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

356 THE GOD-MANI want you to remain undisturbed and unshaken by the force of life's currents, for whatever thecircumstances they too will be of my own creation.I want you to remain absorbed as much as possible in thinking of me during my seclusion of six months,when circumstances will be so created during this period that they will try to drift you away from me. Thisis the reason why I have repeatedly stressed, while at Guruprasad, that the time has come when I want youall to cling to my daaman with both hands - in case the grip of one hand is lost, your other will serve ingood stead.And lastly, I want you all to remember not to disturb me in any way during my seclusion, not even bywriting to me to acknowledge this or to reaffirm your love for me.From 1 July Baba went into complete seclusion at Meherazad and said that no one should come to seehim, only those for whom he sent for some work. Neither was anyone allowed to correspond with himexcept in emergency until the end of the year. He asked 'all who love and obey him and all who wouldwish to do so' to observe complete silence from 8 p.m. 9 July until 8 p.m. 10 July - the thirty-fifthanniversary of his silence. He said himself on that day, 'To drown all sound in my silence is to hearken tomy word of words'.The seclusion continued broken only by such events as when on 1 a September he touched the feet of220 poor people, followed by a further 1 a 1, all from the surrounding villages, bowing down and placinghis head on the feet of each one, putting 1 a rupees in the hand of each.By the beginning of October he was seriously ill and had much suffering: 'You are Bliss itself; to makeyou aware of it, I come amongst you and suffer infinite agony.' At the end of November the followingmessage was issued:My silence must break. There is no escape from it.I shall not lay down my body until I have given the WORD to the world.Of my own I shall not break my silence; Universal Crisis will make me do so. When the Crisis willreach its absolute culmination, it will make me utter the WORD at that moment.Circumstances are converging and fast gathering momentum towards precipitating the right moment,which will come completely unawares - at any time, any hour, any day. That Moment is not far away.