Understanding 2

UNDERSTANDING

Book Two

"Whenever Baba gave discourses or explanations to the boys or Mandali, Chanji would take down what was said in shorthand. Later he would write his notes out in longhand, often staying up until midnight with his compilation. The next day he would hand Baba the recent explanations for corrections. Baba would peruse them, and usually after nine days return them with his remarks. Chanji would then type Baba's explanations in their final form."

Bhau Kalchuri, LM3 p857 (1926, Meherabad)

"You find these discourses of mine very interesting, but they are nothing compared to what I have written in my book* at Meherabad. Its 300 pages cover only short points, and when they are fully amplified and rewritten, the points will comprise several large volumes. It is full of secrets which no previous saint, Prophet or Avatar has ever divulged."

Meher Baba, 26 November 1926, to Chanji, LM3 p878
*A book Baba wrote by hand that has not yet been published.

"Someone asked Baba, would it not be advisable to send his notes and explanations and lectures to someone to edit and put in good shape for people's reading.

"'No,' Baba replied, 'it would not be advisable to send them to anyone outside - such a writer would have to be here in order to ensure correctness. Kaikobad (Dastur) here, the other day, took notes of some of my explanations, but when he put them into his own language he made a mess of it all.

"'My explanations and lectures may be recomposed in forceful and stylish language, but the spirit and meaning must remain unchanged. Such a writer will come in the due course of time.

"'Dastur writes well, but his uncompromising tone and terms are likely to offend some communities.

"'The big book I have written will be the future Bible, Koran, Avesta and Veda, as it will be universally accepted by all castes and creeds. I have stopped writing anything after finishing this great work, and hence it has force.'"

7 August 1927, Meherabad, SW p403-404 and LM3 p953-954

Five weeks later Baba was asked why he would not yet let anyone read the book. He answered:

"One must be prepared to read what I have written. It would be dangerous in one respect: if this intellectual knowledge is imparted, at times the desire for God-realisation and experiencing that state vanishes, and the aspirant is only satisfied with what he knows intellectually or sees. Then the desire for union does not remain as keen.

"Suppose there is a vast treasure, or something of great worth, beyond imagination, and there is a curtain between your room and it. This reading and intellectual knowledge would be equal to a literal explanation given by the one who has seen or experienced these things. You yourself don't see the treasure behind the curtain, but have only read about it or heard it described."

14 September 1927, Meherabad, LM3 p965

"Meher Baba dictated his book 'God Speaks' in different languages in an unusual fashion. He used mainly English, but he mixed in Marathi, Gujerati and Persian words, and I used to write down his dictation exactly as he gave it. Each line of his dictation therefore contained a mixture of words from different languages, and since this was all done by way of gestures, it required an enormous amount of concentration to catch every gesture for each language word while trying at the same time to capture the sense of what he was conveying. Later, when Baba was otherwise occupied, and I could find the time to work from the dictated notes, I had to put the whole thing into English without losing any of the meaning...

I remember having difficulty with a certain item which I mentioned to him one cold night in Mahabaleshwar, when he was lying in bed with a blanket over him. He smiled at me and said, 'Look here, Eruch, the theme of God is like this: the whole thing is like the pattern you see on this blanket. And if you want to know how this pattern is formed, how can I explain it to you? I can't show you in any other way than by pulling out the pattern.'

"Then he took hold of one of the strands between his thumb and forefinger, and said, 'Look here. I'm pulling it out now to show you how the pattern is formed and to explain it to you. But the more I pull out the strand, what you will find is that instead of giving you a better picture, the pattern will begin to dissolve. As long as the pattern is there, you are able to say this is the blanket. But there won't be a blanket if I start to pull out the strands. There will only be strands, and the pattern won't be there either. So the subject of God is, there is nothing but God, and all else is illusion. There is only God."

In spite of my difficulties at times, Baba was very patient. He was patience personified, and whenever I found myself unable to follow his fingers on the board or his hand gestures, he would constantly repeat them with infinite patience until I made headway. Often when our short-sightedness or lack of understanding or other shortcomings led us into putting questions to Baba, he would tell us, 'God Speaks is not the whole truth. It is only a part of the truth, for anything at all is nothing but a part of the truth, including anything that anyone says. There is nothing but God, and anything that you find is illusion, that is, other than God. And that is God's pattern.'"

Eruch Jessawala (c.1954?) AO p127-128

"Baba once made the point to me that we should study his discourses and writings diligently, because during his lifetime they held 'spark.' I gathered that this meant that they would ignite the flame in people's sleeping hearts.

"He said that his aura would remain in the world for one hundred years after he gave up the body, but after that the writings would not have so great a force - that they would become scriptures, in the same way that what he had said in past Avataric incarnations have become scriptures."

Ivy Duce, HMp 206

I was about two thirds of the way through re-editing Dr.Deshmukh's edition of the Discourses...

On this particular occasion we were discussing some of the things in the Discourses, and I just tossed off that I was just not sure that this was ever going to be particularly used, as there were so many people that feel that it is impossible to embody the realities of spiritual attainments in words, that words can actually detract -- even Baba's words.

Baba looked at me as though He had just heard the most extraordinary thing. He look absolutely aghast. He said,

"But Don how could people ever feel that way about Baba's words?"

He said,

"As Baba works on these words that He gives out He attaches to each word a spiritual energy of great quantity, great proportion, and the individual who takes the trouble, even without understanding, to read Baba's words, taps into this gift of spiritual energy which the Avatar has attached to his own words."

Then he looked at me and said,

"It is your responsibility, Don, to impress upon the people that you are around that Baba has done this, and this spiritual gift that Baba has attached to His words will help them enormously in their own spiritual ongoing."

Meher Baba Association Newsletter
November 1997, p6
ed. Maxine Summers,
(copyright 1997 Don Stevens)

Understanding Book One

Index - Book Two