The Commandments

Meher Baba

1. Desire for nothing except desirelessness .

2. Hope for nothing except to rise above all hopes.

3. Want nothing and you will have everything.

4. Be angry with none but your own weakness.

5. Hate none but your lustful self.

6. Be greedy to own more and more wealth of tolerance and justice.

7. Wage war against your desires, and Godhood will be your victory.

8. Serve others with the understanding that in serving them you are serving Me.

9. Be resigned completely to My Will, and My Will be yours.

10. Let your temptation be to tempt Me with your love in order to receive My Grace.

The Divine Theme

The Divine Theme

Evolution, Reincarnation, and the Path to Realization

By Meher Baba

A soul becomes perfect after passing through evolution, reincarnation, and the process of realization. To gain full consciousness, it gets increasing sanskaras in the process of evolution, till in the human form, it gets full consciousness as well as all the gross sanskaras.

In the process of reincarnation, this soul retains its full consciousness and exchanges (i.e., alternatingly experiences) the diverse sanskaras in itself; and in the process of realization, this soul retains its full consciouness, but its sanskaras become fainter and fainter till they all disappear and only consciousness remains. While becoming faint, gross sanskaras become subtle sanskaras, subtle sanskaras become mental sanskaras; and finally they all disappear.

Up to the human form, the winding process of sanskaras becomes stronger and stronger in the process of evolution. In the human form, in the process of reincarnation, the winding retains its full strength; but in the process of realization, the sanskaras gradually unwind themselves, till in the God-state, they are completely unwound.

God, the Over-Soul, alone is real. Nothing exists but God. The different souls are in the Over-Soul and one with it. The processes of evolution, reincarnation, and realization are all necessary in order to enable the soul to gain self-consciousness. In the process of winding, sanskaras become instrumental for the evolution of consciousness though they also give sanskaric bindings; and in the process of unwinding, sanskaric attachments are annihilated, though the consciousness which has been gained is fully retained.

In the process of the winding of sanskaras, the soul goes through seven stages of descent; and in the process of unwinding, the soul goes through seven stages of ascent. But the phenomena of descent as well as ascent are both illusory. The soul is everywhere and indivisibly infinite; and it does not move or descend or ascend.

The souls of all men and women, of all nationalities, castes, and creeds, are really one; and their experiences of good and evil, of fighting and helping, of waging wars and living in peace are all a part of illusion and delusion, because all these experiences are gained through bodies and minds, which in themselves are nothing.

Before the world of forms and duality came into existence, there was nothing but God, i.e., an indivisible and boundless ocean of Power, Knowledge, and Bliss. But this ocean was unconscious of itself. Picture to yourself this ocean as absolutely still and calm, unconscious of its Power, Knowledge, and Bliss, and unconscious that it is the ocean. The billions of drops which are in the ocean do not have any consciousness; they do not know that they are drops nor that they are in the ocean nor that they are a part of the ocean. This represents the original state of Reality.

This original state of Reality comes to be disturbed by an urge to know itself. This urge was always latent in the ocean; and when it begins to express itself, it endows the drops with individuality. When this urge makes the still water move, there immediately spring up numerous bubbles or forms around the drops; and it is these bubbles which give individuality to the drops. The bubbles do not and cannot actually divide the indivisible ocean; they cannot separate the drop from the ocean; they merely give to these drops a feeling of separateness or limited individuality.

Now let us study the life of one drop-soul through its different stages. Owing to the arising of the bubble, the drop-soul which was completely unconscious is invested with individuality (or a feeling of separateness) as well as with very slight consciousness. This consciousness, which has sprung up in the drop-soul, is not of itself nor of the ocean; but it is of the bubble or the form, which in itself is nothing. This imperfect bubble at this stage is represented by the form of a stone. After some time, this bubble or form bursts and there springs up in its place another bubble or form. Now, when a bubble bursts, two things happen: (1) there is an increase in consciousness, and (2) there is a twist or consolidation of impressions or sanskaras accumulated during the life of the previous bubble. The consciousness of the drop-soul has now slightly increased; but the drop-soul is still conscious only of this new bubble or form and not of itself nor of the ocean. This new bubble is represented by the form of the metal. This new bubble or form also bursts in due course of time; and simultaneously there is a further increase in consciousness and a fresh twist or consolidation of sanskaras, which gives rise to the emergence of another type of bubble or form.

