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'l II those, who experience the gross world as real, aPe asleep. Only those, who experience it as unreal, can real· lze Go~ and become awake, In the broad sense of the wol'd.

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The

lVorlcl'.~

Leading Spiritual and PhilosophicJal Jl{onthly Pe1·iodic(~l

THE

MEHER MESSAGE Editor:-Kaikhushru Jamshedji Dastur,

~LA., tt.B.,

PURPOSE ( 1) THE MEHER MESSAGEacqua.intsthe whole world with the teachings a~1d activities of HIS DIVINE MAJESTY SADGURU .MEHER BABA.

{2) THE .MEHER MESSAGE does its best to make materialistic persons spiritually-minded and to establish universal spiritual fraternity.

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N. B.-Shri Meher Baba is responsible for His; Own views only. It must not be supposed that He necessarily agrees with all . the opinions of the Editor of this Magazine.

Addrus:-THE- MEHER MESSAGE OFFICE, Near- Sarosh Motor Wot•ks NASIK ' yv.

INDIA - --- ' G. I. P. R.

EKRAPTURING 1\EV/ S TO

THE WORLD'S SPIRITUALLY-MINDED YOUTHS

His Divine Majesty ·. Sad guru Meher Baba will shortly

tstablish A GRA:nJ

SPIRITUAL ACADEMY FOR YOUNG SPIHITUAL ASPIRANTS OF ALL CASTES, CREEDS ANH; COLOURS. SPIRITUALLY-MINDED YOUTHS, WHO ARE NOT LESS THAN EIGHTEEN AND NOT MORE THAN THIR-

.

TY YEARS OF AGE, ~.ND WHO ARE NOT MARRIED .

MAY APPLY TO THt=:

EDITOR OF

THE MEHER

MESSAGE. MEMBERS OF THE FAIR SEX SHOULD, NOTAPPLV..

ii

.

A NOTEWORTHY GUJARATI BOOKLET

Shri Sadguru Meher Baba EDITED AND PUBLISHED BY F. H. DADACHANJI

This is the first and the only booklet in the Gujarati' Language on the Holy Master.

All Gujarati-knowing persons should read this free booklet.

Only send one anna stamp to MR. F. H. DADACHANJI ._ N K W. India Near Sarosh Motor Wonts, ASI , G.I.P.R AND HE WILL SEND A COPY OF IT TO YOU.

Mr. MEREDITH STARR, a disciple of Shri Sadguru Meher Baba, has established

A SPIRITCAL RETREAT at East Challacombe, Combe Martin, North Devon, England.

Where Indian as well as 1.on-b~dian vzsitors to fSngla:nd are corJ~a~ly invited ~o stay, provided that they are smcere and wtllmg to medttate most of the time. A nu,mber of persons, wh? have vi:;ited this establishment have spoken highly of it. ,. /

No charqes whatever are made except for board and lodging. . East Challacombe is situated in one ,of the most bea?.ttiful and peaceful rc7ions of England, on the slope of a hill, one and a half miles from Combe Martin.

Just Published.

A RHM.-1/lKABLR PR!lSTAN MANUAL

KASHFUL-HAQAYAQUE 'Vith au lntr¡oduction hv Kt'i,.h!IHial :vtohanlal Jhaveri ll.A . , LL.B., Ex-Chief-Jndge, Small Cau:Oes Court, Bo1n~lity.

BY

KA IKHUSHHU

E~

A],~AHI, B.A.

(Teheran). ¡

This is the first book in the Persian language on Shri Sadguru Meher Ba!Ja and His teachings_ In the course of his interesting Foreword to this hook. the renowned Hindu Scholar, Mr'. Krishnalal M. Jhaveri writes: " The author has written this book in very elegant but simple Persian for information and guidance of such of his fellow Persians, who know no other language except their own. He vouches for the truth of every incident, ordinary and extraordinarey, nan ated in this Nameh, saying that he has been an eye-witness of many of them........ .. . Scoffers there will be of the Science of Mysticisw, which is as old as the world, and as new as for instance, a discovery of science of to-day. The very fact that it has sur vived the scoff of scoffers sp long proves it svitality and who knows but that what is to -day hidden from the gaze of the vulgar or the uninitiated, may tomorrow blaze out in its full effulgence just like the wonderful and unexpected discoveries of seience of the present day_! "

PRICE Re. 1 only.

Can be had of The A:UTHOR The Sarosh Motor Work$ . N~ik ( W.ludia. )

A Highly Instructive Forthcoming

Booklet on the Divine Lord, Shri /Heher Baba

The l\'Iasterr AND

OTHER ESSAYS BY

ftis EutTopean Disciple

The Late Sadhu C.· Leik.

i N THIS BOOKLET, SADHU C. LEIK GIVES AMONG OTHER THINGS, HIS OWN EXPERIENCES WHICH HE RECEIVED AFTER COMING INTO CON. TACT WITH HIS MASTER, SHRI MEHER BABA.

CONTENTS .~A.-YINGS OF HIS DIVINE MA.JEETY ~ADGl.JRU MEHER BABA

\VHA'l' IS GOD

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JJy Il i8 D-i·,ine .1/, ~jt•gfy Sr!rl!J'W"' J/t•!tr:t JJ,~/,a

2

QL" SHAIUA'l' By l!is Divine .:llr!j eol?J Sady·w m 1VIehe1· l h1br!

8

~;HE ~ILLY, SGU RIULO US AND MENDACIOU S PROPAGA:t:\DA AGAINST OUR HOLY BELOVED MA STER

Editorial

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miE EDI'l'OR 'S DIARY OR 'l'HE NKWS ABOU"l' 'l'HE MA S'l'ER, HIS DIVINE MAJESTY 111EHE!~ BABA

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W,£A-T I OWE '1'0 MY MM:i'l'ER

By Sadhu C. Leik

37

.MY IMPRESSIONS

By ~Meredith Starr .

42

liiyiNE LOVE

By S. A. Abbas (Khat.:)

44

1NDIVISIBILI'l'Y

By Meredith Sta?T S~lRI'l'UAL ANECDO'l'ES

'i\) • SHRI

45 46

MEHER BABA

By Nargaret Ross

50

/:.· TRIOLE'l' FOR SHRI MEHER BABA

By Esther Ros; oJJ IDUGH'l'S SUBLI!IfE HERE AND '!'HERE REVIEWS

OUR SE RIAL STORY

so 51

54 59

The

Meher Message WANTS AGENTS

in all parts of the world.

SRI

RAMAKRISHNA

A MONTHLY MAGAZINE IN ENGLISH

Gives :--Full informati9n of all the Ramkrishna Mission~ esta:.-< blished throughout the length and breadth of India & other continents.

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AMRITSAR, (INDIA).

THE

MEHER MESS'A GE SH AL L

0 N

N0

A C C 0 ,U N T

PUBLISH ALOOHOL A DVERTIZEMENTS;

OUR NEXT NUMBER. His Divine Majesty Meher Baba will contribute ; ahoght-provoking and spirit-stirring article. His Holines Ghhota Baba wUl contribute an interesting and instructiv article.

Editorial : Shri Sadguru Upasani Maharaj.

"Woman As Seen Through A Woman's Eyes,; wil be the subj~ct of an interesting article by Miss Mar; Treamann (of Esthonia ). ¡ And VARIOUS OTHER FEATURES.

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On the 17th of February falls the thirty-fifth birthday of our beloved Master, His Divine Majesty Sadguru Meher Baba. May His Divine Majesty live long and convert thousands of sinners into saints !

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SAYINGS OF HIS DIVINE MAJESTY SADGURU MEHER BABA . ( 6 ) The existence of almost all persons is under the control of the mind, but scarcely one out of every tE;n thousand peJ.•sons controis the mind, and thus masters the very existence itseif. ( 7) Happiness and misery, virtue and vice; plea· sure and pain, heaven and heH, birth arid death are .the creations of the mind and dependent on the mind. ( 8 )· It is the mind that makes one the slave to worldly desires. It - is also-the mind that -releases one · from the clutches of the worldly desires and makes one of destiny. the realize~· of the Supreme Self and the master . ' · ( 9) It is one and the same Universal Being (God) Who plays the different roles of stone, metal, vegetable, dumb animal and human being, and through the exis-· tence of each of these experiences His own gross and subtle manifestations; and again it is the same indivisible Being, Who, th1•ough the existence. of a .realized or spiritually perfect personage, experiences His own real state which is beyond both the gross and the · subtle~ ( 10) God reveals Himself only to that mind which is entirely devoid of egoism and'·egotism. .' ( To he C01 i,tinw~d ) _

.

WH A T I S GOD ?. ( JJy H is Divine J fajcsty S adgw·u Jiehe?' BcdiCt )

It is possible for, and indeed is the birthright of, every man and woman, black or brown, yellow or white, old or young, of every caste and creed, of every class and country, to realize actuallyor experience personally the One Spirit underlying the reply to this question, which can be answered by word of mouth and in black and white, in an infinite number of ways and words.

This may appear to be empty idealism in this socalled practical world, in which only a few care to think of and ponder over this vital question, fewer feel the Spirit underlying it, and still fewer have ·realized the Spirit through personal expeyience. But though God has been realized only by a few, the idea can never be called an unpractical ideal, inasmuch as it is possible for everyone to be spiritually perfect. To realize God is quite practical, but on account of its difficulty it is a task to which only real heroes and heroines take.

A

D

Let the readers ca1•efully note that in the above diagram the alphabetical letters denote ;-

THE ME 1-LEH

~1:ESSAG

E

conscious as the Creator, but not of being the infinite ocean of Truth that . He actually ; is. Consequently , although He is the shoreless ocean of Truth, He, as the Creator, does not know that He is That, and so has concern (see the diagra,m) not with A and D, but only with C the creation, which He creates, preserves and destroys. As He is conscious of being the. Creator, and not of being the ocean (A), He is¡ not beyond .cause and effect, time and space. The creation is the effect of the cause of His consciousness; the time of the duration of His existence is one divine cycle, and the space for His activities is the entire creation.

C= The Jivatman : He is the same Almighty, and like the creator (B) he is both conscious and unconscious. He is unconscious of his real self, Atman, and does not know that he is the shoreless ocean of Truth, but h~ is conscious of the limited existence of, say, a drop. in a bubble. Therefore, the Jiva.tman, too, like the Creator (B), in spite of being the infinite One, is not infinite but is finite. He is not only not beyond the law of causation but is restricted by it, and is bound by time and space. His life is the efl.ect of the cause of his consciousness. The duration of his life is as long as the divine cycle or till he becomes fully conscious of his Self, i. e. he realizes that he is the Almighty (A) Himself.

The Jivatman, i. e. iite plw;; soul. must iose the jiva or life, if he wishes to become Paramatman. But losing the life does not mean ordinary dying or co~mit-

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ti ng suicide. I have used the word, iife, in the sense of woridiy desires. One must be free from all worldly clesiPes, both good and bad, a nd the:i' renunciation amounts to iosing the jiva Ol' iife. Let it be carefuiiy borne in mind that desires must be done away with consciousiy. In other words life must be given up while living. Otherwise Jivatman minus jiva aiways was, i>, and ever wW be the unconscious Aimighty. The renunciation of desires of body, mind and the world, retaining the consciousness of the unconsciousriess, ¡is the goal.

In ordinary sound sleep every Jivatman loses life (desires), but not consciously; and so he has to get up again. For the same reason ordinat'Y death is no death a.t ail. It is a longer sound sleep, and one has to get up again. The ordinary death thus does not .tiberate the Jivatman from the chain of worldly desires. The Jivatman must die and stili be living, i. e. he must become fully conscious of unconsciousness, conscious of the pure, infinite, sexless Self, and unconscious of body, mind and the universe.

D=---=The Shivatman : When a Jivatman succeeds, through the network .of the existeuce of the Creator and the creaticm, in knowing Himself as the Almighty (A), he becomes the Shivatman.

It is then that He becomes what _ He really was and will eveP remain the same One Infinite Ocean of Truth (A). For Him now the jumb1e of the Creator and the creation no ionger exists. He is no longer finite, and He knows Himseif as the Almighty, the One Infinite :Ocean that has always been in existence cont.inunm:hr

without any change or division and will remain so for ever. The Shiilatman now knows that, aithough He was in stones, metals, vegetables, trees, birds, beasts and human beings, _Be ~-vas also aJi the time that what He is now. ....,,.

Thus it will seen from the above that the Shivatman is none else but the same One Paramatman pl~1.s knowledge and consciousness. . He is the perfect wakeful state. He is Knowledge, Knower and the Kno'('in.

He is Love, Lover and the Beloved. The Shivatman knows that He is "in every Jivatman, and that evet•y Jivatman is in Him. The Shivatman experiences this, while the Jivatman does not. Both are the same, and, yet what a . difference! The Former knows that He is the All in All in existence, that in existence He always was and will ever remain the same one infinite ocean of Truth; . while the latter, though he is the same ocean, does not know whence he came and where he wiH go.

To sum up, it is· the same One Paramatman, Who is playing the different pai~ts of the Almighty, lshwar Jivatman and Shivatman. In the Paramatman state, the Almighty is One, Indivisible and Infinite, unconsciously experiencing and sustaining Infinite Powers, Eternal Exhtence, Unfathomable Bliss and Universal Complete· ltncwiedge. As Ishwar, He possesses th~ same powers ete. but experiences Hiinself as en:gaged in creating, presel'Vtng and destroying the creation. As ~ivatman, though He is possessed of ali powers, etc. He limits Himseif with desires and therefore experiences Himself as finite. But as Shivatma,n, and it is only in the state of Shivatman tha~ He realizes an infinite pGwers etc.,· in fuii consciousn.ess.

be

WHA T I S GOD

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Now fot' a Jivatman . to ¡lose the jiva and become Shivatman, it is absolutely necessary that he must acquir~ Love, divine Love,¡ Love for the indivisible infinite Paramatman, Who is beyond the realm of thought and reason. As th~ Paraniatman is beyond ail things including the intellect, the _intellect cannot gain Him. But divine love, free from the dross of maya can gain Him as it is beyond intellect and reason. In the next number -of the Meher Message we shall see what love is.

