May 12, 1948
Sri Meher Baba Irani,
Meherabad,
Ahmednagar, Deccan, India
Beloved Master:
This is written in utmost need of your counsel and advice, and in confirmation of a cable sent today: Urgently Need Your Advice. This is a fact that utterly outweighs all other considerations in my life, and has made me feel fully the dependence upon the Living Master.
Whatever other failings there have been, and there have been many, the presumable fact that my personality has become the abode for malignant psychic forces has impressed me with the need for a thorough inner and outer cleansing which You alone can give. All else has failed me. I am utterly unaware of this, nor conscious of any activity on other planes—in particular planes of darkness, subtlety and deceit. But others say that they have seen a thought-force projected, or other forms or forces projected clothed with my personality, and finally this occurred to Murshida Ivy Duce herself.
I am unaware of harboring certain feelings and attitudes with which I have been charged, unaware consciously and have no glimmer of subconscious or unconscious sanskaras. But one who is not yet awakened cannot know what there is in the depths of personality, either because of oneself, or one’s karma or any other reason. I therefore beg of you, O Master, to give me such guidance and advice which will clear my path, wherever I may go and whatever I may do, and pray that it will be for Thee.
My greatest regret is that this type of activity seems to add to the stigma of Your name and Your work here, instead of clearing Your path.
Last week we heard the letter written to Murshida Ivy. In that you have rendered a decision concerning my personality that was most acceptable. But now it seems almost too lenient, unless, of course, I be not culpable before God for the activities and forces which surround ma. I have made the most grievous mistakes the last month, been guilty of great errors in judgment and action and not kept my inner or outer being freed from sanskaras, rather added to them. This needs purging.
I would come to you if the path could be clear. Materially my accumulations are small. But I want to serve you and become a true selfless servant and not the kind I have too often been in the past.
If my love be unworthy, accept my service, O Master, and if my service be unworthy, accept me as Thou wilt.
Faithfully,
22 Dec 1961
Dear Samuel:
I keep getting letters six weeks to two months old from you by sea mail. I really would like to mail you the one book God Speaks which contains all the data on the Hierarchy you constantly refer to. It costs $5, so this is not an empty gesture or motivated by anything except that I feel you will like it. It will take some time to mail from here and you probably do not know where you’ll be two months from now when we are nearing the great Feb. satellitium in Aquarius but you must have some friend who could forward it. I am glad you are finding happiness.
Sincerely,
PS The fact that you mention no names in your critical thoughts against me and others does not save you from the sanskaras contained in them. “The past is a frozen lake”—why do you harp on it?
Aug. 25, 1969
Miss Elizabeth Patterson
The Center
Star Route 2
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
My dear Elizabeth:
You may be surprised to be receiving a letter after all these years from a person who presumably spent time in “selfless service” at the center. I am not particularly concerned about the past, though it is interesting no doubt to ascertain, one is still functioning in the flesh, although rather difficult to convince some people, that he may be functioning in the flesh because the Living God either wishes it so or has persisted it so. I am not even writing now with my self-will, but because situations have arisen placing one in a very strange though not adverse situation, that a number of the former followers of Meher Baba are coming to one seeking what may be knowledge. At least they think so. I had nothing whatever to do either with the attraction of Meher Baba for neither these people nor their turning in some other direction. This is of their own will. But I did find quite a superior morality in them, a morality far removed from the billboard which one reads as one enters this duty, “Happiness consists of making other people happy.” There is a certain skepticism in one’s consciousness when it would appear the aphorism is offered as substitute for the fulfillment of its own dispute.
On the other hand I found two camps of former disciples of Meher Baba. Both these camp considered of young and energetic Americans whom I should say are of a superior type and if one were to analyze them one would conclude one group is drawn toward Karma yoga and the other toward Bhakti. I do not know if this is a very good or fair analysis for I feel that analysis itself is a very dangerous procedure in spiritual matters. But I did not seek these followers of Meher Baba, they sought me; I did not include I had any message for them, this was their conclusion. In any case it is rather encouraging to find some followers of Baba may actually believe in what they are saying, and not substitute seemingly noble words for shortcomings in actions.
The one group now considers this person a Master of Asian wisdom. This is very edifying. In general the Masters of Asia, from Japan to the near East, extending across North Africa, consider this person as a valid teacher in spiritual matters, and the non-Masters of non-Asia hold quite contrary opinions.
The views that these young people in both camps have are that Baba came with a universal, impersonal message for the world, while here the stress has been that he came with a very personal message for the few. I cannot agree on this point. Both these groups however seem to stand finely on the ethics of the Sermon on the Mount, and other sublime ethics of the various faiths. They do not hold that personality acceptance is a substitute for inferior behavior. To me this is rather delightful stand from the Baba movement because of the questionable ethical standards of personalities presumably high in his entourage. I don’t know this of course, but there was no other way open. The group, which I call Bhakti is now anxious to visit the shrines of all faiths, to participate in the devotions thereof, and in general to accept God in all his names and forms. The other group has accepted me personally as the work of a Sufi is independent of the proclamations of and for particular names and forms, and as this person has been ordained and initiated by a number of living Sufis, he can only cooperate with other seekers. By cooperation, one means just that.
The joint inheritance of spiritual music and dancing from Hazrat Inayat Khan and Ruth St. Denis is a continuance of the work they started in 1911. It is remarkable how young people are being attracted; abandoning drugs and artificial stimulants, and joining in the joyful praise to God. The experience of ecstasy is proclaimed in the Upanishads. One had presumed that Baba had come in the world to fulfill the Scriptures not displace them, but according to the local teachings, he had come to displace them. This also well may be; I cannot argue about it, but I also believe, and I think the scriptures will bear me out—I think all scriptures will hear me out-that all beings were made in the divine image. Certainly this is my technique and it is attracting many people. Or to put it tersely, I am now doing and accomplishing outwardly the very things I had been summoned to Myrtle Beach to do. I do not know whether you will recall the incident in your home in New York when I was asked to die in the name of Baba in five minutes and to disconcertment of all present, did just that.
In the New Age, much more emphasis is placed on the virtues of humanity, then on the sins. There have been those who have delighted in the sins—of others of course. I believe the truly wise will be interested in, always have been interested in, the virtues and possibilities of human kind. One is faced today with a number of claims of a number of persons to higher positions in a real or supposititious spiritual hierarchy. I do not know on what bases claims can be substantiated or refuted; I do know that the strongest factor on my behalf is that there has been no obvious ageing or erosion in body or mind, excepting perhaps in the eyes and even they are being cared for.
The Sufi teaching, with which Meher Baba seems to have been in substantial accord, is that in the ultimate nothing exists but Allah. I am neither going to argue for this, nor try to impose it on anybody.
This is a New Age. This is an age of the vital young. This is an age in which hearts listen as well as impose.
It is rather strange after all these years that one should be sought for by the former followers of Baba, or they may be followers yet, to do exactly what I had been sent for to Myrtle Beach, and was not permitted to operate. Today, before God, I am still operating, tomorrow, before God if he so wills, I shall still be operating. I do not believe there can be any limitation imposed upon any human being by any church, sect or legal entity. Jesus has said, “Ye shall know the truth, and the Truth shall make ye free.” One asks nothing from mankind, one accepts everything coming from God, whom I believe exists in the hearts of all, and I mean just that, in the hearts of all.
All love and blessings,
Samuel L. Lewis
cc Mrs. Dune
Elizabeth Patterson
Sept. 6, 1969
Dear Sam,
I am sure that a nice letter like yours “out of the blue” requires an answer. It is good to know you are still on earth and going strong.
