Read Book - Avatar Meher Baba Trust

64 THE PATH OF LOVE
requires thought about hunger in order to become hungry. It is
as natural as breathing. However, it has great connection with
the intensity of Bhakti or longing on the part of the aspirant.
The more intense becomes the divine longing, the more reduced
become the physical needs.
Even on this phenomenal plane, we often find worldly
people becoming indifferent for a long time to what we call the
indispensable necessities of life, in the heat and attraction of an
absorbing work and pleasure. This is just what happens on the
spiritual plane too. One may become so very preoccupied with
the ideal in view as to forget all about these supposedly indispensable
necessities of life for months together, without permanently
harming oneself physically. No harm can come where
there is no thought of any harm. And when we say that those
who really insist on seeing God must renounce all and go about
with their very lives in their shirt sleeves, we certainly mean that
no consideration for any personal loss or danger should be entertained.
We do not mean that the aspirant should commit
suicide; but he should certainly cease to cling to life and be
prepared to lose it if and when circumstances demand it.
This may seem impracticable, and it is certainly next to
impossible for most persons to reach this height of Bhakti Yoga.
Yet every human being is potentially capable of demonstrating
this high achievement; and some, though very few in number,
do manifest divinity in this way from time to time.
To give a recent example, His Holiness Sadguru Upasni
Maharaj of Sakori seated himself in seclusion about forty-five
years ago on a hill near Nasik, for fully one year continuously,
and during this whole period took neither food nor water, even