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

352 THE GOD-MANThe Wind that levels the young wheat that the stalks may grow strong in the sun; while you during thedays of its growing attend other else, and whet with your eyes the scythe of its reaping –Thou lovely one! Thou faithless one of all faith!Thou stonecutter and gemcutter! Thou potter and breaker of pots!Thou upturner and returner! Thou upheavaller and leveller!Thou bender of what is straight, and Thou straightener of the bent!Thou Baba!There is argument and exposition and many lovely passages, a presentation of Baba without parallel.In a letter dated February 1960 Francis said:How different is the reality of staying with God from the romantic idea of 'sitting at the master's feet'!Staying with God is the hardest work one can do. One of the proofs of Baba's greatness is the greatness ofthose who have been with him all their lives. Even Baba sometimes betrays his admiration for them.Sometimes I cannot help but wonder how it is that I am here among these men - why I am here. I amcertainly no ornament anywhere, and here I certainly don't earn my tucker. Most of the time I am about asstupid as an ox, and not as useful. Only by being what he is could Baba have held these men for a lifetime.Being greater than the saints, he has not allowed them the beatific experience of the saints, he has giventhem only hard work, poor accommodation, poor food and little sleep, and the crushing weight of hisdivine love and boundless compassion. They have stayed simply because he is what he is - the PerfectMan, which is the totality of Goodhood in human form; and he who is the only Person in the world orbeyond it who can make and keep them happy.In the summer he was at Guruprasad when on 16 May three young sons of one of the Parsi devotees inBombay were 'confirmed' in Baba's love at the request of the parents, and as at a Zoroastrian confirmationa white garment called a sadra was put on and a thread called kasti affixed round the waist; this was doneby Baba, who afterwards said:May Ahuramazd, Zoroaster, Meher Baba free you from the superficial binding of shariyat (rites andrituals) and help you to lead a life of Good Thoughts, Good Words, and Good Deeds, and bestow on youthe grace of loving Baba. I have given you this emblem of superficial binding to make you free from thisbinding and to give you the real binding of love.