… “I am working in seclusion to give the world my darshan. It is this darshan that will have meaning for those who love and know me.”
– Meher Baba [September 1968]
… Worldly pain and unhappiness are nothing but the outcome of mental weakness. In fact, no one in the world really suffers except those who thirst to have sight of the Divine Beloved. They feel like a fish flopping about out of water.
– Meher Baba
ये कज-रवी ना मेरी जान इख़्तियार करो
जो तुमसे प्यार करे तुम भी उससे प्यार करो
कहा जो मैंने के दिल बेक़रार है मेरा
तो हँस के कहने लगे और बेक़रार करो
दिखाओ जाम ना भर कर मैं बादा-ख्वार नहीं
मेरी नज़र को नज़र से गुनाहगार करो
महक उठेगी जवानी गुलाब की सूरत
हसीन बाँहों को मेरे गले का हार करो
मुझको तस्लीम मैं शराबी हूँ
फिर भी फितरत अजीब पाई है
मैं नज़र से शराब पीता हूँ
मेरी रिंदी भी पारसाई है
फ़िक्र-ए-सूद-ओ-ज़ियाँ तो छूटेगी
मिन्नत-ए-ईन-ओ-आँ तो छूटेगी
ख़ैर दोज़ख़ में मय मिले न मिले
शैख़-साहिब से जाँ तो छूटेगी
शिकन ना डाल जबीं पर शराब देते हुए
ये मुस्कुराती हुई चीज मुस्कुरा के पिला
सुरूर चीज़ की मिकदार पे नहीं मौक़ूफ़
शराब कम है तो साकी नज़र मिला के पिला
कुछ मुरक्के हैं जिंदगानी के
चंद उनवान हैं कहानी के
चांदनी, ज़ुल्फ़, रक्स, शेर, शराब
मुख्तलिफ नाम हैं जवानी के
शराब-ए-शौक को मस्ती में ला के पीता हूँ
मैं मा-सिवा की नज़र से छुपा के पीता हूँ
रुकू से जो बचे सजदे में जाके पीता हूँ
वो रिंद हूं जो खुदा को दिखा के पीता हूँ
तेरे दरवाजे पे चिलमन नहीं देखी जाती
जाने-जाँ हमसे ये उलझन नहीं देखी जाती
रुख पे ये ज़ुल्फ़ की उलझन नहीं देखी जाती
फूल की गोद में नागन नहीं देखी जाती
बेहिजाबाना मिलो हमसे ये पर्दा कैसा
बंद डोली में सुहागन नहीं देखी जाती
जाम में हो तो नज़र आए गुलाबी जोड़ा
हमसे बोतल में ये दुल्हन नहीं देखी जाती
घर बनायें किसी सहरा में मोहब्बत के लिए
शहर वालों से ये जोगन नहीं देखी जाती
हम नज़र-बाज़ हैं दिखला हमें देवी का जमाल
मूर्ती हमसे बरहमन नहीं देखी जाती
ऐ ‘फ़ना’ कह दे हवा से के उड़ा ले जाए
हम से ये खाक-ए-नशेमन नहीं देखी जाती
तेरे दरवाजे पे चिलमन नहीं देखी जाती …
Tere Darwaze Pe Chilman Nahin Dekhi Jati
by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan Qawwal
https://youtu.be/2XOpX-TIsbA
May 1960,
… Once, during a recital, Baba asked someone whose eyes were drooping, “Are you sleeping or awake?”
Startled, the man replied, “I am awake.”
“Whether you sleep or remain awake,” Baba remarked, “you are only dreaming! You can only be called awake when you see me as I really am! But no one can see me as I am until I open myself to him.”
Baba quoted these words of Krishna from the Bhagavad Gita in relation to his Avataric state:
I have placed myself under the veil of maya and so,
although I am the Effulgence, all cannot see me as I am.
Baba then quoted this line from Hafiz:
The emperors and the angels stand in adoration
with hands folded at the feet of the Real Dervish.
https://www.lordmeher.org/rev/index.jsp?pageBase=page.jsp&nextPage=4673
September 1968,
… On 30 September 1968, Baba stated: “Today I have sown the seed. We shall eat the fruits on January 10, 1969.”
Now that the period of Baba’s exclusion had ended, the limit to his lovers’ patience had also ended, and correspondence was flowing in from lovers all over the world requesting darshan. Knowing their longing, Baba remarked to the mandali: “I know that they are impatient to see me. And what about me? I, too, am impatient for them to see me. But the time has not yet come. So, my lovers and I, we must wait a while longer.”
When Bhau was with Baba during nightwatch, Baba would ask about the letters received. One day Bhau answered, “All of the letters seek just one thing — your darshan, and you do not give it!”
Explaining, Baba replied, “My work is different. It is not my work to travel continuously and hold darshan programs simply to allow people to bow down at my feet. It is not my work to give long discourses, to perform miracles, or to attract crowds to me. I do not come for this. I come for all; I come to awaken all!
“Never before in any age have I given as much darshan to people as I have given during this advent. And still you and others complain! My darshan is something quite distinct.”
He continued to explain, “You have no idea what I am really doing. The more you stretch a bow, the greater the distance the arrow will fly and the harder it will hit the target. I am in seclusion now, yes, but I am drawing back my bow farther and farther so that when I release the arrow of my love, it will strike deep and wound the hearts of all. The wounds will make them have my darshan continuously. They will have that longing for me, and that is my real darshan.”
