First Plane for a long time, then in the Second, and so on. But when the God-man chooses to help a person, he may, through his Grace, even take the aspirant to the Seventh Plane in one second, though in that one second, the person has to traverse all the intermediate Planes.

In taking a person to the Seventh Plane, the God-man is making him equal to himself, and the person, who thus attains the highest spiritual status, himself becomes a God-man. This transmission of spiritual knowledge from the God-man to his disciple is comparable to the lighting of one lamp from another. The lamp which has been lighted, is as capable of giving light to others as the original lamp itself; and there is no difference between them, in respect of importance or utility. The God-man is comparable to the Banyan Tree. The Banyan Tree grows huge and mighty, giving shade and shelter to the travelers and protecting them from the sun, rain and storm; and in the fullness of its growth, its descending rooting branches strike deep into the fallow ground to create, in due time, another full-grown Banyan Tree, which also not only becomes equally huge and mighty, giving shade and shelter to the travelers and protecting them from the sun, rain and storm, but has the same potential power to create similar full-grown Banyan Trees. The same is true of the God-man, who arouses the God-man latent in others. The continued succession of the God-men on earth is a perpetual blessing to mankind, helping it onward in its struggle through darkness.

The God-man may be said to be the Lord and the Servant of the Universe, at one and the same time; as one who showers his spiritual bounty on all in measureless abundance, he is the Lord of the Universe; and as one who continuously bears the burden of all and helps them through numberless spiritual difficulties, he is the Servant of the Universe. And, just as he is Lord and Servant in one, he is also the supreme Lover and the matchless Beloved. The love which he gives or receives, goes to free the soul from ignorance. In giving love, he gives it to himself in other forms; and in receiving love, he receives what has been awakened through his own grace, which is continuously showered on all without distinctions. The Grace of the God-man is like the rain, which falls equally on all lands, irrespective of whether they are barren or fertile; but it fructifies only in the lands which have been rendered fertile through arduous and patient toiling.

*Reprinted by special permission from the “Discourses of Meher Baba."