DISCOURSES Volume II - Avatar Meher Baba Trust

104 DISCOURSESOccultism as an artto be restricted tofurtherance of spiritualpurposesmaterial needs of humanity or helping it inits mundane purposes. The introduction ofan uncertain and incalculable factor, whichthe free exercise of occult power wouldinvolve, is bound to create much confusionand disturbance in the ordinary pursuits of men, who must be leftto their own limitations, resources and possibilities for the equaland uninterrupted working out of the law of Karma. The use ofoccult power, therefore, has to be strictly restricted to thefurtherance of spiritual purposes.Sometimes the saints do fulfill some of the mundanedesires of their devotees, but this is not done because they areinterested in mundane affairs, but because they are interested inMaterial bait forspiritual interestweaning their devotees away from theirmaterial cravings. When children are veryyoung they cannot be induced to attend toletters written on a slate. In order to induce their attention to lettersthe elders present them sometimes with letters speciallyconstructed out of sweets. Then they attend to these letters, notbecause they are interested in the letters as such, but because theyare interested in the sweets. But this often proves to be the beginningof their interest in the letters themselves, and the sweets cansoon be discarded after they have cultivated this interest. Worldlypeople are like such young children. Just as the father mayoccasionally give a piece of chocolate to the baby in order toencourage it to be good, the saints might give to their worldlyminded devotees certain harmless objects they desire so that theymay eventually be willing to part with them and get interested intrue spirituality.Worldly people are so much immersed in material cravingsthat nothing interests them unless it has some