For nearly twelve years no word has passed my lips. Yet I am never silent. I speak eternally. The voice that is heard deep within the soul is my voice--the voice of inspiration, of intuition, of guidance. Through those who are receptive to this voice, I speak. My outward silence is no spiritual exercise. Once a devotee asked a Perfect Master why he fasted. The Perfect One replied, "I am not an aspirant; I am perfect. So I am not fasting to attain perfection. It is for others that I fast." A spiritual aspirant cannot act like One who has attained perfection, but One who is perfect can, for the sake of others, act like an aspirant. A person who has received a Master of Arts degree can write the alphabet on a blackboard to teach children, but it does not mean he is no longer a Master of Arts. Therefore, my silence has been undertaken and maintained solely for the good of others.(4)

"India has suffered a great deal. Will she have to continue suffering?" asked Gandhi of Meher Baba.

Meher Baba replied, "The situation as I see it is that if the British refuse to give you what is wanted, full Dominion Status to India, you will have to return empty-handed and be forced to start civil disobedience in India again. Despite your insistence on a non-violent revolution, if the atmosphere does turn violent, it will be difficult to check the situation. You have in recent months evidenced incidents of violence all over India. If such violence continues the spiritual cause of India will suffer tremendously. As long as civil disobedience in India is non-violently carried out, matters will work out successfully, otherwise India will have to continue suffering. But India will gain by this suffering, not lose, because suffering will prepare India to be courageous. Remember all good results after suffering.

"India has always been a land of spirituality and if spiritual greatness is to be maintained, the energy of suffering must remain. In order for it to remain spiritually great, India must be prepared to suffer, but non-violently."

While entering the retreat, Baba stopped for a moment and placed his hand on Dr. Watson's head in blessing and patted him on the back. So deep was the impact that Dr. Watson's heart began to heave and he sobbed like a little child. I led Dr. Watson to the library and allowed him time to compose himself. After fifteen minutes he calmed down and asked me with tears in his eyes, "How long have you been with him?"

"For seven years," I replied.

Hearing this answer Dr. Watson put his hand on my back and said, "My son, do you know how lucky you are to be able to stay for seven years in the company of such a personality?"

"Yes, I consider myself fortunate for this. It is all his grace."

After a moment's silence, Dr. Watson continued, "In my life of 78 years, I have experienced for the first time what God's love can be. Only one touch of Baba's hand has made me conscious of it."

Dr. Watson went on to describe his long spiritual search, having collected thousands of spiritual books, but that the knowledge gained from them "remained on the fringe of the mind". But, he said, "My search has ended today. This experience cannot be explained to anybody. It is to be experienced by the self--that I have realized now."

For one, two or three minutes at a time we would be silent with him. In those periods of silence we touched a depth in our inner being which we had never reached before. Tears of quiet ecstasy flowed from our eyes. Our hearts dilated until it seems as if they would burst the bonds of the body. What would have happened if the one, two or three minutes had been prolonged, only Baba knows--but they never were prolonged.(13)

In spite of all the observance of strict privacy, Baba's personality was so powerful that he immediately impressed those who happened to glance at him or casually pass by him. ...Among them was a Christian missionary who asked for, and was given, literature about Baba. A young man proceeding to Oxford for study was always particular to pay his respects to Baba whenever they passed. The ship's Italian stewards, sailors and officers especially seemed to sense Baba's presence, and they were all very humble and deferential toward him. They vied with one another to render assistance and tried to approach Baba on one pretense or another whenever an opportunity arose." Baba met with only one person, Professor Ernest Wood, a Theosophist working at the Theosophical Society in Madras, to whom he gave an explanation as to what he meant by spirituality.(14)

I have not come to establish any cult, society or organization, nor even to establish a new religion. The religion I will give teaches the knowledge of the One behind the many.(15)

The whole universe and its structure, I have created. The universe is my cinema. But just as an audience becomes absorbed in witnessing a drama on the screen, and the film engages their emotions and sways their feelings by its influence, causing them to forget that it is not real--in the same way, the spectators of the world are charmed by this worldly film show, forgetting themselves and taking it to be real!

So I have come to tell them that this worldly cinema in which they are absorbed is not real. I have come to turn their focus toward Reality. Only God is real, and everything else is a mere motion picture!

