149-405: God Speaks: The Theme of Creation and Its Purpose is the principal book by Meher Baba , and the most significant scripture used by his followers. It covers Meher Baba's view of the process of creation and its purpose and has been in print continuously since 1955. God Speaks is Meher Baba's most significant published book. Kenneth Lux, Ph.D. writes: " God Speaks is Meher Baba's major book and it
298-436: A "conduit metaphor." According to this view, a speaker can put ideas or objects into containers and then send them along a conduit to a listener, who removes the object from the container to make meaning of it. Thus, communication is conceptualized as something that ideas flow into, with the container being separate from the ideas themselves. Lakoff and Johnson provide several examples of daily metaphors in use, including "argument
447-524: A certain temporary equilibrium is reached and the soul is ready to associate itself with the next human form. The process of the soul's successive association with human forms is called reincarnation. Baba's use of the word "reincarnation" does not correlate with what is described as "transmigration of the soul" in Theosophy and certain other esoteric schools of thought. For Meher Baba the soul does not actually 'migrate' because it doesn't go anywhere, since it
596-481: A characteristic of speech and writing, metaphors can serve the poetic imagination. This allows Sylvia Plath , in her poem "Cut", to compare the blood issuing from her cut thumb to the running of a million soldiers, " redcoats , every one"; and enabling Robert Frost , in "The Road Not Taken", to compare a life to a journey. Metaphors can be implied and extended throughout pieces of literature. Sonja K. Foss characterizes metaphors as "nonliteral comparisons in which
745-437: A common-type metaphor is generally considered more forceful than a simile . The metaphor category contains these specialized types: It is said that a metaphor is 'a condensed analogy' or 'analogical fusion' or that they 'operate in a similar fashion' or are 'based on the same mental process' or yet that 'the basic processes of analogy are at work in metaphor'. It is also pointed out that 'a border between metaphor and analogy
894-415: A comparison that shows how two things, which are not alike in most ways, are similar in another important way. In this context, metaphors contribute to the creation of multiple meanings within polysemic complexes across different languages. Furthermore, Lakoff and Johnson explain that a metaphor is essentially the understanding and experiencing of one kind of thing in terms of another, which they refer to as
1043-403: A different side of the process. Throughout this process, every time the soul associates itself with a particular form, it collects through this medium impressions of the gross world. When the impressions through association with a particular form have been exhausted, the soul dissociates from that form. Yet the collected impressions must be further experienced and for this the soul associates with
1192-525: A divine cosmology, a Map of the Evolving Universe, in which we all play a part, to help us find the quickest and shortest route home—to our Beloved God, Who Is found, on Realization, to be our very own Self. Meher Baba Meher Baba (born Merwan Sheriar Irani ; 25 February [O.S. 17 February] 1894 – 31 January 1969) was an Indian spiritual master who said he was the Avatar , or God in human form, of
1341-452: A few miles outside Ahmednagar that he named Meherabad (Garden of Blessing). This ashram would become the center for his work. During the 1920s, Meher Baba opened a school, hospital, and dispensary at Meherabad, all of which were free and open to all castes and faiths. From 10 July 1925 until the end of his life, Meher Baba maintained silence. He now communicated first through chalk and slate, then by an alphabet board, and later via
1490-580: A fractured pelvis and other severe injuries. Nilu, one of Baba's mandali , was killed. This collision seriously incapacitated Baba. Despite his physicians' predictions, Baba began to walk again, but from that point was in constant pain and had limited mobility. During his trip to the West in 1958, he often needed to be carried from venue to venue. In 1956, during his fifth visit to the United States, Baba stayed at New York's Hotel Delmonico before traveling to
1639-462: A handful of centers for information and pilgrimage. He has influenced pop culture creators and introduced the common phrase "Don't worry; be happy". This was used in Bobby McFerrin 's hit 1988 song of the same name . Among his followers were well-known musicians such as Melanie Safka and Pete Townshend , as well as journalists including Sir Tom Hopkinson . In 1971, Meher Baba's following in
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#17328509952231788-584: A lack of consciousness of his body. Babajan predicted that he would become a spiritual leader. He then encountered Upasni Maharaj , who he later said helped him to integrate his mystical experiences with ordinary consciousness, thus enabling him to function in the world without diminishing his experience of God-realisation. Over the next several years, he encountered other spiritual figures, namely Tajuddin Baba , Narayan Maharaj , and Sai Baba of Shirdi , who, along with Babajan and Upasni Maharaj, Baba later said were
1937-603: A mass meeting in India called the East-West Gathering. At these meetings, at which his Western followers were invited to meet his Indian disciples, Baba gave darshan to many thousands, despite the physical strain this caused him. Despite deteriorating health, he continued what he called his "Universal Work", which included fasting and seclusion , until his death on 31 January 1969. His samadhi in Meherabad , India, has become
2086-445: A metaphor as having two parts: the tenor and the vehicle. The tenor is the subject to which attributes are ascribed. The vehicle is the object whose attributes are borrowed. In the previous example, "the world" is compared to a stage, describing it with the attributes of "the stage"; "the world" is the tenor, and "a stage" is the vehicle; "men and women" is the secondary tenor, and "players" is the secondary vehicle. Other writers employ
2235-454: A metaphor because the world is not literally a stage, and most humans are not literally actors and actresses playing roles. By asserting that the world is a stage, Shakespeare uses points of comparison between the world and a stage to convey an understanding about the mechanics of the world and the behavior of the people within it. In the ancient Hebrew psalms (around 1000 B.C.), one finds vivid and poetic examples of metaphor such as, "The Lord
2384-414: A metaphor for understanding. The audience does not need to visualize the action; dead metaphors normally go unnoticed. Some distinguish between a dead metaphor and a cliché . Others use "dead metaphor" to denote both. A mixed metaphor is a metaphor that leaps from one identification to a second inconsistent with the first, e.g.: I smell a rat [...] but I'll nip him in the bud" This form is often used as
2533-447: A metaphor is defined as a semantic change based on a similarity in form or function between the original concept and the target concept named by a word. For example, mouse : "small, gray rodent with a long tail" → "small, gray computer device with a long cord". Some recent linguistic theories hold that language evolved from the capability of the brain to create metaphors that link actions and sensations to sounds. Aristotle discusses
2682-465: A metaphorically related area. Cognitive linguists emphasize that metaphors serve to facilitate the understanding of one conceptual domain—typically an abstraction such as "life", "theories" or "ideas"—through expressions that relate to another, more familiar conceptual domain—typically more concrete, such as "journey", "buildings" or "food". For example: one devours a book of raw facts, tries to digest them, stews over them, lets them simmer on
2831-482: A metonymy relies on pre-existent links within such domains. For example, in the phrase "lands belonging to the crown", the word crown is a metonymy because some monarchs do indeed wear a crown, physically. In other words, there is a pre-existent link between crown and monarchy . On the other hand, when Ghil'ad Zuckermann argues that the Israeli language is a "phoenicuckoo cross with some magpie characteristics", he