Your statement that “this is the age when hearts listen,” is certainly true in my experience with Baba and the old-young people with whom you come into contact.
The Meher Spiritual Center has had a spurt of young ones coming from the colleges in particular and we are busy with people all year round.
I think you may not have met Kitty Davy; she is an English disciple of Baba’s whom Baba left here to assist with the Center work, when Morina was ill, before she passed away in 1957.
Frank Eaton is caretaker; he is married with three boys and lives just outside the Center.
Out of the blue, strange to say, I heard from David Brooks who seems to be still in NY and wrote after all those years. Something as you did—but you sound freer and happier.
The great difference in the Center (than when you were here) is that Baba himself has visited it on three occasions and it has a spiritual atmosphere, not only beautiful nature.
Best to you,
Elizabeth
410 Precita Ave,
San Francisco, Ca.
September 9, 1969
Mrs. Elizabeth C Patterson
Long Lake, Briarcliffe
Myrtle Beach, SC 29577
My dear Elizabeth,
I was most happy to hear from you. Among my researches have been the subjects of Baraka and cosmic languages. It is not necessary to comment on them, as your letter itself is a commentary thereon. Some day no doubt the world will understand these things better. Upon my return from New Mexico I called at a printing office and received information concerning the work of two other claimants to being Avatar. One does not know whether to be irked or to resort to ridicule, but sooner or later it is very evident that one will cross the trail of either or both. I myself continue to work in the field of Sufism heaving met a number of living Sufi teachers and incidentally been most cordially welcomed by them. It is rather awkward being dedicated to universal brotherhood to know at times where to turn or not turn. Whatever else be true, the Living God has vouchsafed me health and strength. My father called we to his death bed and apologized for having wronged me and circumstances have changed that I now have not only a comfortable income but am being received more and more by the universities and minor representatives of Oriental teachings. In fact we have are now seriously considering a universal integrative movement based on understanding and awakening, not on verbalisms or personalities.
I am very happy to hear about Frank. I have deepest love and regard for him. It may surprise him to learn that there have been both physical and psychological transformations leading to adventures in various branches of dancing and more recently, choral singing. Slowly but surely my crusade, so to speak, on “Joy Without Drugs” is being accepted. It is being accepted in many new quarters by many young people and it looks at this writing as if one’s career will become public. Perhaps I am still a little bit on the intellectual side; that is what I am by nature and that is also what my first teacher Hazrat Inayat Khan predicated would become my career in the life, but the intellectual side is also modified and qualified so that today I have a very large and growing family of god-sons and god-daughters, and spiritual grand-sons and grand-daughters. Here we touch love with morality, kindness, mercy, and compassion, and make every endeavor to have these become parts of personality; and with some success too. No doubt there is a longing of many people to go to India, but in the atmosphere and in the cosmos we are going to find that this India may be that Walt Whitman (vide Passage to India) and not necessarily only that of the geography books.
All love and blessing,
Samuel L. Lewis
Nov. 25, 1969
Dr. Allan Cohen
Meher Center
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
Beloved One of Allah:
Enclosed you will find two prayers given by the late Meher Baba. Upon reading them this person wonders why his disciples are exempt from putting them into practice? They may soon be published here, with or without the permission of “important egos.” One cannot ask others to live up to one’s own religious code, all the orthodoxies do that, but one can and does ask others to live up to their own codes. Are the disciples of Meher Baba any different from all the other religionists who “love” their teacher and ignore everything he asked them to do?
Faithfully,
Melvin Meyer
December 16, 1969
Dear Sam,
You sent a copy of your letter to Adi K. Irani, of Dec. 13, 1969 to Meher Center and in view of the fact that the letter itself was not addressed directly to me, it is possible that no reply is expected from here. However, I remember you so well and that you were one of the early ones staying for a time at the center, before it was developed, or Baba came here. The early days are always pleasant memories, they recede into the morning of life.
Someway your letter makes me feel that you are not truly happy. I realize that is a lot to expect of anyone, but it is more the undertone of your letter that gives me the impression if this.
Baba himself wanted to own nothing not even his copyrights, so long ago he gave these to Adi K. Irani, who can give permission to use them. His disciples considered it necessary to have Baba’s writings preserved in an original form, which can only be one by copyright. For example, Alexander Markey, without any bad intentions but thinking to put Baba’s discourses into “American Hollywood” English, published his version of the original discourses, shortcoming and rearranging them, also putting his own name to the book entitled Silent Revelations by Alexander Markey.
We all know that in time copyrights run out, but at least we can go back and I find the original form of an author’s writings.
We all know that Meher Baba, or Jesus’ disciples were not all perfect, in fact Baba once said that if all his followers were perfect, he would not have had to come. As for myself, I feel I am only in the stage of beginning. Without having known Baba, I doubt if I would have spiritually begun. Meher Baba gave us an example of Perfect on the earth.
Jesus gave us the Lord’s Prayer; and Baba gave us the Master’s Prayer, also the Prayer of Repentance. If we lived up to the Lord’s Prayer in act, word, and deed, we would never need another. But in 2000 years few have lived up to it. Let us hope that in the next 700 years, (when Baba says he will come again) that there will be many more who will live up to Baba’s Prayers in act, word, and deed. But we can all try and try again.
Of course, you know as well as I do, that there is nothing against oral recitation in published works. There should be something, however, to change the name of the author to another’s name, or the content to another meaning.
I admit to being a purist in such matters. I prefer the St. James edition of the Christian Bible to the recently revised edition. I might have preferred the very earliest edition if it still exists in the Dead Sea Scrolls! Incidentally your letter brings up an interesting point, now that the revised edition of the recently published Bible (that scholars worked on for 30 years) is copyrighted, how does that limit matters of use?! Well, let us keep our sense of good humor. Amen.
Elizabeth Patterson.
Dec. 22, 1969
Elizabeth C. Patterson
Long Lake, Briarcliffe
Myrtle Beach, SC 29577
My dear Elizabeth:
I wish to thank you with all my heart for your letter of December 16. However, I have failed to convey information about the facts of my life. I am today surrounded by a large and growing number of young people. I think it would be unfair to assert they are the best specimens of the New Age. In New Mexico and elsewhere I have met very much the same kind of people, who are devotes of Meher Baba.
No one can enforce upon others the mystical experiences of the mystic. It is only now, after a long time, that the mystic is given even an opportunity to present his case. A lot of things pass as Oriental Philosophy and Mysticism in our culture, which are neither Mysticism nor Oriental Philosophy. The prestige of the “experts” has been so great that until recently one was not even permitted to present a case at all. Nor perhaps is it necessary.
A few years ago I was flat on my back in the hospital and the Voice of God came to me, “I make you spiritual Teacher of the hippies.” This was not the first of such experiences. I had previous ones. I was summoned to Myrtle Beach because of my knowledge of Oriental Philosophy, Mysticism, and literature. I was practically not permitted to say a word. I had several mystical experiences at the Center and when I went out to perform these missions, I was denied and denounced. Later the denials and the denouncements were even more vehement, in the name of Baba. And now when I read the writings of Meher Baba himself, I find this was far from the case. His own words, his own published words, are in the same tenor, with the same goals and the same outlook—no doubt more lofty in their vision and literary form, but otherwise exactly the same. The denials and denouncements remain, so one has to work, as it were, independent. In any event, I am the first person in history to have received credentials from Buddhists, Hindus and Sufis alike to be a validated teacher.
