MEHER BABA left Rajahmundry for the town of Kakinada at 1 P.M. on March 2nd. (1954). On his way, he gave darshan in the village of Thapeshwaram in the Satchitananda Theosophical Lodge, where a program had been arranged. There, at two o’clock in the afternoon, the Parvardigar Prayer was read aloud and this message given:
I am the one so many seek and so few find. No amount of intellect can fathom me. No amount of austerity can attain me. Only when one loves me and loses one’s self in me, am I found. This love must be so honest that not only others should not know it, but you yourself should not be aware of it. One of the divine aspects is infinite goodness, and so do good but without expecting any appreciation for the same from any quarters.
Baba gives his blessings to all.
Baba’s arti was sung, and he distributed prasad. While receiving prasad, a man asked for Baba’s blessing. Baba stated, “My blessing is here in the prasad. If people take it with love, it will go deep down in their hearts. If not, messages are idle talk.”
Leaving there, Baba stopped at the town of Alamaru at 2:45 P.M., where darshan was held in a new movie theater. Almost a thousand people were present and received his prasad.
The people heard the message from Meher Baba entitled “The Atma’s Love of Play:”
Each and every seemingly individual soul (atma) is destined to realize its One Indivisible Self. As soon as the atma begins to unfold to the first faint consciousness of its Infinite and Eternal State, it is confronted by its own shadow. The atma gets immediately lost in the consciousness of this shadow and from then on becomes involved in the interminable “play of illusion.” This hankering after play and display, show and “tamasha,” persists, in one form or another, throughout the soul’s journey to Truth. In a child, it derives pleasure in playing with toys. As a man, it demonstrates its fondness for play through the enjoyment of sport, drama and adventure. This addiction persists even when man has embarked on the spiritual path, when he still indulges in his love for play and display by exhibiting his supernatural powers in the form of ostentatious miracles.
Unless and until man stops seeking escape from his Ultimate Destination by losing himself in the childish play of illusory pleasures, he cannot grasp spirituality seriously. It is time to stop playing with the scintillating toys of illusion and yearn for the attainment of the One and Only Reality.
Lord Meher, Original Publication, Bhau Kalchuri, Vol. 12, pp. 4361 – 4362.