2980-404: A parody of metaphor itself: If we can hit that bull's-eye then the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards... Checkmate . An extended metaphor, or conceit, sets up a principal subject with several subsidiary subjects or comparisons. In the above quote from As You Like It , the world is first described as a stage and then the subsidiary subjects men and women are further described in
3129-462: A particularly taxing period of seclusion and noted that his work was "completed 100% to my satisfaction". He was by then using a wheelchair. Within a few months, his condition had worsened and he was bedridden, wracked by muscle spasms without clear medical origin. Despite the care of several physicians, the spasms worsened. On 31 January 1969, Meher Baba woke up in the morning. He had a few pieces of papaya. At 12:15 PM, he died at 74 years of age after
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#17328509952233278-436: A place of international pilgrimage . In the mid-1960s Baba became concerned with the drug culture in the West and began correspondences with several Western academics, including Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert , in which he discouraged the use of hallucinogenic drugs for spiritual purposes. In 1966, Baba's responses to questions on drugs were published in a pamphlet titled God in a Pill? Meher Baba stated that drug use
3427-416: A point. Editing of the second edition ended on September 10, 1965. However, it was not released until 1973. God Speaks has had three editions . The first edition, published by Dodd, Mead and Company , received four printings, 1955, 1967, 1968, and 1970, and was 255 pages. As early as 1956 Meher Baba began work on a second edition, which was printed posthumously in 1973 and 1975. It was 334 pages. In 1990
3576-572: A public darshan program to be held in Pune . His mandali decided to proceed with the arrangements despite the absence of the host. Several thousand attended this "Last Darshan", including many hundreds from the United States, Europe, and Australia. From 10 July 1925, until his death in 1969, Meher Baba was silent. He communicated first by using an alphabet board and later by unique hand gestures which were interpreted and spoken out by one of his mandali, often Eruch Jessawala. Meher Baba said that his silence
3725-419: A repertoire of gestures unique to him. On 1 December 1926, he wrote his last message, and began relying on an alphabet board. With his mandali (circle of disciples), he spent long periods in seclusion, during which time he often fasted. He also traveled widely, held public gatherings, and engaged in works of charity with lepers and the poor. Beginning in 1931, Meher Baba made the first of many visits to
3874-551: A second printing in 2010. There is also an Indian printing edition, published by Meher Mownavani Publishing, India, 2001. In a 1955 review of God Speaks anthropologist Walter Evans-Wentz , the original English translator of The Tibetan Book of the Dead , wrote: No other Teacher in our own time or in any known past time has so minutely analyzed consciousness as Meher Baba has in God Speaks . Occidental psychology, especially under
4023-460: A sociological, cultural, or philosophical perspective, one asks to what extent ideologies maintain and impose conceptual patterns of thought by introducing, supporting, and adapting fundamental patterns of thinking metaphorically. The question is to what extent the ideology fashion and refashion the idea of the nation as a container with borders, and how enemies and outsiders are represented. Some cognitive scholars have attempted to take on board
4172-527: A soul here cannot yet control its feelings or desires, it is safe from making any misuse of its abilities and is no longer conscious of the subtle sphere and can perform no miracles. With more involution consciousness enters the sixth plane , which is the higher mental world. Here the soul is beyond thoughts and is conscious only of feelings. The soul here sees God "face to face" in everything and everywhere, but it cannot yet see God in itself. A soul here can master its feelings and desires completely and governs also
4321-539: A specific time and place when this would occur, but according to all contemporary accounts, Meher Baba remained silent until his death. His failure to break his silence disappointed some of his followers, while others viewed it as a test of their faith. Some of his followers speculate that "the Word" will yet be "spoken" or that Meher Baba broke his silence in a spiritual rather than a physical way. For many years Meher Baba asked his followers to undertake austerities on 10 July,
4470-415: A stage where its previously gathered impressions grow thin or weak enough that it enters a final stage called involution . This stage also requires a series of human births, during which the soul begins an inner journey, by which it realises its true identity as God. Baba breaks this inner journey into seven stages he called "planes". The process culminates, at the seventh plane, with God-realisation, at which
4619-780: A strict set of "conditions of the New Life". These included acceptance of any circumstance and consistent good cheer in the face of any difficulty. Companions who failed to comply were sent away. Concerning the New Life, Meher Baba wrote: This New Life is endless, and even after my physical death it will be kept alive by those who live the life of complete renunciation of falsehood, lies, hatred, anger, greed and lust; and who, to accomplish all this, do no lustful actions, do no harm to anyone, do no backbiting, do not seek material possessions or power, who accept no homage, neither covet honor nor shun disgrace, and fear no one and nothing; by those who rely wholly and solely on God, and who love God purely for
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4768-498: A strictly nondualist approach in explaining the universe and its purpose, carefully clarifying and syncretising terms as it takes the reader through the spiritual journey of the atma (soul) through its imagined evolution , reincarnation , and involution , to its goal, its origin, of Paramatma ( Over-soul ). The journey winds up being one from God-unconscious ("Beyond Beyond State of God") to God-conscious ("Beyond State of God"). Cohen summarizes, "In elaborate detail he explains
4917-472: A tornado. Based on his analysis, Jaynes claims that metaphors not only enhance description, but "increase enormously our powers of perception...and our understanding of [the world], and literally create new objects". Metaphors are most frequently compared with similes . A metaphor asserts the objects in the comparison are identical on the point of comparison, while a simile merely asserts a similarity through use of words such as like or as . For this reason
5066-437: A very particular state. It is fully conscious of the infinite potential of energy and can make full use of it and it also becomes aware of the mental world. This new contact creates very strong desires to make use of this huge potential. At this point consciousness finds itself in the biggest danger of its long development. Not being able to control its feelings or thoughts, the soul is strongly tempted to handle infinite energy. If
5215-433: A violent spasm wracked his body. He conveyed by his last gestures, "Do not forget that I am God." In time, his devotees called the anniversary of his death Amartithi (deathless day). Meher Baba's body was placed at his samadhi at Meherabad, covered with roses and cooled by ice. His body was kept available to the public for one week before its final burial. Prior to his death, Meher Baba had made extensive preparations for
5364-653: A word or phrase from one domain of experience is applied to another domain". She argues that since reality is mediated by the language we use to describe it, the metaphors we use shape the world and our interactions to it. The term metaphor is used to describe more basic or general aspects of experience and cognition: Some theorists have suggested that metaphors are not merely stylistic, but are also cognitively important.In Metaphors We Live By , George Lakoff and Mark Johnson argue that metaphors are pervasive in everyday life, not only in language but also in thought and action. A common definition of metaphor can be described as
5513-519: Is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are usually meant to create a likeness or an analogy. Analysts group metaphors with other types of figurative language, such as antithesis , hyperbole , metonymy , and simile . “Figurative language examples include “similes, metaphors, personification, hyperbole, allusions, and idioms.”” One of
