SO CALLED ILLUSION IS ALSO REALITY

 
The next day, 11th August [1956], was for the general public to meet Meher Baba. Approximately one hundred and ten people attended. One who attended was a radio reporter from Australian Broadcasting Commission, Donald Ingram-Smith, who had personal interest in Sufism. Meher Baba gave Ingram-Smith the opportunity to interview him personally in the morning.

During this session various questions were asked to which Meher Baba responded. This interchange is useful in showing how Meher Baba evaluated and expressed his own spiritual position and activities. When asked, for instance, "What is your work in the world?" he responded:

"To give My Love to awaken mankind, to make them know that everything is illusion. God is the only Reality. One who can love God can attain that Reality. All are one, but no one knows that oneness. God is within you, but there is a veil: and you yourself are that veil between you and God. God is within Me. I have taken this form to unveil all human beings to know that there is only one Reality and all else is illusion."

When the reporter followed the response with the query "The Reality is within and without simultaneously?" Meher Baba responded:

"There is no within and no without. Reality pervades. There is nothing beyond Reality, no within or without, no up or down. Reality is all over, all-pervading. So-called illusion is also Reality. Illusion is the shadow of Reality. When you walk, your shadow follows you. You do not attach any importance to the shadow, because it has come out of you, it is nothing but shadow. It is your own shadow that follows you; you do not follow the shadow. Exactly at midday, twelve noon, the shadow disappears. It is only you who are there, and the shadow has no existence at all."