I do not need to tell you who are engaged in the production and distribution of motion pictures what a power you hold in your hands, nor do I doubt that you are fully alive to the responsibilities which the wielding of that power involves. He who stimulates the imagination of the masses can move them in any direction he chooses, and there is no more powerful an instrument for stimulating their imagination than motion pictures. People go to the theatre to be entertained. If the play is strong, they come away transformed. They surrender their hearts and minds to the author, producer, director and stars, and follow the example which they see portrayed before their eyes more than they themselves realize.(16)

She asked, "How can I touch him?"

"Why not?" Norina replied. "All can meet Baba!"

This brought tears to her eyes, and she pitiably asked, "But I am a sinner! How can I touch a holy being like him?"

Baba then went to her, and passed his hand over her head and shoulders. She started weeping, and Baba gestured to her, "I am the purest of the pure. I can purify the worst sinner. You have understood your mistakes and acknowledged them faithfully in the presence of others, and so you are forgiven. This penance from the depths of your heart is adequate, and you are now cleansed. Now, don't fear in the least and don't repeat your past mistakes. I give you my blessings!" The girl burst into tears, and Baba lovingly embraced her. The tears which Baba had drawn from her heart wiped out all her sins.

Those who witnessed this were deeply moved; their hearts overflowed and their eyes also teared. Before departing, Baba again embraced all the guests and putting his hand on the girl's head, consoled her, "You have received forgiveness for everything! Forget the past and don't worry at all." The girl pressed her eyes to Baba's hand and kissed it. As Baba left, all eyes followed him. In their films, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks had depicted scenes of deep human love, but witnessing this sight of pure divine love from Meher Baba was a rare experience indeed. Their hearts were full. (17)

"Look, Baba, you're not going to break your silence at the Hollywood Bowl. Why go through all this fuss with the radio and newspapers? Why make these people go to all this trouble? People will be mad, very angry with you, if you do not speak. And I know you won't!"

"Upset, Baba scolded Adi, 'No, no, you don't know! Keep quiet! This time, I am going to do it!' Adi didn't say anything else, though he disbelieved that Baba would so such a thing, and actually feared that they might be beaten or killed by the angry people once they discovered what Baba was planning otherwise."(19)

Baba arrived with his group the day before Christmas... The next day Baba spent in granting interviews to different people who had heard of his coming. In the late afternoon we all trekked to the beach to escort Baba back to town, from where he would resume his drive back to Hollywood. As we walked along the beach single file, Baba's car had broken down, and we all kept looking at Baba in the hope that he might perform a miracle, but Baba decided to let the law of mechanics take its course. So the car was pushed forward and Baba and I walked on ahead.

This was when a most unusual experience took place: Baba looked at me, and then pointed to the Pacific Ocean. I said, "Oh yes, it is very big." Baba shook his head, as if to say "No." Again he waved his hand, and I said, "Oh, yes, it is very beautiful." Once again, "No." Finally, a loud speaking voice said, "I AM AS BIG AS THE OCEAN." And you know Baba does not speak.(23)

I veil myself from man by his own curtain of ignorance, and manifest my Glory to a few. My present Avataric Form is the last Incarnation in this cycle of time, hence my Manifestation will be the greatest. When I break my Silence, the impact of my Love will be universal and all life in creation will know, feel and receive of it. It will help every individual to break himself free from his own bondage in his own way. I am the Divine Beloved who loves you more than you can ever love yourself. The breaking of my Silence will help you to help yourself in knowing your real Self.

I had said, "Well, you're asking questions that are so right, and so profound and so important, that we can't go about it in just the hit-and-miss fashion you're doing. The only thing I can suggest is that if you want to sit down one night a week, for three months, I'll try to bone up and do some homework and we'll talk about basic mysticism through the centuries, from as far back as we can trace it up through Meher Baba at present." It wasn't designed to be totally Meher Baba, just basic mysticism.

Of course I knew, and they eventually knew, that Baba was the apex, the current, great chapter in it. Those four kids came, but when they came to the first meeting, I think they were seven or eight, and that surprised me. And the next meeting it was fifteen, and the next meeting it was twenty-five. So I said, "Now look, we've got to have an understanding. The absolute limit for this group is thirty-five people. If more than that (any of your other friends want to come) we'll form a new group at the end of three months."

Three months later they finished and another group of thirty-five came. We did that for two, somewhere between two and three years. They were some of the most incredibly, beautifully exciting people I have ever been around in my life.(24)

...the feasibility of this type of experience, is one of the most exciting prospects in freeing oneself and man (concomitant with the path of love and service of course). One might liken it to a technique, such as meditation...which can break through our ego's 'games' and traps extremely efficiently.

