Tuning Into Meher Baba’s Silence

“Things that are real are always given and received in silence.” Meher Baba

Meher Baba put aside His physical body on the 31^st January 1969 but not His silence. It remains.

When I first visited Meherabad in 1973 for the Amartithi, Baba’s presence was palpable, but silent. From my Christian background it felt something like the Pentecost experience that I had been taught in my religion classes as a young boy. Just as the Bible described an outpouring of the “Holy Spirit” upon all Christ’s close followers, I felt the same outpouring, but of Baba’s silent embrace of love. Everyone there felt it and it didn’t matter where you came from or what language you spoke, we could see it in each other’s eyes. It was as if we had come into Beloved Baba’s presence just as strongly as if He were physically with us.

When discussing Baba’s silence there are two distinct aspects that come into focus: one is concerned with the universal breaking of Baba’s silence, the other deals with the speaking of Baba’s Word in our hearts.

In the former case, a good example is found in the message Baba gave to Francis Brabazon to include in his work Stay with God published in 1959. This message is impersonal and is more about God than the God-Man. It has the same tone as God Speaks, which as Baba says, “has nothing to do with love.” It opens with the lines “God in the Beyond-Beyond state is likened to a soundless, shoreless Ocean. The ‘Whim’ of God for knowledge of Himself (‘Who am I?’) manifested as Sound. The Oceanic sound is of God and is God and contains, and is, His experience of Power, Knowledge, and Bliss.”

And then towards the end are the lines: “When I break My silence and speak, it will be this Primal ‘M-m-m’ which I will utter through My human mouth.” Baba adds that this will affect everyone, no matter if they know of Baba or not. And their responses will be impersonal rather than loving; “will be instantaneous and as various as the reaction of people in a room through which a cobra suddenly and swiftly passes, when some would nervously laugh, some lose control of their bowels, and some feel great courage or reasonless hope and joy.”

And in Baba’s “Final Declaration,” given earlier, at the end of September 1954, there is even a more devastating pronouncement: “Before I break My silence or immediately after it, three-fourths of the world will be destroyed. I shall speak soon to fulfill all that is shortly to come to pass.”

The latter case, the speaking of Baba’s Word in our hearts, can be seen in the message displayed in Mandali Hall at Meherazad: “When the Word of my Love breaks out of its Silence and speaks in your hearts, telling you who I really am, you will know that that is the Real Word you have always been longing to hear.” This is Baba as the God-Man speaking. This is the Silence I and others experienced at Meherabad in 1973. It is personal, loving, and intimate. It is not concerned with difficult to fathom concepts such as the “Primal M-m-m,” but immediately takes us into the experience of love. Here the “Word of Love” that breaks out of its silence is liberating, full of knowledge and felt in the heart.

In September 1968 Baba said, “My work is done. It is completed 100% to My satisfaction. The result of this work will also be 100% and will manifest from the end of September.” From this statement, the question of whether Baba physically uttered the “Primal M-m-m” is of no real concern; His work is fully complete. The best explanation I’ve heard for why Baba delayed the breaking of His silence is due to “the delay within us in our preparedness to accept His WORD of words. This delay on His part therefore is nothing but the exercising of the Avatar’s Infinite Compassion.”

In the case of Baba speaking His word in the hearts of His lovers there was never any delay. Adi Sr., in one of his letters states, “… those who are and have been with Baba, have not felt He has been silent and are therefore not ‘craning their necks’ to see the breaking of His silence – they have Him; they hear His silence speak in their hearts and their lives unceasingly.” Charles Purdom wrote: “Those who have been in His presence know that Baba communicates through his silence. What proceeds from Him is beyond words, does not need words, could not be contained in them. The inaudible sound is from heart to heart; silence that penetrates mind and heart.” And Baba Himself has said: “If My silence cannot speak, of what avail would be speeches made by the tongue.”

The question now becomes, how do we tune into Baba’s “speaking” silence? Baba has said that “through endless time God’s greatest gift is continuously given in silence. But when mankind becomes completely deaf to the thunder of His silence, God incarnates as man.” But now that the God-Man has come “the thunder of His silence” has been newly sounded for us to hear. As if to affirm this idea Baba has said, “Come prepared to receive not so much of my words but, of My silence.”

One of the reasons Baba gave for keeping Silent this advent was “to relieve the boredom of talking incessantly through [our] forms.” In line with this Baba has also stated; “The one WORD full of meaning has produced innumerable meaningless words, and when I utter that WORD, all words will have meaning.” These quotes strongly suggest that Baba is already talking through us, but it is nothing but “meaningless” babble. It is like the constant drone of a factory (our minds) that constantly churns out useless chatter. As Baba says this is ultimately boring for Him.

I don’t think tuning into Baba’s silence means we shouldn’t speak. It means we have to move the dial on our own radio from our favourite sanskaric station to Beloved Baba’s station. In His “Universal Message” Baba says, “The breaking of my silence will help you to help yourself in knowing your real Self.” Moving the dial on our radio is something He helps us to do for ourselves.

The first thing to do when trying to find Beloved Baba’s station is to listen closely. And to listen closely you have to know what you are listening for. And to know what you are listening for you have to find out about Baba’s life and message and in particular what pleased Him. And then to hear properly you have to clear any wax out of your ears. This means you have to begin to live His message, in other words, actually put into practice what He says.

Baba reminds us: “I repeat, I lay down no precepts. When I release the tide of Truth which I have come to give, men’s daily lives will be the living precept. The words I have not spoken will come to life in them.” When this happens, you know you have tuned into the station of His silence.

References:

Why Meher Baba is Silent, by Meher Baba, 1^st ed., pp. 5, 12-13, 17-18.

Stay with God, by Francis Brabazon, pp. 65-66.

Lord Meher, by Bhau Kalchuri, p. 3817.

Letters from the Mandali of Avatar Meher Baba, by Jim Mistry, vol. 1, p. 110.

Charles Purdom quote from The Ancient One, p. 3.

82 Family Letters, by Mani S. Irani, pp. 83-84.

Three Incredible Weeks with Meher Baba, by Malcom Schloss & Charles Purdom, p. 116.