THE TASK OF OUR AGE

 
Although I never met Meher Baba while He was alive, He is my most intimate companion and friend. Although I know His life and teachings only through books and films and conversations with people who have had the good fortune to meet Him, still, the impact of His life upon mine is profound and vital. It enters all the corners of my life — from the sublime to the ridiculous, from the lofty to the most practical. In fact, I have grown to see that spiritual life is most practical. Spiritual life is not separate from the complexities of living in the modern world. Rather, it gives meaning and insight into those very problems.

We live in an incredibly complex and pressured world. The problems we face — all of us on this planet — are acute and overwhelming. Personal problems, social, cultural, political, environmental, economic — every area of life is so interwoven, so tied to every other, that it is impossible to know where to begin.

Albert Einstein said that you cannot solve a problem with the same kind of thinking that produced the problem in the first place. We have to begin to think differently; we have to begin to experience ourselves and the world around us in a different way; humanity must move into a new consciousness.

But this is nothing new; it is the inevitable thrust of consciousness itself. We can see it again and again in the four-and-a-half-billion-year history of the earth (which is itself the child of a universe that is some 16 billion years old).

The awakening of consciousness is the journey of the soul. Meher Baba said: "There is no creature who is not destined for the supreme goal, just as there is no river which is not winding its way to the sea."

The Avatar is Divine Consciousness cloaked in human form. His very presence in the world brings a new release of spiritual vitality, a fresh breeze of love and compassion, a spring-tide of creative energy. His life and work set a pattern for the epoch to come. Old forms and ways of thinking fall away and the delicate, probing roots and leaves of consciousness reach deeper into the heart of meaning ... and higher into the light of Love.

Einstein said that we need a new way of thinking — indeed, a new way of perceiving and experiencing ourselves and the world around us. Meher Baba has said that His advent will usher in just such a change.

Every advent of the Avatar brings about creative changes in the world. This time a change of extraordinary magnitude is necessary — and is due.

Baba said that this is the end of a Cycle of Cycles in the unfolding of creation — the evolution of consciousness. He said that the impact of His work — His Manifestation — will be as great this time as it was when humanity crossed the threshold from instinct to intellect. At that time we became capable of critical thinking; we became capable of planning and directing our energies toward concrete goals that had only been abstract ideas to begin with.

This amazing leap forward in consciousness has literally reshaped the world. We have only to look back some few thousands of years to see its beginning; and we need only open the morning paper to see its current expression.

We know all too well that this gift of intellect is a two-edged sword. One edge of our critical thinking has cut a pathway to the stars — it has placed us on the moon. The other edge cuts the hearts of our neighbors — wounding with criticisms that lead to anger and violence. One edge is our discriminating mind that brings beauty to the ear and eye; the other is brutal discrimination that demands an eye for an eye and makes us deaf to the humanity of our neighbors on this small, fragile planet.

We need a new way of thinking — a new way of experiencing the world and one another. The time for this change has come. Humanity has been struggling through its adolescence for a long time. And, so far, we have survived ... so far.

Meher Baba's life and work — this advent of the Divine Creative Presence cloaked in human form — has been to bring about a new level of awakening. He said: "I have come not to teach but to awaken."

The awakening of this age is the awakening from intellect to intuition. Intuition ... the intuitive heart will open; it will become a new way for us to experience the world. It will broaden and clarify our perceptions; it will deepen our responsiveness; and it will reshape our behavior in relationship with one another. The world will change again.

This awakening is already within us — it is an unfolding. The roots of instinct have nourished the branches and leaves of intellect. And now in this journey of the soul, it is the season of blossoms: the intuitive heart, blossoms and bees, a new fragrance on the wind, a cross-fertilizing of the whole orchard of humanity. It is inevitable that a new humanity will emerge. And it is happening now.

We live in an amazing age. In the one hundred years since Meher Baba's birth the one thing that has been consistent is change — ever more rapid and unexpected change in every area of life. In the twenty-five years that I have known Him in my own life, this pace has accelerated even more. It is both an exhilarating and a chaotic time to be alive.

In the midst of this turmoil I see the stirring of a new attitude, a new consciousness — one that sees the world as a whole, with a concern and care that feelings of real kinship can bring. I see His hand in this stirring. I also see His hand in the chaos and cruelty of a world clamoring for attention. There are desperate struggles; the old forms and ways of thinking do not let go gracefully. Yet, Meher Baba said: "I want you to remain undisturbed by the force of life's currents, for whatever the circumstances, they too will be of My own creation."

We can strive for this new way of living in the world; we can yearn for it — and we must. Because it is our longing for a change of hearts that will bring this gift of love to flower, and eventually to fruition. Baba says: "I have come to sow the seed of Love in your hearts." It is the hunger of our hearts that makes the ground ready for that seed.

So ... when will this come to be? When will this new way of being, this New Humanity become a reality? I've said that it is happening now — and it is. It is happening all around us and through us.

"But will it take a lifetime," you ask, "or a generation? Or will it be a sudden, overwhelming change?"

I don't know. But here's something to think about as far as time is concerned. The life of a single redwood tree can be two to three thousand years. A generation for mankind is twenty to thirty years. And, sixty-seven million years ago, the extinction of the dinosaurs took perhaps as little as two to three years. When that happened, taking countless other species of plants and animals as well, the stage was cleared for a relatively new creation — the mammals — to carry the ascent of consciousness farther along.

It is the unfolding of creation — the journey of the soul.

In Divine sight it is the blink of an eye. And, in the mysterious wisdom of the seasons of change, we will come to know it.

First we must hold a vision of this New Humanity in our mind's eye; then we must yearn for it in our hearts; and then we must see it and live it in the world. We need not wait for this New Humanity to come to us; it is within us. We are the birth-givers ... and we are the new child.

How can I say this? How can I say that Meher Baba is the Avatar of this age and that this will come about because of His life and work — His Presence in the world? I can't — not with any authority. You will have to think about it, to question and feel in yourself what He is.

The only thing that I can say from the authority of my own experience is that Meher Baba is my most intimate companion and friend. That He is true. That He is compassionate.

He said that He came to bring the gift of His Silence. And He said: "When the Word of My Love breaks out of its Silence and speaks in your hearts, telling you who I really am, you will know that that is the Real Word you have always been longing to hear.

"Don't lose heart, but keep Me in your heart. And remember, I am always with you."