EXCERPT FROM MEHER BABA AND HIS MAD-MASTS
Dr. C. D. Deshmukh
Those who would grasp the real significance of Meher Baba's work in
connection with the Mad-Masts must always keep in mind that most of
the Mad-Masts whom He has been attending to are of an extraordinary
type. The Mad-Masts must not be confused with ordinary mad persons in
whom there has been insufficient development of mentality.
There are many mental hospitals all over the world which seek to give
psychic and medical help to the feebleminded and to the mentally ill; and
this in itself constitutes one of the most noble activities which in
modern civilization has sprung out of philanthropic motives. But the work
of Meher Baba in connection with his Mad-Masts is fundamentally different
from this philanthropic work.
Meher Baba has Himself pointed out....
"... The Mad-Masts often exhibit incapacity to attend to and deal with the
ordinary situations of life and are in this respect comparable to those
who are deranged in mind; but the departure from normal behaviour and
responses is not due to lack of sufficient development or any chaotic
forces of disruption, but is due to the suspension of interest from the
ordinary pursuits of life and absorption in the spiritual realities
encountered on the path towards God-realization.
"From the purely theoretical point of view, even these cases could be
shown as cases of mental conflicts; but ordinary mental derangement is due
to acute and insoluble conflict between incompatible sanskaras in
connection with the world; whereas the unusual psychic states of the
Mad-Masts are due to the dispersion of sanskaras by the powerful urge to
realize God-states.
"The advancing urge to realize the highest brings about the shattering of
the given mental structure with all its normal tendencies and
corresponding capacities; and this condition of inhibited mind is called
Unmani state. The successful termination of this urge initiates the
aspirant into the supra-mental state of integral understanding and direct
realization of the supreme self."
TREASURES FROM THE MEHER BABA JOURNALS (1938-1942), pp. 136-138, ed Jane Barry Haynes
1980 © Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust
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