Beams From Meher Baba on the Spiritual Panorama (Perennial Library)

Consider the possibility that Creation begins with God's whim. You would thus be a result of that whim. Through you, God would be on a long journey to find Himself. You would have already been all the pre-human forms in creation. And it is likely that you would have already lived millions of lives, being every kind of human being. When you would ultimately find out who you actually are, you would know that you are God - infinitely conscious and full of bliss. Of course, it could never really be all that easy. Being everything would mean that you've done all sorts of "good" and "bad" things to others. And you've actually had them done to you. You've wandered through all kinds of mazes. In fact, you've actually experienced every conceivable role and relationship. Now that you have a yearning for something deeper, something real, you find yourself beset by one huge the past. The residue of your travels have trapped you from Self-Knowledge. Such is the predicament Meher Baba sets forth in his little book, Beams. Fortunately, the Persian-Indian spiritual master simultaneously offers a way out. Others have gone before you and completed that journey. Some as masters physically return to guide you along that way. And the One God whom they join in consciousness lovingly sends clues. Perhaps some rare beings can read these clues everywhere. But if you can't, He offers support in our language - like this volume of short essays. Originally Meher Baba prepared these pithy answers to questions proposed by the editors of his earlier, larger work God Speaks. But since the issues addressed are fundamental, you can equally read the work on its own. Meher Baba concisely explains who we are, where we are and how we've gotten there - while ever respecting the mystery of the fabric of the universe. He also gives some handy tips for the most mysterious segment of the where we are going. For example, all of us share a common evolutionary past. Evolution isn't merely an accidental biological matter of "trial and error." An advancing life stream purposely forges form after form to gain greater consciousness. After all, God Himself is quite intent on knowing who he is. In fact, he'll stop at nothing in the process. If certain species go extinct, he'll create new ones or gain equivalent experience through other existing species. Conversely, he'll even use human-made hybrids to take short cuts to greater knowledge. As for human life, what can we do but live through our evolutionary ancestry? We have to take all the "wild" experience and translate it into human behavior. No wonder, as Meher Baba says, the actions of humanity often boil down to "inner confusion and outer chaos." We've inherited this legacy from millions of years of eating and being eaten, living largely just to continue creation. So God-in-us must experience opposites. He must do and be done to. He must play every possible now male, the female (yes, "sex-tinged opposition" can be the most challenging); now brilliant, then out of it. Or as Meher Baba anecdotally puts it, one life you may keep your poor chickens up all night laying eggs.. And later you're the kind veterinarian healing the "animal kingdom." In this scheme, evil turns out to be "the lingering relic of earlier good." Ruthless aggression is quite useful when you're an ant, cobra or tiger. But among fellow humans, it can "hinder harmonious functioning." That's why you have the opportunity - over lifetimes - to balance it with a little love and compassion. Finally, when you've done it all and been it all, an amazing thing happens. You just might "stumble upon an exit" and get a "glimmer of the limitlessness of the real." Then things really kick into high gear. You start to see the universe in a completely different light. You become consciously aware of what's behind the the Energy that supports matter and eventually the Mind that shapes them both. Once again, it's not easy. There are ever temptations to think you're further along