VISION FROM THE BRIDGE OF FIRE:
the advent of Avatar Meher Baba Michael Mathias

VI. INITIATION: Temple of Blood
VII. THE DIVINE THEME
XII. THE KISS OF BLISS
XIII. HAZRAT BABAJAN
XIV. THE KISS OF HAZRAT BABAJAN
XVI. POEM OF FIRE
XXII. PATHWAY OF FIRE
EPILOGUE: O Tree of White Weddings

VI. INITIATION

     Meher Baba is initiated by Five Perfect Masters.
     Poem of Amartithi: Meher Baba Drops His Body

     Temple of Blood

Did you see them, the great white birds?
They sat around the Magician child,
     cawing for starlight.
But scorpions slithered under his armpits
     and tore the flesh of the God-child.
Hooded Ones gathered around Him eyeing His heart
     for they were the birds of God.
And they brought Him down like a snowfall
And He cried out:
"Fall on Me, and beat Me with your wings!"
They made Him lay on a nest of scorpions.
They made Him drink the milk where cobras nested.
And keening over their excrement,
He saw only God
And tasted the nourishment of their beaks.

They surrounded Him, these Sadgurus,
And crucified Him with hammering wings.
But He held His Silence through the generations.
This is how a God-Man is born.
Sai Baba told Maharaj,
"I have filled all existence.
Wherever you see,
There is none, but Me!"

And Merwan's Master, Maharaj, in this temple of scorpions,
Saw a Principle rise from His head
Like a syringe
Piercing the shell of the Universe.
"In One Circle, an evil person,
Looking like Maharaj,
received a sound thrashing at the hands of Sai Baba
And was thrown away by Him into a burning pyre.
Maharaj was introduced by Sai Baba to a Master in another circle.
This Master looked exactly like Maharaj
And was seated on a heap of rupees."
Then Sai Baba said: "The evil one in you was burnt in the pyre,
And the good one in you was seated on a heap of rupees."
But Maharaj cried out to Sai Baba: "Who am I?"
Am I the evil one you thrash
Or the good man sitting on the jewels?"

And Sai Baba replied:
"You are beyond both of these.
You and I are One,
And all this wealth belongs to us!"

These were My Masters
Birds who see beyond wars
Birds who see beyond heart-birth
"MY MASTER MAHARAJ IMPRISONED HIMSELF IN A CAGE
AND SWUNG ABOVE THE CIRCLE OF CHANTERS
UNTIL THEY SENT FOR ME."
"BUT MASTER, I CRIED, WHY IS THE SUN SUDDENLY DARK?"
"THIS BOY SHALL RULE THE WORLD," HE SAID.

WHAT I AM
WHAT I WAS
WHAT I WILL BE
AS THE ANCIENT ONE
IS ALWAYS DUE TO THE FIVE PERFECT MASTERS
OF THIS AGE!

And I fell from the bliss state
Like a wounded bird
In this Temple of Blood.

"BABAJAN IN LESS THAN A MILLIONTH OF A SECOND
MADE ME REALIZE THAT I AM GOD
AND IN THIS PERIOD OF SEVEN YEARS
UPASANI MAHARAJ GAVE ME THE DIVINE KNOWLEDGE
THAT I AM THE AVATAR.
AND BEFORE I DROP MY BODY
I HAD TO MEET HIM.
SO I WENT TO SAKORI AND BOWED DOWN TO HIS SHRINE.
AND TOLD HIM:
'YOU KNOW I AM THE ANCIENT ONE.
I NEVER DIE.
I AM ALWAYS THE ANCIENT ONE.
YOU SHALL ALL REMEMBER
THAT GOD ALONE IS REAL
AND ALL ELSE IS ILLUSION.'"

On the plains of Poona
Endless the longing;
The distances drone for the God-Man.
Those lions of learning
Who could explain their Visions?
In the temple of Khandoba
The Perfect Masters
Slept on scorpions
And were not harmed.
"O Parvardigar,
You whose eyes are the seeds of awakening consciousness"
You crucified Yourself in Silence!
"NAHOM PRAKASHAH SARVASA YOGA MAYASAMAVRITAH"

"THREE PHASES OF THE AVATARIC-LIFE
WILL MANIFEST THEMSELVES:
THE HUMILIATION WILL END IN THE SUDDEN BREAKING
     OF MY SILENCE.
I SHALL UTTER THAT WORD
WHICH ONLY GOD CAN UTTER."

And on the final day,
His disciples nested around Him, quivering
"BEAT ON MY CHEST,
BEAT ON MY CHEST," He gestured.

His most beloved disciple
He who sat at His alphabet board
Hit at His heart like a drum
And cried out for God.

