Meher Baba
- May 23
- 4 min read
Meher Baba
Meher Baba is one of the conscious beings nearest to us in time: he died in 1969.
He was born in Pune, India. His Eastern essence makes him quite different from other conscious beings we have mentioned.
Meher Baba claimed to be God in human form. For many years, he dealt with students from the most diverse backgrounds. Many were mast, madmen—people who lived like tramps, deranged by their desire for God, unable to take care of themselves. He cared for them, shaved and washed them personally, and kept them close to him. He taught them without explaining anything verbally, just transmitting his presence through physical contact.
He declared that a person can be enlightened and simultaneously function in the lower world of practical things, and that is fine. Or he can be enlightened and be crazy in the lower world of practical things, and that's fine, too. As you can see, this conscious being does not really belong to the tradition of the Fourth Way, which requires functioning on the practical level. For 44 years Meher Baba did not speak. To communicate he used a Ouija tablet (a board used in seance sessions containing all the letters of the alphabet). He would quickly run his finger over the letters; in this way he dictated entire books and answered questions. He never broke his silence until his death. (Footnote: According to one version of the story, Meher Baba broke his silence the night before he died, when he said to a pupil who was near him: "Remember that I am not my body." The pupil rejoiced, thinking, "Wonderful, he started talking again!")
His doctrine can be summed up by saying that everything in the universe, from a rock to God, is God. The rock is God who perceives himself to be a rock; a human being is God who perceives himself to be a human being; God is God who knows he is God. Every creature that does not know that it is God is imprisoned in varying degrees of illusion.
Once (I did not know him yet, except by hearsay), a book about him came into my hand. I didn't have time to read it all, I had it for just a few minutes, so I decided to read a random page, to see what kind of man he was. I found this story:
Meher Baba insisted that one of his students go on a journey to bring a message to a certain man (whom the student didn't know). The message was, "God wants to give you a gift." In vain the student tried to ask why he had to go, why that particular man, what he should say if the man asked for explanations, and whether he had to specify what kind of gift it was. Meher Baba, with a certain harshness, commanded him to just go.
The journey was uncomfortable and long. When he arrived at the house, only the man’s wife was there. The wife said that, contrary to his habits, her husband was unavailable and that she had not seen him since the day before. The student, uncertain, said the message was personal and so he could not leave it to her, and returned to his teacher, rather relieved that he had avoided the embarrassing encounter.
On his return Meher Baba, having heard his story, said to him, "Go back to that man, right away, and leave him the message. "But he isn't there." “Go back and you'll find him."
He made the long journey again and this time he actually found the man, who had just come back home.
When, a little embarrassed, he gave him the message: "God wants to give you a gift," the man unexpectedly burst into tears. He said that he had left home for a couple of days because, desperate over a bleak financial situation, he planned to commit suicide. He hadn't had the courage then, but he had still intended to do it. But now, having heard this miraculous phrase, he dropped his plan; indeed, he asked if he could visit this unknown master.
A few quotations:
I came not to teach but to awaken.
There is only one Original Question and one Original Answer to it. Between the Original Question and the Original Answer there are innumerable false answers. These false answers—such as, I am stone, I am bird, I am animal, I am man, I am woman, I am great, I am small—are, in turn received, tested and discarded until the Question arrives at the right and Final Answer, I AM GOD.
My unique experience of the Beyond State is so unique that I simultaneously experience being everything and beyond everything. I am the song, its words and its melody, and I am the singer. I am the musical instruments and the players and the listeners. And on your level I explain to you the meaning of what I, the singer, sing.
From our friend Sergio Antonio, Milan, Italy Center. This selection from his book, A Question of Presence, is available from Amazon:
Meher Baba as a young man, Photo
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