SPIHlTU AL¡ SP EECHES OF IUS DlVJNE MA.JEST\. S.\DGUHU MKHER BABA (2)

ON

SHA~IA 'I'

All Prophets and Sadgurus made the disciples of Their inner ciroles spiritually just as perfect as They Themselves were, i. e. made them realize God and thus freed them from the ceaseless round of births and deaths.

To the disciples of Their outer ciro1es They showed the paths of Bhakti and Seva ( Devotion and Service ), and instilled into their minds certain esoteric facts. For the masses of people they left the shariat or the ceremonial side of religion and taught them doctrines which they could understand.

But even the shariat, which the great Masters ani Avatars taught ordinary peopie, is, if properly understood, full of deep significance. The l~v..~ti ceremony of the .

Zoroastrians, the Ud- l,/u:r:fan of the Hindus, and the nirnaz of the Mahometans are nothing but beautifui remedies for the removal of sanskaras, which are the direct effects of thoughts, words and deeds, and which form the greatest obstacle to the aspirant on the path which leads to G:>d -realization.

Take the bu.st: i ceremony of the foilowers of Zoroaster. The three knots, that are tied when performing this ceremony, indicate htmt.u.f((.. h¡u.!.:hto. and h-rrwshtct, or good thoughts, good words and good deeds. The striking

ON SHA RIAT

9

off, as I may call it, of the sacred thread; while reciting the kusti prayers has also great significance. From the material standpoint; it means the removal of the dust that may be mi the thread (outward manifestation); from the exoteric religious standpoint, it signifies the act ~f driving away of bad desires and bad thoughts (mental manifestation); and fJ;"om the esoteric spiritual standpoint, it signifies the wiping out of sanskaras.

If the lcust'i ceremony is performed in right earnest a~d with great sincerity of heart, it certainly wipes out some of one's sanskara::.. But if one performs it a thousand times a day only mechanically, just for show or for the observance of customs, it will be of no avail. One kust'i ceremony performed with genuine devotion will do J..tr more good than one thousand kusti ceremonies performed without genuine devotion. ( To be coidintted)

EDITOIUA~

TI-lE SII_,LY, SCUHHILOUS AND ~IENDA­ CIOUS PROPAGANDA AGAINST OUR HOLY BELOVED MASTER We are not only confident but also certain that most, if not all, of our .readers will enter into our feelings, when we assert that whenever we shall have to criticize adversely' anyone, we shall do so with a heart · full of·sorrow. But though the duty of taking others to task shall always be unpleasant and painful to us, we shall never flinch from it. That is why, though our heart is imbued with sorrow, we have unhesitatingly taken up our pen to perform the painful duty that lies before us today.

That our Holy }faster should be subjected to adverse criticism in the press is not at all a matter for' surprise. Almost every great Master was reviled and ·maligned by addle-brained fanatics and hollow-heai·ted wretches. Shri Krishna was accused of being a bloodthirsty wretch and a hopeless debauchee. Lord Zoroaster was charged with practisinO' black maO"ic, and · '-' 0 b was without a trial imprisoned. Lord Buddha was sneered down as a worthless, ,.,O'OOd-for-nothinO' "' rn.endicant. The Pharise~?s accused J eflus the Christ of being a gluttonous man ).mel a wine-bibber, ambitious re_ volntionary and an irreligious man . They openly do_ clared that Jesus cast out devils by Beelzebub, the prince of devil~:~, an?, as if all this was not enough,· they finally· subjected Him tt> bloody persecution and

an

EDITORIAL

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roercilessly crucified Him. How shamefully Hazarat .Mahomet wns treated by His own compatriots is known to all, and we need not sny anything about the maltreatlllent. to whic;h ;-arwus othor J'dasters were subjected.

It must be said iu fairness to the ndverse critics of His Divine J\'f ajesty :Meher Baba that they have not ln public said o,r written anything that would constitute a lega) libel. Nevertheless they, especially a lieutenantcolonel, have hurt the feeling-s of thousanas of His · devotees by calling in question His undoubted divinity, by trying to depreciate the great work that He has been doing since 1922,and by distorting various facts of His life and of the grand Mehera3hram Institute. We assure the critics and revilers of ou-r beloved Ma11ter that they are unworthy to stoop down and unloose the fatchets of His shoes. They may be in Logic great critics and may have the power to distingu.ish and divide a hair 'twix:t south aud south-west side, but they are not better and probably worse than the man de$cribed with gren.t pity by Wordsworth : "A primrose by the river's brim A yellow primrose was to him And it was nothiag more:"

Those who touch pitch are themselves defiled.

Shri ~1eher Baba, being a· God-man and man-God, cares not a stra'v whether He is praised or abuse'd, appr.eci~ ated or condemned, applauded or attacked. The perverse-minded wretches, who have the stupidity and rascality to. speak or write ill of IIim;harm themselves and not Him. They would do well to commit the following \vm:·ds of Jesus Christ to memory. "0 gener~tion of vipers, how can ye, being evil, sp~ak good things ? For out of the abundance of the h~a;t the •

12

THE MEHER MESSAGE

mouth speaketh . . .. But I say unto you that every idle ,,.ord that ye sha'll f! peak, ye shall give accon_nt thereof in the day of jt1dgment." .

Now let u 1; deal' wi th som e of th'e erities of our beloved 1>iaster. · L ast year, in its issue of July 19, the Times of India, in its editorial, under the guise of reviewing the second edition of our booklet on the Holy Master, which was published under the title, ''His Holiness Me her B!tba ·and Meherashram," made an !'l.ttack on the spirituality of India in general, and of our beloved Master in . particular. The writer of the editorial stuffed his fingers in his ears in aftected horror at the titles, His Holiness and Her Holiness, which we put respectively before the names of Shri Mehet· Baba and Hazarat Baba Jan. We must say that by . calling the spirituality of India in question the Times of India imitated Miss C. Mayo ; and by tt-ying to ridicule Sadgurus like Sln:i Meher Baba and Hazarat Baba Jan, it exhibited both ignorance and vulgarity.

If Hazarat Bab<1 J au does nut deserve to b~ callt:ld Hel' Holiness and our Holy Maste'r His Holiness, then the Times of Indico does not merit the name of a newspaper. \V e have as much justification in calling Hazarat Baba ·Jan Her Holiness and Shri Me her Baba His HolinBss as the Times has the justification of being regarded as a newspaper. ' A better title than even His Holiness for om: beloved Master is His Divine J\{a.iesty, for as a SadO"uru J ' b He has already done extraordinary work and in the Avataric period, ·'vhich will beg.it~ in near future, He will have to perfor m the duties of an j\satar or a \Vorld Proj)het.

Unlike the T£mes 4 hul-ia., the .Jav~rc-Jarn~>hed, ·which is the·leading Parsi 'Ternaculur newspaper, has no~

EDITORlAL

13

objection to our ~-faster be'ing called His Holiness.

But the t\tle, His Divine Majesty, seems to have set up its editor's bristles, for very recently he adversely eriticir.ed the Holy Mi1"'ter more than once. The Jam-e.lamshed wonders \\'hy Shri Meher Baba should establish a dispensary, when His diciples say that He has got the powers of -curing all sorts of diseases. Yes, He has those powers, but that does not mean that He should ~ure each and every digeased person by performing miracles. He exercises these powers only when, He thinks it necessary to do so. There are a number of persons, who can testify that when they were tottering on the brink of the grave Shri :M~eher Baba literally snatched them from the jaws of death. There are hundreds of persons who are ready to declare that they were CUred of their diseases not SO much .by medicine aR

by His blessings. A Sadguru has all sorts of powers, but.He does not like to make use of them freely. Jesus the Christ raised only two dead persons and Zoroaster did n~t raise even o~1e, tho~gh They could have restored the liveR of thousands of dead persons. There is also no reason why a Sadguru should exhibit His powers when a foolish fellow doubts them and throws down the gauntlet to him to prove them. Will Mr. P J. Marazban show hi::; M. A. certificate to any fellow who declares that he i::; not a 2'1faster of Arts of the Bombay University? Vv e do not wish to be severe with the editor of the Jam-e-.Jamshed, for were it not for 11 certain utter a nco of Shri U pasani Ma4araj . with which we intend to deal in our next number, he would never have I>;:u;sed anv remark;; a<Yainst His Divine M:a1estv ., u J v Meher Baba nnd would never have published any hostile urticle. Indeed, we have reason to believe that after coming to know of certai!l facts pertainiug to the

14

THE ME H-ER MESSAGE

life of the H oly Mast er; he threw .a num~er of hostil~ articles, which he had r ece ived fr om Yan ous goocl-fo~·­ nothing scribes, into )1is was~e -paper basket. A s he l S possessed of sound couiuJOn sense, l1 e eutmot deny that just as there are phy~ical and intellectual giants, so als_o there can be spiritual baiants. Shri Meher B. aba lS undoutedly a spritual Giant, a Sadguru or an mcarn~tion of God, and as such He has given proof::; of lus divinity to a number of-His devotees and discip!es .. W, e assure the Jan1re-Jamshed that to attack Shn Meher Baba· is to attack Lord Zoroaster, and that, from the standpoint of spiritual attainments, there is absolutely no difference between Him and Lord Zoroaster.

One of the most popular orators of the Parsi community is Mr. J ehangir J amshedji Vimadalal. A good-hearted, well-read, and highly-educated gentleman: as he is, and coinmanding great ·influence among the ·Parsis as he does, one would expect that he would not write anything against anyone, who is regarded as a saint or a Sadguru by thousand,; of persons, ,\rithout securing first-hand information. But forgetting himself and his sense of responsibility, he recentl)r allowed himself to be led away by a certain Parsi Lt. Col., whose ignorance is on a par with his impudence, and wrote two articles against Sadgui:us in a vernacular magazine whi~h bears the name of "Hindi Graphic". In liis first article. Mr. Vima.dalal remarks that it is stranae . b that so many peopele should regard His Divine Majesty Meher Baba and His H oliness Upasani Maharaj as Sadgurus. After expressing his doubts as to Their perfect sainthood, he is wise enough to remark that only a Sad. guru can understand a Sadguru. Yes, oqly a Sadguru can fully underst and a Sadguru. Then why did Mr. VimadaJal go out · of his way · to sit in judgement ·upon

EDITORIAL

15

per"ona:ges wh~ are ~¡e 7;n:c~ed not me rel y rts saints but also as w c:arn ntwns ot (_,od oy thousands of persons? Mr. Vimadalal i" sp iritually a Lilliputian, and ye t he cb.red to cri t icize sp ir:tnall y Rr oL,din g nagi an personage s like om¡ H oly belove d :Jbsto t:. \Vh wt we know of Mr. Vimada.bl makes us say that it was in his eagerness to oblige a certain friend of his-by writing against Sadgurus that he ran counter to his o\yn sensible beliefs and acted e,O"ainst the dictates of his commonsense. There iH p~actically nothing . objectionable in the second article of Mr .. Vimadalal. The opinions that he has expressed on miracles are exactly the same as those which we hold and which we have already expressed in our booklet on the Holy Master. He observes that the man who performs miracles should not necessarily be regarded as a holy person, and in thiB opinion we concur . Yv e have explicitly written on page 13 of the booklet, "All those who are Godrealized have the power of performing miracles, but all those who have th~ poweJ.: of performing miracles are not God-re alized." l\Ir. Vimadalal has rig~tly laid emphasis on the path of purity, but he ought¡ not to have dissu aded his readers from . rendering service to saints. Mr. Vimadalal does not need to be told that without the grace and guidance of a perfect Master none can make spititual progress, fot in an article, entitled" The Gl\at of Yama ", which he contributed to the Sa?I:J. Vartaman Pateti number of 1927, he him self re m11rked, "Before how(wer tliis happy goal i;; reached, tho soul has to obtain the guidance of the G uru, the Spiritual T eacher, of Hini who has personal knowledge and experience of the soul's great journey, and who alone can show him the way to cross over the Y~.1na-Gh11t, the stormy currents where the

16

THE MEHER MESSAGE

g run God of Death rei g ns suprem e," and rendered < .-oug of Shri K auir iuto Euglish thus : ·• Save the Guru •:; ho sh all sho;v the " ·ay The awiul Ghat of Yama safely to cross?

Stretches long the river dark of ignorance, Sky-high rise the roaring waves of Egoism: Torrents pour down of jealousy and pride, And the stormy winds of Maya from ali quarters blow l Save the Guru who sha II show the way ?

Mountains of Passion and Wra~h rise high and steep; Avarice the sly thief, is constantly on the heels; Sayeth Kabir, listen brother Sadhu, How may this river be crossed ?

Save the Guru who shall show the way!"

We are bound to say that in casting reflections upon the sainthood and divinity of our beloved Master and Shri Upasani Maharaj, .Mr. Vimn.dalal committed the greatest mistake of his life. Just as the poor woman in the story ·made an appeal to Philip of Macedonia to grant her justice by remarki11g, ".From Philip drunk to Philip sober," so we appeal to Mr. Vimadalal by remarking, "From Vimadalal misled to Vimadalal sensible" to withdraw the remarks that he has passed against Sadgurus.

