Love and God-Love Of all the forces that can best overcome all difficulties, is the force of love, because the greatest Law of God is Love, which holds the key to all problems. This mighty force not only enables one to put the ideal of selfless service into practice, but also transforms one into God. It has been possible through love for man to become God; and when God becomes man, it is also due to His Love for His beings. Love is dynamic in action and contagious in effect. Pure love is matchless in majesty; it has no parallel in power and there is no darkness it cannot dispel. It is the undying flame that has set life aglow. The lasting emancipation of man depends upon his love for God and upon God’s love for one and all. Where there is love, there is Oneness and, in complete Oneness, the Infinite is realized completely at all times and in every sphere of life, be it science, art, religion, or beauty. The spirit of true love and sacrifice is beyond all ledgers and needs no measures. A constant wish to love and be loving and a non-calculating will to sacrifice in every walk of life, high and low, big and small, between home and office, streets and cities, countries and continents are the best anti-selfish measures that man can take in order to be really selfful and joyful. Love also means suffering and pain for oneself and happiness for others. To the giver, it is suffering without malice or hatred. To the receiver, it is a blessing without obligation. Love alone knows how to give without necessarily bargaining for a return. There is nothing that love cannot achieve and there is nothing that love cannot sacrifice. Love for God, love for fellow-beings, love for service and love of sacrifices; in short, love in any shape and form is the finest “give and take” in the world. Ultimately, it is love that will bring about the much-desired universal leveling of human beings all over the world, without necessarily disturbing the inherent diversities of details about mankind. All the same, in order to burst out in a mighty big spirit to serve as a beacon for those who may yet be groping in the darkness of selfishness, love needs to be kindled and rekindled in the abysmal darkness of selfish thoughts, selfish words and selfish deeds. The light of love is not free from its fire of sacrifice. Like heat and light, love and sacrifice go hand in hand. The true spirit of sacrifice that springs spontaneously does not and cannot reserve itself for particular objects and special occasions. Love and coercion can never go together. Love has to spring spontaneously from within. It is in no way amenable to any form of inner or outer force and it cannot be forced upon anybody, yet it can be awakened in one through love itself. Love cannot be born of mere determination; through the exercise of will, one can at best be dutiful. One may, through struggle and effort, succeed in securing that his external action is in conformity with his conception of what is right; but such action is spiritually barren because it lacks the inward beauty of spontaneous love. Like every great virtue, love, the mainspring of all life, can also be misapplied. It may lead to the height of God-intoxication or the depths of despair. No better example can be given of the two polarities of love and their effects than that of Mary Magdalene before and after meeting Jesus. Between these two extremes are many kinds of love. On the one hand, love does exist in all the phases of human life; but here it is latent or is limited and poisoned by personal ambitions, racial pride, narrow loyalties and rivalries and by attachment to sex, nationality, sect, caste, or religion. On the other hand, pure and real love has also its stages, the highest being the gift of God to love Him. When one truly loves God, one longs for union with Him, and this supreme longing is based on the desire of giving up one’s whole being to the beloved. True love is very different from an evanescent outburst of indulgent emotionalism or the enervating stupor of a slumbering heart. It can never come to those whose heart is darkened by selfish cravings or weakened by constant reliance upon the lures and the stimulations of the passing objects of sense. Even when one truly loves humanity, one longs to give one’s all for its happiness. When one truly loves one’s country, there is the longing to sacrifice one’s very life without seeking reward and without the least thought of having loved and served. When one truly loves one’s friends, there is the longing to help them without making them feel under the least obligation. When truly loving one’s enemies, one longs to make them friends. True love for one’s parents or family makes one long to give them every comfort at the cost of one’s own. Thought of self is always absent in the different longings connected with the various stages of pure, real love; a single thought of self would be an adulteration. Divine Love is qualitatively different from human love. Human love is for the many in the one and Divine Love is for the One in the many. Human love leads to innumerable complications and tangles; but Divine Love leads to integration and freedom. Human love in its personal and impersonal aspects is limited; but Divine Love, with its fusion of the personal and the impersonal aspects, is Infinite in being and expression. Divine Love makes us be true to ourselves and to others and makes us live truly and honestly. Thus, it is the solution to all our difficulties and problems; it frees us from every kind of binding; purifies our hearts and glorifies our being. To those whose hearts are pure and simple, true love comes as a gift through the activating grace of a Perfect Master, and this Divine Love will perform the supreme miracle of bringing God into the hearts of men. All the same, Human Love should not be despised, even when it is fraught with limitations. It is bound to break through all these limitations and initiate an aspirant in the eternal life in the Truth. God does not listen to the language of the tongue which constitutes laps (mental repetitions), Mantras (verbal repetitions), Zikra (either kind of repetition), and devotional songs. He does not listen to the language of the mind which constitutes meditation, concentration and thoughts about God. He listens only to the language of the heart, which constitutes love. The most practical way for the common man to express this language of the heart, whilst attending to daily-life duties, is to speak lovingly, think lovingly, and act lovingly towards all mankind, irrespective of caste, creed and position, taking God to be present in each and everyone. To realize God, we must love Him, losing ourselves in His Infinite Self. We can love God by surrendering to the Perfect Master who is God’s personal Manifestation. We can also love God by loving our fellow-beings, by giving them happiness at the cost of our own happiness, by rendering them service at sacrifice of our interests and by dedicating our lives at the altar of selfless work. When we love God intensely through any of these channels, we finally know Him to be our own Self. The beginning of real love is obedience, and the highest aspect of this love which surpasses that of love itself is the aspect which culminates into the perfect obedience or supreme resignation to the Will and Wish of the Beloved. In this love are embodied all Yogas known to saints and seekers.
The chapter told how Narada, one of Krishna's close ones, came one day to the palace to give Krishna a message. But as he approached, a watchman stopped him and said, "You cannot enter." "What do you mean I cannot enter? I am Narada. I have access to Krishna's bed chamber." Which was true. Narada was so close to Krishna that he had permission to come anytime, anywhere, to see him. But the watchman replied, "I know who you are, but on this particular occasion you must remain here. The Lord Himself has ordered me to stop anybody from coming just now." "What do you mean on this particular occasion? What is the Lord doing that I can't go see him?" The watchman replied, "He said he wanted to pray." "Pray? My Lord is praying? To whom does He pray? Who is greater than my Lord?" Narada demanded and accused the watchman of blasphemy. But the watchman persisted in keeping Narada out, saying, "I am only telling you what He told me. He said He wanted to pray and that I should not let anyone in because He did not want to be disturbed while He is praying." Narada had no choice but to wait, and all sorts of confused thoughts were going through his head, just as similar thoughts had gone through Deshmukh's head when he had first seen Baba pray. Deshmukh read on with avid interest - how would it end, to whom was Krishna praying? After half an hour or so, Krishna came out of his room and saw Narada waiting outside the door. He greeted Narada warmly, but Narada was so agitated that he made only the most perfunctory of greetings. "Whats wrong?" Krishna asked. "You seem upset." Narada was so upset, in fact, that he totally forgot about the message he had come to deliver, he totally forgot that that was why he had come in the first place, and he blurted out, "The watchman said You were praying." "Yes, that is so," Krishna affirmed. "But to whom do you pray?" asked Narada, whose confidence in the Lord was shaken by Krishna's admission. Krishna laughed. "Do you really want to see to whom I pray? Come with me." And Krishna led Narada to His prayer room. "Here, here is My God," Krishna said. And what did Narada see? He saw little figures, little images of Krishna's mandali. There was a little figure of Narada, of Arjuna, of all the close ones. "These are the ones I pray to," Krishna explained. "I pray to My lovers. You see, the whole purpose of creation was so that My love might flow. I eternally love my creation, but periodically I take birth to receive the love of My lovers. My lovers worship me and I worship their love for Me." When Deshmukh read this, he felt very much relieved. Now he knew why Baba prayed. All his confusion vanished. The next time he came to Baba, he confessed all that had happened, how the doubts had started in his mind and how they had been dispelled, and that was how we came to know of it. 📜 That's How It Was, pp.378-382, by Eruch Jessawala
THE LORD HIMSELF PRAYED Eruch Jessawala Meher Baba gave us the prayers that have become known as the Parvardigar or Master's Prayer, and the Prayer of Repentance. At times Baba asked us to recite these prayers, but when we were with Baba we did not have the urge to say them on our own. His presence, as I have told you, is something quite different from the concept of God. Baba has told us, "My work is greater than God," and, although we cannot understand this, and I do not know what God is, yet His presence is really overwhelming and everything - prayers, God, everything - fades into insignificance before Him. But sometimes Baba would want us to recite the prayers, and He would ask me to say them. Baba would stand as one of us, in our midst. He would first wash His hands and face and then join His hands together in prayer; His appearance and His gaze would be that of one deep in the act of adoration, totally absorbed in participation in the prayers. Because Baba would ask me to recite the prayers, I tried to learn them by heart. But as soon as we started praying, I completely forgot them. I became so absorbed in the first line, "0 Parvardigar, the Preserver and Protector of all," that after that my mind became completely blank. Baba would look at me with displeasure and gesture for me to go get the book in which the prayers were written. So after that I stopped trying to say the prayers by heart, and every time Baba wanted them recited, I would go get the book and simply read them out. Baba would wash His face and hands, using that blue basin and small pot you see by His chair. Water from the pot would be poured on His hands; He would wash His face, then dry Himself and stand up and worship with us standing around Him. Time passed by, the seclusion work increased, and Baba became weaker and weaker, and He wanted the prayers recited more and more frequently. It became an everyday matter during the seclusion, and Baba, especially in the last year, could not stand without difficulty. Eventually the stage came where He needed to be supported on each side by two of us, and there He would stand as a worshipper. The Lord Himself prayed. But because it was such a strain on Him, Baba would have me read the prayers faster and faster. I have already told you the story about the time I was reading the prayers so fast I started laughing because the prayers sounded to me just like an express train rumbling through a station with no time to stop. I could not understand why Baba was subjecting Himself to such physical strain. Finally I said, "Baba why do You do this? Can't You sit down?" Baba gestured, "Why should I sit down? Do you know what I am doing? My participation in the prayers will help every individual saying the prayers after I drop the body. My body is so weak I cannot stand. But it doesn't matter how you pray. The important thing is My participation in the prayers. After I drop this body, whosoever recites these prayers will be helped, because of My participation now. And when anyone repeats the prayers, I am there with them. My presence is there." Now, this reminds me of a very good incident concerning Dr. Deshmukh. Deshmukh was a professor of philosophy, a Ph.D. and a brilliant scholar. He was also completely devoted to Baba, and whenever he had vacation, he would come to spend time with Him. In the earlier years Baba would not have us repeat the prayers regularly as He did in the last years. He had the pleasure sometimes and would ask me to recite them, but this was not an everyday occurrence. So it was that Deshmukh, who was one of Baba's close ones, did not know about this practice at all. He did not know that every now and then Baba would ask for the prayers to be read out. Or that afterwards, Baba, would have the mandali file by, stand on a little stool, and He would bow to us, touching our feet with His head. As He did so, we had to call out a certain name of God, a name dear to one according to one's religion. Thus some of us would say, "Ya Yezdan," others, "Ahuramazda," or "Parabrahma Paramatma," or "Allah-Hu," or, "God Almighty," depending on what religion we had been brought up in. But we were not allowed to say, "Baba." I remember when Baba first told us to repeat the name of God most dear to us, one of the mandali said, "Baba, Yours is the name of God most dear to me." But Baba instructed us not to use His name; to repeat one of the traditional names of God. Now, one year, Deshmukh arrived for his vacation just as Baba had asked for the prayers to be read out. Baba had washed His hands and face, and we were all standing at attention, and I was just about to read when we heard someone jiggling the door latch. It was Deshmukh trying to open the latch to come in. As soon as he stepped inside Mandali Hall, Baba gestured, "It is good that you have come. You are fortunate, you are blessed to be with Me now. Come in and stand there with the others and be quiet." Poor Deshmukh did not know what was happening, but he came and stood with the rest of us and I began reading the prayers. During the Prayer of Repentance, Baba would follow the common Eastern practice of tasubah, which means making the gesture of repentance, of softly slapping one's cheeks with one's palms, signifying, "Oh God, I will not do that," or "I repent, I repent." Deshmukh was stunned at all this. In his heart he had always enthroned Baba as the Lord of Lords, the Highest of the High, the one who is prayed to, the one who redeems us when we repent, not one who prays Himself or repents like an ordinary man. He was very confused by this. His philosophical mind could not reconcile Baba's status as Highest of the High with His behavior of praying like an ordinary man. Deshmukh thought, "I take Baba to be God incarnate, but then who is it that Baba is praying to? If Baba is praying, then doesn't it follow that there is a God who is higher than Baba? But how can this be?" Deshmukh was very upset and confused, but he never said anything to any of us. We noticed that he was more withdrawn than usual, but none of us had any idea what was going through his mind. Well, not long after that Deshmukh's mother died. In India we have the custom that when someone dies, the family will take their belongings and wrap them up. Then on the anniversary of the death, a year later, the eldest child will open the bundle. So it was a full year later that Deshmukh opened the bundle and came upon a book which he remembered his mother was fond of reading. It was a book on Krishna. Being a philosopher and scholar, it was natural for Deshmukh's attention to be drawn first to the book. So he picked it up and decided to see what it was that had caught his mother's interest so, and he opened it at random. He looked down and saw the chapter heading was, "The Lord Prays." The Lord prays? Deshmukh's attention was immediately caught and he started to read.
"Only if you become deaf, dumb and blind to the world can you get God. Ego cannot then attack you from any direction." -Meher Baba, Lord Meher online edition, p. 4590 "여러분이 세상에 대해 귀머거리, 벙어리, 장님이 되어야만 하나님을 만날 수 있습니다. 그러면 에고는 어떤 방향에서도 여러분을 공격할 수 없습니다. " -메허 바바, 로드 메허 온라인 판 4590페이지
On one such occasion, with Baba standing in spite of His pain and fatigue, He signaled to Eruch to read the prayer faster. Then, several moments later, He gestured again to read faster still. Eruch was reading briskly when Baba signaled once again to increase the pace. Now Eruch was reading at breakneck speed and the words were running together. Suddenly, he had the image in his mind of an express train barreling its way from Bombay to Pune, clattering through small by-stations without stopping or slowing down. Unexpectedly, contrary to Eruch’s habitually poised and balanced nature, he involuntarily burst out laughing for a few moments; then, collecting himself, he resumed reading as rapidly as he could. Afterwards Baba asked him why he had laughed, and Eruch apologetically described the image which had come to him. Baba gestured, “You have no idea of the physical strain I was going through when I gestured for you to read faster. For you, reading the prayer fast may seem farcical, but for Me to participate in these prayers in My present state of health is no joke. I have given these prayers to humanity to recite. They are for all posterity. Whenever anyone recites these prayers, they will be helped spiritually because of My present personal participation. It has nothing to do with how quickly you read the prayer or how much feeling you read it with or anything of that sort. All that matters is My having participated in the prayers. Any time anyone repeats these prayers, I am there with them, and they will be helped spiritually.” This was the clear divine assurance from the Avatar Himself about the importance of reciting these prayers. They are a loving expression of His compassion, accomplished at the cost of His physical suffering. On February 1, 1968, a Life Circular was issued in which Baba asked all His lovers to help Him in His work by reciting the prayers every day until March 20th. This was subsequently extended to July 9th. Thus, Baba showed that by reciting the prayers, His lovers are also given the privilege of participating in His Divine work. I now feel that both these prayers subsume all the other prayers I have spoken and loved. I no longer have any need to say “I” when reciting the Prayer of Repentance. On the contrary, I feel the “we” is the most high “WE” because it includes Baba’s participation. In a real sense, the Master’s Prayer has become “The Universal Prayer” for one and all. Meher Baba suffered willingly and consciously to participate in the prayers so that posterity might benefit from them. To me the offering of these prayers is not a ritual. That is why I liken them to special buttons we can use to intensify our contact with the Ancient One, functioning through the Samadhi during this Avataric period. And it is also true that any moment of sincere remembrance of the Eternal Awakener, wherever we may be, will awaken His love in our hearts and guide us in our journey to Him. -The Samadhi☆Star of Infinity, pp. 62-69, by Bal Natu
Prayer: Access to the Divine Satellite MEHER BABA BEGAN OBSERVING silence at Meherabad on July 10, 1925. Prior to this, during His extensive travels throughout India in the early ‘20s, He resided for a period in the home of a disciple in Quetta (which is now in Pakistan). One day He used the telephone on the second floor of the house to talk to a disciple on the ground floor. After conversing for some time, Baba remarked playfully, “Isn’t this fun? Even though you can’t see Me, you have no difficulty in talking with Me. Even though I’m out of your sight, because of the link of the telephone, we are able to communicate with each other.” Thus, in a very natural way, Meher Baba used the analogy of the telephone to give His dear ones a hint that they could communicate with Him even when He was not visible to them. In those days, the telephone system depended on cables. But today, telecommunication systems simply beam information upward to a satellite which then relays it to a receiver anywhere in the world. I am not highly educated and only minimally conversant with modern technology. I do not claim to understand the physics, engineering or electronics which underlie modern communications, but I am struck by the fact that, to make use of them, an ordinary person has to understand neither how these appliances work nor the scientific laws which govern them. The present routine use of fax machines, computers, televisions, and telephones in our daily lives, in fact, often reminds me of God’s incredible game with His Creation, played through His subtle and intricate laws, which are far beyond the grasp of the common person. With these machines, fantastically complicated operations are executed in seconds and then transmitted instantaneously with just the push of a button. And, undoubtedly, all of these systems will become even more sophisticated in the coming years. This is made possible by the application of the higher laws of physics in this gross world. Similarly, in the inner realms of life there are subtle spiritual laws which facilitate communication. I do not presume to understand how these laws operate either, but it has been the experience of many that the Samadhi of Avatar Meher Baba works as a divine phone, computer, fax, walkietalkie, satellite connection-all rolled into one. Not only has this Avataric communication center dispensed with the need for external connections, but unlike worldly technology, it does more than transmit information. Because of the Avatar’s omnipresent love, it also responds automatically by offering loving guidance to anyone, anywhere, any time. In the old days, with telephones, you needed to contact the operator before you were connected. Even today, when faxing, you need to go to a machine and push the right buttons to send your message. With Meher Baba who is omnipresent, it is remembrance of Him that puts us in touch with the divine “Operator.” And Prayers directed to Him, especially the prayers gifted to us personally by Baba-”The Master’s Prayer” and “The Prayer of Repentance”-are the buttons He has given us to push to send our hearts’ messages to Him through loving remembrance. Any invocation to Baba with a sincere feeling is like a wireless message in the inner domains, needing no physical connection-a direct signal straight to the Avatar’s compassionate heart. While visiting a Christian chapel in Murrie, Pakistan, in 1933, Baba conveyed to a group of Westerners, “All worship returns to Me. The sigh within the prayer is the same in the heart of the Christian or the Muslim, or the Jew [or any worshipper]. They are all indivisibly longing for the same God.” When we remember Baba or say the prayers He has given us, in which He Himself participated hundreds of times, this is like picking up the phone to find that the connection has been made automatically. He has laid unseen spiritual cables through these prayers, connecting the hearts of His dear ones, enabling the easy transmission of our yearnings, sorrows, and joys, and His loving response is assured. I sometimes think fancifully of the finial on top of the Samadhi as an antenna which receives our hearts’ call and transmits the love of the Ancient One. Our calling on Baba is like pushing a button on the remote control, and the channel that is changed is within us. It is not only that a connection is made, but the very pushing of that button selects a frequency within us, finetuning us so that our thoughts and feelings are increasingly centered on Him. Thinking about Avatar Meher Baba’s presence in the Samadhi and the various events connected with His life gradually slows down the mind and gears life to a different rhythm. Then the heart begins to sing the song of the Avatar’s glorious love, and a joy unknown and inexpressible begins to enliven one’s journey to the Source, the Eternal Bliss of God. These analogies might strike some as far-fetched, but technology reflects the effects of the Avatar’s universal working on the inner realms of consciousness. Science is reaching great heights, not in spite of the Avatar’s advent, but because of it. During the Avataric period, all aspects of life are being divinely quickened to new levels. I have no doubt that the Samadhi is the center of the Avatar’s work of creating a new surge in the arts and sciences, and of awakening the heart of humanity to the love of God. Earlier, I referred to the two prayers Baba has given us as buttons we can push to gain access to the divine satellite and receive His love and guidance. Some may wonder at the importance that has been ascribed to these prayers, since Baba has also stated that the only prayer God hears is the prayer of the heart. Doesn’t the regular recitation of the prayers amount to precisely the kind of ritual Baba has come to do away with? Therefore, I wish to share a few thoughts and facts about these prayers. Baba dictated the Repentance Prayer at Meherabad in November of 1952, and the Master’s Prayer in Dehra Dun in August of 1953. The Master’s Prayer was originally referred to as the Universal Prayer. By the time it was sent to the West, it was known as the Master’s Prayer because of Baba’s participation in offering it. Let me admit that when I first read the Universal Prayer, I was not impressed by it. But since Baba had given it, naturally I had a deep respect for it. When Baba first gave the prayer, He made it clear that He wanted His followers to recite it daily for a certain period, and while I was happy to comply with this, the prayer did not appeal to my heart the way it should have. Unlike the prayer of Saint Francis or some of the prayers in the Upanishads, the Master’s Prayer seemed rather remote, being neither moving nor poetic. It seemed, to my limited understanding, to read like a dry collection of divine attributes which did not have a great deal of significance for me. I was also a little hesitant about the use of the word “we” in the Repentance Prayer. I wondered why I should share in other people’s repentance when I hadn’t participated in their sins! So, sometimes when I recited this prayer by myself, I would change “we” to “I,” since it was “I” who was repenting. Baba had made me feel so natural in my relationship with Him that I did not feel the slightest guilt about doing this. Then, in the ‘50s and ‘60s, Baba gave me more and more opportunities to spend time with Him and also to participate in these prayers in His presence. This gradually changed my perspective. Baba’s attitude towards the prayers, I saw, clearly reflected the importance they had for Him in His universal work. Before reciting them, He would wash His hands and face and straighten His coat or sadra. Then, with great solemnity, Baba would join His palms and listen with closed eyes while the prayers were read aloud by Eruch. The look of profound and reverent absorption on Baba’s face at such times impressed me deeply. As He listened to all the attributes of God in the Master’s Prayer, I could see that they were clearly not just a dry catalogue of terms to Him. One had the vivid impression that Baba was inwardly experiencing each of these attributes which, for me, had only been high-sounding phrases. I could not help but begin to develop an appreciation for these superlatives, as they were obviously charged with deep significance. When the Repentance Prayer was read out, a deeply penitent look would come over Baba’s face and He would softly tap His cheeks with His palms. Through the recitation of the prayers, I felt that Baba was bringing together the religions of the world “as beads on one string.” His hands were joined in the fashion common to both the Hindu and Christian traditions, and yet the Master’s Prayer begins, “O Parvardigar,” a Sufi term used by the Muslims. As the prayer was read, He would sway from side to side in the manner of the Zoroastrians. Thus, the major religions were symbolically represented through Baba’s external actions. He participated in these prayers hundreds of times. My growing sense of the spiritual importance of the prayers was reinforced in later years when Baba’ s health was declining: He would still insist on standing while the prayers were read out. From 1966 onward, Baba was in seclusion, engaged in intense universal spiritual work on all planes of consciousness. In spite of the fact that this work seemed to leave Baba terribly drained, He wanted the prayers read almost every day when a particular part of His work was finished. After 1967, He usually needed one of His disciples to stand at His side to support Him.
