THE GOD-MAN The Life, Journeys and Work of Meher Baba with an ...

280 THE GOD-MANexcept a few as will be absolutely necessary for my requirements of nature in the barest sense of livingthe life of a man alive.(2) I wish all my lovers to observe a fast and remain only on water (which can be taken any number oftimes during the fast) for 24 hours, from 8 p.m. on Saturday February 12th to 8 p.m. on SundayFebruary 13th, (local time in each country) and to devote all available time during the twenty-fourhours in praying to God in the way each likes best to pray to him.(3) Honesty is the keynote to Divinity. He who can love God honestly can lose himself in God and findhimself as God.Baba started a forty days' fast on 1 December, of one meal a day for the first ten days, followed by amore complete fast on liquids only. Preceding the fast there was an all-night vigil by himself and themandali. During the entire period the mandali in relays repeated the name of God throughout each twentyfourhours. When the fast ended on 9 January 1955 at the strike of midnight all stood outside his door andas he came out said loudly together the name of God. That day a meal was given to fifty-six poor people,the girls in the Satara orphanage were given new clothes and 50 or more lepers were provided with newgarments. Baba looked very drawn and tired.On 14 January Baba gave darshan to a large crowd of people in Poona lasting with a short interval forten hours, he taking nothing but a little water. From the 25 January he went on visits to various places andon 6 February gave darshan in Bombay. He was back in Satara and on 10 April issued:The Final DecisionThe Universe has come out of God. God has not come out of the universe. Illusion has come out ofReality. Reality has not come out of illusion. God alone is Real; the universe itself is illusion.God's life lived in illusion, as the Avatar and as Perfect Masters, is not illusory; whereas God's real lifelived in creation is both real and illusory. Illusion, illusory life, and God's life in illusion are not and cannotbe one and the same. Illusion has no life. Illusion is illusion and is nothing by itself. Illusory life means lifein illusion, with illusion, surrounded by illusion, and is illusory life. God's life lived in illusion is notillusory because in spite of living the illusory life God remains Conscious of his own Reality.