Maya is like a Bat!

The following is excerpted from: Lord Meher, pp.1995-97.

My duty is to take you out of the clutches of Maya and, while I do this, I have to face opposition from Maya who does not wish me to do it. Why? How? It is automatic according to the law of reaction. Maya does not intentionally do it, but it happens automatically. The more I try to release people from her clutches, the more she tries to draw them into her net and create opposition!

It is according to the law of resistance and reaction. Maya is like a bat! Once a bat sticks to your ear, it will not let go easily. It might let go if left alone for hours, if you patiently wait and do not disturb or touch it. But once you try to remove it forcibly, it will hold on all the more tightly. And if you exert strength to pull the bat off, it will come – but with your ear in its claws.

Or you can compare Maya to the lizard which sticks to the wall. If you try to remove it, it holds on even tighter. This is the law which cannot be avoided, and what cannot be cured must be endured! That is why all the great saints, Masters and Avatars suffer so terribly. The opposition differs in degree according to the nature of the work and duty assigned to the Masters.

Even Sadgurus, such as Sai Baba, Babajan and Upasni Maharaj, do not have as much opposition as I have. It is because their duties are confined to only certain spheres and not as widely universal in aspect as mine. For instance, Sai Baba would drink wine and eat meat, quite oblivious to the impression it would create on others, because his work was not as varied and worldwide as mine. He simply did his work of blessing all who came for his darshan. His field of activity was not as vast as mine with ashrams, programs and innumerable schemes. Hence, Sai did not care who came to him or what impression they would have of his particular action. Yet influential people and men of learning, such as Dixit and Khaparde and others, came to him and worshipped him.

It is similar in the case of Upasni Maharaj and Narayan Maharaj. Although they are both perfect beings themselves, their work is of a sectarian nature – Hindu. And they are surrounded by Brahmins who strictly observe all rites, rituals and ceremonies, keeping others out. Upasni Maharaj’s indifference to the established rules of society brought him a bad name and made his work difficult, creating scandal and trouble. But he did not mind it, not only because he is perfect – hence above and beyond these things – but also because his work is not so extensive and wide as to necessitate the care and caution he should have taken if it were otherwise.

My work is universal; hence, I have to come in contact with all kinds of people of all religions, countries and creeds in the East as well as in the West. And while working, I have to be very careful to consider the feeling and impression created on all who come in my contact, especially those whom I wish to work for me immediately, or later in the future. If I do not do that, no one would enter my work, or would be induced or persuaded to do the work as I want him or her to do it. In my great, universal divine plan I require men and women of all castes, creeds, cults and denominations in life – from the poorest peasant to the richest Rockefeller – each to fit in to a particular type of work in his or her class or community. Accordingly, I find the person willingly inclined.

Thus with me, there are Hindus, Mohammedans, Parsis and Christians, Easterners and Westerners, each with certain tendencies, temperaments, inclinations, and fitness or fondness to do a certain type of work. Each has at the time certain weaknesses and prejudices side-by-side with good qualities, and it is all these things and factors which I have to observe and consider if I want a particular person to fit in somewhere for certain work of mine.

Therefore, whenever a person is introduced or comes into my contact, I watch over him closely, and for a certain period in the beginning, even pamper his prejudices of caste, creed or religion. I tolerate his other weaknesses in nature and temperament until he is gradually trained and prepared to give these up one by one. And then he begins to understand things in a better and broader angle of vision, all the while trained through explanations, discourses and direct references to others, which are really meant for him. It is a very delicate and difficult task, involving so many problems for a number of persons concerned in a particular question; consequently, some have to tolerate and suffer unnecessarily for others who are thus being trained.

Therefore, if a Hindu comes to see me, I have to look at his caste – Brahmin or Untouchable – and deal with him accordingly, and similarly in the case of a Mohammedan, a Parsi or a Christian. I explain things as the person likes best – seeing to his or her temperament, inclination, or prejudices – so that he will digest what I want to impress on him, and then try to learn to overcome and rise above his prejudices gradually.

In this manner, so many have been trained during all these years so that the Hindus, Mohammedans, Parsis and Christians in all of the mandali have learned to live as one family.

Their religious and other social prejudices have been practically destroyed, and they are convinced now that all their weaknesses and prejudices were false and unreal, and that real religion is one of universal brotherhood and love for all alike. This they are taught after years of training and careful tactics observed by me, handling each case separately according to the temperament of each. I know and have tactfully brought them all through the path of prejudices and religious orthodoxy and bigotry to an understanding of a toleration for all religions, and to the true spiritual aim and goal of life, which is my only mission.

But if I were to teach these spiritual truths from the beginning, disregarding your human weaknesses and religious or caste prejudices during the preliminary stage of training, not one of you would have stayed with me, much less been trained to the discipline and understanding of life as you are now.

Meher Baba: Maya is like a Bat!

There are so many different kinds and types of persons with hundreds of varieties of weaknesses and prejudices which I have to deal with and handle tactfully and delicately during the first stages, tolerantly overlooking their many faults, even persuading them in spite of their own mistakes and deliberate wrong actions – thereby suffering myself intensely and at times making others also suffer unnecessarily, for which they again blame me, become annoyed or upset. Then I have the additional task of explaining to them again why I do certain things at certain times.

There are always complications in such Universal work as mine, wherewith there arise so many questions and factors concerning and involving hundreds or thousands of people at one time. Consequently, there is always the chance of my actions, words or explanations being misinterpreted and misunderstood in one way or the other.

In trying to please everybody, one pleases nobody! Yet, I have to try to please everybody in turns or, on certain occasions, simultaneously, through different moves, actions and words as required for certain persons at certain places. …

There’s more which is worth reading. On this occasion, Meher Baba went on and on in terms of particular dynamics that were stirred up in Mysore, where he went for awhile in 1936, apparently just for that purpose, and all of it is worth reading and understanding. In the midst of it, he gets into a very revealing riff about why he appreciated Westerners – because, unlike Orientals, we have discrimination. In other words, If there’s a change in circumstances or someone’s behavior, we don’t jump instantaneously to a final conclusion aobut what it means, which is what Indians routinely do. Westerners will wait and see what it means, unlike all the automatic behavior on the basis of purely superficial perceptions that he was dealing with in Mysore. And he was speaking to Indians when he said this – he wasn’t trying to butter up some Westerner.

Avatar Meher Baba ki Jai
Vishveshwar