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1955 SAHAVAS:

LOVE FOR THE SAKE OF LOVE

Meher Baba

 
Following the conditions laid down by Baba to his lovers and devotees in Life Circular Number 25, Baba stated:

Under the existing conditions of no promises from me, no bindings upon me and no undertakings by me, my dependents must also be made to feel quite free of their material dependence upon me. Thus, they will be able to maintain a pure relationship of love for the sake of love.

I now wish to be outwardly what I always am inwardly: living solely in love, for love and with love. In that spirit, the whole world could live with me irrespective of whether or not there happened to be any provision for food and shelter for the "todays" as well as for the "tomorrows." As it is, I am free and no bindings touch me, but I should also be free of the need to bother about arrangements for others. I now want love to reign supreme outwardly, as it always does inwardly in me.

How can one explain love? There are as many ways of explaining love and obedience as there are men. There can thus be no end to the understanding of them except through obedience based on love, and through love itself. All great saints, teachers and masters say the same thing in one way or another when the emphasis is laid on love for the sake of love, or failing that, on obedience in the cause of love.

For spontaneous surrender, the heart must, so to speak, be worn on one's sleeve. One must be ever ready to place one's neck under the ever-sharp knife of command of the Beloved, and the head should figuratively be detached in order that it might be completely surrendered at the Master's feet. Obedience should be so complete that one's concern with it makes one as much awake to possibilities as it makes one deaf to impossibilities — as envisaged by the poet Hafiz:

"Darmiyane qahre darya, takhta bandam karda-ee
Baad mi gu-ee kay, daaman ter makun hoshyar baash."

"I was tied to a raft
and thrown into the ocean
and then I was warned to be careful
not to let my robe get wet."

Yet, all this does not and cannot explain the required degree of continued readiness for love and obedience to love. In fact, one of the three reasons for this sahavas is to help you grasp what love and obedience really mean.

You must have such a clear picture in your minds of this sahavas as to forget completely such things as declarations, messages and discourses by me. This is not an occasion for the fulfillment or the making and breaking of past and future promises. You have got to remove from your minds any picture of me upon a dais and you sitting before me — as has been the experience of most of you present here.

I want you to be with me, near me and before me in an entirely different atmosphere, so that you can freely breathe the air of my personal presence. We must be together as intimately as if we were living under the same roof for no purpose other than that of living with each other and for each other.

Do not look forward to any functions, meetings, timetables, programs, agendas or any cut-and-dried plans. You have simply to be near me all the time that I remain with you, playing, sitting, walking, joking, discussing serious things or listening to stories. I want you to live with me the day-to-day life I normally lead.

You are not expected to read, study, meditate or pray, but to feel at home with me as naturally and unreservedly as you would do at home in the midst of your own family and friends. I want you to be your natural selves, putting aside all the superficial niceties one usually assumes in social life. Being in my company, watching me and being watched by me, you will automatically learn and unlearn a lot, which no amount of teaching can convey. In short, there are three reasons for this sahavas program:

First: To give you my closest company in order to bring out the oneness between us.

Second: To help you understand love and obedience, and to make you imbibe these twin aspects of the nectar of the infinite existence behind all life.

Third: To show you how to do my work of spreading love.

However much I may explain, you cannot have a true idea of the enormous strain on my physical body in these last twelve months. To say the least, I am utterly exhausted physically, yet I intend to exert myself further for the whole sahavas month in order to impress thoroughly upon you certain points. There are points which I have got to drive in deeper and deeper, not only for you all, who are able to be near me physically, but for all others, also, who love me and obey me, as well as for other reasons which are not apparent here and now. These points you will have to grasp through the three reasons of the sahavas, as given above.

Therefore, during the seven days, above everything else, forget your worries, comforts, discomforts, home and business affairs. In short, forget about everything concerning your daily life except your present life here with me. As I have stated, I have offered this sahavas at the cost of additional physical exertion for me, because of all who love me and obey me, including those who are physically absent.

The only explanations you should expect from me during the sahavas will be on four points:

Love;

Obedience;

Work of spreading my love;

Freedom from the apparent binding of those dependent on me.

I want you all to take particular note that I would feel happy if each one of you not only possessed but read and digested God Speaks from the first to the last page, as the last book of its kind by me. I will, likewise, be happy if those among you who can possibly do so will see that this work is translated and made available in as many languages as possible for those who cannot read and understand English.

 

LORD MEHER, Bhau Kalchuri, 1st USA ed, vol 13, pp. 4660-4662
2003 © Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust

               

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