The Avataric period, as mentioned, is 100 years long. But when does this period begin? For me, the current Avataric cycle began on February 25, 1894 when Meher Baba was born. Some might suggest that this is also the date for the beginning of Baba’s manifestation, but as Baba was veiled at that point and was not functioning as the Avatar, this does not seem so to me. The next date to consider, therefore, is in January 1914 when Babajan unveiled Merwan by kissing Him on the forehead between His eyebrows, making Him experience the infinite bliss of Selfrealization-His Ancient One state. However, in this state He was totally unaware of the three worlds, the entire Creation, and hence was still not functioning as the Avatar. Meher Baba began functioning as the Avatar and Head of the spiritual hierarchy from either December 1921 or January 1922, when Shri Upasni Maharaj folded his hands before Merwan, saying, “Merwan, You are Adi Shakti. You are the Avatar!” Yet, this does not seem like the public manifestation of the Avatar, for the simple reason that Baba had disclosed His status to only a few, but did not publicly declare Himself to be the Avatar to the world. Thinking about this disparity between Maharaj’s explicit declaration and Baba’s public reticence has helped clarify in my mind my understanding of Baba’s public manifestation. There are many facets implied in the word manifestation. Most people, I think, when they refer to Baba’s manifestation are referring to His Universal Manifestation. I hasten to admit at the outset that I do not know what Baba meant by that particular term. I feel that its meaning was conveyed in His “language” alone, thus it is so far beyond my comprehension that I can never grasp its import even with the highest flights of my imagination. Everyone should feel free to delve into this subject as deeply as they wish, but I willingly refrain from such an attempt. There are other aspects of Baba’s manifestation too. There is a personal manifestation which occurs within one’s heart when a person recognizes Baba as the Ancient One, the Eternal Beloved. Baba manifests in a unique way within each one. He eternally resides in every heart, so His manifestation is latent within everyone. As the heart begins to awaken to His love, the manifestation becomes more explicit. A God-realized soul, a saint, a lover, and an ordinary devotee all experience and reflect Baba’s manifestation differently. This makes it very difficult to try and pinpoint when Baba’s manifestation occurs, because it unfolds in innumerable ways. Therefore, in this book, I am limiting myself to trying to determine when Baba manifested publicly as the Avatar. In the early years, for example, not only did Baba not declare to the world at large that He was the Avatar, but He often went out of His way to hide His identity. Baba did not allow His dear ones who journeyed with Him to even reveal His name, much less His spiritual status. To His close ones, in both the East and West, Baba disclosed His Avatarhood in a variety of ways, but to the public, Baba was generally referred to as a Perfect Master or Sadguru. For His own spiritual work, Baba allowed this. It is very interesting that, especially during His work of physically contacting the masts (God-intoxicated), Baba would take care that His status should not be disclosed; but if, in spite of this, He was recognized by a mast, He would generally leave the place immediately. In the early ‘50s, Baba began giving more public hints about His status, as in the message “The Highest of the High,” which was given in Dehra Dun in 1953. But the date that seems to me to symbolize Meher Baba’s public declaration of Avatarhood is February 10, 1954. On this day, at about 1:00 A.M., Baba was in a small hut in an out-of-the-way place called Meherasthan, in the district of Hamirpur, Uttar Pradesh. Asthana in Hindi means “threshold”-it is as though the Avatar crossed the threshold of disguise here. The hut was situated on a small hill, and that night a large group of His followers had gathered around its entrance. Most unexpectedly, and to the amazement of those present, Baba spelled out on His alphabet board, “Avatar Meher Baba ki Jai” (“Victory to Meher Baba, the Avatar”). One of Baba’s dear ones, Keshav Nigam, has faithfully recorded this event in detail, a part of which is quoted below: At that time, Baba was in an extremely happy mood! His fingers ran on the alphabet board and spelled the words: Avatar Meher Baba Ki Jai! and He simultaneously raised His right hand up to confirm that JAI. Baba also declared that it was for the first time in this Incarnation of His that He had here openly and clearly declared Himself to be the Avatar.3 I personally take this declaration as the commencement of Meher Baba’s public manifestation as the Avatar, and therefore as the beginning of the Avataric period. It was after this that Adi K. Irani, Baba’s secretary, had a stamp made that he used on his correspondence, which said, “In the Service of Avatar Meher Baba.” It was also from this date that Baba began to consistently refer to Himself as the Avatar in public. Some weeks later, while making a house visit in Andhra, when asked to give a message, Baba replied: It has been possible through Love, for man to become God; and when God becomes Man, it is due to His love for His beings. If people were to ask Me, “Have you seen God?” I would reply, “What else is there to see?” If they were to ask Me, “Are you God?” I would reply, “Who else could I be?” If they were to ask Me, “Are you the Avatar?” I would reply, “Why else have I taken this human form?” 4 At the end of l954, Baba called His Western men lovers to be with Him for three weeks. During this time, on Sep tember 12, He held a large darshan program in Wadia Park in Ahmednagar. Obviously aware of the effect His public declaration of Avatarhood would have on the minds of some, the very first message which Baba had read out was: When I say I am the Avatar, there are a few who feel happy, some who feel shocked, and many who, hearing Me claim this, would take Me for a hypocrite, a fraud, a supreme egoist, or just mad. If I were to say every one of you is an Avatar, a few would be tickled, and many would consider it a blasphemy or a joke. The fact that God being One, Indivisible, and equally in us all, we can be naught else but one, is too much for the duality-conscious mind to accept. Yet each of us is what the other is. I know I am the Avatar in every sense of the word, and that each of you is an Avatar in one sense or the other.5 “Meher Baba’s Call” was a special message given on this occasion. In it, Baba made the following explicit declaration: Age after age, when the wick of righteousness burns low, the Avatar comes yet once again to rekindle the torch of Love and Truth. Age after age, amidst the clamor of disruptions, wars, fear and chaos, rings the Avatar’s call: “Come all unto Me.” The time is come. I repeat the Call, and bid all come unto Me.6 It was the following year that Mani, under Baba’s direction, wrote Bili the letter mentioned earlier, in which it is specified that for a period of a hundred years the Avatar’s direct personal radiation would be available. From this I gather that Baba was indirectly conveying that it would not be necessary for His body to be visible for this to happen. So, for me, Baba’s public manifestation began on February 10, 1954, as did the Avataric period. Although, as part of His Leela (divine sport), Meher Baba allowed His body to be veiled from our eyes on February 7, 1969, His public manifestation of love and compassion continues as it did when He was visible in His physical form. This is what I mean by saying that to be inside the Samadhi is to be directly in Avatar Meher Baba’s physical presence. It can be likened to the times when Baba was in different parts of India or the West and His lovers not with Him were able to feel His Physical presence in spite of not seeing Him. They knew that His Public manifestation was taking place. Now, although His body is veiled in the crypt beneath the white marble slab, His “direct living and personal radiation” continues and will continue for the rest of the Avataric period. Thus Meher Baba, as the Avatar, is available for audience to one and all who visit the Maha-Samadhi at Meherabad. This explains the significance of the Samadhi, being the source of His direct living and personal radiation. It is from here, this unique, matchless spot chosen by the Avatar Himself, that He now dispenses His love and compassion on this Earth during the Avataric period. In one of His brief discourses, Meher Baba has mentioned that although the universes in this seemingly Infinite Space are innumerable, “only on the planet Earth do human beings reincarnate and begin the Path to Self-Realization.” 7 Meher Baba has also stated that of all the countries on the Earth, India is closest to the “creation point.” And the Samadhi at Meherabad is that unique site in India chosen by the Avatar to be His final resting place. So how can we ever fathom the spiritual importance of the Samadhi in relation to any other place in the world? When anyone visits the Samadhi, this becomes the most significant moment in that individual’s life. It is the blessed time of being in the Avatar’s company. -The Samadhi☆Star of Infinity, pp. 42-52, by Bal Natu
The Public Manifestation MY MIND OFTEN ACCEPTS the delightful challenge to seek objective confirmation for what I subjectively believe to be true. This attitude has helped me strengthen my relationship with Meher Baba. So my mind silently looked for some kind of confirmation from Baba that would reveal the validity of His special presence that I often felt in the Samadhi. As always, Baba was kind enough to lead me along the way, ending in my acceptance of the fact that He is truly there in the Samadhi. Before going into this subject, however, I wish to present some events connected with Meher Baba’s programs and travels in the ‘50s. Baba’s sister, Mani, used to write letters giving information about Baba’s activities to Bili Eaton in the United States. Bili would then type copies of these letters and send them to the Baba groups she knew of, which at that time were mostly on the East Coast. This arrangement enabled the majority of Baba-lovers in the U.S. to hear the latest news that they so longed for of their Beloved. However, after about a year, Mani’s “Family Letters” were sent regularly to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where they were duplicated and sent out to all Baba groups in the West. During one of my stays at Meherazad in the ‘70s, I was doing research for the volumes of Glimpses of the God-Man[The almost hourly detail of Meher Baba’s travels through Hamipur and Andhra over a nine-week period in 1954.], Meher Baba when I happened to come across a file of the letters which Mani had written to Bili. These had remained unpublished until Bili Eaton’s book A Love So Amazing came out in 1984. While reading this file, I found one letter that caught my special attention. It concerned a clarification of the difference between the terms “Avataric period” and “Avataric cycle.” Before quoting this letter, however, I want to give some more background which will explain why it came to be written in the first place. This digression begins in the early 1940s in England. A woman by the name of Irene Conybeare-sincere, scholarly, and deeply interested in spiritual upliftment-heard about Meher Baba from Fred Marks, one of Baba’s close followers. She was so impressed by what Fred told her, and the conviction with which he relayed it, that she decided that she had to see Meher Baba for herself. The Second World War had started, however, and travel from England to India was not permitted. Yet Irene was so determined that she went to South Africa, where, in April 1941, she managed to get a place on the last boat sailing from there to India. What an intense longing the Avatar had awakened in her! Once in India, she found out that Baba was in Dehra Dun, in the north, and traveled there from Bombay, only to receive word that Baba would not see her. However, He asked her if she would be willing to go to America for His work. Irene agreed and began to make arrangements to go there. Pleased with her decision to obey Him, Baba called her to Aimer, a distance of over seven hundred kilometers to the west, where He was doing His work with the masts (God-intoxicated). She was informed that she would be allowed to see Him for no more than five minutes and should ask Him no questions during their meeting. Irene happily agreed and later wrote about that first meeting, “I had the curious sense of having arrived at the end of my destination, my quest for Truth, and felt that I was in the presence of a great spiritual being; it was an indefinable sensation.” 1 Subsequently, Irene wrote two books: Civilization or Chaos? in 1955, published in England, and In Quest of the Truth, or How I Came to Meher Baba in the early ‘60s. Her book Civilization or Chaos? attempted to examine the world situation in the light of her understanding of Avatar Meher Baba’s teachings. Some complimentary copies were sent to Baba and the mandali. While going through it, someone noticed that in the chapter “Cycles and Circles” there was some erroneous information about the Avatar’s circle and the responsibilities and roles the close disciples play during His Advent. When this was brought to Baba’s attention, He took pains to convey a number of key points to one of His mandali before going into seclusion in Satara. These points became the basis of Meher Baba’s discourse entitled “The Circles of the Avatar.” I mention that Baba took pains because He had recently, in October 1954, given up the use of the alphabet board through which He had earlier dictated His discourses and messages. In November of 1954, Baba wished, for His universal work, to go into seclusion and to reduce all communication to an absolute minimum. But still He took the time to dictate His clarifications, and because it was essential that the precise meaning behind Baba’s gestures be understood, this sometimes resulted in Baba laboriously spelling out words letter by letter. When He was finished, the discourse was written out and read back to Baba, who made corrections and finally approved of it. Mani sent a copy of this discourse to Bili Eaton. Bili, in addition to sending this to her usual list of people, also sent a copy to Ivy Duce, who was the Murshida of Sufism Reoriented. At that time Mrs. Duce, along with Don E. Stevens, was editing God Speaks preparatory to its publication. Because of this, Mani also had mailed a copy of Baba’s discourse to her. When Mrs. Duce checked her two copies, she found that Bili’s version contained an extra sentence which stated, “The Avataric cycle is one hundred years.” She wrote to Mani to find out which version of the discourse was correct, and, of course, this matter was brought to Baba’ s notice. Baba instructed Mani to write a letter to both Mrs. Duce and Bili in which He clarified the difference between the Avataric period and the Avataric cycle. How Bili, who was an expert typist, had inadvertently added this extra sentence remains a mystery, but because of it we have the following explanation from Baba in Mani’s letter to Bili. In Baba’s explanation of the Circle, it says: “All the fourteen members of the Avatar’s Inner Circle realize God by the grace of the Avatar during the same Avataric period, which is of one hundred years’ duration after the Manifestation of the Avatar on earth.” The Avataric period has nothing to do with the cycle. Please have that clear. The 100 years after the Manifestation of the Avatar is the period encompassing the direct living and personal radiation of the Avatar.2 Back to the ‘70s, as I read the file containing the above explanation, written in 1955, I felt that I had found the confirmation I was seeking. No wonder I could trust that Baba is actively present in the Samadhi: Baba Himself had characterized the Avataric period as being charged by His “direct living and personal radiation.” This is the period in which a special Avataric dispensation continues to flow forth, in spite of the veiling of the Avatar’s physical form from our sight. So even now, during this specific period, all who visit the Samadhi at Meherabad are blessed in the same way as being in the Avatar’s physical presence. At least this is how I take it. It is likely that others will have their own opinions on this subject, and I am not trying to persuade anyone that my view is “correct.” I am simply explaining what my view is, and others are most free to agree or disagree with me according to their own understanding. Whenever we simply call on Meher Baba, the Omnipresent One, with a loving heart, wherever or whoever we may be, Baba is there to help us. But it strikes me that the veil of ignorance covering the Omnipresent One is most transparent at the Samadhi. Some readers, no doubt, may at this point say, “But Meher Baba stated that the period encompassing the direct and personal radiation of the Avatar is for a hundred years after His Manifestation. When did His Manifestation occur?” Here, I would like to share my personal understanding of the terms Avataric “cycle,” “period,” and especially, “manifestation.” Baba has mentioned that the Avataric cycle varies from 700 to 1,400 years. He often stated that He would come back after 700 years, so the present Avataric cycle is of 700 years.
I do not mean to suggest that because of my reading Meher Baba’s messages and discourses, I had no doubts or conflicts. It took many years before I was able to happily accept my inability to resolve questions I had about the breaking of Baba’s silence and His status as the Avatar. I gradually came to realize that these questions could only be answered by the heart, not the mind. But that’s a different story. Regardless of my mind’s questions, my heart was increasingly drawn to Baba, and I tried to do what I could to feel His omnipresence. Although I had quit my job as a schoolteacher to join Baba in His New Life, He, for reasons known only to Him, unexpectedly instructed me to return to my home and continue with my job. Instead of having me travel with Him, Baba ordered me to contact a certain person in the Himalayas and give him a special message from Baba. After completing this task, I was able to resume my teaching. A year later, at a meeting in Mahabaleshwar in which Baba again gave some of us a choice to join Him in the New Life, I, with all honesty, opted to stay with Him in the Old life. I continued with my job and because of this, I was physically apart from Baba during much of my life. At such times I would keep track of Baba’s travels, which I easily could with the information I received from the mandali in correspondence, and I would try to picture Him wherever He might be. This helped me a great deal to feel His presence, in the way that rereading His messages did. Even when reading Baba quotes from my small notebook, I would visually imagine Baba wherever He was, so my remembrance was intimately associated with His physical form. In 1948 Baba had given me permission to stay with Him whenever conveniently possible. I availed myself of this offer of grace, especially after He concluded His New Life in 1951. When Baba veiled His visible physical form in 1969, I was suddenly at a loss as to how to relate to Him. As I sat or stood outside the Samadhi during that first week of February 1969 and watched His lovers taking darshan, it became clear to me that Baba was still actively greeting His lovers and showering them with His love. But the question arose in my mind, “Where is Baba as Meher Baba, that dynamic Avataric personality? His body is in the crypt, this is clear, but where exactly is the Source, the Powerhouse, of the love His lovers feel?” During the next few years, in the early ‘70s, I would be struck time and time again by Baba’s active dispensation of love to those who would visit Him in the Samadhi. People would also pour into Meherazad from all over the world at all hours of the day and share their stories of Baba’s loving presence in their lives, felt especially when they were in the Samadhi. I was drenched in the showers of their love for Baba as the Eternal Beloved, but my mind would ask, “But where is the fountain that is showering us with this living water of Love?” In talking to Indian Baba-lovers and listening to their stories, I also felt Baba’s love very strongly. I would often be reminded of places I had been with Baba and of darshan programs I had attended, especially those at Guruprasad. Various incidents of my life with Baba would be replayed in my mind with sudden vividness. Each time, my heart felt illumined as if a light had been turned on. But again my mind asked, “But where is the generator that is providing the power?” With Meher Baba’s veiling of His physical body, the form which had been the focus of my thoughts and feelings for so many years, I felt as if my link to Baba had in some way been disrupted. I would inwardly ask Baba, “Where are You?” I felt that if I knew the answer to this question, it would help me reestablish the same sense of rapport with Baba which I had felt before. I wondered, “Should I try to picture Baba now in the Samadhi?” But somehow there seemed to be a contradiction in associating Baba’s divinely dynamic personality with the place which He used to sometimes refer to as His “Final Resting Place.” My mind was in a state of extended suspense awaiting a resolution to this turmoil which would appeal to my heart. Some years later this distressing problem was finally resolved by an experience which, even to this day, I find difficult to categorize. One morning in May 1987, I was resting on my bed at Meherazad with my eyes closed, waiting for the call announcing that the car was ready to leave for the Trust Office in Ahmednagar. Baba chose this moment to reveal the answer to my question in a way that not only totally eased my mind, but also consoled and convinced my heart. While resting, I suddenly found myself in the midst of a kind of “waking dream.” I saw myself standing on the platform in front of the Samadhi at Meherabad, just to the right of the door. There was no furniture as there is now, no cabinets or benches. No one else was present. It was all blissfully quiet when, most unexpectedly and to my great surprise and joy, I saw Meher Baba and Eruch, one of His dear disciples, coming up the slope from the south. As they approached the platform, Baba asked Eruch to wait at its edge. He then walked gracefully towards the door of the Samadhi, His arms swinging, hair flowing, His eyes flashing brilliantly. He gave me a glance of deep intimacy that words cannot convey, then entered the Samadhi. I waited with great anticipation for Him to come out, trying to decide how I would greet Him. “Should I bow down to Him, do this, or that ... or what?” Just then, from inside the Samadhi, I heard a deep voice with a sweet ring to it, and the words resounded, “I AM HERE, I AM HERE, I AM HERE.” These words reverberated throughout my whole being. Just then I heard someone calling my name, saying that the car was ready to go to the Trust Office. As I opened my eyes, I found myself uttering the word “EVER.” My heart was filled with an inexpressible joy. I felt deep within me that Baba had clearly shown me: HE IS THERE, HE IS THERE, HE IS THERE, in the Samadhi, as the Ancient One, ever divinely vibrant, responding to the calls of those who visit Him for darshan, or think of Him wherever they may be. Thus, thinking of Meher Baba in the Samadhi has come to be, for me, the same as thinking of Him when He was visible in the physical body. This has become the natural way for me to feel closer to the presence of the Avatar-the Infinite, Active Consciousness that assumed human form as Meher Baba. Since that day, Meher Baba’s living physical presence in the Samadhi has been for me a fact beyond all doubt. This experience reminds me of an incident from Baba’s life when He also spoke three significant words. Once, Baba was visiting the Ellora Caves with some of His Eastern and Western women disciples. One of the caves they visited is known as the Buddha’s cave. Mani sometimes shared the story of this visit and commented that as they were inside, looking at the impressive statue of the Buddha which dominates the cave, they were moved by the spiritual atmosphere which they felt there in Baba’s presence. Just then, Baba took His alphabet board from under His arm and dictated to Mani these three words, “I AM BUDDHA.” As Mani read aloud from the board, she felt as if every particle of the cave resounded with the truth of His words. One evening a few years after I heard the three words, “I AM HERE,” I found upon returning to Meherazad from the Trust Office that, as usual, someone had placed on the table in my room some pictures of Baba and a few pamphlets to be distributed to pilgrims. I was tired and went to bed immediately after having supper. The next morning, when I rolled back my mosquito netting, I saw a painting of the Samadhi on the windowsill next to my bed which I had not noticed the night before. Later, I learned that it had been sent to my room from Baba’s House, where the women mandali stay, to be given away or kept as I chose. Naturally, I decided to keep it. In fact, I was overjoyed to receive it. I had been wanting a picture of the Samadhi ever since my “vision.” Not only that, but this painting showed the Samadhi with the door open as I had seen it, and I took this as an objective confirmation from Meher Baba that the words I had heard were truly His. This painting adorns the wall of my room to this day, proclaiming from the Samadhi Avatar Meher Baba’s message, “I AM HERE.” And yes, He is. ___()___
