Baba opened the proceedings by remarking:
It is said that I am envious, that I do not like to see people getting attached to saints. The fact is that I am envious, but I can only be envious of myself, for there is nothing greater or beyond me — I am above and beyond everything. India is dotted with saints — real and false — and I warn people against attaching false importance to the “experiences” they receive from such saints.
Khorshed is sincere when she speaks of her having experiences and they are genuine. But from my height, these experiences have no importance or value whatsoever. Whenever people relate their experiences (even when such experiences are based on my personality), I emphatically discourage them and warn them not to pay attention to them.
Eruch related the experience of Balak Bhagwan, the seventeen-year-old boy from Madhya Pradesh, who was filled with Baba’s light and presence, and saw Baba everywhere and in everything. He imagined himself to be on the fifth plane and was giving darshan and prasad to people. Baba had Eruch write a very firm reply, putting an end to such false interpretations to the experiences.
Baba likened the experiences to a tamasha (roadside magic show) which dazzles for a while and distracts the pilgrim’s progress, proving more of a hindrance than a help.
Baba explained:
These “experiences” are like the trickles of water oozing from tiny chinks in a great big dam, and which I have to watch out for and constantly keep blocking up, lest they cause destruction. There are many who have various experiences, such as seeing colors, circles and lights, levitating and so forth. They attract a group around them by giving them similar experiences through a common process, which is never indulged in or dreamt of by the pilgrim who experiences the various planes of consciousness on the Path. Thus not having progressed on the Path [planes], they can bring their followers up to only their own level of experiences, and no further. Then there often follows dissension, and the group splits, forming yet another branch with its own following under a different head.
The real danger of these experiences is that it misleads the seeker into thinking that he has reached the Goal and has mastered the Path. This even applies to the experiences of the Path, which remain insignificant when compared to the one and only real experience of God-realization.
Hafiz depicts this beautifully in his verses. Hafiz says that in the beginning he was like a man who goes down to the seashore and paddles in shallow water, and in his enjoyment, thinks he has gained the Pearl. Then after a long time, Hafiz realized that he had yet to learn to swim; and when he learned how to swim, there were the many waves he had to encounter and overcome. Then he realized he had yet to learn to dive. The next step he had to master was holding his breath under water before, at long last, he could reach the bottom of the ocean for the Pearl — the Goal.
For one who is an aspirant on the Path, it is not seeing, but becoming that is the objective.
-www.lordmeher.org, p4629
Dec, 1959; Meherazad
Photo courtesy: Lord Meher