Volume 3 Number 3 Page 17

which I have paid a heavy price. Before I attained to my present blissful state, I had often read and heard that this gross world is nothing but Maya. I could not understand properly why it was called Maya, but now I see for myself that it is really so.

"God is real. Everything else is unreal. Ignorance is the cause of all miseries, of skepticism, hatred and egoism. All the various kinds of impressions, all attachments and errors of man have for their sources ignorance and non-discrimination. Many persons confuse the dream with the reality, take bad for good, and forgetting the soul, they regard the gross world as the only reality. Ignoramuses look at the mirage and think they are the body which is a mere instrument and not the glorious 'effulgent Self' or Atman. When discrimination makes its appearance, the net of ignorance disappears and the Reality is seen through the eyes of discrimination. Finally, in the words of the sages, I say, 'Neither despise any being nor look with contempt on others; but attempt, if ye can, to give all a helping hand; for Oneness is the secret, and the journey is towards the same goal. Believe in the splendor and glory of thine own goal. There is the treasure of infinite freedom, power and purity; so avoid throwing an evil thought into the world. Don't think that thou art born a bound slave full of impurity, for it is forbidden. Weakness never existed but strength, darkness never existed but Light and Love from the beginning and so forever'."

(Reprinted by special permission from the Meher Baba Journal of February, 1939).

TWENTY YEARS WITH MEHER BABA

For the most part, life for all in Meherabad Ashram was on the practical side, but there were times, usually corresponding to periods of Baba's special work, when he gave us periods of combined fasting, silence, and meditation. There were other times when we had an hour's group singing of bhajans (hymns), including all the various names of God. This might be at 4 a.m., to the accompaniment of the harmonium played by Mani or Kati, or just before bedtime. Baba was not present himself, for usually he would be in seclusion and engaged in some special work.