Greetings from Los Angeles, and Happy Spring to All once again! Welcome to the world of this mini-circular which is now 21 weeks old. Thank you Meher Baba.
This week's circular was initially going to be on Suffering, due to the coming Easter weekend. Then Baba's inspiration to continue the focus on Obedience proved stronger. So we will continue with "Meher Baba on Obedience, Part 2" as a theme this week.
We remember the Easter weekend which celebrates the day of resurrection, when God reassures us of His presence amongst us. This is a good day and occasion that we rededicate ourselves to Avatar, letting Him know that we do our best to remember Him, to Love Him and serve Him the best we know how. We pray to Him, "Oh Baba, Let your glorious name ring in our hearts, with every beat reminding us that you are the Ancient One and you alone exit. All the Glory to you." Enjoy your Easter weekend. Happy Easter and Happy Passover to All.
We offer this small circular at His feet and hope He is pleased. We hope you enjoy these small occasions for reflecting on the beauty and divinity of Beloved Baba's words. Enjoy His presence, knowing He is the only doer.
In His Love and Service, Meher Baba Books.
Paining by Gregg Rosen
Meher Baba with Mehera Easter Sunday at Meher Center, 1952
~~
Meher Baba on Obedience (Part 2)
~~
THE REAL DARSHAN
I am happy to be in your midst.
It is the deep love of some of my lovers in Dehra Dun that has drawn you all together today to have my
darshan.
But to have my Real Darshan is not easy. To see me at close quarters, to do obeisance to me, to offer me fruits and flowers, to bow down to me and then to return to your homes, can never mean that you have had my
darshan.
Having seen me with your eyes you have still not seen me as I am. You have not had even a glimpse of my true Being in spite of your having gone through the convention of so-called
darshan.
To have my Real
Darshan is to find me.The way to find me is to find your abode in me. And the only one and sure way to find your abode in me is to love me.
To love me as I love you, you must become recipient of my grace. Only my grace can bestow the gift of Divine Love.
To receive my grace, you must obey me wholeheartedly with the firm foundation of unshakable faith in me. And you can only obey me spontaneously as I want when you completely surrender yourselves to me so that my wish becomes your law and my love sustains your being.
Age after age, many aspire for such a surrender; but only very few really attempt to surrender themselves to me completely as I want.
He, who succeeds, ultimately not only finds me, but becomes me and realizes the aim of life.
My being in your midst today would serve its purpose even if one from this multitude has understood what I want you all to know.
I give my blessings to you all.
MEHER BABA
The Awakener, Volume 1 Number 3
* * *
"One who loves, is the lover of the beloved. One who obeys is the beloved of the beloved. One who surrenders all -- body, mind and all else -- has no existence other than that of the beloved, who alone exists in him. Therefore greater than love is obedience, and greater than obedience is surrender. And yet, as words, all three can be summed up in one phrase -- love-divine."
Meher Baba
from
Listen, Humanity, p. 227
Graphic artwork by Rajendra Gandhi
Be Lost to Yourself
To achieve the God-state, do absolutely nothing, while doing everything.
To find God, you must find yourself lost to yourself.
To be infinitely conscious, you must consciously lose consciousness of yourself.
To be ever present with God, never be absent from Him.
Deny your false self, and your real self asserts itself.
Renounce everything to such an extent that you eventually renounce even renunciation. Die for Baba and then you will live as Baba.
To know Me as I really am, become a child in heart and be wise as a man of wisdom.
Either keep away from the wine of love of Beloved Baba, or if you taste it, seal your lips against complaints.
~ Avatar Meher Baba
from
Meher Baba Calling, p. 9
Painting by Shri Balagopala Bhaskar Raju Garu
Literal Obedience
Meher Baba
When you are intellectually convinced about the greatness and perfection of the Master, you have love and respect for him but are unable to follow his orders literally. Reason being the basis of your conviction, you find it difficult to divorce it from your understanding of the Master and his orders. As the two are inextricably intertwined with each other, your reasoned faith holds you within the limits of intelligible obedience.This phase of the pupil is left undisturbed by the Master, and all the pills of obedience offered by him are intellectualized in order to suit his taste and caliber.
Through intellectual obedience to the Master you can annihilate all your
sanskaras, provided you are sincere in your logical interpretation of his orders and in their execution, but the result comes much quicker if your obedience is literal.Literal obedience is the effect of the rock-like faith and deep love which the Master inspires in the pupil through his human appeal. The overflowing radiance of the Master's halo and the effulgence of his purity and compassion are mainly responsible for creating in the pupil an unswerving faith which prepares him to follow the Master's orders implicitly, irrespective of their satisfying his critical spirit.
Such literal obedience is not even bound by the requirement that the real significance of the orders should be within the intellectual comprehension of the pupil, and it is the best type of obedience for which you can aspire.
Through such implicit and unquestioning obedience, all the crooked knots of your desires and sanskaras are set straight. It is also through such obedience that a deep link is created between the Master and the pupil, with the result that there is an unhindered and perennial flow of spiritual wisdom and power into the pupil. At this stage the pupil becomes the
spiritual son of the Master, and in due time he is freed from all individualistic and
sanskaric ties. Then he himself becomes a Master.
Discourses, 6th ed., Vol 3, pp. 89-90
Designed by Nagendra Gandhi; Painting by David Barison
Be Addicted to God
If you become addicted to God, then all your problems are solved. Go on drinking the Love of God until you become one with God.
