REMINISCENCES, Part 7:

 
[One of the characteristics of Baba's activities which often puzzles people is the manner in which he will suddenly and without warning stop a project in apparent mid-career, regardless of the degree of evident success it is experiencing. In November-December, 1926, he did this to the institutions and services which were thriving at Meherabad, closing them all lock, stock and barrel. Baba commented cryptically on this singular trait of his as follows: —ed.]

Usually a temporary scaffolding is set up around a big building which is under construction, and when the building is completed, the scaffolding is removed. Often my external activities and commitments are only the external expression of the internal work I am doing. In either case, my external activities and commitments may be continued indefinitely or I may end them promptly at the end of the inner work, depending upon the prevailing circumstances.

[Often during the course of the sahvas weeks Baba would discuss the need to keep fit and avoid colds. Some of his most enlightening comments concerning his own physical susceptibilities were embodied in his reminiscences of his first trip to England in September, 1931, not long after the closing of the prem Ashram. — ed.]

Some of you might ask why, being the Avatar, I could feel or catch cold. You might as well ask also why I should feel hungry or need rest! We have bodies and they are naturally subject to all sorts of ailments, and as a consequence we must suffer. Therefore one should take all practical precautions to avoid, and take proper treatment to recover from, the bodily ailments.

The God-realized ones who do not return to ordinary normal consciousness and yet happen to retain their bodies (Majzoobs), have no body-consciousness: just as they have literally no consciousness of anything other than their own Self. Their own bodies also remain to them as "nothing", and therefore nothing can affect "nothing". As long as it is necessary, their infinitely conscious divinity directly supports their bodies within illusion as "supports" for the maintenance of the whole illusion of creation.

Masts, who are mad and absorbed in God-love, also remain immune as a rule to bodily ailments. The intensity of their "smokeless" fire of love neutralizes all bodily reactions, and thus they continue freely living their life of love for God.

Once the God-realized soul comes down with his God-consciousness to normal consciousness of the illusion of duality, then the physical body of even such a God-realized Perfect Master is subject to ordinary contagion and disease. Simultaneously I exist at every level, and as I am therefore on a level with your consciousness, then I suffer, experience and enjoy just as you all do.

On our first visit to England I had not anticipated having to experience the bitter London cold without proper clothing. This came about due to the fact that the English mandali were eager to perpetuate their remembrances of their first direct contact with me by taking pictures of me in garments such as I had worn in India.

The warmth of their love and devotion compelled me to take off all my warm clothes. Then, for more than an hour, I allowed them to make me sit, and stand in various poses, remaining cheerfully in the open air with only my cotton sadra on. They were very happy to get the pictures they wished, and I was no less happy to see them happy. However I alone know how the cold bit to the very bone.

The westerners did not love me any less then, but they understand me more deeply now. In the automobile accident (Oklahoma, June, 1952) several of us suffered very painful injuries, and a number of my bones were broken. However, the love all bore for me was quickened rather than shaken. In the distant past, as Krishna, I died physically when I was accidentally shot with an arrow.