Obedience 2

OBEDIENCE

Book Two

"God can be seen. No matter what religion or faith a person may adhere to, once the veil of illusion is lifted by the Guru, he sees God. The only difference lies in the means adopted to remove the veil.

"It is important not only that one obeys a Guru's orders, but how one obeys. A Guru may tell you to do anything. And after doing it, he may blame you for it. He may scold you, asking you why you did that. However, you should not reply that you did it according to his order; on the contrary, you should humbly say it was your mistake, and ask his forgiveness."

Meher Baba, May 1925, Ahmednagar? LM2 p719

Baba told the Mandali,

"Why do you get angry so often? You frequently break my orders. Then if I have anything to say about it, you get annoyed. Thereby your attitude adds to my burden.

"One's degree of connection with a Perfect Master in past lives makes one eligible for a Master's Circle, whether he is willing or unwilling to obey. But to ease the Master's burden, one should follow his orders. By your wrong attitude, you add to the Master's troubles.

"Suppose I want two of you to journey with me. One is unwilling and does not budge an inch. The other willingly goes. Both must be taken at the same time to the same place. Whereas one can be taken easily, the other must be taken with difficulty. At times it comes to this: for my work, the one resisting has to be shouldered and taken forcibly by me.

"While shaving you, the barber moves your head from side to side, which you permit because you need a good shave. Similarly, if you want God, you should surrender body and mind to the Perfect Master and act as he says.

"The waters of a river are for the use of the populace. The containers the people bring to fill with water are large or small according to their needs. In the same way, the Sadgurus are there only to give. They are the storehouses of knowledge and unlimited blessings. Those who have merit can take as much as their containers can contain.

Meher Baba, 30 April 1926, Meherabad, LM3 p791

"... Self-surrender implies obedience of all the orders of the Master. When all your desires and actions are guided by him, and are the result of your obeying his orders, he becomes directly responsible for them. Thus when self-surrender is thorough, the responsibility for your release from sanskaras is devolved upon the Master, and under this new condition the Master annihilates all your sanskaras in no time.

"Obedience to the Master, as implied in full self-surrender, is of two kinds:

1. Intellectual, and

2. Literal.

"Of these two types of obedience, intellectual obedience comes first, and is a preliminary to literal obedience, which is more fruitful. When you are intellectually convinced about the greatness and Perfection of the Master, you have love and respect for him, but are unable to follow his orders literally. Reason being the basis of your conviction, you find it difficult to divorce it from your understanding of the Master and his orders. And as the two are inextricably intertwined with each other, your reasoned faith holds you within the limits of intelligible obedience. This phase of the pupil is left undisturbed by the Master, and all the pills of obedience offered by him are intellectualised in order to suit his taste and caliber. Through intellectual obedience of the Master, you can annihilate all your sanskaras, provided you are sincere in your logical interpretation of his orders, and in their execution.

"But the result comes much quicker if your obedience is literal. Literal obedience is the effect of the rock-like faith and deep love which the Master inspires in the pupil through his human appeal. The overflowing radiance of the halo of the Master, and the effulgence of purity and compassion, are mainly responsible for creating in the pupil an unswerving faith, which prepares him to follow the orders of the Master implicitly, irrespective of their satisfying his critical spirit. Such literal obedience is not even bound by the requirement that the real significance of orders should be within the intellectual comprehension of the pupil, and it is the best type of obedience which you can aspire for.

"Through such implicit and unquestioning obedience, all the crooked knots of your desires and sanskaras are set straight; and it is through such obedience that a deep link is created between the Master and the pupil, with the result that there is an unhindered and perennial flow of spiritual wisdom and power into the pupil. At this stage the pupil becomes the spiritual son of the Master; and in due time, he is freed from all individualistic and sanskaric ties, and he himself becomes a Master."

Meher Baba, Di v.1 p70-72

"If your obedience is as spontaneous, complete and natural as light is to the eye or smell to the nose, then you will come to me."

Meher Baba, 1940s? Di (7th ed.) p405

Baba: What are you reading?

Feram Workingboxwala: Nothing in particular.

Baba: Do you know anything about spirituality?

Feram: I understand a little.

Baba: What is that little?

Feram: (pause) To do as Baba says.

Baba: It is the only thing to be learned on the spiritual Path. This is spirituality from A to Z. You have put it in a nutshell. That is everything.

24 December 1947, Meherabad, LM9 p3210-3211

"The giving up of life in an emotional outburst of the moment is quite cheap compared with the day-to-day carrying out of the Master's instructions through the thick and thin of one's life.

"Sometimes soldiers of very ordinary calibre can also perform acts of sacrifice and heroism under particular circumstances and impulses of the moment."

Meher Baba, 23 June 1951, Jubilee Hills,
Hyderabad, LM10 p3700

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.

Meher Baba, c.1960? EN p6

Index - Book Two