Nearing America, Baba dictated a new message and had it printed on the ship’s press. At first, none of the mandali could understand why Baba had gone to this trouble while still at sea, but when the steamer was forty miles from New York on May 19th, newspaper reporters requesting an interview swarmed to Baba’s cabin. Baba did not see them but gave each a copy of the message through Chanji and Tod. Only then was Baba’s purpose disclosed.
The message Meher Baba had printed was:
I have not come to establish any cult, society or organization, nor even to establish a new religion. The religion I will give teaches the knowledge of the One behind the many.
The book which I shall make people read is the book of the heart, which holds the key to the mystery of life. As for ritual, I shall teach humanity to discriminate, express and live it rather than utter it. I shall bring about a happy blending of the head and heart.
Societies and organizations have never succeeded in bringing Truth nearer. Realization of the Truth is solely the concern of the individual.
Every being is a point from which a start could be made toward the Limitless Ocean of love, bliss, knowledge and goodness already within him. No spiritual Master brings religion to the world in the form it eventually assumes. His very presence is a blessing and radiates spirituality. He imparts it to others by personal contact. The so-called religions are an effort to commemorate that association with a great spiritual Master, and to preserve his atmosphere and influence. It is like an archeological department trying to preserve things which only resuscitate the past. The living spirit being absent, religions or organizations gradually lose their glamour. The result is a mental revolt against the established order. Something more substantial and practical is required which expresses the life of the spirit.
There exists at the moment a universal dissatisfaction and an indescribable longing for something that will end the chaos and misery that is holding the world in its grip. I will satisfy this craving and lead the world to real happiness and peace by making people look more deeply into things than heretofore.
As a rule, Masters help individually according to temperament and fitness of the aspirant, but this being an Avataric period, which means the end of the previous cycle and the beginning of a new one, my spiritual help to humanity will be both individual and collective.
–www.lordmeher.org, p1616