“”It is within you and you must discover it. I have found it and continually experience it. I know that this faculty is in everyone but, being latent, it has to be found and experienced. The difference between you and me is, although both of us have this faculty, I actually experience and feel it, while you have yet to do so. I see myself in you all, as you see all these material things with your eyes. It is a fact for me.
With your gross eyes, you see everything external. Behind this external aspect, there is not merely a spaceless void, but also pure nothingness. When you experience this pure nothingness, you will see how it has come out of the Everything — and this Everything is within you. When this experience is gained, the faculty of wanting nothing is developed and you begin to experience it.
Remember that the first step in spirituality is not to speak ill of others. All human beings have weaknesses and faults. Yet they are all God in their being. Until they become Realized, they have their imperfections. Therefore, before trying to find faults in others and speaking ill of them, try to find your own weaknesses and correct those.
After the foundation-laying ceremony at Byramangala and the starting of the construction of the center, reports, both pro and con, began appearing regularly in the local newspapers about Meher Baba and his activities. Meanwhile the vindictive attorney, Venkatapathaiya, invited Colonel M. S. Irani to Bangalore to help in his campaign against Baba. From the early 1920s, since his sisters, Freiny Masi and Daulatmai, and their children Padri, Mehera and Freiny, dedicated their lives to Baba, Colonel Irani had been vehemently opposed to Baba, writing outrageous accusations in the Gujarati press. The Colonel, along with other prominent leaders of the Zoroastrian community, considered it blasphemy that Meher Baba claimed to have the same spiritual status as their Prophet Zoroaster, and the Colonel's character assassination had continued throughout the ensuing years.
The Colonel arrived from Poona in January 1940 and delivered two public lectures in Bangalore and one in Mysore. About 150 persons attended his first lecture on the 30th at the cantonment Y.M.C.A., titled "My Experiences With Pseudo Saints." The Colonel, however, disappointed his audience by attacking only one person — namely, Shri Meher Baba. Even the chairman of the meeting, the mayor of Bangalore, objected to the Colonel's one-sided arguments.
