By Peter Holleran


   Perhaps the most unique aspect of the teaching of Meher Baba (1894-1969) was in his claim to be an Avatar, indeed, the Avatar of the age, which he defined as God-become-man, in contrast to a Perfect Master, which is man-become-God. In actual practice the distinctions seem to blur, in as much as, while Baba stated that a Perfect Master was, in a sense, more valuable than the Avatar, since he could take one to the God-state, while the Avatar could not, Baba did in fact function as a Master as testified by many devotees. He held that there were always five Perfect Masters on Earth who prepare for the descent or advent of the Avatar. These Perfect Masters in his time were Sai Baba of Shirdi, Sri Upasani Baba, Narayan Maharaj, Tajuddin Baba, and Hazrat Babajan. At the age of twenty Merwan (Meher Baba) received a kiss on the forehead between the eyes by the old woman Hazrat Babajan, giving him the key to self-realization. For nine months he was in super-consciousness, lost to the world. Sri Upasani Baba brought him back to normal consciousness by hitting him on the head with a rock. Meher Baba stated that it took seven more years for him to stabilize this realization with ordinary life.

   After this Baba spent many years travelling the length and breadth of India seeking out Masts (pronounced "Must"), somewhat extraordinary individuals, considered mad in their relationship to this world, but awake to the invisible realms within. Baba considered it part of his mission to find such people and help remove their spiritual obstructions. Many of them were essentially people who had not fulfilled the earlier stages of practice, where bodily integration, ego development, and character building occur, and were stuck in an ascended state of one degree or another, without critical intelligence or the ability to function. Baba would tend to these individuals in a loving, motherly way, while working on straightening out their subtle neuro-anatomy.

   For several decades Baba maintained a vow of silence, communicating with the use of an alphabet board. lie said, in God Speaks, that he would incarnate once more in seven hundred years. "Don't worry, be happy" became one of his more well-known sayings.

   Baba's level of realization is difficult to guage, because certain aspects of his teaching are outside the mainstream of the traditional dharmas of the Hindu or Buddhist traditions. The Avatar theory, for instance, in which Baba claimed that he was the Ancient One, must (if it is meant to be taken in an exclusive sense, and not simply as an ecstatic proclamation) remain a mystery to the modern global mind, and tends to confuse the universal truth and authenticity of the spiritual path with the enigmatic and occult. It keeps reappearing from time to time in the various traditions, but may be a human addition to Truth, and not Truth's dispensation to man.

   In terms of cosmology and metaphysics, Baba taught that there were seven hierarchical planes of consciousness and creation, and that full realization came when one re-entered all of the lower six planes while retaining the consciousness realized in the seventh. This is certainly an advance over non-transcendental schools that hold that God-Realization is attained only in the highest spiritual realm. Baba is rightly critical of ascended forms of trance meditation:

   "The aspirant who enters into trance-meditation may temporarily forget all his limitations while immersed in its light and bliss. But though the prisoner may have forgotten the prison, he has not escaped from it. ... the aspirant becomes conscious of all his failings as soon as he regains normal consciousness. The ascending forms of trance-meditation may bring the aspirant increasing occult powers but not that unending state of knowledge and bliss that is continuously accessible in Nirvikalpa Samadhi to the Siddha." (1)

   The question is, how to go up and come down and NOT still be deluded. Meher Baba defines nirvikalpa samadhi rather uniquely, as "divinity in expression", the "I-Am-God state while retaining body and mind but without attachment or identification", and "uninterrupted spontaneous self-knowledge of a God-Realized being." (2) This is certainly an unusual definition of Nirvikalpa, which commonly refers to a state of bodily abstraction and mindless absorption, generally in an ascended mode. Baba's view sounds more like the philosophic definition of sahaj. But he is even more confusing, in as much as he goes on to describe sahaj in a similar fashion, such that it is difficult to distinguish the two: "Divinity in action", "effortless and continuous state of Perfection of the Sadguru". This is not incompatible with the philosophic definition of sahaj, but it could be made more precise. Baba's use of the term Nirvana is the closest he comes to describing traditional nirvikalpa samadhi (and in this use he was much like Sri Aurobindo who also described nirvana in such a manner) : "absorption in divinity, consciousness withdrawn from body or mind.” This is not traditional nirvana as described in Mahayana Buddhism, and will no doubt be confusing to many.

   Perhaps with his novel definition of nirvikalpa as the "I-Am-God state while retaining body and mind, but without attachment or identification", Baba is referring to the Witness position of consciousness, known while one is in the embodied condition, yet prior to the realization of sahaj. This would allow his definition of sahaj to be uniquely descriptive of the realization where all arising conditions are known to be only modifications of the one divine reality. Baba becomes unnecessarily occult, however, when he claims:

   "Sahaj Samadhi comes to the very few souls who descend from the seventh plane of consciousness as Sadguru, while it is the very life of the Avatar." (3)

   Ramana Maharshi, contrarily, held sahaj to be realizable by all, since it is the state of one's very Self, needing nothing added from outside for its realization.

   At first glance, Baba's view appears similar to the philosophic view of the sages, whereby formless absorption leads to re-entry into the plane of manifestation while simultaneously abiding in consciousness itself. Yet on closer inspection there is an important distinction between the two. With Baba one needs to ascend to the seventh plane and then descend to the first while retaining the realization of the seventh. It may be argued that this is really equivalent to realizing nirvikalpa samadhi and then coming down from that without losing its form of consciousness. Yoga masters such as Swami Sivananda [for a short sketch of his life and teachings, see the second half of the article Kundalini:Up, Down, or ? ] have argued that this is possible. It is here suggested that this is generally not the case. The usual result is that one descends from nirvikalpa samadhi and does not retain its bliss and consciousness. Ramana was adamant about this possibility [Even so, there were devotee’s of Ramana who experienced Self-realization after an ascended trance state; see the story of Janaky Matha ]. The conclusion about such things is that much depends on the prior metaphysical understanding of the individual, as well as what actually happens during such experiences, as to what he derives from nirvikalpa samadhi.

   Adi Da has argued that even in the highest ascended realization (nirvikalpa ), attention is generally still “extended outside of the Heart as a gesture towards an independent object,” and must, in the manner of Ramana and Lakshmana Swamy, eventually resolve in its source at the heart-root for Self-realization to occur and subsequently allow the awakening to sahaj samadhi, or “open eyes.”. The experience of nirvikalpa samadhi can mark a significant turning point in the course of sadhana for one rightly prepared and rightly oriented, however, for it gives the aspirant an intuitive certainty of the fulfillment of the process of realization. The significance of nirvikalpa samadhi lies not in the event itself, but in its result.

   Sant Darshan Singh said that Meher Baba’s disciples did not go to higher planes.

   Meher’s language was not precise enough for us to easily and clearly understand his position on when and how direct cognition of the Self is realized. Unfortunately Baba is gone and can not be asked to explain himself further. Such rnystical vagueness is often the inheritance of one such as he, born as he was under a Piscean sky, but in any case, and in the final analysis, he spoke and acted as a Godman, and won the hearts of many throughout the world.

   Discourses represents a broad selection of Baba's views on many aspects of the spiritual path. Lord Meher, a recent biography, wonderfully reveals the human and spiritual dimensions of his life. This book has the quality of generating a heartfelt attraction for Baba in the reader, and I, too, fell prey to its magical spell for a time.


1. Discourses (Myrtle Beach, S.C.: Sheriar Press, 1987), p. 244
2. Ibid, p. 216
3. Ibid, p. 251