DISCOURSES Volume II - Avatar Meher Baba Trust

THE PLACE OF OCCULTISM IN SPIRITUAL LIFE: III 109need the help of the Master if they are to proceed further on theway to realisation.Ganjay Shakkar's story illustrates the sort of occasionwhich calls forth the use of occult methods and occult powers, butit must be carefully noted that no occult phenomenon, regardless ofOccult phenomenahave no intrinsicvaluegrade, can have any intrinsic value in itself.The value which seems to belong tophenomena—occult or non-occult—is eitherpurely illusory or entirely relative. Illusoryvalues arise when anything acquires false importance, because itstimulates or promises to fulfill the passing cravings and thelimited purposes born of ignorance. If the thing is taken out of thecontext of these passing cravings and limited purposes, it isimmediately deprived of the entire meaning with which it seemedto be surcharged. Relative values arise when a thing acquiresimportance through serving the realisation or expression of theTruth. The importance of such things is derived from their beingthe essential conditions for the game of divine life; and therefore,though it is relative, such value is real and not illusory.Most persons consciously or unconsciously attach undueimportance to occult phenomena and mistake them for spirituality.For them, miracles and spirit-phenomena are the real topics ofOccultism to bedistinguished fromspiritualityabsorbing interest, and this is presumed toindicate an interest in the true life of thespirit. There is a very clear and definitedistinction, however, between occultism andmysticism, spiritualism and spirituality; and any failure to graspthe full import of this difference can only lead to confusion.All miracles belong to the phenomenal world,