5662-661: Is also included the Nothing . Latent in Paramatma is the First Urge , which is expressed by the question "Who Am I?". This First Urge at one finite but unlimited point becomes manifest as the "Om Point" or the "Creation Point". Through this point the Nothing gradually appears as the shadow of the Everything and this appearance starts expanding ad infinitum. Simultaneously with the manifestation of
5811-415: Is an open question whether synesthesia experiences are a sensory version of metaphor, the "source" domain being the presented stimulus, such as a musical tone, and the target domain, being the experience in another modality, such as color. Art theorist Robert Vischer argued that when we look at a painting, we "feel ourselves into it" by imagining our body in the posture of a nonhuman or inanimate object in
5960-459: Is any coherent organization of experience. For example, we have coherently organized knowledge about journeys that we rely on in understanding life. Lakoff and Johnson greatly contributed to establishing the importance of conceptual metaphor as a framework for thinking in language, leading scholars to investigate the original ways in which writers used novel metaphors and question the fundamental frameworks of thinking in conceptual metaphors. From
6109-516: Is called Baqaa . According to Meher Baba, at any time on Earth there are always exactly five who have arrived at the final state of "living God's life" (as in state 3) and these are the five Perfect Masters . This state is described as the Man-God state, or in Sufi terms, Qutubiyat . These five Perfect Masters can use their (God's) attributes of infinite power, knowledge and bliss to help others progress on
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6258-405: Is described as the spiritual path . In traversing it, the soul's consciousness crosses six planes , the seventh being its final liberation from all illusion. The first three planes belong to the subtle sphere, the fourth is on the threshold between the subtle and the mental spheres and the fifth and sixth planes are in the mental sphere. The first plane starts from the threshold of the gross and
6407-524: Is eternally within the Over-soul and has nowhere to go. Rather, for Meher Baba, "reincarnation" refers only to identification and dis-identification with forms conceived in illusion, i.e. "the involuntary process of intermittent association and disassociation of consciousness." During reincarnation consciousness tries to liberate itself from the burden of collected impressions. Yet, since it tries to achieve this by associating itself with impressions opposite from
6556-496: Is experienced, with much more developed attributes. When the human form is reached, consciousness is fully developed and asserts itself through the ideal medium in a fully upright stance. Since in God Speaks there is no mention of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, the progression must be seen as a progression in consciousness rather than in biological linearity. Meher Baba's explanations do not come to disprove any scientific discoveries of biological evolution, but rather examine
6705-533: Is famously difficult. But not only is it Baba's major book, it is his only book. All other books by Meher Baba, such as the Discourses and Listen Humanity , are not written as books, as God Speaks is, but are collections of essays and messages." While Meher Baba declared "I come not to teach, but to awaken" and did not prescribe intellect as a path to perfection, in God Speaks Meher Baba goes deeper into
6854-500: Is fuzzy' and 'the difference between them might be described (metaphorically) as the distance between things being compared'. Metaphor is distinct from metonymy , as the two concepts embody different fundamental modes of thought . Metaphor works by bringing together concepts from different conceptual domains, whereas metonymy uses one element from a given domain to refer to another closely related element. A metaphor creates new links between otherwise distinct conceptual domains, whereas
7003-549: Is in a divine coma , oblivious to the phenomenal world. Most souls in this state soon drop their body. A few souls, however, continue to be in this divine coma for quite a while, until, with the help of other Perfect Masters, they regain consciousness of illusion (as in state 2). They are said to have gone through the "second journey" ("first" being the traversing of the spiritual path, before merging with God). In this state they are "abiding in God" or "they are God". In Sufi terms this state
7152-407: Is its own egg. Furthermore, the metaphor magpie is employed because, according to Zuckermann, hybridic Israeli displays the characteristics of a magpie, "stealing" from languages such as Arabic and English . A dead metaphor is a metaphor in which the sense of a transferred image has become absent. The phrases "to grasp a concept" and "to gather what you've understood" use physical action as
7301-399: Is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold" and "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want". Some recent linguistic theories view all language in essence as metaphorical. The etymology of a word may uncover a metaphorical usage which has since become obscured with persistent use - such as for example
7450-481: Is no one to live it. Meher Baba ended the New Life in February 1952 and once again began a round of public appearances throughout India and the West. After being injured as a passenger in two serious automobile accidents, one near Prague, Oklahoma in the United States in 1952, and one in India in 1956, Meher Baba's ability to walk became limited. In the 1950s, Baba established two centers outside of India, namely
7599-404: Is powerfully destructive' through the paraphrand of physical and emotional destruction; another person might understand the metaphor as 'Pat can spin out of control'. In the latter case, the paraphier of 'spinning motion' has become the paraphrand 'psychological spin', suggesting an entirely new metaphor for emotional unpredictability, a possibly apt description for a human being hardly applicable to
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#17328509952237748-403: Is reached, with voluntary movement, but in a creeping and now horizontal manner. In the fish form, consciousness asserts itself as a creature with voluntary movement in water, but still in a horizontal manner. In bird form consciousness is enriched by identifying itself with a form capable of flight and maintaining a slightly erect position. In (quadruped) animal form, an increasingly erect position
7897-466: Is said to have drawn from Sai Baba of Shirdi , whom Meher Baba designated as a Qutb . However, some commentators have asserted that Meher Baba's interpretation of Sufism shared very few similarities with the Sufi Movement apart from universalism and anti-dogmatism. Meher Baba was born to Irani Zoroastrian parents in 1894 in Pune , India (formerly Poona). He was named Merwan Sheriar Irani,
8046-521: Is the ocean itself, since no differentiation between drops has yet been conceived. If we liken the manifestation of the First Urge as the imagined separation of one drop from the ocean, then the infinite ocean comes to look upon itself through this drop as merely this most finite, most limited drop of the infinite and unlimited ocean. It is important to keep in mind that here Meher Baba is using metaphor and analogy to explain changes in God's imagination and
8195-403: Is the undifferentiated and unmanifested Everything . Meher Baba says that the state of the man's consciousness during sound sleep is literally the same original divine sound sleep state of God. Synopsizing this concept in God Speaks biographer Charles Purdom writes, "In the beginningless beginning, in the beyond the beyond, God Is in absolute sound sleep. Meher Baba writes that in Everything
8344-405: Is using metaphor . There is no physical link between a language and a bird. The reason the metaphors phoenix and cuckoo are used is that on the one hand hybridic Israeli is based on Hebrew , which, like a phoenix, rises from the ashes; and on the other hand, hybridic Israeli is based on Yiddish , which like a cuckoo, lays its egg in the nest of another bird, tricking it to believe that it
