The God-Man neither thinks nor desires. Through him, the Divine Will flows inevitably into perfect manifestation, passing directly from the spiritual body, which in the ordinary human being is undeveloped, into physical expression. For him, the superconscious state is the normal state of consciousness. From him, there continuously flows infinite love and wisdom, infinite joy and peace and power.
When he speaks, Truth is more powerfully manifested than when he uses either sight or touch to convey it. For that reason, Avatars usually observe a period of silence lasting several years, breaking it only when they wish to manifest the Truth to the entire universe. So, when I speak, I shall manifest the Divine Will, and worldwide transformation of consciousness will take place.
The large gathering was now asked to disperse, but no one budged, gazing at Meher Baba as if entranced. They were repeatedly requested to leave and began to exit with heavy hearts, slowly walking backward with their eyes fixed on Baba. These words were overheard: "Oh, when will we see such a face again?"
"A person has such an extraordinary experience only once in a lifetime!"
"Baba, darling, would you let us see you again?"
On Wednesday, 1 June 1932, Cath Gardner and Max and Lillian Wardall arrived. Baba visited Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios the same day, accompanied again by Lal Chand Mehra, and watched the actor Lewis Stone perform. Baba met Virginia Bruce and saw the sets of Mata Hari , in which Greta Garbo had recently finished starring. They also met the Austrian-American director Josef Von Sternberg, 38, who was directing Marlene Dietrich in The Blonde Venus . Baba did not care much for Marlene (who had a reputation for being extremely egotistical) but he liked Von Sternberg, who was highly impressed by his meeting. (After a few more films with Von Sternberg, Dietrich became the most famous film star in the world.)1
Baba met several other movie stars in Hollywood during his visit, including Boris Karloff, John Gilbert, Florence Vidor, Johnny Mack Brown, Helen Freeman and Cary Grant (who was also appearing in Blonde Venus ).
Some of these actors and actresses met Baba later in the evening of 1 June, when Hollywood's leading, most glamorous couple — Douglas Fairbanks, 49, and Mary Pickford, 40 — invited Baba to Pickfair, their 22-room mansion at 1143 Summit Drive, for a reception with a few others from the film industry.2 Marc Jones drove Baba, Meredith, Margaret, Priscilla and Quentin to Beverly Hills at eight o'clock that night.
Footnotes
- 1.In London recently, Baba had seen the Von Sternberg/Dietrich collaboration, Shanghai Express.
- 2.According to a book by Marc Edmond Jones (Fundamentals of Number Significance, p.124), the invitation to Pickfair was arranged by him through his contact with Louella Parsons, the syndicated Hollywood columnist. Mary Pickford knew Margaret Mayo, and it is possible that Pickford had already heard about Meher Baba through her. (At one point, Pickford and Fairbanks resided in Croton-on-Hudson, directly across the river from where Baba had stayed.) Pickford was called "America's Sweetheart" by her fans; she usually played the role of plucky heroines. Later, she joined the Christian Science movement and wrote a book of inspirational wisdom that became a bestseller, titled Why Not Try God? (H.C. Kinsey and Co. Inc, New York, NY, 1934).