JOURNEY OUT OF DARKNESS

 
"Tom met Meher Baba when he went to India, you say? And did you meet Him, too?"

"Yes." Yvonne smiled, amused, but appearing somewhat surprised at my instant recognition of Meher Baba.

"And anyone can meet Meher Baba?" I asked.

"Why, yes, anyone who believes He is the Avatar."

"Where did you meet Him?"

"In Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. There is a beautiful Center there covering 500 acres near the ocean. He has been there three times."

"I need to learn a whole lot more about all this," I said.

"I can tell you, there is a lot more. There are Five God-Realized Beings, call Masters, in the world at all times. These Five assume responsibility to bring the Avatar down from the heights of Formless God in the Beyond state. They act to bring Him down into human form every seven hundred to fourteen-hundred years, formless God becomes God in form so as to carry out His work in Creation."

I was astonished hearing all this. "His work?"

"Yes, His work is to purify the world and bring about an upliftment of consciousness. Baba tells us His Divine Purpose is to lift humanity's consciousness into the Age of Intuition."

"God knows, that is exactly what we need," I said thoughtfully. All that Yvonne was telling me struck me as incredible, and my utter need to believe it all was equally incredible. I felt certain what she was saying would alter and reshape the whole of my future existence. There was a possibility that my life might now acquire a far deeper meaning and purpose. Up till this time, I could see, my life had about it an invented purpose, creative as I might have been in the invention of it. But what Yvonne was telling me was truly something else. I wondered if it was the quality of her voice, her enthusiasm, that was doing this to me. If this was all true, I thought, then somehow I must be a part of it, a part of the very existence of Meher Baba.

"But isn't the world supposed to know about this?"

"Eventually it will, but now Baba is only for His lovers. There are only a handful of us on earth." She smiled.

"His lovers? Who are these lovers?"

"All those who believe in Him as Avatar of this age, and love Him."

"My God!" The fact was, anything this woman told me I was fully ready to believe. I didn't really know why. Surely it was her personality, her emanation, her aura, the enthusiastic way she had of telling me all this. It was because I accepted her, and so believed. I felt in harmony with her being. She had announced to me that this person, Meher Baba, living presently in India, was the Avatar, and this was for me already the absolute Truth. Now I knew what she knew, and it was the Truth. This was the power which Yvonne Andrau Riley now wielded in my life. And, strange as it seemed, my reasoning mind played no role in what was happening to me just then.

"You see, those who believe in Him have been called inwardly."

"That's just like Christ, isn't it?"

"He is Christ," she said. "You have to read God Speaks."

I fully believed at this point, she knew exactly what I needed to hear. In my mind she had become a kind of priestess. It was clear I needed to stay in very close touch with her.

"I have to go now, but maybe we'll get together soon. We can give you some things to read, all about Meher Baba."

Phyllis had been listening quietly to all Yvonne had said. Somehow I felt she was not greatly impressed, though I thought she would be as absorbed as I was.

That evening, after Yvonne left, Phyllis had invited somebody for dinner, a man named Otto. It so happened he was a friend of the Rileys too.

During dinner I was most curious to find out if Otto knew about Meher Baba. When I asked him, he answered briefly, "Oh, yes, Meher Baba, the Avatar."

I thought it strange that Otto did not appear more enthusiastic. After dinner, he and Phyllis spent a long evening discussing tarot cards and the I Ching. Their serious interest in those things was hard for me to understand in the light of what I had discovered about Meher Baba this momentous day. All I could think about at this point was Meher Baba. It seemed as if the Avatar had reached right into this house, and into me, to flick on some kind of inner switch. I sensed I had to do something, but what?