8493-426: Is war" and "time is money." These metaphors are widely used in various contexts to describe personal meaning. In addition, the authors suggest that communication can be viewed as a machine: "Communication is not what one does with the machine, but is the machine itself." Moreover, experimental evidence shows that "priming" people with material from one area can influence how they perform tasks and interpret language in
8642-505: The SS Rajputana , at the same time as Mahatma Gandhi , who was sailing to the second Round Table Conference in London . Baba and Gandhi met three times on board. One of these exchanges lasted for three hours. The British press publicized these meetings, but an aide to Gandhi said, "You may say emphatically that Gandhi never asked Meher Baba for help or for spiritual or other advice." In
8791-572: The Divine Beloved who loves you more than you can ever love yourself. The breaking of My Silence will help you to help yourself in knowing your real Self. Meher Baba asserted that the breaking of his silence would be a defining event in the spiritual evolution of the world. When I speak that Word, I shall lay the foundation for that which is to take place during the next seven hundred years. On many occasions Meher Baba promised to break his silence with an audible word before he died, often stating
8940-422: The First Urge , the infinite Soul, in a tremendous shock, experiences its very first gross impression as it identifies itself with the projected Nothingness. In this experience, the first illusory separation (sense of separate identity) takes place in the undifferentiated. The Soul, still not conscious of its true Self, becomes identified with its projected shadow through this very first impression, thus initiating
9089-678: The Meher Spiritual Center in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina in the United States and Avatar's Abode near Brisbane , Australia. He inaugurated the Meher Spiritual Center in April 1952. On 24 May 1952, en route from the Meher Spiritual Center to Meher Mount in Ojai, California , the car in which he was a passenger was struck head-on near Prague, Oklahoma . He and his companions were thrown from
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#17328509952239238-580: The Avatar, and those on the various stages of the spiritual path, which he termed involution . God Speaks and Discourses are regarded as among his most important written works. For decades he declined to speak and later refrained from communicating via written language. This practice has remained a topic of discussion among some of his followers. His legacy includes the Avatar Meher Baba Charitable Trust he established in India, and
9387-550: The Brain", takes on board the dual problem of conceptual metaphor as a framework implicit in the language as a system and the way individuals and ideologies negotiate conceptual metaphors. Neural biological research suggests some metaphors are innate, as demonstrated by reduced metaphorical understanding in psychopathy. James W. Underhill, in Creating Worldviews: Ideology, Metaphor & Language (Edinburgh UP), considers
9536-524: The Conclusion were written by Jessawala in elaboration of notes, and are a recapitulation of the previous sections dictated directly by Meher Baba. When dictation of points was completed and Eruch had worked these up to Baba's satisfaction, Feram Workingboxwala and Bhau Kalchuri coordinated the typing of Eruch's handwritten pages. Kalchuri also was partially responsible for dividing the book into chapters. English author and Meher Baba biographer Charles Purdom
9685-471: The English word " window ", etymologically equivalent to "wind eye". The word metaphor itself is a metaphor, coming from a Greek term meaning 'transference (of ownership)'. The user of a metaphor alters the reference of the word, "carrying" it from one semantic "realm" to another. The new meaning of the word might derive from an analogy between the two semantic realms, but also from other reasons such as
9834-533: The Meher Spiritual Center at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina . In July he traveled to Washington, D.C. , and received friends and disciples at the home of Ivy Duce, wife of James Terry Duce, the vice-president of the Arabian American Oil Company. He then traveled to Meher Mount at Ojai, California before proceeding to Australia. His final visits to the United States and Australia were made in 1958. In 1962, Baba held one of his last public functions,
9983-482: The New Life. Following a series of questions on their readiness to obey even the most difficult of his requests, Baba selected twenty companions to join him in a life of complete "hopelessness and helplessness". He made provisions for those dependent on him, after which he and his companions otherwise gave up nearly all property and financial responsibilities. They traveled around India incognito while begging for food and carrying out Baba's instructions in accordance with
10132-475: The US's fascination with the "long-haired, silky-mustached Parsee named Shri Sadgaru [sic] Meher Baba" four years earlier. In the 1930s and 1940s, Meher Baba worked with masts , or those "intoxicated with God". According to Baba, these individuals are disabled by their enchanting experience of the higher spiritual planes . Although outwardly masts may appear irrational or insane, Baba claimed that their spiritual status
10281-467: The United States again until the early 1950s. In the late 1930s, Meher Baba invited a group of Western women to join him in India, where he arranged a series of trips throughout India and British Ceylon that became known as the Blue Bus Tours. When the tour returned home, many newspapers treated their journey as an occasion for scandal. Time magazine's 1936 review of God Is My Adventure describes
10430-483: The United States was estimated at 7,000. Some commentators have suggested that the size of the movement has been underestimated due to the rarity of proselytising by Meher Baba's followers, and that in 1975, the movement was larger than the more visible Hare Krishna movement . Meher Baba was accepted as the leader of a Sufi organization based in California which he renamed Sufism Reoriented . Meher Baba's Sufi influence
10579-547: The United States, Europe, and Australia initiated an anti-drug campaign during this period. Though some contend that this campaign was mostly futile, it attracted new followers to Meher Baba. Furthermore, some of Baba's views entered into academic debate on the merits and dangers of hallucinogens . From the East-West Gathering of 1962 onward, Meher Baba's health deteriorated. Despite the physical toll it took on his body, he continued to undergo periods of seclusion and fasting. In late July 1968, Baba stated that he had completed
10728-741: The Universe--the Illusion that sustains Reality". In September 1954, Meher Baba gave a men-only sahavas at Meherabad that later became known as the Three Incredible Weeks. During this time Baba issued a declaration, "Meher Baba's Call", wherein he once again affirmed his Avatarhood "irrespective of the doubts and convictions" of others. At the end of this sahavas, Meher Baba gave the completed manuscript of his book God Speaks to two members of Sufism Reoriented, Ludwig H. Dimpfl and Don E. Stevens, for editing and publication in America. The book
10877-423: The West, Meher Baba met with a number of celebrities and artists, including Gary Cooper , Charles Laughton , Tallulah Bankhead , Boris Karloff , Tom Mix , Maurice Chevalier , and Ernst Lubitsch . On 1 June 1932, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. held a reception for Baba at Pickfair at which he delivered a message to Hollywood . As a result, says Robert S. Ellwood , Meher Baba emerged as "one of
11026-535: The West. Throughout that decade, Meher Baba began a period of world travel and took several trips to Europe and the United States. It was during this period that he established contact with his first close group of Western disciples. He traveled on a Persian passport, as he had given up writing, as well as speaking, and would not sign the forms required by the British government of India. Here, he attracted more followers. On his first trip to England in 1931, he traveled on
11175-465: The absolute oneness of God . At the age of 19, Meher Baba began a seven-year period of spiritual transformation , during which he had encounters with Hazrat Babajan , Upasni Maharaj , Sai Baba of Shirdi , Tajuddin Baba , and Narayan Maharaj . In 1925, he began a 44-year period of silence, during which he communicated first using an alphabet board and by 1954 entirely through hand gestures using an interpreter. Meher Baba died on 31 January 1969 and
