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

446 THE GOD-MANcivilization he is as one who knows his way, not 'giddy in the infinite' in Kierkegaard's words, but Master.(5)I have written this account of the life of Meher Baba from the beginning as far as I know it and have beentold it, and I have examined what he seems to mean, and now, after a further visit to India, I ask myself, Whois he really, this man I have been writing about?What is one to make of him? One can shrug off what he says of himself and refuse to consider him,supposing him to be a paranoiac, or self-deluded. His life in its strange contradictions should make ushesitate to do that. Were he asking anything for himself, any recognition or fame, or attempting to cut afigure, we could allow him to remain with the credulous; but he does the very opposite by shunning publicity,courting seclusion, observing silence: indeed, he raises the question, Are we deluding ourselves? I ask thequestion not that I am uncertain but because questions are to be answered. I cannot be satisfied with what Ihave written in these pages in the language at my command but my answer is that we delude ourselvesunless we do accept him, for he is one who knows why he is alone, what his work is, and that he willcomplete his work. These pages could easily have been lightened in a story-telling manner, which I haverefrained from doing, for I have not fictionalized places, episodes or people. To have gone about my task inthat way would, perhaps, have made a more readable and tasty book, but inconsistent with putting the nakedtruth on record and letting it speak for itself. To accommodate that aim I have had to cut down descriptionsthat might have eased the account, though at the cost of omitting much of factual importance. Here, however,all the cards are on the table, none face downwards. I have written with an inherently sceptical mind at fullstretch, not attempting to enlarge or to tone down anything.It may not be easy for everyone to read with unprejudiced mind, for there is no prepared place for such aman in our society. Yet it seems to me that his presence, his silence and his Word relieve our world frombeing what Pascal said it would be without Christian belief, a chaos. He illuminates our age, a fundamentallymodern yet timeless man, not belonging to the traditions of the past, precious as they are, any more than tothe tensions of the present, urgent as they appear, but to the eternal fullness. It has occurred to me more thanonce that something points to him in the tremendous energy, abundance and shock of the