Baba once gave this formula:
No ordinary man can tell whether one man is a mast and another man is mad without the divine authority of a Perfect Master. However, the unmistakable quality that masts possess is their ability to make one happy in their company; whereas, in the company of a mad person one feels depression and sadness.
On one occasion, explaining the difference between a perfected salik and a majzoob , Baba stated:
After God-realization, majzoobs are those who do not come down to normal consciousness from their highest state of divine consciousness. They enjoy eternal bliss, but have no duty for the world at large. A majzoob has no other consciousness than the consciousness of God, and is oblivious of his body and its needs. To a majzoob, everything has become a zero. He is God and remains God!
On the other hand, a salik is one who, after God-realization, gains normal [worldly] consciousness and works for the upliftment of humanity. A salik is he who continually enjoys divine bliss, but simultaneously suffers the suffering of the world. Outwardly, he looks like an ordinary man; but inwardly, he cannot be understood. He is the Sadguru and his duty is to work for the betterment of the world.
The Avatar descends from his highest state of divine consciousness to the state of human consciousness. He does not have to pass through the stages of evolution, reincarnation and Realization. He is God always, and comes down directly from his God state to man state and becomes conscious of creation. His benevolent work is universal, and he gives a spiritual push to all objects in creation — inert and living, animate and inanimate both.
During this period, Mehera's sister Freiny came to Meherabad from Nasik, still upset at her continued separation from Baba and her virtual isolation in Nasik. Freiny had deep love for Baba and wanted to be with him and the other women mandali, but Baba did not wish to keep her in the ashram, perhaps because she had family responsibilities to her husband Rustom and their children. Rustom himself was suffering much mental anguish and would disappear from time to time without telling her or anyone. But at this time he disappeared permanently and would never be seen or heard from again by his family or the mandali (although he did write Baba a few times). His marriage and emotional state had proven too difficult for him to live with.1
Footnotes
- 1.It was later learned that Rustom had traveled to Rishikesh and then disappeared further up into the Himalayas, where he lived as a recluse for some time. After months had passed, Baba sent Masaji to Rishikesh (in August 1939) in search of Rustom, but he could not locate him, for Rustom had moved to a more remote area high in the Himalayas. In 1948, Baba commented that Rustom was alive and living in Tibet, but some years later, Baba remarked to Adi Sr., "Rustom is no more," and indicated that he had cowardly committed suicide rather than face his difficulties.