But Maya, the destroyer,
Crucified Him through spasms.
They tried to hold Him,
These disciples who had given their lives to Him,
But He flew above them in an agonizing dance
And cried out with strangled breath:
"MAYA IS DESTROYING ME!"
They drummed on His thighs
Turning His thighs to stone.

Did you see them?
His disciples hovered around Him circling
     like quivering snowbirds.
They sat around the Magician Child.
"GLORIFICATION WILL REPLACE HUMILIATION
AND THE PENT UP INFINITY IN ME
WILL SPLASH AND SPREAD OVER THE UNIVERSE!
THE BREAKING OF MY SILENCE WILL CREATE
A SPIRITUAL UPHEAVAL
AND EVERYONE WILL FEEL IT IN THEIR HEARTS."

One by one they dropped their bodies
Through the generations
In an ecstasy of flight.

Like the bird who had fallen at Baba's feet
The Message His Masters had given him to deliver
Was too great
It had broken His heart.
And he was buried in the sacred ground,
A Saint of Birds.

And new birds of unnamed countries
Dipped their wings in His Silence
And nested in His Tomb.
And the Tomb of His Blood
Thundered through them,
     and their children.

Sun-cherries in India
The Himalayas stretch westward
The valleys grow lush with the peach blossom,
with the blossom of the pear;
In Kangra, valley of songs,
The apples signal His beneficence.

But in Meherabad,
His Silence rests.
There the Arti is sung for Him,
Deep on the holy hilltop.
Their voices deeply resound
Within the tomb
And outside the tomb.
"In counter-point," sings His painter.
"They make a song within
And a song without."
        It is said:
"When an earthen pot is broken
The space within is one
        with the space without..."

Suddenly this fugue for the Avatar
Is heard for the first time.
And in the city of the Manifestation
This is the Divine Theme:

We see the ages spiral upward
Every seven-hundred years the Beloved comes,
The Cosmic Actor in an Avatar's Body,
Through many incarnations from stone to Ancient One.

The stone hungers for You, Parvardigar,
And the stone leaps for joy at Your Presence.
The metals and vegetables tremble under your footfalls;
The celery stalk and the burdock root
Sing to you in their green burning.
The worm, hearing Your song,
Yearns to be devoured by You as fish,
Worm-soul and fish-soul swim in Your Ocean of Love.

Cycle after cycle
Your Cosmic Fire prompts the fish soul to fly;
Look how its gills leap the ocean.
See how the bird rises upward,
Breaking its heart in flight towards You.

Only when the bird dies
        does the soul rise
And become Man.

Age after age, desireless,
        man rises towards You,
        weightless, composed of ashes.
        Even now,
        The soul dances
                 as it rises
        from soul to metal
        You inspired the stones
        to dance like stars
                 forever in Your fires:

"I AM YOUR FIRST AND LAST LOVE",
        Baba said to the Princess.
        And the old disciple
        Who carried Baba's stone said:
        "Baba turned His head away,
       And I bent down to kiss His Feet.
       And it was as if
       I kissed the foot of Christ.
       Think of it: In the twentieth century,
       To kiss the Foot of Christ!"

"I HAVE GIVEN YOU THE ORDER TO FIND ME
AS GOD PERSONAL
GO AND TELL THIS TO THE WORLD!
YOU WILL HEAR MY VOICE WITHIN
YOU WILL HEAR NO OTHER VOICE!"

        The spiral turns and returns
        The journeyer sails
        Upward from the electron
        Upwards from the molecule
        Upwards from the DNA of the Soul.

"I saw lines coming through the Princess,
        lines of energy
        going in all directions
        reaching into everyone present;
        like electrical energy
        coming through a battery."

Tilted on its axis
The center rotates,
And the Beloved's Light
Breaks open
All pathways to the Christ Self,
        spreading from the Center,
Its iridescent wings
Flaming the bird
As it evolves toward Godhood!
And the ending and the beginning
Contrast and expand
Within the spiraling vortex

And the Soul perceives
The time is here and now;
Only in the moment
Does His Silence speak,
And His music is with us
Eternally in the present!

"Awake,O sleeper of the land of shadows, wake!"
Aeneas sees
        The Silence of the Beloved,
        Trumpeted with fire,
        Beyond the language of the song
        Which shattered the dead among the living;
        They died to the world,
        To become awake to God.

        O Beloved,
        How the electrons burn to unite with You;
        Every particle yearns to be united with You.
        Upward the sparks fly to You,
        Through Paramatma.
        The Song of Creation is everywhere!

When You were in a body
You balanced the replicas of the world's religions
        in Your Hands,
And breathed charismatic fire into their rituals.

