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To: All Dear Ones BELOVED AVATAR MEHER BABA KI JAI! From Shiva: The following is the second part of a compilation of messages Bhau sent to various Baba lovers over the course of the last few weeks. Although not an "Awakening," it is profound and reassuring and especially relevant at the moment. Part II, of: Illusion and Reality, Meher Baba’s Work Released and His Universal Manifestation, and A Message to Baba Lovers from Bhau. From Bhau: Beginning of Part II ILLUSION AND REALITY Love cannot be conditional and when it becomes conditional, it is the play of Maya, illusion or the Devil. We remain attached with our own shadow, and we do not want to discard it. This shadow makes our false self very, very strong. When you don’t want to get rid of this false self, our Beloved Himself suffers and suffers. At present, the whole world is under illusion’s clutch, caught up in unnatural acts and forgetting the commands of God. The action and reaction of Meher Baba’s Universal Work are speeding up, and Maya is playing with humanity. No one can understand this, because the awareness is not there. The age of awareness will begin after His Universal Manifestation, when the Beloved Himself will play with humanity. Two types of events happen in the domain of illusion: natural and unnatural. Natural behavior, attitude and deeds are based upon love for God and form a medium for one to make progress toward Reality. To achieve this love, one must follow God’s commands, particularly honesty and sincerity. Anyone caught up in greed, selfishness, pride, and other low desires that go against the commands of God remains completely under the clutch of Illusion in an unnatural way. These unnatural activities take them away from God. When creation took place, illusion also began. Illusion as the shadow of God always remains until the instant one realizes God. Then illusion ends for him or for her. And what is the end? You understand that the shadow is merely a shadow -- you are not affected by it. This shadow has many shadows, and we must pass through these subsidiary shadows so that we may come to know that all this was nothing but a shadow. Whether good or bad, every happening is false because everything happens in the domain of Maya or illusion. Nothing has ever happened in the domain of Reality. Nothing ever will happen in it. But if Maya is false, and everyone remains yet in its grip, how can we expect it to play its role properly? The role of Maya falls under the Divine Plan, which has been established for everyone to progress from the unconscious state of God to the conscious state of God. If Maya exists only in non-existence, what value does it have? Just nothing. Yet in order to realize Reality, people must use the domain of illusion properly as they pass through it. Reality is Reality, and Reality exists eternally. We call this Reality God or Allah, Paramatma or Yezdan, Ahura Mazda or God-Almighty. This Reality alone exists. The hand of Allah is in everything, and it is called Divine Will. Everything, whether good or bad, happens according to it. If something good occurs, that is under Divine Will. If something bad occurs, that, too, is under the Divine Will. That’s why we see distinction between good and bad in the domain of illusion. This distinction is not there in the domain of Reality, because nothing happens there. The calamities of this week fall under Divine Will, not under Divine Wish, which Beloved Baba fortunately has expressed to us. Divine Wish operates according to the search inspired by the Whim, "Who Am I?," and only the Divine Wish makes this quest possible. The Divine Wish directs you to perform deeds to fight with the Devil, or shadow, and follow God, Allah. The Divine Wish also indicates the right direction to go toward God, not illusion, in order to wake up from this false dream. How fortunate we are that we have come in His contact and are trying to follow His Wish. Thus it goes on and on; not in the domain of Reality, but in the domain of falsehood. Life is both real and false simultaneously in everyone; the real life remains as a witness, and the false life continues thinking and doing good and doing bad. All these actions are committed by the false life, and therefore, it is all nothing but a dream, illusion, Maya. When the force of the false life increases in humanity, people suffer and suffer. They do things which push them further away from the path of Truth, and Reality. But such acts bind them and create further suffering for humanity. Now, as everything happens according to Divine Will, it is true that suffering also happens according to Divine Will. But God, the Compassionate Father, must take care of His children. Only a few children remain obedient to Him. The rest, trapped by the grip of illusion, or Maya, are very, very mischievous. No one is to blame if they forget