 PERFECTION Book Two |
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DO PERFECT MASTERS INCARNATE AGAIN? |
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According to GOD SPEAKS, a Perfect Master never incarnates again. In 1974, Adi K. Irani told of one occasion when Meher Baba explained that for every 'rule' there is an exception. For example, he said, Perfect Masters never incarnate again -- but the five Perfect Masters who bring down the Avatar do incarnate again. Adi said Baba did not explain how or when they incarnate again, or whether they always, or just occasionally, take another human form. Adi also commented, If you ask the other Mandali about this, they will deny it -- but I was there, and they were not. On March 20, 1954, at Sakori, Meher Baba explained, referring to his Master Upasani Maharaj, 'I will come back after 700 years, when Maharaj will have to come back to bestow on me my Ancient state.' |
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(LM12 p4389) |
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Back to top THREE KINDS OF PERFECT MASTERS |
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"Baba then said that he had explained yesterday about the different types of Qutubs (Perfect Masters). He again explained that Qutubs are of three types -- Qalandar, Khwaja and Ghaus. "A Qalandar or a Khwaja or a Ghaus is not a Qutub, but a Qutub can behave like a Qalandar or Khwaja or Ghaus. "The Qalandar type of Qutub is usually naked and never stays for long in any place. Totapuri, the Master of Ramakrishna Paramahansa, belonged to this type. "Usually a Qutub does not move from his place. The Khwaja type stays at one place. Upasani Maharaj and Babajan belonged to this type. "The Ghaus type can separate all limbs of his body and reunite them at will. If any mortal tries to see him in that state, he loses his eyesight. "Baba said, 'Sai Baba was of the Ghaus type. He used to keep a night watchman who had strict instructions not to look at him after he went to sleep. One night the watchman's curiosity got the better of him and he peeped in, and lost his sight at once.'" |
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Hoshang Bharucha, Aw 10:1 p 22-23 (Guruprasad, Poona, 25 May 1963) |
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Back to top THE ANGER OF A PERFECT MASTER |
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"While discussing the temperamental makeup of a certain disciple of Baba, I happened to inquire whether the human nature of a man undergoes any radical transformation after God-realisation, or whether the said characteristics in him do persist even afterwards. Baba said, "'The nature or Tabiyat of a person after becoming one with God remains the same, but it is expressed in a different light. Formerly in the ordinary state a man's anger, greed, curses, abuses, were for himself only, and besides being harmful to the surroundings, they usually recoiled on himself, because they were the outcome of his self-egoism. Where there is ego, there is no God, and where there is God, there is no room for egoism. But the actions and words of a God-realised man are deviod of all egoistic tendencies, and although the original characteristics of his mind and nature do persist in him after God-realisation, they do nothing but good to the surroundings whenever expressed. "'Hafez has said, Khatiram waqti havas kardi ke binam chiz ha Ta tora didam na daram juz badidarat havas. "'The couplet explains very clearly that "it was ingrained in his nature to see different and various objects. But on seeing Him, he does not want to see anything but Him." It only means that the desire of his nature is to see things and objects, and and now he wants to see God only. The desire of seeing remains the same, but it is now shorn of its egoism. Likewise the habits of anger, abuses, beatings, etc. remain ingrained in a person even after his becoming a saint, but a colossal change takes place in its expression. Whenever and on whomsoever it is expressed or expended, it results in nothing but good to the recipients thereof, since there is no personal motive behind it. "'When a saint is in the most perfect and peaceful internal state, or some internal work of his is nearing completion and success, there sometimes occurs automatically an overflow of the internal state externally. The external outburst by a saint is the shadow of the internal perfect state, and is radically contraindicatory of the bliss within, and consequently in its outer manifestation it takes the form of abusive language, beatings, etc. But whosoever receives these ego-shattering blessings from a Master in the form of abuses and physical chastisement is very lucky indeed, and undoubtably a good deal of benefit accrues to him, especially in external affairs. "'Now you people, since your connection with me is settled and determined from Roz-e-Azal (the first day of creation), and which connection no power on earth can alter or modify, you have no need of these outbursts in the form of abuses and beatings. Even when it occurs you should not mind. During the course of my spiritual working, very often the cup of my bliss overflows, and I share it with the fortunate one nearest at hand.'" |
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Abdul Ghani, TY p81-83 (31 January 1923, Bombay) Also RD p145 and LM2 p473 |
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Another version of the last paragraph: "Now you people, since your matter is settled, and your connection with me is of the day of beginning, that no power can alter, you have no need of these abuses and beatings, which I have completely put a stop to. And now if you cannot even bear my words, then it will be troublesome to both you and me. In that case, I shall have to give up mixing with people altogether, and then it will go very hard with you all." |
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Meher Baba, RD p145 |
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Yet another version: "When a Master is in the most perfect and peaceful internal state, or when some internal work is nearing successful completion, there sometimes automatically occurs an overflow of this internal state in an outward manner. The external outburst by a Master is the shadow of his internal perfect state, and is radically contradictory to the bliss within. Consequently, in its outer manifestation, it takes the form of abusive language, shouting and beatings. But whosoever receives these ego-shattering blessings from a Perfect Master is very lucky indeed, since these tongue-lashings and physical beatings work miracles for him, and bring him unimaginable benefit, especially in his external affairs." |
