Working for Baba

Photo: © Meher Nazar Publications

A quote attached to a Baba post on Instagram caught my attention today. Here is what it contained:

"I have to work in My own way, having had to look to everything in these times of great spiritual upheaval. What it means, you have no idea. You all have to do great work for Me in the future, as and when allotted to you; and you must be in full spirit and strength for all that. This mental depression tells upon your health and energy, which are both essential for future work and should not be unnecessarily wasted like this ... I see in some a spirit of depression, total dejection at times. Why? Have you any idea of the greatness of the task that is ahead for the spiritual upheaval of the world! It will require a spirit that is prepared to face anything, rigid and  immovable like a rock, weathering all blasts of winds and storms from all four corners. You all have in you latent that spirit and iron will, and I am working at all that to bring it out ... Soon great events of great changes everywhere will transpire in rapid succession, transforming the very ideal and outlook of life all the world over, and a new awakening for the life spiritual will result, as I have been repeatedly telling you. You are all being prepared for your different parts in this Great Divine Drama that has to be enacted, and in which I am to play a leading part. Are you not glad that you have to play your parts with Me?

All My Love"

Love Alone Prevails by Kitty Davy pg.123

It is certainly a message for our time, for "these times of great spiritual upheaval" where "mental depression tells upon ... health and energy" and where even "total dejection" can overtake some. These are times that will require not "a spirit of depression" but "a spirit that is prepared to face anything, rigid and immovable like a rock, weathering all blasts of winds and storms from all four corners".

These are times when "great events of great changes everywhere will transpire in rapid succession, transforming the very ideal and outlook of life all the world over, and a new awakening for the life spiritual will result." In these crazy COVID times it's easy to yield to depression, give up on humanity and withdraw from the world. However, even though the forces of evil seem to have seized total control of the planet, there are unseen and formidable spiritual forces at work that are in opposition and, hopefully, "a new awakening for the life spiritual will result". 

It is important in the meantime not to give way to despair but to hold on to Baba's damaan. These tyrannical times may yet bring unforeseen spiritual benefits. As more people lose their jobs and lapse into financial difficulties, as food shortages start to bite and as more curbs are placed on social interaction and travel, the spiritual realm begins to hold more appeal. It becomes more apparent in such times that the world is a nasty place, controlled by nasty people with an agenda that is anti-human and anti-God.

I'm reminded of the lyrics to Bill Fay's song, The Healing Day, that run thus:

It'll be okay

On the healing day

No more going astray

On the healing day

Yeah we'll find our way

On the healing day

To where the children play

On the healing day

When the tyrant is bound

And the tortured freed from his pain

And the lofty brought to the ground

And the lonely rage

Ain't so far away

That healing day

Coming to stay

The healing day

Every battleground

Is a place for sheep to graze

When it all comes tumbling down

All the palaces and parades

It'll be okay

On the healing day

No more going astray

On the healing day

Yeah we'll find our way

On the healing day

To where the children play

On the healing day

I am NOT THAT

I'm still making my way through Osho's "Book of Wisdom" and what he says about meditation is relevant to my last post about keeping physically fit. He describes meditation as anything that brings body, mind and spirit into harmony. To that end, jogging could be a form of meditation. So could swimming. He says it is important to choose a form of meditation that suits you. Sitting quietly observing the rhythm of your breathing may suit some but not others. You have to find techniques that work for you. He says that whenever a person is creative, absorbed in creativity, he or she is meditating.

As Brian Eno says, "If you study the heuristics and logistics of the mystics, you will find that their minds rarely move in a line". He goes on to say, "So it's

much more realistic to abandon such statistics and resign to be trapped like a leaf on the vine". It's easy to be trapped of course. We are trapped by identification. According to Osho (so this may be apocryphal), George Gurdieff said, "If I could summarise my teachings into one word, it would be 'disidentification'". I like that. Don't get trapped. Don't identify.

You can start by not accepting labels. I used to proclaim, with my ego nodding agreeably, that "I am a vegetarian". Oops, label. Of course once you allow yourself to be categorised, there are sub-categories to consider. People would ask "Do you eat eggs?" I would smilingly say "I'm an ovo-lacto vegetarian, which means I eat eggs (non-fertilised of course) and milk products". Inevitably someone asks, "Do you eat fish?" and I would be compelled to say, somewhat sternly, that I don't eat fish because if I did then I wouldn't qualify as a vegetarian. Categorisation feeds the ego. It's far simpler to say that I don't eat meat. If someone asks whether I eat fish, I can calmly say that I don't. It throws the onus back on the questioner to decide on a categorisation for my eating habits if he or she feels that it's needed.

The same goes for nationality. If someone were to ask me now, "Are you an Australian?", I'd have to say that I have an Australian passport. If the person then wants to classify me as an Australian then that's their decision. It's easy to get cute about this and use this "via negativa" as an ego trip but it's also important to free oneself of categories and this is a step in the right direction. If I say I am a vegetarian, then that implies there are non-vegetarians and immediately a divide is created. If I say on the other hand that I don't eat meat, it's rather different. It's more like saying I don't eat chocolate (not quite the same, but similar).

It's very common to describe oneself in terms of one's profession. I might say "I'm a teacher" but what I really mean is that "I'm qualified to work as a teacher in a Secondary school". It's not quite the same thing. I guess it come down to trying to remember that "I am NOT THAT". You can only find yourself by forgetting what you're not and reinforcing your false sense of identity through "I am THIS" is sensibly to be avoided.