The chief among the nonentities who oecasionallv· take it into their heads' to conduct scurrilous and mei;(lacious propaganda against His Divine Maje sty Meher Baha, is a J>arsi lieutenant·Cl)lonel, who benrs the name of 1ferwan Sorab Irani. .Just as CaritV<to-o·io the 0 h ' Italian painter, was fond of painting characteJ: studies of low life, so this Parsi Lt.-Col. takes pleasure in vituperating great saints. Just as Tartarin of Tarascou mistook a donkey for a Fon, c;o this Pars\ sc:ribe mistakes the

EDITORIAL

17

scr ib blinst of a rti cles rw:;inst Sadcrnrns fur -re li Q路 ion. He n v seems to he poss:.;ssed o f 1Jnm tdless andneity, but absolutely desLitute of s.ense nf proportion. His aud acity amounts to e fi't路ont o ry, illld ns he lt:t s t:tke n leave of hi;; .;ense of proportion hi s effrontery clt路ives him to make free use of vulgar inde cent expressions. The holding of peace by the. Master he calls unnatural dumbness.

A peculiar sort of table, whose length is 151 feet, breadth 5~ feet and . height 4~ feet , and under which the Master formerl y used to lie down at night for rest, he pretends to consider a cage fot路 barndoor fowls. In an article, which this man contributed to the Jam-eJamshecl, in its issue of 22nd Sept., he expressed his surpnse as to the reaso n which led our beloved Master to lie down unde r this t:1ble, and hinted that the man who did not lie down on a comfortable costly bedstead could not be a Sadgnru. From this it is as clear as daylig ht an d as plain as a p1:oposition in Euclid that this Lt.-Col. cann ot regard Shri Ramchandra, Lord Zorof1ster,. Lord Buddha, Hazarat Maho,11et, Shri Chait<:tnya, Shri Ramkrishna a nd such other God-realized personages as Sadgurns, for like our beloved J\f aster, they, too, lived humbly and did not. use to lie down on costly bedsteads. It goes without "aymg that he a lso cannot regard Jesus t he C hrist as a Sadgu ru , for J esus explicitly sa id, "Foxes h ave hole s, a.nd birds of the ai r h <:tYC nests ; but t he Son of man hatl1 not 'Yhe r e to by his he ad. " T his wisdom-cla imin g a nd s~ ints-criticizing Lt.-Col. does not see n1 t o be on S]Je akirw tern1s with truth for ~ ' he oft no:J-coopenttes with it, aucl that too, more vigprously _than M a hat ma Gan4hi non-coopet:ates witrt the G0vern1uent of India. He would h ave his readers believe that l1 e has come into close cont act with His ~

,

~/

18

THE MEHER MESSAGE

Divine Maj e:.;t? lV[elt.e r Bn.ba. The facti :.; that he has nc,·cr in his life eve n see n unr bel()vc d :Ma ste r. In th e artiele referred to n h~ ,-e . this mnn has frankly n.dmitted tha t he is !ttateriali ~ t i c · . L11t. still lt e lt as the ancl ac ity to claim that he has r ece ivctl a heaveuly Jtte~s~tge. About this so-called heavenlvJ messaO'e we content ourselYes t'> with saying in the words of the Swan of Avon, " Methinks the gentleman protests too much."

It was to this truth-perverting and facts-distorting, swollen-headed rind perverse-minded; sensation-lov'ing and popularity-hunting Lt. Col. M. S. Irani that Miss Bai Palamkote ~av·e our booklet on the Holy Master for reviewing in her magazine, "Hindi Graphic".

Miss Palamkote, who only a few months ago requested Shri Meher Baba to allow her to publish the poems which He had formerly composed, who published those poems as if the Holy Master had specially composed them for her monthly, and who requested Mr. 8orabji M. Desai to write articles on the Holy Master for her magazine, could not find a be.tter man , i. e. a fit man for this work. That is why she entrusted this materialistic man, who regards the Adva.ita philosophy as blasphemous, 'vho does not know the A B C of the spiritual path, who has not read the works of Mahom~tan Sufis and Christiau mysticH, whose con'ception of · God is not better th an that of the · Santo.

Domingans and of religion not better than that of the fanatical monks of the Dark Ages, who no- more under;; >tands yogas than hieroglyphs, who has not even read the mystical Zoroastrian scriptures, and not understood, though re ad, the non-mystical scripture;; of the P arsis, with the work of reviewing· om· spiritual booklet ori the Holy Master. This Lt.-Col. can no more appreciate it than the cats and clogs of l\fatheran. Hncl he written

EDITORiAL

19

a single word in favour of it, we avow wo would have got fL shock of our life. Our Hindu readers will not' be surprised to learn that thi:; 111nn, in the beginning of · his :;o-ealled review, has dcebred that the Hindus are backward and i.meivilir.:e(l. Yes, he regards the Hindus as uncivilized, simply because they are spiritu:tlly-min_ded, and a large number of them believe that it is p9ssible for a human being to be one with God. It is but natural that this Lt.-Col. s}10uld regard the Parsis highly civilized and progTessive. He regards the Parsis:as the most advanced and civilized community on this earth; prob~.~.bly because a large number of them believe that Zoroaster wafl the only true Prophet nnd all others were hypocritical, because most of them are steeped in materi:alism, and because the average pleasure-hunting Parsi, by good, means good to eat, good to drink, and good pny for the bad work he does.

We have written in our booklet, "As soon as Meher began e1~joying the bliss qf the seventh plane, he became unconscious of everything except his one d~vine self, and for full nine months he remained so ... , At the end of the above period He recovered a little conscious~ ness of His, which '~'<:Ls sufficient enough to make Him cognizant 0f His actions. His full consciousness was restored to Him ... at the end of 1921, i.- e. ne~-rly eight years after He became God-realized." The Lt.-CoL calls this statemeut ·in question, becatl.se pripr to the complete restorati~m of His gross and subtle consciousness He was erwao·ed for some time • ·in the toddy busib 0 ness. All God-realized persons, when a pm·ticular stage in the process of descent from the seventh plane is· reached by them, are {rresistibly led to do manual work of the nwst lowly type. It was with a view to gratify this in·osistible craving for such work thn;t Shri Meher

~0

THE MEHER MESSAGE

Baha kept a toddy shop, and not wi t l1 a ,·iew to lay up moJwy, fo r wlticlt He hm; had not l'fing short of tra ns.. en·de nt<tl contempt . H e t re;tt ed H is eustomers, so11te of wl wnt wore riH~ m ff, \·ety kinJ iy, aml, to tlt eir grent surprise, oft re que st~ d t hem uot tu indulge in t oddy.

Toddy, con::;idered absolutely, is Ly r o means a commendable drink; but, iu comparison with the harm that liquor does, the harm that t oddy does t o health sinks into insignificance. The worst of toddy is bettei· than the best.of John Barleycorn. The toddy that was sold in the shop of Shri Meher Baba, · being absolutely unmixed, was almost harmless. ;But still He never took a drop of it and strongly urged upon His friends the advisibility of not drinking even a small quantity of it.

For the sake of argument let us suppose that spirituality had nothing to do with the toddy business, in which the Holy Master was engaged for some time prior to becoming a conscious Sadguru. But does that prove anything ~ Doe~ that at all come in the way of His sainthood and divinity ~ Let those foolish fellows, fellows, who sneer down our H oly beloved Master for it, not forget that Zoroaster 'vas a farmer, Jesus was a carpenter, Buddha was an itinerant beggar, Shamsi Tabriz was a mendicant, Shibli -\·ms a sulphur !:::&;:chant, Zai.1gi Bashgirdi was a negro dervish, Tukaram was a wani, and the Swami Vivelmnda was an itinerant inonk . · The ignorant Lt.-Col. 'vonders why we. do not re~ gard the Meherashram as a char itable institution. The Oxford Dictionary .says that the 'vord, charitable, means liberal in giving to the poor. As the Meherashram is open not only to t he boys of the poor, but of all the classes, 've are absolutely justified in not calling it a charitable institut ion. A t the end of his so-called review the Lt.-Col. asks us t o change our sumame.

EDITORIAL

21

There is not tlte sli,rltt;.;t. necessity fo1· us to do su, but :t!Jllo.:;t all our re <:d.E) I'H will l1e ,;·tone with us wheu we snY tlutt it is nhsolutel.\· Jtecessar.\· f()]' this 1..t.-CoL to clu.tJJg·e l1i.-; ll!eublit.\·. Tl1i s wrotcltucl lll<tll. 11e elb ttl t o be told tltnt he w], ;J su\\'s thistle;.; ,.;]wll reap )JI'iekl es, that he who blackens oth ers does not whiten himself, and that h e who Llows in th e dust fills his own eyes, It may seem to some th;tt we have dettlt with this Lt.-Col. Yery harshly. _ \V e admit that, and our defence is that the medicine of poison is poi~on.

Let nobody think that we hate his man. .We pity him. \Ve shall not pretend that we love him.

But we are sure that, thot\gh he hates our beloved Master, we do not hate him. vVe regard hatred as inverse love, and that is whv we pity him. According to Prof. Teufelsdrockh, the philosopher's wife complained to the philosopher that certain two-legged animals without feathers spoke evil of him, spitefully criticized his goings~out nnd comings-in, and slandered also herself. '' Light of my life," a_nswered the philosopher, "it is their love of us, unknown to themselves and takino· a ' t> foolish shape ; thank them for it, and do thou love them more wiselv.

Vvere we mere steam-eno·ines workino· .; b 0 here under this rooftree,· they would scorn to speak of us once in a twelvemonth."

Tf[E EDlTOH'S DL\HY

on THg NEWS A BO U T Tl-iE ::\[ASTEH, HIS DIVI:\TE MAJESTY ::\1EHER BABA J:)th D eeemuer, 1 928 to lCi:h

Ja nnc~1·y, J !J2D

15th December. The Master fed the selected boys of the Meherasln·am, who are called and whom I shall henceforth call the Premashram boys, on spiritual knowledge, in the endy hours of the morning. ~he . number of subsrrihers to The :Mehet· l\fessage goes on . ~ increasmg.

16th December. The "1\'roiser . i-IIin(l " published a letter from the pen of Mr. B. F. Bharucha, in which he. takes exception to the title His Divine M ajesty, which I put before the name of my beloved Master.

According to ::\fr. Bharncha, only God should be called Divine Majest y , and -not a.ny human being. I was much amused by Mr. Bharucha's letter. It is evident that he is unaware of the · High spiritual position of my beloved Master.

17th December. The Holy Master was busy throucrhout the whole dav.

I sent a letter to the Edi-. o v t or of the Kaise1·-i-Hind, in t:eply to that of JV[r. B. F. B harucha. In t he course ofi t I asserted ; "As God is ·. nnnl ess and lmeless, it is nllt prop er t o se t hounds to J:Iis infin itwle. God :-;]!Onlcl not he e< ~ll e d Hi;:; Divine Mnjest y, but a man-God like Shri Mehel' B aba may justly be call ed hy this t itle. If it is not wt·ong to call a real independent king of a country His Majesty,

TliE EDJTOKS DlAHY cnll ''· real Sad!l·urul nnt -:n rc tlwt ~~hen Mr. l~h a r twl 1a \\·ill t't~lh- understand tl1e l1igh S]Jiritwil po-:itio11 ,,f ~h,·i \l e lJ (:J· j;,,~,;,, lw iliJJl SLdf \\'ill bke plensnre in cn lling · Hi111 His Diviue ~lnjesty ."

18th December. - A wise llHlll onee saiJ that if God woukl send t\\'o angels to this eat-tl1, one to rule an empire and the other to c1ean a street, they would each 1·egn rd their ewployment [ t S equally distinguished.

My belo,·ed :Master oft doe s tl1e most lowly \vork.

Today in the morning He cleaiwd the water-closets of the Ashram boys. The man, whose duty it is to do this work, if ever he felt shame, will henceforth feel no shame i!l doi11g tltis work.

On account of the se rious illness of :Miss lV1argnret Ross, she was sent last month to the American Mission Hospital with l;er siste r, 1\'Iiss Esther. As predicted by the ~laster, her condition is much improved. To-day she seut a note to the :Master in which she writes; "Before I return to Eno-l'and I would like to tell You ;:, how very glad I mn that Meredith came to Yon. All his life h e has been seeking You, and just before we met · Rustam in Eng1nnJ it seemed as though eYerything had been taken away from Him ; it is wonderful to see him growing: nearer to You everyday ... It bas been a wond.erfulliving at the Ashram in Your presence; but I knm\· that You will he with us always wherever we are, and I shall meditate on You more. I have not felt strong enough to meditate \Yith Cl.m cenh<ltion t ill th8-last few days, but am now umch betteL I am surry to haYe put You to sd mueh troul)l~ and expense; you have been so Yery good to m e .... lam so happy that I was able to come to You. I laww that You lmve given me b sting ~pi1·itual happiness allCl tlmt I ,_Jwll r ealize this mm·e .and more." \Yil\·

sllt\ul ll it

l1e

l'on,;idered

\\T<>Ilg' t •1

Av~ttar I li.-: Di'i11g ~l.<tj e-:ty:

24

THE :MEHER :MESSAGE

19th December.' I r ece iYed 11 n inte restin g letter from 1dr. S or11 hji M . De~ai. In t l10 cmu·se of it he writes: " I sin c:e1·ely hope yon 11re doing well. P erhaps ou mi b•,.l1 t lta\·e r e t < tllll "'\~ Hrti<:lo ' Son e ri .Til ll ltl r!O, in t he •Y Hindi Graphic, the-editress of whi ch has done me injustice by curtailing and putting some audaci ous sentances in my mouth which I had not written at all in my article.

