know, be eloquent in speaking and writing, and excellent in advising others, but is all nothing so long as self-love remains. We can know all about sanskaras, and still be so tightly bound in them that we can do nothing but repeat our old foolishness, our dislikes, antagonisms and reactions.

Baba is very tender to those who love him but also very severe. Unless we can endure the severity our love is worth nothing. Baba does not allow sentimental attachments. He sometimes sends his declared lovers away from him, and very often makes them do work they have no wish to do. It is dangerous to love Baba, and the closer to him the more dangerous.

Baba always says that we must obey our consciences. "Leave me if your conscience says so; attack me if your conscience says so" is what he tells everyone. Conscience operates through the mind. Only those who use their minds hear the voice of conscience; and the mind is an organ of challenge, questioning and examining what comes before it. So we must continue to do so until we are united with him. I do not mean of course that we should be carpingly critical and receive what Baba says skeptically. To say, when Baba "says" something we did not expect, "I don't believe a word of it," as I have heard disciples say, is silly. Unless we approach Baba with love and obedience we receive nothing and understand nothing. What I do mean is that we should listen with devotion, but with active minds, realizing that Baba speaks his own language, so that we cannot enter into his meaning without meditation. But the illuminated mind is not bathed in soft delusions. The mind is enlightened when the heart is warm and the will is pure.

The idea that Baba intends to perform some sensational act in the world is a great error. In his final declaration he said:

"I have cone to sow the seed of love in your hearts so that, in spite of all superficial diversity which your life in illusion must experience and endure, the feeling of oneness, through love, is brought about amongst all the nations, creeds, sects and castes of the world.

In order to bring this about I am preparing to break my silence. When I break my silence . . .I shall speak only One Word, and this Word will penetrate the hearts of all men . . ."

What is the breaking of the silence and this "Word"? I think the Word is that which will break into our hearts and minds and shatter the world