Going Against the Tide

Many years ago, I remember coming across some Meher Baba books in the Adyar Bookstore in Sydney. They were categorised, appropriately enough, under "Mavericks". The term "maverick" being defined as:

I hadn't realised the etymology of the word until I looked up this definition. I actually took a photo of the books on the bookshelf in Adyar but can't locate it at the moment. Anyway, it was appropriate for Baba who, as the Avatar, was the original maverick who broke away from the herd of humanity to realise his divinity. A maverick will never follow the herd and Meher Baba has made many assertions that would not sit well with modern day assumptions.

One contemporary assumption is that the Earth is an insignificant planet circling one star out of billions in the Milky Way galaxy and that galaxy is itself only one of billions of other galaxies. Apart from its being our home planet, there's nothing special about Earth. Baba begs to disagree and states that:

... there are other planets besides Earth where living beings exist. Still, I emphatically say that God can only be realised on this earth. God is everywhere, but he manifests as the Avatar only on this earth. Perfect Masters are also found only on the earth and nowhere else. On one planet people have enlarged their intellects so much so that they can survive for hundreds of years. But the people there are 99 percent atheists. On all of these evolved planets, the mind predominates and the heart is totally undeveloped. On some planets, people are totally devoid of heart; there is not even one percent place for [feeling love]. Except for the Earth, on all other evolved worlds intellect alone prevails. Therefore, God cannot be realised on those planets. These souls must take birth on this Earth to realise God. Lord Meher Online Edition Page 4597

In the passage below, Baba restates this:

Only on the planet earth do human beings come to reincarnate and begin the involutionary path to God-realisation. The earth is at the centre of the millions of universes, to which all souls must migrate to begin the Inward Journey. In Infinity, you cannot have a point as centre otherwise, it is not Infinity. And yet on the chart we have made the earth the centre of infinite space. Why? Because though there are many inhabited worlds in infinite space, human beings of those planets have to migrate eventually to the earth. In some worlds, the people are very intelligent, much more so than on earth; yet, they must come to this earth-speck for the sake of the "heart," the involutionary journey. Lord Meher Online Edition Page 4859 

In another passage, there is mention made of "millions and millions of universes" which accords with modern scientific speculation about the so-called "multiverse". Baba explained:

... that there exist in the physical cosmos 18,000 planets with human life forms, and millions of planets with evolutionary life forms, along with millions and millions of universes which are in a state of cosmic evolution. But he clarified that earth was the only planet where the process of involution occurred — that only on earth do human beings experience the planes of spiritual consciousness. And he further explained that not only were the five Perfect Masters on earth, but also the entire 7,000 member spiritual hierarchy of saints and advanced souls. Lord Meher Online Edition Page 505 

In Baba's view, the Earth is very special and not just any old rock floating in space. This is not to say that it is in any way permanent. Baba points out that:

The sun that gives you light at present will burst after many crores [tens of millions] of years, but another sun will take its place. The earth is getting cooler and will eventually turn into a moon; but another planet, just like the present earth, will take its place. What has been in the past will be in the future. The processes of evolution and involution will go on forever. Ignorance and creation go hand in hand. Lord Meher Online Edition Page 1010 

Baba clearly stated that the Avatar always takes a male body when incarnating and this struck me as rather sexist the first time I became aware of it. Baba says:

Now, we again come to the Beyond-God, Who is both the Father and Mother in one. During cycles of cycles of time, after ages, when God descends as the Avatar on this material plane, he always takes a male form. He is never born as a woman. Avatars are the Sons of the Father in the Beyond state. All the past Avataric periods witnessed the presence of the Avatar as the healthy, bright, intellectual Son of the God-Beyond. This means in my previous advents I always remained the Beloved Son of my Father. Lord Meher Online Edition Page 4282

It is important to note that Baba is not saying that a woman cannot become God-realised. After all, Babajan who first made him aware of his divinity was a Perfect Master or Qutub. The notion is not entertained that, in the interests of promoting equality of the sexes, the Avatar ought to split incarnations 50:50 in terms taking male and female bodies.

"Will the Avatar ever be a woman?" the person queried. 

"Never!" Baba emphasised. "Never has there been a female Avatar, nor will there ever be one. The Avatar has always been a male and will always be in a male form." Lord Meher Online Edition Page 1620 

Interestingly, Baba also had the following to say about where the Avatar incarnates:

One person asked, "Will the West ever produce an Avatar?" 

Baba revealed, "The Avatar has always been and will always be born in Asia. This is because of the peculiar situation there in the evolution of the universe and in the existence of the gross plane which necessitates the manifestation of the Avatar only on that particular continent." Lord Meher Online Edition Page 1619

In these days of gender diversity, gay marriage and the widespread acceptance in Western societies of a homosexual lifestyle, it is interesting to speculate on what Baba would have thought. Baba advocated that sexual relationships should be practised only within marriage between a man and a woman. He strongly recommended that no physical means of birth control be used, only "mental control". The sexual licence of today was so far beyond his ideals that he seems to have had little to say about it. However, here is a quote from Lord Meher:

The work I wish to do for the world [involves] the minimizing of lust and especially to destroy that lust of homosexuals which is now prevalent to an alarming extent all over the world ... the homosexual is in male form but is working out or spending his female sanskaras, whereas he is meant to be spending his male sanskaras ... a lesbian is working out or spending her male sanskaras, whereas she is meant to be spending her female sanskaras. 

Source: LM/6-7/2213 + footnote with LM referrring to LORD MEHER, 20 vols., 1st ed., by Bhau Kalchuri (MANifestation, Inc. 1986-2001), copyright by AMBPPCT (The current online revised edition may have different wording for some sayings.)

Elsewhere he says:

One day in Cannes, Baba disclosed, "For my work I need a healthy, handsome, intelligent and innocent boy. These qualities are essential for the work I wish to do for the world involving the minimizing of lust, especially of homosexuals, which is now prevalent to an alarming extent all over the world. If the boy is not innocent, he would at once misunderstand my intention, which would hinder instead of help my work." On another occasion, when Kitty questioned Baba about his work with the boys, he remarked, "I am working with the youth of the future." Lord Meher Online Edition Page 1863

 Of course, while Baba did not approve of a homosexual lifestyle, he was accepting of everybody as the following quote illustrates:

Two young homosexuals, one a well-known painter and the other a dancer, were also in the queue. Both were good friends of Delia who had persuaded them to come. As they approached Baba they began to have misgivings, wondering if Baba was going to censure them. They considered leaving but decided to stay. As they apprehensively came before him, Baba looked at them, threw up his hands and gestured, "Chums!" They were so relieved, they nearly leapt forward and hugged Baba! Lord Meher Online Edition Page 3977

Such acceptance is characteristic of the Avatar in all ages, whether it be Mohammed, Jesus Christ, Siddharta Gautama, Krishna, Ram or Zoroaster. However, they would have been unanimous in their condemnation of the current sexual permissiveness and would not have softened their stance to align more with current societal norms. Some members of the LGBTQ community might be confused however, about Baba's stance because of his choice of flag (see Figure 1) which is similar to the LGBTQ flag. The latter has only six colours but they are in the same order, with only the final sky blue colour missing. Additionally, the LGBTQ flag is most commonly displayed with the red at the top. This is indeed a case of two flags being at sixes and sevens to each other.

Figure 1: Meher Baba's flag