Part One
An Integrated Darshana:
God Speaks in Relation to Meher Baba’s Discourse Literature of the 1920s
August 26-27,2023, Meherabode, Los Angeles, California
With the publication of Creation and its Causes in August 2022, we now have available for our reading and study, in published form, the complete body of Meher Baba’s major discourse content from the early Meherabad period in the 1920s-with the exception of “The Book,” whose whereabouts remain unknown. Despite this one huge hiatus, we can still say that the combination of In God ’s Hand (1925), Infinite Intelligence (1926), Tiffin Lectures (1926-27), and Creation and its Causes (1927-28) provides us with a comprehensive account of what we could call the Avatar’s early Meherabad dispensation. How does this extraordinary body of content integrate with Meher Baba’s classic “philosophy and teachings” of later decades? In particular, what is the relation between this early material and God Speaks (1955), widely held to be Meher Baba’s metaphysical masterpiece?
Certain fundamental themes characteristic of Avatar Meher Baba’s message to the modem world are common to all of His discourse, from the earliest to the latest. His metaphysics could be summarized in the four-word sentence “God alone is real.” God is Everything, and the created world is a manifestation of the Nothing. The path to the realization of this great truth is accomplished through the long journey of the soul. Meher Baba gave to this narrative the name “the Divine Theme”; it represents one of His greatest contributions to humanity’s understanding of spiritual truth. Another central teaching concerns the causes of human bondage in sanskaras and karma; it is this that ties us to the cycle of reincarnation. Our escape from this enslavement lies in the path to God and the ascent through the planes of higher consciousness. There are several great paths, or yogas; yet the most important of these is the path of love. And the highest manifestation of such love lies in the relation between the seeker and the Master, the lover and the Beloved, who presents Himself to our eyes as the Perfect Master and Avatar.
August 26-27,2023, Meherabode, Los Angeles, California
All of these foundational themes feature in Meher Baba’s discoursing throughout the nearly five decades of His Avataric career. Yet His discourse in the 1920s brings into view perspectives that may seem strange and unfamiliar to close students of God Speaks and Discourses. One such theme is the dichotomy of thinking and the imagination. The scope and significance of the imagination, as explained in Infinite Intelligence, could never have been guessed at from Meher Baba’s later writings. In God’s Hand provides us with what we could call an illuminationist philosophy. Throughout this early literature, we are introduced to another major dichotomy, pran and akash, energy and space, which play an enormous role in the creation and constitution of the imaginary world that we see around us. Creation and its Causes also gives us a developed account of the asmans “skies,” which function as a kind of adjunct to the seven planes of consciousness and embroil many spiritual seekers and adepts in their visionary and fantastic inner domains.
But as a very first subject preliminary to all of this, I would like to begin with the topic of Meher Baba’s words. In the community of Meher Baba’s lovers, we have arrived at a stage where we need to ask: which books, which compilations of “Meher Baba’s words” should we regard as authentic? I would like to submit some standards which ought to be applied when claims are made in this connection. In particular, no text claiming to present “Meher Baba’s words” ought to be accepted as authentic if its sources are not specified. Authentic editions of Meher Baba’s words need to be offered to the public in the form of critical editions. The standards applicable to this are matters of concern to all Baba lovers and ought to be transparently put forth to one and all.
The Avatar Meher Baba Center Southern California -US - Archives ~ In Concert With ~ the MeherBabaLibrary Oral History Archive Project.
Reference: meherbabalibrary.org
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