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Meher Baba, 31 January 1923, Bombay, LM2 p473 |
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"The anger of a Sadguru is beneficial to those connected with him and to others, but the anger of an ordinary man is harmful." |
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Meher Baba, LM3 p769 |
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"Baba once explained that when the Master showed emotions such as annoyance, disappointment, anger, etc., it meant that he was using a special form of energy for certain deep-seated sanskaras with which he was dealing for the spiritual benefit of the devotee or person. It did not imply that his inner serenity was disturbed at all, as when an ordinary person shows any of these emotions." |
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Kitty Davy, LA p 114 |
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Back to top MORE ON PERFECTION |
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"The Majzoob may apparently like or dislike, ask or reject, seem happy or angry. It is an automatic reflex action of which he is unconscious, like the sound of snoring is to the fast-asleep man emitting it. Like the sleep-walker, who is unconscious of his actions, however normal or varied they may be, the Majzoob is oblivious to his body and surroundings, and is conscious only of his divine state of 'I am God.'" |
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Meher Baba, GS p150 |
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"The Mental-conscious soul... keeps waiting till it merges with God or Truth in the seventh plane. After merger, the soul may remain immersed in the bliss of God-realisation and become a Majzoob, or come down to the lower planes of duality for work (without losing its realisation of the unitary Truth) and become a Perfect Master. Whether a particular God-realised soul becomes a Majzoob or a Perfect Master is a matter decided by the initial urge in creation. These varieties of terminal states are not subject to sanskaric or impressional determination. In both terminal states there is no trace of any binding impressions. However, the entire fabric of the universe serves but one purpose: the realisation of God." |
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Meher Baba, Be p17 |
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"The Avatar can do all that a Sadguru does. He has and prepares a Circle as a Sadguru does, but he does one special thing also. The Avatar can make a person who is not even in the Circle, or turned to God, a God-realised Salik with special duty... Krishna was an Avatar, and he Realised and brought down seventeen people who were outside his Circle. These seventeen were extra God-realised souls." |
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Meher Baba, 29 December 1927, Meherabad, LM3 p1002 |
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"If we study the teachings of Meher Baba we find that Realised beings may be divided, for all practical purposes, into three types: the Majzoob, the Jivanmukta, and the Perfect Master. The Majzoob is merged - completely and utterly so - in God. Sufis call this state the final fana, and it is a state in which the soul experiences, but does not use, infinite power, infinite knowledge and infinite bliss. This means that although the Majzoob is conscious of himself as God, he is quite oblivious of the three spheres - Gross, Subtle and Mental... "Meher Baba tells us that the Perfect Master experiences and uses infinite power, infinite knowledge and infinite bliss, and, on top of this, that he is conscious also of the three spheres. Most important of all, he has the authority to use his infinite powers, and so can help all living things towards their ultimate goal, and can also make certain souls spiritually perfect... "The state of consciousness of the Jivanmukta... varies from time to time, and is sometimes a consciousness of himself as God (exactly like the Majzoob, in fact), and sometimes a consciousness of one or other of the spheres - Gross, Subtle or Mental (not at all like the Majzoob, in fact). It is also necessary to explain that when the Jivanmukta is conscious of himself as God, He is not conscious of any of the spheres, and that, vice versa, when he is conscious of any particular sphere, he is not conscious of himself as God. Nevertheless, whatever his state of consciousness, i.e., whether of himself as God or of some sphere or other, he always is, and always will be, one with God. I should mention finally that Meher Baba told us that the Perfect Master always has 'duty' while in the body, but that the Majzoob and the Jivanmukta do not." |
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William Donkin, Wo-a (1948-1949) p27-28 |
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Donkin's description of the Jivanmukta above may (by mistake) actually describe the state of the Paramhansa. See GS, p149, 197-198 and NE p 108-114. |
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Editor |
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Back to top FOLLOWERS OF PERFECT MASTERS |
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"Masters of the fifth and sixth planes take unto themselves disciples, initiate them into the Path, and thereafter leave the whole responsibility for achieving progress in the Path to the disciples themselves. Hence arises the need for papers on different practices and meditation. The gain herein is in direct proportion to the exertion by the disciple - of course, under the guidance and supervision of the master, who is the salik of the particular plane. This rules out the question of the imposition on aspirants of disciplinary exercises and esoteric papers by unqualified and unauthorised masters. |
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? |
