THE LANGUAGE OF WINE AND LIGHT

 
God is Light and his shadow, illusion, is darkness. God is Knowledge and his shadow, illusion, is ignorance. Shadow is shadow and it cannot have substance, but this very shadow is the medium to know the Truth; for Light is experienced when darkness is known as darkness, and Knowledge is experienced when ignorance is known as ignorance.

In the sphere of Infinity and Eternity, the language of Light is Knowledge, and the language of darkness is ignorance. The aim of life is to become one with the Infinite and Eternal, and this aim is achieved through knowing the language of Light, to have Knowledge. But unless the language of darkness is forgotten, wiped out of the mind, the language of Light remains unknown — Knowledge is not experienced.

In order to forget the sounds of the language of darkness, it is necessary to learn the language of wine, which is ever-silent. The language of wine, in its silence, absorbs all the sounds of the language of darkness, making the language of darkness non-existent; thus ignorance disappears.

The language of Light has no sound. It is the language of soundless sound, and because it is the very language of Knowledge Itself, it has substance. This substance is Knowledge Itself, and the Power of Knowledge is knowing, and its Bliss is knowing everything.

Shadow is the opposite of Light, therefore the expansion of shadow is always in the opposite direction of the Light — into darkness. There are seven shadows in the opposite direction of the Light, and these seven shadows are active in their spheres of darkness. The fifth and sixth planes of the mental world are the first two shadows. The four planes of the subtle world are the next four shadows. The gross world is the seventh shadow. These seven shadows, seven spheres of existence, are the seven shadows of God.

Gross sounds are produced in the gross world; subtle sounds are produced in the subtle world; mental sounds are produced in the mental world. These sounds are produced by the impressions of mind; sounds are the sound of sanskaras, and all sound is sanskaric. So long as one has gross impressions, he makes a gross sound and cannot hear the subtle sound. Likewise, so long as one has subtle impressions, he makes a subtle sound and cannot hear the mental sound; and so long as one has mental impressions, he makes a mental sound and cannot hear the soundless sound of the Light.

If a gross conscious person does penance, and observes silence, not uttering a word for years, he cannot be regarded as silent, because he has gross impressions and his mental and physical activities will be according to those impressions, which are gross. Likewise with the yogi who has subtle impressions, and the saint who has mental impressions; if they observe silence for years, they cannot be regarded as silent, because the yogi has subtle impressions and the saint has mental impressions, and their activities will be according to those impressions. To enter into complete silence, one has to get rid of, lose, all one's impressions; only then can one hear the sound of the soundless Word of God.

The Avatar and the Perfect Masters who are free of gross, subtle, or mental impressions are always silent, even when they talk, because the sound they utter is their own language. Their language is the language of Light which has no audible sound. Avatar Meher Baba spoke in his own language and simultaneously observed silence. When Meher Baba spoke his own language and kept apparent silence, it was for his work in the universe. It was necessary for him to speak his language only and observe silence in order to accomplish his universal work.

The Avatar undertakes silence when the seventh shadow of God, the gross world, reaches a point where it is out of proportion, so that, as a result, the balance of nature becomes terribly disturbed. The Avatar comes into the universe for the purpose of re-establishing a universal balance. Mankind finds floods, earthquakes, famines, hurricanes, and volcanic eruptions as natural calamities in the world, and these calamities are caused by the imbalance in nature. The Avatar comes to readjust the forces of nature active on earth so they do not go completely out of control.

Rain is necessary for producing food, but if it rains too much or too little, then rain is out of proportion, and the increase of rain produces floods which wipe out crops. The lack of rain dries up crops and produces drought. In both cases, there becomes a shortage of food, and the result is famine.

The shadow of illusion is a necessary medium for realizing the Truth. But when the shadow reaches out of proportion, because of an imbalance in nature, then mankind suffers the repercussions produced by the various elements in the form of a catastrophe. All the imbalance in nature is caused by mankind's overinvolvement with the shadow, which is the gross world. When there is an imbalance in human consciousness, there is inevitably an imbalance in nature. Because all of human consciousness is overinvolved with the gross world, the whole world is suffering from the imbalance of nature.

When people are suffering from hunger, floods, hurricanes, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, they cannot be in the mood to listen to spiritual discourses, messages, or philosophy about God. The world must be relieved of its suffering before it will be possible for mankind to accept God.

Why is mankind overinvolved with the gross world? What causes human consciousness to be overly concerned with this world? The imbalance in human consciousness is caused by the overinvolvement with this shadow of the gross world. Mankind's obsessive selfishness, brutality, hatred, lust, hypocrisy is completely out of proportion to a natural human state of mind. Mankind's obsessiveness and imbalance is caused by attachment to this shadow, this gross world. This attachment has caused human consciousness to become indifferent and detached from God!

Thus the language of darkness, the sounds of all the low, dark desires become very powerful and there is no room left in the world or in human consciousness for the language of Light to be expressed. So it seems that God has disappeared from the world. The world was suffering from its obsessive over involvement when God himself took human form on earth in the name of Meher Baba. The seventh shadow was out of proportion, and mankind suffered from the severe imbalance of consciousness in the world, since the consciousness was reverberating the sounds of darkness very loudly and intensely.

The Avatar is the source of everything and his silence is the source of all words — mental, subtle and gross. Meher Baba observed that the world's consciousness was reverberating loudly with the sounds of darkness out of proportion, thus causing imbalance in the world. So Meher Baba observed silence, as human consciousness was already too deeply involved with the language of darkness, and the ordinary human mind did not have the capacity to understand the language of Light. The Avatar worked silently in seclusion to release the language of wine, which contains his love, so that mankind's consciousness could regain its balance.

The language of wine has the power to burn away the language of darkness, and it has the power to take any man toward the language of Light. Wine is a silent language, but it is very powerful, for love can wipe away the emptiness and vulgarity of the language of darkness.

An intoxicated person talks more than usual. Because of the intoxicating effect of the language of wine, the speed of the human mind's activities is increasing, and there is more and more chaos in the world. The speeding up of the human mind, resulting in confusion, however, is a sign that the world is ready to move into a new balance. The time will soon come when the whole world will be rebalanced, because the Avatar has worked for the rebalancing of consciousness, and mankind will be ready to accept the God-Man's help. A new balance in the world and mankind's conscious acceptance of God's help will be the Avatar's manifestation, and each person will experience his manifestation in the proportion of his love for God.