All so-called spiritual experiences generated by taking "mind-changing" drugs are superficial and add enormously to one's addiction to the deceptions of illusion, which is but the shadow of Reality.

The experience of a semblance of "freedom" that these drugs may temporarily give to one is in actuality a millstone round the aspirant's neck in his efforts toward emancipation from the rounds of birth and death!"

...When you study the book God Speaks, you will understand how very impossible it is for an aspirant to realize God without the grace of a Perfect Master, and therefore, it is of paramount importance for a genuine spiritual aspirant to surrender himself to the Perfect Master, who has himself realized God.

To penetrate into the essence of all being and significance, and to release the fragrance of that inner attainment for the guidance and benefit of others, by expressing, in the world of forms, truth, love, purity and beauty--this is the sole game which has any intrinsic and absolute worth. All other happenings, incidents and attainments can, in themselves, have no lasting importance.

Suddenly, there he was! Sitting on his bed, unclothed from the waist up, beaming--the Emperor of emperors. What occurred then I shall never forget--a great loosening, a shaking from within. I am not given to visions, or 'seeing things,' or hallucinations, but on beholding his form, what I saw was his resplendent face at the center of an effulgence so brilliant, of a light so complete in its all-encompassing radiance, that tears blurred my vision in rivers of delight. There was no way I could stop it. The light was so brilliant, it was like looking into the sun, and so tears naturally had to flow. Here he was, the One who in his compassion had granted this speck of his imagination a glimpse of the Sun!

Tell those who indulge in these drugs that it is harmful physically, mentally and spiritually, and that they should stop the taking of these drugs. Your duty is to tell them, regardless of whether they accept what you say, or if they ridicule or humiliate you, to boldly and bravely face these things. Leave the results to me, I will help you in my work.(25)

I am confused and would value your counsel. In 1961, as a professor at Harvard, I had the opportunity to ingest a chemical derived from the Mexican mushroom, which has been treated as a sacrament by the Mexican Indians through their recorded history. For my colleague, Timothy Leary, and I it appeared to pierce the veil of illusion that our limited reality was indeed the only reality and show us, albeit briefly, the possibility of man's true identity. Because we were social scientists interested in helping our fellow man, we set about a systematic exploration of psychedelic chemicals, including LSD.

At first it appeared as if the chemical would do it all--truly and everlastingly bring one to God. With time, however, we realized that the chemicals but showed one a possibility experientially when previously there appeared to be no possibility, or at best only an intellectual one. ...

Recently Allan Cohen, one of my past students from Harvard, visited us. Because you are present in such a real sense in our home, he felt at home with us. Yesterday we received a letter from him reporting the message Bob Dreyfus was bringing from you--No drugs! We called and spoke with Bob, but I, for one, felt the need for a little additional clarification.

Inside of me I feel that LSD has been a major influence in my own life of a positive nature and that the work I have been doing in the United States is humanly good. I also hear your message and understand that you probably do know.

At first I entertained the possibility that you did not understand that LSD is quite different and, in fact, quite opposite from the opium derivatives. But reflection and communing with you via your written word, has failed to support my initial reaction. Thus, at present, I feel you do understand. I should like to understand also. Can you help me?

No drug, whatever its promise, can help one to attain the Spiritual Goal. There is no short cut to the Goal except through the grace of the Perfect Master, and drugs, LSD more than others, give a semblance of 'spiritual experience,' a glimpse of the false reality.

The experiences you elaborate in your letter and book are as far removed from Reality as is a mirage from water. No matter how much you pursue the mirage you will never reach water and the search for God through drugs must end in disillusionment. ...

To a few sincere seekers such as yourself, LSD may have served as a means to arouse that spiritual longing which has brought you into contact with Meher Baba, but once that purpose is served further ingestion would not only be harmful, but have no point or purpose. Now your longing for Reality cannot be sustained by further use of drugs, but only by your own love for the Perfect Master, which is a reflection of his love for you. ...

Meher Baba has pointed out that the experiences derived through drugs are experiences by one in the gross world of the shadows of the subtle planes and are not continuous. The experiences of the subtle sphere by one on the subtle planes are continuous, but even these experiences are of illusion, for Reality is beyond them. And so, although LSD may lead one to feel a better man personally, the feeling of having had a glimpse of Reality may not only lull one into a false security, but also will in the end derange one's mind. ...

