WHO IS THE SEEKER HERE AND WHO IS THE SOUGHT

 
As I look back over my life with Meher Baba, many intimate and astonishing incidents stand out that have guided me in my journey with Him, to Him, the real Self. These have often taken the form of "coincidences," but to me they are divinely orchestrated and suffused with Baba's unconditional compassion. I used to feel that I was not worthy to be the recipient of such benedictions, and I wondered, "How is it that these loving attentions are showered on me in abundance when I have neither expected them nor deserve them?"

That they should continue to come despite my obvious unworthiness has made it plain to me that His love does not look for merit; it is unconditional and waits only for an excuse to flow. This has led me to ponder, "Who is the seeker here, and who is the Sought?"

Bayazid of Bistami, an eleventh-century Perfect Master, provides the answer in a statement he once made to his close ones:

At the beginning I was mistaken in four respects: I concerned myself to remember God, to know Him to Love Him and to seek Him.

And when I had come to the end, I saw that He had remembered me before I remembered Him, that His knowledge of me had preceded my knowledge of Him, His love towards me had existed before my love for Him, and He had sought me before I had sought Him.