. . . Baba informed the women:
I will give you your orders tomorrow. I know you will follow all of them, except the one of not criticizing and speaking ill of others! That one you won’t be able to obey. I have been observing you all the past few days. I do not care if you do not obey, but if you do you will help me. If you do not you are of no help. The only hope – which is only one percent – is that from August 1st you might try your best. Everybody fights and, as far as this order is concerned, all are hopeless! Try your best to overcome it. Your fighting is all childish and has no sense. If you try you will control, but trying means thinking of me. I will be visiting once a week to see you for a few hours, and if later I go to a nearby mountain, still I will come once a week.
The first hour of my visits I will spend with the Eastern women in this house, so that Mehera will also be satisfied by seeing me. Then I will call you all and talk with you for a few hours. Each will have a duty and you must do it with all your heart. If you do not get angry, you are a stone. If you get angry and cannot control it, you are an animal. If you get angry and can control it you are an angel, a saint! It is going against one’s nature and habit that helps. Not getting angry will not help. You must not express it! Impotence is no help.
If you think of me, these orders will go easy for you. Yoga means control, which is more difficult than cutting off your arms and giving up your eye! When Christ said give your other cheek to be slapped, it means control. But the world thinks that if you get slapped and don’t get excited, you are either a coward or shameless. Innocent and fair criticism does not hurt and is good, but it is quite rare. What I mean by talking ill of others is when you criticize and it hurts; it hurts when you criticize excitedly, out of anger. When you criticize with love and kindness, how can it hurt?
Gautama Buddha gave twelve orders to his circle members, the first of which was to guard against looking at a woman. He meant for none of his disciples to risk being enveloped in lust in the slightest, and to be saved by not even looking at any woman. He knew that this would give rise to one weakness in his disciples – of always being nervous when in the company of women – but Buddha knew that this weakness was better than the risk.
Any remark or criticism that does not hurt is good. Have fun, joke, but do not hurt anyone and talk back. If you point out the shortcomings of others lovingly, without any feeling of hate or animosity, it is all right. Even arguing with love is permitted. Try your utmost to help me, which you can do by acting according to my wish. Sacrifice your sweet habit of hurting others. Fight to overcome lust, anger and greed. To control is not to do that which you have been used to doing.
As my work is based on my own supreme sacrifice, it will make your sacrifices for me by following my order easy. If you fail once, do not give up but try again. If you succeed once, you will have helped me a lot. If you fail nine times and win once, that too helps. If a man feels hot, is feverish, is hungry or is ill, he gets excited and angry. If you have a toothache, you are more apt to become excited about something than otherwise. Compared to a toothache, lust, anger and greed are most horrible diseases. Try to free yourselves from them.
There is no question of compromise in spirituality. Every desire is to be extirpated one hundred percent. It is either “Yes” or “No!”
Lord Meher, Bhau Kalchuri, Original Publication, Vol. 7, pp. 2593 – 2594.