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Page Update:
Saturday, February 28th, 2004
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As I Should Be Loved
Click for larger view
David Berry, 2004
Acrylic on canvas, 72" x 108"
Meher Baba said, “Mehera loves me as I should be loved.” Once asked why Baba put up with Mehera’s occasional antics, Baba replied, “I love you for your sake, but I love Mehera for my sake.” Another time Mani told Baba that if Mehera said the world was flat he would believe it. Baba agreed. Living a life of isolation from temptation, Mehera’s physical and spiritual world was singularly focused on God in the form of Meher Baba. While Meher Baba engaged in the world directly, Mehera engaged the world through Meher Baba or Mani. The love that God asks of us is complete, total and absolute with all of our body, mind and soul. Such sacrifice necessitates that the false ego be constantly abandoned in a lifestyle of total surrender. Absolute faith is hallmarked by unwavering trust and resolute obedience. This is how Mehera loves Baba, and this is how Baba loves Mehera.
Mehera is not simply an example for us; Mehera is the existence of God. Just as we cannot easily perceive God in all things, we need a point of focus for the awareness of God to pierce our ego-life, and that is why we can perceive God more easily in Meher Baba. Meher Baba draws us out just as a shiny jewel excites the lust of ego, but God is not bottled up in Baba. If Meher Baba is the light, Mehera is the shadow - the pure state of existence of God in the form of absolute love. The Avatar is not simply a manifestation of a God that exists “somewhere out there.” The Avatar is love in human form, and love is manifested in a relationship of two, not an individual. So that we may understand the true nature of God, Mehera loves Baba as God loves us.
There can be no lover without a beloved, and in the awareness of being loved; the beloved becomes the lover as well. This is the awakening. The God within us steps forward when we recognize and receive the grace of God - not from some other source, but from a sleeping state within each of us.
So, how important is it that we think of God and serve God in our lives? If our false ego is the Astitva of the universe, then our “real-ego” is the shadow and Astitva of the true reality. It is when we serve God that we become the true reality beyond the illusion. In this way God’s love transforms us from an individual to part of the unimaginable singularity of God. We cannot “see” the reality because it is existence itself. Knowing we are a vital and personal element of God, and not some distant and abandoned droplet of byproduct, gives awareness to the importance and inevitability of our love of God and thus the catalyst for the Breaking of the Silence.
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