"The incident of birth is common to all life on earth. Unlike other living creatures which are born insignificantly, live an involuntary life and die an uncertain death, physical birth of human beings connotes an important and if they are extra-circumspect about it, perhaps a final stage of their evolutionary progress. Here-onwards, they no longer are automatons but masters of their destiny which they can shape and mold according to will. And this means that human beings, having passed through all travails of lower evolutionary processes, should insist upon the reward thereof, which is 'spiritual birth' in this very life, and not rest content with a promise in the hereafter.

"No sooner does one recoil on himself and is eagerly anxious to elicit replies to interrogative introspection, `Whither and whence,' surely such a one may be said to have had 'spiritual birth.'

"This poise of mind, once gained, automatically and unknowingly brings about a readjustment of material surroundings and the man finds himself in harmony and at peace with the world. Conservatism, intolerance, pride and selfishness will shred off. Everything will put on a new meaning and assume a purpose. Sinner and Saint will appear to be waves differing in size and magnitude, on the surface of the same ocean, a natural outcome of forces in the universe, governed by time, space and causation. The Saint has neither the pride of place, nor the Sinner the stigma of eternal degradation. Nobody is utterly lost and nobody need despair.

"My panacea to the worried world is the effort on its part to get an answer to the questions, 'Whence and whither.' The knowledge that all have the same beginning and the same end, with life on earth a happy interlude, will go a long way in making the brotherhood of man a reality on earth, and this in turn will strike at the root of narrow exploitation. I bless you all for the realization of this, the aim of life."

Question: Why is it necessary to have the aid of a Perfect Master in order to attain to Perfection?

BABA: Only a Perfect Master, who is the veritable incarnation of Divinity, can awaken in the individual the fire of Divine Love, which consumes in its flames the lesser desires of the body, mind and world, all of which must be completely relinquished before Perfection can be realized.