I have stopped wr.iting for her monthly, . a nd. you will not see any· article for the pre·s ent until she, expresses her regret."

The number of subscribers goes on increasing. Tho Master delivered .a spiritual discourse before some of the disciples, and imparted instruction to the Premashram boys.

20th December. S adhu C. Leik rece ived an interesting post card from the Swami Nixhayananda of the R amkrishna Mission Sevashram. The Swamiji '~rites, " Our India is at present in great need of such a noble institution as the Meherashram, for the welfare of the young generation, · who will repre sent her true glory, spirituality, before the world in future , to bring peace and consolation everywhere."

The M aster imparted spiritual inst r uction to the Prernashram boys from five to eight in the evening.

21st December. A number of Hindus 9ame to worship and t o seek the blessings of the H oly M aster.

For no less th an four hours the Prernashram boys got· the benefit of the M aster's company and instructi on.

22nd December. A fe w highly !3ducated Parsis, belong ing to the upper middl e class came in the pwrning t o r eve r e the Master. One of them, who h ad never before come, r emarked just before departing, ''l must say that I feel something extraordinary here."

23rd December. I was in spiritual bliss tlm:iugh

THE EDITOR'S DIARY

25

ont the whole day. The ·Master d·e livered a discourse before His disciples ;~ nd imparted instruction to the Prema;:;hram boys.

24th December. I lea rnt that the Kais er·-i-HinJ ha:d I~ot puL\ished i11y re ply to Mr. B. F. Bhurucha.

What h as its editor to say about this injustice which he has thereby done to the Master and to me?

A Hindu lawyer came from Nasik to worship the Master. After worshipping the Master he became extremely joyou~ and uttered for a number of times. the words, "Sadguru Nath! ". The Master said that he was a good man, aud gave him the prasad of an orange.

The devout lawyer accepted i"'.i promptly and joyously, and snid, "I am, indeed, lucky. That's why I have got this orange from you, 0 Sa~guru Maharaj ! " . 25th December. I received an interesting letter · from Mr. M. M. Banaji, the author of" Sublime Though Blind " and five or six original interesting Gujarati novels. Mr. Banaji writes : "My dear Mr. Dastur, I chanoed to get yesterday your print13d handbill re : the Meher Message journal. It set me a-thinking if it is from the same young gentleman with whom I had communications on various matters.· I have almost decided you are the same persop.. .:Methiitks you had told when you last saw me at my house, about 1;wo years ago, that you were about to leave for Eng~ land .... I wonder what has led you to be a disciple of Shri Meher Baba-such a promising mid highly erudite. and clever young man to bind himself for life to Sadguru ~nd spiritualism seems to me to be passing strange. I should be gbd if you could deign to · ex-

THE MEHER :MESSAGE

26

plain th e mi1·acle. I~ is little short of that .... I ~ lJ o lll ll \•e glnd t(l kn (m if yon 11 re a men.i her · of th e In(lian Spiritnali~ti e s'oc~ i ety . .. . .

-

-

./

1

) _ <1\ll',.; S rll<' C I' O .)',

.M. NL Banaji."

The :!\Taster i111pnrted instruction to the Premaahr am boys fr om 5 t o G a. 111 . , !! to 12 a.m. and 5 to 7 p. m.

26th December. . A number of persons came to worship the M1:L;;ter. The Master devoted more than three hours to feeding the Premashrani boys on spiritual . knowledge.

27th December. I sent the following reply to the Jetter of Mr. ::VI. M. B anaji quoted above : ' MEHF.RA SHRA)!, ARANGAO:-<,

Ahrne(lnaga1·, 27th D ecernlJe-r, 1928.

My dear Mr. B anaji, I _acknO\vl~dg e with delight and not without thanks the re ceipt of your letter of the 24thinst.

Yom conjecture is quite right. Yes. I am the same young gentleman with whom you had communications on various matters.

Your renHtrk, " I wonder what has led you to be a discinle of Shri Meher B aba . . . . such a promisin<Y and b highly erudite and clever youn g man to bind himselffor life t o Sadgurn and spiritualism (sic) f'eem s to me to be if •vou could dei b<Yn .,., lmssin o· stnuw0 e. I should be so ,glad to explain t he mirar~l e. I t is littl e Rhort of th at." Yes, lll J good fri end, it is littl e sLort of a miracle. For this miracle will you not give credit to His Divine Majesty Meher Baba ? You mity not believe in the divinity of my belove d 1\iast er, but surely you wi11 admit that . the l

~

1

1'HE EDITOR:s . DIARY

27

Mn n vVho made me r enounce my worldly ambiti ons,

-,ou know very well what a 1 u biti o n ~ I · bad in those da}rs- t he .Ma n \Vh ~ ef!'eeteJ a r evolution in my outlook on life, t he Man \ Vho maJ e a ~~Te at awe descend uponJJJ e wh en 1 met Hin1 on th e fi rst o ccusion, the :Nl au vVho convinc ed me t ha t I would se rve humanity far bet· t er after r ealilling God tlvm before, that this world is but maya and the spiritual life is the re al life of man, must be not arl ordinary mortal but a super-man. You must be rem embering· that when I last met y ~u in Bombay I told y ou that two books, one politica] and the other didactic, which I h ad written and the manuscripts of which I had sent to Messrs. Arthur Stockwell & Co. of London for publication, would shortly. be published. But why have they not been published~ After coming into contact witl{ the Holy Master, it occured to my mind that it would he highly improper on my part to thrust them on the reading public, as the ideas expressed in them I could no longer concur m, and those who would re ad tl1em would not be benefitted. I acted acco~·ding t~ the dictates of my conscience and prevented them fr om being published.

You would not at all wonder why I have become a disciple, a devoted and loving disciple, of Shri 1leher B aba, were I to acquiant y ou with all my feelings, wit h the spiritual bliss 1 occasionally enjoy , with the spiritual agony I have undergone, with · my uncontrollable desire t o sing the praises of my beloved Mester, and with my aspiration afte1· _God-re alization.

I go fu rther and · say t hat if you we re t o expe rience only one-te nth of what I have ex perienced spiritually at t he hands of Shri Meh er B aba, a nd if you '\vere to get only one of the many proofs which H e has givei1 me of H is dtvinity, t hen, I am sure, my de ai· Mr. B anaji, v

-'

:2.8

THE

MEHER MESSAGE

t.hn.t you would devote .half of your t< par e time to singina the Jlraises of S hr i !Vfeh er Habi1 and the r emaining ltalf to meditating ur;on Him. C!

•

My dear nh. Banaji, you re: uind 111 8 t ll <Lt when 1. last met you, I had t old y ou that l would g o to England and live there. In those days how enthusiastic I was about going to England tmd about becoming a member of the House . of Commons ! If any one, in those days, would h ave said to me that instead of going to England and play ing the role of [t politician, I would take to the spiritual life and dedicate myself to a Sadguru, I would certainly have laughed that man to scorn and would have made a Aport of him.

You would be surprised to lmow that last year my heloved M aster Himself offered me an opr~ortunity bf going to England , hut I did not avail myself of it.

Shri Meher Baba wanted a few English boys fut· His Ashram, and so He a"ked me whether I would like to go to England to bring a few boys. A"rJ I \Va'> then suffering from te1.:rible >ipiritual agony, and as the idea of leaving the Master eYen for a few months saen1ed to be hateful to me, I replied in t4.e negative .

In passing I may inform you that Shri Meher B~ba had to send Mr. Hn'> bm K. Irani to England for the Kai.d purpose.

I am not a me1ul>er of tll e Indian Spiritualistic Society and have nothing to do with -spiritualism.

Please do not mixta\, e spirituality for >:piritualiem.

There is a. worl d' of ditl'er e n(~ e bet"·een th e two.

S pi t itun}ism J ew>tex it;;e]f to t nlki11g with tll e spirits of the de nd ; hnt re al spir itually-minded personfi care not rt. straw for spirit'ualism and a.spire after divine bliss, union wit h God and di s int~r ested so rYice t o hnmti.llity.

THE ED ITOR?S DIARY

29

I shall IJerh aps quote y our lette1; and this reply to it in t h e Fe bru ary nu)nb er of The Afche1· A1essagc. \Vitl1 k ind reg·n rds and blessings of pe ace, 1 am, ~:fin e e rel y

and affectionately yours,

K. J.

DA.STUR.

2tith December: Profound is the love of the P~ema­ shram. boys for their Master. If their parents were to take them nway from the Ashram, I am sure they would come back despite difficulties and obstacles. As a ma tte r of .fact a Mogul boy, nm_ned Ahmed Mahomet, totally agniust his will , wa s snatched away by his guardian from th e A shram on the 20th of August and talen to hi s h ou;::e in B ombay. In Bombay the boy felt like a fi sh out of water. He could think ofnothing ~nd nobody but hi s R ~ loved a!ld how to return to Him. He was on the look-out for a n opportunity to run away fr01n his guradian's place. On the 23rd of this month he found a11 opportunity, and he availed himself of lt, thoug lt l1 e llad not a pie in his pocket. After six: ti::tys' j ourney , nH,stl y on foot, this hercic spirituallymi nded boy ar r ived t oday at Arangaon and joined his Beloved. This l1ov t ettches us that the love divine kno ws nn diffi culti e ~ a nd triumphs over all opstacles.

29th December. , In the early hours_of the morning th e J\f m:t e r fed lh e r,· cmashram boys on the kern el of .~p iritu n l l.::n owl edge.

L zct e1· on H e talked with some of t he disciples a bout tlr e silly a nd mend acious propagrwd u e<.. Jdueted against Him by ig nm-ant busybodies.

A s the discipl es, in the course of the conversation, gi·ew

30

THE ME!{ER.MESSAGE

ex cited aga inst Lt. Col. M. S . Irani , His H oliness calmed t h em :;ay ing , : "Yon s lto ~dd not · hat e h im.

The m a n de serves to be pitied. D ou't think that he i;, h ~u: mill g Ill\' (oause . · Par a do :c-i~·al n,; it 111ay ;;oe m, lw i>' serving' it ~ncor;s~iously in oue i·esped. . Don't forg ot the proverb that out of evil cometh good."

Mr. Meredith Starr wrote the follo\',·ing :~ · " TO SHRI MEHER BABA. I cannot thank thee as I ought In any words or even thought.

If Tholl wilt know how dear 1'hou art, Then read the silence in my heart."

30th December. For no less than seven hours the Master was busy preparing the Premashram 1oys for their spiritual enlightenment. A number of pet·sons came to worship the Master.

31st December. The Muster did not seem to be well today, but still He imparted spiritual instruction to the Premashram boys.

1st January. Each of the Premashram boys has· a separate room for himself, so that he may meditat~ properly: The Master went into the room of each boy, and gave instructions to him on meditation. A Zoroastrian boy, named Aspc:m diar Sarosh Irani lost his gross consciousness on account of constant deep meditation; .

The }.1aster restored his consciousness within half an hour.

2nd January. The Master's European disciples, Mr. Meredith Stat:r and Sist ers Margaret R oss and Esther Hoss left India today for their native couutry, England, after staying . for nearly six months in the Master's durbar. Each of them considers this period o£ six months as the be st of his or her life. Thou.gh

THE EDITOR'S DIARY

31

the \· have left the .:\faster's clurbm, they feel that the M aster is "·ith them· nnd ,,·ill :dways he with them.

As ?lh. Sbrr \note· :1 <·ouple of d;tys prior to his depnd11re: " Yet, Love, Thy will be done On earth· as in the sun, If Thou wilt make us one !

So be it then.

From Thee I cannot flee, 0 dear Divimty; I give my life to thee, And cry Amen !"

3rd January. A few months back some E)ducated and famous Pole ! formed a committee in Poland with a vtew to acquaint the Polish people with Shri Meher Bab~t. Today the Master received a telegram from a young Polish gentleman who calls hirr1self Bilski. The telegram contained the following news; ''Three new members ndmi.ttecl. If help received, willing to start immediately."

Late in the evening the :Master uddressed His dis· ciples about His future work. He concluded by say ing, "Balm Jan's prediction about My future work will be fulfiHed. Time is drawing near, when the_ world shall have to pay attention to "·hat I shall say. The message that I shall send forth will not be· a cry in the wtlclerne.ss." In passiug it may be stated that the Holy Master oft says tlwt 'un ex.traordinarily.blocdywar will ue \Varrecl in 11C LII" future, and that when it will Oe at ·-::> its height, He will manifest JiitnsP.lf bP.for8 the world us aP Avatar.

4th~ January.

The Master fed the Premashram boys on spiritual lore in Llie evening. In the afternodti

32

· THE MEHER M ESSAGE

a Hindu vi llager, whose. daug hter was t o l>e Ili<HTied in t he evening came t o r ~ 1 1 n es t t ho ::\J aste r to g rnce l1_,.

H is pre:.euce t he occasion of th e HUHTiage co re tH Oll _,. ,;,h inh was tn be porfJ)rtH od in l h e vill uge t ot11pl o.

Tit le~ Maste r unhesitating ly acce pte 1l t h o iuvitat ion. AL with about a dt;zen disciples, about G-3 0 in the eveninO' b • t he l\1aster left His place with a view to go to the temple. The hosts, with sev eral boys, wer'e awa iting Him on _ the way. \Vhen the M aster approached them , He was warmly welconed with th e shout of" Meher B aba Mahumjki j'ai ! " Chanting vnrious hymns they led the Master to the temple. The nuptials were about to take place.