You come again for all men
Not only for the Hindi
Not only for the Jews
Not only for the Christians
Not only for the Moslems
Not only for the Zoroastrians

You come in a Body of Fire
And as You break Your Silence,
The heart will drop its attachments
For earthly desires.
Behold Paramatma's
Fire rising from water,
Soul's involution to Avatar.

The worm turns
And the worm burns
        to become the butterfly.
It sacrifices itself
        to become the flight!

And see now,
Its dance of wings
In the summer meadow.
It flies to You, Beloved!
Wounded in Your Tomb
See how they shatter the tomb of their hearts.
They fly across the continents like birds,
Time and space become Illusion
Vanishing in a dream.
Only God is Real.

We must all break our hearts
And only when our hearts are
Broken from the earth
And the earth's mirror,

Only when the glass is shattered
Can Your shards pierce our retina.
Only when Your veil is torn asunder
Can we see You in Your True Body.

You are, forever, the Father of Fire!

Banyan Trees
give spreading shade;
        the myriad roots snake along the ground.
These trees witness
        the secrets of the Silent Ones.

Under the neem tree
        Hazrat Babajan
        Drew "Electricity" to her
        And kissed Merwan like a magnet
        between the eyebrows.

Babajan was a Perfect Master
        one-hundred and twenty two years old.
But the trees which watched over them
        were older still.
        They witnessed the Kiss of God-Realization
Who knows the age of the tree
Whose bark reflected the Face of the Avatar!

        And the banyan and the pipul
        grow side by side
        like the body and the spirit.
        So do the themes of His Silence;
        Their branches intertwine.

        ***********

When You walked across my life, Beloved
The stones whirled
Atoms cried out.

I held my breath.
In your Tomb it seemed
My flesh would explode

In the Atom Bomb of Your Presence.

"It is to this wedding
There is one wedding only
That I seek," said Hazrat Babajan
"Do you think that by burying me alive
You have hidden me from My Beloved?
I gave up my wedding to an earthly prince
To marry the King of Love.

I gave up my wedding to an earthly prince
To marry the Emperor of Birds
For the Birds' Nests follow the Ancient One.
And rainbows of the Seven Planes of God
Will descend on this Messiah
As the Ancient One sings the Om sound
Advancing all of Creation a thousand years,
Revelation of flights of the Divine Birds of God.

Her wild white hair
Rises in waves about Her,
And the light of Her eyes
Was so great that her funeral
Blinded the mourners and electrified
The trees under which she kissed Merwan
And fired him on to "God Realization."

The eyes of Babajan
Cut to the heart
And intoxicated them with God's Love.

That wild woman
Beat on the tree barks.
You could not resist Her silent Call.
When you went near her
She electrified you
With her drumbeats
And lived in your eardrums
Haunting you
With a thousand lullabies of God.

The Voice of Hazrat Babajan thundered
Causing the trees to shudder
And when she cried out to defend her children,
The saints of the world huddled together
And sang out silently
With open mouths that hissed Divinity.

Up and down the town
Babajan, the mad woman,
Cried out to be one with the Bridegroom.
"The Bridegroom will come to My wedding!

In this poisoned time,
I call out to the Beloved
I call out to Love!

I shall stand in the center of typhoons
I shall affirm that I burn with Love!
I shall stand in the Center of Storms
And I shall affirm that My Bridegroom is
        with me!

The city courts shall be torn down
Towers will be in ruins
But under the neem tree
I shall stand in the white light of His Nazar!

For My kiss shall ripen him to
God-Consciousness!
And I shall call forth
The Avatar of this Age!

1.
Sing Praises to Him, Holy of Holies!
Lord God of heaven and earth!
I am the God of heaven and earth!
I am the God of the Tree of Abraham, of Jesus, the Resurrected One!
I am the God of the Kaaba, the Black Stone of Islam
                 which I hurled from Heaven;
I am Adam Kadmon, the Ancient One; Rama and Krishna, God of
                 the Hindi,
I am the Zoroastrian God, Ahura Mazda, who gave birth to the
                 Prophet of the magic milk,
He who healed the broken legs of King Vishtaspa's horse,
And I am Muhammad, who rode with Gabriel upon the back of Buraq,
The winged horse who spanned the seven heavens:
I am the God of Adam, John the Baptist, Jesus, Joseph, Enoch
                 Aaron, Moses,
And in the Seventh Heaven I spoke with Abraham,
And beyond the Seven Planes, I am the Face of Allah, the Face
                 Of Avatar Baba,
Who is Without Form and Without Attributes; the Unlimited Light
Who spoke Face to Face with Moses, fulfilling the Prophecies
                      of Fire!
I am the Beloved, the King of the Universe.
When I walk the earth shall be scorched.
Fire shall rise on My right side; fire shall rise on My left side
But I shall rise in a Body of Fire
That shall be brighter than the fires set by men;
Behold, no fire is like unto My Fire!