11324-511: The age. A spiritual figure of the 20th century, he had a following of hundreds of thousands of people, mostly in India, with a smaller number of followers in North America, Europe, South America, and Australia. Meher Baba 's map of consciousness has been described as "a unique amalgam of Sufi , Vedic , and Yogic terminology". He taught that the goal of all beings was to awaken to consciousness of their own divinity , and to realise
11473-473: The anniversary of the day his silence began, such as keeping silence, fasting, and praying. In his final Silence Day request to his followers in 1968, he asked only that they keep silent. Many followers continue to celebrate Silence Day by keeping silence in his honor. Meher Baba's teachings can be divided into two main categories: his metaphysics on the nature of the soul and the Universe, and practical advice for
11622-433: The back-burner , regurgitates them in discussions, and cooks up explanations, hoping they do not seem half-baked . A convenient short-hand way of capturing this view of metaphor is the following: Conceptual Domain (A) is Conceptual Domain (B), which is what is called a conceptual metaphor . A conceptual metaphor consists of two conceptual domains, in which one domain is understood in terms of another. A conceptual domain
11771-425: The context of any language system which claims to embody richness and depth of understanding. In addition, he clarifies the limitations associated with a literal interpretation of the mechanistic Cartesian and Newtonian depictions of the universe as little more than a "machine" – a concept which continues to underlie much of the scientific materialism which prevails in the modern Western world. He argues further that
11920-587: The course of creating fictions through the use of metaphor we can also perceive and manipulate props into new improvised representations of something entirely different in a game of "make-believe". Suddenly the properties of the props themselves take on primary importance. In the process the participants in the game may be only partially conscious of the "prop oriented" nature of the game itself. Metaphors can map experience between two nonlinguistic realms. Musicologist Leonard B. Meyer demonstrated how purely rhythmic and harmonic events can express human emotions. It
12069-427: The creation of metaphors at the end of his Poetics : "But the greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor. It is the one thing that cannot be learnt from others; and it is also a sign of genius, since a good metaphor implies an intuitive perception of the similarity in dissimilars." Baroque literary theorist Emanuele Tesauro defines the metaphor "the most witty and acute, the most strange and marvelous,
12218-467: The development of consciousness and that he is not describing a metaphysical ocean or literal drops in any sense. As Charles Purdom writes, "The 'ocean’ is a symbol, no more. The very first forms which the indivisible Soul's consciousness identifies its eternal Self with, according to Meher Baba, are seven gaseous forms (the seventh of which is Hydrogen, according to a footnote). Yet since these are very abstract forms, beyond ordinary human understanding, for
12367-440: The development of various imaginative ends. In "content oriented" games, users derive value from such props as a result of the intrinsic fictional content which they help to create through their participation in the game. As familiar examples of such content oriented games, Walton points to putting on a play of Hamlet or "playing cops and robbers". Walton further argues, however, that not all games conform to this characteristic. In
12516-661: The distortion of the semantic realm - for example in sarcasm. The English word metaphor derives from the 16th-century Old French word métaphore , which comes from the Latin metaphora , 'carrying over', and in turn from the Greek μεταφορά ( metaphorá ), 'transference (of ownership)', from μεταφέρω ( metapherō ), 'to carry over, to transfer' and that from μετά ( meta ), 'behind, along with, across' + φέρω ( pherō ), 'to bear, to carry'. The Philosophy of Rhetoric (1936) by rhetorician I. A. Richards describes
12665-456: The divine Beloved. When the soul has gained self-consciousness, it merges with God in one of three distinct states: Each of these states is an eternal state for the consciousness which has overcome all illusion. Yet from the point of view of souls still within the domain of illusion, they have a sequence in time. Therefore, from its point of view, a God-realized soul first "passes away into God" or "becomes God" (as in state 1), yet outwardly it
12814-429: The domain of instincts, feelings, and eventually also of thoughts and desires. When the human form is reached, along with the gross body, the subtle and mental bodies also reach full development and although they remain unconscious, the soul indirectly works through them in the corresponding spheres. When the human body dies, the soul retains and further experiences the collected impressions through its identification with
12963-559: The enthusiasms of the '30s". In 1934, after announcing that he would break his self-imposed silence in the Hollywood Bowl , Baba changed his plans abruptly, boarded the RMS Empress of Canada , and sailed to Hong Kong without explanation. The Associated Press reported that "Baba had decided to postpone the word-fast-breaking until next February because 'conditions are not yet ripe'." He returned to England in 1936 but did not return to
13112-457: The feelings (but not hearts) of gross- and subtle-conscious souls. The longing for union with God, or the Divine Beloved, is here in its most intense expression. Yet the soul cannot bridge this final gap by itself. Only through the grace of a Perfect Master , or Sadguru , can this final union be accomplished. So, in the fifth and sixth planes, predominant is the soul's love for God, as lover of
13261-435: The final corrections and writing work according to Baba's dictates. The Supplement to God Speaks was compiled from Dr. Ghani Munsiff's notes over several years. Ghani was an expert on Sufism and familiar with the various Islamic Sufi cults. On January 10, 1955, at 4 p.m., Baba broke a fast with rice and dal. During this period, Baba would trace letters with his finger on either a stool or any other convenient surface. But it
13410-541: The five "Perfect Masters" of the age. By early 1922, at the age of 27, Baba began gathering his own disciples. They gave him the name Meher Baba , which means "compassionate father". In 1922, Meher Baba and his followers established Manzil-e-Meem (House of the Master) in Mumbai . There, Baba commenced his practice of demanding strict discipline and obedience from his disciples. A year later, Baba and his mandali moved to an area
13559-432: The formulation of metaphors at the center of a "Game of Make Believe," which is regulated by tacit norms and rules. These "principles of generation" serve to determine several aspects of the game which include: what is considered to be fictional or imaginary, as well as the fixed function which is assumed by both objects and people who interact in the game. Walton refers to such generators as "props" which can serve as means to
13708-403: The general terms ground and figure to denote the tenor and the vehicle. Cognitive linguistics uses the terms target and source , respectively. Psychologist Julian Jaynes coined the terms metaphrand and metaphier , plus two new concepts, paraphrand and paraphier . Metaphrand is equivalent to the metaphor-theory terms tenor , target , and ground . Metaphier is equivalent to
13857-436: The genus, since both old age and stubble are [species of the genus of] things that have lost their bloom." Metaphors, according to Aristotle, have "qualities of the exotic and the fascinating; but at the same time we recognize that strangers do not have the same rights as our fellow citizens". Educational psychologist Andrew Ortony gives more explicit detail: "Metaphors are necessary as a communicative device because they allow
14006-454: The gnosis of the Sufis. Meher Baba's enlightening treatise adds much to the sum total of learning and contributes incalculably to the enrichment of mankind for, as the sages of Asia teach, the most intrinsically valuable of all riches, and greater than all mundane wealth, is Right Knowledge. Nowhere is Meher Baba's wisdom more succinctly set forth than in his Conclusion, on page 176: "To understand