In passing it may be stated that the bride is a zealous devotee of the Master. In 1923, when the Mastel' came t o Arangaon for the very first time, she upprouchell Him, presented Him with several mangoes, and th en worshipped Him . Those who we re then with HiUJ still remember that the M a.ster said to her, ' ' You a re a pious g irl, and after a few ye a rs you will get u v e t~y g ood husband." The Maste_r's predi?tio1.1 was fulfilled today .

The marriage ceremony took place in the presence of the Master, a.ud soon after it was over the couple worshipped Him. The hosts then served out tea to the 'l\1aster and His ·disciples. At about 8- :30 th e :Master 1eturned to His durbar . . 5th January. From ~) t o 12 in the morning th e )Jast er imparted instruction to th e Premashram boy~ .

A number of devotees came t o worship the Mast er .

6th January. A Hindu P rofessor of the D eccan Agricultural College and t h e D istrict Jud ge of Ahmedllagnr cnme in t he mo rni.n g to pay t h e ir respeets to the Mast er and to se e th e M eherashram. . ' In th~ aftern oon th e · Ma~te r delive red a discou;·se befor e th e disciples. Alludin g t o those wh o spe nk and

THE EDITOR'S DIARY

33

write ill of Him , the M n,ster said" They should not be hated. As I oft say,· they too are unconsciously serving my cause . .T ust as, ·y on ar e keeping connection with Me , so the y t oo. ;Jft t llillk of ,:;\Ie." · " The Smi Annual " of this ye ar was received today. Among se veral phot oes, those of Her Holiness :Saba J an and the M astet· are baiven in it. Beside. the photo of His Divine Majesty the following words are published : " Meher B aba: A saint who is at present residing in Ahmednagar District. He is a follow~r and a devotee of the well-known Baba Jan of Poona, who is· supposed to be over 100 y ears old. He received his initiation from Baba Jan. It is said that he has under. gone great sufferings and has at present ~any disciples and devotees ."

7th January. The Master devoted five hours to imparting spiritual instruction to the Prema!>hram boys.

In the evening He t alked with various disciples about the Ashram, 8th January. The nmi1ber of subscribers to this Magazine goes on increasing. The Premashram boys got the b8nefit of the .Muster's compmiy and instruction · for four hours in the morning. A n~mber of Hindus. came to worship the l\faster.

9th January. In th e morning the Master was. bu~y with the Premashralll boys . . In the evening the First Class Sub-Judge of Alunednagar and · Mr. Saptarshi Vakil came t o r evere the Master and to see the Mehe:rashram. After pay': ng their respects- to the Master both t he ge ntl emen talk ed with me for about half an hour. They ask sd we . various questions abo.ut the , Master and m,yself. B oth of them were sa tisfied with my re pli e~ . In .the course of conversation the Sub,Judge observed, " One must r eceive some enlight~nment by

34

THE _MEH E R M ESSAGE

comin g into conb ct ,\,it h a pe rfect }\Lt st or, of course pwviuod Ull O Cil l'l'ie,.; vut U is \\·ill. " · 10th January. -s, ,d!tu C. L uik rec:oivo d <t il interes tiug lot to !.' fn >In ?Ill-. ]);,vi(l .IJ o ,.; Itt i ll t nl' J<>l tiil llt Oshnrg , wit <> has been servin cr t he native Kaifi rs of S ontlt Africu for th e las t t en"' years. Mr. Bosman, who is a friend of Sadhu Leik, after cong rat ulat ing him on his good fortune of having found a perfect Master like Shri Meher B aba, writes: '' I must thank you ever so much for the interest you have t aken in me , and I am indeed grateful for the Message ·and booklet telling of your Master. I have thought a great deal about what you tell me in your last letter .and it has helped me very much . I have always dreamed of being able t o do c~rtn in thir gs, but j ust how t hey were to be accomplished 'yas uncertain. N ow eve rythin g is quite clear to me, and it seems there was a greater purpose in y our writing. You Dro indeed fortunat e in knowing your M aster aud being near Him. F or myself all I h ave done has been told me by inspiratio11 , I have never consciously come into contact physically with an advanced one except yourself and I have scarcely had a glimpse of any world but- this. It must be beautiful to live in the at mosphere ·of the A shram. Here the conditions ar e so difficult amid this g ross mate rialism as I _experience daily ."

The Master impart ed spiritual instruction to the Premashram boys in the evening as well &s in th e morning.

11th January. .Th e Maste r spoke a9out making a t our of some parts of the country for spiritual i·easons and, as t he par ents would. take a~vay the boys during His abse nce, about closing t h e A shram for about a couple of months. H e impar te d spiritual instru ction to the Premashram boys in the eve ning .

TH E EDITOR'S DIARY

35

12th January. A unmher of Hindu ladies aud g entlemen ca me t n worship the M aster. I received the D ecelll lJer nmnbet' of " Th e Yaitarani" which is the only E ngli:-;J.l lll onthl y of Orissa. Its ahle editor has (1 8 ,·qtc d ; t p:tr< t .~r;~ ph in it to th e :Maste r, -~Nh o m he r egards as "a wond erfully spit·it ualman." In the early hours of the morning the Master gave instruction to the Premashra rn boys.

The Master spoke t o me that he had finally resolved to leave Ahmedn agar with about twenty of His disciples with a view to tra,vel on foot, to cl ose the Ashrani temporarily, and to reopen it after ·a, month or two. As I could not accompany Him on account of this Magazine, He asked me to stay here.

13th January. The M aster acquainted the boys with His resolve to go on a tour, and to give vacation to them for a couple of months. They were thunderstruck and became sorrow-stricken. Though the Master told t hem that H e would call them back as soon as possible [llld not t o \Yorry about their spiritual future, many of th e boys cried as if their heads would break.

Divine love has its ple asures, but it has its pains too. It is diffi cult f~r tme lovers to bear the separation of the Beloved. The }\laster devoted a goo·d many hours to giving instruction to the Premashram boys. In the evening nearly three-fourths ofthe number of boys WE;lre ~e nt to their guardians' places.

14th January. I received an interesting letter from Dr. R am Nar~ty::m a, the aut h or of" Dream Problem " <mel the editor of" The Practical- Medicine." The l eame dD oc t. ~ t· writ es: " 1he first issue of The ll!leher Mess(~ge is re ce ived and I ha;ve read it with great interest . . . . . 1 wi!3h I could come and have a. darshana of your S:tdgnr.u, but bo ing old ( 70 y oat·s of age) and in-

36

THE MEBER MESSAGE

f w readers firm in body cannot trayel so f<tr." ·S ome 0 n J •.

• .

D I'· ' T' t l""L\'"HI<t r ee"nth may not be kno\vmg thaL r. :-~,.till ""' '" ' . · " · oue thuus,tml . of". ·11·ts 1>UO ]·'-s, ( <JVer o-ave over t 1e stoc · · · k l 0 .. e 1 · -1 . tl· <· t al1t ·tnd s]1iritu;l] <JI L1g te l · l J 1,.., · .' . . . volumes ) ., a ll on su 1.J_leds life to the nnbl~.,;hers ofthe aiJove Magazme, to use lt as 'a lendi;g library. The publishers lw"ire issued a descriptive catalogue of these and other books. They have been good enough to notice in it rny booklet on the Holy Mas~er thus :-:- : · .

"DASTUR, K. J ... , Meher Baba, Ahmednagar, 1928: 3rd edition. Ans G. . His Divine Majesty a:nd the Meherashram.Institute. A sketch of Meher Baba which makes people think of the purpose of life, by Kaikhushru Jamshedji Dastur, M.A.; LL.B." 15th January. Some of the remaining boys were sent home. lb the evening the :M aster said to four of His distiples, " It must not be supposed that I have brought the life of the Ashram to an end. For certain reasons it is very necessary for me, just as it was necessary for the Swami Vivekanandf1, to travel in various parts of the country' for a few. weeks. It would not be proper to keep the boys here during my absence. So I have sent most. of them to their houses. Soon after I return here, ·r shall reopen the Ashram and shall call them back. In the new Meherashram 1~10re attention will be paid to the spiritual progress of boy"s than to secular education. Secular education will consist of only the tea()hing of the English language and literature. " 16th January. The Master left Arano-aon with about twenty disciples at about nine in the n~orninO" for touring. About twenty disciples, including His Holiness Chhota Baba, and about half a dozen boys , are staying here.

\ÂĽ1-IA.T 1 0\VE TO l\lY MASTER SHIH SADC~U RLT MEHER BABA ( 1Jv S'ad hn C. I ci/.: )

II In those early days, before the SELi' . revealed ITSELF to me, I used to plead with It thus: Come, oh come my beloved. SELF and teach me, how I can realize Thee. Thou art not tL stranger, but my own SELF and knowest, how I long to be united 'Yith Thee. Why art Thou hesitating~ If there is a barrier between us, teach me how to surmount it, for I am blind and ignorant and can do no more tli'an pray, that Thou mayest show me the way to Thee.

L ater on when the SELF had revealed ITSELF as the SELF of all, I prayed again: Teach me, oh beloved SEL]' to alway-s, dwell¡ on Thee, that all sense of separateness may leave me and I may love and serve Thee in and through all beings.

At that time the term SELF appealed to me most. It seemed to bring me the source of all being so near t o my heart. All other names, such as.BrahmaJ?, Atman, Om, That~ God, F ather in Heaven sounded so distant and as if something quite apart.fro-m me.

Y et there came a time, when the idea of SELF had disappeared 'as something of [L personal nature and a limitation in the lim itl ess. Quite unconsciously I had gro wn into what is called the Existence, Knowledge and Bliss absolute . All else seemed relative and everchanging in this R eality and unchangeableness.

But somehow the term ' Bliss' has always catJsed some

38

THE MEHER ·:MESSAGE

eonfnsion to me. At t im es I interpreted ii; as the acme "f. love <lllci fee lin g- :~ 1 id as such su li,i eet t o t h e G u'111.S and .\Ltya. P eace, perfue't peace se enJG J lll Ol' e nppropriate ;1n d in 111 y 0 \ \ "11 c:tsc ·T p r cfeH ed f: l•lll Ch (J w tl 1e latter t erm. \Vi t h t h e · Sat - Cl t it - :\.na !Hl th e k ey to th e 111.)'"teries of life seemed to be found. It was like a cen. tre, whence all coul d be vie \\'ed \rit h a right perspective from causes to effects. Tho opposite t o it seemed the perspective from the little ' I' t owards the F ountain Head of all or the looking from effect to causes. Only now the meaning of the various divine aspect s, under which the SELF reYeals ITSELF to the devotee became clear to me . The key lies in Sat-Chit-Ana.nd.

There is the t emptatioi1 of rem aining merged in the one and t urnin g one's back, so t o speak, upon what discrimination had shown t o be a mere dre am, unreal, ever chang ing . · And well may one ask one's self, what sense there was to r emain in a dream-world once the Re ality had become kn own ? The ordinary human mind fails to g ive a satisfactory answer and a reasonable explanation to this. · · H ow strange that with higher realization come greater love and humility [~ud the desire to serve other 'selves' or in the Master's words: 'Free from :Maya, working in Maya, h ulping others to Re alizati on l' Herein lies the secr et of the M ast er's motto, viz. Mastery in ser vitude. And is H e not a beautiful, living example of such service and love divine ? Like Shrt R amakrishna He shuns not what is c ~dl e d the most m.e nial work of even a sweepe r. And OYH) may well rtfik with that young B.A. B rahm u,chary I met in Be nares: I s any work menial ?

The l\{aster's love knows no bounds. On e must see Him among His A shram boys, t o underst and the -Lie of affi nity bet,~· ee u Baba and His pupils. H ow these

\YHAT I 0\VE. T O -.i\IY i11.ASTER

3D

urcl1ins cro wd ;u·uull(l Him', " ·h e n l{ e is n ear th e ir donnit or_,-. Th ey rus h . fwnt th e ir l1ed,;, t o ki;.;s B a lm's sacre d fo 3t a nd phce t h e i1· t inv nrn1 ,; 1·omtd His wa i:>t. Aud B a Lla Hillt ;:;o lf, _jn-:t li k~ S l1ri H. <~ nwkri:-;hna in th e t e inpl egn rd c n of D a b ·dt jn o:-;lt\·ar , o ne uf t h e ir m 1·n , Jn:tkib g them l'tngh and fill tlteit· h earts wi th b oy ish glee.

The oth er day a -boy anived at J.\1ehern.slm:un with

all sig ns of exha ustion. And uo wonder t Seven days earlier he had set out o~ a hundred miles j ourney without 1he least pro\-isions. for his tnunp. His home w~s in Bombay , but his heart was with his beloved Baba at Meherabad. Anothet· boy had so often run away from his home to stay with Baba, that legal measures proving to be of no antil the father h ad in despair handed the boy over to Baba's care. '¥hat depth of affection in the hearts of these two, who lwve just entered their teens!

And they a re not the only ones. Some of the boys literally worry thern se lves lest B aba should send them away. It take s all one's power of persuasion to pacify their little minds by .convincing them of the contrary.

S ometime s in the evenings when going on night duty in the boys' dormitory, .I cannot get them to go to sleep if B aba h appens to move in the neighbourhood.

They watch with a ll the puerile eagerness for a chance t n rush out, t o be embraced and patted by their beloved B aba : 'Vha t better lesson is needed beside such loving exawpl e of love divine ?. An adult can be a hypocrite and full of cunning, but in a boy of tender years all the affection m a nife sted is fr e e from all nrtifis;iality . . He does . not know t o put on anything .

Tl1e ShastJ·ws tell us how a n Incarnation should be.