“I Am Here” SINCE THE MID-’40S, despite my religious upbringing and strong interest in doing social work, Meher Baba continued to bring me, in a very natural way, into His closer inner contact. More and more I was drawn to Him, and He indirectly responded to the feeble call of my heart by providing me with opportunities to be in the company of His disciples-Hindus, Muslims, and Parsis. They freely shared with me the incredible experiences of their lives with Baba. I was immensely impressed by the conviction they had of Baba’s Divinity. Some had faced many difficult situations in their lives, including opposition from their friends and even family members. But this did not deter them from following Beloved Baba, whose love was so unconditional that all, in spite of their different religious backgrounds, social status, unconventional habits, or even mistakes they might have made, were accepted without reservation. I had read the life stories of other Masters, and yet what I was discovering here, in Baba, seemed more dynamic, intimate, and all-encompassing than anything I had previously read or heard. It was only natural that this prompted in me an even greater desire to read and hear more and more about Baba’s divinely human and humanly divine life. In the ‘40s, there were biographies of Baba in both Marathi and English. I also eagerly devoured the copies of Meher Baba Journal which were available, each of which contained an enlightening discourse given by Meher Baba on a profound spiritual subject. A year or two later, Baba’s discourses were collected and published in five volumes. Although I had some familiarity with spiritual literature, I had never come across such utterly logical and compelling explanations on so many different subjects, such as reincarnation and karma, sanskaras, Maya, meditation, the formation of the ego-nor had any other books ever explained in such detail the subtle distinctions between the different states of those on the spiritual Path and of those who were God-realized. I got into the habit of keeping a small notebook with me, and I would write down passages from the Discourses or Baba’s messages which particularly appealed to me. Then, during the day, whenever I could find time to, I would read and reread these passages. You might even call this a “practice” of mine which helped me feel that my connection to Baba was maintained no matter where He was physically. Not only that, but many a time I found that the solution to any problem I was facing at that moment was revealed to me in my reading. The passages I copied became a sort of guide, giving me understanding and practical direction in my life-an extension of Baba’s internal support and help. Because of the importance such messages had in my attempt to sustain and strengthen the link I felt with Meher Baba, I wish to share three quotes from the Discourses at this point. They are lengthy, but they, along with some others, were mainly responsible for shaping my way of relating to Baba, the Avatar. I have not changed any of the words, but have taken the liberty of underlining phrases that are of special significance to me. Supreme Claim of One’s Own Master Since the Master is, for the aspirant, a symbol of the supreme Self in all, the problem of true adjustment to the Master appears to him to be the same as realizing his own inner divinity and arriving at true adjustment with all other forms of the supreme Self. Through his allegiance to the Master, the aspirant achieves conscious appreciation of the fundamental unity of these problems .... The supreme claim of the Master cannot be challenged or limited even by the spontaneous reverence that the disciple is bound to feel for Masters other than the one who has accepted him. All Perfect Masters are one in their consciousness, and it is absurd to imagine any grades between them. Though one Master is not greater than another, the disciple must, for his own purposes, place the claim of his own Master over and above the claims of other Masters-until he transcends the domain of duality and realizes the unity of all Life. Mental energy would be dissipated unless there arose a supremely imperative claim among the many conflicting claims of life. Exclusive concentration upon one Master is therefore usually indispensable for the gathering up of the dispersed mental energy of the disciple.1 -Meher Baba Personal Meditation Personal meditation is directed towards those who are spiritually perfect. ...A suitable object for personal meditation is a living or past Perfect Master or the Avatar. It is important that the object of meditation be spiritually perfect.... Appreciation of the divinity perceived in the Master gives rise to forms of meditation in which the aspirant constantly and strenuously thinks of the Master as being an embodiment of qualities like universal love or complete detachment, egolessness or steadfastness, infinite knowledge or selfless action.... Dwelling upon the qualities of the Master often facilitates concentration on the form of the Master. In this type of meditation, the aspirant is aware of the spiritual Perfection of the Master; and he spontaneously fixes his attention upon the form of the Master, without analyzing his spiritual Perfection into any of its component qualities.... Complete identification of the Master with the spiritual ideal is responsible for removing such barriers as might exist between the aspirant and the Master. This gives rise to the release of unrestrained love for the Master and leads to the meditation of the heart, which consists in constant thinking about the Master with an uninterrupted flow of limitless love.2 -Meher Baba The Living Link with the Master Once the aspirant experiences the bliss of the darshan of a Master, that sight gets carved on his mind. And even when he is unable to establish frequent personal contact, his mind turns to the Master again and again in an effort to understand his significance. This process of establishing mental contact with the Master is essentially different from merely imaginative revival of past incidents.... As he is one with Eternity, the Master is beyond time and all limitations of time.... To love the Master is to love all, not merely symbolically but actually; for what the Master receives on the inner planes of consciousness he spiritualizes and distributes. Thus he not only strengthens the personal links that the disciples may have with him but also gives them the privilege of sharing his divine work.3 -Meher Baba
한 번의 결혼은 일곱 번의 출생을 초래 1928년 2월 14일 화요일, 바바는 동생 베헤람을 메허 아쉬람의 부감독관으로 임명했습니다. 이틀 후, 한 남자가 바바의 다르샨을 찾아와 스승에게 갓 태어난 아이의 이름을 지어달라고 요청했습니다. 바바는 그를 만달리와 아쉬람 소년들 사이에 앉게 했지만 그에게 많은 관심을 기울이지는 않았습니다. 회의 중에 만달리 중 한 명이 바바에게 그 사람이 그의 조언을 구하고 있다는 것을 상기시켰습니다. 바바는 만달리 회원에게 찡그린 표정을 지었다가 주제를 바꿨습니다: “만약 여러분이 결혼한다면, 여러분은 일곱 번 더 많은 출생을 초래합니다. 성자와 깨달은 스승들이 그들의 신자들에게 미혼의 삶을 살라고 조언하는 것은 바로 이런 연유 때문입니다. 이 일곱 번의 출생은 여러분이 진행함에 따라 생애를 거듭하면서 계속 증가합니다. 예를 들어, 7 X 7 = 49 X 7 = 343 X 7 등입니다. 전생에 얼마나 많은 전처를 남겼는지 그리고 앞으로 얼마나 많은 새로운 아내들과 접촉하게 될까요! 과거의 아내 중 누구도 기억하지 못하고 앞으로 다가올 아내들에 대해서도 알지 못할 것입니다. 그러니 여러분이 결혼하고 싶다면 나와 결혼하세요! 나와의 결혼은 오직 나에 대한 존경과 애정, 그리고 사랑을 의미합니다. 나에 대한 그러한 생각과 기억은 정말로 많은 것을 요구합니다. 심지어 고대의 요가 수행자들보다 훨씬 더 많은 사랑을 요구합니다. 그러니 나와 결혼하세요! 나와의 결혼은 사랑, 평화, 행복을 의미합니다. 여자와의 평범한 결혼은 자가다(jhagada)[싸움]와 그로부터 발생하는 수천 가지 걱정을 의미합니다.” 그 사람과 소년들이 떠난 후 바바는 아쉬람 소년들 앞에서 결혼에 대해 언급하는 실수를 저질렀다는 이유로, 발언한 만달리 회원을 크게 꾸짖었습니다. 바바는 그에게 다시는 그러지 말라고 경고했습니다. 같은 날 늦게 바바는 “사실 오늘 아침 모친께 매일 내 이름을 1,000번씩 불러보라고 조언했습니다. 그녀가 그렇게 한다면 좋을 것입니다. 그렇지 않으면 내 조언에 귀를 기울이지 않아서 메모와 가족이 고통받게 하세요. 물질적인 것에 대한 생각은 그녀나 나와 비슷한 사람들을 결코 만족시키지 못할 것입니다.” 스승의 사랑에 도취한 영향으로 학교의 일상을 방해했습니다. 그러나 1928년 2월 2일부터 바바는 다시 20명의 선발된 소년들에게 정기적으로 학교에 다니고 학업에 열중할 것을 명령했습니다. 일부 소년들은 공부하지 않고 바바 근처에 앉아있기만 원했지만 바바는 수업을 재개하도록 했습니다. 아가 알리는 바바의 바람을 실천했고, 그의 모범을 본 다른 소년들도 따랐습니다. 이제 소년들의 공부는 더욱 힘을 얻었고, 정해진 교육과정에 따라 가르침이 전달되었습니다. 소년들은 아메드나가르에 있는 선교사 학교에서 기말고사를 치르게 되었는데, 결국 모두 좋은 성적으로 합격한 것은 놀라운 일이었습니다. 지난 두 달 동안 소년들이 사랑 때문에 걷잡을 수 없이 눈물을 흘리는 등의 경험은 다른 곳에서 잘못된 소문을 불러일으켰습니다. 일부 부모들은 “메허 바바가 우리 아이들을 개종시켜 자신들의 종교에 등을 돌리게 하고 있다.”라고 말했습니다. 일부 무슬림들은 “왜 우리 아이들을 메허 바바 근처에 머무르는 것을 허락해야 하나요? 그는 아이들에게 그의 발을 만지게 하고 조로아스터교로 개종시키려고 합니다.”라고 말하기도 했습니다. 다른 사람들은 메허라바드에서 일어나는 일들을 과장해서 들으며 불안해했습니다. “우리 아이들은 그곳에서 이성을 잃고 있습니다.”라고 그들은 걱정했습니다. “아이들은 공부를 포기하고 명상과 요가를 배우고 있습니다. 그들은 산야시[출가자]가 되어 모든 물질적인 것을 포기할 것입니다. 차라리 학교에서 퇴학시키는 것이 더 낫습니다.” 또 다른 사람들은 “소년들이 부모로부터 몸값을 뜯어내기 위해 아쉬람에 강제로 구금되고 있다.”라고 주장했습니다. 소년들에게 학업으로 돌아가라는 바바의 명령은 사실상 일부 부모들의 오해를 완화하기 위한 책략이었습니다. 자녀들이 학업에 충분한 주의를 기울이지 않는다는 소문이 돌았기 때문입니다. 소년들은 자신감을 가지고 열심히 공부하는 것처럼 보여야 한다고 말했고, 그렇지 않으면 무슨 일이 일어나고 있는지 직접 보기 위해 메허라바드에 오기 시작한 보호자들에게 빼앗길 수가 있었습니다. 그래서 1928년 1월 말, 이런저런 소문이 돌면서 온갖 종류의 문의를 하는 편지들이 수신되었습니다. 각 편지에 대한 답변은 부모들에게 자녀들이 최상의 보살핌을 받고 있다는 확신을 주었습니다. 일부 부모는 납득하지 못하고 아들을 학교에서 집으로 데려가기 위해 메허라바드에 도착했습니다. 2월까지 7명의 힌두교 어린이가 메허 아쉬람 학교에서 퇴학당했습니다. 봄베이에서 온 일부 무슬림 부모들도 아이들을 돌려달라고 요구하며 찾아왔습니다. 만달리는 상황의 실상을 설명하려고 노력했고, 어떤 경우에는 부모를 설득하여 자녀들이 아쉬람에 남아있을 수 있도록 하는 데 성공했습니다. -로드 메허 온라인 906-908페이지
『 바바를 위해 일하는 것 』 봄베이에서 온 한 신자는 바바의 발 앞에 천 루피를 바치고 싶다고 말했습니다. 그는 정중하게 이 돈을 바바의 앞에 두었습니다. 바바는 이 돈을 가난한 사람들과 그의 일을 위해 사용하기로 결정했습니다. 이에 따라 6월 9일에 가난한 가정의 15세 미만 어린이 200명이 바바에게 데려와졌습니다. 바바는 그들 각자에게 절을 하고 각자에게 과자 한 봉지와 천 조각을 프라사드[은총의 선물]로서 주었습니다. 적은 양이라도 자발적으로 기부하는 사람들도 있었습니다. 바바는 새로 개설된 센터에 이 돈을 보내라고 지시하면서, “바바는 돈을 주고 그 대가로 일을 기대하는 것을 좋아하지 않습니다. 이것은 터무니없는 일입니다. 하지만, 나는 이 돈을 프라사드(PRASAD)로서 줍니다. 바바의 일에 대해 더 이상 바바에게 어떠한 것도 기대하지 마세요.” 토론 과정에서 그는 “나의 러버들은 돈을 내는 것보다 그들의 머리를 주는 것이 더 쉽습니다!”라고 유머러스하게 말했습니다. 센터 참석에 대해서 바바는 말했습니다. “만일 집회에 500명이 참석한다면 그것은 좋은 일입니다. 여러분이 최선을 다했는데 사람들이 오지 않는다고 해도 낙심하지 마세요. 설사 5명이 참석하더라도, 나는 거기에 참석하겠습니다.” 바바가 더 말했습니다. “최근에 나는 내 일꾼들 중 일부에서 상당한 의견 차이가 발생했다는 것을 들었습니다. 그런 태도를 발전시키는 것보다는 나를 위해 일하지 않는 것이 더 낫습니다. 나는 여러분이 나에게 항복하고 나를 사랑한다는 점에서만 여러분의 경쟁 정신을 높이 평가할 것입니다. 내 일을 하다가 여러분 자신을 분열시키는 것은 그 일의 근간을 흔드는 것입니다. 그것은 그 자신의 목적을 헛되게 할 것입니다. ‘나 혼자 바바의 일을 할 수 있다.’라고 말하는 것은 위선의 극치입니다.” 관계자들은 그들의 감정을 표출하고 자유롭게 생각을 표현할 수 있는 기회가 주어졌습니다. “여러분이 분열될 때, 나와 내 일은 옆으로 치워집니다. 여러분은 형제애를 퍼뜨리기 위해 센터를 열지만, 먼저 모임 내에서 여러분이 어떻게 행동하는지 직접 확인하세요! 여러분이 조화롭게 함께 일할 수 없다면, 왜 나를 위한 새로운 센터를 엽니까? 여러분이 나의 대의를 발전시키려 한다면, ‘나의 일’ 속에서 먼지처럼 되는 것 외에는 탈출구가 없습니다. 어떤 타협도 있을 수 없습니다. 나의 러버들은 모두 먼지처럼 되어야 합니다. 그러면 사람들이 자발적으로 그 주위에 모여들 것이고, 그의 삶은 다른 이들에게 내 사랑의 메시지를 발산할 것입니다. “나는 센터를 갖는 것에 반대하지 않습니다. 그곳에서 바바를 사랑하는 사람들이 만나서 나에 대한 생각과 사랑의 감정을 교환할 수 있습니다. 그러나 거기에는 화합이 있어야 합니다. 굴복하는 정신이 있어야 합니다. 오늘날 우리는 센터를 가질 것인지 아니면 센터를 해체할 것인지에 관계없이 무언가를 고쳐야 합니다. 유일한 해결책은 나의 일에서 먼지와 같은 존재가 되는 것입니다. “그런데 여러분이 먼지처럼 된다는 것에 대해서 무엇을 이해하고 있나요? 어떻게 여러분이 먼지처럼 될 것인가요? 만일 여러분이 내가 시키는 대로만 할 수 있다면, 대관절 먼지처럼 된다는 것이 무슨 의미가 있나요? 내가 시키는 일을 하는 것은 여러분에게 매우 어렵습니다. 그것은 여러분의 마음이 나에 대한 사랑으로 불타오를 때만 가능합니다. 내가 받아야 할 마땅한 사랑으로 나를 사랑할 수 없다면, 적어도 나의 다만(daaman)을 굳게 잡으려고 노력하세요. 내가 여러분을 도울 것입니다. 먼지는 우리가 먼지 위를 걷거나 짓밟거나 우리가 원하는 방식으로 사용하더라도 결코 불평하지 않습니다. 여러분에게 어떤 재앙이 닥치더라도 여전히 웃는 얼굴을 하고 있다면, 여러분은 먼지와 같이 될 것입니다. 여러분이 나에 대한 최상의 사랑을 가져야만, 여러분은 먼지처럼 될 수 있습니다. 먼지처럼 되는 것만이 여러분을 함께 이어줄 수 있는 유일한 연결고리입니다.” 바바는 그룹의 연장자들에 대해 언급했습니다. “나이를 먹으면서 묘한 기대감에 사로잡히게 됩니다. 후배들이 일부러 자신을 무시하거나 심지어 미워하는 것 같은 느낌이 듭니다. 젊은 사람이든 연장자든 여러분에 대한 나의 큰 기대는 여러분은 어떤 기대도 해서는 안 된다는 것입니다. 여러분이 새로 만든 센터를 배움의 장소로 삼으세요. 모든 사람은 나에 대한 사랑을 표현하는 방식이 저마다 다르다는 것을 기억하세요; 그러니 형제처럼 지내도록 노력하세요. 여러분 사이에 의견이 일치하도록 하세요. 서로를 수용하려고 노력하세요. 현재로서는 센터에서 할 수 있는 한 최선을 다해 나의 일을 계속하세요. “나는 확실하고 분명한 원칙을 세울 것이고 그것들은 실질적이고 지속적인 가치가 있을 것입니다. 나는 모든 불필요한 의식의 속박을 파괴할 것입니다. 예수와 크리슈나가 살았던 시대는 달랐습니다; 현재의 시간은 완전히 다릅니다. 나는 시대의 필요에 따라 사람들에게 말해야 합니다. “현재 원자 시대에서 물질적 진보는 거의 정점에 도달했으나 이것은 영성의 영역에서 내적 진보의 그림자에 불과합니다.” 끝으로, 바바는 다정하게 다음과 같은 점들을 다시 강조했습니다. 그는 말했습니다. “내가 하나님이라는 것은 사실입니다. 나는 최고 중의 최고입니다. 나는 손을 든 사람들이 나의 다만을 영원히 굳게 붙들기를 바랍니다. “나의 러버들이 다른 성자들을 방문할 필요는 없습니다. 나에게 충실하고 모든 사람에게 나의 사랑의 메시지를 전파하며 바바의 일 속에서 먼지처럼 되세요.” -최상의 광영 23-24페이지, 나오셰르완 안자르 첨부
『 Working for Baba 』 A devotee from Bombay expressed a wish to offer one thousand rupees at Baba’s feet. He lovingly placed this amount before Baba. Baba decided to use this money for His work with the poor. Accordingly, on June 9, 200 children below fifteen years, from the poor families, were brought to Baba. Baba bowed down to each one of them and gave each a packet of sweets and a piece of cloth as prasad. There were also some who spontaneously offered what little they could give. Baba directed that this amount be sent for a newly opened Center and remarked, “Baba does not like to give money and expect work for Him in return. This is ridiculous. However, I am giving this money as PRASAD. Do not expect any more from Baba for His work.” In the course of discussion He humorously remarked, “It is easier for my lovers to give their heads than to give money!” About the attendance at the Centers, Baba said, “If five hundred attend the meeting it is well and good. If you try your utmost and people do not come, do not lose heart. Even if there are five persons present at the meeting, take it I will be there.” Baba further said, “Recently I heard that among some of My workers there has developed a considerable difference of opinion. Better you do not work for Me than develop such an attitude. I will appreciate your competitive spirit only in your surrender to Me and love for Me. To get yourself divided while doing My work shakes the very foundation of that work. That will defeat its own end. It is the height of hypocrisy to say 'I alone can do Baba’s work.'” Those concerned were given the opportunity to give vent to their feelings and express their thoughts freely. “When you get divided,” Baba explained, “I and My work are set aside. You open a Center to spread Brotherhood but first see for yourselves how you behave among the group! If you cannot work together with concord, why open new Centers for Me? If you want to further My Cause, there is no escape but to become like dust in My work. There cannot be any compromise. Each of My lovers must become like dust. Then people of their own accord will flock around him and his own life will radiate My message of Love to others. “I do not object to having Centers. There, lovers of Baba can meet and exchange their ideas and feeling of love for Me. But there should be concord. There must be a spirit of giving in. Today we must fix something - whether to have Centers or to dissolve them. The only solution is to become like dust in My work. “But what do you understand by becoming like dust? How will you become like dust? If you could but do what I ask you to do, what else could you be but like dust? It is extremely difficult for you to do what I ask you to do. It is only possible when your heart is kindled with love for Me. If you cannot love Me as I ought to be loved, at least try to hold fast to My daaman. I will help you. Dust never complains even though we walk over it, trample upon it or use it in any way we like. If any number of calamities befall you and still you keep a smiling face, this may lead you to become like dust. You can become like dust only if you possess the highest type of love for Me. Becoming dust-like is the only link that would bring you together.” Referring to the older members of the group, Baba said, “As one grows old one is possessed by a peculiar spirit of expectation. He feels that the youngsters are purposely ignoring him or even hating him. My great expectation about you all, young and old, is that you should not entertain any expectation at all. Let the Centers newly created by you all be your school. Remember that everyone has his own peculiar way of expressing his love for Me; so try to behave like brothers. Let there be concord among yourselves. Try to accommodate one another. For the present, continue My work at the Centers as best as you can. “I will lay down certain definite principles and they will be of real and lasting value. I intend to destroy the bindings of all superfluous ceremonies. The times when Jesus and Krishna lived were different; the present time is altogether different. I have to tell the people according to the needs of the time. “In the present atom-age, material progress has nearly reached its zenith, and this is but the shadow of the internal progress in the realm of Spirituality.“ In the end, Baba lovingly stressed again the following points. He said, “It is a fact that I am God. I am the Highest of the High. I wish that those who raised their hands should hold fast to my daaman for good. “There is no need for My lovers to visit other saints. Stick to Me and spread My message of Love to all and become like dust in Baba’s work.” -The Best of The Glow, pp. 23-24, ed. Naosherwan Anzar
Fana(annihilation of the false mind) As usual, Baba had called the Kalchuri family to Poona for a few days during the summer of 1963. Baba discussed with them their move from Meherabad to Khushru Quarters in Ahmednagar and their placement under Adi’s supervision, so that the children could get a better education at a qualified school in town. (They moved on 13 June 1963 and occupied a few rooms on the western side, next to Piroja’s room.) On 5 June, when someone invited Baba to his town, Baba replied, “I am here and also there; I am near and also away. I am everywhere!” Baba was in a mood to give a discourse that day. He began explaining about fana - annihilation of the false mind: Fana is of three types - fana-fillah, fana-fi-Sheikh and fana-fi-Rasool. In the first, a person becomes one with God. There are always 56 persons existing in this state. In fana-fi-Sheikh, a person becomes One with the consciousness of a Qutub. He is One with the infinite consciousness of the Sadguru, but he is not One with the office of the Qutub. In this state he does sometimes use, to a very limited extent, his infinite power-knowledge-bliss. The person in this state drops his body immediately after the Qutub, who had brought him to that state of fana-fi-Sheikh. There are always five Perfect Masters existing [on earth]. In fana-fi-Rasool, which is a very rare state and also occurs very rarely, a person becomes One with the Avatar [Rasool]. When it does happen, it is during the Avatar’s physical presence in the world and just before the unique worldwide manifestation of the Avatar. It is a rare occurrence. It has happened in the past. No one from the state of fana-fillah can attain the fana-fi-Rasool state. Only an ordinary man who is gross conscious is chosen by the Avatar himself and is bestowed with the state of fana-fi-Rasool. In this state, the person chosen becomes like the Avatar, but does not hold the Avatar’s office. He drops his body immediately after the Avatar drops his body. Baba continued: The fourth plane is called the threshold of the Abode of God. If a pilgrim on the fourth plane tries to harass a pilgrim on the fifth plane with his powers, then the wali on the fifth plane seeks the help of the Avatar, but not of a Qutub. Thus the wali is protected directly by the Avatar from the pranks of the fourth-plane pilgrim, whose powers are curbed. Very rarely, one of the fourth plane acts arrogantly before a Qutub. If there is any mischief at all or arrogance displayed, the Qutub sternly deals with such a person, who eventually surrenders to the Qutub. The Qutub then raises him to the fifth plane of consciousness at once. In the fana-fillah state, there are 56 souls living on earth. The state of baqa means “to be established” in God and being able to use infinite power, knowledge and bliss. A Qutub is the one who leads the life of God and uses infinite power, infinite knowledge and infinite bliss. Some Sufis believe that fana-fillah is the highest state. Other Sufis believe that a Qutub’s state is the highest, while still others believe that the state of the Rasool is the highest. The next day, 6 June, referring to his five Perfect Masters, Baba observed: Tajuddin Baba, Sai Baba and Hazrat Babajan had both jalali [hot-tempered, fiery] and jamali [amiable, serene] traits. Upasni Maharaj had only jalali traits, and Narayan Maharaj only jamali. These five Qutubs precipitated the advent of the Avatar of this Age. Of the present five Sadgurus living on earth, three are Hindus and two are Muslims. [Baba did not reveal their names.] They are all men. My next advent will be after 700 years when all five Perfect Masters will be men. If a man on the fourth plane misuses his powers and if the Qutub is a jamali, he does not bring down the fourth-plane man to stone consciousness, but brings him down only to gross consciousness of an ordinary being. But if the Qutub is of a jalali type, then he will bring about his fall directly back to the stone consciousness! The Avatar never contacts a man on the fourth plane, for, in that case, the person would automatically lose all his powers. But if the man on the fourth plane approaches a Qutub, he is accepted by him and raised by the Qutub to the fifth plane of consciousness. Baba continued discoursing the next day, 7 June 1963: A Perfect Master can appear in physical form in ten places simultaneously, while the Avatar can do so in a thousand different places simultaneously. When I break my silence I will appear sometimes at one place, sometimes at a thousand places. Never before has such a thing happened. A Perfect Master has two types of agents, abdal and avtad. An abdal can take many forms - usually of an old man or a child. Suppose a seeker on the path is very thirsty and is about to die of thirst. A Qutub immediately directs an abdal to go and help him. My father, Sheriarji, was helped by an abdal when dying of thirst and lost in the desert of Kutch. At that time, a man with a long beard carrying a pakhal [a leather water bag] of water appeared before Sheriarji. No sooner had he drunk the water than the old man vanished. An abdal does important work mostly in the male form. Abdals have either male or female forms. An abdal of the female form does not appear in the male form, but changes from one female form to another as it suits the duty assigned by the Qutub. Likewise, an abdal of the male form does not appear in the female form. The avtad is always of a male form and does work in the way of odd jobs assigned by the Perfect Master. Later, in speaking about time, Baba said, “Five billion years in illusion is merely a moment in eternity!” Baba continued: “The journey between the third and fourth plane is very difficult. At this stage, the connection between the seeker and the Perfect Master is so delicate that it may be said to have been linked with only a hair! Thus, neither of them can afford to create a strain or too great a resistance lest the connection snap.” He also said, “In the life of a seeker, a time comes when even the longing for union with God must be given up.” Explaining about creation, Baba stated: The Nothing came out of the Everything. From this Nothing came out this so-called “everything” called creation. The Nothing appears to be everything. Thus, when one crosses the sixth plane to Reality, one has to necessarily pass through a complete emptiness - void, a nothing. The experience of this emptiness cannot be described. Sadgurus and majzoobs have all passed through this experience. It is of a very short duration, for the pilgrim at once passes therefrom to the fana-fillah state of “I-Am-God” and experiences himself as God the Everything. For the Perfect Master who has regained normal, gross consciousness, this Nothing becomes his Universal Body. From this Universal Body, everything in creation is projected and absorbed, chewed and spat out incessantly. After describing the weaknesses of the six previous Avatar once more, Baba went on to the topic of occult powers - tantric vidya: “Anyone can achieve powers of the occult by intense meditation, concentration and other ways, but they are absolutely different from the powers of the planes; those are divine powers. These can be used in three ways: good, bad or maliciously, and in a fun way as was done by Mohamed Chhel, who was a magician.” Baba then related a humorous incident from Mohamed Chhel’s life: “He used to use his powers to stop trains and produce tickets. Once he threw a child out of a moving train, and amidst the parents’ crying fits and hysterics, he calmly produced the child, safe and sound.” Baba concluded, “These powers, though wasted in fun, are harmless enough and so the man keeps on playing his tricks. But malicious use is very, very bad.” -Lord Meher Online, p5020 ______________________ ※ Footnote - Baba did contact an agent on the fourth plane in a Buddhist temple in Ceylon in January 1933, and indicated he had advanced him to the fifth plane. Another fourth-plane contact was Nanga Mast in Allahabad in 1941. Five Perfect Masters of Baba - Hazrat Babajan, Sai Baba, Narayan Maharaj, Upasni Maharaj and Tajuddin Baba.
