Following Meher Baba 1

FOLLOWING MEHER BABA

Meher Baba

Love me and you will know me. But I am such a reality that it is extremely difficult to know me. The price is love. No repetition of God's name, no penance, and no meditation is necessary. Only love, and such love that it annihilates your ego. This means your love should be so deep that it makes you forget yourself and the world. This experience will leave you desireless, dazed and confounded. This is real love.

You have feeling for me in your hearts, and because of it you may remember me often during the day, but you do not continuously. This feeling or devotion, though good, is not love. It should not be mistaken for love, because that real love, which is to see and know God, cannot be created. It has to be bestowed. It is bestowed through the grace of the Master, and such grace is conferred on a very, very lucky few.

Still, do not be discouraged. Although you do not have the love that is needed, you have deep feeling for me. Try always to remember me and to speak of me. This is the best beginning - the determination to be ready to receive the Master's grace. If this continues, a day will come when you will be the lucky one to receive the great gift - the bestowal of my love. To be ready, perpetuate this feeling in your heart and increase it, making it deeper and deeper.

How to begin? Remember me before starting and after finishing any work. Think of me before doing anything. If you have to write something, remember me before starting, and then mentally say, 'Baba, it is you, not I, who is writing.'

A tavern-keeper first receives cash from a customer before handing him the wine glass. He checks the coin to ascertain whether it is genuine or counterfeit. Similarly, the Sadguru also demands his price - not in money, but in love, before giving you the gift of love. You can deceive a wine-seller by passing him counterfeit coins, but never a Sadguru. He has no use for false coins - the show of love. With me, before the exchange takes place, one has to pay the full price. The price of knowing me is love - love, pure and simple.

But love entails pain - the pain of the pangs and thirst of separation while constantly burning. This gradually minimises the strength of the ego, and eventually destroys it, because love never thinks of or cares for itself. It just burns its victim in love for its beloved. This burning gradually diminishes the ego, and thus it is eventually totally annihilated. In this fire, love makes its victim realise the self.

30 March 1930,
Nasik,
LM4 p1293

People pray to me to solve their difficulties, saying that they love me. But there is a vast difference between love and prayer.

In Persian to pray means to beg, to want, to desire something, even the blessings of God. But when a person really loves, he gives himself over to his beloved completely. This is true love. In that there is no begging, no wanting, and no room for desires. Only the longing to unite with the beloved remains.

Love means the renunciation of the self. Prayer means selfishness, no matter how high the prayer may be. So there is a vast difference between when one prays and when one loves.

July 1931,
Karachi,
LM4 p1374

Those who are united in love know no separation. Wherever I am, wherever you are, I am always with you. My love and blessings to you all.

15 November 1934,
India,
Me p7

Love the one in the many, and not the many in the one. I am the only friend who will never let you down.

to Kitty Davy,
1937?
India?
LA p165

Honestly, there are many ways of testing love and faith. Love always seeks the will, the happiness, the pleasure and the commands of the beloved, always. Love never thinks of itself. That is love - that is God. When you say you love me, do you love me?

Did I ever tell you the story of Ramdas and Kalyan? Ramdas was a spiritual Master at the time of Shivaji. He had many disciples, the favorite among whom was Kalyan. Ramdas wanted to test his devotion. He asked all his disciples to come together, and he pretended to be sick to the point of death. He had put a mango over the knee-joint to simulate swelling, and bound it up. It seemed to be swollen like a tumor, which Ramdas said it was. Then he asked his disciples whether any of them would suck out the poison from the knee-joint, saying that whoever did so would die in his place, but that he would be pleased. While all the other disciples hesitated, Kalyan arose immediately and sucked the knee-joint. But instead of poison, he sucked the juice of the mango.

This is love - to be ready to die for love of the beloved, for the happiness of the beloved. All this means love, faith and sacrifice. If you do what I ask willingly, you really love me. If you are made to do it, you love me a little less. But if you do not do it, it all comes to today's mango business.*

God's grace makes you love me. My grace makes you one with me.

