WAKE UP

  I shall quote a small example which I myself have experienced about this conviction. I explained it to an American on my visit there with Meher Baba in 1956. Hundreds of people were coming and taking Meher Baba's darshan. One man stood at a little distance. He would not go away. He was standing and watching everything that was going on. So Baba asked me to go and have a talk with him. I went and asked him, "Sir, why have you come here?"

He said, "What is going on? I don't believe in God. Who is this Meher Baba? Why does He claim to be God? I do not believe in any God. I do not believe in the God of Christianity."

I said, "Sir, I admire the courage of your conviction. You are a very open-minded man, and I think Meher Baba would like you very much. Meher Baba welcomes you."

He said, "How can Meher Baba welcome me? I do not believe in God. And Meher Baba claims to be God Himself. How could He ever welcome me?"

I said, "One of His messages is that you may not believe in God consciously but because you are a human being, have a human body and are alive, your very existence testifies to your unconscious faith in God."

He was a little moved. And then he further asked me, "But please, tell me what have you gained from being with Meher Baba for so many years?"

I asked him a counter-question, "Sir, what is your profession?"

He replied, "I am a scientist."

I asked him, "How long have you been a scientist?"

He said, "For many years."

So I said, "Will you please explain to me what you have gained by being a scientist for many years?"

"How can I tell you what I have gained during my period of twenty-five years?"

"Then how can I tell you, sir, what I have gained with Meher Baba?" I continued, "How can I tell you of my thirty-seven years contact with Meher Baba in thirty seconds, thirty minutes, thirty hours, thirty days or thirty months? In spite of all that, I shall try to answer your question because you are a very sincere man, you have a desire to know, and I shall put it in a few words the best way I can. So let me tell you what I have gained from Meher Baba.

"I have gained two things. Eventually these two things merge into one. The first is that God is. Baba has really made me know, has given me the conviction, that God exists. And the second conviction is that Meher Baba is God. These two convictions are something like opposite sides of the same coin. This conviction which He has given me is so strong, so unassailable, so unceasing, that it has become more than a part and parcel of my life. It has given me great strength to know that only God is. Everything else changes."

Then he was a little more moved and said, "Of course, whatever Meher Baba is, I may not believe in Meher Baba as the Avatar of the Age; I may not believe even in God. But your description of what you have gained from Meher Baba — a conviction that does not change — is very acceptable. Everything changes in life. But that which does not change is the Truth, is God! That is a thing that does not change. And if Meher Baba could give me that conviction, don't you think that is the quality of God?" He said this and after that time he was in correspondence with me for quite a long time. So, dear sisters and brothers, a non-believer, even an atheist, by the grace of Meher Baba's love can change within a few minutes' talk. You are all lovers of Meher Baba, you are very interested in Him, and it really will not take much time to establish that peaceful, joyful existence of Meher Baba consciously in your hearts.

I would like to tell you a small instance when Baba was present. A man had come to Baba, a strange man. Baba asked him, "Will you do one thing I tell you?"

He said, "I shall try to do it." Then Baba said, "Remember Me three times a day, morning, noon and evening."

"I can't promise. I don't know if I shall be able to remember You three times a day."

So Baba said, "It doesn't matter. Remember Me twice. At the time when you get up in the morning and before going to bed at night; remember Me only twice."

He said, "No, Baba, I can't promise."

So Baba said, "All right, remember Me once a day."

He said, "No, Baba, I can't give you any promise whether I shall succeed or not, whether I shall remember or not; I can't remember You even once a day."

Then Baba said, "All right, don't remember Me every day, but at least remember Me at the time of your death."

The man thought to himself, "If I am not able to remember Him during my lifetime, how will it be possible to remember Him at the time of my death when I will be suffering so much?" He went on remembering Baba often, every spare moment of his life. He wrote me letters and said, "There is nothing else but Meher Baba for me." So he did what Baba told him and it became so effective that it has become his whole way of life — nothing else but Meher Baba. And he has become very satisfied and joyful.

Now to end our little talk. You are all honest Baba-lovers. Maybe a few are not, but you will become so tomorrow. Conditions are really very favorable. For example, there is the man who flatly refused and then began remembering Baba a thousand times a day. Such a man, I don't think, should have an advantage over you because you are already half or fully established in the love of Meher Baba.