Meher Baba and All Spiritual Masters

Meher Baba’s elaborate fourth to
fifth stage devotional mysticism of progressive ascent to
God-Consciousness via the “ladder” of the psycho-physical
cosmos generally corresponds to the traditional mysticism of
Persia (or Iran), which (in the form of the Zoroastrian
religion) was Meher Baba’s family tradition. (An independent
description of the cosmico-Spiritual concepts of the
Persian, or Iranian, tradition is presented in the book here
cited, entitled Psycho-Mysticism Unveiled and The Revelation
of Celestial Bliss, by B. Mushtari.)

Meher Baba’s style of life and
Teaching, as well as his fundamental emphasis on the removal
of sanskaras (or the accumulated impressions and tendencies
associated with past experience and activity), is otherwise
characteristic of the Hindu tradition in general and, in
particular, of the life and Teaching of Upasani Baba (who
was Meher Baba’s principal Spiritual Master).

The “Avatar of the Age” dogma about
Meher Baba is, especially with its even numerically defined
hierarchy of Savior(s), Perfect Masters, and their various
appointed helpers, an example of “New Age” (and otherwise
idiosyncratic, and even “Christianized”) religious
mythology. However, the larger (and ancient) “Avatar”
tradition itself, which is prepared to acknowledge and
receive a Divine “Avatar” (or a true God- Man) at any place
or time, is a living, and authentic, tradition. And, in the
context of that living, authentic tradition, Meher Baba is
but one example of a Spiritual Master who, along with such
others as Ramakrishna, Shirdi Sai Baba, Anandamayi Ma,
Paramahansa Yogananda, Swami Nityananda, and Ramana
Maharshi, is believed, by many, to be a Divine Avatar of the
modern era.

Even outside of their own Circle of
devotees, all true Spiritual Masters should be honored as
Real-God-Realizers and Real-God-Revealers (each in their own
unique manner or stage or degree). The true devotee
necessarily (and rightly) Sees the Divine most fully and
directly in his or her own Spiritual Master, but every such
devotee should (by Virtue of that Vision or Darshan) See the
Divine also Present in all other beings (including the
Spiritual Masters of other devotees).

The degree of Realization of a
Spiritual Master is Revealed only to the degrees of
Real-God-Realization (and of ecstatic, and, necessarily,
self-transcending, Real-God-Communion) in the case of those
who are the practicing devotees of (or who at least
sympathetically respond to) that Spiritual Master (or,
otherwise, in the case of any others who are themselves
Spiritual Masters, of one or another degree, capable of
discerning the Signs exhibited by other Spiritual Masters of
either the same degree or any lesser degree). Therefore, the
process of discerning the degree of Realization in the case
of any Spiritual Master is a Paradox associated with actual
practice (and Realization) of the Spiritual Way, and the
non-sympathetic observer is in no position to make a proper
(and, necessarily, devotional, or even already
Real-God-Realized) judgment in that particular matter.
Nevertheless, all intelligent and good-hearted people can
(and should) certainly feel and honor the Good Heart in all
true Spiritual Masters of devotees.