19 May 1937,
Nasik,
LA p172-173
Other versions:
Aw 16:2 p54, Di (7th ed.) p149-150,

*"One afternoon when we were with Baba in the sitting room, he distributed mangoes, preparing each one himself, laying aside the less good ones and giving us the best. Some hesitated, and some refused the fruit." Kitty Davy

What is love? To give, and never to ask.

What leads to this love? Grace.

What leads to this grace? Grace is not cheaply bought. It is gained by being always ready to serve, and reluctant to be served. There are many points which lead to this grace:

Wishing well for others at the cost of one's self.

Never backbiting.

Tolerance supreme.

Trying not to worry. Trying not to worry is almost impossible - so try.

Thinking more of the good points in others, and less of their bad points.

What leads to this grace? Doing all the above. If you do one of these things perfectly, the rest must follow. Then grace descends. Have love - and when you have love, the union with the beloved is certain.

When Christ said, 'Love your neighbor,' he did not mean fall in love with your neighbor. When you love, you give; when you fall in love, you want.

Love me in any way you like, but love me. It is all the same. Love me. I am pure, the source of purity, so I consume all weaknesses in my fire of love. Give your sins, weaknesses, virtues, all to me, but give. I would not mind even one falling in love with me - I can purify. But when you fall in love with anybody else, you cannot call it love. Love is pure as God. It gives and never asks. That needs grace.

Yogis in the Himalayas, with their long eyelashes and long beards, meditating, sitting in samadhi, they too, have not this love, it is so precious. The mother dies for her child - supreme sacrifice - yet it is not love. Heroes die for their country, but that is not love. Love - you know when you have love. You cannot understand theoretically, you have to experience it.

Majnu loved Leila. This was pure love - not physical, not intellectual, but spiritual love. He saw Leila in everything and everywhere. He never thought of eating, drinking, sleeping, without thinking of her, and all the time he wanted her happiness. He would have gladly seen her married to another if he knew that would make her happy, and die for her husband if he thought she would be happy in that. At last it led him to me - no thought of self, but of the beloved, every second and continually.

You would not be able to do that if you tried. It needs grace. Trying leads to grace.

What is God? Love. Infinite love is God.

28 May 1937,
Nasik, PL p76-77.
Other versions:
LA p192-194, LM6 p2184-2185

The following instructions, if carried out wholeheartedly by you, will allow you to help my work of spiritualising the world.

They are not to be treated like long-established sermons - read, heard and forgotten. They are not to be understood in the light of philosophical slogans preached merely for the sake of preaching. They are simple, eternal truths which I want all of you to try your utmost to live.

The instructions are:

1. Amidst all your duties and attachments, let the background of all your thoughts be only the one thought that 'God alone is real, and all else is illusion.'

2. Infuse into others the idea that the ultimate goal of all life is to know God in his true, infinite aspect.

3. Think less of yourself, and more of others, by trying to make others happy, even if you have to suffer for it.

4. Learn for yourself, and teach others

that recognition of God's will means not to complain of your lot;

that control of the mind means not to be upset by misfortunes;

that loving all as children of the same one God means not to be jealous of anyone, and not to hurt the feelings of anyone.

15 May 1943,
Meherabad, to a gathering
of 125 male devotees,
LM8 p2873-2874

The spiritual Path is like climbing up to the mountain-top through hills and dales and thorny woods, and along steep and dangerous precipices. But on this Path there can be no going back or halting. Everyone must get to the top, which is the direct realisation of the supreme Godhead. All hesitation or sidetracking or resting in the halfway houses is but postponement of the day of true and final fulfillment.

You cannot be too alert on this Path. Even the slightest of lingering in the false world of shadows is necessarily an invitation to some suffering which could have been avoided if the eyes had been steadily fixed on the supreme goal of life.