2.
These flames shall slay the fires of the mortal body.
The stones shall cry out
"Hosannah" to the King of Love!
Men scattered to the East and West shall see My Sword;
They shall be torn from their destruction.
Yea, I tell you, your bodies shall be burned,
The flesh shall fall from your faces and your bones melt into wax!
But those who love Me live in an Eternal Body of Love.
Immortal is My true Body of Light.
This is My Daaman which I give you to hold,
"You are all my fingers and hands!
Behold, tonight, my glorious face
Which consumed the face of Moses and gave Mankind
                      My Laws of Salvation.
This is My Poem of Fire!
Flames shall scorch your flesh bodies
But your true body is composed of light!

                 Behold, now, my radiant body!"

Now I am coming as the Lover to My Lovers
To ignite you with the fires of Immortal Love.

3.
I celebrate My Covenant with you.
Rejoice, I am the returning Groom.

This is the Love which I gave you from the beginning of Time,
Love which rocked the sea into being,
Love which rolled the stones into motion!
The worm soul took on the evolution of the butterfly
                      in my Love!
Moses lost his face when he saw Me.
But you who see Me shall be transfigured!

4.
No geography shall bind Me! I shall break all barriers!
I am the fire of the Resurrection; I am the fire of the New Age!
This is the promise which I promised you
greater than the promise that I gave to Noah.
I promise that I shall make of you
POEMS OF LIVING FIRE!

The earth you stand upon will be revealed as My Holy Star
And the dust of this earth shall be purified
Made Luminous with My Light!

You shall be called the Children of God
And it will seem the first day of your marriage all your life long.
Blessed be thy children and the children of thy children!
They shall marry in innocence and conceive in innocence
And My Presence among them shall be as the Christmas snow.
On My Day of Silence,
I shall break brightly among them as sunlight in winter.
Love that binds heaven to earth and earth to heaven,
Love that binds the seen with the Unseen World,
Love that joins the companions of the left
With the companions of the right,
Making the multitudes
"One glorious body of Light!
Stretch forth your arms, my lovers,
           Become the butterflies of my love.
With your wings of many colors
Proclaim I am the God of Love for this Age!"

                      Hazrat Babajan,
When I first encountered You as Rabia,
I lost desire for earthly women.
Your face leads Me beyond the kisses of so many lips.
The rose leaves their cheeks and the kiss lifts beyond form
To a fleshless consummation. Now the face of My mother
Singing to Me beyond death, the immovable sun of My Present,

So that the ocean can be heard now
As if she were here teaching Me syllables from childhood,
To speak with the hiss of the sea.

O Babajan,
"A hundred thousand harps take you
Like wings and sweep you out of silence." *
The birds tear their wings in ecstasy
And eat up the birds of the lower planes.
Each bird like a mirror
Eats up the shadowy reflection
Of the bird on a lower plane.
Then finally the big bird, Sadguru,
In the Palace cries out "The Chicken Cry
                      of the Seventh Plane"
To every being and every homeless creature.
The bird sings as it breaks its immense heart
And becomes nothing. All the songs
Of the Birds of the Seven Planes
Are Illusion.
Their music vanishes
Into the train of the present
Which rides them out into their private tunnels.

*Ranier Maria Rilke, "The Man Watching."

Your branches parted
And I beheld your Body of Light.
Nuptial feasts began
In the Spring of Your singing.
Wedding songs whispered through Your leaves
To the cry of swans.

"Your roots above
And Your branches below,"
I entered Your bark as a bridegroom.
The blood of Your leaves
Welcomed and intoxicated me.
With Your wine of Divine Love
All Your leaves nourished
My ears' eyes.
Atoms danced blinded by the light of Your songs.
New Bibles rose up flowering from our branches, Beloved.

"Your real Form cannot be perceived"

My marriage with You is infinite,
Having no beginning nor end.

"That splendor of the sun
That illumined the whole world,
That which is in the moon, that which is in the fire,
That splendor blinded me to the gross plane."

O Tree of White Weddings.

"YAD ADITYAGATAM TEJO
BEUNJANAM VA GUNANVITAM
VIMUDHA NA NUPASYANTI
PASYANTI JNANACAKSUSAH"

---

INTRODUCTION
POEMS GIVEN IN SILENCE
THE COSMIC MOUTH: Autobiographical Journals, Part One