THE REAL DHUNI

 
It was His order to us, so it is our pleasure to obey and light the dhuni each month on the twelfth.

But what about the sandalwood, and the burning up of sanskaras, you ask? Well, during a Sahavas program in 1955, Baba asked each one there to take a small piece of sandalwood and throw it in the fire. This piece of wood was supposed to symbolize some attachment we had, some attachment which was a hindrance in our journey to God. Each was to throw the piece of sandalwood in the fire with the thought that that attachment would be consumed. But there is nothing magical about it.

You don't need to wait until the twelfth to start burning up your attachments in Baba's divine love. For that ultimately is what the dhuni symbolizes — the fire of Baba's divine love. That love consumes everything, and if anyone is brave enough to throw themselves into the fire, they are consumed, their false self is burnt away, and what is left is the Real Self, and we call this God-Realization.

The dhuni is only a symbol of this. But does that mean that there is no point in going to the dhuni, that the whole ceremony is simply an empty ritual? Not at all. It is a means of remembering Baba. Baba told us to light the dhuni, so when we light it in obedience to His wishes, we are remembering Him.

When we take a piece of sandalwood and throw it in the fire, that will not automatically burn up one of our attachments, but if we think about Baba, if we sincerely dedicate ourselves to becoming His, then indeed we may start a fire in ourselves which is far greater than the fire we see in the dhuni.

Everything is a ritual, and nothing is; it all depends on how you approach it. If you go to the dhuni and throw in a piece of sandalwood because someone tells you you should, or because you want to get rid of one of your attachments without making any efforts, then it becomes a ritual, a bit of magic mumbo jumbo, and yet, even so, if your faith in Baba is great enough, you might just find that your attachment has been lessened.

But what is the point of freeing oneself from attachments? It is so we are free to remember our Lord, Meher Baba, the Avatar, with all of our heart and soul. And we can begin to remember Him now, where we are. Baba said that all of creation is only a reminder to humanity to remember the Creator. So the dhuni is one more opportunity to remember Baba.

It is an opportunity to focus more concentratedly on Baba. But the real dhuni is the human heart. And the real fire is the fire of love for God. And if we had the courage, the daring, every day, every moment, we would be attempting to throw our attachments on this fire. Not just attachments, we would be throwing ourselves onto this fire. That would be the real dhuni.