Addressing the mandali in Dehra Dun on June 12th, 1953, Baba stated about Shatrugna Kumar: “Shatrugna says he would die for me if I ask, and I believe him one hundred percent. Also he says he does not love me as love is described, and that also is true. Love is a gift.”
Baba further explained:
Love for one’s wife or children or parents is not love. It is attachment. Love is a gift and it is divine. When one has it, one sacrifices everything. Freedom is sacrificed – sacrifice itself is sacrificed! But from my point of view, obedience is higher than love. Obedience, however, is impossible, more impossible than love because freedom is inherited. Freedom is our birthright because originally we were free. So when binding comes, it (freedom) is refused to us.
The easiest course adoptable in such circumstances is to resort to one binding, which eliminates several bindings, but that too is difficult. Even though a man in obedience may cut his own throat, the idea of freedom is in his action. He is motivated by that idea.
Baba repeated a verse from Hafiz about giving up life for the sake of the Beloved, explaining:
By saying so, Hafiz never meant giving up life itself, for instance, by cutting one’s throat. He was referring to giving up one’s will, which is one hundred percent impossible. He who gives it up realizes – becomes one with – the Master, the Beloved. Another couplet of Hafiz asks:
“Why are you after union, love and spiritual progress?
Leave all these to the will of your Beloved!
Therein you will find everything!”
To achieve the will of the Beloved, do not argue. No why and wherefore here because the chosen ones accept from the bottom of their hearts what the Master says. If I tell Nilu, “Tomorrow I will make you the King of Persia,” don’t doubt it. Accept it. If the next day I tell him, “Nilu, I will make you a sweeper in Africa,” accept that too, willingly. The third day I may order him, “Nilu, leave everything and go out begging.” Accept this too, with full devotion. Then Nilu will become Nilkanth.
Baba asked Nilu what his reactions would be under these three circumstances. Nilu replied, “I will accept being a king in Persia and a sweeper in Africa, but I would not like to beg.”
“Have you any responsibility left?” Baba asked him, and emphasized, “It is not love if you have not relinquished all responsibility completely.”
Baba continued at length:
In obedience, only one thought of acceptance remains. One willing to obey one hundred percent has no thought of one’s self, relations or of anything else for twenty-four hours a day, except the will of the Master. The Master’s order, his movement, his will or any other action of his are not like those of an ordinary person. To live such a life is really not practical because the Master has no “will” to express. The will of the Master is spontaneous. This “will” is something quite different, which a very, very few from among rare ones can satisfy for twenty-four hours. For such a hero, the Master’s words, indications and movements are, in fact, the Master’s will. If the Master does not speak with him, that too is the Master’s will.
If the Master orders one to cut someone’s throat, the rare one will unquestioningly, without even the thought of why, do it. Such a rare one is not concerned with the consequence of such an order but takes it only as his will. Others may also act accordingly, but in their hearts they have a thought that the Master’s order is a test for them, or that it is for their spiritual upliftment. Under such circumstances, there is no question of the will of the Master.
Those highly advanced in spiritual life never test anyone. They know whether the person concerned would do it or not. Therefore, the Perfect Ones have no “will.” When he himself (the Perfect Master) is in everyone, his work itself is his will. Those who are mindful of it, their every word, their every action is their Master’s will. But to live up to that standard, that degree of submission, is impossible.
Obedience to the Master’s will should not be mechanical, because it will then be monotonous, dry and uninteresting. Not only should it not be mechanical, but no thought of self at all, even for a second, should be there. How could these things be achieved? That is: it should not be mechanical and, secondly, no thought of self should be there. It is almost impossible, so what the disciple has to do is to consciously become the very will of the Master.
Lord Meher, Original Publication, Bhau Kalchuri, Vol. 12, pp. 4141 – 4142.