This process continues right through the course of evolution, which covers the stages of stones, metals, vegetables, worms, fishes, birds, and animals. Every time that the previous bubble or form bursts, it gains more consciousness and adds one twist to the already accumulated sanskaras, until it reaches the human bubble or form, in which the ever-increasing consciousness becomes full and complete. The process of the winding up of sanskaras consists of these regular twists; and it is these twists which keep the consciousness, gained by the drop-soul, directed and fixed towards the bubble or the form instead of towards its real Self, even when consciousness is fully developed in the human form.

On gaining the human form, the second process begins; this process is that of reincarnation. At this point, the process of the winding up of sanskaras comes to an end. The drop-soul takes numerous human forms one by one; and these forms are exactly eighty-four lakhs in number. These human forms are sometimes those of man and sometimes those of woman; and they change nationalities, appearance, color, and creed. The drop-soul through human incarnations experiences itself sometimes as a beggar and sometimes as a king, and thus gathers experiences of the opposities of happiness or misery according to its good or bad sanskaras. In reincarnation (i.e., in its successive and several human forms) the drop-soul retains its full consciousness but continues to have alternating experiences of opposite sanskaras, till the process of realization begins. And during this process of realization the sanskaras get unwound. In reincarnations, there is a spending up of sanskaras; but this spending up is quite different from the unwinding of the sanskaras, which takes place during the process of realization. The spending up of sanskaras itself creates new sanskaras, which bind the soul; but the unwinding of sanskaras does not itself create fresh sanskaras; and it is intended to undo the very strong grip of sanskaras, in which the drop-soul is caught.

Up to the human form, the winding up of sanskaras becomes stronger and stronger during the process of evolution. In the human forms of reincarnation, the winding continues to operate as a limiting factor; but with every change of the human bubble or form, the tight twists, gained during the process of winding, get loosened through eighty-four lakhs of shakings, before they are ready to unwind in the process of realization.

Now begins the third process of realization, which is a process of ascent. Here, the drop-soul undergoes the gradual unwinding of the sanskaras. During this process of unwinding, the sanskaras become fainter and fainter; and at the same time, the consciousness of the drop-soul gets directed more and more towards itself; and thus, the drop-soul passes through the subtle and mental planes till all the sanskaras disappear completely, enabling it to become conscious of itself as the ocean.

In the infinite ocean of the Over-Soul, you are the drop or the soul. You are the soul in the ordinary state; and you use your consciousness in seeing and experiencing the bubble or the form. Through the gross layer of the bubble, you experience that part of the huge gross bubble which is the earth. You are eternally lodged and indivisibly one with the Over-Soul; but you do not experience it. In the advanced stage, up through the third plane, you use your consciousness in seeing and experiencing the huge subtle bubble called the subtle world, through the subtle bubble or form called the subtle body; but you do not see and experience the Over-Soul which you are in, since your consciousness is not now directed towards the Over-Soul. In the advanced stage from the fourth through the sixth plane, you use your consciousness in seeing and experiencing the huge mental bubble, which is called the mental world, through the mental bubble or form which is called the mental body, but even now you do not experience the Over-Soul. But in the God-realized state, you continually use your consciousness for seeing and experiencing the Over-Soul; and then all the forms are known as being nothing but bubbles.

So, now, picture yourself as the soul-drop, lodged in the Over-Soul, behind five layers after the gross body. You, the soul-drop, are now looking at the gross body and through it at the gross world. When you look at the second layer and through it, the first layer will appear to you as nothing but a layer only, and thus, looking behind each layer, you will find all these layers as only your shadow covers; and finally, when you (i.e., the soul-drop) look at and get merged in the Over-Soul, you realize that only you were real and all that you were seeing and experiencing till now was your own shadow and nothing else.