Only the One who knows and experiences Reality, who is Reality, has the ability and authority to point out the false from the real. Hence, Meher Baba tells those who care to heed him that the only real experience is to see God continuously within oneself as the Infinite Effulgent Ocean of Truth, and then to become one with this Infinite Ocean and continuously experience infinite power, knowledge and bliss."(26)

Meher Baba indicated that medically there are legitimate uses of the drug LSD. LSD could be used beneficially for chronic alcoholism, for severe and serious cases of depression, and for relief in mental illnesses. Use of LSD other than for specific medical purposes is harmful physically, mentally and spiritually. LSD is absolutely of no use for any kind of spiritual awakening. Use of LSD produces hallucination, and prolonged use of this drug will lead to mental derangement, which even the medical use of LSD would fail to cure. Proper use of LSD under the direct supervision of a medical practitioner could help to cure insanity. It could lead to insanity if used for purposes other than strictly medical.(27)

As I leaned over to lay my heart onto my 'Heart' I glanced into his light-flashing eyes--moment of Sun-brightness, moment of wordless joy, moment of moments in the arms of God!

I did not clearly recall for about two weeks that Baba had kissed me on the forehead--it was so gentle, so natural. I had just embraced him for the first time in this life, though it was as if he were my oldest friend, beaming, radiating joy as I entered his arms.(28)

After about six months of Baba following, Baba was still alive then, I met a guy in San Francisco who had met Baba in India called Rick Chapman. Rick lives in Berkeley and runs Meher Baba Information from Box 1101 at the Post Office there. He is the man responsible for the glut of DON'T WORRY, BE HAPPY cards that you must have seen if you live in San Francisco. As we sat in a shared hotel room in San Diego I rolled a joint, spouting some high flown guff about being a happy Baba lover. Rick took it very calmly considering that he spends a good part of his time lecturing on the spiritual side effects of "soft" drugs and what Baba had said about them. Anyway, that day was my last stoned day in the normal sense. ...

Baba washed the religious preconception from my heart with my own tears. I love Jesus far more now than I ever did at infants school as I sang, "Yes, Jesus loves me." Now I know he really was the Christ. Remorse came naturally through Baba, so does love, it can't be forced and it can't be limited. ...

So I never met Baba. Never wrote him a letter or received one. How am I hanging on? I'm not hanging on, I'm stuck on. People could easily get the idea that I'm an unwilling Baba lover, or "Baba Tryer" as I prefer to call myself. No, it's just that I was unwilling to let go of that incredible piece of happiness, that unqualified stab of love that I didn't even ask for, didn't expect, and it's made my life, which I know to be as colorful as any, gray in comparison.(29)

I went to Woodstock, and I remember looking at all these beautiful young girls and boys and seeing how sweet they were and yet how deluded they were. And simply hoping that their beautiful dreams would find a way of being transformed into something more practical and more real. Some of us Baba lovers were active helping people off bad drug trips. Most of it was simply holding hands until people came down.

And we distributed at least ten thousand cards with a picture of Meher Baba and his universal message, "Don't worry. Be happy." ...

I would just sort of knock at the tent, and people, somewhat with a sense of annoyance at being disturbed, would say, "Yeah, what is it?" And I'd say, "Hi, I just want to give you this," and we'd give out this lovely picture of Baba smiling. The responses were always, "Oh, wow! Hey, he's a beautiful man. This is wonderful. (33)

There are very few things in the mind which eat up as much energy as worry. It is one of the most difficult things not to worry about anything. Worry is experienced when things go wrong, but in relation to past happenings it is idle merely to wish that they might have been otherwise. The frozen past is what it is, and no amount of worrying is going to make it other than what it has been. But the limited ego-mind identifies itself with its past, gets entangled with it and keeps alive the pangs of frustrated desires. Thus worry continues to grow into the mental life of man until the ego-mind is burdened by the past. Worry is also experienced in relation to the future when this future is expected to be disagreeable in some way. In this case it seeks to justify itself as a necessary part of the attempt to prepare for coping with the anticipated situations. But, things can never be helped merely by worrying. Besides, many of the things which are anticipated never turn up, or if they do occur, they turn out to be much more acceptable than they were expected to be. Worry is the product of feverish imagination working under the stimulus of desires. It is a living through of sufferings which are mostly our own creation. Worry has never done anyone any good, and it is very much worse than mere dissipation of psychic energy, for it substantially curtails the joy and fullness of life. (34)

Baba is handed over a written statement by an aged man. It is the confessions of the confused state of his life which makes him believe that he is fallen and feels utterly broken.

