Question::
How to develop ‘love’? What qualities help develop “love”?
(or)
What are the qualities that aid the development of the “knowledge of inner self”?
(or)
Why should one possess “faith”?
(or)
What is “external experience”? What is “internal experience”?
(or)
Why ‘Spiritual Freedom’ is absolutely necessary for each and every individual? What happens once ‘Spiritual Freedom’ is attained?
Answer::
(Extracted from Meher Baba’s literature, which is a copyright of Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust[©AMBPPCT], Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, Bharat/India)
1) There is no more ready means by which the first outlines of the “inner self” can be known than through ‘complete honesty’. ‘Honesty with one’s fellow beings’ is the beginning step; from this there cannot help but come “honesty with oneself.”
It is heartening to find that– even the ‘worst of one’s nature’ is not frightening, and that the very fact of having faced the ‘worst in oneself’ gives the courage to look at the challenges of ‘life’ and the ‘path’. Having achieved ‘honesty’ and found ‘courage’, the sustaining self begins to reveal itself.
To be honest is certainly not easy, for never before has ‘dishonesty’ and ‘hypocrisy’ been so rampant in the world as today.
If the least ‘hypocrisy’ creeps into one’s thoughts, words or deeds, God- who is the innermost Self in us all, keeps Himself hidden.
‘Hypocrisy’ is a million-headed cobra. Today, there are so-called saints in the world who tell people to be honest and not hypocritical, yet they themselves are deeply involved in dishonesty. If you cannot love God and cannot lead saintly lives, then at least do not make a pretense of it. The worst scoundrel is better than a hypocritical saint.
‘Honesty’ is not only a light on the inner path, it is also one of the most effective means for relief of the ‘suffering’ which afflicts all– man or woman, rich or poor, great or small.
Relief from all kinds of suffering is within ourselves if, in all circumstances and in every walk of life, we try to think honestly, act honestly, and live honestly.
‘Infinite honesty’ is one of the aspects of God, and therefore the ‘least hypocrisy’ in ourselves keeps us aloof from God.
2) “Simplicity” and all it implies, is another great aid in the development of human love.
Simplicity springs from humility, and humility is often confused with modesty.
Modesty is weakness but humility is strength. Therefore, a world of difference separates the two.
The moment you say “I say in all humility…”, the very use of the expression betrays your ego. Even though, you believe that you are being humble, you are expressing your egotism.
The difficulty is not resolved even if you try with ‘true honesty’ to express ‘true humility’. Inevitably, obstacles arise, such as the thought of what others may think of your expression of ‘humility’.
No sooner is humility given expression than it is no longer humility. It is nonsense to give DELIBERATE EXPRESSION to humility.
A ‘life of humility’ is lived spontaneously and should not give rise to thoughts of either ‘humility’ or ‘modesty’.
As an example, suppose you start to clean a latrine, but you cannot help noting the smell. A janitor who has cleaned them all his life remains unaffected. The person who parades ‘humility’ is like the one who notes the smell while cleaning a latrine. The person who LIVES the ‘life of humility’ is like the sweeper who is IMMUNE to the odour, and completely unworried about what others think of him. He actually lives the life of a janitor.
To have to try to be humble is also nonsense. You must be so natural that your life becomes humility personified, which means all strength freed from all weakness.
So, whatever you are, express it unmindful of public opinion and the reaction of others. Be natural. If you are ‘dishonest’, do not try to hide yourself behind the curtain of ‘honesty’. This does not mean, though, that you should be dishonest.
Above all else, be content with your lot– rich or poor, happy or miserable. Understand that God has designed it for your own good and be resigned to “His will”. Remember the ‘present’ in the frame of the ‘past’ and the ‘future’. You eternally were and always will be. You have had innumerable “forms” as man and woman, beautiful and ugly, strong and week, healthy and sickly, powerful and helpless, and now you are here again in another “form”.
Until you gain spiritual freedom, you will be invested with many such ‘forms’, so why seek temporary relief now, which will only result in further bindings later?
Do not ask God for money, fame, power, health or children but seek “His grace” and it will lead you to “eternal bliss”.
3) One of the greatest things to possess is “faith,” which ultimately leads to “conviction”; and from ‘conviction’ one day arises “realization”.
There are NO two kinds of faith. Faith is the last thing to be labeled. The only question is whether one has ‘strong faith‘ or ‘weak faith‘. Some manifest faith only to the point of acknowledging forms and ceremonies, while some go beyond this to seek the kernel and eschew the hull, believing either in the ‘impersonal existence’ or in the ‘personal existence’ of one’s own master.
Thus, it is only a question of ‘degree of faith’. In “whole-hearted faith”, relief will be found from the many sufferings which afflict man.
We are already in possession of infinite ‘power’ and ‘happiness’, but it is our ‘way of life’ which prevents us from enjoying these eternal treasures of God.
“Faith” can provide a key to attain them.
Eventually, “faith” must give way to CONVICTION, for after all, faith is only faith. There are two kinds of experience- external and internal.
- “External experience” can result through “gross media”. What we actually see of the gross world through our gross eyes gives us conviction of a sort, but there are occasions when even this conviction is based on INCORRECT ANALYSIS.
Thus if we see a man drinking milk from a bottle under a toddy° tree, WE ASSUME UNCONSCIOUSLY that he is drinking toddy, which is incorrect. - What is seen with the “inner eye” gives ABSOLUTE CONVICTION, and can never be false. Such is the case, for example, when one sees with the “inner eye” that God is the Infinite Existence.
Therefore what is really needed to give eternal conviction is not mere theorizing or reasoning or even faith, but “ACTUAL (INNER) EXPERIENCE.”
Once God has been realized, there is no question of ‘faith’ or even of ‘conviction’, just as there is no question of a man’s needing faith to believe that he is a man.
Having transcended the boundaries of ‘faith’, one finds oneself identified with the infinite and the one Self manifested everywhere.
– Meher Baba
° A cheap, intoxicating drink commonly made in India from the sap of the toddy tree.
Source ::
Listen Humanity, Pg:: 183-185
© AMBPPCT, Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, India/Bharat
