love, you can radiate love, but you don't love anybody in particular. Anyone who comes within the personal orbit of this radiation, however meager or bright it may be, will feel what you are and then the response will be automatic. If an individual truly loves you, it is because you already experience and reflect Love.
Love begets love. But what makes us able to love? First we let God Love us because He is the Source of Love Itself. Love is only an abstraction when we think of it as being a part of God, but when we think of the person of Meher Baba who is literally the Incarnation of Divine Love, ah, then we have personal contact with Love. Then we can feel this Love generated from Him to us and we feel His beneficent Love inside us. This is a real experience - not the sort of love we are able to conjure up with our imagination. It's an actual happening and all of this takes place inside of us.
from The Way and the Goal, Vol 1, No 6 (1970), p. 1
Artwork by Shaheen Khorsandi
The Law Which Governs
All Other Laws of Nature
Meher Baba
Love is meant to be experienced and not disclosed. What is displayed is not love. Love is a secret which is meant to remain a secret save for the one who receives it and keeps it.
To love Baba in hopes of achieving health, wealth, betterment of family and friends, etc., is to love all these and not Baba. Such love cannot be compared with that of Adi and his wife Rhoda Dubash, and Nariman and Navrozji Dadachanji and their family members. They can be justly proud of their love for me which remained unshaken in the face of tragic accidents which cost the lives of their dear ones among my dear ones. As a matter of fact Nozher [Dadachanji] has come to me, as all those do who remember me while breathing their last.
Love God and become God. I have come to receive your love and to give you mine, as I have already said. If you love me you will find me. Unless you love me, you can never find me. Do not think that you can never love me or that you can find no time to love me. I often say that I want your love. I mean it, because that is all that I want from you. Therefore I always tell you to love me more and more.
I have also said that you cannot love me as I aught to be loved. To do that, you must first receive the gift of my love, and that gift depends upon absolute pleasure on my part in giving you just a glimpse of the reality of myself.
No one can possess love by any means other than as a gift. But I give love to self and accept it myself. The giving of love knows no law save love, which by itself is the law which governs all other laws of nature.
It is always infinitely easy for me to give - but it is not always equally easy for you to receive - the gift of my love.
from
Sahavas In The Company of God (1977), pp. 18-19
~ Poetry Corner ~
12th is the Dhuni Day!
" You have the attributes of a wali.
He who loses himself in you becomes like you.
Wonderful is your effect; wonderful is your play!
Wonderful is your nature!
Yours is the gift which nurtures or destroys.
The seed you fructify, while the tree you uproot -
Both are your blessings.
One who uses you with care can cook hundreds of dishes.
But to the ignorant who treat you carelessly
You are a calamity.
You are like the wali, full of virtues as well as faults.
You make one swim and another drown - such is your nature!
The whole region of Ahmednagar was without water.
But at the perfect time you rewarded the labor of the farmer.
In the form of fire you were hot.
By becoming water you were cool.
As those near you were warmed by your flame
So also was the world made happy by your light.
When you have surrendered to Baba, let your lips be sealed.
Brave are those who serve at the feet of the Sadguru.
Limitless is your greatness,
O Dhuni!
Only rishis and munis can fathom you.
You made Beheram sleep and the sky weep.
Your warmth melted the heavens, wetting my sadra.
You are the real servant of the Sadguru.
Stay near him always!
Difficult was it to live in the heat of the famine
And it made you sweat.
You are the true slave of the Master,
A fiery rod in my cool hands! "
from
Lord Meher online, p. 625
Remembering Padri Today -- March 13
Faredoon Nawrosjee Driver, better known as Padri, (November 27, 1903 - March 13, 1982) was born in Pune, India, and was one of Meher Baba's close mandali (devoted disciples). He lived with and served Meher Baba from 1922 until Meher Baba's death in 1969, beginning his stay with Baba in Baba's first ashram, Manzil-e-Meem. Later, after moving his ashram to Ahmednagar district, Meher Baba called Padri one of the four "pillars" of Meherabad(Meherabad was Meher Baba's second ashram and is today the site of Baba's Samadhi shrine). Padri, who was originally a garage mechanic, later became a doctor of homeopathy treating local villagers near Meherabad Sharing a video about Padri. He is so much Fun.
Offering a great video in remembrance of Padri.
Padri
~ Prayer Corner ~
Prayer of Repentance
We repent O God most merciful, for all our sins;
For every thought that was false or unjust or unclean; For every word spoken that ought not to have been spoken; For every deed done that ought not to have been done.
We repent for every deed and word and thought Inspired by selfishness; And for every deed and word and thought inspired by hatred.
We repent most specially for every lustful thought, And every lustful action; For every lie; for all hypocrisy; For every promise given, but not fulfilled; And for all slander and backbiting.
Most specially also, we repent for every action That has brought ruin to others; For every word and deed that has given others pain; And for every wish that pain should befall others.
In your unbounded mercy, we ask you to forgive us,
O God, For all these sins committed by us; And to forgive us for our constant failures To think and speak and act according to your will.
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