Baba concluded, “I am working in seclusion to give the world my darshan. It is this darshan that will have meaning for those who love and know me.”
Still, as his lovers went from place to place spreading his message, a greater and greater number of letters were received from people asking for darshan. Baba would hear these letters as they were read aloud in mandali hall, those in English and Gujarati by Eruch, and the Hindi ones by Bhau. Those in Persian were read by Aloba.
During this period, an entire week passed by, during which Bhau had no opportunity to read aloud those letters forwarded to him. On the morning of the eighth day, Bhau took the considerable stack of letters with him into the hall, thinking that that day Baba would hear them and dictate suitable replies.
Baba looked at him and gestured, “Today, I have got a headache; you reply to them.”
As soon as he conveyed this, a thought came into Bhau’s mind: “What sort of God is he? His lovers are really great. They do not want anything spiritual or material from him; they only want his darshan. And he says, ‘No darshan!’ Then they expect a few loving words from him directly, and he says, ‘You reply!’ “
But Bhau did not say anything, and Baba also did not ask him anything. When Baba retired to his room that afternoon at three o’clock, Bhau followed him. At one point, Baba asked, “How many letters did you write today?”
Irritated, Bhau replied, “Not a single letter, Baba!”
“Why not?”
“Where was the time? I was with you in the hall and when you came here I followed you.”
“Yes, you are right. But tell me, what were you thinking back in the hall?”
“Nothing.”
“Tell me the truth!” So Bhau repeated what had passed through his mind — about Baba’s lovers being great and only wishing for his darshan. Baba replied, “Yes, you are right. My lovers are really great. But what do you mean by thinking this? You have been with me for so many years, yet you still don’t understand what I am doing for them! If they come to me, what will they see? This physical form. This is nothing!”
Baba hit his thigh with his fist, the sign he would make for his seclusion work, and gestured, “This is the real thing I am giving them, and you will witness with your own eyes what will happen to those who have not seen me physically. Although they have not seen me physically — they are with me and I am working for them. They are present here.”
https://www.lordmeher.org/rev/index.jsp?pageBase=page.jsp&nextPage=5346
May 1926,
… On 14 May, Baba revealed to the mandali:
Before the veil was torn asunder and I became God-conscious, I experienced the greatest [electric-like] shock that created for some time severe, violent vibrations, which are indescribable. This was followed by intense darkness and finally there was Light. The greatest imagination fails to conceive of the idea of this Effulgence, before which the light of the worldly sun is like a shadow of a drop of the infinite Ocean of dazzling Light. Similarly, the darkness I experienced cannot be described.
The world experiences darkness and light, but what I am talking about bears no similarity to these. Very few persons can see the Real Darkness and the Real Light. In the same way, very few experience real pain and misery which begins with the longing to experience God and the intense suffering at separation from Him.
Worldly pain and unhappiness are nothing but the outcome of mental weakness. In fact, no one in the world really suffers except those who thirst to have sight of the Divine Beloved. They feel like a fish flopping about out of water.
https://www.lordmeher.org/rev/index.jsp?pageBase=page.jsp&nextPage=652
… The veil with which the Avatar descends in the human form is placed upon him by the five Perfect Masters who bring him down from his formless being. In the Avataric periods, the five masters always put this veil upon the infinite consciousness of the Avatar, because if he were to be brought without such a veil into the world of forms, the existing balance between reality and illusion would be profoundly disturbed. However, when the five masters think that the moment is ripe, they remove this veil which they have placed on the Avataric consciousness. From that moment the Avatar consciously starts his role as the Avatar.
The incarnation of the Avatar does not take place unless it is precipitated by the five Perfect Masters of the cycle. In all of his incarnations except the first, even the Avatar needs a master in order to come into his own eternal and infinite consciousness. He does not become an exception to the rule that a “touch” of a master is necessary for God-realization. However, the “touch” of a Perfect Master does not necessarily mean physical touch. When we say that we are “touched” by music, or a poem or story, the touch has deeper significance. Far more truly is this so when it is a question of spiritual “touch.” In the case of the master, this deeper spiritual touch is often transmitted through the physical touch.
Every time the Avatar descends, he is not necessarily recognized as the Avatar by the masses. He can be recognized as such only by those who are very advanced spiritually. The Avatar himself is the least concerned about whether or not he comes to be recognized as Avatar by large numbers. He plays thoroughly his role as the Avatar and his chief work lies in the higher invisible spheres of existence. If, however, he appears at a critical or transitional cyclic period, as is often the case, he is hailed by the masses as the Avatar of the age.
The Avatar is not necessarily recognized and hailed as the Avatar by each and all, because he covers himself under a veil for his own spiritual work. This veil, under which he prefers to remain hidden, is different from the veil which the five Perfect Masters draw on him while bringing Him down in the human form. The veil which the Avatar puts on himself can be removed by him at any time, and for any person or persons as he may desire, for the purposes of self revelation or self-communication.
The Avatar does not take upon himself the karma of the world nor does he become bound by it. But he takes upon himself the suffering of the world which is the result of its karma. His suffering for the world is vicarious. It does not entail entanglement with the karma of the world. But humanity finds its redemption from its karma through his vicarious sufferings, e.g., illness, humiliation, accidents and the like. In his own ways, the Avatar unfailingly fulfills his incarnation by giving a spiritual push to his age.
BEAMS FROM MEHER BABA ON THE SPIRITUAL PANORAMA, pp. 30-32
https://avatarmeherbabatrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Beams.pdf
Meher Songs 