In a way a request to use the Prayers of Meher Baba were a test. If a Prayer be copyrighted, it is no longer a Universal Prayer. I have had no intention to quote from anything of Baba otherwise than to verbally repeat his Prayers without any comment whatsoever. This in no way parallels anything of Alex Markey or anybody else. I have no intention of even quoting from Discourses or elsewhere, without going through proper channels. If the persons I had approached were spiritual at all, they would have been thankful that I even mentioned Baba; more thankful that I would be broadcasting his prayers. Instead a rude rebuff. I have thrown away most of these rebuffs.
I stand before God, exactly as in 1945, when because of some knowledge of the world’s faiths and literature, I wished to work for Universality. The time has added to my experiences if not wisdom. Time certainly shows that I am surrounded and loved by a large number of young people—about 100 of them gave me my last birthday party. I am in touch with the spiritual leaders of many of the world’s faiths, and am on excellent terms with them. My next step is to attend a conference of the religions of the world in the name of The Temple of Understanding, and this time by God, I am not going to permit any local representative nor mis-representative of Baba to say anything against this, because now I have the printed words.
The class at San Francisco State College here is considering modern spiritual movements, also discussed Meher Baba via brother Cohen. It was after his appearance that the material was received from India that I wished to bring to class. I shall bring the material to the class instructor. When you come to San Francisco you read a quotation, “Happiness Consists in Making Other Happy—Meher Baba.” Of course I cannot compel representatives, disciples or otherwise, to observe this. My life today consists of sharing happiness and evoking joy and love in the young, and perhaps in the not-so-young.
I am not so much disturbed here as in the already largely advertised assumed coming of another person who us being proclaimed as “Avatar.” I know nothing of this man, but his coming will only produce further confusion and division. Already one of my spiritual colleagues has written a book in which he gives my person a high place of eminence alongside several others all of whom are of present or recent historical and political importance. I have been so many places where Western man has not gone, and this was possible because the doors of the heart have been opened.
Any statement here which gives the slightest inference of any criticism or any comment even on Baba’s Prayers would be a mistaken conclusion. What comes out of the empyrean comes out of the empyrean. In the case of the Lord’s Prayer, I know it has been tempered with and tempered with many times. I do not know whether this matters or not, for the spirit of devotion may be much more important than literary or intellectual exactitude.
Edna St. Vincent Millay said in her “Renascence”:
“The world stands out on every side,
No wider than the heart is wide.”
In many instances I feel like the Jewish mystics who were involved with the early Christians, and refused to take sides.
Of course I cannot compel, and I do not even intend to persuade you, or anybody, to accept Sufism. Having been a devotee and initiate of real Zen, of real esoteric Buddhism, of real Vedanta, of real Bhakti Yoga, etc., to me a path to God is important, but not necessary a particular path, because “I” whosoever I am, have gone that way.
My poetry will stand as evidence, is now standing as evidence, and someday it will be read.
I hope you understand this is being sent with all good will, love and blessings. As I am facing the religions of the world, my comment is that most devotes of most faiths look askance to find that the devotees of other faiths do not live up to the commandments of “Their” Lord. This is one of the reasons why the young are seeking elsewhere, not yet finding, but at least they are seeking.
All love, joy, and blessing, in the Name of Allah, the Merciful and Compassionate:
Samuel L. Lewis
Undated
Dear Mr. Lewis,
Thank you so much for you recent letter in which you shared some of your experiences and observations. Thanks also for the kindness of enclosing a copy of your letter to India—again, extremely interesting. I think we are surely witnessing a time of great spiritual reawakening.
All I can do is wish you more Godspeed on your return to Union with the Beloved, and sincere wishes that you may pursue sincere service to His Cause.
Sincerely in the Infinite,
Allan Cohen
Allan Y. Cohen, Ph.D.
Consulting Psychologist
January 28, 1970
Dear Mr. Lewis:
Thank you very much for a copy of the letter you sent to Adi K. Irani in India.
You are certainly correct that Meher Baba can never be contained by any organization, nor can He ever be affected by the comments of devotees and enemies alike.
The effects of any publication of any of Baba’s material, whether copyrighted or not, will have its effects on the publishers according to His sincerity and lack of hypocrisy.
My best wishes to you for your search for the experience of Truth.
Yours in the Infinite,
Allan Cohen
Feb. 2, 1970
Allan Y. Cohen, Ph.D.
2164 Ashby Avenue
Berkeley, Calif. 94705
Beloved One of God:
I must thank you for your letter of January 28. Years ago I personally had some mystical experiences which ultimately led me to go to the center at Myrtle Beach. Baba himself gave instructions that I was to prepare to give lectures on all the religions of the world; he asked me to make copies of references which could be used to support his mission.
I gave up a comfortable job, went east, became a veritable slave under the assumption that this was necessary for “karma yoga”; never once was permitted to speak on knowledge of the scriptures of the world, or on mystical or other traditions, or the facts of mystical experiences, etc,, etc. Never once.
I then had some mystical experiences and had to go to the city of Washington, D.C. and try to establish peace in Palestine. Oh, I was successful all right by the diplomats, but then was told most emphatically that Baba wished war. If I had retained the letters sent, especially with remarks that “Baba said this, or Baba said that” a lawsuit would have been a pushover. I had been a poor man and rejected socially, and every advantage was taken of it.
You can imagine my consternation many years later when I came upon the words of Baba, approving many of the very projects with which I have been concerned as a person, as a devotee, and even originally from his own instruction. This sort of thing compelled me to seek in quite other directions, and I am now arranging a meeting in June to see if human beings who are not diplomats or newsman can do something to promote friendship in this world. But first I intend, inshallah, to go to the conference under the auspices of The Temple of Understanding.
When I sat before Princess Matchabelli she constantly told us that Baba wanted his name to be presented to everybody. It did not matter if it was favorable, or unfavorable, that to him friendship and contention were alike, and the only thing he objected to was hush-hush about him. And when I returned to San Francisco there was nothing but hush-hush about him. I had nothing more to say.
I did not want to indulge with any public forensics with you, for we may be working for the same goals. I have perhaps as much background in sacred literature as you have in your own profession. It does not make me any better or worse. In any event, I am now concentrating on “Dances of Universal Peace” drawn from the sacred teachings and rites of all faiths. Again thanking you for your very kind letter,
Samuel L. Lewis
105 Marlborough
Boston, 02116 Mass
April 21, 1970
Mr. Don Stevens
c/o Sufism Reoriented
1200 Sutter Street
San Francisco 94109
Dear Mr. Stevens:
In the writings of the late Meher Baba, reference is made to the Temple of Understanding and its universal prayer. We have surmised from this that the late Meher Baba looked with some favor on efforts to bring all of the religions of the world together for the cause of peace or for any other reason. In any event, a conference has been held at Geneva at which 14 different prayers were given by leaders of different religions. The conference itself was from some points of view a great step forward. For the religions of the world were represented by their own leaders and not by representatives carefully selected by outsiders, governments or otherwise, and so each faith presented its case openly. And, at Geneva also the leaders of religions listened to the other people and even listened wholeheartedly. We do not know of course how the followers of Meher Baba think about this now that he is gone. It may have been his wish and hope that this might happen. Anyhow, it has. In fact on may the 8th a talk will be given reporting the events and progress made by the people who met under the auspices of the Temple of Understanding,
Of course this is a public meeting and it may be followed by other public meetings.
