Meditation

On the 29th Anniversary of Meher Baba's Silence

OW OFTEN are people silent with resentment, or with astonishment (empty mind) over a calamity? How often do we lose sleep for the devil's sake, whether through worry, overeating, or just planning ahead for business? How we toil and fret in order to provide a mere existence! Why do we not make similar efforts for God's sake and thus gain the more abundant life?

The Bible contains many statements about dedicating our daily activities, such as sleep, silence, and eating, Godwards; also referred to as "Our Father's business" (Luke 2:49).

"Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink . . . is not the life more than meat?" (Matt. 6:25 ) . "It is high time to awake out of sleep." (Romans 13:11). "Why sleep ye? Rise and pray." (Luke 12:46). "What I say unto you I say unto all, watch. "(Mark 13:37). "Be still and know I am God." (Psalm 46). "Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." (Matt. 4:4).

As long as we go about our usual habits of living, we cannot change, no matter how beautifully we verbalize about spirituality. But disciplines, whether self-imposed or practiced cheerfully at the Master's suggestion, will give us the new vision and consciousness of the One. This kind of truth, realized through living experience, frees us from our enemies (old habits) and unites us with our friends (spiritual qualities and attitudes).

By overcoming the limitations imposed upon us by instinctual and intellectual habits (egoism, unconsciousness, fear), we can come over to the kingdom of the more abundant life. "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the Tree of Life." (Rev. 2:7). We can, then, reject the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil and always choose the Best, the Highest.

Spiritual freedom is the fruit of the practice of qualities such as love, forgiveness, and humility, and is independent of external conditions and things. The power of our Soul's ideals, visions, ideas and illuminations is far greater than the circumstances of Maya. The greatest obstacles on the way to Selfhood are placed there by ourselves, in our natural state. So, if