14155-452: The goal of life for the soul is reached. The Discourses are a collection of explanations that Meher Baba has given on topics that concern the advancement of the spiritual aspirant. These topics include: sanskaras (mental impressions), Maya (the principle of illusion), the nature of the ego, reincarnation , karma , violence and non-violence, meditation , love, discipleship, and God-realisation. His explanations often include stories from
14304-432: The grammar and punctuation and prepare it for printing. Correspondence began between Baba's sister Mani Irani in India and Ivy Duce in America regarding the preparation and publication of God Speaks . After Ivy Duce and Don Stevens had done their grammar and punctuation work, the manuscript was mailed back to India for Baba to check and correct and add any additional points of interest. Eruch Jessawala and Ramjoo Abdulla did
14453-423: The gross world its experience gives rise only to subtle impressions of the sights, scents and sounds of the subtle world. Further involution of consciousness makes the soul experience the third plane . Here the soul can use more aspects of the infinite energy by performing greater miracles, such as giving sight to the blind, or restoring maimed limbs. When consciousness reaches the fourth plane , it finds itself in
14602-406: The higher mental plane. Having abstained from tampering with the energy of the fourth plane, consciousness enters the fifth plane , also described as the lower mental world. This is the inquiring and reflecting state of mind and functions as thoughts mostly. Consciousness on this plane makes one capable of creating or controlling thoughts (but not minds) of gross- or subtle-conscious souls. Although
14751-528: The idea that different languages have evolved radically different concepts and conceptual metaphors, while others hold to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis . German philologist Wilhelm von Humboldt contributed significantly to this debate on the relationship between culture, language, and linguistic communities. Humboldt remains, however, relatively unknown in English-speaking nations. Andrew Goatly , in "Washing
14900-401: The illusion of duality. To make this first event more approachable to understanding, Baba gives the metaphor of an Infinite ocean and a drop of that ocean. In this metaphor, Paramatma (a vedantic term, for which Meher Baba says Over-soul would be the closest western equivalent) is likened to an infinite and limitless ocean. Any drop of this ocean (the drop signifying the individuated soul)
15049-503: The illustrious leadership of Dr. [Carl] Jung, has made great advances in the study of the unconscious and of the dream-state, but because of its necessary adherence to conservative methods of scientific research it has not been able, as yet, to fathom the Deep of the Seer. So, for the science circumscribed psychologist, God Speaks should prove to be of paramount importance in inspiring further progress on
15198-433: The infinite potential of this plane is misused, consciousness gets completely disintegrated and the soul finds itself back to the stone-form consciousness and has to start again the long course of evolution from there. If it abstains from using this energy it enters the lower mental plane and if it makes a completely selfless use of it, for the benefit of the spiritual development of others in illusion, it even moves directly to
15347-717: The infinite, eternal Reality is NOT the Goal of individualized beings in the Illusion of Creation, because the Reality can never be understood; it is to be realized by conscious experience." In her 1955 review of God Speaks in The Awakener , Filis Frederick wrote: This is primarily a book for the mind, in the sense that it requires deep thought and study, and does not appeal so directly to our emotional or devotional side as do Baba's short messages and exhortations to His followers. It is, in essence,
15496-461: The journey of the soul from its original state of unconscious divinity to the ultimate attainment of conscious divinity. The whole journey is a journey of imagination, in which the original indivisible state of God imagines becoming countless individualised souls which he likens to bubbles within an infinite ocean. Each soul, powered by the desire to become conscious, starts its journey in the most rudimentary form of consciousness. This limitation brings
15645-401: The lore of India and the Sufi culture. One such story, the wise man and the ghost, shows the power that superstitious beliefs can have on a person, while another, Majnun and Layla , shows how selfless love, even in human relations, can lead one to discipleship. Meher Baba's suggestions include putting theory into practice, internally renouncing desires, offering selfless service to humanity or
15794-426: The master, spontaneity, and avoiding actions that bind one to illusion. Rather than lay out moral rules, Baba explains why some actions bind the individual whereas others aid emancipation. Several chapters discuss the mechanisms by which consciousness gets caught up between the opposites of experience, such as pleasure and pain, good and evil, and suggest how to transcend these opposites. Metaphor A metaphor
15943-407: The metaphor-theory terms vehicle , figure , and source . In a simple metaphor, an obvious attribute of the metaphier exactly characterizes the metaphrand (e.g. "the ship plowed the seas"). With an inexact metaphor, however, a metaphier might have associated attributes or nuances – its paraphiers – that enrich the metaphor because they "project back" to the metaphrand, potentially creating new ideas –
16092-438: The most commonly cited examples of a metaphor in English literature comes from the " All the world's a stage " monologue from As You Like It : All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances And one man in his time plays many parts, His Acts being seven ages. At first, the infant... — William Shakespeare , As You Like It , 2/7 This quotation expresses
16241-479: The most pleasant and useful, the most eloquent and fecund part of the human intellect ". There is, he suggests, something divine in metaphor: the world itself is God's poem and metaphor is not just a literary or rhetorical figure but an analytic tool that can penetrate the mysteries of God and His creation. Friedrich Nietzsche makes metaphor the conceptual center of his early theory of society in On Truth and Lies in
16390-523: The need of a more developed form to advance it towards an increasingly conscious state. Consciousness grows in relation to the impressions each form is capable of gathering. According to Meher Baba, each soul pursues conscious divinity by evolving; that is, experiencing itself in a succession of imagined forms through seven "kingdoms" of stone/metal, vegetable, worm, fish, bird, animal, and human. The soul identifies itself with each successive form, becoming thus tied to illusion. During this evolution of forms,
16539-403: The next most developed form. So when the human form is reached, although consciousness is fully developed, it has a store of impressions that still need to be experienced. While the soul is no longer in search of a better medium, it has to go through numerous human forms, until these impressions gathered through evolution are weakened and finally exhausted. Through the entire process of evolution,
16688-454: The next stone species. When the whole range of impressions through all stone species have been exhausted, the soul starts associating itself with forms of the metal kingdom, and so forth through evolution. In all, seven major leaps are mentioned in this evolutionary process in consciousness: from stone, to metal, to vegetable, to worm, to fish, to bird, to animal and finally to human. Meher Baba describes an unfolding geometric schema of forms. In
16837-412: The original publisher, Dodd, Mead, went out of business and the plates for the second edition were not preserved. For this reason, the book was retypeset in 1997 and is 313 pages in its current form. Labeled within as the "second edition third printing" the 1997 printing is technically a third edition since it is retypeset, although no major editorial changes were made to the text. The third edition received
16986-477: The painting. For example, the painting The Lonely Tree by Caspar David Friedrich shows a tree with contorted, barren limbs. Looking at the painting, some recipients may imagine their limbs in a similarly contorted and barren shape, evoking a feeling of strain and distress. Nonlinguistic metaphors may be the foundation of our experience of visual and musical art, as well as dance and other art forms. In historical onomasiology or in historical linguistics ,
