The Now

THE NOW

Meher Baba

In the Beyond state, time and space are nil - non-existent. In the sphere of duality, time, space, cause and effect exist.

1937? Nasik, LA p159

... The universe is, in itself, nothing but imagination. There is, in fact, only one indivisible and eternal reality, and it has neither beginning nor end. It is beyond time.

From the point of view of this timeless reality, the whole time process is purely imaginary, and billions of years which have passed, and billions of years which are to pass, do not have even the value of a second. They are like not having existed at all.

1939? Di v1 p26

The illusion which most aspirants find it difficult to shake is the belief that the infinite Truth is an object which has to be attained in some distant future, and that all life is just a means for this attainment. But if the Truth were to be confined only to the future and not to the past or the present, it would not be infinite. It would at once become limited as an event which has its origin in time.

All that life is and has is at once deprived of intrinsic significance if it comes to be regarded as merely instrumental to some far-off event. This is definitely a false point of view.

Life is not meant to be rich in spiritual significance at some distant date, but is so at every moment, if only the mind is disburdened of illusions. It is only through a clear and tranquil mind that the true nature of spiritual infinity is grasped as something which is not yet to be, but which already has been, is, and ever will be an eternal self-fulfilment.

When every moment is rich with eternal significance, there is neither the lingering clinging to the dead past, nor a longing expectation for the future, but an integral living in the eternal now. It is only through such living that the spiritual infinity of the Truth can be realised in life.

It is not right to deprive the present of all importance by subordinating it to an end in the future; for this means the imaginary accumulation of all importance in the imagined future, rather than the perception and realisation of the true importance of everything that exists.

There cannot be ebb and tide in eternity, no meaningless intervals between intermittent harvests, but a fullness of being which cannot suffer impoverishment of a single instant. When life seems to be idle or empty, it is not due to any curtailment of the infinity of the Truth; but it is due to one's own lack of capacity to enter into its full possession.

c.1942, India, Di v5 p14-15

Maya cannot have a beginning or end in time, because time itself is a creation of maya. Any view that makes maya a happening that takes place at some time, and disappears after some time, places maya in time and not time in maya. Time is in maya; maya is not in time.

Time, as well as all the happenings in time, are the creations of maya. Time comes into existence because of maya, and disappears when maya disappears. God is a timeless reality, and the realisation of God, and the disappearance of maya, is a timeless act. So maya is in no way limited by time.

c.1942, India, Di v5 p84-85

To realise God is to dwell in eternity. It is a timeless experience.

February? 1943, India, LM8 p2848

Through enslavement to the temporary and the passing, man deprives himself of the eternal and the lasting. Each moment with which man is confronted can either tighten the grip of the false, or deliver him to the Truth.

God is the only reality, and he is the fountainhead of all love, beauty, peace and happiness. Even in and through the fleeting now of the false, God is eternally inviting man to himself, affirming himself as the Truth of man's being. Those who dare to see and love God in everyone and everything, experience him as the everlastingly immediate presence.

Only when his mind is utterly detached from the false is it possible for man to disentangle himself from the repetitive clutches of the fleeting moment. Then and only then can he become established in the eternal now, which everlastingly includes the eternal past and the eternal future. The eternal 'I am' is an unfailing assurance of the only reality which ever was, is, and will be.

The way to peace and fulfillment in union with God, the divine beloved, is a daring dive into the eternal now. Not by fruitless surveys of the past, nor by elusive longings for the future, nor by enslavement to the fleeting moment, but by staking everything for God, is it possible for you to experience yourself as the illimitable ocean of love. Here and nowhere else is the final solution of all your problems. Love born in the Truth liberates without binding and fulfills without overpowering. It is a pure blessing, not only for yourself, but for each and all, for ever and ever, in the eternal now.

c.1956, LB p56-58

Actually the goal is neither far nor near, and there is no distance to cross, nor time to count. In eternity, all is here and now. You have simply to become that which you are. You are God, the infinite existence.

c.1960, India, EN p50

For me, past does not exist. I live in the eternal present.

c.1960, India, EN p54

Live more and more in the present, which is ever beautiful and stretches away beyond the limits of the past and the future.

c.1959, India, LM 5809
Another version: EN p62

Astronomers speak of time in terms of billions, trillions and aeons of years. Even these figures are not adequate for their mathematical calculations, and they may be required to coin new terms.

If I were to try and explain in astronomical terms the beginning and end of time, it would never depict the beginning and end of time in eternity.

There is always an 'ago and there is always an 'after' to every point in time. The yesterdays of the past and the tomorrows of the future hinge on a point in time which is the now of the present moment in eternity.

In a flight of imagination, imagining the beginning and the end of the now of the present moment in eternity, one can at the most either add or subtract a measure of time; but this would be nothing more than an adding or erasing of zeros. No amount of swing - even of aeons of cycles - in the sweep of time can give an iota of concept of any beginning or end of the now in eternity.

c.1960, EN p90

Time never existed at all.

4 October 1965, Meherazad
to Lyn and Phyllis Ott,
LM 6393

Index - Book One