DISCOURSES & TALKS BY MEHER BABA

 

PERFECT  MASTER

 

 

August, 1922

 

After a while longer, Baba stopped the game and told the men a true story about a Perfect Master:

 

One day a Sadguru went with some of his disciples to a city where he was known. He approached a candy shop and entering, put some sweets in his mouth. His disciples, too, mimicked him in this respect.

 

He then visited a bakery and there also the same thing happened. He picked up some cookies and put them into his mouth, and his disciples did the same.

Then he went to a blacksmith's shop where there were red-hot pieces of iron in the furnace. The Master picked up one of the pieces and ate it!

His disciples stared at him. The Sadguru then said, "Now eat this too!"

Not one dared move and the Master admonished, "Why did you do as I did? Are you parrots? Never do as I do, but do as I say."

 

 

 

Lord Meher On-line page 318-9

Lord Meher Vol.2 p.402

 

 

5th October, 1922

 

As my disciples, you have nothing to do with either heaven or hell. You have to tread the spiritual path, going beyond both heaven and hell, to experience infinite bliss.

 

I have held out to you expectations of something much higher than this dream of heavenly paradise and hellish damnation. I have given you the hope that you will gain the experience of Truth by staying with me; that is to experience Paramatma [God the Infinite Consciousness] and to fathom the secret of creation. To gain this Knowledge without the help of a God-realized Master is impossible. Without the guidance of a Perfect Master, individual efforts are of no avail.

 

Hafiz has said:

 

"Without a guide, do not try to enter the path of love.

I have failed hundreds of times by doing so."

 

Maulana Rumi, whose Masnavi Usman is so fond of citing, corroborates Hafiz: 

"Had not Maulana Rumi been the slave of Shams-e-Tabriz,

He would never have become a Perfect Master."

 

One whose object is the attainment of God — whose sole aim in life is to find God — what does he care for heaven and hell? In this connection, Hafiz has said:

"Since I see my Friend throughout both worlds,

Heaven, hell and the houris don't worry me."

 

Poor Usman Saheb does not understand what he talks about. To say that only Rasool-e-Khuda [Muhammad] can point out the Path or take all Muslims to heaven is a beggary that beggars description! His case is so helpless that instead of being in search of the Truth, he leaves even the question of heaven for himself entirely in the hands of God and also asserts that by our own efforts we should earn entry into heaven, else it is hell! It is sheer hypocrisy to preach to others that which you yourself do not practice.

 

 

Lord Meher On-line page 336

Lord Meher Vol.2 p.422-3

 

 

        USMAN S.M.                                   HAFIZ                                         MAULANA  RUMI