You have to give up everything, including yourself. Then you have Baba to yourself. God is beyond religion, beyond love. When you love God intensely, then there is the experience of real separation from God. When you have the gift of love, you become
Avatar Meher Baba
from Meher Baba Calling, p. 10
Difficult Orders
Bob Mossman
There were 31 orders in all that William was to adhere to....
The issuing of the orders coincided with a period of Baba's seclusion on the hill at Upper Meherabad. Through out his life Baba observed periods of seclusion - sometimes for days and other times for months. This particular seclusion would last a year with occasional lapses for travel.
At the end of August, William was ordered to go to Ankai Mountain. Five of Baba's mandali were staying there in seclusion and William was to check on their condition and find out whether they wanted to continue their stay.
"They are in a man-made cave up there - a fine view about 900 feet above the plain and a sheer cliff all around," William noted in his diary.
Ankai was a spiritual site, and the day that William arrived there was a day of pilgrimage. He describes the crowded conditions on the single stairway up the mountain.
"I fought my way up with great difficulty. It took me a half hour or more what would take 10 minutes when the stairway was empty... To get up I touched literally hundreds of women, although I am not allowed to do so by Baba's order."...
When William told Baba the next day about touching the women on the Ankai Mountain stairway he was not annoyed but told him that "to wipe this matter off" William was to fast the next day on milk only.
from
Slave of Love, pp. 63-64
Cannot Break His Commandments
Mani S. Irani
I understand your worry over the exercise order because even we staying with Him do slip up on the seemingly simple orders that are so easy to slip on. But in a way that also has its use, as we then realize some more of His Love in His ready forgiveness, and strive to be more worthy of it the next time. I've begun to really understand why Baba looks sad when we break an order -- it hurts Him because it harms us.
As I read somewhere the other day, "You cannot break His Commandments - you can only break yourself against them." When I was reading out your letter to Baba He smiled and said, "Tell him not to worry in the least about this and to be happy."
from Letters From The Mandali of Avatar Meher Baba, Vol 1, p. 20
May Thy Will Be Done O Perfect One
Meher Baba
May Thy Will be done O Perfect One.
My will not prevail.
It's of no avail where union with You is concerned.
I will toil and I will strive
While I am alive
To love and obey all night and all day
Till union with You I have earned.
Message to Western Baba Lovers, via Harry Kenmore, October, 1959
Courtesy of Elizabeth Giles - Adi with Eruch at the Trust compound, Ahmednagar, India
Obey Him, Forget Yourself
Adi K. Irani
A soldier obeys his superior. He does it for salary. There is no love, and it certainly isn't easy. When you fall in love you naturally want to do things that please your beloved, even at the cost of your own happiness. Without obedience surrender is incomplete. Baba sent you this cable because of your wish to surrender to Him. He is reminding you that as a result of your wanting to surrender to Him, you must obey Him. This is made easy through loving Him more and more.
To merely love without obeying is saying that one enjoys the feeling - the experience - of love, but doesn't care how Baba feels.
To love without obeying is a form of selfishness. It is being concerned about one's feelings, but not the Beloved's.
What are the things Baba wants us to do? To avoid the things that keep us away from Him. Baba doesn't give us orders to deprive us of any happiness in the world. We may think this is so because His orders at times conflict With our desires. But He knows better than us what is best for us.
The things Baba tells us to do are not only for our long-range spiritual good, but also to make us happy in this world.
Dear brother, you are so blessed to have had direct communication with Baba. The next two cables were: "Your love makes me happy. Love me more and more I send my blessings of love to you" and "Your cable made me happy. You are blessed to be mine. I send my Love Blessings to you."
"Love Blessings" and "Blessings of Love" are the same thing. Baba sent you these blessings so that love may awaken in your heart more and more.
The very fact that Baba sent you His Love means you have His Love. Whether you are receptive or not is not the point. You have His love because He says so.
It is like Baba saying in Genesis in the Old Testament of the Bible: "Let there be light and there was light." What Baba says is an accomplished fact because He says so. You are blessed with His Love because Baba has said it.
So dear brother, try your best to love Him more and more and He will help you. Try with all your heart to obey Him, and He will help you.
Adi
from Letters From The Mandali of Avatar Meher Baba, Vol 1, p. 89-91
~~ Full Moon phase Arrives on April 4th ~~
The Full Moon
Mani S. Irani, Meheru R. Irani
In March, the weather turned warm. On 14 March, Mani wrote to Irene:
"This evening there was such a lovely moonrise. It made such a picture from Baba's window; Baba called us all to see it. Lately, Mehera and we all have taken to having our supper by moonlight in the garden and watching the stars through the champa tree."
"Mehera always had a very close affinity for the moon," Meheru related. "From her window whenever she saw the full moon rising above the nearby hill, silhouetting the temple on top, she would call us, wanting us to share in the joy and admire the scene too. We often gazed at the full moon and tried to see Baba's face in it. In the right conditions, we saw Baba's profile looking northwards; it was so exciting to watch. And she always remembered how, one late evening, Baba called her and us to his room and pointed to his window for us to look at the moon, the beautiful colored orb of the harvest moon. That day, watching it with Baba, the moon seemed more beautiful than usual, and Mehera always remembered the episode."
from
MEHERA-MEHER, A DIVINE ROMANCE, Vol. 3, p. 232, David Fenster