the Truth. This is all under the Divine Plan and works out under Divine Will. Because the force of illusion is so tremendously strong, the process for people to arrive at these feelings of awareness is very long. Age after age, the situation in the world goes on changing, and when the force of Illusion becomes overpowering, the Father comes down on Earth to save His children from illusion’s trickery. During His physical lifetime, The Father works and works for His children. But because His mischievous children give him a lot of trouble, the Avatar suffers for them infinitely. His children remain intoxicated by the liquor of Maya, and none know how much their Father is suffering. But the Father cannot reject anyone, even if they cannot recognize Him as he plucks them from the grip of illusion. When His Work is fulfilled, everyone will recognize the Advent of the Father on earth and His suffering for them. The shadow of God includes innumerable false selves, you may call them "entities." Though these "entities" exist in non-existence, they can influence and effect happenings in illusion. Of course, remembrance of God weakens the power of the Devil/shadow. When you experience a dangerous, miserable dream, you wake up. When you experience a good dream, you want to prolong it. Only when you wake up from a dream, whether good or bad, do you come to know that it was merely a dream. Reality in everyone is not aware of the false life passing through good and bad dreams. Someday, we all shall wake up from this dream. Reality exists eternally, so it does not have to force itself into false existence. It is already there. Illusion, however, must take every advantage to exert its power. Because it does not exist, it must force its false existence upon us. Even though it is nothing, see how powerful the shadow has become! Time and time again, Beloved Baba said that He will grant it full opportunity to go to the extreme. We observe illusion increasing and increasing, but He has not yet increased it to the zenith. His Work will reach the zenith simultaneously along with Maya’s work, and once He Manifests universally, spirituality will also go to the extreme. The force of Illusion (Maya) will become less, and the force of Divinity will become strong. How He has been toiling for this! MEHER BABA’S WORK RELEASED AND HIS UNIVERSAL MANIFESTATION Beloved Avatar Meher Baba suffered and suffered as our Compassionate Father, and on the 31st January, 1969, He said, "Maya is killing me, but I will win." When Beloved Baba dropped His body in 1969, he released His Universal Work. This was the beginning of the Devil’s role, and the beginning of the end of His Universal Work for this Advent. Maya (illusion or the Devil) was extremely upset, not wanting to lose its grip on everyone. So now it is resisting, toiling diligently against the Wish of the Beloved. Therefore, though such tragedies are occurring, this phase has to finally end. God is the hope for all. Until He is recognized, these tragedies will go on. Unless the world becomes helpless and hopeless, it will be impossible for the world to realize this fact and truly follow the commands of God. It is the beginning of the end, but to reach the end, it will take awhile. Meher Baba’s Universal Manifestation will occur in one hundred years from the time He dropped His body, so there will be a long time for the world to recognize Him. Nevertheless, we see more and more people coming in contact with Beloved Baba. This is a great gift, and the whole world will receive this gift when His Universal Manifestation takes place and acknowledges the Avatarhood of Meher Baba. God in human form works to create Oneness in order to help people progress spiritually. But since Baba’s Work is always aligned against the Devil, the Devil (as His shadow) always opposes Him. This work of the Devil, creating opposition against Reality, God, has been going on continuously since creation. Whenever the Ancient One comes down on earth as the Avatar, Christ, or Messiah, the Devil’s work reaches full momentum. Beloved Baba said that at its culmination, when the force of Maya or illusion reaches the zenith, "My spiritual work will also manifest at its zenith." At His Universal Manifestation, we will observe the fulfillment of Beloved Baba’s Universal Work. The victory over Maya will prove to be the victory of all victories for Him. The world will witness how the Beloved has won. You will see Him everywhere glorified, and at that time, He will throw the spiritual bomb. Since the result of His Universal Work will have been completed for this age, people will consider that the Beloved has broken His Silence. The force of the Devil (Maya or illusion) will be lessened to a great extent. And because Baba will have created in people an awakening towards God, they will follow God. As Beloved Baba said, "Maya (the Devil) will lose, and in accepting