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Elect and Select Disciples The Perfect one of the seventh plane of God-realisation - the Qutub - has a different technique altogether in the matter of dealing with aspirants. Every Qutub has two types of disciples - the Elect and the Select. "The Elect ones are those who have a sort of spiritual relationship with the Master (Qutub), born of services rendered or part played toward him, even antagonistically, in past incarnations. Such aspirants are invariably the claimants to the spiritual heritage of the Master. And even if they appear of indifferent caliber in the present life, the Master trains and prepares them in his company to become fit and deserving recipients of his divine grace. 'When the disciple is ready, the Master comes,' is said of aspirants belonging to this category. Their number is always twelve. The twelve apostles of Christ and the twelve imams of Hazrat Ali are suggestive of this situation. "Select disciples of a Master have an unlimited scope, qualitatively and quantitatively. These are the fortunate ones who earn the grace of the Perfect One (Qutub) by sheer dint of merit and services rendered. The spiritual benefit accruing to this category is in proportion to the quality of their self-surrender to the will of the Master. It is such aspirants who are in need of disciplinary exercises and meditation papers. Visualising these two types - the Elect and Select ones - I gave you the impression in my previous letters that exercises and papers are both necessary and unnecessary. The Elect ones are the inheritors, and the Select ones are the winners of the Master's grace. "Thus, in the domain of Perfection of the seventh plane of God-realisation (the Qutub), the question of initiation and discipleship doesn't arise. Every atom of the universe is equidistant from the center, the Qutub, round which everything and everyone revolves. In fact, according to Baba, one is entitled to call himself or herself a disciple only after getting Illumination from the Master. Till such time, all - high or low, near or distant - are mere aspirants, and nothing more. "Saheb-e-Zaman or Avatar Baba stands in a different category altogether. Baba is not only a Qutub, but at this cyclic period in the history of the world, he is the Qutub of all Qutubs, the Saheb-e-Zaman or Avatar. Unlike all Qutubs or Sadgurus, whose Circle of intimate disciples consists of twelve, in Avataric periods the Avatar has a Circle of 120 disciples, 'all of whom experience Realisation and work for the liberation of others.' These 120 are heirs, by right of past association, to the spiritual treasure of the Avatar; and the beneficiaries thereof, as said before, are numerous. In fact, Baba has been heard to have remarked that besides his Circle, who all will be as Perfect as himself, more than a lakh of souls will have Illumination at his hands before his mission comes to an end.* "You will thus see that a Qutub, or for that matter an Avatar, never goes through the formality of accepting and initiating a disciple. The relationship with the Master known as discipleship has got to be formed and forged by the aspirant himself, the criterion for which is the quality of self-surrender. The Master, in due course, requites the aspirant's efforts in this direction by imparting Illumination in proportion to the sincerity of purpose and the intensity of longing displayed. "A master of the fifth or sixth plane (still laboring in the domain of duality) teaches an aspirant to earn Illumination by self-exertion, while the Perfect one, the Qutub, bestows on the aspirant by way of a gift his divine grace, for which the only condition necessary is to establish a link or connection with him by self-surrender. |
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Abdul Ghani, 10 September 1948, from a letter to Ivy Duce, HM p718-719 *lakh = 100,000 Illumination = the conscious, continual experience of seeing God face-to-face on the sixth plane of consciousness |
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Back to top THREE TYPES OF FANA |
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"Fana is of three types: Fana-Fillah Fana-fi-Sheikh Fana-fi-Rasool "In Fana-Fillah, a person becomes one with God. There are 56 persons existing in this state always. "In Fana-fi-Sheikh, a person becomes one with the consciousness of a Qutub. He is one with the infinite consciousness of the Qutub, but he is not one with the office of the Qutub. In the Fana-fi-Sheikh state he does use, sometimes, and to a very limited extent, the infinite power-knowledge-bliss. The person in the Fana-fi-Sheikh state drops his body immediately after the Qutub, who has brought him to the state of Fana-fi-Sheikh, drops his body. There are five Qutubs (Perfect Masters) existing always. "In Fana-fi-Rasool, which is a very rare state, and occurs very rarely, a person becomes one with the Avatar (Rasool). When it does happen, it is during the Avatar's physical presence on Earth, and just before the unique worldwide manifestation of the Avatar. It is a rare occurrence. It has happened in the past. None from the Fana-Fillah state can become one of the Fana-fi-Rasool state. An ordinary man, who is only Gross-conscious, is chosen by the Avatar himself, and on him is bestowed the state of Fana-fi-Rasool. In Fana-fi-Rasool the person becomes like the Avatar, but does not hold the Avatar's office, and he drops his body immediately after the Avatar drops his body... "In the Fana-Fillah state there are 56 souls. The state of Baqa means to be established in God, and being able to use infinite power, infinite knowledge and infinite bliss. A Qutub is the one who leads the life of God and uses infinite power, infinite knowledge and infinite bliss. "Some Sufis believe that Fana-Fillah is the highest state. Others believe that the Qutub state is the highest, while still others believe the state of the Rasool to be the highest." |
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Meher Baba, 5 June 1963, Guruprasad, Poona, Aw 10:1 p33-34 |
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"Baba continued that a Qutub, i.e. a Perfect Master, can appear in physical form in ten places simultaneously; while the Avatar can do so in a thousand different places." |
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Hoshang Barucha, Aw 10:1 p33-34 (5 June 1963, Guruprasad, Poona) |
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For more about Perfect Ones, see GS p148-152, 161, 196-199, 266-267, and NE p99-114 |
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Index - Book Two |
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