NUMBER SEVEN IS SIGNIFICANT

During this seclusion, Baba would discourse in the evenings, after which those Prem Ashram and Meher Ashram boys, whom Baba kept under his guidance in Nasik, would meditate for an hour. During one of these discourses on Sunday, January 12th, (1930) Baba further explained the significance of the number seven:

The evolution of creation has seven stages. There are seven planes and seven types of desires. All these sevens should be eradicated once and for all.

However, the number seven is significant. There are seven types of sanskaras, seven types of colors, seven types of flights of imagination and seven types of sounds. The reason all these have seven variations is that in the beginning of creation – with the start of the original whim in the Beyond, Beyond state of God – there was a clash between Matter (Akash) and Energy (Pran), and Energy’s powers were divided into seven forces.

The original sound coming out of the Creation, or Om Point, also turns into seven sounds. This higher music of the mental and subtle planes is indescribably sweet. Even if you listened to it for twenty-four hours without a break, you would not tire of it. It is enrapturing; one absolutely drowns in its melody. But remember that in the mental and subtle sphere, the sweetness of this music’s sounds are only shadows of the Original Sound.

In the gross world, the shadow of this melody is again divided into seven parts; only expert singers can express these tones and octaves. Sound is created by contact between two things. When you speak, your voice passes through seven veils; but you do not notice this because the sound comes so quickly. Your physique, a by-product of your sanskaras, determines whether your voice is sweet or harsh.

Everything is made up of seven: seven sub-divisions of the first subtle plane (the astral), seven stages of evolution, seven planes and seven heavens in involution.

Baba’s mood changed and he concluded:

But I am fed up with these constant explanations – one after another. All that is left to do is to prepare deserving people to be ready for God. If you give a child a large piece of candy, it will upset his stomach. The child should be given a taste, little by little in order to digest it.

Your case is similar. Once all this bother is over, you will be free, and I will also be free of responsibility for you. At the moment, however, you are all on my chest!

Lord Meher, Original Publication, Bhau Kalchuri, Vol. 4, pp. 1263 – 1264.