Meher Baba was not represented at the convocation. The reason given with which you may or may of agree was that the Baha’is had asked for a place on the program. An Iranian professor who was acting as the Sufi representative stated that if the Baha’is were given a place on the program, the doors would also have to be opened to all those movements who feel that their particular spiritual teacher was the divine incarnation in some form. The past experiences have shown unfortunately that only too often this has led to mutual animosities and rivalries even among and especially from those who proclaimed divine love and compassion. The divine love and compassion itself was presented by a number of representatives of minority groups, and there was also the difficulty that long series of speeches on love and compassion was not always evidence of these divine qualities. You may not agree (or you may agree) that God is in the listener as well as the speaker. Indeed some religions hold that listening itself is divine devotion and speaking is in interruption of divine communion.
Of course if you feel that the cause of Meher Baba should be presented sometime in the future this may be possible. We are merely giving you some information and you certainly are invited to the meeting on May 8, to be held at 420 Sutter Street.
Faithfully,
Mansur Johnson
April 28, 1970
Allan Y. Cohen, Ph.D.
2164 Ashby Avenue
Berkeley, Ca. 94705
Beloved One of Gods:
We have returned from Geneva to a real summit meeting of the real religion of the real world. Reference is made in a letter of which I am sending you a carbon; this goes to people whom you may know but whom I have not named so as not to involve them.
It was a wonderful thing to find that there can be an assemblage of the real religions of the real world working for understanding, amity, and peace. Fourteen prayers were offered in succession at the great cathedral in Geneva, Switzerland the fountainhead of Calvinism! It is one thing to say, “I have come to abolish religion and bring God,” and it is another thing to manifest. One might ask where are the God-conscious people. Where are those who either substantiate or decry the saying of Mohammed “Allah loves His creation more than a mother loves her offspring.”?
It was rather amusing to find in several parts of the world, certain rumors about this person coming from certain devotees of Meher Baba. It would be still more amusing no doubt if the perpetrators of these rumors were brought into court and sued. Indeed it would be ducky! It would be delightful but it would take time away from constructive measures in which we are involved. Nor do we accept the morals of the new outlooks, which seem to be that if you have enough faith and devotion to the big man whomsoever he is, that brings automatic atonement and your behavior is self-justified.
There are too many published books which substantiate that, just that. There are too many self-proclaimers in the name of God, as they interpret it, who bypass honesty and human consideration for assumed shortcuts.
The outstanding figure at Geneva was Swami Ranganathananda Maharaj. He demonstrated to the satisfaction of followers of many faiths, that when a true spiritual teacher manifests, the cosmic consciousness, the awakening of spirit, the dharma-transmission, is handed down objectively from soul to soul. It is handed down objectively, not symbolically, as Jesus said, “Let your Light shine before man, that they may see your good works and glorify the Father which is in heaven.”
I shall not report on this conference. I am going to speak on it on the night of May 8 at 420 Sutter Street at 7:30. The public has been invited. No hush-hush and no shams; cards on the table. And this is just the way it was at Geneva where every devotee, every apologist for every faith, had to face a whole assembly containing some of the most powerful, the most learned, the most devout, the most spiritual, the most awakened people, of the whole creation—and cards on the table, no hush-hush.
It was perhaps unfortunate that now movements were not presented. But how could it be otherwise? When a person or a group slams others, what can they expect but to be slammed down themselves. There are no one-way streets in the moral order.
It is interesting to know from actual publications that the late Meher Baba gave his blessing on this undertaking. It is not so interesting to know that some of the most vociferous followers of the late Meher Baba, wealthy enough to publish books written by themselves, have declared in the name Baba that this person was totally incapable of participating in any summit meeting. They are your associates and they are on record. They are on record before the living God.
I do not know of course whether the late Meher Baba taught that faith in Him, in his person, would atone for the lack of honesty, decency, and moral consideration; and would give persons the right to circulate false rumors and detrimental remarks concerning a rather poor and unwelcomed personality.
And I think it is unfortunate, partly because of this behavior pattern, other claimants to be Messiah or Avatar or Sadguru, are now on the scene, offering the same or similar teachings, that faith in their personalities would compensate or atone for moral torts. Personally I am not concerned.
What is now going ahead in efforts to promote real peace in some parts of the world. One has the contacts, the accumulated knowledges from both within and without, and today thanks to God, the money, to do exactly those things which your associates have declared one was totally incapable of performing. God is our witness and our judge. We give thanks and praise to him.
Of course I do not know that Meher Baba ever declared, concerning this person and concerning the missions with which he has been involved, as these book-writing devotees have proclaimed. It is quite possible that Baba himself has wished exactly what has been accomplished, is being accomplished.
Faithfully,
Samuel L. Lewis
Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti
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June 5, 1970
Mr. Don Stevens
c/o Sufism Reoriented
1290 Sutter Street
San Francisco, Calif. 94109
Dear Mr. Stevens:
We are disturbed. We are distributed without being troubled.
We have been to the conference of the world’s religions where we have met and commingled with the highest spiritual and ecclesiastical authorities for the whole world. We had no difficulty at all in mutual 2-way communication. From the writings of the late Meher Baba it was indicated he favored this undertaking, but there were no representatives of him there. We do not know why. Perhaps you or one of your colleagues will attend a later conference.
When we came to Cambridge, Massachusetts, we found a copy of your book in which you ask the rest of the world to listen. To us this brings us two other subjects: A. that listening itself is a great virtue; B. that the rest of the world should listen to you. We shall touch upon this below.
Now life finds us at a spiritual center high up in the Rocky Mountains. We believe this is a spiritual center, but we do not believe it is within our rights to impose this idea upon you. We can accept listening as a virtue. We can also accept it as a grand virtue if you can demonstrate you know how to listen yourself. If you cannot demonstrate how to listen we are skeptical that almighty God gave you a privilege or right to ask the rest of the world to listen to you.
This place was certainly sanctified by the late Meher Baba. We do not know if he visited it himself, but some of his mandali have and they were satisfied. The people living here wonder why that this place is successful in its operations and The Center in South Carolina is not so successful. This place has been successful in being economically self-sustaining. This place has demonstrated its respect for all the great religions and some not so great. This place uses prayers and rituals of all faiths without closing its doors on the new inspirations of any devotee. And until the official disciples of Meher Baba can demonstrate something comparable this skepticism will remain.
In “The Unstruck music” under caption of July 14th, he said, “Reading about Perfect Masters such as Rama Krishna or St. Francis is not the same thing as discovering a Perfect Master living in our world at the same time.
When you discover this, at first it seems incredible, then it is a shock which develops into a thrill of hope and finally awakens real love in your heart.” If Meher Baba said that, do you as his disciple accept it? Do you believe, do you honestly believe that reading about Meher Baba is “the same thing as discovering a Perfect Master living in our world at the same time?”
Under caption of January 25th, Meher Baba has said, “Every cycle has an avatar and every moment has a Wali”.
Well, where are the Walis? How can you affirm about the avatars when you do not confirm about the Walis? Who are the Walis? Therefore we do not understand how it is possible to start an establishment at the Center and not have it finished. Who and where are the Walis?
We go on to quotation #157, dated June 5th, “This love can belong to all, high and low, sick and poor. Every one of every caste and creed can love God. The one and only God, who resides equally in us all, is approachable by each one of us through love. Religion like worship must be from the heart. Instead of erecting churches, fire temples, mandirs and mosques, people were to establish the House of God in their hearts for the Beloved God to dwell supreme then my work will have been done.” We should expect that the devotees of Meher Baba would demonstrate to the world some of his teachings. Jesus Christ has said; “Let your light shine before men.” You have given us a book.
