Whatever happens, to accept our lives as they are as God’s will - as our own will. To place ourselves at the disposal of God.

That, as far as I understand it, is to do Baba's work — the work: to will God's will and to love, which just simply means not to cultivate emotional feelings but to renounce one's own existence.

To understand Meher Baba is not necessary. Though it is better for us to use our understanding; what is necessary is what I have attempted to describe. Simple as it is to say, it is not simple, though the simplest person can act upon it. When Baba says ‘Love me', 'Have My name on your lips', He is not asking for sentimental feelings or for idolatrous repetition of words, but to love God as living reality, not as an idea, nor as an idol, but as the only One. It is the very opposite of being confirmed in the world, making us successful as we are, giving us health, or comfort, or any other good that we desire: it is to give up what we are, and what we have, to think nothing of health, or comfort, or wealth. It is to become free.

Yet, to be faced with freedom is the most terrible of all things. Very few are fit for it, because inner freedom is what few have ever experienced. We talk about free-will, and men are treated, politically, as though they possessed it; but free-will is rarely reached. We have nothing to be proud of. 'Man is trapped in the earth situation, wandering among his memories and dreams', says the play wright Samuel Beckett: trapped man has no free-will.

Meher Baba has no technique or method or rule for His followers. There is no yoga by means of which perfection may be developed. His aim is 'being', which is equivalent to originality, the genius of spirit. He is thus very difficult to follow because it is easy to fall into meaninglessness. He does, however, make us realize that to think of God as afar off, supposing that one has to go through certain processes to get to Him - beliefs, rituals, sacrifices and so forth — is to be entirely wrong. Instead He directs us to 'the divine at the heart of a glowing universe', to quote Teilhard de Chardin.

What Baba represents for us is not an 'ism' among other 'isms', a movement or society, a church or teaching. He tells us not to abandon our own religion but to understand what we are doing in its practice We should not get the idea that when we have listened to Baba's 'words' read by someone, talked about Him, and thought about Him, that we are doing His work. Certainly to be in His presence is a great blessing, a marvelous experience; but longing for this can become one of the many forms of idolatry, unless our consciousness and behaviour receive a new orientation. Otherwise what is the point of meeting Him?

It is Meher Baba's work to do our daily work with all our hearts. To be faithful in duties, respect tasks, be good workers, house-keepers, craftsman, parents, honest in our dealings: to plunge into the world, take on its burdens and responsibilities and not be defeated: to be conscious in our senses, to accept destiny and accident, transforming them into choice. There are three sorts of men: those who are enslaved by destiny, those who transform their destiny, those who surpass their destiny, achieving the impossible. The first sort are not doing Baba's work, the second sort do it, the third sort are raised to the level of His saving work.

The work is unceasing, being essentially work upon ourselves, the development of consciousness and conscientiousness, love and obedience. Great and continuous effort is called for: it is the most difficult work one can undertake. Of course, to fail constantly is inevitable, and we must expect it, never