『 Four Types of Obedience 』 There are four types of obedience. 1. The obedience of the soldier, who obeys out of a sense of duty. 2. The obedience of the servant, paid obedience, the higher the pay the louder the ‘Yes Sir!’ 3. The obedience of the slave, obedience through fear of punishment. 4. The obedience of the lover, obedience through love. Obedience through love was the highest type, and this was the obedience that Baba wanted. The obedience of the lover has further divisions. The types of obedience through love are: (a) Intellect and discrimination temper the obedience. The mind just obeys technically. If told to cut off a finger, would give a small cut with a blunt knife - just enough to draw blood. (Thinks he doesn’t mean to cut off finger, he means to cut the finger). (b) Unwilling literal obedience - the person does the job against his wishes - like taking castor oil. (c) Willing literal obedience - the person is happy to obey literally the most difficult command. Baba said that it is a progression. At first, one’s intellect prevents one from literal obedience, but it is a step. The last type of obedience is very rare, where the person is happy to literally obey the most difficult command with love. Baba said that He did not think that any of us could be obedient like that. Baba instructed that a list be taken of the names of the people who were willing to obey Him 100%. He said that they would receive their instructions from Him later. He finally said that if all tried 100%, then He would help them. Baba said: There can be no compromise; one cannot love the world and love God. The man of the world has to compromise; but to have obedience to Baba, one cannot compromise with the ways of the world. Baba is God. He is in us all. He is pure; it is the impurities in us that stop Him entering our hearts. He can only enter our hearts when we have driven out everything else; we keep Him away, yet He is in us too. -Practical Spirituality With Meher Baba, pp. 103-104, by John A Grant Your Gift of Obedience Let your heart be pure. Do not act outwardly what you are not inwardly. Be absolutely honest. God is Infinite Honesty. Do not pose as being pious, because God is everywhere. God cannot be fooled-so why pose as something you are not? I do not want anything else from you but the gift of your obedience. Give me that and you will free yourself from the bondage of ignorance. 『 순종의 네 가지 유형 』 순종에는 네 가지 유형이 있습니다. 1. 의무감으로 복종하는 군인의 순종. 2. 보수를 받고 복종하는 하인의 순종. 보수가 높을수록 ‘예 주인님!’이라고 더 크게 외침. 3. 처벌에 대한 두려움으로 복종하는 노예의 순종. 4. 사랑을 통해 복종하는 러버의 순종. 사랑을 통한 순종이 가장 높은 유형이며, 이것이 바바가 원했던 순종이었습니다. 러버의 순종에는 더 많은 구분이 있습니다. 사랑을 통한 순종의 유형은 다음과 같습니다: (a) 지성과 분별력은 순종을 억제합니다. 마음은 단지 기술적으로 순종합니다. 손가락을 자르라고 하면 무딘 칼로 피를 뽑을 수 있을 정도로만 살짝 베어냅니다. (그는 손가락을 자르려는 것이 아니라, 손가락을 베라는 의미로 생각합니다.) (b) 마지못해하는 말한 그대로의 순종 - 그 사람은 진통을 유도하는 피마자유를 먹는 것과 같이 자신의 소망에 반하여 일을 합니다. (c) 기꺼이 나서서 말한 그대로 행하는 순종 - 그 사람은 가장 어려운 명령을 기꺼이 있는 그대로 순종하는 것에 행복해합니다. 바바는 그것은 진전이라고 말했습니다. 처음에 사람의 지성은 말한 그대로의 순종을 방해하지만, 그것은 한 걸음입니다. 마지막 유형의 순종은 매우 드물며, 그 유형의 사람은 가장 어려운 명령을 사랑으로 말한 그대로의 순종에 행복해합니다. 바바는 우리 중 누군가가 그렇게 순종할 수 있을 거라고는 생각하지 않는다고 말했습니다. 바바는 자신에게 100% 순종할 용의가 있는 사람들의 이름을 적으라고 지시했습니다. 그분은 그들이 나중에 그분으로부터 지시를 받게 될 것이라고 말했습니다. 마침내 바바는 모두가 100% 노력한다면, 그들을 도울 것이라고 말했습니다. 바바는 말했습니다: 타협은 있을 수 없습니다; 세상을 사랑하면서 하나님을 사랑할 수는 없습니다; 세상의 사람은 타협해야 합니다; 하지만 바바에게 순종하기 위해서는, 세상의 방식과 타협할 수 없습니다. 바바는 하나님입니다. 그분은 우리 모두 안에 있습니다. 그분은 순수합니다; 그분이 우리 가슴에 들어오는 것을 막는 것은 우리 안에 있는 불순물입니다. 우리가 다른 모든 것을 몰아내야만 그분께서 우리 가슴에 들어올 수 있습니다; 우리는 그분을 멀리하지만, 그럼에도 그분은 우리 안에 있습니다. -메허 바바와의 실천적 영성 103-104페이지, 존 앨리스터 그란트 여러분이 바치는 순종의 선물 여러분의 가슴을 순수하게 하세요. 여러분 마음속에도 없는 것을 겉으로 행동하지 마세요. 절대적으로 정직하세요. 하나님은 무한한 정직성으로 계십니다. 하나님은 모든 곳에 계시니, 경건敬虔한 체하지 마세요. 하나님은 속일 수 없는데 왜 여러분이 아닌 것처럼 흉내를 내시나요? 나는 순종의 선물 외에는 여러분으로부터 다른 어떤 것도 바라지 않아요. 그것을 내게 준다면 여러분은 무지의 구속으로부터 여러분 자신을 자유롭게 할 것입니다.
『 The Special Christian Prayer 』 Christian Prayer In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: O Lord! Hear my prayer and let my cry come unto Thee: Thou who art the God of God, the Father Almighty, the Father everlasting! O God! Almighty Father! The Lord of Lords! The King of Kings! All the earth doth worship Thee. To Thee all angels, to Thee the heavens and all powers, To Thee all saints and all beings with unceasing voice do cry: The Holy! The Holy of Holies! Full are the heavens and the earth, of the majesty of thy glory. Thou the glorious! Thou the exalted effulgence; Thou the praiseworthy in the assemblage of the prophets; Thou the celestial beauty! Thou art the eternal song of thy lovers. Thou who art acknowledged, praised and worshipped throughout the world, in all churches, synagogues, mosques, temples and pagodas: To Thee I most humbly bow down. Thou of unbounded majesty! Thou art the father of the Creation. Thy true adorable and only begotten son, the Christ, Thou art the king of glory, the saviour of mankind, the ancient one, the highest of the high! O Christ! The Messiah! Thou of the Father everlasting art the Son everlasting: Thou O most merciful Lord, has taken upon thee to deliver man from bondage, to eternal glory: O the ancient one! The redeemer! Thou, having first overcome the sting of ignorance, didst open to all the kingdom of bliss, knowledge and power! I most humbly praise Thee, O my God! I most firmly acknowledge Thee, O my God! O my soul of soul! I believe in Thee, because thou art truth itself: I worship Thee. O highest of the high; because Thou art the only one worthy of adoration: I love Thee above all things and beings, because Thou art love divine itself; I beseech Thee, because Thou art mercy itself; I offer Thee all my thoughts, words and actions, my sufferings and my joys, because Thou art the only Beloved: I therefore beseech Thee, my God! Lord of Lords! The Highest of the High! The ancient one! to have mercy on me, according to Thy unbounded mercy, and let my cry come unto Thee: O my Beloved! Suffer me not to be separated from Thee for ever and ever! Amen! -Meher Baba, The God-Man, pp. 236-237, by C. B. Purdom 『 특별한 그리스도인 기도 』 그리스도인 기도문 성부와 성자와 성령의 이름으로 기도합니다: 오 주여! 나의 기도를 들으시고, 내 부르짖음이 당신께 이르게 하소서: 하나님 중의 하나님, 전능하신 아버지, 영원한 아버지이신 주님! 오 하나님! 전능하신 아버지! 주님 중의 주님! 왕 중의 왕이시여! 온 땅이 당신께 경배하나이다. 모든 천사가 당신께 있으며 하늘과 모든 권능이 당신께 있사옵니다. 모든 성자와 모든 존재가 끊임없는 목소리로 당신께 부르짖나이다: 거룩하신 분이시여! 거룩하신 분 중의 거룩하신 분이시여! 하늘과 땅이 당신 영광의 위엄으로 가득하나이다. 영광스러운 주여! 당신은 고귀한 광휘입니다. 당신은 선지자들의 회중에서 칭찬받아 마땅한 분입니다. 천상의 아름다움이신 주여! 당신은 당신 러버들의 영원한 노래입니다. 온 세상의 모든 교회와 회당과 모스크, 사원과 탑에서 인정받고, 찬미 되고, 경배받으시는 주님, 나는 당신께 가장 겸허하게 머리를 숙입니다: 한없는 위엄의 주님! 당신은 창조세계를 그리시는 아버지입니다. 당신의 참된 사랑은 오직 독생자이신 그리스도입니다. 당신은 영광의 왕이시며, 인류의 구원자이시고, 고대의 존재이시며, 높은 분 중에 가장 높으신 분입니다! 오 그리스도여! 메시아시여! 영원히 계속해서 아들을 보내시는 영원하신 아버지인 당신: 오 가장 자비로우신 주님, 당신은 인간을 속박에서 건져내어 영원한 영광에 이르게 하셨나이다: 오 옛적부터 계셨던 이여! 구원자이시여! 당신은 먼저 무지의 고통을 극복하고 지복과 지식과 권능의 모든 왕국을 열어 주셨나이다! 오 나의 하나님, 나는 가장 겸허하게 당신을 찬양합니다! 오 나의 하나님, 나는 가장 확고하게 당신을 인정합니다! 오 나의 영혼의 영혼이시여! 당신은 진리 그 자체시기에, 나는 당신을 믿사옵니다. 당신을 경배하나이다. 오 높은 중에 가장 높으신 이여, 당신은 숭배받을 가치가 있는 유일한 분이시기 때문입니다: 모든 사물과 존재보다 더 당신을 사랑합니다. 당신은 신성한 사랑 그 자체이기 때문입니다. 당신께 간구하나니, 당신은 자비 그 자체이기 때문입니다. 나는 당신에게 나의 모든 생각과 말과 행동, 고통과 기쁨을 바칩니다. 당신만이 유일한 비러벳이기 때문입니다: 그러므로 나는 당신께 간청합니다. 나의 하나님! 주님 중의 주님! 높은 중에 가장 높으신 분이시여! 옛적부터 계셨던 이여! 당신의 무한한 자비로 나를 가엾이 여기시고, 나의 부르짖음이 당신께 이르게 하소서: 오 나의 비러벳이여! 영원히 당신과 분리되지 않도록 나를 고통받게 하소서! 아멘! -메허 바바의 갓맨 236-237페이지, 찰스 벤자민(Charles Benjamin) 퍼덤 옮김
GOD USES MAYA TO CONDUCT THE AFFAIRS OF THE UNIVERSE On June 30th, (1926) explaining to the mandali about Maya, Meher Baba expounded: God uses Maya to conduct the affairs of the universe. Paramatma never uses Maya to make others free from Maya. Suppose Arjun is Paramatma and his cane is God. If you wrap a seven-colored string around this cane, that string is Maya. What a difference between Arjun and the string - the string has only touched God (the cane) and not Paramatma, Who is aloof. Suppose you come along and mistake the string for a snake. This mistake creates Maya. But, if we see that the string is only a string and nothing else, then where is Maya? It is only your false supposition that is really Maya. In the end, when it is found that it is only a string, you laugh at your false presupposition because your fears are gone - the illusion is removed. In the same way, when one attains Realization, he laughs at these false notions of Maya - the world and all its connections - for they are totally false and not real. Therefore, the very moment Maya (desires, passions and anger) enters your head, thrust it out. Do not let it in at all. If a rabid dog goes after you, you shout to drive it away. If, on the other hand, you give it food, it will follow you and will not go away. Similarly, Maya is like a rabid dog. Do not allow it to enter your mind. Drive it away as you would a mad dog. Drive it away with all your strength, for once it sticks to you, it will be quite impossible for you to free yourself. People say that God created Maya, but that is not so. For example, take the hair on the head. The hair is Maya and the head is God, the Creator. Although the hair grows on the head, the head does not know how, why and where it comes from. Then how can it be said that the head created hair, or God created Maya? But in a way, the very creation of Maya itself is dependent on God. Maya is sheer illusion - the force of imagination. Where there is lust, there is Maya. Where there is anger, there is Maya. Where there is greed, there is Maya. He who renounces Maya finds everything! Do not be a slave to Maya. Subjugate Maya and you will see God in all His perfection. But it is next to impossible to realize God. One must die to gain this state, not by drowning or committing suicide, but by renouncing Maya and freeing oneself from its deluding allurements. And this Maya is so tyrannical and powerful that even the best of persons succumb to its lures. The real heroes who eat her up are very rare. So hold tightly to my feet to ease your way or else you will not get even a whiff of Reality and your strenuous efforts to reach the Goal age after age will not bring you any nearer to it. -Lord Meher, Original Publication, Bhau Kalchuri. Vol. 9, pp. 820 - 821. 마야를 이용하여 우주의 일을 수행하는 하나님 (1926년) 6월 30일, 메허 바바는 만달리에게 마야에 대해 설명하면서 이렇게 말했습니다: 하나님은 마야를 사용하여 우주의 일을 수행합니다. 파라마트마는 다른 사람들을 마야로부터 해방시키기 위해 절대 마야를 사용하지 않습니다. 아르준이 파라마트마이고 그의 지팡이가 하나님이라고 가정해 봅시다. 이 지팡이에 일곱 가지 색의 끈을 감으면 그 끈이 마야입니다. 아르준과 끈의 차이점은 끈은 하나님(지팡이)만 닿았을 뿐 초연한 파라마트마에는 닿지 않았다는 점입니다. 여러분이 와서 끈을 뱀으로 착각한다고 가정해 보세요. 이 실수가 마야를 만듭니다. 그러나 그 끈이 단지 끈일 뿐이고 다른 무엇도 아니라는 것을 안다면 마야는 어디에 있을까요? 진짜 마야는 오직 여러분의 잘못된 추측일 뿐입니다. 결국 그것이 단지 끈에 불과하다는 것이 밝혀지면 두려움이 사라지고, 즉 환상이 제거됐기 때문에 여러분의 잘못된 예상을 비웃게 됩니다. 마찬가지로 깨달음에 이르면 마야에 대한 이러한 잘못된 관념, 즉 세상과 그 모든 관계는 완전히 거짓이고 실제가 아니기 때문에 비웃게 됩니다. 그러므로 마야(욕망, 열정 그리고 분노)가 머릿속에 들어오는 바로 그 순간, 그것을 밀어내세요. 절대로 들여보내지 마세요. 광견병에 걸린 개가 쫓아오면 소리를 지르며 쫓아냅니다. 반면에 먹이를 주면 개는 여러분을 따라다니며 떠나지 않을 것입니다. 마찬가지로 마야는 광견병에 걸린 개와 같습니다. 마야가 여러분의 마음에 들어오는 것을 허용하지 마세요. 미친개를 쫓아내듯이 마야를 쫓아내세요. 온 힘을 다해 마야를 몰아내세요. 일단 마야가 여러분에게 달라붙으면 여러분 스스로를 자유롭게 하는 것은 매우 불가능할 것이기 때문입니다. 사람들은 하나님이 마야를 창조했다고 말하지만, 사실은 그렇지 않습니다. 예를 들어, 머리의 머리카락을 생각해 보세요. 머리카락은 마야이고 머리는 창조주 하나님입니다. 머리카락은 머리에서 자라지만 머리는 그것이 어떻게, 왜, 어디서 왔는지 모릅니다. 그렇다면 머리가 머리카락을 만들었거나 하나님이 마야를 창조했다고 어떻게 말할 수 있겠습니까? 그러나 어떻게 보면 마야의 창조 자체가 하나님에게 달려 있습니다.[의존합니다] 마야는 순수한 환상, 즉 상상의 힘입니다. 욕망이 있는 곳에 마야가 있습니다. 분노가 있는 곳에 마야가 있습니다. 탐욕이 있는 곳에 마야가 있습니다. 마야를 포기하는 사람은 모든 것을 찾습니다! 마야의 노예가 되지 마세요. 마야를 정복하면 그분의 모든 완전함 속에서 여러분은 하나님을 볼 수 있습니다. 하지만 하나님을 깨닫는 것은 거의 불가능합니다. 이 상태를 얻기 위해서는 익사하거나 자살하는 것이 아니라 마야를 포기하고 그 망상의 유혹에서 벗어남으로써 자신이 죽어야 합니다. 그리고 이 마야는 너무나 폭압적이고 강력해서 아무리 뛰어난 사람이라도 그 유혹에 굴복하고 맙니다. 그녀[마야의 유혹]를 잡아먹는 진정한 영웅은 매우 드뭅니다. 그러니 내 발을 꽉 붙잡고 길을 편하게 가지 않으면 실재의 기미조차 느끼지 못할 것이며, 세월을 거듭하여 목표에 도달하기 위해 고된 노력을 기울여도 목표에 한 발짝도 다가갈 수 없을 것입니다. -로드 메허 원본 출판 9권, 820-821페이지, 바우 칼추리 옮김
WHILE OBSERVING SILENCE, LET THE MIND BE SILENT… Neurgaonkar informed Baba about his resolve to observe silence for several days. He asked Baba whether, during that period, he could make exceptions by speaking only about God. Baba did not approve of this and said: Silence means silence. If you want to observe it, observe it thoroughly. Do not leave room for the mind to play its tricks. Mind always creates obstacles in your one-pointed resolve. Its ways are very elusive. In the beginning, you will speak about God or spirituality, but in the guise of this desire, mind will soon make you feel fed up with your silence. Then, indirectly, you will go on expecting others to come to you and converse with you about God. It is not impossible for the tricky nature of the mind to induce you into creating such situations. While observing silence, let the mind remain silent. It is this silence for which the outward silence is to be helpful. We see many dumb children, but of what avail is their silence? Put your heart and soul in your anticipated meditation and observance of silence and I am there - there in you - to help. www.lordmeher.org, 4651-52 Copyright AMBPPCT
안녕하세요 궁금한거 이메일로 여쭤볼 수 있나요
울림이 크네요 듣는 내내 울컥하고 눈물이 멈추지 않네요 감사합니다 ~
이터널 비러벳 아바타 메헤르 바바 키 제이💐
비러벳 아바타 메헤르 바바 키 제이!💐
감사합니다. 아바타 메헤르 바바 키 제이💐
비러벳 아바타 메헤르 바바 키 제이💐
Love and God-Love Of all the forces that can best overcome all difficulties, is the force of love, because the greatest Law of God is Love, which holds the key to all problems. This mighty force not only enables one to put the ideal of selfless service into practice, but also transforms one into God. It has been possible through love for man to become God; and when God becomes man, it is also due to His Love for His beings. Love is dynamic in action and contagious in effect. Pure love is matchless in majesty; it has no parallel in power and there is no darkness it cannot dispel. It is the undying flame that has set life aglow. The lasting emancipation of man depends upon his love for God and upon God’s love for one and all. Where there is love, there is Oneness and, in complete Oneness, the Infinite is realized completely at all times and in every sphere of life, be it science, art, religion, or beauty. The spirit of true love and sacrifice is beyond all ledgers and needs no measures. A constant wish to love and be loving and a non-calculating will to sacrifice in every walk of life, high and low, big and small, between home and office, streets and cities, countries and continents are the best anti-selfish measures that man can take in order to be really selfful and joyful. Love also means suffering and pain for oneself and happiness for others. To the giver, it is suffering without malice or hatred. To the receiver, it is a blessing without obligation. Love alone knows how to give without necessarily bargaining for a return. There is nothing that love cannot achieve and there is nothing that love cannot sacrifice. Love for God, love for fellow-beings, love for service and love of sacrifices; in short, love in any shape and form is the finest “give and take” in the world. Ultimately, it is love that will bring about the much-desired universal leveling of human beings all over the world, without necessarily disturbing the inherent diversities of details about mankind. All the same, in order to burst out in a mighty big spirit to serve as a beacon for those who may yet be groping in the darkness of selfishness, love needs to be kindled and rekindled in the abysmal darkness of selfish thoughts, selfish words and selfish deeds. The light of love is not free from its fire of sacrifice. Like heat and light, love and sacrifice go hand in hand. The true spirit of sacrifice that springs spontaneously does not and cannot reserve itself for particular objects and special occasions. Love and coercion can never go together. Love has to spring spontaneously from within. It is in no way amenable to any form of inner or outer force and it cannot be forced upon anybody, yet it can be awakened in one through love itself. Love cannot be born of mere determination; through the exercise of will, one can at best be dutiful. One may, through struggle and effort, succeed in securing that his external action is in conformity with his conception of what is right; but such action is spiritually barren because it lacks the inward beauty of spontaneous love. Like every great virtue, love, the mainspring of all life, can also be misapplied. It may lead to the height of God-intoxication or the depths of despair. No better example can be given of the two polarities of love and their effects than that of Mary Magdalene before and after meeting Jesus. Between these two extremes are many kinds of love. On the one hand, love does exist in all the phases of human life; but here it is latent or is limited and poisoned by personal ambitions, racial pride, narrow loyalties and rivalries and by attachment to sex, nationality, sect, caste, or religion. On the other hand, pure and real love has also its stages, the highest being the gift of God to love Him. When one truly loves God, one longs for union with Him, and this supreme longing is based on the desire of giving up one’s whole being to the beloved. True love is very different from an evanescent outburst of indulgent emotionalism or the enervating stupor of a slumbering heart. It can never come to those whose heart is darkened by selfish cravings or weakened by constant reliance upon the lures and the stimulations of the passing objects of sense. Even when one truly loves humanity, one longs to give one’s all for its happiness. When one truly loves one’s country, there is the longing to sacrifice one’s very life without seeking reward and without the least thought of having loved and served. When one truly loves one’s friends, there is the longing to help them without making them feel under the least obligation. When truly loving one’s enemies, one longs to make them friends. True love for one’s parents or family makes one long to give them every comfort at the cost of one’s own. Thought of self is always absent in the different longings connected with the various stages of pure, real love; a single thought of self would be an adulteration. Divine Love is qualitatively different from human love. Human love is for the many in the one and Divine Love is for the One in the many. Human love leads to innumerable complications and tangles; but Divine Love leads to integration and freedom. Human love in its personal and impersonal aspects is limited; but Divine Love, with its fusion of the personal and the impersonal aspects, is Infinite in being and expression. Divine Love makes us be true to ourselves and to others and makes us live truly and honestly. Thus, it is the solution to all our difficulties and problems; it frees us from every kind of binding; purifies our hearts and glorifies our being. To those whose hearts are pure and simple, true love comes as a gift through the activating grace of a Perfect Master, and this Divine Love will perform the supreme miracle of bringing God into the hearts of men. All the same, Human Love should not be despised, even when it is fraught with limitations. It is bound to break through all these limitations and initiate an aspirant in the eternal life in the Truth. God does not listen to the language of the tongue which constitutes laps (mental repetitions), Mantras (verbal repetitions), Zikra (either kind of repetition), and devotional songs. He does not listen to the language of the mind which constitutes meditation, concentration and thoughts about God. He listens only to the language of the heart, which constitutes love. The most practical way for the common man to express this language of the heart, whilst attending to daily-life duties, is to speak lovingly, think lovingly, and act lovingly towards all mankind, irrespective of caste, creed and position, taking God to be present in each and everyone. To realize God, we must love Him, losing ourselves in His Infinite Self. We can love God by surrendering to the Perfect Master who is God’s personal Manifestation. We can also love God by loving our fellow-beings, by giving them happiness at the cost of our own happiness, by rendering them service at sacrifice of our interests and by dedicating our lives at the altar of selfless work. When we love God intensely through any of these channels, we finally know Him to be our own Self. The beginning of real love is obedience, and the highest aspect of this love which surpasses that of love itself is the aspect which culminates into the perfect obedience or supreme resignation to the Will and Wish of the Beloved. In this love are embodied all Yogas known to saints and seekers.
