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

THE MAN 383an existence beyond time and change. To describe them is next to impossible. Two points should especiallybe noted, that they occur during waking consciousness, hardly ever in sleep or dream, and that to attempt toinduce them by the use of drugs or any other mechanical stimulus of emotion or by dulling the senses as inyogic exercises is futile 1 for the illumination is essentially disassociated from the phenomenal. 2Mostly the experience is transitory, it comes in a flash, often at the moment between sleeping andawakening, perhaps at a time of great stress, more often in tranquility, frequently as the fruit ofconcentration; then goes, sometimes to be repeated, sometimes not. This is as true of a 'spiritual' experienceas of the so-called 'natural', even though it may change one's life, as when René Descartes had a vision at theage of twenty-three that the structure of the universe was mathematical and logical. But the clarity and theeffect of the experience, 'natural' or 'spiritual', may not mean that one lives in it or 'becomes' it, for only toooften the illumination, as with Descartes, though true, is partial, not the whole truth. Even with the mysticsthe truth they find, the God they encounter, though unmistakable and overpowering, leaves them in Nature,their vision is incomplete, while the sense of beatitude comes and goes. 3 Rarely the illumination ispermanent. Indeed, it then can hardly be called an 'experience', for it is not something that occurs: it is theever-present in which one lives. There is no change except in appearances and in the energies of the soul;inwardly the spirit is what it always was. Thus it is called 'awakening'.The Perfect Master realizes his eternal being, his 'I-am-ness'. That was the awakening of Meher Baba. Heknew himself to be universal or eternal humanity, man in the 'image' of God, the Man-God, and lived in thatknowledge.1 Cf. R. C. Zaehner, Mysticism: Sacred and Profane (Oxford, 1957) in which Aldous Huxley's The Doors ofPerception (London, 1954) is critically examined. Dr Zaehner is an authority on Zoroastrianism, and aconvert to Roman Catholicism; his book is of importance. He distinguishes between a strictly religiousmysticism, whether it be Hindu, Christian, or Muslim, and natural mysticism, which at its best he regards aspantheistic: but he is not sympathetic to mysticism of any kind.2 An examination of what he calls 'eccentric spirituality' or 'ultrasupernaturalism' as a recurring Christianphenomenon is contained in R. A. Knox's Enthusiasm (Oxford, 1950), a scholarly historical study, ironic inmanner, though the word 'enthusiasm' is not used as a term of abuse. The study is confined to Christianity.3 In Chapter 4, Part I, of this book Meher Baba's work among masts is described: from this it will be seenthat 'illumination' does not always leave a person in a rational state or fit for normal life.