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

444 THE GOD-MANheavy at night, for he sleeps but little. He comes out of the night, and Out of the days of retirement, and saysnothing. There is nothing that can be said. Here we see the symbolic meaning of the silence.(2)In the first part of this book I have devoted a chapter to the men called masts. These men, not inherentlymad, but in whom there is suspension of interest in and capacity for worldly things, who are not, as I havesaid, to be confused with yogis and fakirs, but who 'lose their balance while traversing the path of the innerlife', which brings them 'to a complete breakup and reconstitution of the mental structure', are regarded as ofimmense importance in Baba's 'Work'. 'They have resigned so much', he says, 'that God has to come to them'.He can not only help them to liberate fresh energies, but, he says, 'Mast-mind is a nucleus of consciousformations with innumerable and far-reaching links. A mast can therefore be a more effecting agent forspiritual work than the most able persons.' (The Wayfarers, p.1 0). Thus Baba spent thirteen years on thiswork covering the period of the second world war and the great tensions in India in which independence tookplace, the land became soaked in blood, Gandhi gave up politics and devoted his life to peace and wasmurdered. That this dedicated activity of Baba's had relation to what was taking place, there can be littledoubt.This raises the question why masts are not heard of elsewhere? They are mostly to be found in India, saysBaba, a few in Arabia, Iran, Egypt, China and Tibet, none in any other part of the world.There are, however, men and women, when we come to think of it, in the West, some very great men indeed,of whom Nietzsche comes first to mind, who if not masts, are mast-like. That Nietzsche suffered frommadness different in degree if not in kind from ordinary madness there can be little doubt, and that hebecame mad because of spiritual despair and through compassion are equally certain. There have been andare others, and the subject seems worthy of study. It may be that in the mast-State the functions of earthlyexistence comes to an end and the involution of consciousness cannot proceed farther here.Why masts are to be found in the East, says Baba, is that India is the most important country spiritually.(The Wayfarers, p.37.) He has not taken the matter farther. It explains, too, why the God-Man appears inIndia.