아르띠 잘 배울 수 있게 영상 올려주셔서 감사합니다~! 아바타 메헤르 바바 키 제이!
바바 키제이😄😄
The chapter told how Narada, one of Krishna's close ones, came one day to the palace to give Krishna a message. But as he approached, a watchman stopped him and said, "You cannot enter." "What do you mean I cannot enter? I am Narada. I have access to Krishna's bed chamber." Which was true. Narada was so close to Krishna that he had permission to come anytime, anywhere, to see him. But the watchman replied, "I know who you are, but on this particular occasion you must remain here. The Lord Himself has ordered me to stop anybody from coming just now." "What do you mean on this particular occasion? What is the Lord doing that I can't go see him?" The watchman replied, "He said he wanted to pray." "Pray? My Lord is praying? To whom does He pray? Who is greater than my Lord?" Narada demanded and accused the watchman of blasphemy. But the watchman persisted in keeping Narada out, saying, "I am only telling you what He told me. He said He wanted to pray and that I should not let anyone in because He did not want to be disturbed while He is praying." Narada had no choice but to wait, and all sorts of confused thoughts were going through his head, just as similar thoughts had gone through Deshmukh's head when he had first seen Baba pray. Deshmukh read on with avid interest - how would it end, to whom was Krishna praying? After half an hour or so, Krishna came out of his room and saw Narada waiting outside the door. He greeted Narada warmly, but Narada was so agitated that he made only the most perfunctory of greetings. "Whats wrong?" Krishna asked. "You seem upset." Narada was so upset, in fact, that he totally forgot about the message he had come to deliver, he totally forgot that that was why he had come in the first place, and he blurted out, "The watchman said You were praying." "Yes, that is so," Krishna affirmed. "But to whom do you pray?" asked Narada, whose confidence in the Lord was shaken by Krishna's admission. Krishna laughed. "Do you really want to see to whom I pray? Come with me." And Krishna led Narada to His prayer room. "Here, here is My God," Krishna said. And what did Narada see? He saw little figures, little images of Krishna's mandali. There was a little figure of Narada, of Arjuna, of all the close ones. "These are the ones I pray to," Krishna explained. "I pray to My lovers. You see, the whole purpose of creation was so that My love might flow. I eternally love my creation, but periodically I take birth to receive the love of My lovers. My lovers worship me and I worship their love for Me." When Deshmukh read this, he felt very much relieved. Now he knew why Baba prayed. All his confusion vanished. The next time he came to Baba, he confessed all that had happened, how the doubts had started in his mind and how they had been dispelled, and that was how we came to know of it. 📜 That's How It Was, pp.378-382, by Eruch Jessawala
THE LORD HIMSELF PRAYED Eruch Jessawala Meher Baba gave us the prayers that have become known as the Parvardigar or Master's Prayer, and the Prayer of Repentance. At times Baba asked us to recite these prayers, but when we were with Baba we did not have the urge to say them on our own. His presence, as I have told you, is something quite different from the concept of God. Baba has told us, "My work is greater than God," and, although we cannot understand this, and I do not know what God is, yet His presence is really overwhelming and everything - prayers, God, everything - fades into insignificance before Him. But sometimes Baba would want us to recite the prayers, and He would ask me to say them. Baba would stand as one of us, in our midst. He would first wash His hands and face and then join His hands together in prayer; His appearance and His gaze would be that of one deep in the act of adoration, totally absorbed in participation in the prayers. Because Baba would ask me to recite the prayers, I tried to learn them by heart. But as soon as we started praying, I completely forgot them. I became so absorbed in the first line, "0 Parvardigar, the Preserver and Protector of all," that after that my mind became completely blank. Baba would look at me with displeasure and gesture for me to go get the book in which the prayers were written. So after that I stopped trying to say the prayers by heart, and every time Baba wanted them recited, I would go get the book and simply read them out. Baba would wash His face and hands, using that blue basin and small pot you see by His chair. Water from the pot would be poured on His hands; He would wash His face, then dry Himself and stand up and worship with us standing around Him. Time passed by, the seclusion work increased, and Baba became weaker and weaker, and He wanted the prayers recited more and more frequently. It became an everyday matter during the seclusion, and Baba, especially in the last year, could not stand without difficulty. Eventually the stage came where He needed to be supported on each side by two of us, and there He would stand as a worshipper. The Lord Himself prayed. But because it was such a strain on Him, Baba would have me read the prayers faster and faster. I have already told you the story about the time I was reading the prayers so fast I started laughing because the prayers sounded to me just like an express train rumbling through a station with no time to stop. I could not understand why Baba was subjecting Himself to such physical strain. Finally I said, "Baba why do You do this? Can't You sit down?" Baba gestured, "Why should I sit down? Do you know what I am doing? My participation in the prayers will help every individual saying the prayers after I drop the body. My body is so weak I cannot stand. But it doesn't matter how you pray. The important thing is My participation in the prayers. After I drop this body, whosoever recites these prayers will be helped, because of My participation now. And when anyone repeats the prayers, I am there with them. My presence is there." Now, this reminds me of a very good incident concerning Dr. Deshmukh. Deshmukh was a professor of philosophy, a Ph.D. and a brilliant scholar. He was also completely devoted to Baba, and whenever he had vacation, he would come to spend time with Him. In the earlier years Baba would not have us repeat the prayers regularly as He did in the last years. He had the pleasure sometimes and would ask me to recite them, but this was not an everyday occurrence. So it was that Deshmukh, who was one of Baba's close ones, did not know about this practice at all. He did not know that every now and then Baba would ask for the prayers to be read out. Or that afterwards, Baba, would have the mandali file by, stand on a little stool, and He would bow to us, touching our feet with His head. As He did so, we had to call out a certain name of God, a name dear to one according to one's religion. Thus some of us would say, "Ya Yezdan," others, "Ahuramazda," or "Parabrahma Paramatma," or "Allah-Hu," or, "God Almighty," depending on what religion we had been brought up in. But we were not allowed to say, "Baba." I remember when Baba first told us to repeat the name of God most dear to us, one of the mandali said, "Baba, Yours is the name of God most dear to me." But Baba instructed us not to use His name; to repeat one of the traditional names of God. Now, one year, Deshmukh arrived for his vacation just as Baba had asked for the prayers to be read out. Baba had washed His hands and face, and we were all standing at attention, and I was just about to read when we heard someone jiggling the door latch. It was Deshmukh trying to open the latch to come in. As soon as he stepped inside Mandali Hall, Baba gestured, "It is good that you have come. You are fortunate, you are blessed to be with Me now. Come in and stand there with the others and be quiet." Poor Deshmukh did not know what was happening, but he came and stood with the rest of us and I began reading the prayers. During the Prayer of Repentance, Baba would follow the common Eastern practice of tasubah, which means making the gesture of repentance, of softly slapping one's cheeks with one's palms, signifying, "Oh God, I will not do that," or "I repent, I repent." Deshmukh was stunned at all this. In his heart he had always enthroned Baba as the Lord of Lords, the Highest of the High, the one who is prayed to, the one who redeems us when we repent, not one who prays Himself or repents like an ordinary man. He was very confused by this. His philosophical mind could not reconcile Baba's status as Highest of the High with His behavior of praying like an ordinary man. Deshmukh thought, "I take Baba to be God incarnate, but then who is it that Baba is praying to? If Baba is praying, then doesn't it follow that there is a God who is higher than Baba? But how can this be?" Deshmukh was very upset and confused, but he never said anything to any of us. We noticed that he was more withdrawn than usual, but none of us had any idea what was going through his mind. Well, not long after that Deshmukh's mother died. In India we have the custom that when someone dies, the family will take their belongings and wrap them up. Then on the anniversary of the death, a year later, the eldest child will open the bundle. So it was a full year later that Deshmukh opened the bundle and came upon a book which he remembered his mother was fond of reading. It was a book on Krishna. Being a philosopher and scholar, it was natural for Deshmukh's attention to be drawn first to the book. So he picked it up and decided to see what it was that had caught his mother's interest so, and he opened it at random. He looked down and saw the chapter heading was, "The Lord Prays." The Lord prays? Deshmukh's attention was immediately caught and he started to read.
메허 바바의 책 중 하나를 봐야한다면 어떤 책인지 추천 부탁드립니다
갓 스픽스를 추천드립니다^^♡
@@meher_baba 초인 마스터의 출현 - 침묵의 어웨이크너 샀는데 부족할까요...?
@@meher_baba 어떤 책은 가격이 10만원정도던데 비싼 이유가 궁금해요~
@@joyce-jh9ct 페이지수가 많고 양장본으로 출간되었습니다.무한지성, 갓스픽스 양장본은 가격이 좀 나가는 책입니다^^
@@meher_baba 가격이 비싸서 도서관에 신청도서했는데 거부당했어요..ㅠㅠ어쩌죠
이렇게 들려 주셔서 감사해요 아프신데도
괴로울 때...무엇이 필요할 때 신을 찾는 것이 아니라, 궁극의 실재이기 때문에 신을 찾음
"Only if you become deaf, dumb and blind to the world can you get God. Ego cannot then attack you from any direction." -Meher Baba, Lord Meher online edition, p. 4590 "여러분이 세상에 대해 귀머거리, 벙어리, 장님이 되어야만 하나님을 만날 수 있습니다. 그러면 에고는 어떤 방향에서도 여러분을 공격할 수 없습니다. " -메허 바바, 로드 메허 온라인 판 4590페이지
오... 그 기도들에 이렇게 중요한 의미가 담긴 줄 몰랐네요~
그러게요~~ 마스터의 기도와 회개의 기도에 바바가 함께 하신다니..그야말로 신성한 연결입니다♡
On one such occasion, with Baba standing in spite of His pain and fatigue, He signaled to Eruch to read the prayer faster. Then, several moments later, He gestured again to read faster still. Eruch was reading briskly when Baba signaled once again to increase the pace. Now Eruch was reading at breakneck speed and the words were running together. Suddenly, he had the image in his mind of an express train barreling its way from Bombay to Pune, clattering through small by-stations without stopping or slowing down. Unexpectedly, contrary to Eruch’s habitually poised and balanced nature, he involuntarily burst out laughing for a few moments; then, collecting himself, he resumed reading as rapidly as he could. Afterwards Baba asked him why he had laughed, and Eruch apologetically described the image which had come to him. Baba gestured, “You have no idea of the physical strain I was going through when I gestured for you to read faster. For you, reading the prayer fast may seem farcical, but for Me to participate in these prayers in My present state of health is no joke. I have given these prayers to humanity to recite. They are for all posterity. Whenever anyone recites these prayers, they will be helped spiritually because of My present personal participation. It has nothing to do with how quickly you read the prayer or how much feeling you read it with or anything of that sort. All that matters is My having participated in the prayers. Any time anyone repeats these prayers, I am there with them, and they will be helped spiritually.” This was the clear divine assurance from the Avatar Himself about the importance of reciting these prayers. They are a loving expression of His compassion, accomplished at the cost of His physical suffering. On February 1, 1968, a Life Circular was issued in which Baba asked all His lovers to help Him in His work by reciting the prayers every day until March 20th. This was subsequently extended to July 9th. Thus, Baba showed that by reciting the prayers, His lovers are also given the privilege of participating in His Divine work. I now feel that both these prayers subsume all the other prayers I have spoken and loved. I no longer have any need to say “I” when reciting the Prayer of Repentance. On the contrary, I feel the “we” is the most high “WE” because it includes Baba’s participation. In a real sense, the Master’s Prayer has become “The Universal Prayer” for one and all. Meher Baba suffered willingly and consciously to participate in the prayers so that posterity might benefit from them. To me the offering of these prayers is not a ritual. That is why I liken them to special buttons we can use to intensify our contact with the Ancient One, functioning through the Samadhi during this Avataric period. And it is also true that any moment of sincere remembrance of the Eternal Awakener, wherever we may be, will awaken His love in our hearts and guide us in our journey to Him. -The Samadhi☆Star of Infinity, pp. 62-69, by Bal Natu
Prayer: Access to the Divine Satellite MEHER BABA BEGAN OBSERVING silence at Meherabad on July 10, 1925. Prior to this, during His extensive travels throughout India in the early ‘20s, He resided for a period in the home of a disciple in Quetta (which is now in Pakistan). One day He used the telephone on the second floor of the house to talk to a disciple on the ground floor. After conversing for some time, Baba remarked playfully, “Isn’t this fun? Even though you can’t see Me, you have no difficulty in talking with Me. Even though I’m out of your sight, because of the link of the telephone, we are able to communicate with each other.” Thus, in a very natural way, Meher Baba used the analogy of the telephone to give His dear ones a hint that they could communicate with Him even when He was not visible to them. In those days, the telephone system depended on cables. But today, telecommunication systems simply beam information upward to a satellite which then relays it to a receiver anywhere in the world. I am not highly educated and only minimally conversant with modern technology. I do not claim to understand the physics, engineering or electronics which underlie modern communications, but I am struck by the fact that, to make use of them, an ordinary person has to understand neither how these appliances work nor the scientific laws which govern them. The present routine use of fax machines, computers, televisions, and telephones in our daily lives, in fact, often reminds me of God’s incredible game with His Creation, played through His subtle and intricate laws, which are far beyond the grasp of the common person. With these machines, fantastically complicated operations are executed in seconds and then transmitted instantaneously with just the push of a button. And, undoubtedly, all of these systems will become even more sophisticated in the coming years. This is made possible by the application of the higher laws of physics in this gross world. Similarly, in the inner realms of life there are subtle spiritual laws which facilitate communication. I do not presume to understand how these laws operate either, but it has been the experience of many that the Samadhi of Avatar Meher Baba works as a divine phone, computer, fax, walkietalkie, satellite connection-all rolled into one. Not only has this Avataric communication center dispensed with the need for external connections, but unlike worldly technology, it does more than transmit information. Because of the Avatar’s omnipresent love, it also responds automatically by offering loving guidance to anyone, anywhere, any time. In the old days, with telephones, you needed to contact the operator before you were connected. Even today, when faxing, you need to go to a machine and push the right buttons to send your message. With Meher Baba who is omnipresent, it is remembrance of Him that puts us in touch with the divine “Operator.” And Prayers directed to Him, especially the prayers gifted to us personally by Baba-”The Master’s Prayer” and “The Prayer of Repentance”-are the buttons He has given us to push to send our hearts’ messages to Him through loving remembrance. Any invocation to Baba with a sincere feeling is like a wireless message in the inner domains, needing no physical connection-a direct signal straight to the Avatar’s compassionate heart. While visiting a Christian chapel in Murrie, Pakistan, in 1933, Baba conveyed to a group of Westerners, “All worship returns to Me. The sigh within the prayer is the same in the heart of the Christian or the Muslim, or the Jew [or any worshipper]. They are all indivisibly longing for the same God.” When we remember Baba or say the prayers He has given us, in which He Himself participated hundreds of times, this is like picking up the phone to find that the connection has been made automatically. He has laid unseen spiritual cables through these prayers, connecting the hearts of His dear ones, enabling the easy transmission of our yearnings, sorrows, and joys, and His loving response is assured. I sometimes think fancifully of the finial on top of the Samadhi as an antenna which receives our hearts’ call and transmits the love of the Ancient One. Our calling on Baba is like pushing a button on the remote control, and the channel that is changed is within us. It is not only that a connection is made, but the very pushing of that button selects a frequency within us, finetuning us so that our thoughts and feelings are increasingly centered on Him. Thinking about Avatar Meher Baba’s presence in the Samadhi and the various events connected with His life gradually slows down the mind and gears life to a different rhythm. Then the heart begins to sing the song of the Avatar’s glorious love, and a joy unknown and inexpressible begins to enliven one’s journey to the Source, the Eternal Bliss of God. These analogies might strike some as far-fetched, but technology reflects the effects of the Avatar’s universal working on the inner realms of consciousness. Science is reaching great heights, not in spite of the Avatar’s advent, but because of it. During the Avataric period, all aspects of life are being divinely quickened to new levels. I have no doubt that the Samadhi is the center of the Avatar’s work of creating a new surge in the arts and sciences, and of awakening the heart of humanity to the love of God. Earlier, I referred to the two prayers Baba has given us as buttons we can push to gain access to the divine satellite and receive His love and guidance. Some may wonder at the importance that has been ascribed to these prayers, since Baba has also stated that the only prayer God hears is the prayer of the heart. Doesn’t the regular recitation of the prayers amount to precisely the kind of ritual Baba has come to do away with? Therefore, I wish to share a few thoughts and facts about these prayers. Baba dictated the Repentance Prayer at Meherabad in November of 1952, and the Master’s Prayer in Dehra Dun in August of 1953. The Master’s Prayer was originally referred to as the Universal Prayer. By the time it was sent to the West, it was known as the Master’s Prayer because of Baba’s participation in offering it. Let me admit that when I first read the Universal Prayer, I was not impressed by it. But since Baba had given it, naturally I had a deep respect for it. When Baba first gave the prayer, He made it clear that He wanted His followers to recite it daily for a certain period, and while I was happy to comply with this, the prayer did not appeal to my heart the way it should have. Unlike the prayer of Saint Francis or some of the prayers in the Upanishads, the Master’s Prayer seemed rather remote, being neither moving nor poetic. It seemed, to my limited understanding, to read like a dry collection of divine attributes which did not have a great deal of significance for me. I was also a little hesitant about the use of the word “we” in the Repentance Prayer. I wondered why I should share in other people’s repentance when I hadn’t participated in their sins! So, sometimes when I recited this prayer by myself, I would change “we” to “I,” since it was “I” who was repenting. Baba had made me feel so natural in my relationship with Him that I did not feel the slightest guilt about doing this. Then, in the ‘50s and ‘60s, Baba gave me more and more opportunities to spend time with Him and also to participate in these prayers in His presence. This gradually changed my perspective. Baba’s attitude towards the prayers, I saw, clearly reflected the importance they had for Him in His universal work. Before reciting them, He would wash His hands and face and straighten His coat or sadra. Then, with great solemnity, Baba would join His palms and listen with closed eyes while the prayers were read aloud by Eruch. The look of profound and reverent absorption on Baba’s face at such times impressed me deeply. As He listened to all the attributes of God in the Master’s Prayer, I could see that they were clearly not just a dry catalogue of terms to Him. One had the vivid impression that Baba was inwardly experiencing each of these attributes which, for me, had only been high-sounding phrases. I could not help but begin to develop an appreciation for these superlatives, as they were obviously charged with deep significance. When the Repentance Prayer was read out, a deeply penitent look would come over Baba’s face and He would softly tap His cheeks with His palms. Through the recitation of the prayers, I felt that Baba was bringing together the religions of the world “as beads on one string.” His hands were joined in the fashion common to both the Hindu and Christian traditions, and yet the Master’s Prayer begins, “O Parvardigar,” a Sufi term used by the Muslims. As the prayer was read, He would sway from side to side in the manner of the Zoroastrians. Thus, the major religions were symbolically represented through Baba’s external actions. He participated in these prayers hundreds of times. My growing sense of the spiritual importance of the prayers was reinforced in later years when Baba’ s health was declining: He would still insist on standing while the prayers were read out. From 1966 onward, Baba was in seclusion, engaged in intense universal spiritual work on all planes of consciousness. In spite of the fact that this work seemed to leave Baba terribly drained, He wanted the prayers read almost every day when a particular part of His work was finished. After 1967, He usually needed one of His disciples to stand at His side to support Him.
감사합니다!