You have given us a book very much like one by Jean Adrial written some years ago. They both have the same tones, the same awesome reverence, and absolutely complete ignorance about the mystical experiences of others of the past and present. This very ignorance makes one question why such books were written at all, especially after Meher Baba himself has said that books about never compare with face to face meetings. We do not know under what authority you can absolutely deny the possibility of other face to face meetings. At least Jean Adrial, never having risen above second plane emotionalism, later came to reject Meher Baba. It is quite evident from her work that egotism dominated and not universal love, so we are not surprised. As to the higher experiences!
Under note #184 July 2nd, Meher Baba has said, “I have come not to teach but to awaken.” If you have had the awakening, if anyone close to Meher Baba has had the awakening we profoundly apologize. But if you have not had the awakening then you are teaching and you are supporting the theme that despite his words Meher Baba was in all essence a teacher not an awakener.
Since Meher Baba has mentioned men like Junaid and Hafiz who never proclaimed their reaching the highest state, and since he does not quote Mohammed whom we believe reached the highest state and was insaan-i-kemal and whom Junaid, Hafiz and Kabir accepted as such, we are compelled to conclude you are a teacher not an awakener. We have no objection to this, but this would contradict some of your own premises.
One’s impression-and one’s impression may be wrong—that in the mission of the late Meher Baba and of his followers winking at gnats and straining at camels has become a profession. Or is it the other way around? There seems to be indignation when Joe Jokes or Jane Doe with a thousand virtues does not accept Baba. But nothing is said when U Thant or Richard Nixon or Billy Graham are so unconcerned with the murder of helpless babies in Southeast Asia, caught between two gigantic armies of men who alike have absolute disregard for the Sermon on the Mount and actual teachings of Jesus Christ. It seems that every devil, every tyrant, every despot may personally accept Jesus Christ while ignoring his wonderful teachings. If you only punchboard the right superman you are absolved. If you punchboard the wrong superman or do not punchboard with a million virtues you are still condemned. The little man must toe the mark but it is marvelous that none of the competing avatars of the day would dare to face a Herod or a Caiathas.
Now what disturbs us-if you can call it that-is that there is now on the scene one Satchasaibaba. He is publishing a magazine called AVATAR. He is making almost the same claims as Meher Baba. He emphasizes that he is on earth. He challenges both the late Meher Baba on that you have to have a living teacher in the flesh. Emotionally, irrationally and rationally he points out the emptiness of the claim that you must have a living teacher made by those who repudiate their own affirmations.
Now you have said you do not know about Avatars. At least we have read tremendous tomes of, about, and from Sri Krishna, Gautama Buddha, Jesus Christ and Rassoul Mohammed. When there were wars on Buddha used to take his disciples to the battle-fields. He did not send powder puff messages to them; he went there and told the opposing forces, “If you want to kill anybody, kill us first; we are not afraid.” This to us is the behavior of an Avatar.
Or Mohammed. Having discovered that all people were loved by Allah-and we mean loved- that the enemy was also the beloved of Allah, he accepted a battlefield defeat and then went on to conquer his enemies. He did not talk about forgiveness, he did not pratter, he did not preach, he did not mealy-mouth. He conquered his enemies and forgave them, really forgave them. There is hardly an instance in all history.
Now therefore we question the various rivals who claim to be avatar, that they have not sustained the standards or the illuminations of Krishna, of Buddha, of Jesus, of Mohammed. Each of these also had illuminated disciples. In the case of Buddha we have on record a number given as 400,000. If anyone took the trouble to read Psalms of the Early Buddhists they would self-demonstrate. They are examples, positive historical examples of love, of joy, of peace. The idea was to show by example, not dualistic preaching or by word-conveying.
Now we may or may not be right in our conclusions about you. But we certainly are right that many of the themes and thesis of the late Meher Baba are now being used by Satchasaibaba. In fact he has a representative in the San Francisco area at this writing. It is possible that at this writing this representative may have appeared at the projected Holy Man’s Jamboree. There the holy men, or their representatives, will appear before the public and place their cards on the table and face the multitudes and each other. They will have to substantiate claims. They may succeed or fail; we do not know.
1. But what we do know is this:
2. There are a multitude of living personalities claiming to be Avatar, Messiah, Sadguru, Maharshi, etc.
3. Not one of them seems to be the least concern with the holocausts to humanity in various parts of the world. Not one of them has dared to go into the “Valley of the shadow of death.”
There is more disturbance now in India: Hindus against Muslims, Hindus vs. communists, neo-Fascists against communists, communists against communists and the land of Gandhi has more internal turmoil even than the United States. Where are the Sadgurus? Where are the avatars? Where are the maharshis?
All this dribble-drabble about love. Talk. It is not talk it is, “Let your light shine among men that they may see your good works.” Let your light shine. Let your love shine. Let your joy shine.
The last message of Jesus Christ was, “Love ye one another.” Not only has every avatar, every Sadguru, every maharshi called for loving God more, but every sadist, every despot, every demo-gag, every follower of Nietzsche-ism has done the same. We are looking for somebody who will follow and accept, “A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another.”
Love and Blessings,
Mansur Johnson
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Lama Foundation,
Box 444 San Cristobal, NM
June 13, 1970
Dr. Allan Y. Cohen
2164 Ashby Ave.
Berkeley, Calif. 94705
Beloved One of God:
One asks no apology if you or your confreres ever classify this person along with Paul Brunton. This person has had his own experiences in “secret India,” “secret Egypt,” and although his stays in the Himalayas were comparatively short, he is now writing, so to speak, from a high mountain retreat. The God of this person seems to be somewhat different from the God of others. He is to be found in all places, in all things and in all people without any limits. It is on this point he differs from many enthusiasts, making both argument and agreement most difficult because the infinite is infinite, beyond limitation. The infinite does not play games with certain persons and totally ignore others. No time, no place, no condition and it is difficult even to write because even the simple words we may be using have such different meanings.
The great annoyance of the time is that after a declaration that the infinite God manifested in certain persons only and at certain times only, and that mankind could benefit only if he met a certain form of the infinite-as if the infinite were limited according to rules, and then that the infinite must be in the flesh, the withdrawal from incarnation of one such personality has bolstered the claims of other personalities until now we find ourselves almost in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Iolanthe where it says, “On every hand field marshalls gleam, small beer were Lord’s lieutenant’s seemed.”
If we study the history of the world which seems so unnecessary for and by claimants, we might find many real or pretended enlightened personalities of, at, and from all kinds of personalities or many races and classes known and unknown. An infinite which is limited can largely hardly be an infinite.
So the claims rise up, the morals recede, the “proofs” are exactly the opposite of those philosophized by Jesus Christ and later by Mohammed, and more and more division and confusion in the myaric manifestation. Instead of calm and peace, much less of love and joy, there is the miasma of confusion compounded my blaming everybody and especially the innocent. Great prophets like Jeremiah and Zarathustra and Jesus openly blamed the rich, the powerful, the authorities. Jelal-ed-din Rumi thought that the devil had come when the Governor of the province entered his sanctum. But we! No, it is the little people who are to blame. So when John Doe and Richard Roe and Susie Smith do not accept the Avatar, the Sadguru, the Messiah, the Maharshi, they are castigate. But never the rich, the powerful, the tyrants, the great structures who control outward the affairs of the word.
There was a period in the Roman Empire when all kinds of cults appeared, with greater and greater promises. So the holy and wholesome guru system is being undermined by persons with greater claims, greater promises, and words! words! words! The word “love” is substituted for LOVE; the word “compassion” for COMPASSION: Mohammed-concerning whom we are too “humble” to study said: “Allah loves His creation more than a mother loves her offspring.” But we don’t need Mohammed—we have our Sadgurus, Maharshis, even Paramavatars!