Our B a ba h as no ne e d for such dead letter guidance, for H 8 is us n a tuntl a nd a s hom0ly as nnyone could be . . His ve ry pr ese nce is suffi cient t o prove His high calling as a

40

THE :MEHER M E SSAGE

Teaeh er of hum ani ty . ' ?lb y t iH lSO, who ]w\·e eyes, se e H.im in H i~ glory aud tl 10~o, wl1u •·n11 l1ea r, illllJilJe di s ·]<Iftv te: Ichin g·s . H e, w]I <I is i he Yo ry esse nce of every t hi;J g, wh at need hn,.; 1\ o f"r prn i ~L' , 11ktt ]I :Irlll <:nil litlman assaibnts do Him '!

Truly has it Le on said , t lJ<tt it take s a saint torecognise a saint and a Christ to u11derstand a Christ. Only those fortun ate one s, wh o by the g race of the ?~faster can realize Him in all His Divine aspects, know of His true greatness and who He reall y is. The others only get occasional glimpses of His spiritual g1·andeur in accordance to their capacity to see with eyes other than the physical ones. It is the mother who truly knows what maternal love towards tlie offspring is.

Those who are attackin~ my beloved Master simply do not know, what they are doing. They a re assailing the One, who has come to heir) them to Self~Knowledge and Liberation. For '.vhat need had He, the Perfect One , to take human _birth aqd sub_je ct Hi,nself to all these humiliations ? Only L ove Divine could prompt Him to such sacrifice a nd self-abnegation and one day those, who now slander Hiu1, will Lecome His most ardent devotees. They will be turned from Sauls into St. Pauls.

The enlightenm ent and li be ration h ave come in . ;<>uch a natural and almost imperce ptible_ way, that it seems fts if one has always bee n so and every body else sharin g in it alike. , Onl y wh en one r emembers where one st ood hefor e and wheJ_-e one is no\\··, can one truly say with t he g reat Vi ve kanancla fr om t h e botto n1 of one's h eart, th:1t all one is todav and what litt le 0o·ood th ere may be in one, one owes it solely t o the M aster a nd His g race .

V eril y it is onl y by t he g race of u Perfe ct M astel ,1

.

WHAT I OVvE TO MY MASTER

41

or Sadguru as my !Jeloved .Master, Slu•i Sadguru Meher Bal>u, t hat <JIJe · can a:ttaiu :Mukti and cross safely the ocean of Lit'ths and cle.aths, and only by loving and sei·, ing Him ean "·e slww our gratitude for all that, what He is to us, His .dise[ples. He is our own divin e SELF, the One without a Second, our t1:ue Teacher and Guide.

Our mission in · life h enceforth· should be in the words of the Master : Free from Maya, working in Maya, helping others t o R ealization.

Pe ace unto all . b ei 1~gs. ·

REPLIES TO CORRESPONDENTS Dr. Ram Nar<lyana . Many thanks for acquainting us with the name of the book which contains the names of libraries of ,; various countries.

Secretary, The Ahilyadevi Seva Ashram. We regret we cannot publish the report of ycur Ashram.

N. C. Goda. We shall shortly publish articles on the sub_ ject on which you want inform ation.

MY IMPRESSIONS OF ~IEHEUASH l~A:;\l AND SHin MEl.lEH BABA ( By_ Me?'e(lith Stcwr)

As one of the few. Europeans who have lived in an [ndian Ashram under Indiim conditions, I have been asked to give my impressions. For nearly ~ix montlu.; [ have been with. my beloved Master Shri Sadguru Meher Baba in His Ashram. It has been an experience I would not have missed for anything in the world.

As I have always been in sympathy with Eastem peoples and ideas I did not find the slightest difficulty in adapting myself at once to the life at the Ashram, and after a few weeks felt as if I had been thet'e for years. I was probably assisted by the fact that I have uever had a nation[Ll consci,ousness due no doubt to living abroad and travelling constantly during my youth a.nd subsequently.

I have always believed that it is possible for a manon earth to reach a stage of consciousness, in which he becomes endowed with super-human wisdom and with the ability to help others to reach the state he has gained himself.

In Shri Meher Baba !have found such a n'.an. He is a super man in tl~e true sense of the word, a bridge between man and that inscrutable power which upholds the universe and which men call God. Jesus, Buddha, Mahomet, St. Francis, Socrates and others demonstrated each in his own way that conscious union with the root-principle of all life ( caiJ

:\fY LM PRESS I ONS

43

it what we " ·ill ) can Le achi eved. Shri M eher B aba is nlso a liv ing witn ess nt' t his f<~ ct, and His only aim it life is t o h elp oth e rs <,t lso t o gain t his r ealizat ion which is t lte t rne go;•l ()f 1ifo.. lit (lin (<~ II(] t ile rest 1l th o worl (l ) needs such nvm They ar e t he salt of t he ea rth and t he progr ess of humanity depend;.; chi?- fl y upon th e ne\v spiritual impetu R they alone can g ive .

While living in th e A shra m I was treated by all with the utmost-consideration a nd kindne ss. One great relief was th e complete absence of int c1eFt in politics activities. I dislike politics in any sh ape or form.

Politics are merely pat ch-work . They do not g o to the root of the matter a nd at present divide men far more than they unite them.

The future of this plan et depends t o a g reat extent upon E ast and W est finding a common basis of nndetstandirtg and tol eration. Inste ad of continually harping on differences they should pract ise good will and try to underst and one an.other. But that r equires patience and humility on both sides . . And it is as well to re. member that ari ounce of example is worth t ons of talk.

The po wer of exampl e is probably the greatest force ic: visible universe. The fact that Shri M eher B aba is a living embodim ent of ideals which others only worship from afar (or io·nor e ) t oo·ether with His profound wis.

0 0 dom and all embracing compassio!l , explain the extraordinary devotion H e inspires in all wlro come clom~ly in contact wit h H im.

F ortu nat e inclo·e cl a re t hose \\" h o gain H is company and still mor e foi.'tunate a re t hos e wh o follow H is advice and r ece ive H is g race.

DIVINE LOVE

(By'S. A. Abbas (JOwL))

0 Love Supreme I True light of mine eye I Essence of all that is high' and low ¡ In heaven ~bove or on earth below!

The arrow of light from thy half-drawn bow, Has stayed in my heart, ~nd set it aglow, Revealer of all that is noble and high!

0 Goddess of Love and Eternal Bliss!

Mysterious Power, whose love sublime For guidance of hearts doth abide its time ; Whose prophets appear in many a clime And utter thy¡ message, ~nd chant thy rhyme ; On thy lips, 0 Love, let me plant a kiss!

0 Love, tbe Union of Souls Divine !

Separation my longing alas, did thwart !

And pierced my .soul with relentless dart ; They say thou knowest the tongue of theheart.

I have played and lost. Now play thy part !

Give me thy heart ! I have given thee mine.

l NDr\rr s i BILITY

( By )J1e?路eclith Stan路 ) The deepest Truth, the purest love, Are one below and one above ; In the last, supreme endeavour Love and Truth unite for ever.

Indivisibility 路 Is the final fact for thee.

Thus the Highest Will is done On the earth as in the sun.

Thus the map returns to God, And the king becomes a clod, And 路the clod becomes a king, Lord of life and everything .

Though manifest in diverse ways In the world's enchapted maze, Truth and Love are really one On the e arth as in the sun, All degrees are lost in this World-annihil ating bliss.

Indivisibility Is the fin al fact for thee.

SP I H LT l r ~\ L

.\ "\" J路:C DOT F:S

A ccording to Priyn D a,;, one day some thieves went at ;1io路ht t o steal the \rtlidtlt of Tulsi Das, but beheld a clot.:d-dark fon11 with IJOw a ud arrows in his hand.

Wherever they moved;the form approached them with ready shaft ; they were terrified; and although they went round and round, they could not get rid of this watchman. At daybreak they called upon Tulsi Das and asked : " 0 Sir, who is this dark-complexioned lad of yours? '' On hearing this <JUestion, he remained sile\1t and wept; then gave a way all that he had, knowing 路 that Rama Himself had be路en the watchman. The char acter of the thieves und erw ent a great change.

They were initiated, r eceived iustruction, and became pure of heart.

0

0

*

One day some gentlemen requested the Swami Ram Tirthn to found a new society to work out His ideas on nat~on-building. The Swami shut His eye>: m an ecstasy of love and said in melodious voice: I shall shower ocean of love ; And bathe the world in joy; If any oppose, welcome, come !

For I shall shower oceans of love .

All societies are mine, welcome come ' ' For I shall pour out fl ood!'l of-love.

And added; " Tell them, I emhrnce all. I exclude uone.

I am love. Love like light embraces everything with joy and tts own splendour. Verily I am nothing but the g lory of love~ I love all equally."

SPIRITUAL AN'ECDOTES

47

Wh en Sndg uru Kabir app1wtehed Sikandar L odi, the Enl)>eror's courtiers ast ed him t u make obeisance to tl1 ei r .:\ b ste r. Kahil· r epli ed: " I mn not uccustomed t 6 co urt;; a nd d o u ot kno\\' how t o lll ake prostratio11s. I have 11 0 busine ss ·with the Emperor; I only know the name of God, \¥ho is th e Support of my soul and the only Sovereig n of the world."

The suge asked -the Spirit of Wisdom, " How is it possible to seek the preservation and prosperity of the body, without injury to the spiritual growth, and the deliverance of the soul without injury to the body ? " The Spirit of Wisdom replied : "Slander not, lest ill-fame and wickedness come to thee therefrom; for it is said that every demon attacks in the fr ont, except Slander which a:-snults from behind.

F orm no covetous desire, so that avarice may not deceive thee, a nd that the benefit of the world may not. be tasteless to thee, mid that · of the spirit unheede.d Practise not wr athfulne ss, since a man, when he pra ~ti s e s wrath, becomes forgetful of his duties and good works.

Suffer not anxiety, since he that is anxious is heedless of the enjoyment of the spirit and his spiritual. crrowth comes to a stop. " Commit no lustfulne ss, lest from thine own actions injury and r egret com.e t o thee.

Bear no envy, so that life mny not be t asteless to t h ee .

Co mmit no sin through sham e.

Practi se not slothful sleep, lest the duties and· bO'Ood •vorks, which it is IWC€ssary for thee to do, remain undone .

U tter no ill-timed gossip.

THE MEHER ~1:ESSAG E

48

Be cleligent and disc ree t, and eat of thine own reg·ul<:n·· industry, a w.l form a portion fen· God and the good.

This practice, in thy occupation , is t he g reate st good wor k.

Plunder ri ot from the wealt h of othe rs, _lest thy own indust ry become unheeded ; since it is sai~ that .a worldly-minded person, who eat s anything not from h1s own r egular industry, but ~rom another, is as one who devours men's heads . .

With enemies struggle with equity.

With friends proceed with approbation. ·W ith a malicious man, carry on no conflict and nowise molest him.

With the covetous man b'e not a partner, and trust him not with the leadership. \Vith an ignorant man, be not a confederate; with a foolish man make no dispute; fro : n ill-natured nwu, take no loan.

With a slanderer, go not to the door of kings. "

*

-

.

An ag nostic once asked a Bedouin, " How knowest thou that God · exists ?" The Bedouin replied, " Does the dawn then need a torch to be seen?"

*

B abu Kristodas P al, the editor of the Rindt Patriot and one of the leadet·s of India, one day calle< upo n Sh:::i R amakrishna P an:uuah amsa. _ The topic ·o. re nunciat ion being rais ed, }\ir. Pal remarked to th1 S ndg uru : " Sir, t his cant of r enunciat ion h as almos ruined th e country . , For th is reason t h e I ndi ans are subj ect nati on today. D oing good to athens, bring in education t o th e door of t h e ig norant, and, above all, in proving the mrtt erial condit ion of the country ...... thes

SPIRlTUAL 'ANECDOTES

49

should be our duti es nO\\¡. The.cry of religion and renunciation, would, ott¡ the contrary, only weaken us. y on sh ould advise the yo ung men of Bengal t o re sort to such acts only iLs will uplift the country ." To this Shri Ramakrishua rer5lied: " You appear to be a man of poor .understanding. You dare to slight in these terms a thing which all our scriptures desoribe as the greatest of all virtues ! By reading two pages of English you think that you have l~nown everything of the world.

You seem to think you are omniscient. Well, have you seen those tiny carbs just born in the Ganges when the rains have set in? In this big univ~rse you are more insignificant than even one of those little creatures.

How do you dare to talk of helping and serving the world ? .... Let man first realize God. Let him get His authority and be endowed with his power; then and then alone he can think of doing good to others. A man should first be purged of all egoism. Then alone the Blissful ~1.other will ask him to work for the world.''

TO SHRI :MEl--I ER BAB A - ¡-

: o :- -

( Bv 'iliM;;ctr et Hoss ) I thirst and yet I cannot drink I hunger yet I cannot eat; 0 let my fainting spirit sink Into the dust beneath Thy feet.

My soul is like ¡a fallow field That bears for thee no golden grain Do Thou Thy dews of mercy yield , And it shall blossom forth again.

A TRIOLET FOR

SHRI MEHER BABA --:::=::::-

( By E sther Ross ) A g arland of gold To die on your heart: Let my Lov.e so unf old, A garl and of gold .

Lonely buds on th e wold Would rath er be part Of a g arl and of g old To, di e on your heart.

THO UGHTS SUBLIME Th ere is in reality -only th e one S elf which we are , nothing besides it; and since there is nothing besid es the Self, you cannot consistently say that you are a part. But it must follow that you are the Self entire. Th ere is no division in the Truth . You are the Truth now.

