IS A PATH NEEDED?

Q: Baba! Your advent has been a great landmark in human history.

A: Millions come to me, but, few give me their attention. It is a matter of demand and supply. God demands attention, for, every one needs Him. The need is to surmount the falsehood and the fear, that mankind has woven around itself.

Q: The mind of man does not accept that it is woven by itself.

A: Your mind weaves further stratagems to escape from this falsehood. It perpetually seeks other forms and other places to assuage the need; it repeats the same error, not realising the potency of the only answer to all its problems, Mindlessness. Where the mind is not, God is automatically.

Q: Yes, Baba. It pesters us with desires.

A: You call it `desire'. But really it is something in which the mind takes refuge, temporary refuge. But, you should seek a refuge that can restore balance and equilibrium to the mind. Let the part merge with the whole, the wave with the sea. Seek the whole, the boundless. There is only one God and He is omnipresent. Seek Him, desire Him, that alone counts; that desire alone works.

Q: Inspite of all attempts and searches, contentment, Baba, is so hard to come by.

A: Real contentment comes only when you are aware of the frailty of seeking anywhere else, for what does not ask for attempts or searches, for what is self evident and self effulgent. See the condition of all men in all lands! Each one seeks in time and space that which is beyond time and space; each one seeks through study and scholarship that which is beyond the senses and the intellect. Then, when some one advises him to try elsewhere, he agrees and moves on. But what they seek is ever, all around them, even in their own being as their very core, no matter where they are. Always, they seek the right thing in the wrong place, through persons, books, symbols, situations, paths. But, I am too near to need a path. Lift the veil, and I am there. Or, deny that there was ever a veil; that is enough for me to shine forth.

Q: When that illumination is attained, there is no more death, is there?

A: Birth and death exist within the realm of opposites. You cannot have one without the other. If there is death, birth must follow. Leave the body's health or demise to Me. It is not your affair, nor is it your responsibility if it languishes or perishes. It is the boat I have given you, to be used cautiously and carefully for crossing the ocean of objective change. It is a vehicle provided for your journey to me. Once you realise that I am you, the vehicle's task is done. But, you may have to take care of it for some more time, so long as I wish.

Q: Morality cleanses the mind, you have said, Baba.

A: Yes. I have said, Be good; see good; do good. But, the good you can do is limited by the capacity of the vehicle and the environment which surrounds you, physically and socially. Let me tell you the highest good you can do: Abide in the absolute and the eternal. That will ensure your liberation and the welfare of the society where you are.

Q: It seems to be an impossible task, Baba, to be established in the eternal and absolute.

A: The meaning of what you say is that it cannot be 'held on' by the mind. Give up the mind. That is why I say, "Die mind, not Diamond, should be the precious gem you crave for.” The mind is such a wayward instrument. Holding soon tires of holding. That is the nature of holding. Release the hold and you earn release.

Q: Baba, I admire the saintly persons who have developed rare virtues and are moral giants.

A: You do not know that they are. Most are afflicted by pride at their being so virtuous! This pride bars them from me. Be humble; humility is the highest virtue.

Q: Whatever happens, I hold on to you and you must vouchsafe humility to me. When I find I am neglected, I suffer pain.

A: That pain comes from the misconception of your mind, that I am far smaller than I am, and that I am limited and localised. Suffering is only another name for misunderstanding.

Q: What should I do to be free from pain?

A: Go to the centre of the cyclone; the rod in the centre of the bottom millstone, where you will not be affected by pressures, or what goes on around you. I am where stillness and silence are, to help you establish yourselves in yourselves.

—From the Notebook of a New Yorker