The Avataric period, as mentioned, is 100 years long. But when does this period begin? For me, the current Avataric cycle began on February 25, 1894 when Meher Baba was born. Some might suggest that this is also the date for the beginning of Baba’s manifestation, but as Baba was veiled at that point and was not functioning as the Avatar, this does not seem so to me. The next date to consider, therefore, is in January 1914 when Babajan unveiled Merwan by kissing Him on the forehead between His eyebrows, making Him experience the infinite bliss of Selfrealization-His Ancient One state. However, in this state He was totally unaware of the three worlds, the entire Creation, and hence was still not functioning as the Avatar. Meher Baba began functioning as the Avatar and Head of the spiritual hierarchy from either December 1921 or January 1922, when Shri Upasni Maharaj folded his hands before Merwan, saying, “Merwan, You are Adi Shakti. You are the Avatar!” Yet, this does not seem like the public manifestation of the Avatar, for the simple reason that Baba had disclosed His status to only a few, but did not publicly declare Himself to be the Avatar to the world. Thinking about this disparity between Maharaj’s explicit declaration and Baba’s public reticence has helped clarify in my mind my understanding of Baba’s public manifestation. There are many facets implied in the word manifestation. Most people, I think, when they refer to Baba’s manifestation are referring to His Universal Manifestation. I hasten to admit at the outset that I do not know what Baba meant by that particular term. I feel that its meaning was conveyed in His “language” alone, thus it is so far beyond my comprehension that I can never grasp its import even with the highest flights of my imagination. Everyone should feel free to delve into this subject as deeply as they wish, but I willingly refrain from such an attempt. There are other aspects of Baba’s manifestation too. There is a personal manifestation which occurs within one’s heart when a person recognizes Baba as the Ancient One, the Eternal Beloved. Baba manifests in a unique way within each one. He eternally resides in every heart, so His manifestation is latent within everyone. As the heart begins to awaken to His love, the manifestation becomes more explicit. A God-realized soul, a saint, a lover, and an ordinary devotee all experience and reflect Baba’s manifestation differently. This makes it very difficult to try and pinpoint when Baba’s manifestation occurs, because it unfolds in innumerable ways. Therefore, in this book, I am limiting myself to trying to determine when Baba manifested publicly as the Avatar. In the early years, for example, not only did Baba not declare to the world at large that He was the Avatar, but He often went out of His way to hide His identity. Baba did not allow His dear ones who journeyed with Him to even reveal His name, much less His spiritual status. To His close ones, in both the East and West, Baba disclosed His Avatarhood in a variety of ways, but to the public, Baba was generally referred to as a Perfect Master or Sadguru. For His own spiritual work, Baba allowed this. It is very interesting that, especially during His work of physically contacting the masts (God-intoxicated), Baba would take care that His status should not be disclosed; but if, in spite of this, He was recognized by a mast, He would generally leave the place immediately. In the early ‘50s, Baba began giving more public hints about His status, as in the message “The Highest of the High,” which was given in Dehra Dun in 1953. But the date that seems to me to symbolize Meher Baba’s public declaration of Avatarhood is February 10, 1954. On this day, at about 1:00 A.M., Baba was in a small hut in an out-of-the-way place called Meherasthan, in the district of Hamirpur, Uttar Pradesh. Asthana in Hindi means “threshold”-it is as though the Avatar crossed the threshold of disguise here. The hut was situated on a small hill, and that night a large group of His followers had gathered around its entrance. Most unexpectedly, and to the amazement of those present, Baba spelled out on His alphabet board, “Avatar Meher Baba ki Jai” (“Victory to Meher Baba, the Avatar”). One of Baba’s dear ones, Keshav Nigam, has faithfully recorded this event in detail, a part of which is quoted below: At that time, Baba was in an extremely happy mood! His fingers ran on the alphabet board and spelled the words: Avatar Meher Baba Ki Jai! and He simultaneously raised His right hand up to confirm that JAI. Baba also declared that it was for the first time in this Incarnation of His that He had here openly and clearly declared Himself to be the Avatar.3 I personally take this declaration as the commencement of Meher Baba’s public manifestation as the Avatar, and therefore as the beginning of the Avataric period. It was after this that Adi K. Irani, Baba’s secretary, had a stamp made that he used on his correspondence, which said, “In the Service of Avatar Meher Baba.” It was also from this date that Baba began to consistently refer to Himself as the Avatar in public. Some weeks later, while making a house visit in Andhra, when asked to give a message, Baba replied: It has been possible through Love, for man to become God; and when God becomes Man, it is due to His love for His beings. If people were to ask Me, “Have you seen God?” I would reply, “What else is there to see?” If they were to ask Me, “Are you God?” I would reply, “Who else could I be?” If they were to ask Me, “Are you the Avatar?” I would reply, “Why else have I taken this human form?” 4 At the end of l954, Baba called His Western men lovers to be with Him for three weeks. During this time, on Sep tember 12, He held a large darshan program in Wadia Park in Ahmednagar. Obviously aware of the effect His public declaration of Avatarhood would have on the minds of some, the very first message which Baba had read out was: When I say I am the Avatar, there are a few who feel happy, some who feel shocked, and many who, hearing Me claim this, would take Me for a hypocrite, a fraud, a supreme egoist, or just mad. If I were to say every one of you is an Avatar, a few would be tickled, and many would consider it a blasphemy or a joke. The fact that God being One, Indivisible, and equally in us all, we can be naught else but one, is too much for the duality-conscious mind to accept. Yet each of us is what the other is. I know I am the Avatar in every sense of the word, and that each of you is an Avatar in one sense or the other.5 “Meher Baba’s Call” was a special message given on this occasion. In it, Baba made the following explicit declaration: Age after age, when the wick of righteousness burns low, the Avatar comes yet once again to rekindle the torch of Love and Truth. Age after age, amidst the clamor of disruptions, wars, fear and chaos, rings the Avatar’s call: “Come all unto Me.” The time is come. I repeat the Call, and bid all come unto Me.6 It was the following year that Mani, under Baba’s direction, wrote Bili the letter mentioned earlier, in which it is specified that for a period of a hundred years the Avatar’s direct personal radiation would be available. From this I gather that Baba was indirectly conveying that it would not be necessary for His body to be visible for this to happen. So, for me, Baba’s public manifestation began on February 10, 1954, as did the Avataric period. Although, as part of His Leela (divine sport), Meher Baba allowed His body to be veiled from our eyes on February 7, 1969, His public manifestation of love and compassion continues as it did when He was visible in His physical form. This is what I mean by saying that to be inside the Samadhi is to be directly in Avatar Meher Baba’s physical presence. It can be likened to the times when Baba was in different parts of India or the West and His lovers not with Him were able to feel His Physical presence in spite of not seeing Him. They knew that His Public manifestation was taking place. Now, although His body is veiled in the crypt beneath the white marble slab, His “direct living and personal radiation” continues and will continue for the rest of the Avataric period. Thus Meher Baba, as the Avatar, is available for audience to one and all who visit the Maha-Samadhi at Meherabad. This explains the significance of the Samadhi, being the source of His direct living and personal radiation. It is from here, this unique, matchless spot chosen by the Avatar Himself, that He now dispenses His love and compassion on this Earth during the Avataric period. In one of His brief discourses, Meher Baba has mentioned that although the universes in this seemingly Infinite Space are innumerable, “only on the planet Earth do human beings reincarnate and begin the Path to Self-Realization.” 7 Meher Baba has also stated that of all the countries on the Earth, India is closest to the “creation point.” And the Samadhi at Meherabad is that unique site in India chosen by the Avatar to be His final resting place. So how can we ever fathom the spiritual importance of the Samadhi in relation to any other place in the world? When anyone visits the Samadhi, this becomes the most significant moment in that individual’s life. It is the blessed time of being in the Avatar’s company. -The Samadhi☆Star of Infinity, pp. 42-52, by Bal Natu
The Public Manifestation MY MIND OFTEN ACCEPTS the delightful challenge to seek objective confirmation for what I subjectively believe to be true. This attitude has helped me strengthen my relationship with Meher Baba. So my mind silently looked for some kind of confirmation from Baba that would reveal the validity of His special presence that I often felt in the Samadhi. As always, Baba was kind enough to lead me along the way, ending in my acceptance of the fact that He is truly there in the Samadhi. Before going into this subject, however, I wish to present some events connected with Meher Baba’s programs and travels in the ‘50s. Baba’s sister, Mani, used to write letters giving information about Baba’s activities to Bili Eaton in the United States. Bili would then type copies of these letters and send them to the Baba groups she knew of, which at that time were mostly on the East Coast. This arrangement enabled the majority of Baba-lovers in the U.S. to hear the latest news that they so longed for of their Beloved. However, after about a year, Mani’s “Family Letters” were sent regularly to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where they were duplicated and sent out to all Baba groups in the West. During one of my stays at Meherazad in the ‘70s, I was doing research for the volumes of Glimpses of the God-Man[The almost hourly detail of Meher Baba’s travels through Hamipur and Andhra over a nine-week period in 1954.], Meher Baba when I happened to come across a file of the letters which Mani had written to Bili. These had remained unpublished until Bili Eaton’s book A Love So Amazing came out in 1984. While reading this file, I found one letter that caught my special attention. It concerned a clarification of the difference between the terms “Avataric period” and “Avataric cycle.” Before quoting this letter, however, I want to give some more background which will explain why it came to be written in the first place. This digression begins in the early 1940s in England. A woman by the name of Irene Conybeare-sincere, scholarly, and deeply interested in spiritual upliftment-heard about Meher Baba from Fred Marks, one of Baba’s close followers. She was so impressed by what Fred told her, and the conviction with which he relayed it, that she decided that she had to see Meher Baba for herself. The Second World War had started, however, and travel from England to India was not permitted. Yet Irene was so determined that she went to South Africa, where, in April 1941, she managed to get a place on the last boat sailing from there to India. What an intense longing the Avatar had awakened in her! Once in India, she found out that Baba was in Dehra Dun, in the north, and traveled there from Bombay, only to receive word that Baba would not see her. However, He asked her if she would be willing to go to America for His work. Irene agreed and began to make arrangements to go there. Pleased with her decision to obey Him, Baba called her to Aimer, a distance of over seven hundred kilometers to the west, where He was doing His work with the masts (God-intoxicated). She was informed that she would be allowed to see Him for no more than five minutes and should ask Him no questions during their meeting. Irene happily agreed and later wrote about that first meeting, “I had the curious sense of having arrived at the end of my destination, my quest for Truth, and felt that I was in the presence of a great spiritual being; it was an indefinable sensation.” 1 Subsequently, Irene wrote two books: Civilization or Chaos? in 1955, published in England, and In Quest of the Truth, or How I Came to Meher Baba in the early ‘60s. Her book Civilization or Chaos? attempted to examine the world situation in the light of her understanding of Avatar Meher Baba’s teachings. Some complimentary copies were sent to Baba and the mandali. While going through it, someone noticed that in the chapter “Cycles and Circles” there was some erroneous information about the Avatar’s circle and the responsibilities and roles the close disciples play during His Advent. When this was brought to Baba’s attention, He took pains to convey a number of key points to one of His mandali before going into seclusion in Satara. These points became the basis of Meher Baba’s discourse entitled “The Circles of the Avatar.” I mention that Baba took pains because He had recently, in October 1954, given up the use of the alphabet board through which He had earlier dictated His discourses and messages. In November of 1954, Baba wished, for His universal work, to go into seclusion and to reduce all communication to an absolute minimum. But still He took the time to dictate His clarifications, and because it was essential that the precise meaning behind Baba’s gestures be understood, this sometimes resulted in Baba laboriously spelling out words letter by letter. When He was finished, the discourse was written out and read back to Baba, who made corrections and finally approved of it. Mani sent a copy of this discourse to Bili Eaton. Bili, in addition to sending this to her usual list of people, also sent a copy to Ivy Duce, who was the Murshida of Sufism Reoriented. At that time Mrs. Duce, along with Don E. Stevens, was editing God Speaks preparatory to its publication. Because of this, Mani also had mailed a copy of Baba’s discourse to her. When Mrs. Duce checked her two copies, she found that Bili’s version contained an extra sentence which stated, “The Avataric cycle is one hundred years.” She wrote to Mani to find out which version of the discourse was correct, and, of course, this matter was brought to Baba’ s notice. Baba instructed Mani to write a letter to both Mrs. Duce and Bili in which He clarified the difference between the Avataric period and the Avataric cycle. How Bili, who was an expert typist, had inadvertently added this extra sentence remains a mystery, but because of it we have the following explanation from Baba in Mani’s letter to Bili. In Baba’s explanation of the Circle, it says: “All the fourteen members of the Avatar’s Inner Circle realize God by the grace of the Avatar during the same Avataric period, which is of one hundred years’ duration after the Manifestation of the Avatar on earth.” The Avataric period has nothing to do with the cycle. Please have that clear. The 100 years after the Manifestation of the Avatar is the period encompassing the direct living and personal radiation of the Avatar.2 Back to the ‘70s, as I read the file containing the above explanation, written in 1955, I felt that I had found the confirmation I was seeking. No wonder I could trust that Baba is actively present in the Samadhi: Baba Himself had characterized the Avataric period as being charged by His “direct living and personal radiation.” This is the period in which a special Avataric dispensation continues to flow forth, in spite of the veiling of the Avatar’s physical form from our sight. So even now, during this specific period, all who visit the Samadhi at Meherabad are blessed in the same way as being in the Avatar’s physical presence. At least this is how I take it. It is likely that others will have their own opinions on this subject, and I am not trying to persuade anyone that my view is “correct.” I am simply explaining what my view is, and others are most free to agree or disagree with me according to their own understanding. Whenever we simply call on Meher Baba, the Omnipresent One, with a loving heart, wherever or whoever we may be, Baba is there to help us. But it strikes me that the veil of ignorance covering the Omnipresent One is most transparent at the Samadhi. Some readers, no doubt, may at this point say, “But Meher Baba stated that the period encompassing the direct and personal radiation of the Avatar is for a hundred years after His Manifestation. When did His Manifestation occur?” Here, I would like to share my personal understanding of the terms Avataric “cycle,” “period,” and especially, “manifestation.” Baba has mentioned that the Avataric cycle varies from 700 to 1,400 years. He often stated that He would come back after 700 years, so the present Avataric cycle is of 700 years.
I do not mean to suggest that because of my reading Meher Baba’s messages and discourses, I had no doubts or conflicts. It took many years before I was able to happily accept my inability to resolve questions I had about the breaking of Baba’s silence and His status as the Avatar. I gradually came to realize that these questions could only be answered by the heart, not the mind. But that’s a different story. Regardless of my mind’s questions, my heart was increasingly drawn to Baba, and I tried to do what I could to feel His omnipresence. Although I had quit my job as a schoolteacher to join Baba in His New Life, He, for reasons known only to Him, unexpectedly instructed me to return to my home and continue with my job. Instead of having me travel with Him, Baba ordered me to contact a certain person in the Himalayas and give him a special message from Baba. After completing this task, I was able to resume my teaching. A year later, at a meeting in Mahabaleshwar in which Baba again gave some of us a choice to join Him in the New Life, I, with all honesty, opted to stay with Him in the Old life. I continued with my job and because of this, I was physically apart from Baba during much of my life. At such times I would keep track of Baba’s travels, which I easily could with the information I received from the mandali in correspondence, and I would try to picture Him wherever He might be. This helped me a great deal to feel His presence, in the way that rereading His messages did. Even when reading Baba quotes from my small notebook, I would visually imagine Baba wherever He was, so my remembrance was intimately associated with His physical form. In 1948 Baba had given me permission to stay with Him whenever conveniently possible. I availed myself of this offer of grace, especially after He concluded His New Life in 1951. When Baba veiled His visible physical form in 1969, I was suddenly at a loss as to how to relate to Him. As I sat or stood outside the Samadhi during that first week of February 1969 and watched His lovers taking darshan, it became clear to me that Baba was still actively greeting His lovers and showering them with His love. But the question arose in my mind, “Where is Baba as Meher Baba, that dynamic Avataric personality? His body is in the crypt, this is clear, but where exactly is the Source, the Powerhouse, of the love His lovers feel?” During the next few years, in the early ‘70s, I would be struck time and time again by Baba’s active dispensation of love to those who would visit Him in the Samadhi. People would also pour into Meherazad from all over the world at all hours of the day and share their stories of Baba’s loving presence in their lives, felt especially when they were in the Samadhi. I was drenched in the showers of their love for Baba as the Eternal Beloved, but my mind would ask, “But where is the fountain that is showering us with this living water of Love?” In talking to Indian Baba-lovers and listening to their stories, I also felt Baba’s love very strongly. I would often be reminded of places I had been with Baba and of darshan programs I had attended, especially those at Guruprasad. Various incidents of my life with Baba would be replayed in my mind with sudden vividness. Each time, my heart felt illumined as if a light had been turned on. But again my mind asked, “But where is the generator that is providing the power?” With Meher Baba’s veiling of His physical body, the form which had been the focus of my thoughts and feelings for so many years, I felt as if my link to Baba had in some way been disrupted. I would inwardly ask Baba, “Where are You?” I felt that if I knew the answer to this question, it would help me reestablish the same sense of rapport with Baba which I had felt before. I wondered, “Should I try to picture Baba now in the Samadhi?” But somehow there seemed to be a contradiction in associating Baba’s divinely dynamic personality with the place which He used to sometimes refer to as His “Final Resting Place.” My mind was in a state of extended suspense awaiting a resolution to this turmoil which would appeal to my heart. Some years later this distressing problem was finally resolved by an experience which, even to this day, I find difficult to categorize. One morning in May 1987, I was resting on my bed at Meherazad with my eyes closed, waiting for the call announcing that the car was ready to leave for the Trust Office in Ahmednagar. Baba chose this moment to reveal the answer to my question in a way that not only totally eased my mind, but also consoled and convinced my heart. While resting, I suddenly found myself in the midst of a kind of “waking dream.” I saw myself standing on the platform in front of the Samadhi at Meherabad, just to the right of the door. There was no furniture as there is now, no cabinets or benches. No one else was present. It was all blissfully quiet when, most unexpectedly and to my great surprise and joy, I saw Meher Baba and Eruch, one of His dear disciples, coming up the slope from the south. As they approached the platform, Baba asked Eruch to wait at its edge. He then walked gracefully towards the door of the Samadhi, His arms swinging, hair flowing, His eyes flashing brilliantly. He gave me a glance of deep intimacy that words cannot convey, then entered the Samadhi. I waited with great anticipation for Him to come out, trying to decide how I would greet Him. “Should I bow down to Him, do this, or that ... or what?” Just then, from inside the Samadhi, I heard a deep voice with a sweet ring to it, and the words resounded, “I AM HERE, I AM HERE, I AM HERE.” These words reverberated throughout my whole being. Just then I heard someone calling my name, saying that the car was ready to go to the Trust Office. As I opened my eyes, I found myself uttering the word “EVER.” My heart was filled with an inexpressible joy. I felt deep within me that Baba had clearly shown me: HE IS THERE, HE IS THERE, HE IS THERE, in the Samadhi, as the Ancient One, ever divinely vibrant, responding to the calls of those who visit Him for darshan, or think of Him wherever they may be. Thus, thinking of Meher Baba in the Samadhi has come to be, for me, the same as thinking of Him when He was visible in the physical body. This has become the natural way for me to feel closer to the presence of the Avatar-the Infinite, Active Consciousness that assumed human form as Meher Baba. Since that day, Meher Baba’s living physical presence in the Samadhi has been for me a fact beyond all doubt. This experience reminds me of an incident from Baba’s life when He also spoke three significant words. Once, Baba was visiting the Ellora Caves with some of His Eastern and Western women disciples. One of the caves they visited is known as the Buddha’s cave. Mani sometimes shared the story of this visit and commented that as they were inside, looking at the impressive statue of the Buddha which dominates the cave, they were moved by the spiritual atmosphere which they felt there in Baba’s presence. Just then, Baba took His alphabet board from under His arm and dictated to Mani these three words, “I AM BUDDHA.” As Mani read aloud from the board, she felt as if every particle of the cave resounded with the truth of His words. One evening a few years after I heard the three words, “I AM HERE,” I found upon returning to Meherazad from the Trust Office that, as usual, someone had placed on the table in my room some pictures of Baba and a few pamphlets to be distributed to pilgrims. I was tired and went to bed immediately after having supper. The next morning, when I rolled back my mosquito netting, I saw a painting of the Samadhi on the windowsill next to my bed which I had not noticed the night before. Later, I learned that it had been sent to my room from Baba’s House, where the women mandali stay, to be given away or kept as I chose. Naturally, I decided to keep it. In fact, I was overjoyed to receive it. I had been wanting a picture of the Samadhi ever since my “vision.” Not only that, but this painting showed the Samadhi with the door open as I had seen it, and I took this as an objective confirmation from Meher Baba that the words I had heard were truly His. This painting adorns the wall of my room to this day, proclaiming from the Samadhi Avatar Meher Baba’s message, “I AM HERE.” And yes, He is. ___()___
