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

THE WORK 447work of the rather older and completely contrasting man, Pablo Picasso, which may seem absurd, but I amstruck by the depth of vision in the artist who says in his work, 'Let there be light!' that seems to illustrate thelife of Meher Baba. And I recall what Alcibiades said of Socrates at the end of his famous speech in theSymposium that 'the really wonderful thing about him is that he is like no other human being, living ordead ... our friend here is so extraordinary ... that you will never be able to find anyone remotely resemblinghim.'Many will find impudicity in his claim to God-manhood, but there is in this humble man the highestdegree of consciousness and the complete spontaneity that enables him to say 'I am that Ancient One whosepast is worshipped and remembered, whose present is ignored and forgotten', and to add, 'I suffer infiniteagony through your ignorance'.The following is an excerpt from a letter written by Charles Purdom to a friend in May of 1963."I wish I could write an entirely new book about Baba. Having finished his life, I can now look at him asit were from a distance and can say much more than I have written. After the Life has been published I maybe able to do that. His uniqueness is what is outstanding, the most remarkable thing. There is no one inhistory who is his equivalent, so far as I can discover. None of the men from the East who are well known inAmerica, some known here, are in the least like him. Teaching, yes, but not as a man....Charles"