THE HIGHEST BECAME A SWEEPER

 
When God takes human form on earth as the Avatar, he acts as the Highest of the High among people. But he, the Highest of the High, finds that the world is almost unsuitable to live in. It is full of dirt and filth. People are so afflicted with this unnaturalness that they unnaturally become accustomed to the filth surrounding them; they do nothing to rid themselves or the world of all this filth.

Humanity is found in an unnatural condition, and the Avatar does not want humanity to remain dirty and the world full of filth. Humanity has become unnatural since it has become one with dirt and filth, and thus it is difficult for the Avatar to clean the human mind and cleanse the world.

The world is full of dirt, and every human mind is like a room in the world, and so every room is full of dirt. The dirt has settled to become a part of the room, and so each person is unconscious of his own dirt. However, if the room is swept with a broom and particles of the dirt rise to form a cloud of dust, one becomes immediately conscious of the dirt that was in the room, and feels suffocated by it.

When the Avatar came, he found that people had become unconsciously one with their own filth. He set out to clean each mind by sweeping the dirt of each room. Particles of the dirt rise in the air as dust, the dark cloud over the world, and people feel as if they are suffocating. Humanity thus becomes intensely conscious of its own filth, and all the dirt in the world.

This suffocation is the present chaos in the world, and the present confusion in the minds of men everywhere. But this suffocation, the chaos and confusion is the result of his work to clean the world. This dirt, now stirred up, starts action and reactions in the world, and they are humanity's reaction to the suffocating cloud.

When one sweeps a room most of the dirt is thrown out, and only that portion which rises in the air remains. Though the room is comparatively clean, one still finds it difficult to breathe until those particles of dirt settle. The Avatar has swept the dirt out of the world, but those particles of dust, which are in the air, have started actions and reactions in each individual, because particles of everyone's dirt have formed a black cloud that everyone feels suffocated by.

When these particles of dirt have settled and the black cloud gradually disappears, it is the result of the Avatar's having cleaned each individual mind — with the very actions and reactions within everyone's individual mind. Humanity will experience peace, and will ask, "Who cleaned the filth out of the world?" The Avatar will reply, "I have cleansed the world by becoming a sweeper. I have cleaned every room."

This cleansing of the human mind of its unnaturalness will be a phase of Meher Baba's worldwide manifestation.