IF WE CONSTANTLY REPEAT HIS NAME

 
Meher Baba tells us that if we constantly repeat His name, He will awaken in our heart; and once He awakens, He will remain awake for all time. Therefore, Baba says, we should keep repeating His name and give Him no time even to doze.

Obviously, then, repeating God's name must be a vital method to unlock the inner vault. So why don't people talk about it more, and write about it more? Or is it such a simple matter that we don't need to talk about it?

After I came to Baba in 1969, I was intrigued by the idea that the Avatar would offer us such a clear, direct, elementary, no-frills method to achieve the greatest prize in creation. Anybody can do it. It doesn't matter who we are or where we've been. Our color, gender, and sexual orientation are unimportant. We're not barred because of the life we've led or the people we've hurt. We don't have to bow or kowtow to any teacher or preacher, or stand or sit in any particular way. We don't have to dress up or go to a certain place to ask for God's blessings. All we have to do is say, "Baba, Baba, Baba," and the precious pearl of Divine Love will be ours ... forever, to swim in bliss in the Infinite Ocean of Love.

Could the unattainable actually be attained by such a simple method? Well, if Meher Baba said so, I told myself, it had to be true. So I started practicing — trying to repeat Meher Baba's name on a more-or-less regular basis. Only a few hundred repetitions at a time to begin with.

In those days we lived on Key Biscayne, seven miles from Miami by way of causeway and bridges across Biscayne Bay. I developed a habit of saying Baba's name 700 times whenever I drove across the causeway, and I was proud of myself for my dedication. While taking my morning walk by the ocean, I'd say His name in time to the rhythm of my footsteps. When I meditated on the setting sun in a hidden cove by the mangroves, I repeated Baba's name.

From my first attempts, my repetitions of the Beloved's name were mostly silent. When alone, however, I often spoke aloud. On the beach at dawn, with my Beloved caressing my face with His soft breezes and whispering to me through the murmur of the surf, I would shout His name at the top of my lungs. I always felt incredible joy when I cut loose and shouted "Baba!" to the soaring pelicans, the hovering terns and the dancing ghost crabs.

This saying of God's name is powerful medicine. Not only our Lord Meher Baba says so, but other masters and saints for centuries have also prescribed it as the key that opens the heart.