Baba continued to explain:
Now I will tell you about an incident. During my last visit to America, a gentleman who has been staying in America for a long time remained by my side during some of my programs, and particularly when the films and photographs were taken. This gentleman has studied and intellectually grasped what I have said, but has misused it. From one of the letters from the U. S. A., I hear that this gentleman has started telling people that he is Baba’s representative!
Those who know me for so many years are not affected, but the new lovers, though educated, are very much impressed and flock around him. Just see how even the Westerners are misled!
What is the remedy for this? I will tell it now. It will be very useful to you only if you grasp it thoroughly. If all of you are convinced that Baba is the Avatar, God Incarnate, the question of confusion does not arise at all. In this case, just hold fast to my daaman and close all doors to prevent confusion and conflict from entering your minds. If you are not convinced, leave me. Seek someone else. But if you try to stick to me with a wavering mind, without being convinced of my divinity, you would be just like a nut caught in the crusher!
I will also tell you a few instances of those who pay too much attention to masts, though they have been connected with me for so many years. One of them even went to the extent of drinking toddy whenever offered by a mast. Another one [Deshmukh] used to carry a certain mast on his shoulders to his home and serve him daily. Had I not warned them in time, they would have gotten themselves seriously involved with those masts. When God Himself has descended on the earth, and you have the fortune to come into personal contact with Him, why run after His children, the masts and the saints?
In U.P. and the Punjab, there are saints of both types — real and imitation. There, men put up a big show of spirituality by performing homa-havan, bhajan-kirtan, yadna-yaga, arti-puja, and so forth. From external appearance, one cannot make out who is a real saint and who is an imitation one. Anyone is easily impressed by the outward, so-called spiritual atmosphere. You do not find such things here with me. On the other hand, you find me sitting among you, sometimes cutting jokes and letting you laugh. The real Path is totally different from the conventional bhajan-kirtan, homa-havan, sadra-kusti, namaznaza, et cetera. On the contrary, when one gets entangled in these rituals and ceremonies, one gets off the real Path.
When I tell you these things and ask you not to visit other saints, perhaps some of you may think: “Is Baba feeling jealous of others?” But I, being One without a second, have no rival.
I am matchless. I being the One Reality, the question of rivalry does not arise at all. If, at all, I am to be jealous, I will have to be jealous of my own Self.
–Date and place: 19 May 1957; Guruprasad
www.lordmeher.org (Revised 2014), p4167