On May 17th, (1960) a group of Andhra lovers came to Guruprasad. One devotee expressed his desire to worship a photograph of Baba, and asked if Baba had any special instructions for this. Baba stated, “To take my name wholeheartedly is my worship.”
Two days later, while introducing Khare, a Hindu pandit (religious scholar) from Andhra, Baba asked him, “Are you a true pandit in all respects? Are you a pandit in my love?”
After someone recited several poems, Baba remarked, “This is not poetry, it is your views. Where there is an experience of love, that is poetry!”
On May 18th, a Shastri (Hindu priest) bowed to Baba and then sat down near his chair. He had also come the previous day when Baba was with the Hamirpur lovers. While the Shastri was there, Vishnu Sharma of Dhagwan entertained Baba by reciting his story, Chai Puran (Tale of Tea). The Shastri had left in the middle of the recital.
On this day, Baba asked him, “Why did you leave the hall yesterday so abruptly?” The Shastri replied that he had an errand to do. “Did you feel disturbed by the Chai Puran? Whatever the disturbance may be, you must try to remain calm.”
“No disturbance; nothing of the kind. Yesterday, I went early because I had to bid goodbye to some of my house guests.”
“Did you feel hurt while listening to the Chai Puran because it was composed in Sanskrit verses? Did you take it as an insult to Sanskrit?”
“Perhaps so, but that was not the reason for my leaving early,” the Shastri replied.
“You should not be affected even when insulted. I am Paramatma; I am insulted every moment, but I respond with love. Had you remained seated until the end, you would have felt differently, as if having participated in a love-feast. It was a good pastime too, as the prasad packets for distribution to the lovers of Hamirpur were not ready as yet.”
“I am trying to tolerate things and surroundings which are not to my taste. As for verses on tea, I have come across one ‘Chai Gita’ that imitates the Bhagavad Gita in having eighteen cantos on tea and its merits.”
This episode made Baba dictate a discourse on the ego’s tricky nature:
Our ego keeps us aloof from our own Real Self. Ego is so mighty that it makes us deceive our own self. It has been attached to one’s self from the very beginning. It appears to be so natural a part of our own self that, under the pretext of our understanding, this ego gets tickled instantaneously and the very next moment gets depressed.
If I say: “You are a wonderful person,” you will be at once tickled. But you will express it by saying: “Baba, I am just your slave.” This apparent humble statement may imply anything but humility.
The next moment, if I were to point out one of your weaknesses, you would at once feel depressed, but you would not express it. You will say: “Baba, after all, I am a human being.” By this statement, you try to conceal what you feel within you, for ego assumes false appearance. It is very difficult to be natural and to express what you feel within. The false ego is the stumbling block.
What is meant by annihilation of the ego? It means to be fully conscious in sound sleep: fully conscious in the fully unconscious state! Until the Perfect Master bestows his grace, this is not possible.
“Has not the God-Realized man an ego too?” asked the Shastri.
Baba replied:
He has. But the ego of the God-Realized is altogether different. When you say: “I am so-and-so,” it is the false ego asserting the false self.
When you become God-merged (a Majzoob or Brahmi-bhoot), you have no mind; you are only conscious of being God. This is the state of superconsciousness. But when, retaining that state, you come down to normal consciousness, you have ego, but it is the Real Ego. If you read God Speaks, you will know the details about the different stages and states of consciousness.
Also, you must bear in mind that mere intellectual understanding has very little value by itself. Whether one understands the details of the path or not, it is just the same. Only love counts.
To learn of God is to unlearn about yourself. It is a rare privilege to meet a Perfect Master, and still more rare to love him as God in human form. It is well said:
“One who has the Knowledge of God is not known to others.”
Baba concluded, “God alone exists.”
The Shastri said, “If it is so, from where does ignorance creep in?”
Baba explained:
God is One, Indivisible. The many divisions you see are only apparent. They are the outcome of ignorance. How can this be explained? How can ignorance know itself as ignorance? The dream state that you experience will give you some idea about this.
Suppose you go to sleep, and I appear to you in your dream, saying: “Shastri, this is just a dream.”
You will reply: “How can this be so? I see the sun, the sky … I see you so lovingly talking to me. It is too true to be a dream.” But when you wake up, you say to yourself: “What Baba had said in the dream is a fact.”
At present, you see me sitting with you. Now I say: “All that you see and feel in this awake state is also a dream.” The whole universe is but a dream. Call it a waking-dream. When by my grace you will realize God, you will know that what I am saying now is the Truth.
Lord Meher, Original Publication, Bhau Kalchuri, Vol. 17, pp. 5741 – 5744.