Chapter 16: Wartime Travel For Masts
Baba's Seclusion and Discourses in Rishikesh
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Yet, as Age noted, it was destined to happen. "Baba had wished it so. He said he would dress her himself in the finest clothes and he did! Along with contrition in the mother's heart, remembrance of Meher Baba's love also surged!"
The daily repetition of the seven names of God had stopped on the 15th of February; but in Rishikesh, Baba again directed the women to chant them each day.
On Sunday, 31 May, Baba went into an underground cave at Ganga Bhuwan in Rishikesh, and sat there alone from 7:30 to 10:00 A.M. He went back the next day to retire again in seclusion for his work. Baba's seclusion, as before, seemed to be connected with the war. In Europe, the beginning of the heavy air attack on Germany began on 30 May with a 1,000-bomber-strong raid on the industrial city of Cologne. In the Pacific, the decisive battle of Midway Island took place in the first week of June 1942. It was the first major naval defeat for Japan, and proved to be the turning point on the Pacific front.
On the 31st, while speaking about the various forms of worship adopted by different sects and creeds, Baba stated:
Inaction is preferable to action in as much as it does not create binding and complications. Every action, however good or righteous, is binding and creates sanskaras, which means one more addition to the complication already created by past binding actions. Life is nothing but an effort to counteract these complications and release the mind from the bindings of past karmas.
While explaining about good and evil, Baba stated:
There is nothing such as good or evil. From a moral standpoint, this exists so that the affairs of the world may be conducted according to limitations imposed by society. But from the spiritual standpoint, both are bindings.
Standards of good and bad are established according to contemporary standards that may vary with time and circumstance. Also in spirituality, very often what is understood to be good by the masses is, from the spiritual point of view, bad; and what is understood as bad by the masses is often good, from the spiritual point of view.
For example, robbery is bad by general standards. But suppose there is an extremely destitute, pregnant woman. She has nothing to eat and because of her condition, death is certain. A man sees her, has pity on her, but he himself has no money and is unable to help.