The Sermon on the Mount is gone and few bother about: “A new commandment I give unto ye, that ye love one another.” Never! Just “LOVE GOD! The holy men, the preachers, the screeches, the head of the UN, the President and Vice-President, the King of Saudi Arabia, the Mafia, the criminals and jailors both say we have to love God more. Quiet in unison. But human consideration?
One of the greatest of Sufis (there were and are such people you know) said “Consideration consists of offering consideration and never demanding consideration.” Lord Buddha was very different from the Saviours of the age. He looked into the actual cause of suffering. He gave us a tremendous teaching which “humble” people need not study. He not only tried to remove sorrow; he did. All one has to do (excepting the humble, they don’t have to do) is to read the “Psalms” of the early Buddhists. This is corroborative evidence that when Lord Buddha talked about enlightenment, he meant actual enlightenment. Actual rising beyond the ego framework and above karma.
Buddha gave us logic; we have Aristotelianism: conclusions without premises; we do not need premises, we just try assumptions. When they work fine. Now the avatar assumption is abroad and one can almost say to misquote, “The avatars are coming, huru, huru.” Instead of moral purification, instead of human consideration, just select. The work of Meher Baba is being undermined in two ways:
1) the avatar doctrine. Now more people are coming using the same premises, the same assumptions, and the same success in emotionally arousing devotees. They agree in assuming that emotional excitation can be passed off as “enlightenment” or “piety” or “nobility.” Just bow before or grovel before HIM or HER-that will save you; you don’t have to do anything. No more sins, you can do anything. No more repentance, you can do anything. So I am concerned.
There was a holy man’s jamboree in San Francisco. We do not have the news. There is soon going to be a Holy Man’s Jamboree in Santa Fe. In childhood I said all Indians were coolees or mahatmas. It is still so. The more mahatmas, the more confusion, and India and the United States lead the world in this.
A true prophet would come to comfort the masses. He would blame the authorities and comfort the masses. Now even money is regarded as a virtue by the holy men from India, so we will see. All the arguments used by Meher Baba are now being used by others that you must have a perfect master on earth. Pure assumption. The abolition of the grace of God isn’t going to work, has never worked, or you must prove it one way or the other.
All the new claimants, without exception I believe, resemble Nietzsche’s superman. Real holy men like the sun give and give and give and ask nothing.
2) The greatest enigma is why now claimants must abolish the Sermon on the Mount. The aphorism is substituted for heart behavior. I repeat, the aphorism is being substituted for heart behavior. You can put up a sign, Meher Baba says, “Happiness consists in making others happy.” So having put up the sign, you are absolved; you don’t have to do anything more.
Therefore lying, calumny, false rumors, defamation of character are permissible, absolutely permissible by and among the followers of Meher Baba. They are certainly permissible because protests either to Meher Baba when he was alive or to secretary Irani since are ignored and the gossips, the calumnies, the false rumors, etc. go on and on as if there were no God at all.
This is a place where are religions are practiced, not preached, but practiced. This is a place where human consideration stands foremost. This is a place where there are no substitutes for God; it is not the only place on earth, and I believe there will be many more.
This place was established first by people who had Baba’s blessing, It has been joined by others; by yogi devotees who were either disgusted with or kicked out of Auroville in India; by disciples of the actual Sufis of the actual Sufi brotherhoods which persist despite denials on the part of a lot of Americans who having established premises stick to them regardless of facts.
Unlike Myrtle Beach, unlike The Center there, it is growing and prospering; it has become a place of pilgrimage, and it is also a place where the mystical, esoteric, and moral teachings of the great religions of the world are practiced, practiced far more than preached.
We believe it has God’s blessing. There is plenty of evidence for it, factual evidence, not emotional assumptions. The work of such people as Jean Adrial and Don Stevens shows a heightening of emotions, but not of human consideration, love for mankind or efforts to end the woes of the world. So be it. We let it stand. But we do repeat the words of Mohammed, La Illaha El Il Allah.
We are praying that enlightenment may become your experience and not a mere thought and emotion, so that the barriers between self and self disappear. Love and Blessings,
Samuel L. Lewis
1249 Princeton
Albuquerque, New Mexico
June 21, 1970
Mr. Don Stevens
c/o Sufism Reoriented 1290 Sutter
San Francisco 94109
Dear Ram:
With the coming of Satchasaibaba, Avatar, to the West, there may be considerable confusion. Claims have been made concerning Avatar-one does not know about the validity of such claims-but when several people claim to be Avatar in a single era, there is liable to be considerable confusion. This is particular true of the claim one must have a living master in the flesh.
Satchasaibaba has already sent at least one representative to mingle with the common people. It is also possible that he himself may mingle with the common people. At least two of the Messengers of God, Jesus and Mohammed, mingled with the common people, worked with them, ate with them, slept under the same circumstances and did all things at that level. While in the world of consciousness they may have been far beyond their fellows, in the world of objectivity they made no differences—they did not ask, much less demand, the obeisance given to royalty. They felt at home with the commoners.
We do not know if this has changed. It is certain that in Lord Buddha’s time many achieved illumination. There is evidence, actual historical evidence that in Mohammed’s time many close to him achieved illumination. And if we accept the Christian scriptures, eleven disciples of Jesus Christ had this happen in the “Upper Room.”
Although the so-called Avatars verbally declare they have come to illumine, to liberate, to transform human beings, especially those close to them, there does not seem to be similar evidence at this time. We are not authorities on the various personalities claiming to be Avatar. They seem to be united in self-proclamation, in not having illuminated souls close to them, and in abrogating the Sermon on the Mount and the Bismillah of Mohammed. Indeed there is remarkable unanimity among them in abolishing high-moral standards and substituting obeisance to themselves for any moral law whatsoever. And if they verbally declare otherwise, there is little evidence of getting beyond the verbal state. Their disciples and followers seem to be exempt or self-exempt from moral nobility.
These matters are not in our hands. They may become bones of contention between the various claimants to the Avatar or among pretending disciples.
A natural result is that people who really believe in Jesus and Buddha and Mohammed—not necessarily in the religions bearing their names, but in the teachings thereof—tend to look in other directions for spiritual guidance. They probably accept that the kingdom of heaven is within, and that God created all mankind in his image—no exceptions. Certainly, Lord Buddha said, “I see now all sentient beings have perfect wisdom, but do not know it. I must go and instruct them.”
The vast difference in the social and moral behavior of Jesus, Mohammed and Buddha and practically all the claimants of the day is tremendous. Claimants do not seem to be concerned with the suffering of mankind. Vietnam means nothing to them. They blame humanity instead of trying to deliver it.
Besides this the disciples almost without exception are emotionalists and not mystics. When emotionalists have unusual experiences—and they certainly do have unusual experiences—they conclude that they are among the very few so honored. They do not readily accept that others may have had similar experiences, or even greater ones. Yes, they have been transformed, but transformed into what? into loving, kind, considerate, compassionate, tender, and far-sighted personalities? Where is the evidence?
There is such a vast difference in the logic and logistics used in the scientific laboratories amid from that of the emotional claimants that the two do not belong to the same genre at all. We are not holding that one system of logistics is better than the other; we contend that they are different from each other. Scientists and mystics tend to agree with their fellows using the same constructions; emotionalists do not. And no statement of an emotionalist who has not risen above the plane where emotional states dominate can possibly fathom the States of consciousness of those who have gone deeper. They merely select without evidence or with a personal evidence only, something they dare not do in laboratory research.
