[Baba started the Manonash work (the God-determined step) on Oct 16 1951 at Khojaguda cave, Hyderabad and proceeded mostly on foot via Gulbarga, Aurangabad, Khuldabad, Imampur etc., to reach the Seclusion Hill (alias Manonash hill/Tembi hill) at Meherazad and concluded this work on 15 Feb 1951. ]

 

Later that day, February 6th, Baba dictated the following explanation of Manonash [at Meherazad]:

God is everywhere and does everything.

God is within us and knows everything.

God is without us and sees everything.

God is beyond us and IS everything.

 The One, All-pervading, All-comprehending, All-powerful God, Who is the Self of ourselves and besides Whom nothing is real, has helped me and guided me during this Manonash period of my work, and now makes me dictate to you the following:

To try to understand with the mind that which the mind can never understand is futile. To try to express by sounds of language and in the form of words the transcendental state of the Soul is even more futile. All that can be said and has been said and will be said by those who live and experience that State is that when the false self is lost, the Real Self is found; that the birth of the Real can only follow the death of the false; and that dying to ourselves – the true death which ends all dying – is the only way to Perpetual Life.

This means that when the mind with its satellites – desires, cravings, longings – is completely consumed by the fire of divine love, then the infinite, indestructible, indivisible, eternal Self is manifested.

This is Manonash, the annihilation of the false, limited, miserable, ignorant, destructible "I" to be replaced by the "Real I," the Eternal Possessor of Infinite Knowledge, Love, Power, Peace, Bliss and Glory in its unchangeable existence.

Manonash is bound to result in this glorious state in which plurality goes and Unity comes, ignorance goes and Knowledge comes, binding goes and Freedom comes.

We are all permanently lodged in this shoreless Ocean of Infinite Knowledge, and yet are infinitely ignorant of it until the mind – which is the source of this ignorance – vanishes forever; for ignorance ceases to exist when the mind ceases to exist!

Unless and until ignorance is removed and Knowledge is gained – the Knowledge whereby the Divine Life is experienced and lived – everything pertaining to the spiritual seems paradoxical. God, whom we do not see, we say is real; and the world, which we do see, we say is false. In experience, what exists for us does not really exist, and what does not exist for us really exists.

We must lose ourselves in order to find ourselves. Thus loss itself is gain.

We must die to self to live in God. Thus death means Life.

We must become completely void inside to be completely possessed by God. Thus complete emptiness means absolute Fullness.

We must become naked of selfhood by possessing nothing, so as to be absorbed in the infinity of God. Thus nothing means Everything.

For these last four months, according to ordinary human standards and by ways and means known to me, I have tried my utmost for the achievement of Manonash – and I can say with all truth that I feel satisfied with the work done. This satisfaction is due to the feeling I have of having regained my Old Life Meher Baba state, yet retaining my New Life ordinary state. I have regained the Knowledge, Strength and Greatness that I had in the Old Life; and retained the ignorance, weaknesses and humility of the New Life. This union of the Old and New Life states has given birth to LIFE – Life that is eternally old and new.

LIFE for me now means:

First: Free and obligationless life.

Second: Life of a Master in giving orders, and that of a Servant in all humility.

Third: The feeling of absolute conviction that we are all eternally One, Indivisible and Infinite in essence; and with it a feeling of separateness from the Real Omnipresent Self, through ignorance.

Fourth: Life of God in essence, and that of Man in actions.

Fifth: Life of strength born of inherent Knowledge of Oneness, and of weakness born of binding desires.

 

My efforts for Manonash have been positive, and the result of Manonash will be positive. But the actual and concrete manifestation of this result I leave entirely to the divine sanction. Where, how and when the result will be, I leave entirely to the divine decree. It may be at any moment, hour, month, year or age. It may be in any part of the world – either in the East or in the West, in the North or in the South – yet in effect it will embrace all four. It may be under any and all circumstances.

I feel that it will be a sudden coming, and a becoming, of the essence of all Love, Unity, Realization, Revelation and Illumination in its varying degrees, for me and for all those connected with me.

During my work of Manonash, the four companions who were with me, and also others who were near or away from me, have helped me to their utmost limit. All during my Manonash period, I have been absolutely helpless and full of weaknesses in my ordinary human state. It can truly be said that God in His manifestation, and that the saints, and the prayers of all those who love me, have accomplished for me the internal work of Manonash, while the four companions have seen to its external aspect.

Although the Manonash work is done fully and completely, and the result must and will definitely come one hundred percent to my satisfaction, I now give freedom to each and all who are connected with me, to choose what manner of life they henceforth wish to live. They are free either to live with me, and obey my orders, or to live away from me and obey my orders.

To sum up my Manonash work:

First: I feel in all truth that the four months' Manonash work has been done by me, by the help of God, to my entire satisfaction.

Second: The result of this work must bear fruit, sooner or later: either in the immediate present, or sometime later, or in the distant future.

Third: The result will bring Freedom to us all in proportion to our merits of love, faith and service.

Fourth: This Freedom will be freedom from ignorance, and will be the Knowledge that we always were, are and will be One with God.

Fifth: This Knowledge will make us realize and experience infinite love, power, bliss and peace, which we always possessed and knew not.

-www.lordmeher.org, p3760