the defeat, will keep quiet. It will then bow down to Me, Reality, and then there will be peace." MESSAGE TO BABA LOVERS FROM BHAU I am very happy to hear that Baba lovers are well, though they remain emotionally affected by the terrorist attacks. Everywhere people are feeling sad because of the Devil’s actions. Why do you think that you are crippled? Never think such a thing. Whatever the Devil is doing, it is a necessary evil. Those who have recognized Beloved Avatar Meher Baba can never be crippled. They will cripple the Devil. We all are just ordinary persons, so it is natural for us to be shocked by the destruction the Devil caused. But the shock is also a dream, and though we are shocked, it is good that we are awakened because the Beloved All-Powerful is with us. For the time, let the Devil work. What we will have to pass through, we don’t know. The facts we do know reside in the domain of ignorance, and thus all we know is actually ignorance. We do not possess Knowledge; it is not the Truth. We think that we know everything and that we are intelligent -- very, very intelligent -- even though no one is sure what might happen in the next moment. This is only the beginning of the end, and for the present it will go on and on. There will be many tragedies, but they are nothing but the game of illusion. False life within us creates illusion and delusion, and we forget the Real Life which God lives in us and for us. We must realize that he is showering His love on the world so that all His mischievous children may turn towards Him in order to follow His commands. In His own way, He is taking care of all His children, good ones as well as the mischievous and the stupid. It does not mean that you should keep quiet. Even if you try, you can’t. But whether you are mischievous or you are bad, He will embrace you. He will embrace everyone. But fortunate are those who have recognized the Real Beloved, Avatar Meher Baba, and follow His Wish. The Sound of His Silence will soon be vibrating all over the world, and one day, the whole world will recognize Him. That is why there is hope. We are not helpless. His strength is with us, and this strength, everyone will someday have. It is destined. We must help our fellow beings as much as possible. Pray for them, and be with them in their sorrow so that they may derive strength. In fact, we are all One, but because of illusion/Maya/Devil, we forget our Oneness. Only God exists, nothing exists besides God. And He is always with us; He is our Real Life. When we witness the Devil bow down to Reality (Truth), there will be peace. Till then, the only thing we can do is to pray to Beloved Baba to give us the strength to follow His Wish and His commands. Please inform all dear ones that they should have hope, be happy, and not worry about anything. I know that you all won’t worry because you are following Reality, Beloved Avatar Meher Baba. Love Beloved Meher Baba more and more, because He is the only Savior of the Universe, and the Jesus Christ of the present age. You are fortunate that He has His loving Nazar [gaze] on all His dear ones. He is with you, as He is with all. Be brave and strong in Beloved Baba’s love and remain fast in His faith. Only love for God and Beloved Avatar Meher Baba’s Wish can help us do this, and when such feelings arise from the heart, you remain unaffected by anything good or bad. So the only message I can give is to hold fast to Beloved Avatar Meher Baba’s daaman. Remember Him, and at every step say "Avatar Meher Baba ki Jai!" in such a way that the world may hear! Know fully well that He is the active Reality. He is the Savior, and He is the Compassionate Father. He will not ignore anyone, but will take care of us and not allow us to sink in the ocean of illusion. We must put full faith in Him and go on remembering Him. He is our Protector and our strength. He is our Savior, the One who will keep us out of the Devil’s clutch until His Universal Manifestation. He will protect one and all in His own way, so that everyone will follow the Truth, Reality. He will never fail us, and will give us His Love so that we may realize, that no matter what is happening, only He exists. All else besides Him is nothing but a dream. We must wake up from this dream to embrace Reality in the form of our Beloved, Avatar Meher Baba. End of Part II In His Love and Service, P.S. Coming soon. Bhau’s “Awakening” of 30th, “My Sahavas Cannot Be Closed,” followed by a brief account of Bhau’s delightful and Baba-filled tour of Andhra Pradesh. P.P.S. If you would like to read Bhau’s previous "Awakenings” but missed out on them, you can find them posted at www.JaiBaba.com. P.P.P.S. If you are not receiving these "Awakenings” directly but would like to, please send an email to shiva2001@indiatimes.com with "Add My Name to the List” in the subject line. No need to put anything in the body of the message. |