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

THE TEACHING 427To accept anything literally is to be idolatrous. To banish reason is to deny intelligence and to close the doorto Reality - for without reason one is at the mercy of one's 'feelings', which becomes mistaken for 'thought',so that we are in great danger of deceiving ourselves; so fanatics are born. All religious reforms areresistances to idolatry, in one form or another. What goes wrong with reform is that the resistance itselfconsolidates into a new dogma; thus heresies are inevitably erroneous: justified in their origin, their effect isto sidetrack the objector who proceeds to set up new idols.Obedience as the free devotion of the will has nothing in common with authoritarian subservience, thesubjection to exterior orders or to an external absolute. Indeed, it contains the essence of intellectualindependence, for full obedience is possible only to the intellectually courageous. Such obedience is the seatof love, which is purity of heart, the capacity to reflect God's love without distortion. Such love is far frommere sentimental feeling, a pleasant sensation, and because obedience involves the mind and will, when theheart reflects, it receives and gives. That receiving and giving love is a disposition of the will. Recognition ofthe factor of will is of the highest importance; as I have pointed out, the progress of the soul is not inevitable,and the sleeping soul cannot will: it is subject so long as it sleeps to natural development, which is decay.Without will, that is to say, a turning or disposition, what is called 'repentance', there is no awakening. Thusresponsibility is placed upon the human soul, which is the ground for the dignity and worth of man. Alone increation he has responsibility, which is his greatness and uniqueness.Baba's ethics, therefore, may be said to be contained in the words, 'honesty', 'tolerance', and 'selfresponsibility'.I once heard him cross-examined on the subject of 'honesty' but he would admit nocompromise: one had to be scrupulously honest in small things as in great. To hear this in India wherecorruption is everywhere was unforgettable. Baba, however, is not a moralist in the narrow sense, for there isnothing negative about him. His 'honesty' is positive. 'God forgives everything except hypocrisy', he says.Tolerance is forgiveness; for while cosmically everything has to be paid for, it is not for us to hold up othersfor payment. Self-responsibility is the courage to take responsibility for everything, not even puttingresponsibility upon God.Thus Baba's practical 'teaching' is action springing from inner conviction, and while he addresses thereasoning mind in his metaphysics, he is constantly warning us against too rigid dependence upon conceptual,logical thinking, for the reasoning mind is tied to the brain,