AVATAR MEHER BABA'S SILENCE ANNIVERSARY

 
Meher Baba is a name, the name of that Being who is Reality. His Silence is the supreme aspect of His Reality. It is not a mere withdrawal from the expression of words, a silencing of the mind or a clogging of emotions. His Silence is the source of all activity, thought and energy. It is the power of creation, the joy of life and the all-pervading substance behind the existence of objects and beings.

What we see of Meher Baba's Silence is that He does not utter words by mouth. What we feel of His Silence is the peacefulness of His physical presence. What we think of His Silence is our imagination about the height of His consciousness. Beyond our perceptions of seeing, feeling and imagining, we do not know what His Silence really is. Before we try to know what His Silence is, let us try to know who He is.

He is the substance of every being and every thing in all aspects of their existence and functions. Such a Being in all His infinity, luminosity, power and knowledge comes down from His transcendent abode and gets, as it were, "bottled up" in the limitations of a human form. His life focalizes the infinitude of God in the material world and bridges the path from man to God.

The Avatar, by His descent, lays a new highway from man to God. In its very laying, He creates a unique opportunity for man to be drawn toward the way of life He directs. One has first to accept Him to accept the way of life He shows. Those who accept Him create no resistance for themselves. Those who rigidly and mechanically adhere to the past cannot grow out of their habits. They refuse to be moved until a catastrophic change shakes them out of their slumber.

History has taught repeated lessons of how man defied the Avatars of the past during their lifetimes and later surrendered to their divine will and mercy. History again repeats itself as man repeats his error. But the oft-repeated hints given by Meher Baba portend a different possibility of circumstances. During His Manifestation He will be accepted as the Avatar of the Age by a large section of humanity.

The living Avatar does not change the texture of man's faith in God but reaffirms it by setting up a new civilization and culture. He is the same Ancient One who, at different times and places, takes different forms such as Zoroaster, Rama, Krishna, Buddha, Christ and Mohammed.

His activity is formulated by the impact of world events that are planned by His Will. Between the planning and execution, He hardly intervenes except during grave crises. Such intervention does not take place to neutralize or, much less, negate the working out of the Divine Plan. Rather, His intervention is to fulfill it. Being immensely compassionate, He has the entire plan worked out in a manner offering the least comparative suffering to humanity without diminishing its beneficial effect.

The all-pervading Silence that is personified in Meher Baba is activated by His living presence on earth. It is the descent from the Formless God into the form of man. It is the ageless age of life and the deathless birth of His Being. The Silence that He bears upon Himself is vicarious self-suffering absorbing the shocks the world experiences from its devastation by colossal weapons of self-destruction and the misuses of power by those men who seek to gain a shameless supremacy over the lives and property of others.

May His reign of love, peace and plenty shield the hearts and minds of mankind from hatred, greed and selfishness. May He continue to bless the world forever!