Wednesday, December 12, 2018

The Presence and the Atmosphere of a Perfect One

I’m not a proselytizer, but when someone asks me about Meher Baba, I answer. And one of the questions I hear most often from people who have never been in the presence or the atmosphere of a God-Realized Master is,

What is so different about you’re experience and the experiences of sincere followers of their religions?

It is an important question, but first I think it is important to mention that many followers of Perfect Masters are also avid practitioners of religion. One does not necessarily preclude the other, but one is not necessarily dependent on the other either. As Meher Baba said,

“I am equally approachable to one and all, big and small,
To saints who rise and sinners who fall,
Through all the various paths that give the divine call.
I am approachable alike to saint whom I adore
And to sinner whom I am for,
And equally through Sufism, Vedantism, Christianity,
Or Zoroastrianism and Buddhism and other isms
Of any kind and also directly through no medium of 'isms' at all.”

So to the question, “What is so different about you’re experience and the experiences of sincere followers of their religions?” my answer is that the difference lies in the experience of the presence and the atmosphere that surrounds Perfection.

I make this statement based on my own personal experiences of having visited the Meher Spiritual Center in Myrtle Beach, S.C., Meher Baba’s tomb and Pilgrimage Center in India, and his homes at Meherazad and Pune, India. Additionally, I have been to the ashram of Upasani Maharaj, the Darbar of Sai Baba of Shirdi, and the tomb-shrine of Zar Zari Zar Baksh in Khuldabad, India.

Each of these places is unique; each has its own special atmosphere. What is an atmosphere? Atmosphere emanates from the presence of a Master. It is like a Master’s perfume mixed with the scent of devotion and practices of his followers and mingled with the time, culture, and place of His residence.

What is the presence of a Master? The presence is the Master himself—it is the unique individualized/embodied expression of His God-hood.

An ordinary person has a gross (physical) body, a subtle body, a mental body, and beyond all these bodies is the Self (God). An ordinary person is only conscious of the gross body. A real yogi is conscious of the subtle body, an advanced yogi (sant) is conscious of the mental body, and a Perfect Master is conscious of all the bodies and the Self—and they are conscious of all these bodies and the Self in each of us.

An ordinary person’s presence is determined by the state of his gross body, subtle body, and mental body. This presence creates an atmosphere around him which others can feel. When the ordinary person dies, his presence soon dissipates along with the atmosphere his presence created around his gross body.

Similar is the case of a Perfect Master. It is not possible for the presence of a Master to not emanate an atmosphere; wherever there is divine presence, there also is its divine atmosphere, and this atmosphere can linger for some time after the physical presence has gone, similar to how the scent of a woman’s perfume can linger in a room for some time after she’s left it. It can linger for some time, but not forever…

But Meher Baba explained further that there are some differences between a Perfect Master and the Avatar. Meher Baba explained that a Perfect Master is man become God, while the Avatar—the Christ—the Messiah—the Buddha—is God become man.

Both the Perfect Master and the Avatar are God in human form, both are Perfect in every way;  but when a Perfect Master drops his body, His link with creation is severed forever. Perfect Masters do not come back, they do not reincarnate. So, once a Perfect Master drops his body, his presence disappears, but his atmosphere remains for some time. People go on pilgrimages to the tombs of Masters and imbibe the atmosphere that resides there and their efforts and longings for God are renewed and inspired.

It is a different situation regarding the passingthe dropping—of the Avatar’s physical body.  With regard to Meher Baba, He  stated quite clearly that after the dropping of His body and before His eventual return in another human form after some 700 years, He would continue be present and accessible for one-hundred years—until about 2069—present and accessible in the way that He was when He was physically present.

In other words, the presence of the Avatar remains for quite some time after He drops the body, and therein lays the difference between visiting His places and those of the Perfect Masters. In the former there is both the presence and the atmosphere, while in the latter there is only the atmosphere.

The Avataric presence is tangible and unmistakable. Once it is experienced it is unforgettable and distinct from anything else. As Rumi once said; “The tale of love must be heard from love itself, for like the mirror, it is both mute and expressive.

I experience that presence as Divine Love personified, totally personal and, at the same time, universal. That presence is lucid and compassionate, all-knowing, and un-conditional. The only word I can use to describe it is Avataric. And so I return to His places again and again, physically, but also in my mind and heart…

Spiritual books and teachings are good, sincerely following the tenets of one’s religion is good, yoga and spiritual practices are good, pilgrimages to holy sites are good, but if you have the opportunity to be in the living presence of a Perfect Master or the Avatar, seize it, for the benefit and the bliss of that experience is unmatched by anything else on earth or in heaven. It is said that just a moment in the presence of the Avatar or a Perfect Master is worth more than thousands of lifetimes spent in meditation, spiritual practices, penances, and austerities.

© Copyright, Michael Kovitz, 2018   

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