“I Am Here” SINCE THE MID-’40S, despite my religious upbringing and strong interest in doing social work, Meher Baba continued to bring me, in a very natural way, into His closer inner contact. More and more I was drawn to Him, and He indirectly responded to the feeble call of my heart by providing me with opportunities to be in the company of His disciples-Hindus, Muslims, and Parsis. They freely shared with me the incredible experiences of their lives with Baba. I was immensely impressed by the conviction they had of Baba’s Divinity. Some had faced many difficult situations in their lives, including opposition from their friends and even family members. But this did not deter them from following Beloved Baba, whose love was so unconditional that all, in spite of their different religious backgrounds, social status, unconventional habits, or even mistakes they might have made, were accepted without reservation. I had read the life stories of other Masters, and yet what I was discovering here, in Baba, seemed more dynamic, intimate, and all-encompassing than anything I had previously read or heard. It was only natural that this prompted in me an even greater desire to read and hear more and more about Baba’s divinely human and humanly divine life. In the ‘40s, there were biographies of Baba in both Marathi and English. I also eagerly devoured the copies of Meher Baba Journal which were available, each of which contained an enlightening discourse given by Meher Baba on a profound spiritual subject. A year or two later, Baba’s discourses were collected and published in five volumes. Although I had some familiarity with spiritual literature, I had never come across such utterly logical and compelling explanations on so many different subjects, such as reincarnation and karma, sanskaras, Maya, meditation, the formation of the ego-nor had any other books ever explained in such detail the subtle distinctions between the different states of those on the spiritual Path and of those who were God-realized. I got into the habit of keeping a small notebook with me, and I would write down passages from the Discourses or Baba’s messages which particularly appealed to me. Then, during the day, whenever I could find time to, I would read and reread these passages. You might even call this a “practice” of mine which helped me feel that my connection to Baba was maintained no matter where He was physically. Not only that, but many a time I found that the solution to any problem I was facing at that moment was revealed to me in my reading. The passages I copied became a sort of guide, giving me understanding and practical direction in my life-an extension of Baba’s internal support and help. Because of the importance such messages had in my attempt to sustain and strengthen the link I felt with Meher Baba, I wish to share three quotes from the Discourses at this point. They are lengthy, but they, along with some others, were mainly responsible for shaping my way of relating to Baba, the Avatar. I have not changed any of the words, but have taken the liberty of underlining phrases that are of special significance to me. Supreme Claim of One’s Own Master Since the Master is, for the aspirant, a symbol of the supreme Self in all, the problem of true adjustment to the Master appears to him to be the same as realizing his own inner divinity and arriving at true adjustment with all other forms of the supreme Self. Through his allegiance to the Master, the aspirant achieves conscious appreciation of the fundamental unity of these problems .... The supreme claim of the Master cannot be challenged or limited even by the spontaneous reverence that the disciple is bound to feel for Masters other than the one who has accepted him. All Perfect Masters are one in their consciousness, and it is absurd to imagine any grades between them. Though one Master is not greater than another, the disciple must, for his own purposes, place the claim of his own Master over and above the claims of other Masters-until he transcends the domain of duality and realizes the unity of all Life. Mental energy would be dissipated unless there arose a supremely imperative claim among the many conflicting claims of life. Exclusive concentration upon one Master is therefore usually indispensable for the gathering up of the dispersed mental energy of the disciple.1 -Meher Baba Personal Meditation Personal meditation is directed towards those who are spiritually perfect. ...A suitable object for personal meditation is a living or past Perfect Master or the Avatar. It is important that the object of meditation be spiritually perfect.... Appreciation of the divinity perceived in the Master gives rise to forms of meditation in which the aspirant constantly and strenuously thinks of the Master as being an embodiment of qualities like universal love or complete detachment, egolessness or steadfastness, infinite knowledge or selfless action.... Dwelling upon the qualities of the Master often facilitates concentration on the form of the Master. In this type of meditation, the aspirant is aware of the spiritual Perfection of the Master; and he spontaneously fixes his attention upon the form of the Master, without analyzing his spiritual Perfection into any of its component qualities.... Complete identification of the Master with the spiritual ideal is responsible for removing such barriers as might exist between the aspirant and the Master. This gives rise to the release of unrestrained love for the Master and leads to the meditation of the heart, which consists in constant thinking about the Master with an uninterrupted flow of limitless love.2 -Meher Baba The Living Link with the Master Once the aspirant experiences the bliss of the darshan of a Master, that sight gets carved on his mind. And even when he is unable to establish frequent personal contact, his mind turns to the Master again and again in an effort to understand his significance. This process of establishing mental contact with the Master is essentially different from merely imaginative revival of past incidents.... As he is one with Eternity, the Master is beyond time and all limitations of time.... To love the Master is to love all, not merely symbolically but actually; for what the Master receives on the inner planes of consciousness he spiritualizes and distributes. Thus he not only strengthens the personal links that the disciples may have with him but also gives them the privilege of sharing his divine work.3 -Meher Baba
한 번의 결혼은 일곱 번의 출생을 초래 1928년 2월 14일 화요일, 바바는 동생 베헤람을 메허 아쉬람의 부감독관으로 임명했습니다. 이틀 후, 한 남자가 바바의 다르샨을 찾아와 스승에게 갓 태어난 아이의 이름을 지어달라고 요청했습니다. 바바는 그를 만달리와 아쉬람 소년들 사이에 앉게 했지만 그에게 많은 관심을 기울이지는 않았습니다. 회의 중에 만달리 중 한 명이 바바에게 그 사람이 그의 조언을 구하고 있다는 것을 상기시켰습니다. 바바는 만달리 회원에게 찡그린 표정을 지었다가 주제를 바꿨습니다: “만약 여러분이 결혼한다면, 여러분은 일곱 번 더 많은 출생을 초래합니다. 성자와 깨달은 스승들이 그들의 신자들에게 미혼의 삶을 살라고 조언하는 것은 바로 이런 연유 때문입니다. 이 일곱 번의 출생은 여러분이 진행함에 따라 생애를 거듭하면서 계속 증가합니다. 예를 들어, 7 X 7 = 49 X 7 = 343 X 7 등입니다. 전생에 얼마나 많은 전처를 남겼는지 그리고 앞으로 얼마나 많은 새로운 아내들과 접촉하게 될까요! 과거의 아내 중 누구도 기억하지 못하고 앞으로 다가올 아내들에 대해서도 알지 못할 것입니다. 그러니 여러분이 결혼하고 싶다면 나와 결혼하세요! 나와의 결혼은 오직 나에 대한 존경과 애정, 그리고 사랑을 의미합니다. 나에 대한 그러한 생각과 기억은 정말로 많은 것을 요구합니다. 심지어 고대의 요가 수행자들보다 훨씬 더 많은 사랑을 요구합니다. 그러니 나와 결혼하세요! 나와의 결혼은 사랑, 평화, 행복을 의미합니다. 여자와의 평범한 결혼은 자가다(jhagada)[싸움]와 그로부터 발생하는 수천 가지 걱정을 의미합니다.” 그 사람과 소년들이 떠난 후 바바는 아쉬람 소년들 앞에서 결혼에 대해 언급하는 실수를 저질렀다는 이유로, 발언한 만달리 회원을 크게 꾸짖었습니다. 바바는 그에게 다시는 그러지 말라고 경고했습니다. 같은 날 늦게 바바는 “사실 오늘 아침 모친께 매일 내 이름을 1,000번씩 불러보라고 조언했습니다. 그녀가 그렇게 한다면 좋을 것입니다. 그렇지 않으면 내 조언에 귀를 기울이지 않아서 메모와 가족이 고통받게 하세요. 물질적인 것에 대한 생각은 그녀나 나와 비슷한 사람들을 결코 만족시키지 못할 것입니다.” 스승의 사랑에 도취한 영향으로 학교의 일상을 방해했습니다. 그러나 1928년 2월 2일부터 바바는 다시 20명의 선발된 소년들에게 정기적으로 학교에 다니고 학업에 열중할 것을 명령했습니다. 일부 소년들은 공부하지 않고 바바 근처에 앉아있기만 원했지만 바바는 수업을 재개하도록 했습니다. 아가 알리는 바바의 바람을 실천했고, 그의 모범을 본 다른 소년들도 따랐습니다. 이제 소년들의 공부는 더욱 힘을 얻었고, 정해진 교육과정에 따라 가르침이 전달되었습니다. 소년들은 아메드나가르에 있는 선교사 학교에서 기말고사를 치르게 되었는데, 결국 모두 좋은 성적으로 합격한 것은 놀라운 일이었습니다. 지난 두 달 동안 소년들이 사랑 때문에 걷잡을 수 없이 눈물을 흘리는 등의 경험은 다른 곳에서 잘못된 소문을 불러일으켰습니다. 일부 부모들은 “메허 바바가 우리 아이들을 개종시켜 자신들의 종교에 등을 돌리게 하고 있다.”라고 말했습니다. 일부 무슬림들은 “왜 우리 아이들을 메허 바바 근처에 머무르는 것을 허락해야 하나요? 그는 아이들에게 그의 발을 만지게 하고 조로아스터교로 개종시키려고 합니다.”라고 말하기도 했습니다. 다른 사람들은 메허라바드에서 일어나는 일들을 과장해서 들으며 불안해했습니다. “우리 아이들은 그곳에서 이성을 잃고 있습니다.”라고 그들은 걱정했습니다. “아이들은 공부를 포기하고 명상과 요가를 배우고 있습니다. 그들은 산야시[출가자]가 되어 모든 물질적인 것을 포기할 것입니다. 차라리 학교에서 퇴학시키는 것이 더 낫습니다.” 또 다른 사람들은 “소년들이 부모로부터 몸값을 뜯어내기 위해 아쉬람에 강제로 구금되고 있다.”라고 주장했습니다. 소년들에게 학업으로 돌아가라는 바바의 명령은 사실상 일부 부모들의 오해를 완화하기 위한 책략이었습니다. 자녀들이 학업에 충분한 주의를 기울이지 않는다는 소문이 돌았기 때문입니다. 소년들은 자신감을 가지고 열심히 공부하는 것처럼 보여야 한다고 말했고, 그렇지 않으면 무슨 일이 일어나고 있는지 직접 보기 위해 메허라바드에 오기 시작한 보호자들에게 빼앗길 수가 있었습니다. 그래서 1928년 1월 말, 이런저런 소문이 돌면서 온갖 종류의 문의를 하는 편지들이 수신되었습니다. 각 편지에 대한 답변은 부모들에게 자녀들이 최상의 보살핌을 받고 있다는 확신을 주었습니다. 일부 부모는 납득하지 못하고 아들을 학교에서 집으로 데려가기 위해 메허라바드에 도착했습니다. 2월까지 7명의 힌두교 어린이가 메허 아쉬람 학교에서 퇴학당했습니다. 봄베이에서 온 일부 무슬림 부모들도 아이들을 돌려달라고 요구하며 찾아왔습니다. 만달리는 상황의 실상을 설명하려고 노력했고, 어떤 경우에는 부모를 설득하여 자녀들이 아쉬람에 남아있을 수 있도록 하는 데 성공했습니다. -로드 메허 온라인 906-908페이지
『 바바를 위해 일하는 것 』 봄베이에서 온 한 신자는 바바의 발 앞에 천 루피를 바치고 싶다고 말했습니다. 그는 정중하게 이 돈을 바바의 앞에 두었습니다. 바바는 이 돈을 가난한 사람들과 그의 일을 위해 사용하기로 결정했습니다. 이에 따라 6월 9일에 가난한 가정의 15세 미만 어린이 200명이 바바에게 데려와졌습니다. 바바는 그들 각자에게 절을 하고 각자에게 과자 한 봉지와 천 조각을 프라사드[은총의 선물]로서 주었습니다. 적은 양이라도 자발적으로 기부하는 사람들도 있었습니다. 바바는 새로 개설된 센터에 이 돈을 보내라고 지시하면서, “바바는 돈을 주고 그 대가로 일을 기대하는 것을 좋아하지 않습니다. 이것은 터무니없는 일입니다. 하지만, 나는 이 돈을 프라사드(PRASAD)로서 줍니다. 바바의 일에 대해 더 이상 바바에게 어떠한 것도 기대하지 마세요.” 토론 과정에서 그는 “나의 러버들은 돈을 내는 것보다 그들의 머리를 주는 것이 더 쉽습니다!”라고 유머러스하게 말했습니다. 센터 참석에 대해서 바바는 말했습니다. “만일 집회에 500명이 참석한다면 그것은 좋은 일입니다. 여러분이 최선을 다했는데 사람들이 오지 않는다고 해도 낙심하지 마세요. 설사 5명이 참석하더라도, 나는 거기에 참석하겠습니다.” 바바가 더 말했습니다. “최근에 나는 내 일꾼들 중 일부에서 상당한 의견 차이가 발생했다는 것을 들었습니다. 그런 태도를 발전시키는 것보다는 나를 위해 일하지 않는 것이 더 낫습니다. 나는 여러분이 나에게 항복하고 나를 사랑한다는 점에서만 여러분의 경쟁 정신을 높이 평가할 것입니다. 내 일을 하다가 여러분 자신을 분열시키는 것은 그 일의 근간을 흔드는 것입니다. 그것은 그 자신의 목적을 헛되게 할 것입니다. ‘나 혼자 바바의 일을 할 수 있다.’라고 말하는 것은 위선의 극치입니다.” 관계자들은 그들의 감정을 표출하고 자유롭게 생각을 표현할 수 있는 기회가 주어졌습니다. “여러분이 분열될 때, 나와 내 일은 옆으로 치워집니다. 여러분은 형제애를 퍼뜨리기 위해 센터를 열지만, 먼저 모임 내에서 여러분이 어떻게 행동하는지 직접 확인하세요! 여러분이 조화롭게 함께 일할 수 없다면, 왜 나를 위한 새로운 센터를 엽니까? 여러분이 나의 대의를 발전시키려 한다면, ‘나의 일’ 속에서 먼지처럼 되는 것 외에는 탈출구가 없습니다. 어떤 타협도 있을 수 없습니다. 나의 러버들은 모두 먼지처럼 되어야 합니다. 그러면 사람들이 자발적으로 그 주위에 모여들 것이고, 그의 삶은 다른 이들에게 내 사랑의 메시지를 발산할 것입니다. “나는 센터를 갖는 것에 반대하지 않습니다. 그곳에서 바바를 사랑하는 사람들이 만나서 나에 대한 생각과 사랑의 감정을 교환할 수 있습니다. 그러나 거기에는 화합이 있어야 합니다. 굴복하는 정신이 있어야 합니다. 오늘날 우리는 센터를 가질 것인지 아니면 센터를 해체할 것인지에 관계없이 무언가를 고쳐야 합니다. 유일한 해결책은 나의 일에서 먼지와 같은 존재가 되는 것입니다. “그런데 여러분이 먼지처럼 된다는 것에 대해서 무엇을 이해하고 있나요? 어떻게 여러분이 먼지처럼 될 것인가요? 만일 여러분이 내가 시키는 대로만 할 수 있다면, 대관절 먼지처럼 된다는 것이 무슨 의미가 있나요? 내가 시키는 일을 하는 것은 여러분에게 매우 어렵습니다. 그것은 여러분의 마음이 나에 대한 사랑으로 불타오를 때만 가능합니다. 내가 받아야 할 마땅한 사랑으로 나를 사랑할 수 없다면, 적어도 나의 다만(daaman)을 굳게 잡으려고 노력하세요. 내가 여러분을 도울 것입니다. 먼지는 우리가 먼지 위를 걷거나 짓밟거나 우리가 원하는 방식으로 사용하더라도 결코 불평하지 않습니다. 여러분에게 어떤 재앙이 닥치더라도 여전히 웃는 얼굴을 하고 있다면, 여러분은 먼지와 같이 될 것입니다. 여러분이 나에 대한 최상의 사랑을 가져야만, 여러분은 먼지처럼 될 수 있습니다. 먼지처럼 되는 것만이 여러분을 함께 이어줄 수 있는 유일한 연결고리입니다.” 바바는 그룹의 연장자들에 대해 언급했습니다. “나이를 먹으면서 묘한 기대감에 사로잡히게 됩니다. 후배들이 일부러 자신을 무시하거나 심지어 미워하는 것 같은 느낌이 듭니다. 젊은 사람이든 연장자든 여러분에 대한 나의 큰 기대는 여러분은 어떤 기대도 해서는 안 된다는 것입니다. 여러분이 새로 만든 센터를 배움의 장소로 삼으세요. 모든 사람은 나에 대한 사랑을 표현하는 방식이 저마다 다르다는 것을 기억하세요; 그러니 형제처럼 지내도록 노력하세요. 여러분 사이에 의견이 일치하도록 하세요. 서로를 수용하려고 노력하세요. 현재로서는 센터에서 할 수 있는 한 최선을 다해 나의 일을 계속하세요. “나는 확실하고 분명한 원칙을 세울 것이고 그것들은 실질적이고 지속적인 가치가 있을 것입니다. 나는 모든 불필요한 의식의 속박을 파괴할 것입니다. 예수와 크리슈나가 살았던 시대는 달랐습니다; 현재의 시간은 완전히 다릅니다. 나는 시대의 필요에 따라 사람들에게 말해야 합니다. “현재 원자 시대에서 물질적 진보는 거의 정점에 도달했으나 이것은 영성의 영역에서 내적 진보의 그림자에 불과합니다.” 끝으로, 바바는 다정하게 다음과 같은 점들을 다시 강조했습니다. 그는 말했습니다. “내가 하나님이라는 것은 사실입니다. 나는 최고 중의 최고입니다. 나는 손을 든 사람들이 나의 다만을 영원히 굳게 붙들기를 바랍니다. “나의 러버들이 다른 성자들을 방문할 필요는 없습니다. 나에게 충실하고 모든 사람에게 나의 사랑의 메시지를 전파하며 바바의 일 속에서 먼지처럼 되세요.” -최상의 광영 23-24페이지, 나오셰르완 안자르 첨부
『 Working for Baba 』 A devotee from Bombay expressed a wish to offer one thousand rupees at Baba’s feet. He lovingly placed this amount before Baba. Baba decided to use this money for His work with the poor. Accordingly, on June 9, 200 children below fifteen years, from the poor families, were brought to Baba. Baba bowed down to each one of them and gave each a packet of sweets and a piece of cloth as prasad. There were also some who spontaneously offered what little they could give. Baba directed that this amount be sent for a newly opened Center and remarked, “Baba does not like to give money and expect work for Him in return. This is ridiculous. However, I am giving this money as PRASAD. Do not expect any more from Baba for His work.” In the course of discussion He humorously remarked, “It is easier for my lovers to give their heads than to give money!” About the attendance at the Centers, Baba said, “If five hundred attend the meeting it is well and good. If you try your utmost and people do not come, do not lose heart. Even if there are five persons present at the meeting, take it I will be there.” Baba further said, “Recently I heard that among some of My workers there has developed a considerable difference of opinion. Better you do not work for Me than develop such an attitude. I will appreciate your competitive spirit only in your surrender to Me and love for Me. To get yourself divided while doing My work shakes the very foundation of that work. That will defeat its own end. It is the height of hypocrisy to say 'I alone can do Baba’s work.'” Those concerned were given the opportunity to give vent to their feelings and express their thoughts freely. “When you get divided,” Baba explained, “I and My work are set aside. You open a Center to spread Brotherhood but first see for yourselves how you behave among the group! If you cannot work together with concord, why open new Centers for Me? If you want to further My Cause, there is no escape but to become like dust in My work. There cannot be any compromise. Each of My lovers must become like dust. Then people of their own accord will flock around him and his own life will radiate My message of Love to others. “I do not object to having Centers. There, lovers of Baba can meet and exchange their ideas and feeling of love for Me. But there should be concord. There must be a spirit of giving in. Today we must fix something - whether to have Centers or to dissolve them. The only solution is to become like dust in My work. “But what do you understand by becoming like dust? How will you become like dust? If you could but do what I ask you to do, what else could you be but like dust? It is extremely difficult for you to do what I ask you to do. It is only possible when your heart is kindled with love for Me. If you cannot love Me as I ought to be loved, at least try to hold fast to My daaman. I will help you. Dust never complains even though we walk over it, trample upon it or use it in any way we like. If any number of calamities befall you and still you keep a smiling face, this may lead you to become like dust. You can become like dust only if you possess the highest type of love for Me. Becoming dust-like is the only link that would bring you together.” Referring to the older members of the group, Baba said, “As one grows old one is possessed by a peculiar spirit of expectation. He feels that the youngsters are purposely ignoring him or even hating him. My great expectation about you all, young and old, is that you should not entertain any expectation at all. Let the Centers newly created by you all be your school. Remember that everyone has his own peculiar way of expressing his love for Me; so try to behave like brothers. Let there be concord among yourselves. Try to accommodate one another. For the present, continue My work at the Centers as best as you can. “I will lay down certain definite principles and they will be of real and lasting value. I intend to destroy the bindings of all superfluous ceremonies. The times when Jesus and Krishna lived were different; the present time is altogether different. I have to tell the people according to the needs of the time. “In the present atom-age, material progress has nearly reached its zenith, and this is but the shadow of the internal progress in the realm of Spirituality.“ In the end, Baba lovingly stressed again the following points. He said, “It is a fact that I am God. I am the Highest of the High. I wish that those who raised their hands should hold fast to my daaman for good. “There is no need for My lovers to visit other saints. Stick to Me and spread My message of Love to all and become like dust in Baba’s work.” -The Best of The Glow, pp. 23-24, ed. Naosherwan Anzar
Fana(annihilation of the false mind) As usual, Baba had called the Kalchuri family to Poona for a few days during the summer of 1963. Baba discussed with them their move from Meherabad to Khushru Quarters in Ahmednagar and their placement under Adi’s supervision, so that the children could get a better education at a qualified school in town. (They moved on 13 June 1963 and occupied a few rooms on the western side, next to Piroja’s room.) On 5 June, when someone invited Baba to his town, Baba replied, “I am here and also there; I am near and also away. I am everywhere!” Baba was in a mood to give a discourse that day. He began explaining about fana - annihilation of the false mind: Fana is of three types - fana-fillah, fana-fi-Sheikh and fana-fi-Rasool. In the first, a person becomes one with God. There are always 56 persons existing in this state. In fana-fi-Sheikh, a person becomes One with the consciousness of a Qutub. He is One with the infinite consciousness of the Sadguru, but he is not One with the office of the Qutub. In this state he does sometimes use, to a very limited extent, his infinite power-knowledge-bliss. The person in this state drops his body immediately after the Qutub, who had brought him to that state of fana-fi-Sheikh. There are always five Perfect Masters existing [on earth]. In fana-fi-Rasool, which is a very rare state and also occurs very rarely, a person becomes One with the Avatar [Rasool]. When it does happen, it is during the Avatar’s physical presence in the world and just before the unique worldwide manifestation of the Avatar. It is a rare occurrence. It has happened in the past. No one from the state of fana-fillah can attain the fana-fi-Rasool state. Only an ordinary man who is gross conscious is chosen by the Avatar himself and is bestowed with the state of fana-fi-Rasool. In this state, the person chosen becomes like the Avatar, but does not hold the Avatar’s office. He drops his body immediately after the Avatar drops his body. Baba continued: The fourth plane is called the threshold of the Abode of God. If a pilgrim on the fourth plane tries to harass a pilgrim on the fifth plane with his powers, then the wali on the fifth plane seeks the help of the Avatar, but not of a Qutub. Thus the wali is protected directly by the Avatar from the pranks of the fourth-plane pilgrim, whose powers are curbed. Very rarely, one of the fourth plane acts arrogantly before a Qutub. If there is any mischief at all or arrogance displayed, the Qutub sternly deals with such a person, who eventually surrenders to the Qutub. The Qutub then raises him to the fifth plane of consciousness at once. In the fana-fillah state, there are 56 souls living on earth. The state of baqa means “to be established” in God and being able to use infinite power, knowledge and bliss. A Qutub is the one who leads the life of God and uses infinite power, infinite knowledge and infinite bliss. Some Sufis believe that fana-fillah is the highest state. Other Sufis believe that a Qutub’s state is the highest, while still others believe that the state of the Rasool is the highest. The next day, 6 June, referring to his five Perfect Masters, Baba observed: Tajuddin Baba, Sai Baba and Hazrat Babajan had both jalali [hot-tempered, fiery] and jamali [amiable, serene] traits. Upasni Maharaj had only jalali traits, and Narayan Maharaj only jamali. These five Qutubs precipitated the advent of the Avatar of this Age. Of the present five Sadgurus living on earth, three are Hindus and two are Muslims. [Baba did not reveal their names.] They are all men. My next advent will be after 700 years when all five Perfect Masters will be men. If a man on the fourth plane misuses his powers and if the Qutub is a jamali, he does not bring down the fourth-plane man to stone consciousness, but brings him down only to gross consciousness of an ordinary being. But if the Qutub is of a jalali type, then he will bring about his fall directly back to the stone consciousness! The Avatar never contacts a man on the fourth plane, for, in that case, the person would automatically lose all his powers. But if the man on the fourth plane approaches a Qutub, he is accepted by him and raised by the Qutub to the fifth plane of consciousness. Baba continued discoursing the next day, 7 June 1963: A Perfect Master can appear in physical form in ten places simultaneously, while the Avatar can do so in a thousand different places simultaneously. When I break my silence I will appear sometimes at one place, sometimes at a thousand places. Never before has such a thing happened. A Perfect Master has two types of agents, abdal and avtad. An abdal can take many forms - usually of an old man or a child. Suppose a seeker on the path is very thirsty and is about to die of thirst. A Qutub immediately directs an abdal to go and help him. My father, Sheriarji, was helped by an abdal when dying of thirst and lost in the desert of Kutch. At that time, a man with a long beard carrying a pakhal [a leather water bag] of water appeared before Sheriarji. No sooner had he drunk the water than the old man vanished. An abdal does important work mostly in the male form. Abdals have either male or female forms. An abdal of the female form does not appear in the male form, but changes from one female form to another as it suits the duty assigned by the Qutub. Likewise, an abdal of the male form does not appear in the female form. The avtad is always of a male form and does work in the way of odd jobs assigned by the Perfect Master. Later, in speaking about time, Baba said, “Five billion years in illusion is merely a moment in eternity!” Baba continued: “The journey between the third and fourth plane is very difficult. At this stage, the connection between the seeker and the Perfect Master is so delicate that it may be said to have been linked with only a hair! Thus, neither of them can afford to create a strain or too great a resistance lest the connection snap.” He also said, “In the life of a seeker, a time comes when even the longing for union with God must be given up.” Explaining about creation, Baba stated: The Nothing came out of the Everything. From this Nothing came out this so-called “everything” called creation. The Nothing appears to be everything. Thus, when one crosses the sixth plane to Reality, one has to necessarily pass through a complete emptiness - void, a nothing. The experience of this emptiness cannot be described. Sadgurus and majzoobs have all passed through this experience. It is of a very short duration, for the pilgrim at once passes therefrom to the fana-fillah state of “I-Am-God” and experiences himself as God the Everything. For the Perfect Master who has regained normal, gross consciousness, this Nothing becomes his Universal Body. From this Universal Body, everything in creation is projected and absorbed, chewed and spat out incessantly. After describing the weaknesses of the six previous Avatar once more, Baba went on to the topic of occult powers - tantric vidya: “Anyone can achieve powers of the occult by intense meditation, concentration and other ways, but they are absolutely different from the powers of the planes; those are divine powers. These can be used in three ways: good, bad or maliciously, and in a fun way as was done by Mohamed Chhel, who was a magician.” Baba then related a humorous incident from Mohamed Chhel’s life: “He used to use his powers to stop trains and produce tickets. Once he threw a child out of a moving train, and amidst the parents’ crying fits and hysterics, he calmly produced the child, safe and sound.” Baba concluded, “These powers, though wasted in fun, are harmless enough and so the man keeps on playing his tricks. But malicious use is very, very bad.” -Lord Meher Online, p5020 ______________________ ※ Footnote - Baba did contact an agent on the fourth plane in a Buddhist temple in Ceylon in January 1933, and indicated he had advanced him to the fifth plane. Another fourth-plane contact was Nanga Mast in Allahabad in 1941. Five Perfect Masters of Baba - Hazrat Babajan, Sai Baba, Narayan Maharaj, Upasni Maharaj and Tajuddin Baba.
『 Four Types of Obedience 』 There are four types of obedience. 1. The obedience of the soldier, who obeys out of a sense of duty. 2. The obedience of the servant, paid obedience, the higher the pay the louder the ‘Yes Sir!’ 3. The obedience of the slave, obedience through fear of punishment. 4. The obedience of the lover, obedience through love. Obedience through love was the highest type, and this was the obedience that Baba wanted. The obedience of the lover has further divisions. The types of obedience through love are: (a) Intellect and discrimination temper the obedience. The mind just obeys technically. If told to cut off a finger, would give a small cut with a blunt knife - just enough to draw blood. (Thinks he doesn’t mean to cut off finger, he means to cut the finger). (b) Unwilling literal obedience - the person does the job against his wishes - like taking castor oil. (c) Willing literal obedience - the person is happy to obey literally the most difficult command. Baba said that it is a progression. At first, one’s intellect prevents one from literal obedience, but it is a step. The last type of obedience is very rare, where the person is happy to literally obey the most difficult command with love. Baba said that He did not think that any of us could be obedient like that. Baba instructed that a list be taken of the names of the people who were willing to obey Him 100%. He said that they would receive their instructions from Him later. He finally said that if all tried 100%, then He would help them. Baba said: There can be no compromise; one cannot love the world and love God. The man of the world has to compromise; but to have obedience to Baba, one cannot compromise with the ways of the world. Baba is God. He is in us all. He is pure; it is the impurities in us that stop Him entering our hearts. He can only enter our hearts when we have driven out everything else; we keep Him away, yet He is in us too. -Practical Spirituality With Meher Baba, pp. 103-104, by John A Grant Your Gift of Obedience Let your heart be pure. Do not act outwardly what you are not inwardly. Be absolutely honest. God is Infinite Honesty. Do not pose as being pious, because God is everywhere. God cannot be fooled-so why pose as something you are not? I do not want anything else from you but the gift of your obedience. Give me that and you will free yourself from the bondage of ignorance. 『 순종의 네 가지 유형 』 순종에는 네 가지 유형이 있습니다. 1. 의무감으로 복종하는 군인의 순종. 2. 보수를 받고 복종하는 하인의 순종. 보수가 높을수록 ‘예 주인님!’이라고 더 크게 외침. 3. 처벌에 대한 두려움으로 복종하는 노예의 순종. 4. 사랑을 통해 복종하는 러버의 순종. 사랑을 통한 순종이 가장 높은 유형이며, 이것이 바바가 원했던 순종이었습니다. 러버의 순종에는 더 많은 구분이 있습니다. 사랑을 통한 순종의 유형은 다음과 같습니다: (a) 지성과 분별력은 순종을 억제합니다. 마음은 단지 기술적으로 순종합니다. 손가락을 자르라고 하면 무딘 칼로 피를 뽑을 수 있을 정도로만 살짝 베어냅니다. (그는 손가락을 자르려는 것이 아니라, 손가락을 베라는 의미로 생각합니다.) (b) 마지못해하는 말한 그대로의 순종 - 그 사람은 진통을 유도하는 피마자유를 먹는 것과 같이 자신의 소망에 반하여 일을 합니다. (c) 기꺼이 나서서 말한 그대로 행하는 순종 - 그 사람은 가장 어려운 명령을 기꺼이 있는 그대로 순종하는 것에 행복해합니다. 바바는 그것은 진전이라고 말했습니다. 처음에 사람의 지성은 말한 그대로의 순종을 방해하지만, 그것은 한 걸음입니다. 마지막 유형의 순종은 매우 드물며, 그 유형의 사람은 가장 어려운 명령을 사랑으로 말한 그대로의 순종에 행복해합니다. 바바는 우리 중 누군가가 그렇게 순종할 수 있을 거라고는 생각하지 않는다고 말했습니다. 바바는 자신에게 100% 순종할 용의가 있는 사람들의 이름을 적으라고 지시했습니다. 그분은 그들이 나중에 그분으로부터 지시를 받게 될 것이라고 말했습니다. 마침내 바바는 모두가 100% 노력한다면, 그들을 도울 것이라고 말했습니다. 바바는 말했습니다: 타협은 있을 수 없습니다; 세상을 사랑하면서 하나님을 사랑할 수는 없습니다; 세상의 사람은 타협해야 합니다; 하지만 바바에게 순종하기 위해서는, 세상의 방식과 타협할 수 없습니다. 바바는 하나님입니다. 그분은 우리 모두 안에 있습니다. 그분은 순수합니다; 그분이 우리 가슴에 들어오는 것을 막는 것은 우리 안에 있는 불순물입니다. 우리가 다른 모든 것을 몰아내야만 그분께서 우리 가슴에 들어올 수 있습니다; 우리는 그분을 멀리하지만, 그럼에도 그분은 우리 안에 있습니다. -메허 바바와의 실천적 영성 103-104페이지, 존 앨리스터 그란트 여러분이 바치는 순종의 선물 여러분의 가슴을 순수하게 하세요. 여러분 마음속에도 없는 것을 겉으로 행동하지 마세요. 절대적으로 정직하세요. 하나님은 무한한 정직성으로 계십니다. 하나님은 모든 곳에 계시니, 경건敬虔한 체하지 마세요. 하나님은 속일 수 없는데 왜 여러분이 아닌 것처럼 흉내를 내시나요? 나는 순종의 선물 외에는 여러분으로부터 다른 어떤 것도 바라지 않아요. 그것을 내게 준다면 여러분은 무지의 구속으로부터 여러분 자신을 자유롭게 할 것입니다.