Another thing that has happened is the repudiation by all of the emotionalists of the day of Jesus Christ’s saying, “Whatsoever ye do to the least of these my creatures, ye do it unto me.” So it is not surprising that emotionalists judge more than other people do and do not realize that there may be a God who is master of the Day of Judgment and who will call them to account therefore.
In God’s judgment hall everybody is given a chance. And so when one denounces others, the others are given in God’s hall a chance to reply. The denouncement of others may be self-justified, but it may also be that the “others” also have a case. And if following recent events a pre-judged person were to go so far as to summon the emotional judgers into court and they had to face sound evidence, backed by documents, it would be a sorry day for the emotional judgers who could not summon the name of Avatar into a law court.
One cannot compel kindness on the part of others. But one can object to being constantly judged and condemned without any opportunity whatsoever to reply; and if a so-called Avatar has no better place in the world than to permit such judging of others it is going to be a sorry day for them. We do not demand others accept the Sermon on the Mount, but we do insist that no one, not even an Avatar can abrogate it.
Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti
July 25, 1970
Dr. Allan Y. Cohen
2164 Ashby Avenue
Berkeley, Calif. 94705
Dear Ram:
This is the last of letters to so-called non-dualists which must include your good self, by which I mean those who present their side of the case and run away, afraid to hear any other side. This rather common but unfortunate behavior pattern can only operate up to a certain point, the point at which truth and justice enter the scene.
The whole of my life since attending a conference of the world religions has changed. It was observed that my secretary and myself, among the few unknowns, were the only persons able to have two-way communications with everybody else. The “truth and justice” of most people does not include any function of two-way listening.
I was surprised to learn that the followers of Meher Baba would not have been welcome because it would have resulted in an out and out squabble with the followers of Baha’u’llah. And as I wrote you, now with the followers of Sai Baba, etcetera. If there is or has been any avatar in this century it would have been the same manifestation of love, mercy, and human consideration. The substitution of a name form for moral perfections has been tried, is being tried, and has been found wanting.
It has been found wanting because now all over the United States there are spiritual conferences and people are being invited who have knowledge, wisdom, all kinds of Yoga methods, all kinds of sacred phrases, but not those who substitute the lordation of personality for moral standards.
Your associates here have denied my background. This is glorious. We now have a publisher who wants articles based on knowledge and fact, and not on sentiment or emotion. The present day substitution of one type of emotion for another may work no harm, but hardly raises a mortal to immortality. The Hare Krishna people have personal behavior patterns like the holy-rollers, but dress exotically, using almost every type of clothing and non-clothing and hair-dress and non-hair-dress excepting those of Krishna himself. It is easy to become drunk to the world, and no doubt less harmful to rely on hypnotic trance phrases than on psychedelic drugs.
Up to this point I have been too poor to answer those people who sought refuge in Baba as a cover-up for moral torts. You yourself have not been involved, but neither has justice and humanity been involved.
An extreme case no doubt has been in the arraignment of this Shiranjiva. When put to the test before the public on an equal basis with others he failed miserably. But at least he faced the test on meeting others on equal ground.
I believe all movements with claimants will fail as they always have when name-form is substituted for human consideration, compassion, and even decency. God bless you.
Samuel L. Lewis
Aug. 1, 1970
Allan Y. Cohen, Ph.D.
2164 Ashby Ave.
Berkeley, Ca. 94705
Beloved One of God:
This is an unintentional postscript to my last letter. There has been a rather large gathering of holy men, and those who believe they are disciples of holy men, in the state of Colorado. It must have been successful in some respect.
There were among others several different organizations proclaiming various personalities to be the God-incarnation or Avatar of the age. I have no details, but one of the rival leaders, i.e. rival to Baba, has notified me he is coming here soon to see me personally.
Personally, I am thoroughly and absolutely opposed to all those organizations, groups, cults, etc., who seems to exist to abolish or prevent the restoration of “The Sermon on the Mount.” I myself do not believe that faith in any human being, not even a supposititious divine man, can be substituted for the, to me, supreme teachings of “The Sermon on the Mount.” But unlike the various followers of the various rival personalities, with extreme claims, I am open enough to know that my will is not the divine will, and therefore I am willing to listen. In fact I reject all the different rival claims on the simple ground that I am a better listener than any of them. When I meet a claimant or devotee of a claimant who is a better listener, I shall be very happy to repent.
God Bless You.
Samuel L. Lewis
August 20, 1970
Allan Y. Cohen, Ph.D.
2164 Ashby Ave.
Berkeley, Ca. 94705
Beloved One of God:
As this letter will probably be published, it is a matter of complete indifferent whether it is answered or acknowledged or not. The writer has become extremely skeptical about the values of aphorisms. You can find beautiful phrases all the way back to early Egyptian literature—to Egyptian literature. The relation of assumedly beautiful phrases to human behavior is unknown to the writer. This includes the prominent aphorisms which appear near the entrance to the Oakland Bridge. Everybody can have aphorisms, and as a historian one is not so sure that those of Baha’u’llah and Abdul Baba may not be as efficacious as those from Meher Baba. We do know that neither of these two worthies ever went out of their way to browbeat lesser-known personalities.
A number of years ago one felt one had a message and a program of peace and went to Washington with the approval of Elizabeth Patterson and with the disapproval of Princess Matchabelli. One had no difficulty whatsoever. Everywhere the doors were open. Than later a very dogmatic letter was received from another representative of Meher Baba saying Baba was opposed to peace in Palestine. Amen. One has been unable to accept that the Living, the Eternal God, Who is Mercy and Compassion, could possibly accept such a conclusion. Besides this the mission to go to Washington first to work for peace in Palestine came from what one would consider a great mystical experience.
In this day and age the mystical experience of others is ignored by the various rival emotional cults of the day. But the supreme God, so it seems, after all wants peace among the mankind he created in His Image. After many trials the person has been elevated so to speak, morally and mystically, which most cultists will refuse to recognize; financially, which they have to recognize. This means that cultists place the material experiences above the spiritual ones, and for this reason (among others) the top religions and spiritual leaders of the world of today—who can be named—do not look very favorably upon the cultists.
In any event, and perhaps under Divine Guidance, we are succeeding in bringing the young peoples of various Jewish and Arabia backgrounds, and of the several religions which have historical investments so to speak in Palestine, to come together. It is not yet newsworthy, but it is happening.
Fortunately we are all working together for The Temple of Understanding in Washington, an institution which the late Meher Baba seems to have favored. At least we have found many things he said in pint, which contradict what several of his leaders said in letters. Inasmuch as the modern cults seem to agree in setting aside the moral codes or Jesus Christ in the name of their respective Masters, we cannot say anything more, excepting as said above, this letter will be published. There is a natural result of this that the followers of other suppositions Avatars, finding or feeling the moral behavior or mis-behavior of your colleagues, have become very sympathetic to this group in joining them to affect peace and stability in the Holy Land. In the end the question may be, Who and What is God? And did God create all mankind in His image? On this point Jews and Christians and Muslims seem to be coming closer together while the New Age emotional claimants in rivalry with each other, do not accept this.
It is unfortunate to that efforts to bring peace in the Holy Land have in the past been blocked most of all by the followers of Meher Baba who verbalize, verbalize, verbalize love, but did not seem to require it among his disciples for humanity. They could behave any way they wished to, and they have. What has been gained by this, I do not know.
Now we are finding the religions of the world costing closer together to help face the problems of the Holy Land and perhaps other problems. We find young people also determined to end war. Indeed the latest and most successful efforts toward peace and understanding have come from these young people who exemplify the cosmic evolution as pronounced by so many sages of the past century.
