Bhau's Message for the New Year 2006.

Date: Saturday, December 31, 2005

Beloved Avatar Meher Baba Ki Jai!

I am very, very happy to offer the following prayer to Beloved Avatar Meher Baba for all His dear ones:

“May Beloved Baba bless you with His love so that you realize the true meaning of Christmas and New Year’s Day.”

Christmas is the day we remember the Lord's incarnation upon earth in order to work for His children in Creation. He has been working throughout eternity, but this work requires His physical presence.

New Year’s Day is when we should have the longing to experience that Eternal Day which has no past and no future. As this happens only by the grace of the Lord, we must love Him and live for Him and die for Him in order to fulfill His Wish.

According to His Will, everyone comes into Creation through the original Whim, "Who am I?"

There are three types of impressions: natural, unnatural and non-natural. Natural impressions are created by the Whim and cause consciousness to progress from the stone to the human kingdom because of them. Then, in the subtle and mental world, until the time we realize God, unnatural impressions are those called good and bad. Both good and bad impressions are binding, and we go on collecting more and more of them.

These impressions become the mould of the drop soul and mind. They shape the form of the physical body. That’s why everyone has a different face -- it shows that everyone has different impressions. accordingly, each person requires a different remedy for their obstructive impressions.

Though the Whim is always within everyone, we create different obstructive impressions. We don't pay attention to His Will and Wish. And therefore, we remain bound in the Illusion of Creation.

When one drops the body, the drop soul, along with mind and energy, remains in the astral world (which is within us). The astral world is also called the dream world or sub-subtle world and is a half portion of the first plane. If we’ve collected more good than bad impressions during our lives, we enjoy the "heaven" state. If we have collected more bad impressions, than good, we go to the "hell" state.

Suppose someone has collected 100 billion good impressions and 60 billion bad impressions. When he has no body -- when death comes -- because the good impressions outnumber the bad, he goes to heaven. Suppose that out of the 100 billion good impressions, he has spent 30 billion of
them. So 70 billion good impressions are left. At the same time, he still has 60 billion bad impressions. After spending some time in the heaven state, he comes to the balancing point of the good and bad
impressions. But before the impressions balance, he takes birth and brings back with him 70 billion good impressions and 60 billion bad ones.

We also experience the astral or dream world every night when we go to sleep. Our consciousness passes through it, and for a short time, we dream. Afterwards, consciousness goes to Paradise. The mind stops working, and we remain in the Beyond State of God. Then we have no consciousness. We forget our body, we forget the world, we forget everything. We remain unconscious. Because the mind does not work, it gets rest.

But after the mind is rested, the impressions tell it, "Now you are rested. Spend us!"

And we wake up.

As we are waking up, again we pass again through the planes and astral world. Sometimes consciousness remains stuck there, and again we see the dream. Then we get up. It goes on and on.

But all this is in Illusion. We don't know the Truth.Age after age, binding impressions increase in everyone. People remain full of low desires, greed and temptations. They do different things
to achieve their selfish motives, and forget the Truth as they remain absorbed in illusory things.

And that's why the Lord has to come down on earth. Because of His Love, He comes age after age to help not only humanity but all the lower kingdoms, too. He gives His Love to free us from obstructive
impressions. Then the Whim works in a natural way, and we spend natural impressions. Our consciousness makes progress. The work of the Whim finishes when we know that we are the Truth.

The Ancient One is one and the same, the only Savior who comes down on earth. He is the Soul in charge of Creation. Each time He comes, he finds a different situation and accordingly, He gives His Wish for humanity to follow. Within 100 years, humanity awakens and follows His Wish.

After 400-500 years, again, humanity gradually forgets the Truth. Instead, it follows Illusion. We forget the Wish that He has given and turn it into rituals, ceremonies, traditions, different rules. That's
why, though the Ancient One is one and the same, we find different religions, different sects, different traditions.

When Zoroaster came, His specific work was in Iran. Then Ram -- His specific work was in India and Sri Lanka. Only afterwards did people in the rest of the world come to know about Him. Then Krishna, whose specific work was in India and Dwarka. Then came Buddha -- His specific
work was in India, Burma, China and Japan. Then came Jesus -- His specific work was in all the Western countries and parts here and there in the rest of the world. Then Mohammed -- His specific work was in all the Arabian countries and some other parts of the world. Now in this age,
the same Ancient One has come as Meher Baba. This time He has said that the whole world will recognize Him and His specific work will be in the whole world.

Every time He comes, His general work is in the seven kingdoms of the gross world (stone, vegetable, insect, fish, bird, animal and human being) as well as in the subtle and mental world. His specific work is in particular countries. Every age, it goes on increasing and increasing. Because this is the end of a cycle of cycles, Meher Baba will be recognized in the whole world.

And a new cycle will begin.

The day of the death of Jesus is called Good Friday.

Why is it called "Good"?

Because that was the day the Lord dropped His body and released humanity from different bindings.

Actually, three days after the Crucifixion, Jesus rose up after and came to India where He worked for many years, visiting the places of Ram, Krishna and Buddha. At the end of his life, He went to Kashmir. Jesus lived there many years and then dropped His physical body in a village
called Harwan, six miles from Srinagar. His physical body was buried there.

Really speaking, this is all in the domain of Illusion, not the domain of Truth or Reality. Nothing happens in the domain of Reality. The Ancient One always remains there as All-Knowledge, All-Power and All-Bliss, yet He is duty-bound to look after Creation.

So in His true form, He is always free, eternally free, but insofar as His responsibility to Creation is concerned, He is bound in every one and everything.

Eve offered the fruit from a prohibited tree to Adam to eat, and he did! He passed through the processes of the evolution and involution of consciousness until, ultimately, He came to know that He is the only One who exists all the time, eternally. And the burden of the Creation
fell on his shoulder. The same Adam is the Ancient One, Who comes down in human form, with a
different face age after age, because of His responsibility and duty towards Creation.

Though we also have responsibility and duty, we know neither. And that's why we remain bound by religion, tradition, ritual, and ceremony -- we cannot know or experience this secret. Since we can’t, we must at least have love for Him. We remember Him wholeheartedly, fully convinced that He is the only One, and that we have come in Creation to follow His Wish with all love, sincerity, honesty and faith.

We celebrate His birthday by saying, "Merry Christmas!"

And then, according to the calendar, we wish others, "A Happy and Joyful New Year.”

Let us, therefore, celebrate Christmas with all love for the Lord, wholeheartedly, honestly, sincerely and faithfully. And let us celebrate the New Year with all joy in His Love, praying to Him to release us from all bindings so that we may enjoy eternal freedom.

Our Lord is the most Compassionate One. He is all Love, all Knowledge and all Power. We should pay our whole attention to Him and make Him the sole Lord of our hearts in our daily activities. He will hear our wholehearted prayer and take care of us.

On the Eve of the New Year, we should feel only joy, knowing that our Lord is with us. If we suffer and suffer, this should also bring us joy, because in suffering we rid ourselves of many binding impressions. And while performing our duties to our families, to our countries and the world, we should make it a point to keep Him within our hearts. We should realize full well that we all are One. If there is another one, it is our false self, which deprives us from experiencing the Real Self.

Christmas and New Year should be the season to create longing for the Lord and to put full effort into having this feeling all the time so that our celebration may become Real.

With all love and Jai Baba to you,

In His love and service,

Bhau
Trust Office
Kings Road
Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, India