If there is one thing which is most necessary for safe and sure arrival at the top, it is love. All other qualifications which are essential for the aspirants of the highest can and must come to them if they faithfully follow the whispers of the unerring guide of love, who speaks from within their own hearts and sheds light on the Path.

If you lose hold of the mantle of this guide, there is only despair in store for you. The heart without love is entombed in unending darkness and suffering. But the heart which is restless with love is on the way to realisation of the unfading light and the unfathomable sweetness of life divine.

Human love should not be despised, even when it is fraught with limitations. It is bound to break through all these limitations and initiate the aspirant into the eternal life in the Truth, so that the lover loses his separate and false self, and gets united with God, who is the one matchless and indivisible ocean of unsurpassable love.

The gateway to this highest state of being one with God is firmly closed for all who do not have the courage to lose their separate existence in the restless fire of divine love. I give my blessings to all who are thirsting for the full realisation of divinity, for they shall be the pillars of the coming era of Truth and love.

12 November 1944,
Nagpur,
Me p69-70

There is nothing which is beyond me, and there is nothing without me. Yet I am and can always be captured with love.

1947, Surat, Aw 7:2 p3

What does love mean? We find volumes and volumes written. There are very few who have found love and who have it.

None present here loves me as I ought to be loved. You are not conscious of my real state, because you do not love me as I love you. The Mandali are fully prepared to lay down their lives for me. Even they do not love me as I love them. Had they that love, they would become one with me.

You and I remain divided by no other veil than you yourself, that is, the 'I' in you. For example, you see a very beautiful girl, and you fall in love with her. There is so much unrest. Your whole mind is on that. You forget hunger and sleep, etc. I am talking of real love for worldly beings, not mere lust.

But love for me expects much more than this, much more than a fish out of water. It is not easy for all. Rarely one person can try to cope with that love. Had I been in your place, I would not have been able to love myself as I ought to be loved. That is a fact.

What does 'you' mean? 'I' am hungry, 'I' am unwell, 'I' slept well, 'my' son died. I, me, mine -- these are veils. The moment this veil disappears you realise me as yourself. Difficulties disappear with the touch of love for me.

Repeat my name not less than 14 times (a day), but more often as you can, 'Baba, Baba, Baba...' One day in an instant that veil will be ripped open. Do it with love. I tell you this with all authority. Millions of births are not sufficient to remove that veil that love can lift in a flash. Otherwise it requires cycles of cycles of births.

Man cannot possess love by means of anything except the gift of the one who possesses that love. No sooner you are gifted with that love, there is no duality.

You can't bargain for love. No amount of penance, meditation, puja, etc. can give that gift of love. Once that gift comes from God, it burns up all veils of sanskaras.

He alone knows the real meaning of love who receives the gift of love from God. That lover who so receives it cannot express it to others. His mouth is stitched, and not even smoke comes out. No sooner is love visible, and others can sense that he is a lover of God (e.g. by tears, japa, puja, etc.), he is not the lover of God really. I tell you with my authority.

The gift of love knows no law. To love me for health, wealth, etc. is not love for me, but love only for all those things.

1955, Meherabad, LJ p63-64

japa: repeating a name of God
puja: ritual worship

Those who love me are mine. The whole world is mine. You are all mine. Everything is mine. All are mine. Every individual here is mine. The whole universe is mine.

I am the one for those who love me. I am only his who loves me.

Write these words in your hearts. All are mine. The one who loves me is mine, whether he be sitting near me or staying miles away from me. That is a fact.

I want you all to be happy. Don't feel worried. Don't feel nervous. I want you all to go happily and cheerfully. I know everything. Take me with you fully. Take as much of me as you can with you.

1955, Meherabad, LJ p86

Baba is eternally happy, yet eternally suffering. He is free here as Baba, but in you as Baba he is bound. If you loved me truly with all your heart, you could be as free as I. Then it would be unbroken eternal bliss.

