DISCOURSES & TALKS BY MEHER BABA

SPIRITUAL INDEPENDENCE

VS.

POLITICAL INDEPENDENCE

On Thursday, 5 August 1926, while holding a discussion with Nusserwan Satha and Vyankatesh Sridhar "Kaka" Chinchorkar (devotees from Ahmednagar), the Master explained to them about desires and spiritual independence versus political independence. Baba ended by emphasizing:

Real bhakti [devotion] means "to die a thousand times a day." Thus a poet has said, "If you have the longing to receive the wound of an arrow, then first create a heart that would venture on such a dangerous game, that would bear its hardships, and that is bold enough to endure its sufferings."

This quotation expresses not only the literal and outer meaning that one should "create a heart," but also the inner sense, that the sufferings of the wound should be borne without anyone else knowing it; quietly, without the slightest murmur or sign of pain.

There should be absolutely no outward show even though one may be suffering from deadly wounds and cut into pieces from inside!

Ah — what burning! What love, what desire! The terrible heat of the sun is as nothing compared to that burning sensation! All these burnings and other such ordeals are on the part of the independent seeker of Truth, who has not found a Guru or a Guide. Those who have found a Sadguru, however, have nothing to do except dedicate themselves to him with complete blind submission. Even if the orders of the Master seem incomprehensible or even repellent, you have to carry them out with bowed heads. Do as the Sadguru tells you to do, even if his instructions are against your will or beyond your understanding. This is the easiest way to God. For, if one at all desires to reach this Goal of Truth, one must burn and consume oneself in that desire, without any other consideration of mind, body, or soul: and this is most difficult. You are lucky to have found such a Sadguru in me.

5TH AUGUST 1926

Lord Meher On-line p. 695-6