The Avatar

Discourses by Meher Baba

CONSCIOUSLY or unconsciously, every living creature seeks one thing. In the lower forms of life and in less advanced human beings, the quest is unconscious; in advanced human beings, it is conscious. The object of the quest is called by many names—happiness, peace, freedom, truth, love, perfection, Self-realisation, God-realisation, union with God. Essentially, it is a search for all of these, but in a special way. Everyone has moments of happiness, glimpses of truth, fleeting experiences of union with God; what they want is to make them permanent. They want to establish an abiding reality in the midst of constant change.

It is a natural desire, based fundamentally on a memory, dim or clear as the individual’s evolution may be low or high, of his essential unity with God; for, every living thing is a partial manifestation of God, conditioned only by its lack of knowledge of its own true nature. The whole of evolution, in fact, is an evolution from unconscious divinity to conscious divinity, in which God Himself, essentially eternal and unchangeable, assumes an infinite variety of forms, enjoys an infinite variety of experiences and transcends an infinite variety of self-imposed limitations. Evolution from the standpoint of the Creator is a divine sport, in which the Unconditioned tests the infinitude of His absolute knowledge, power and bliss in the midst of all conditions. But evolution from the standpoint of the creature, with his limited knowledge, limited power, limited capacity for enjoying bliss, is an epic of alternating rest and struggle, joy and sorrow, love and hate, until, in the perfected man, God balances the pairs of opposites and transcends duality. Then creature and Creator recognise themselves as one; changelessness is established in the midst of change, eternity is experienced in the midst of time. God knows Himself as God, unchangeable in essence, infinite in manifestation, ever experiencing the supreme bliss of Self-realisation in continually fresh awareness of Himself by Himself.

This realisation must and does take place only in the midst of life, for it is only in the midst of life that limitation can be experienced and transcended, and that subsequent freedom from limitation can be enjoyed. This freedom from limitation assumes three forms:

Most God-realised souls leave the body at once and forever, and remain eternally merged in the unmanifest aspect of God. They are conscious only of the bliss of union. Creation no longer exists for them. Their constant round of births and deaths is ended. This is known as mukti or liberation.

Some God-realised souls retain the body for a time, but their consciousness is merged completely in the unmanifest aspect of God, and they are therefore not conscious either of their bodies or of creation. They experience constantly the infinite bliss, power and knowledge of God, but they cannot consciously use them in creation or help others to attain to liberation. Nevertheless, their presence on earth is like a focal point for the concentration and radiation of the infinite power, knowledge and bliss of God; and those who approach them, serve them and worship them are spiritually benefited by contact with them. These souls are called Majzubs, and this particular type of liberation is called videh-mukti or liberation with the body.

A few God-realised souls keep the body, yet are conscious of themselves as God in both His unmanifest and His manifest aspects. They know themselves both as the unchangeable divine essence and as the infinitely varied manifestation. They experience themselves as God apart from creation, as God the Creator, Preserver and Destroyer of the whole of creation, and as God Who has accepted and transcended the limitations of creation. They experience constantly the absolute peace, the infinite knowledge, power and bliss of God. They enjoy to the full the divine sport of creation. They know themselves as God in everything, and are therefore able to help everything spiritually, and to make other souls realise God, either as Muktas, Majzubs or Sadgurus as they themselves are called.

There are fifty-six God-realised souls in the world at all times. They are always one in consciousness. They are always different in function. For the most part they live and work apart from and unknown to the general public, but five, who act in a sense as a directing body, always work in public and attain to public prominence and importance. These are known as Sadgurus or Perfect Masters. In Avataric periods, the Avatar, as a supreme Sadguru, takes his place as the head of this body and of the spiritual hierarchy as a whole.

Avataric periods are like the spring-tide of creation. They bring a new release of power, a new awakening of consciousness, a new experience of life—not merely for a few, but for all. Qualities of energy and awareness, which had been used and enjoyed by only a few advanced souls, are made available for all humanity. Life, as a whole, is stepped up to a higher level of consciousness, is geared to a new rate of energy. The transition from sensation to reason was one such step; the transition from reason to intuition will be another.