My sister Mani loves me very much. She doesn't worry about anything. She simply obeys me. From morning till night she is working for Baba. She knows Baba is God and loves Baba as God. Mehera I love very much due to past connections. I love you too. If you love me, you are with me. Then you come to me. Through love, you can become one with me.

My brother Jamshed loved me very much. He was mad with love for me. Once he was so full of love for me that he couldn't contain himself and dropped his body. But just before dying he shouted out loudly, 'Baba!' He has come to me. He is now with me eternally.

What I want to convey to you all is that my brothers and sister love me very much. Some of my school friends, with whom I had played marbles in the street, had disputed mildly and quarreled, also love me because I am God. They believe me when I say that. It is not just a theory for them; they see something greater. They have that conviction. They believe that I am God.

You also believe that I am God. You do love me, I know. But it was very difficult to love me, to respect me, to believe in me, to have the conviction that I am God, for one who had played marbles with me, for one who had quarreled with me, who had sat beside me at the same desk in school. Don, do you follow what I say? (Don Stevens nodded)

It was very difficult for them, for my old school friends, and my own family, but they love me... they are ready to give their lives for me. My father Sheheriarji, such a sweet soul, was a great lover of God. He roamed about from place to place on foot in search of Truth. Later on, he used to worship me. He had a photo of me in his private room. He used to light a candle there. He used to worship my photo and me.

I tell you all with authority, as I have been telling others at other places: I am the Ancient one. When I break my silence, the world will know who I am. Let us play now.

21 July 1956,
New York,
Aw 4:2 p25-26

Love burns the lover.

Devotion burns the beloved.

Love seeks happiness for the beloved.

Devotion seeks blessings from the beloved.

Love seeks to shoulder the burden of the beloved.

Devotion throws the burden on the beloved.

Love gives.

Devotion asks.

Love is silent and sublime, devoid of outward expression.

Devotion expresses itself outwardly.

Love does not require the presence of the beloved in order to love.

Devotion demands the presence of the beloved to express affection for the beloved.

1958? India?
From a printed calendar
Other versions: GM p313-314, PL p84

A man loves a woman who is living in a distant place. His love causes him to be thinking of her all the time, and he cannot eat, and he cannot sleep. His thoughts are only on his separation from her, and he continually longs for her.

When this longing becomes too great, he either goes to her, or he compels her to come to him. This is called Ishk-e-Mijazi, or physical love.

To love God, one should think of God, long for God, and suffer the fire of separation, until one's longing reaches its utmost limits, and God the beloved comes to the lover, and his thirst is quenched in union with God. This love is called Ishk-e-Haqqiqi, and is a gift from God.

But one who obeys the Master who is one with God need not suffer these things, for in obedience is the grace of the Master.

c.1960? EN p6

Unless there is a brotherly feeling in your hearts, all the words that you speak or print in my name are hollow; all the miles that you travel in my cause are zero; all organisations for my work are but an appearance of activity; all buildings to contain me are empty places; and all statues that you make to embody me are of someone else.

November 1962,
Poona,
LA p710

I am the ocean of love. I have only love to give, and all I want is love.

GG6 p251

Don't try to bind my lovers with discipline and regulations. Let them have free scope and free play.

Suppose you want to write a love letter full of effusion to your beloved. Will you like your letters to pass through some old one in the house?

LJ p2

Gatherings and meetings in my name should be a channel for the expression of my love, and to give them any other importance is to misunderstand my cause.

HM p238

My love is your light. Let it shine in your home as it shines in your hearts.

c.1967, India,
cable to Lyn and Phyllis Ott, unpublished

To love me for what I may give you is not loving me at all. To sacrifice anything in my cause to gain something for yourself is like a blind man sacrificing his eyes for sight.

I am the divine beloved, worthy of being loved because I am love. He who loves me because of this will be blessed with unlimited sight, and will see me as I am.

1968, India, LJ p.v

Following Meher Baba Book Two

Index - Book One