WAKE UP

 
God eludes our attention. We are not able to understand Him. Even though we are thinking with our minds, through our logic, all the actions of our lives are really not always logical. There are many, many actions which are most illogical. We try to understand Meher Baba by applying the yardstick of our logic to measure His height and depth. We absolutely fail because logic cannot grasp the Truth. At most, it can give us a little intellectual understanding. But what actual Reality is can never be experienced by the mind.

Baba says that we need not do any sadhana (spiritual discipline). We need not do any yoga or puja (the path of attainment which usually emphasizes external observance of religious rituals). We do not have to exert ourselves in this manner at all to understand Him, feel Him and see Him. Baba says that He resides in our hearts twenty-four hours of the day, and if we really want to see Him and feel Him — feel His presence — we can do it.

The poet Hafiz was a Perfect Master (Sadguru) from Iran. An idea that Hafiz expresses is that if you want to see the presence of God, the presence of the Avatar in your heart, you also must be present there; do not keep yourself absent from your own heart. Do not run after your desires. Do not go outside of your heart. Keep yourself present in your heart so that you will be able to see and feel Him there.

Our spiritual growth should unfold with no great labor in a most natural manner. I will give you an example. A child is born to parents, and he grows. We do not know how the child grows. The child at one time is a small baby, then he grows to two feet, three feet, four feet, six feet. How does he grow? In the most natural circumstances. The child doesn't need to do any sadhana, or yoga or puja, and yet he grows. We cannot observe how he does this, yet he grows in the most natural manner.

Meher Baba says, "I have instilled the growth of that soul in you, of that atma in you, of that spirituality in you, so that it unfolds in the most natural way. You need not do any acrobatics of the mind, any sadhana, nor undergo a long fast nor a long penance." You need not sit on top of the Himalaya Mountains to understand and feel Him. You need not go on any pilgrimages. You need not go to Nasik or Hardwar. You need not go to Kailas. What is left? God is everywhere. God is equally placed everywhere. He is as much in your house as in His Kailas. What is the importance of Kailas? Baba says, "I am in you, in your heart." Do not try to seek Him anywhere else except in your own heart.

Naturally you may ask the question, "Baba says that He resides in my heart, but how do I find Him? How do I know Him? How do I understand Him? How do I feel Him?" Shall I ask you a simple question? Do you love your child? Do you love your mother? Do you love your father? Does a husband love his wife? Do I love my friend? Do I love my teacher? This love is already there. Nobody has taught you how to love your father. I was never taught how to love my brother. A woman was never taught how to love her husband. The husband never had to be educated on how to love his wife. It is there already within you. You just have to make use of what already exists within you.

By loving Baba wholeheartedly, you can get everything. But don't ask! — then you will get everything. The Perfect Master Kabir — you may have heard his name — has said that if you do not ask and He gives it to you, what comes to you is something like pure milk. If you ask and He gives it to you, it is like water. And if you try to extract it from Him, pestering Him all the time, "Fulfill my desire!" "Give me this!" it is like blood. Have faith in Him. Does not a child have faith in his mother? A child is not able to look after himself. But the mother looks after the child. We must become a child before God, Meher Baba, and entrust ourselves to Him; then He will give us everything. Baba wants only our love — unselfish, pure, unadulterated, simple love — and nothing else.

Because of a relationship, you love all your friends, your parents, and so forth. So with Meher Baba, you have to establish your relationship, and then of course, you begin loving Him. And this relationship is established by creating circumstances in which you grow in love for Him. These very circumstances, this environment, are greatly responsible for evoking love in your heart. I shall give you an instance to that effect. A woman gives birth to a child. At the time of birth, the child is removed from the real mother and taken to another woman in whose charge the child is reared. By the circumstances created, the child begins loving the false mother as if she were the real mother, and when the real mother comes before the child, the child turns his face and says, "You're not my mother. I do not love you at all. She is my mother!" I am just giving an example of how circumstances are responsible for the growth of love.

Baba says, "I reside in your heart all the time, twenty-four hours, every minute of your life. I am there with every breath that you breathe. With every heartbeat, I am there. The only thing is for you to create the circumstances by which you will be able to love Me."