Personally I do not believe that mere belief in Baba or any other Avatar removes samskaras from the selfish. We are now going ahead, and with God’s help we hope to demonstrate peace and humanity.
While this is going on other disciples are promoting spiritual and cultural ex-change with real peoples of real Asia. It is remarkable how well our programs are progressing, despite the fact that such events are not very acceptable to those in charge of media of exchange, from and through the so-called right and so-called left, etc.
To us the way to uphold God is Love is to express not words, not words, not words, but actual love and generosity in our daily lives.
Faithfully, Samuel L. Lewis
23 Aug. 1970
Dear Mr. Lewis,
Thank you for your most recent letter. I just wanted to let you know that I appreciate your time and thought in sending ideas along to me. You raise many interesting points, some of which I would like to respond to. I am in the process of preparing a much longer reply, but did want to take this opportunity to assure you that I am receiving your kind letters with great interest.
Yours in the one,
Allan Cohen
410 Precita Ave.
San Francisco, Calif.
November 15, 1970
Beloved one of God:
This letter is being written to you personally but your name is omitted because carbons are being sent to others. It is hope you will read it. There is no question to the writer that the persons who are bringing out what they call “New Age” teachings have in common either a complete inability to listen to others, or a marked ability to overstress themselves and understress others. Of course there are exceptions and these exceptions are sometimes remarkable. For instance on rare but real occasions, very rare and very real, one finds a devotee of a new endeavor actually believing in the Sermon on the Mount (or Buddha’s moral instructions) and even endeavoring to practice them. This is however, a great rarely. When one meets it (or them) one is astounded and delighted. But this is very rare.
At least in earlier times it was considered a part of morality to listen to others and then refute them. Now the listening is abolished; one just refutes without trying to ascertain the points of view of others. It is so obvious they are wrong, but it has become equally obvious to the writer—who confesses his shortcomings, that Allah has become more and more inefficient, or is it God? Or Brahm?—that there are so many people with so many shortcomings, so erroneous.
The writer always believed and still does that instead of only 144,000 people being saved, the “new mathematics”—or perhaps a benign Deity—increased this number. But the “New Age” people diminish. How and why? Because they don’t listen to others; they just present their point of view and disappear. They never listen.
Logic has long gone and emotionalism dominates. The higher and more stressed the emotion the more sure some are of the supremacy of their point of view, on their religion or their guru or what not. Some older moralities such as human consideration and tolerations have gone. An extreme blinding emotion marked with paralyzed ears, and stressed proclamation is supposed to be the way out. And along with that an increasing inability to exhibit compassion and empathy for millions of peoples especially those with whom one has never associated in times of war, suffering and uncertainty.
The writer is under the view, or illusion, that spiritual awakening enabled or automatically produced an attunement and ability to experience the sufferings of others. This was the view of Lord Buddha and also in our times of the poets Edwards Carpenter and Edna St Vincent Millay. Naturally the “New Age” people do not read such poems. Neither do the “New Age” ?Buddhists? read the writings of Gautama Siddhartha. “We” have so such better methods. They only uncertainty is “Who are the WE”.
The writer and friends entered the headquarters of a presumable “avatar” and we were kept waiting fifteen minutes while the staff were having it out with each other. That is all right; devotees of “Avatars” are exempt from sinning; they can do anything, anything. Than one came out and insulted the visitors and kicked them out. This is a manifestation of “New Age Divine Love.”
It is very noticeable that if a person goes to one of these “New Age” persons and complaints of harm and illness done them the “New Age” person demands forgiveness. They do not demand repentance; they demand the stranger forgive. But when it comes to their own actions they do not either repentance or forgiveness because their “sins” or “sanskaras” are wiped out by some “super-being” sometimes called Avatar something otherwise.
It becomes very confusing. One meets disciples of “Avatar.” It is not the same person. The same arguments, no doubt, but not the same person. And often the same behaviorisms, stressed emotions, verbalized as “Love” but a marked absence of empathy and human consideration. And the abolitions of the teaching that when there is repentance, there should be forgiveness. They demand others forgive; they abolish repentance.
And it is this point the Western religions will prevail. For they demand repentance and the Eastern faiths say you can wash in a stream of get-to a super-being and ceremony and “all” is forgiven! And this is called “New Age” religion. The only thing they do not seem to recognize is that Karma may involve principles, as to Newton’s laws.
We have always had some strange views.
The writer once believed he was divinely inspired with a peaceful solution for what has been called the Holy Land. He went to Washington and had no difficulty whatsoever with politicians and diplomats; it was very surprising. Than he was told in no disputable terms that Avatar was opposed to it; that Avatar wanted war or confusion in the Holy Land, and the persons close to Avatar were quite successful in blocking both the person and the plans. Amen.
It was very hard accepting Avatar, for one lieutenant, although demanding forgiveness on other matters, felt that the communists should never be forgiven for anything. That was Avatar’s view, she said. And another woman, who was also presumably the leading representative of Avatar, insisted that the prevailing social order in the United States was utterly wrong in everything. What was the poor devotee to do? Both the representatives of avatar insisted that the devotee forgive any sort of insult to him, but neither would forgive him for not joining them absolutely and unconditionally in their economic and political views. And they were successful in pushing him out of the pictures. Only one died, which was a sort of easement. Avatar himself never forgave this person for having disputed with his chosen lieutenants!
Up till recently nothing could be done about it. One had no recourse and Avatar does not seem to be concerned with the pleasurable wrong done to devotees because the wrong person is not an adept in forgiveness!
So the world goes on and a lot of people feel it more comfortable not to have an Avatar. Or, in the seeming confusion of the day, with so many claimants to being Avatar, a mere believer in God, so to speak, seem to have no place in the “New Age” or it just may be that some proclaimers of Avatar—and there are many proclaimers—may actually be mistaken.
The situation has become very confusing—or very clear. The hard fact that the various lieutenants of Avatar agreed only on downgrading the writer, and on nothing else. That was fine when one believed in an Avatar. But now one finds oneself accepted, listened to, even appreciated, by persons who still return in some directions some elements of traditional religious. When one goes forth and offers a peace program he is listened to; he is not insulted. He is downgraded; he is not berated. Even friendships are established.
One still believes that for whatever one sows one reaps. One still believes there is a moral order behind the universe. One still believes that Palestine is, or should be, or may become either the holy land, or a holy land. The time is long past when personalities, claiming to be devotes of some Avatar can publicly or privately hurl insults, and they were insults, and believe the universe will forgive them. The writer is still undeveloped in his conclusions that people who demand others to forgive should be the most forgiving. The writer is still under the delusion that highly spiritual persons should be first and foremost not only in forgiveness, but in radiating love, energy, magnetism, and joy, and should never demand these of others, never. The writer is under the belief or illusion that a highly spiritual person should exhibit kindness, consideration, for observance, and other virtues, and then expect his own disciples to exhibit these, and never demand them of others. This will become part of history. This is going to be published.
Before Jesus Christ came John the Baptist saying “Repent ye, the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” The writer is not convinced that there can be a Kingdom of Heaven without repentance. But unlike the “New Age” super-devotees he still has an open ear and perhaps an open heart.
In your own case, there are enough signs of virtue that perhaps the living God, whether you accept him or not, will understood your virtues and lead you into him glorious kingdom, by your becoming a disciple and devotee on the spiritual paths which have existed at all times and are not being abolished by proclaimers of a “New Age” in which there is nothing especially new excepts in the grand recognition of time and space.
God Bless you,
Samuel L Lewis