Swami R am 1'irthr,.

Once did I beg and could not get even a cracked cowrie in aim'· Who wanted me then for any need ? But Rama, the cherisher of the poor, made me of great price. Saith Tulsi : Then it was without Rama; n ow Rama is my helper.

J'ulst Das. ·

If Thou art a Hill, then I am Thy Peacoclc;

If Thou art the Moon, then I am Thy Chakor; If I break with Thee, whom shall I join ?

If Thou art a lamp, then I am Thy wick 'If Thou art a Place of Pilgrimage, then I am Thy Pilgrim; I have joined true love with thee; Joining Thee I have broken with all others; Whenever I go, there is Thy service; There is no other God like Thee, 0 God !

By worshipping Thee, Death 's noose is cut away: R avi Das singeth to obtain Thy service.

R avi Das .

"

•

..

0 se rv ant, where dost .thou see k Me ?

Lo! I am beside thee: - I am neither in templ e nor in mosque; I am neither in Kaab a nor in K ailash; N e ither am I in rites and ceremonies, N or in yoga and renunci ation.

If thou art a true seeker, thou sh all at once see Me: thou, sh alt meet me in a moment of time.

52

THE :MEHEH MESSA GE

R ise above th e bod y, b urn up thi s personality of yours, si ng e it. consume it, burn it up: th en ~ n d th en only w ill you see your d esires ful fill ed . In othe r wo rd s, "D eny ycur se \f, ..

H e w ho knows Love b ecomes Love , and he knows All bei ngs are him se lf, tw in-born 0f Love, M elted in Love'so wn fi re, hi s spirit Rows Into all e arthl y forms, be lo w, z.b ove; H e is th e brea th and th e g la mour of th e ro~e.

He is the b enedic:ion of the .d ove.

Elsa Bar l;er

..

•

0 little lark. yo u need not Ay T o seek yoU\' M aster in the sky, H e treads our nativ e sod ; Why should you sing aloft , a part ?

Sing to th e heaven of· my he art; In m e, m me , rs G od.

I am come Into thi s darkne~s to atta.in the light; T o ga in my voice I make myself as dumb: Th at I may see I close my outer sight : So I am here .

Alei.ste·r C1·owl'ey.

Open th e d oor lo-nig h t W ithin your hea rt, a nd li g ht The la nte'rn of I.Jve th ere to shine afar, O n a tum ultuous sea Some strainin g_ Cl'aft. may be, W ith b e arings l o~t. sh all sig ht love 's sil ver star.

Bliss Cc~·r man ,

•

53

THOUGHTS SU BLIME And we pe rce ive , not awe But love is the g reat l aw T ha t bind s th e wo rld log ethe r safe and whole.

T he splendid planets run T heir coqrses in th e sun ; Love is th e gravit ation of th e soul.

Bliss Carman .

. breath e the bre ath of the morning. I am one with the World-Soul. live my own life no longer, but the life of the living whole.

Edmond Holmes•

..

Unstilbl e as the w ater on a lotus leaf, so is the life of man.

The comp any of Sa dgurus in this world, even fo r a moment, can be like a boat to cross the se a of birth .

San karacharya. '

..

..

Thou shouldst not b ecom e presumptuous th rough much treasure · ar.d w e alth , for in the e:.d it is necessary for thee to leave all. Thou should st not b ocome p?esu mptuous th rough any happiness of the world, for the h appiness of\ the w orld is like a cloud that comes on a rainy d ay, which one car.n ot ward off by any h-ill. Thou shouldst not bec ome presum ptuous through life , fo r de ath c.omes upon th ee at last and the perishabl e p3.rt falls to th e -ground.

Zo<"0:4ster.·

Ccd was mad e man th at m«n mig ht b ecome Cod .

St. A16!J.ustine.

I-IEl\E AN D

SURPRISE A'!'

THEI~E

K~;DG AON

In its issue of January 5, The lrul7·an Daily Mail published the following ·news wired by its correspondent of Poona. . ' '' At Kedgaon Bet, the abode of Shri Narayan Maharaj, this year's Datta . Jayanti was celebrated on a larger scale than usual. Hundreds oi devot~es and disciples of Shri Narayan had thronged to that place on this occasion. A very largely crowded fair was also held there. But as large nnmbers of people had gatherecl there to have a darshan of Shri Narayan Maharaj, thieves and pickpockets also seemed to have had a good opportunity to carry on their practices. A number of thefts were reported te have been committed during the two or three days of the celebrations. In fact, some of the visitors had the experience of having their pocktes cut off from their coats, in the thick of the crowds.

Ornaments were snatched av,ray from the hands and necks of the babies and children and several complaints of. women having been relieved of their jewellery had · reached the ears of Narayan Maharaj.

On the last day of the celebrations the pilgrims, one by one, started on their retun1 journey, ea_ch after having taken the darshan of the saint. It was a goldsmith's turn to approach the sage and to take leave of him after paying his respects. What helped the sage to single out this particular goldsmith as a susp.ect was indeed a matter of surprise to many. For, ruerely by looking at the face

H ERE A ND THERE

55

of the goldsm ith , he seenied t o have at once suspected him a s a per son responsi ble f or some of th e offences that were report ed to h av e bee n com mi tted du r ing the two days of the ce kb ra liOJ1S. H e a sked the goldsmi th t o stop by hi s side f or some t ime, a nd h e sent fo r the police immedi ately. \ iVhen the police sear ched the suspect 's pe r son, his bag and baggage , a s a lso of th ost-: belonging . to his accom plices, many of t he ornaments reported to have been lost , were f ound. Tht goldsmith and three other suspects, one ()f whom W ;;S a WOman, were tfl.ken to police custody and we re further sent to Supa to be presented before the Sub-Divisi-onal Magi s trate.' ' C HAR ACTEIU ~ 'l' I C S

0 1>' HINDFISU

In a lecture whi ch he deli vered a t the Rama krishna :Nli ssion Vaidyesh wa ra Vidlaya H a ll , J a ffna , Ceylon, the S wami Y atiswarananda observed : "Hinduism does not owe its origin to any single individual. It may be said to be the product of the spiritua l genius of th e .entire Hindu ra ce. It is certainly a revealed religion_, but r evealed n ot to a particular person or set of persons, but to innumerable prophets, saints and sages. It is based not on persona lity but o n the Divine Principle tha t is embodied mor e or le ss in all the great spiritual m en an d women of t h e world. In this ¡res pâ&#x201A;Źc Hinduism differs wi dely from other re]igions. Fort . Buddhi sm without B uddha is unthinkable ; Christianity, wi thout Chri st fall s to th e g round ; M ahometanism without Mah omet loses it s m ea nin g . 13ut such is n o t the ca se with H ii1dui sm, vvhi ch , f ounded as it is on the bedrock of E tern al V er ity, has ye t pla ce f or a ny number of person alities, prophets a nd teacher s . H induism does not therefor e be)ieve with Chri st ianity in the theory of the

56

THE l\fEHER · :M ESSAGE

only begotten Son of Gocl. nor \\ ith lVIahometa iJ;sm in the Messe nger with !i na! and complete re\·clation. It hol ds. ou th e other ha11cl. that. as the hu man society is a _]i,·ing ami e\·oh iu g orgaui slll an d. need :.; rcacl j uslmcnts with the change of . t ime and circ umstan ces, there must fl ourish newer prophets who as declared in the BhagvadGita, are embodimeti.ts of the One Di vine Being, and appear in different ages f or th e preservation of good and destruction of evil, in short, f or the establishment of righteousness on earth.·"

.

- -RELIGION

In a lecture which he recently deli vered in America, Swami Omkar, the f ounder and president of Sri Santi Ashram, remarked, "As you know, in every religion on the face of the earth, there are two things, namely. esseniials and non-essentials. The essentials are th e same in all reli gions. But the non-essentials differ in every religion. One who has 1·ealized the essentials in his own. religion.. will not fail to feel the same Truth in all religions also. But one who is satisfied with the non-esseentials cannot help but be seeing differences ii1 all religions, for he 1i ves on the surface. How can· we call one religion g reat and ~nother small? Is not God the basis of all r eligions ? I s not God all-pervading?

Are we not repeating that He is omnipresent~ - If we . beiieve that he is everywhere, then why ca!l vve not feel H im in all religions ? So long as we li ve surface lives, we cannot help but behold the clifi'erences. But in spite of the di ffe rences, all r eligions have a common basis, namely Gocl. Suppose we take a garland. In a garland every fl ower appears -as di ffe rent from the other . But are not the flowe rs connected with thread or wire? Thus all these

H ERE A :;D T HER E

57

cli ffcr clll religi ons are conn ected with the same Uni versal L ove. Evcry re li g ion has irs ow n sublime beauti es. No reli;.;·i un n c,~ d ],o;t s l of its superi ori ty ove r ano ther .

C{) lll p : tr i li.~: ( l l o cccb (; r reli gio ns \\ ith the spirit of critici slll , ca ll ing c.m rciig inn a l<mc the best in th e world, is nothing llll l ig·nor a ncc ... 'l'Hli H UmHJt : OF '1'.\ L K IC\ G WITH 'l'HJ·;

RPII~ l'l'S

OF 'l'HE DEAD

M r. C. K. Chesterto n r ece ntly said, " Spiritualism is one 'of th ose trap 5 scattered over the course of history and daily human li f e which ul t.imately lead to people \Vastin g their time, and som etime far more important thin gs. I do not believe anybody can t ell n1e a nything said by any spirit or at a ny seance that h a s the ring or shar pncse of one of th e epi g ram s of one of the great sai nt s or th eologiau s."

I U~LI G 10:\

. AS IX:\ Bg

'S X l' E ltl Exc g

D r. R d>i nd muath T agm e is reported to h ave said r ecent ly to Mr. D oremu s S cudder, "We Indians meet God in natur e as Love a nd J oy rathe r thau as L aw. We have somethi ng in out llldiall n1 e ntu1ity which I may call ·a U nivc r:-;e conscimb ll Css or cosmic fe elin g. If \Ve h av·e not a fe eli ng of kinship with nature, we lm;e something ve ry vitaL T h e U niver;:;e, t h is ear t h , sk y, star all come from O na C e nt eal C re ative P er sona lity_ a nd this same creative will lw.:-; ,i b 11w 11 ifesta tion in our own consciousness; h e nce t h e r e i;;s nes t his souse of r elatiou::;hip be t ween t he inner self and the ou t et· world. I belie-ve that J e~m s r each ed br othe rhood t h r ough fa therbood , a nd t h a t this ha :-~ dono gre:1t g ood a nd lws b e ~,. ott en humanitarianism. ' · -'

\..__)

1..)

THE lVI EH E R MESSAGE

58

Yet !I ILIV

, l l d ,_ . t t o- (--.o cl t lJ oU•rh t he\· ,,-e fi JI ( m e n w lO · o n o" gc x· ' · " ·· . ~ 1· · .. t l 1e L· 111 r-o·h t• .

J1 e <>Tent [0\' CI'S o f. I l! O ll. h .o l g" !O ll l ,, l.l l ll O

, " . .~ .Tea clun g

. .

.

. _ . ·l · ,. . 1·,,. ·

,J11 o n t r oli g:Io i t 1:-> uut t e <~. c u n~-, t e 1,.._ 1"0 11 ' gi u1 1 1 111 1 ~ i he il lljl<~l' te d l'm 111 ~;p i ri t t n 0] 11 1'1!.

A ~ L\ HO ~!E'l' A N

0:\'

I SL .-D[ ' ::;

SI' IRI'l' UAL

H e It -

S[))E

U nder th e auspices of the Cresce nt Society, the Hon'ble Justice lVL K. Akbar of Ceyl on High Court - delivered a lecture, on J anuary 4 in t he L awley Hall , Madras, on ''Isl am and its signifi cance in the twentieth century." The lecturer spoke at length on the spiritual side of life and the waj to get at the truth. He asked them to refle ct upon the seriousneso; of this life and the mighty force be hind t his whole world. The y saw and knew things according to t heir individual abilit_y . This world was nothing but a r efl ecti on of \\'b at is in them.

If they pond ered deeply the y would re alize that nothing was done by their effor t. G od is one for all. All religions were alike. I slam was eiwugh for them, for they were born in it. The y should be si.ncere in their heart.

If they gave deep atter:tion to many of their religious te achings, the y would r ealize that in their degree of perce ption a stage would reach when in thifl world there would onlv exist God and nothin 0o· else . To 0o-uide. them .

J through t hose r eg ion;.: they would require the assistance of a Gu ru. God was love . They should not h at e anybody .

God was as much th eirs as of Hindus and Christians.

The 'speaker i.n conclusion appealed to t he youths t o st udy and und~ rstand hotte r tl~e ir r e1ig iom ·teachin gs and use t hem m a proper \l·ay l ll t he conduct of their lives. " " Hindu"

'J'llH JJH X U! PROJ3!1K11: ( l ·uh v111e S ccu'JI{ I P r(.?'t One) 13y D l'. Hwn. Nrwny r ~, , ,, L. J[. 8. l '· '' l)rrr<:fic el. J fedir ·ine." ( P ?IJ,Iishe?·s, " I )1·r;,cticnl ·1,"!;c,U:O?', Jliedir.ine " NuJ S e.n rL Delhi )

Thi s b ook, w hich contai :1s ne :::rly 650 p:J.g es and which is divided into h e

parts, vi z. ( I ) Editori al, ( 2 / Di alogue s betwe en Sage

V asis ht a and th e d rea me r, ( 3 ) C ontri buti ons in answ e r to the 14 Points

( 4 ) B rief ment-s

<: nswe rs

to th e

14 P o ints,

an<;! ( 5 ) Notable com-

and views, is at once inte resting a nd i.:structi ve , so

so th at its

served th ese w ho arc in the

i:Jtcll ec tu :J.! q uest ofT ruth

of thi s boo k is to sea rch aft e r

caily

The object

th e ultim ate Truth from the study

of three -states of conscionsn~ss - wa ki ~g , d reaming a nd the

much

a uth or, Dr. R am N a rayan, may justly be said to have

expe ri e::ce cf e ve ry hum an b ei ng.

d ee p sleep

Th e first p a rt of th e book

is th e mos t ir.structi ve, and we assur e Dr. R a m N ar aya n th at he has alread y graspe d th e ultim ate Truth b y hi s powe rful inte llect, and that all tha t he h as to d o now is to rea li ze it b y spiritual growth with the g race and g ui ancc of a S a d g u~u .