17135-412: The paraphrands – associated thereafter with the metaphrand or even leading to a new metaphor. For example, in the metaphor "Pat is a tornado", the metaphrand is Pat ; the metaphier is tornado . As metaphier, tornado carries paraphiers such as power, storm and wind, counterclockwise motion, and danger, threat, destruction, etc. The metaphoric meaning of tornado is inexact: one might understand that 'Pat
17284-547: The philosophical concept of "substance" or "substratum" has limited meaning at best and that physicalist theories of the universe depend upon mechanistic metaphors which are drawn from deductive logic in the development of their hypotheses. By interpreting such metaphors literally, Turbayne argues that modern man has unknowingly fallen victim to only one of several metaphorical models of the universe which may be more beneficial in nature. In his book In Other Shoes: Music, Metaphor, Empathy, Existence Kendall Walton also places
17433-410: The power of thought increases, until in human form thought becomes infinite. Although in human form, the soul is capable of conscious divinity, all the impressions that it has gathered during evolution are illusory ones that create a barrier against the soul knowing itself. For this barrier to be overcome, further births in human form are needed in a process known as reincarnation . The soul will reach
17582-433: The previously accumulated ones, it gets further entangled in accumulating fresh impressions. Thus the soul experiences itself in a seemingly endless succession of human lives, as a man or a woman, as rich or poor, strong or weak, beautiful or ugly, black or white, in various places, religions, castes etc. It is only after numerous apparent births and deaths, that the range of human experience starts to get exhausted. In this way
17731-509: The principles and precepts laid down by God in the past, in this present Avataric form, I observe silence. Meher Baba often signaled the moment "that he would 'break' his silence by speaking the 'Word' in every heart, thereby giving a spiritual push forward to all living things". When I break My Silence, the impact of My Love will be universal and all life in creation will know, feel and receive of it. It will help every individual to break himself free from his own bondage in his own way. I am
17880-507: The psychological pathway. Correlatively, noteworthy in particular is Part VIII, on the Evolution of Consciousness, and Part IX, on the Ten States of God, to which is attached a diagram linking together "the most generally accepted Sufi, Vedantic and Christian mystical equivalents." As a whole, the book marks clear the at-one-ment of the essentials of the various historic religions in the light of
18029-415: The sake of convenience, the first form which consciousness associates itself with is described as the stone-form. Through the medium of this form the individualized soul, experiencing impressions related to the kingdom of stones, associates itself with the stone. When all impressions arising from this association have been experienced and exhausted, the soul dissociates itself from that form and associates with
18178-435: The sake of loving; who believe in the lovers of God and in the reality of Manifestation, and yet do not expect any spiritual or material reward; who do not let go the hand of Truth, and who, without being upset by calamities, bravely and wholeheartedly face all hardships with one hundred percent cheerfulness, and give no importance to caste, creed and religious ceremonies. This New Life will live by itself eternally, even if there
18327-419: The same context. An implicit metaphor has no specified tenor, although the vehicle is present. M. H. Abrams offers the following as an example of an implicit metaphor: "That reed was too frail to survive the storm of its sorrows". The reed is the vehicle for the implicit tenor, someone's death, and the storm is the vehicle for the person's sorrows. Metaphor can serve as a device for persuading an audience of
18476-474: The second son of Sheriar Irani and Shireen Irani. Sheriar Irani was a Persian Zoroastrian from Khorramshahr who had spent years wandering in search of spiritual experiences before settling in Pune . As a boy, Baba formed the Cosmopolitan Club, which was dedicated to remaining informed on world affairs and donating money to charity. He was a multi-instrumentalist and poet. Fluent in several languages, he
18625-475: The soul experiences the mental world. While doing so, the soul continues to work through its gross medium, seeing, eating, drinking, walking, sleeping, but consciousness is no more entangled with the gross body or world and eventually with the subtle body and world. Finally when mental impressions have been exhausted, consciousness snaps its connection with Illusion and perceives the Soul directly. This course of involution
18774-412: The soul has been consciously identifying itself with the evolving gross body ( sharir ), yet, unconsciously, it has also been identifying itself with the evolving subtle and mental body ( pran and mana ). The subtle sphere refers to energy, or prana , a gross aspect of which is nuclear energy . In the book it is also referred to as the life-giving energy, or the breath of God. The mental sphere refers to
18923-494: The soul starts dissociating itself from the gross world, enabling its consciousness to become aware of the subtle sphere. When gross impressions become fainter, consciousness starts turning its focus from the apparent outer world inwards. This marks the beginning of its involution . Gradually the thinner gross impressions become subtle impressions, through which the soul experiences the subtle world, and as subtle impressions get exhausted, they become mental impressions, through which
19072-495: The spiritual aspirant. The two are interrelated. His metaphysics is mostly found in his principal book on the subject, God Speaks . It contains detailed statements on his cosmology , the purpose of life, and the progression of the soul. His teachings on the practical spiritual life are mostly contained in the Discourses , although it also covers many metaphysical areas mirroring or amplifying God Speaks . God Speaks describes
19221-826: The spiritual path and beyond. When one of the five Perfect Masters drops his body, he is said to "pass-away as God". In Avataric times, there is one additional perfect master who is the descent of God, the Avatar , or God-man , whose work is for the spiritual elevation of all of humanity and everything in creation. "The direct descent of God on Earth as Avatar is that independent status of God when God directly becomes man.* Meher Baba began dictating God Speaks to Eruch Jessawala by way of alphabet board in Dehradun , India in August 1953. Points were dictated to Jessawala every day, who would jot them down and write them out at night. The next day Eruch would read to Baba what he had written. This dictation
19370-430: The stone and metal forms, consciousness asserts itself through a recumbent, folded-up position in the gross world, with no voluntary motion. In the vegetable forms, increased consciousness asserts itself through a vertical position and is depended on soil and rock to hold an upright position. In the worm forms (in which Meher Baba includes for his own purposes all worms, insects, reptiles and amphibians) an animate experience
19519-560: The subject of metaphysics than other Indian spiritual masters. In his book Mastery of Consciousness , Allan Y. Cohen, Ph.D. writes that Meher Baba's "explanations of the creation, purpose, and evolution of the universe may be the most explicit ever written." In a review of God Speaks , oriental scholar Walter Evans-Wentz , the original English translator of The Tibetan book of the dead , wrote: "No other Teacher in our own time or in any known past time has so minutely analyzed consciousness as Meher Baba has in God Speaks ." God Speaks takes
19668-439: The subtle and mental bodies, until it associates with the next human form and takes apparent birth in it. During the interval between death and birth, the soul experiences intensively an unfolding of the impressions collected, so depending on what quality these impressions have been of (virtue or vice, good or bad), the consciousness of soul experiences either a heaven state or a hell state. After most impressions have been exhausted,
