Tuesday, February 25, 2020

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AVATAR MEHER BABA!

"This whole universe, with all its vastness, grandeur and beauty, is nothing but sheer imagination."
Avatar Meher Baba





2 comments:

  1. Might as well take a chance to learn. Every year you post about a Silence Day, which I believe is in relation to Meher Baba.

    Is it like Quaker's silent worship? Where the belief is that sitting in silence allows you to concentrate on your inner light better. Where someone remains silent until they feel God moves them to speak?

    Or is it something else? Why a whole day.

    I know that annual post would be a better time to ask, but then isn't now, and now is when I thought to ask.

    Please pardon my ignorance.

    Jack

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  2. Nothing to pardon, Jack! it's a good question!

    Here's an edited version of what's said on Wikipedia, which makes it pretty simple and clear (although this just skims the surface of the subject of Meher Baba's silence):

    "From 10 July 1925, until his death in 1969, Meher Baba was silent. He communicated first by using an alphabet board and later by unique hand gestures which were interpreted and spoken out by one of his mandali, usually by his disciple Eruch Jessawala. Meher Baba said that his silence was not undertaken as a spiritual exercise but solely in connection with his universal work.

    'Man's inability to live God's words makes the Avatar's teaching a mockery. Instead of practicing the compassion he taught, man has waged wars in his name. Instead of living the humility, purity, and truth of his words, man has given way to hatred, greed, and violence. Because man has been deaf to the principles and precepts laid down by God in the past, in this present Avataric form, I observe silence.'

    In his final Silence Day request to his followers in 1968, he asked only that they keep silent. Many followers continue to celebrate Silence Day by keeping silence in his honor."

    As noted, that just skims the surface, but those are the basics. Thanks for asking!

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