MASTERY IN SERVITUDE
Avatar Meher Baba's Work
To love God in the most practical way is to love our fellow beings. If we feel for others in the same way as we feel for our own dear ones, we love God.
~ Meher Baba
No amount of prayer or meditation can do what helping others can do.
~ Meher Baba
About Meher Baba's Work and Life
Meher Baba's Work with "Masts"
Meher Baba devoted a considerable amount of time, sometimes driving hours without rest to meet a single spiritually intoxicated person (masts). Usually overlooked, living in complete poverty and mistaken for madmen, Meher Baba spent his life serving these unique, hidden people.
Meher Baba's View on Religion
"There is no difference in the realization of the Truth either by a Muslim, Hindu, Zoroastrian, or a Christian. The difference is only in words and terms. Truth is not the monopoly of a particular race or religion." This quote exemplifies Meher Baba's focus on truth and living spiritual values, not just preaching them. He united others as opposed to dividing them by external rituals; placing emphasis on the truth of genuine care for other beings as a lifestyle; pushing aside superficial differences.
Meher Baba had said, "You have been given enough words. It is now time to live them."
With a few companions, he lived a unique chapter of his life according to the traditional parivrajak renunciation practiced by Sadhus; eating only what was given and complete abandonment of comfort and home.
Meher Baba traveled extensively and inexhaustibly, often to meet one sincere seeker of truth. He notoriously traveled 3rd class domestically (India) via train or car. His travels in the USA, Europe and elsewhere are documented well. He visited many key spiritual sites around the world. He had a particular empathy with the Indigenous people of North America and their trials.
Meher Baba began observing silence from 1925 until the end of his life. Even after a serious accident, he asked his close disciple, Dr. Goher, to make sure he didn't make a sound during a painful medical treatment. He is quoted as saying, "I have not come to teach." He and his close companions sought to live the precepts of the spiritual life that have been given again and again by many traditions.
Meher Baba's Core Disciples and Followers
His close disciples were referred to as "Mandali" and some of us had the privilege of knowing these unique people. He has followers around the world and multiple centers where people meet in the memory of his work. He did not wish his path to be turned into a new religion, and therefore, those of us that knew the Mandali try to maintain that wish. We simply try to live the life he suggested which was rooted in "Mastery in Servitude" as a meditation in action.
"But when from the depths of the heart, one desires something more lasting than wealth, something more real than material power, the wave will recede. Then peace will come, joy will come, light will come."
~ Meher Baba