19817-531: The subtle sphere. The soul here starts experiencing subtle phenomena simultaneously through its gross and subtle senses. It starts hearing subtle sounds and smelling subtle scents, although their nature is far different from their gross equivalents. Eventually it starts perceiving the subtle world through its subtle body and so comes to the second plane . Here the soul becomes aware of infinite energy and can perform minor miracles, like stopping moving objects or filling dried wells with fresh water. Being not conscious of
19966-438: The transfer of coherent chunks of characteristics -- perceptual, cognitive, emotional and experiential – from a vehicle which is known to a topic which is less so. In so doing they circumvent the problem of specifying one by one each of the often unnameable and innumerable characteristics; they avoid discretizing the perceived continuity of experience and are thus closer to experience and consequently more vivid and memorable." As
20115-689: The universe is an arena where infinite existence, identifying with the apparently limited soul, becomes more and more conscious of its oneness with itself as the Over-Soul. According to God Speaks , in the evolution of consciousness, before the Soul has any consciousness of anything or itself, there is an infinite, impressionless unconscious tranquil state. Meher Baba calls this state the Eternal Beyond-Beyond State of God (or Paratpar Paramatma ), which has no experience of Self, nor of any of its Infinite latent attributes. Latent in this Infinite state
20264-535: The user's argument or thesis, the so-called rhetorical metaphor. Aristotle writes in his work the Rhetoric that metaphors make learning pleasant: "To learn easily is naturally pleasant to all people, and words signify something, so whatever words create knowledge in us are the pleasantest." When discussing Aristotle's Rhetoric , Jan Garret stated "metaphor most brings about learning; for when [Homer] calls old age "stubble", he creates understanding and knowledge through
20413-565: The vehicle and injured. Baba's leg was severely broken and he sustained facial injuries including a broken nose. The injured were treated at Prague Memorial Hospital, after which they returned to Myrtle Beach to recuperate. While recuperating at Youpon Dunes, a home owned by Elizabeth Patterson, he worked on the charter for a group of Sufis, which he named Sufism Reoriented . Meher Baba began dictating his major book, God Speaks, The Theme of Creation and Its Purpose , using an alphabet board in Dehradun , in August 1953. He dedicated this book "To
20562-519: The view that metaphors may also be described as examples of a linguistic "category mistake" which have the potential of leading unsuspecting users into considerable obfuscation of thought within the realm of epistemology. Included among them is the Australian philosopher Colin Murray Turbayne . In his book The Myth of Metaphor , Turbayne argues that the use of metaphor is an essential component within
20711-729: The way individual speech adopts and reinforces certain metaphoric paradigms. This involves a critique of both communist and fascist discourse. Underhill's studies are situated in Czech and German, which allows him to demonstrate the ways individuals are thinking both within and resisting the modes by which ideologies seek to appropriate key concepts such as "the people", "the state", "history", and "struggle". Though metaphors can be considered to be "in" language, Underhill's chapter on French, English and ethnolinguistics demonstrates that language or languages cannot be conceived of in anything other than metaphoric terms. Several other philosophers have embraced
20860-531: Was continued for several months in Mahabaleshwar and also subsequently at Satara . Eruch completed his writing work in July 1954. In October 1954, Baba discarded his alphabet board and began using only hand gestures from then on. The chapter titled "Ten States of God" was written by Eruch Jessawala under the direct supervision of Meher Baba, describing and interpreting an original diagram devised by Meher Baba. It and
21009-486: Was elevated, and that by meeting with them he helped them to progress spiritually while enlisting their aid in his spiritual work. One of these masts, Mohammed, lived at Meher Baba's encampment at Meherabad until his death in 2003. During his journey in 1946, Meher Baba went to Sehwan Sharif to meet a Sufi saint and descendant of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar , Murshid Nadir Ali Shah , whom Baba referred to as an advanced pilgrim . In 1949, Baba began an period that he called
21158-637: Was entombed at Meherabad . His tomb, or " samadhi ", has become a place of pilgrimage for his followers, often known as "Baba lovers". Meher Baba's teachings concerned the nature and purpose of life. He described the phenomenal world as illusory, and taught that the Universe is imagination. He taught that God alone exists, and each soul is God passing through imagination in order to realise its own divinity. He advised followers wishing to attain God-realisation, emphasizing love and selfless-service. His other teachings included discussion of Perfect Masters ,
21307-462: Was fond of the poetry of Hafez , William Shakespeare , and Percy Bysshe Shelley . His spiritual transformation began when he was 19 years old and lasted for seven years. At 19, he met Hazrat Babajan , an elderly Muslim saint. He was cycling past a tree that she had made her abode, when she called to him. When he approached her, she kissed him on the forehead, causing him to enter a nine month-long trance which he described as "divine bliss", with
21456-474: Was given a copy of the manuscript of God Speaks to edit, but wrote to Baba that it would take him two to three years to edit and prepare the book for publication in England. Before leaving the "Three Incredible Weeks", on the final day of the sahavas on September 30, 1954, Baba gave American Sufi Lud Dimpfl the manuscript to deliver to Ivy Oneita Duce and Don E. Stevens in America to determine if they could edit
21605-406: Was not undertaken as a spiritual exercise but solely in connection with his universal work. Man's inability to live God's words makes the Avatar 's teaching a mockery. Instead of practicing the compassion he taught, man has waged wars in his name. Instead of living the humility , purity, and truth of his words, man has given way to hatred , greed , and violence . Because man has been deaf to
21754-458: Was published by Dodd, Mead and Company the following year. On 30 September 1954 Meher Baba gave his Final Declaration message. In October 1954, Meher Baba discarded his alphabet board and began using a unique set of hand gestures to communicate, which he used for the rest of his life. On 2 December 1956, outside Satara , India, the car in which Meher Baba was riding lost control and a second serious automobile accident occurred. Baba suffered
21903-532: Was published the following year. In December 1959, in the mornings, Baba began discussing with Don Stevens publication plans for a new edition of God Speaks . Stevens discussed some questions about various subjects in God Speaks which the Sufis and others had been asking, and Baba promised to elucidate these for the second edition. In May 1965, Baba checked and corrected a glossary of God Speaks , which Lud Dimpfl had prepared. Bal Natu would read out every word and its meaning and, when required, Baba would correct
22052-547: Was spiritually damaging and that if enlightenment were possible through drugs then "God is not worthy of being God". Meher Baba instructed his young Western disciples to spread this message; in doing so, they increased awareness of Meher Baba's teachings. In an interview with Frederick Chapman, a Harvard graduate and Fulbright scholar who met Meher Baba during a year of study in India, Baba described LSD as "harmful physically, mentally, and spiritually" and warned that "[its continued use] leads to madness or death". Baba lovers in
22201-445: Was very difficult for the mandali to decipher them quickly. Yet Baba was patient and would literally spend hours to convey something. Even if the mandali failed to follow what he meant, Baba would keep repeating it through this "unwritten writing" until they understood. This method of gestures was also used to correct the supplement sections to God Speaks , which Ivy Duce had sent to Baba for his approval in early December 1954. God Speaks
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