Letter from Adi Sr.

The following is an excerpt from a letter Adi K. Irani wrote in response to a letter that a Baba lover had written to him listing the things wrong with one of the Western centers and the individuals at the center. Adi had said in the letter that the copy should be shared with others.

. . . Most of the suggestions you have made are laudable indeed; however, one thing I wish to make very clear to you and that is that Baba always emphasized what is right and good about His lovers and the work they do for Him. If I were to read such a letter to Baba, He would not be pleased about the way you express the things wrong with His lovers and the way they work for Baba, even if they happened to be true in the gross sense. Baba's method, if one can say He had a method about these things, was (as I have observed), to always emphasize the good things about a person rather than his faults. Baba sees the light and dark within one and one's work for Him; but Baba corrects a person by highlighting the light within him to overcome the darkness. By focusing on the light the dark automatically disappears. As Baba has indicated in my presence.* When the light comes, where does the darkness go?

Baba enjoys hearing the good about His work, just as I was happy to hear from J. the good about you. I would like to hear from you the good about the work in _____. I spent a great deal of time on going over each point of yours, because of J.'s love for you and because he knew these things were important to you. He very honestly told me of the need for improvement as you indicated; but I told him, as I am telling you, that the good is what is important. No one improves by someone merely pointing out his faults. I explained to J. very carefully that the harm done by telling someone his faults may be worse than whatever faults he might have. This is a very subtle point that took me over fifty years of life with the Avatar to learn. The key to each heart is love, and it is through love that people change; not through coercion. By telling someone his faults, instead of giving him support towards how much he has improved, more harm may be done, than whatever he might be doing.

These are things that I have been telling J. about for years as well as others who come to India. In your point No. 4, it is true that we must always respect others' feelings towards their own masters; but it is also true that Baba lovers are, as you say "the greatest" because they do follow Meher Baba, and Meher Baba is the Avatar of this age. Pride in oneself that one is a Baba lover is a harmless feeling. Such feeling is natural and helpful at a certain stage on the Path.

Regarding your point No. 3, naturally new-corners should always be welcome. This is a question I have spent some time personally discussing with Baba. Baba wanted the content of the meetings to be only about Himself or His messages. He wants the gatherings of His lovers, both in intimate groups as well as the public meetings you have, to be strictly about His incarnation as Avatar Meher Baba. How you choose to implement this is of course up to the group. Baba does not want meetings to stray towards general metaphysical subjects. He wants His lovers to solely occupy their attention with His Advent as Avatar Meher Baba.

© /976 by Adi K. Irani

*[sic] (Most probably, the intended meaning is: By focusing on the light the dark automatically disappears, as Baba has indicated in my presence. - webmaster)