BABA: I know. No need to tell me, and I will explain. Don't worry. When one is meant for spiritual advancement, one has either love or lust to the extreme. This lust must be converted into love. What is lust, but a craving to satisfy physical senses, and love is the craving of the soul. I know all about you and will spiritually help you. Never think that you have fallen so as not to rise again.

BABA: Ask if she wants to speak about anything to me.

(She nodded refusal.)

BABA: I understand, because what can explanations mean when internal help is at hand? Real help is spiritual help, and not by words and explanations. I'll help her. (A tear trickles down her cheek. She feels intensely and lays her hand in Baba's, and sits there for about a minute, when Baba asks her to leave, she goes away full of feeling and much affected.) (35)

The phenomenal world of finite objects is utterly illusory and false. It has three states: (1) the gross, (2) the subtle, and (3) the mental. Although all these three states of the world are false, they represent different degrees of falseness. Thus the gross world is farthest from Truth (God), the subtle world is nearer Truth, and the mental world is nearest to Truth. All three states of the world owe their existence to cosmic illusion which the soul has to transcend before it realises the Truth.

The sole purpose of creation is that the soul should be able to enjoy the infinite state of the Oversoul consciously. Although the soul eternally exists in and with the Oversoul in an inviolable unity, it cannot be conscious of this unity independently of the creation, which is within the limitations of time. It must therefore evolve consciousness before it can realise its true status and nature as being identical with the Infinite Oversoul, which is One without a second. The evolution of consciousness required the duality of subject and object--the centre of consciousness and the environment (i.e., the world of forms). (36)

Baba: Baba told Ella, that all this is nothing but a dream, only God is reality. And God is in everything, in everyone. When Ella goes to sleep and sees the dream in her sleep, her body is on the bed. Yet, she goes about, goes to a party, enjoys a good dinner, eats well, feels happy; and there is a situation when she feels really sorry. She suffers. Both pain and pleasure are there; although the body is there on the bed! (It) doesn't go anywhere, doesn't leave the bed. And yet, Ella enjoys. When Baba comes there in that dream, while she is enjoying or, while she is suffering or weeping, and Baba tells her, "Ella, don't worry: all this will disappear--it is nothing but a dream!"

Lady: (in audience, at back of room) Louder.

Baba: (Eruch speaking louder) --Baba appears there in dream, and tells Ella, "Don't worry, Ella, don't weep--all this is nothing but a dream--it will disappear."

But she says, "Baba, how?! I suffer! How can I forget all that? I see you, I see others. Some are troubling me, some are giving me pleasure. How can I believe that it is nothing but a dream? And how will that dream disappear? They are all there, actual, they are like reality!"

But, no sooner she wakes up in the morning, then she suddenly realizes that she saw a dream, and Baba had come in (the) dream, and Baba was explaining that it was nothing but a dream, and she should not suffer, or should not weep. But she didn't listen to Baba. And then she starts weeping while she is doing her daily work, remembering the dream of the night.

Then Baba told Ella, "Ella, that was a dream when you were sleeping, but Baba says this is another dream. While you are living and working, while you are sitting here near me. All that you see here, this New York City, and the Baba-lovers here, and Baba Himself sitting here, and the siren that you hear, are nothing but illusion. It's a dream!"

Then Ella would say, "Baba, this is too much! I can't believe that. Because, I see them actually! (some people are giggling) They talk to me, I hear it, I hear them talking to me, I see you here sitting near me, explaining (to) me."

Still Baba insists by saying, "Ella, no, it is nothing but a dream!" Then, after years, after Baba's Grace, Ella suddenly wakes up from this vacant dream. Then what does she find? She finds only God is real. And infinite. And that bliss, the experience of that infinite bliss, unlimited, continual, is there. Then she will realize that what Baba said was true.

Christ had said the same thing. Why did He undergo crucifixion? Because humanity would never listen to Him. He said the same thing: "I am the Reality. All follow Me. Wake up from the dream!" None listened. Few, of course were there--the "circle was there. The same thing is repeated. That's why I tell you, "Love Me, more and more." And... make others love Me.

Through your own example, make others happy. God will listen to that. No sooner you make others happy, God knows immediately. He is pleased. No amount of prayer, meditation, rites, rituals and ceremonies will please God. He is deaf then, totally deaf. But, to help others, to serve others, at the cost of your own happiness, immediately, God knows about it, God hears it, your actions, your activities and is pleased.(38)