Th e lea rne d auth or believes in

Ab oslute Truth as one; in rei a ti ve truths as m any ; a nd in untruth or non-ex ister.ce as rw ne .

Th e A bsolute Truth· is th at- which is ever

prese r_t; re i a tive truth s a re th ese w hi ch a pp ea r to our se nses at one tim e ar.d di sa p pea r at anothe r; an d th e onl:r u::ltr!.!th i? thai which ne ver a ppea. s or co mes into cog ni zance of our senses.

The Ia w of Pol a rity

is th e key-note of th e author's ph ilosoph y, and h e ho ld s th at good reason and fa ll acy , like oth e r pairs of opposites, are th e tw o pol es of one and the

sa m e thing .

By th e law of P ola rity th e author me ans

nothi ng but m aya ; a nd h e wo uld ce rta inl y h a ve used th e latter term

TH E :\IEHER )J ESSAGE

GO

w e re it r: ot fe r the fact {h at ce rt a in p e rso:J~, ~ s soon as th ey h apr e ; to hear or see thi s wo rd , l< ne a tc::dc::•:)• to lose th e ir mental bn;ance and b eco me hyste ri cal. D r. !~;; rn Na rayan reg ards thi s world as maya . and the oc;: c . : l k ~l ·:/ :d: it'g st .,. tl: "' clrc: :nn. H e rig htly il sscrts, •' Wh at kee ps us fo rge tf ul or ob li v i cu ~ to

c ur R ea li ty is ''·!I!J"n or

ignorance, th e opposite pole of !J.'f' " t or urw .<is ( know led ge ) ~ ncl so strong is th e inRuence of th e ig r:ora>.cc upon us th at if we are told or re mi;;d ed of our Reality hy a ny illu mined soul , w e w ould :Jet beli e ve it like th e men born blind or th e d rez. m c1e atures, but oD the e th el h and , would yery much like .to fight wi th the man wh o says th at thi s so-call ed wak· ing ·world is as unreal a:!d c h3ng ~a bl e .as a dre:; m. R e plying to a;J Austra I ian critic, who considers C hri sti an Sci er.ce supe ri or to Vedanta on the suppcsed ground of practical util ity, zealous

V cdo.ntist

?.s he

is,

Dr.

Ram

N;;.rayan, a

rightly ob se rves that the practical

aspcet.:ts and utility of th e V edar:t a ph ilcsoph y consist i:1 curing the · nniversal dise as ~ fr c m wh ich th e ave rag e hum a:1 being is suffering and th at is ar;y<m or igr:o r~r:ce ar:d forg etfub :ss of our r~ a l Self

The

goal of lif e is to know cur re al S elf, i. e . to be a w a ke:oed into the ultimate Truth , not merely by intdl eci but by realizati on, and for this Dr. R a m N a ray an pre sc~ib es two v;ays, namely, yog a practice and the path of knowl edg e.

W e do not w ish to depreci o.te e ith e r of them, but

we must point out th at w ithout th e gr::ce a.-:d guid ar:ce

of a perfect

Master or a Sadg~rc none can r~alize G od.

The le amcd author tell s us th a t fro m his childhood days he was intc rebted in the myste ry cf th e pl anes cf c o r.sc i ousness -w a ki~g . dreaming and dre aml ess slee p, and th e probl em. th :!t puzzled him nist w~s th at

of slee p itself.

Why d ocs a pe rso;1 slee p at all ar.d is thus com-

pell ed to waste abc ut. one-third of hi s entire life in -slee p? · The usual reply to th is q uestion th ai as we ~ re fa ti g ued w ith th e lab ours of the d a y znd th e w <:s t ~ of tbsues needs repa ir , we go to slee p, did not a p pea I to hi s ir.te l!cct, fo r, if t h ~ t is th e case, why do old peo pl e, always feeling wea k ai1d exh o.ustcd , slee p so li ttl e , a:Jd why d o dan ts, w ho d o nothing to induce fa ti g ue, slee p mos t? The caus e of sleep is e ntirely spiritu al, and we assure th e auth or th at the stateme nt of a Swami, record ed on page r.i ne of th e Introducti on, bc·ars the sta mp of truth·.

R EVI EWS

61

Th e lea rned auth or, in his youth learn ed th e a rt of controlling drea ms by practice a long t he lines of auto-suggestion und to this he owes th e ap pea rance of the S ag e V asisht a in h is d rea ms.

The second

part of the boo k is d evoted to th e second d ialog ue b e twe en th e d reame r and th e S age .

It is as inte restin g as instructive.

every line of th e d ialogue b rea th es sanctity of th oug ht.

Almost

We would

fai n quote some of th e passages, but sp ace forbid s us to do so.

The

dialogue is followed by contributions in a n~wer to th e 14 Points in the Dream Probl e m by Indi an ¡and Europea r; w rite rs.

A few of the

contributions are simply rubbish, but th e majority of them are ;really worth reading . Dr. R am Narayan h as kindly requ ested us to send our answe rs to th e

I 4 P oints to him.

As we inte nd to respond to his

requ est, we need not discuss thos e poir:ts he re and now . It rests for us n0w only to commend this book of D r. Ram Narayan to our readers and assure th e m th at it is worth re ading .

NE W MENACE TO :tOBOA STIUANlSJ.vf COMI NG FR OM A THo'UGHTLESS 1-IINDU J.l1EMB ER OF THE LLGISLA TJVE A SSEMBLY:

By M1¡. F ar ecl1;,n K. D clcla chanJi. ( Frctsho ganl P ress , Fort, Bom bay) T he purpose of this brochure of fift een p ages , writt en in tre nchant lang uage is to show , fr om th e orth od ox P arsi vi ew-point, th e h arm that D r. Sir I-l ari S ing h Ga ur's Special M atri age A mendent Bill , for a mend ing A ct Jll of 1872 of the Govern me nt of Ind ia , w~ul d do to th e P a rsi commut1 it y, if it is p asse d . The pro posed Bill of D r. G our th e a uth o r reg ard s a s a viole nt d irect att ack on Zoroastria n re ligion, rites , c us~om s , and th e e nti ' e Parsi social fabr ic.

As th e P a rsis are ag ainst this Bill

D r. Gaur woul d d o well to om it th e m from its application. not d o to say th at it is pe rm i ssi ~e .

It would

路A

Highly Interesting Forthco1ning Publication

THROBS

SOBS AND OH.

Some Spiritual Sidelignttts With a Foreword by Mr. Mazharul Haque, Bar路at路1law

BY A. K. ABDULLA

(Hamjuu)

Price Annas 8 only Can be had of THE AUTHOR, Akbar Cotton PrGss,

AHI\1ECNAGAR.

A BOOK BARCAIN Hartmann's Who's Who In Occultism, New

Thought,

Psychism and Spiritualisn

(BRAND NEW COPY)

ORIGINAL PRICE

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APPLY TO--路Wlr. VISHNU, Akbar Cotton Press, Ahmednagar.

The following two Books by the E ditor of THE MEHER MESSAGE will be published next year:

(1) Love~s Loot and Fruit OR

Th e Boy=Lovers of Shri Meher Ba ~ a

The Messiah

(2) The Newer Testament OR

The Book of Divine Knowledge

THE VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY

By SRIDHAR MAJUMDAR. M.A. With origina l Susttas, th eir word for word meaning, explanatory quotations and an unbi asse d and th ouohtful exposi ti on in mo~t cle ar and lucid English, highly spoken of by th e Press, l'rt~!J ibddlu, JJiwrnlo. .

'J"Iu· r~d'.LU I< I X l'sa t" i, J'lt e S tlli''·;man, l'hc }rfoo'c-rn R n•icw, 1'h e .-hwr il£!

B a:::m· P1r,lr ik<~, 'l'luJ i ndian lJr<ily .I!ail. Ef •·.• as well as by the emi-

nent schol ars of the w orld, Drs. Barnet t, K eith, Jacobi, Jolly R apson, Hopkins, Winternitz , Thomas, Jac kso n, S. N. D as Gupta. Lord R onaldshay, Maha mahopadhy a yas Pr ama th a N ath T ark a Bhushan and Durga C haran Sa nkh ya V ed ant a T irth a, Pundits Kokile swar Sastri, S . R adh akrishn an and C opi Nath K aviraj, Brajavidehi M ohunt Maharaj S ant a D as Bab aji, etc., most attr active and useful to beginners, over 800 pages in all: Cl othb ound with titl e insc rib ed in gilt letters.

To be had of the author, Barisal Bengal, India.

THE PRITAM A Ch eap, Hi)::h Cbss & Il lu st!·aLe<l "'Ion t hl y l'U~.JABI

UUUI! UKHI .JOUH1\A L

Jl:d it M" - S. G URBAK HSH SJNG H NAURANG S p ecial c.:u n t ribuL io1 '" F,,·e r y ~I on t h on: S oc ial, Moral, r: ul i .~iu u ..;, l'ol itic: al :IIIII Hi ,;t;ori ca l T o pi c".

Specia l Arti c l e~ for Lad ie>' . E l"C:>UI L P1· in r in~ a nd tin e ~ et .up. Pages !:H .

Boau t ifui . Pi ct. ur o~ in Co lo ur.-= & in t.en~ :-:L in~ Ca!'too n ~ o n C u r r e nt T opie ~ and s p er:ial f e a tu r e ~ e,·nry tnu n t h.

Bes t M e dium for Aclv e t•tiz e m en t.

'PR I'l' AM ' Ca.,. '"' hnd from ;\I I Lhe A. H. \Vh ~:ulc i" B oo k s ta ll,. ." '" l n u w 8 a go 11 t s of e ve r y princ ip al t own.

Annua l Subsc r iption R~. 4 011l y.

F nr eig 11 R~. ,; o nly .

S ix mo 11 t h > i{ s. :2 .4 Sin g le copy " ~ 0 -ll -0

A p]'iY to the M !t1W.JG>" ,

THE P RITA M

(No . IS).

AMRITSAR, (1:-\DIA).

THE

MEHER MESSAGE DOES PUBLISH

ON

NO

ALCOHOL

ACCOUN'f

ADVERTIZEMENTS.

JUST PUBLISHED. A R emcwkctble B ook in Connection with S onw lV cwkings of fU\ZH~tH p,!EfiE~ BHBH

S])iritua~

$Db~ )UUl ~Jtrcb5 Olt

-~ ·~ al t

$.0 tU t A.

l i glt t ~

By K. ABDULLA ~-®-~

CON'l'EN 'l'S Ch r~pt n· 1 Love

Ch''l't r.,· x i T he F ir st \\"ond erfn l E scape XII T r ut h 'fell s H 'l 'he Gum of a n In sf. it ut ion X lll T he I nevi t a bl e Hcnct ion III Th e H ero IV Th e D ivi ne Lift X! Y 'l'wo n l a~ ten Meet v A ll Afl ame x v Th e 'l'ra nsfet·enco t,o T oka n Bey ond th e O ro ~ " x YI 'l' hc ~ I i'" ion to th e \Vest, VII 'l' he D e,· i l '>~ W nr k x nt H ist ory R epented nu T h e Hosult x Y!II 'l'ho Seco nd Bi< l for F reedom Ix S na t ched Away x 1x 'l' he Cha pt er of ~la n y E ,· e n t~ x Six J) ay~ of Separation xx Lo YC 'l' ri u m ph ~ Ag a in x xi Fres h F low o f :S piri Lua lity XX II Th o P u lsating I mpul 'e XX III 'l'he 1\l e 's" n .~ e r " of Lo,·e xx i v 'l' h e St ra ng o En d of a Stra ngo Stot·y S pa r k ~

One h1.md1'Cd cmd sixty-n ine p ayes of lit:ing spir it1w.l ?'Orn.a nce (~( a th1·oM1:n.r; hccw t, ·with fm w m ·t-page

·illnstr atio'ii,S. MOULANA MAZH A RUL HAQU E writes ir. the forew ard to this book : " Thi s book is a prose-poem. where in the Divine Love manifests itself in its d ee pest sign ificat ion . . . . . God·Love is the theme of th is work and one has to tune himself with the Infinite to behold th e superb par.orama of exq uisit e beauty and Infinite Love di spl aye d in H is creation. A message o~ G od Love is b e ing given to the world th(ough the instrumentality of His Holiness M eher Bab a .... · The book is well-w ritten and is sure to a ppeal lo the reading public. I commend it to thoughtfu! re ad e r's.''

Price

Re. 1.

N. N. SATHA, Akba:r Cotton P·r ess , A hmcdrwqa1· City (Deccan)

CAN BE H A D OF THE PUBLISHER .

---~

Printec t The Moh an Printing Press, and published frorri The Meher Me~$age Office , Arang aon, Ahmednagar, by the Proprietor and Editor, Kaikhushru Jamshedji Dastur.