『 The Special Christian Prayer 』 Christian Prayer In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: O Lord! Hear my prayer and let my cry come unto Thee: Thou who art the God of God, the Father Almighty, the Father everlasting! O God! Almighty Father! The Lord of Lords! The King of Kings! All the earth doth worship Thee. To Thee all angels, to Thee the heavens and all powers, To Thee all saints and all beings with unceasing voice do cry: The Holy! The Holy of Holies! Full are the heavens and the earth, of the majesty of thy glory. Thou the glorious! Thou the exalted effulgence; Thou the praiseworthy in the assemblage of the prophets; Thou the celestial beauty! Thou art the eternal song of thy lovers. Thou who art acknowledged, praised and worshipped throughout the world, in all churches, synagogues, mosques, temples and pagodas: To Thee I most humbly bow down. Thou of unbounded majesty! Thou art the father of the Creation. Thy true adorable and only begotten son, the Christ, Thou art the king of glory, the saviour of mankind, the ancient one, the highest of the high! O Christ! The Messiah! Thou of the Father everlasting art the Son everlasting: Thou O most merciful Lord, has taken upon thee to deliver man from bondage, to eternal glory: O the ancient one! The redeemer! Thou, having first overcome the sting of ignorance, didst open to all the kingdom of bliss, knowledge and power! I most humbly praise Thee, O my God! I most firmly acknowledge Thee, O my God! O my soul of soul! I believe in Thee, because thou art truth itself: I worship Thee. O highest of the high; because Thou art the only one worthy of adoration: I love Thee above all things and beings, because Thou art love divine itself; I beseech Thee, because Thou art mercy itself; I offer Thee all my thoughts, words and actions, my sufferings and my joys, because Thou art the only Beloved: I therefore beseech Thee, my God! Lord of Lords! The Highest of the High! The ancient one! to have mercy on me, according to Thy unbounded mercy, and let my cry come unto Thee: O my Beloved! Suffer me not to be separated from Thee for ever and ever! Amen! -Meher Baba, The God-Man, pp. 236-237, by C. B. Purdom 『 특별한 그리스도인 기도 』 그리스도인 기도문 성부와 성자와 성령의 이름으로 기도합니다: 오 주여! 나의 기도를 들으시고, 내 부르짖음이 당신께 이르게 하소서: 하나님 중의 하나님, 전능하신 아버지, 영원한 아버지이신 주님! 오 하나님! 전능하신 아버지! 주님 중의 주님! 왕 중의 왕이시여! 온 땅이 당신께 경배하나이다. 모든 천사가 당신께 있으며 하늘과 모든 권능이 당신께 있사옵니다. 모든 성자와 모든 존재가 끊임없는 목소리로 당신께 부르짖나이다: 거룩하신 분이시여! 거룩하신 분 중의 거룩하신 분이시여! 하늘과 땅이 당신 영광의 위엄으로 가득하나이다. 영광스러운 주여! 당신은 고귀한 광휘입니다. 당신은 선지자들의 회중에서 칭찬받아 마땅한 분입니다. 천상의 아름다움이신 주여! 당신은 당신 러버들의 영원한 노래입니다. 온 세상의 모든 교회와 회당과 모스크, 사원과 탑에서 인정받고, 찬미 되고, 경배받으시는 주님, 나는 당신께 가장 겸허하게 머리를 숙입니다: 한없는 위엄의 주님! 당신은 창조세계를 그리시는 아버지입니다. 당신의 참된 사랑은 오직 독생자이신 그리스도입니다. 당신은 영광의 왕이시며, 인류의 구원자이시고, 고대의 존재이시며, 높은 분 중에 가장 높으신 분입니다! 오 그리스도여! 메시아시여! 영원히 계속해서 아들을 보내시는 영원하신 아버지인 당신: 오 가장 자비로우신 주님, 당신은 인간을 속박에서 건져내어 영원한 영광에 이르게 하셨나이다: 오 옛적부터 계셨던 이여! 구원자이시여! 당신은 먼저 무지의 고통을 극복하고 지복과 지식과 권능의 모든 왕국을 열어 주셨나이다! 오 나의 하나님, 나는 가장 겸허하게 당신을 찬양합니다! 오 나의 하나님, 나는 가장 확고하게 당신을 인정합니다! 오 나의 영혼의 영혼이시여! 당신은 진리 그 자체시기에, 나는 당신을 믿사옵니다. 당신을 경배하나이다. 오 높은 중에 가장 높으신 이여, 당신은 숭배받을 가치가 있는 유일한 분이시기 때문입니다: 모든 사물과 존재보다 더 당신을 사랑합니다. 당신은 신성한 사랑 그 자체이기 때문입니다. 당신께 간구하나니, 당신은 자비 그 자체이기 때문입니다. 나는 당신에게 나의 모든 생각과 말과 행동, 고통과 기쁨을 바칩니다. 당신만이 유일한 비러벳이기 때문입니다: 그러므로 나는 당신께 간청합니다. 나의 하나님! 주님 중의 주님! 높은 중에 가장 높으신 분이시여! 옛적부터 계셨던 이여! 당신의 무한한 자비로 나를 가엾이 여기시고, 나의 부르짖음이 당신께 이르게 하소서: 오 나의 비러벳이여! 영원히 당신과 분리되지 않도록 나를 고통받게 하소서! 아멘! -메허 바바의 갓맨 236-237페이지, 찰스 벤자민(Charles Benjamin) 퍼덤 옮김
GOD USES MAYA TO CONDUCT THE AFFAIRS OF THE UNIVERSE On June 30th, (1926) explaining to the mandali about Maya, Meher Baba expounded: God uses Maya to conduct the affairs of the universe. Paramatma never uses Maya to make others free from Maya. Suppose Arjun is Paramatma and his cane is God. If you wrap a seven-colored string around this cane, that string is Maya. What a difference between Arjun and the string - the string has only touched God (the cane) and not Paramatma, Who is aloof. Suppose you come along and mistake the string for a snake. This mistake creates Maya. But, if we see that the string is only a string and nothing else, then where is Maya? It is only your false supposition that is really Maya. In the end, when it is found that it is only a string, you laugh at your false presupposition because your fears are gone - the illusion is removed. In the same way, when one attains Realization, he laughs at these false notions of Maya - the world and all its connections - for they are totally false and not real. Therefore, the very moment Maya (desires, passions and anger) enters your head, thrust it out. Do not let it in at all. If a rabid dog goes after you, you shout to drive it away. If, on the other hand, you give it food, it will follow you and will not go away. Similarly, Maya is like a rabid dog. Do not allow it to enter your mind. Drive it away as you would a mad dog. Drive it away with all your strength, for once it sticks to you, it will be quite impossible for you to free yourself. People say that God created Maya, but that is not so. For example, take the hair on the head. The hair is Maya and the head is God, the Creator. Although the hair grows on the head, the head does not know how, why and where it comes from. Then how can it be said that the head created hair, or God created Maya? But in a way, the very creation of Maya itself is dependent on God. Maya is sheer illusion - the force of imagination. Where there is lust, there is Maya. Where there is anger, there is Maya. Where there is greed, there is Maya. He who renounces Maya finds everything! Do not be a slave to Maya. Subjugate Maya and you will see God in all His perfection. But it is next to impossible to realize God. One must die to gain this state, not by drowning or committing suicide, but by renouncing Maya and freeing oneself from its deluding allurements. And this Maya is so tyrannical and powerful that even the best of persons succumb to its lures. The real heroes who eat her up are very rare. So hold tightly to my feet to ease your way or else you will not get even a whiff of Reality and your strenuous efforts to reach the Goal age after age will not bring you any nearer to it. -Lord Meher, Original Publication, Bhau Kalchuri. Vol. 9, pp. 820 - 821. 마야를 이용하여 우주의 일을 수행하는 하나님 (1926년) 6월 30일, 메허 바바는 만달리에게 마야에 대해 설명하면서 이렇게 말했습니다: 하나님은 마야를 사용하여 우주의 일을 수행합니다. 파라마트마는 다른 사람들을 마야로부터 해방시키기 위해 절대 마야를 사용하지 않습니다. 아르준이 파라마트마이고 그의 지팡이가 하나님이라고 가정해 봅시다. 이 지팡이에 일곱 가지 색의 끈을 감으면 그 끈이 마야입니다. 아르준과 끈의 차이점은 끈은 하나님(지팡이)만 닿았을 뿐 초연한 파라마트마에는 닿지 않았다는 점입니다. 여러분이 와서 끈을 뱀으로 착각한다고 가정해 보세요. 이 실수가 마야를 만듭니다. 그러나 그 끈이 단지 끈일 뿐이고 다른 무엇도 아니라는 것을 안다면 마야는 어디에 있을까요? 진짜 마야는 오직 여러분의 잘못된 추측일 뿐입니다. 결국 그것이 단지 끈에 불과하다는 것이 밝혀지면 두려움이 사라지고, 즉 환상이 제거됐기 때문에 여러분의 잘못된 예상을 비웃게 됩니다. 마찬가지로 깨달음에 이르면 마야에 대한 이러한 잘못된 관념, 즉 세상과 그 모든 관계는 완전히 거짓이고 실제가 아니기 때문에 비웃게 됩니다. 그러므로 마야(욕망, 열정 그리고 분노)가 머릿속에 들어오는 바로 그 순간, 그것을 밀어내세요. 절대로 들여보내지 마세요. 광견병에 걸린 개가 쫓아오면 소리를 지르며 쫓아냅니다. 반면에 먹이를 주면 개는 여러분을 따라다니며 떠나지 않을 것입니다. 마찬가지로 마야는 광견병에 걸린 개와 같습니다. 마야가 여러분의 마음에 들어오는 것을 허용하지 마세요. 미친개를 쫓아내듯이 마야를 쫓아내세요. 온 힘을 다해 마야를 몰아내세요. 일단 마야가 여러분에게 달라붙으면 여러분 스스로를 자유롭게 하는 것은 매우 불가능할 것이기 때문입니다. 사람들은 하나님이 마야를 창조했다고 말하지만, 사실은 그렇지 않습니다. 예를 들어, 머리의 머리카락을 생각해 보세요. 머리카락은 마야이고 머리는 창조주 하나님입니다. 머리카락은 머리에서 자라지만 머리는 그것이 어떻게, 왜, 어디서 왔는지 모릅니다. 그렇다면 머리가 머리카락을 만들었거나 하나님이 마야를 창조했다고 어떻게 말할 수 있겠습니까? 그러나 어떻게 보면 마야의 창조 자체가 하나님에게 달려 있습니다.[의존합니다] 마야는 순수한 환상, 즉 상상의 힘입니다. 욕망이 있는 곳에 마야가 있습니다. 분노가 있는 곳에 마야가 있습니다. 탐욕이 있는 곳에 마야가 있습니다. 마야를 포기하는 사람은 모든 것을 찾습니다! 마야의 노예가 되지 마세요. 마야를 정복하면 그분의 모든 완전함 속에서 여러분은 하나님을 볼 수 있습니다. 하지만 하나님을 깨닫는 것은 거의 불가능합니다. 이 상태를 얻기 위해서는 익사하거나 자살하는 것이 아니라 마야를 포기하고 그 망상의 유혹에서 벗어남으로써 자신이 죽어야 합니다. 그리고 이 마야는 너무나 폭압적이고 강력해서 아무리 뛰어난 사람이라도 그 유혹에 굴복하고 맙니다. 그녀[마야의 유혹]를 잡아먹는 진정한 영웅은 매우 드뭅니다. 그러니 내 발을 꽉 붙잡고 길을 편하게 가지 않으면 실재의 기미조차 느끼지 못할 것이며, 세월을 거듭하여 목표에 도달하기 위해 고된 노력을 기울여도 목표에 한 발짝도 다가갈 수 없을 것입니다. -로드 메허 원본 출판 9권, 820-821페이지, 바우 칼추리 옮김
HOW SILENCE DAY BEGAN Meher Baba was an established spiritual Master by 1925. Before then He had observed periods of silence occasionally. Baba’s silence was never a practice, a discipline or an ascetic means to an end. It had a higher, incomprehensible spiritual significance. In early June of 1925, Baba intimated to the Mandali that He would begin a period of silence for one year. In late June, He gave July 10th of that year as the date for it to begin. On July 8th, Baba convened a meeting with His men Mandali and assigned everyone their duties during the upcoming period of silence. On July 9th, final decisions were made and Baba informed the parents of the children in the Hazarat Babajan school about His Silence. Baba’s general verbal advice to the Mandali was, “You have to live for others and use your bodies for the benefit of others.” The teacher Pandoba then pleaded with Baba that if he became silent, people would no longer have the opportunity of hearing what He had to declare, and the world would be deprived of His teachings. Meher Baba replied, “I have come not to teach, but to awaken!” During the evening of July 9th, Meher Baba walked to the women’s quarters at the Post Office Building to convey his final instructions: “Now listen to my last words, because from tomorrow I will keep silence for one year. Attend to your duties with love and fulfill them with all your heart. Cook for the children at the school as if they were your own.” “I have much work to do for the world. When my work is done, I shall speak.” Meher Baba left them at eight o’clock in the evening and, accompanied by Masaji, went to visit the men Mandali’s quarters. It is interesting to note that Baba’s last instructions to His Mandali were thorough orders on mundane matters. He instructed them to always carry a lantern in the dark for the snakes in Meherabad. And that very night Padri saw a cobra and the men Mandali killed it. Baba heard the commotion and came out to inquire. He was still talking. That way the Mandali had another chance to hear His beautiful voice. At five o’clock on the morning of July 10th, Baba came out of the Jhopdi. The Mandali did not know what to expect, would He still communicate with them or would he observe a stoic silence? But Baba made all his inquiries, he was completely himself: loving, caring and curious- but all in writing. On January 1, 1927, Baba gave up all writing and started using an alphabet board to communicate. On October 7th, 1954, Baba gave up the alphabet board and continued to communicate with His unique sign language of gestures. Baba encouraged His followers to observe silence on that one day. "It's not anybody's silence, but it's My Silence; so it's best you also observe silence for a day," He said. During his talks in Mandali hall, Eruch explained, “Thus He started giving us a gift - His sanction to participate in the day of His Silence.” Source: Meher Spiritual Center, July 2019 News letter 침묵의 날이 어떻게 시작되었는지 메허 바바는 1925년에 이미 영적 스승으로 자리 잡았습니다. 그 이전에도 가끔씩 침묵의 시간을 가졌습니다. 바바의 침묵은 수행이나 규율, 금욕적 수단이 아니었습니다. 그것은 이해할 수 없는 더 높은 영적 의미를 지니고 있었습니다. 1925년 6월 초, 바바는 만달리에게 1년 동안 침묵의 기간을 시작하겠다고 암시했습니다. 6월 말, 그분은 그해 7월 10일을 시작일로 주셨습니다. 7월 8일에 바바는 그의 제자 만달리와 회의를 소집하고 다가오는 침묵 기간 동안 모든 사람에게 임무를 할당했습니다. 7월 9일에 최종 결정이 내려졌고 바바는 하즈랏 바바잔(Hazarat Babajan) 학교의 아이들의 부모에게 그의 침묵에 대해 알렸습니다. 바바는 만달리 그룹에게 "다른 사람을 위해 살아야 하고, 다른 사람의 이익을 위해 몸을 사용해야 합니다."라는 일반적인 구두 조언을 남겼습니다. 판도바 선생은 바바가 침묵하면 사람들이 더 이상 바바가 선포해야 할 말씀을 들을 기회가 없어지고 세상은 바바의 가르침을 잃게 될 것이라고 바바에게 간청했습니다. 메허 바바는 "나는 가르치러 온 것이 아니라 깨우러 왔습니다!"라고 대답했습니다. 7월 9일 저녁, 메허 바바는 우체국 건물에 있는 여성 숙소로 걸어가 마지막 지시를 전했습니다. 사랑으로 본분을 다하고 마음을 다해 완수하세요. 마치 자신의 일처럼 학교 아이들을 위해 요리하세요.” “나는 세상을 위해 할 일이 많습니다. 내 일이 끝나면 말할 것입니다.” 메허 바바는 저녁 8시에 그들을 떠나 마사지와 함께 남자 만달리의 숙소를 방문했습니다. 만달리에 대한 바바의 마지막 지시가 일상적인 문제에 대한 철저한 명령이었다는 점은 흥미롭습니다. 그는 메헤라바드의 뱀을 위해 어둠 속에서도 항상 랜턴을 들고 다니라고 지시했습니다. 그리고 바로 그날 밤 파드리는 코브라를 보았고 만달리는 코브라를 죽였습니다. 바바는 소란을 듣고 밖으로 나와 물어보았습니다. 그는 여전히 말하고 있었습니다. 그렇게 해서 만달리는 그분의 아름다운 목소리를 들을 수 있는 또 다른 기회를 가졌습니다. 7월 10일 새벽 다섯 시, 바바는 조프디(막사, 기거처)에서 나왔습니다. 만달리는 무엇을 기대해야 할지 몰랐습니다. 그는 여전히 그들과 의사 소통을 할까요, 아니면 금욕적인 침묵을 관찰할까요? 그러나 바바는 사랑스럽고 배려심 많고 호기심 많은 그분 그대로의 모습으로 모든 문의에 답했습니다. 1927년 1월 1일, 바바는 모든 글쓰기를 포기하고 알파벳 판을 사용하여 의사소통을 시작했습니다. 1954년 10월 7일, 바바는 알파벳 판을 포기하고 그만의 독특한 수화인 몸짓으로 의사소통을 계속했습니다. 바바는 추종자들에게 그날 하루만큼은 침묵을 지키라고 권유했습니다. "이것은 누구의 침묵이 아니라 나의 침묵이니 여러분도 하루 동안 침묵을 지키는 것이 최선입니다."라고 그는 말했습니다. 만달리 홀에서 연설하는 동안 에루치는 이렇게 설명했습니다. "그래서 그는 우리에게 선물을 주기 시작했습니다. 그의 침묵의 날에 참여하라는 그의 승인입니다. 출처: 메허 영성 센터, 2019년 7월 뉴스 레터 External silence helps to achieve inner Silence, and only in internal Silence is Baba found - in profound inner Silence. I am never silent. I speak eternally. The voice that is heard deep within the soul is My voice - the voice of inspiration, of intuition, of guidance. Through those who are receptive to this voice, I speak.-- Meher Baba 외부의 침묵은 내면의 침묵을 달성하는 데 도움이 되며, 내면의 침묵 속에서만 바바를 발견할 수 있습니다ㅡ깊은 내면의 침묵 속에서. 나는 결코 침묵하지 않습니다. 나는 영원히 말합니다. 영혼 깊은 곳에서 들리는 목소리는 영감, 직관, 인도의 목소리인 나의 목소리입니다. 이 음성을 받아들이는 자들을 통해 나는 말합니다.-- 메허 바바 사랑만이 우선한다, 166-167 및 179쪽, By 키티 데이비 1981 © 아바타 메허 바바 영구 공공 자선 신탁
WHILE OBSERVING SILENCE, LET THE MIND BE SILENT… Neurgaonkar informed Baba about his resolve to observe silence for several days. He asked Baba whether, during that period, he could make exceptions by speaking only about God. Baba did not approve of this and said: Silence means silence. If you want to observe it, observe it thoroughly. Do not leave room for the mind to play its tricks. Mind always creates obstacles in your one-pointed resolve. Its ways are very elusive. In the beginning, you will speak about God or spirituality, but in the guise of this desire, mind will soon make you feel fed up with your silence. Then, indirectly, you will go on expecting others to come to you and converse with you about God. It is not impossible for the tricky nature of the mind to induce you into creating such situations. While observing silence, let the mind remain silent. It is this silence for which the outward silence is to be helpful. We see many dumb children, but of what avail is their silence? Put your heart and soul in your anticipated meditation and observance of silence and I am there - there in you - to help. www.lordmeher.org, 4651-52 Copyright AMBPPCT
감동입니다^^ 소피아 제이바바
데이비드 호킨스박사의 메허바바 의식수준 cal240 긍정적인 수준이지만 깨달음과는 거리가 먼 영적사기꾼이라고 보시면 됩니다.
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메허바바 이전의 아바타가 '수직적 연결자'로 오셨다면, 메허바바님은 수직적 연결자에 더해 '수평적 연결자'로 오셨다고 생각됩니다.
👍👍👍
알리요가스의 정수!!
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😊
기다리는게 중요한 일이다~~~
감사합니다! 아바타 메허 바바 키 제이!
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바바의 특별 은총이 절실히 필요합니다.^*^
😊😊😊
아바타 메허 바바 키 제이.
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😇🥰😍🤩😋
와 선생님 목소리가 너무 좋으세요. 혹시 “옴 파라트파르 파라브라흐마 파라마트마 바바훔” 이 진언이 뭔뜻인지 알수 있을까요?
태초의 영혼은 깨어난다 무한한 지성의 힘으로 초월 너머에 위대한 하나님의 은총으로 그리고 이미 모든 것은 아버지의 뜻에 의해 이루어졌다!! ♡♡♡
감사합니다. 아바타 메허 바바 키 제이!
영혼의 의식이 흡수되고 리셋되는 과정이 한편으로는 무서워습니다 나의의식이 없어진다고 생각했지만 다시 새롭게 시작하는 과정인것 같았습니다
지구를 떠나 느리지만 빠르게 도착한곳은 밝지만 눈부시지 않은 하얀빛구체로 인도 했습니다 하나하나의 영혼이 흡수되어 소멸되었습니다.