This new influx of the creative impulse takes, through the medium of a divine personality, an incarnation of God in a special sense—the Avatar. This Avatar was the first individual soul to emerge from the evolutionary process as a Sadguru, and he is the only Avatar who has ever manifested or will ever manifest. Through him God first completed the journey from unconscious divinity to conscious divinity, first unconsciously became man in order consciously to become God. Through him, periodically, God consciously becomes man for the liberation of mankind.

The Avatar appears in different forms, under different names, at different times, in different parts of the world. As his appearance always coincides with the spiritual birth of man, so the period immediately preceding his manifestation is always one in which humanity suffers from the pangs of the approaching birth. Man seems more than ever enslaved by desire, more than ever driven by greed, held by fear, swept by anger. The strong dominate the weak; the rich oppress the poor; large masses of people are exploited for the benefit of the few who are in power. The individual, who finds no peace or rest, seeks to forget himself in excitement. Immorality increases, crime flourishes, religion is ridiculed. Corruption spreads throughout the social order. Class and national hatreds are aroused and fostered. Wars break out. Humanity grows desperate. There seems to be no possibility of stemming the tide of destruction.

At this moment the Avatar appears. Being the total manifestation of God in human form, he is like a gauge against which man can measure what he is and what he may become. He trues the standard of human values by interpreting them in terms of divinely human life.

He is interested in everything but not concerned about anything. The slightest mishap may command his sympathy; the greatest tragedy will not upset him. He is beyond the alternations of pain and pleasure, desire and satisfaction, rest and struggle, life and death. To him they are equally illusions which he has transcended, but by which others are bound, and from which he has come to free them. He uses every circumstance as a means to lead others towards Realisation.

He knows that men do not cease to exist when they die, and therefore is not concerned over death. He knows that destruction must precede construction, that out of suffering is born peace and bliss, that out of struggle comes liberation from the bonds of action. He is only concerned about concern.

In those who contact him he awakens a love that consumes all selfish desires in the flame of the one desire to serve him. Those who consecrate their lives to him gradually become identified with him in consciousness. Little by little, their humanity is absorbed into his divinity and they become free.

Those who are closest to him are known as his circle. Every Sadguru has an intimate circle of twelve disciples who, in point of realisation, are made equal to the Sadguru himself, though they differ from him in function and authority. In Avataric periods the Avatar has a circle of one hundred and twenty disciples, all of whom experience realisation and work for the liberation of others.*

Their work is not only for contemporary humanity but for posterity as well. The unfoldment of life and consciousness for the whole Avataric cycle, which has been mapped out in the creative world before the Avatar took form, is endorsed and fixed in the formative and material worlds during the Avatar’s life on earth.

The Avatar awakens contemporary humanity to a realisation of its true spiritual nature, gives liberation to those who are ready, and quickens the life of the spirit in his time. For posterity is left the stimulating power of his divinely human example, the nobility of a life supremely lived, of a love unmixed with desire, of a power unused except for others, of a peace untroubled by ambition, of a knowledge undimmed by illusion. He has demonstrated the possibility of a divine life for all humanity, of a heavenly life on earth. Those who have the necessary courage and integrity can follow when they will.

Those who are spiritually awake have been aware for some time that the world is at present in the midst of a period such as always precedes Avataric manifestations. Even unawakened men and women are becoming aware of it now. From their darkness they are reaching out for light; in their sorrow they are longing for comfort; from the midst of the strife into which they have found themselves plunged, they are praying for peace and deliverance.

For the moment they must be patient. The wave of destruction must rise still higher, must spread still further. But when, from the depths of his heart, man desires something more lasting than wealth, something more real than material power, the wave will recede. Then peace will come, joy will come, light will come.

The breaking of my silence—the signal for my public manifestation—is not far off. I bring the greatest treasure which it is possible for man to receive —a treasure which includes all other treasures, which will endure forever, which increases when shared with others. Be ready to receive it.