Friday, March 6, 2026
Wednesday, February 18, 2026
THE NEW WORLD CULTURE OF THE FUTURE
BY MRS. INDUMATI DESHMUKH, M. A., B. T.
The whole world has been going
through a crisis. It is faced with innumerable problems. Racial hatred and
narrow nationalism, religious fanaticism and blind aggressiveness, worship
of gold and economic exploitation—
these have been poisoning and perverting the cultural life of humanity for
generations together: and the world'
s
most imperative and pressing need is
more light. In order to meet these forces
that tend to create chaos, there have
naturally come into existence many
spiritual movements which aim at
creating order out of this confusion.
Our age is, therefore, also an age of
spiritual awakening. But as there is a
keen rivalry between many spiritual
and religious forces, our minds are
tossed in the currents and counter-
currents of thought. In this critical
period of humanity there is in our midst
one Person whose teaching is destined
to restore steadiness to our minds by inculcating the right outlook and establish
unity amongst the people of the world
inspite of the differences of sex, nation,
creed, religion or culture. He is Shri
Meher Baba. He loves all; and His
comprehensive philosophy is bound to
influence the biggest sphere of human-
ity.
The modern world-culture has to
face the most important problems of
synthesising the material and the
spiritual aspects of life. Very few per-
sons can avoid going to one extreme or
the other. There are those who worship
gold and are utterly indifferent to spiritual values. And there are others who
try to seek spirituality by running away
from life and avoiding its responsibilities. Shri Meher Baba'
s teaching on
this point helps us to have a balance
between these two extremes. According
to Him, everyday life and true spirituality cannot be separated from each
other. If the world-culture is to be
sound, it must find a way of uniting the two.
Progress of humanity from the material point of view is not in any way
unimportant. If a man is required to
waste all his life only in the struggle for
maintenance, he can have no time for
higher things. Shri Meher Baba advises
His disciples to discharge their worldly
responsibilities completely. If He finds
any disciple neglecting, his duties He
admonishes him. He teaches that those
who can behave properly in everyday
life will certainly gain the higher life.
And those who cannot attend well even
to the ordinary things of life can never
achieve anything of spirituality.
But at the same time, material achievements cannot be looked upon as
ends in themselves. If they are not
completely subordinated to spiritual
values, they are likely to be used for
destructive purposes. Even today many
scientific inventions are used in wars
for killing each other. The kingdom of
eternal harmony and joy can come only
through the spiritualisation of life. The
way to achieve it is not bloodshed but
kindness, not war but friendship, not
enmity but love.
People have forgotten the true and
the lasting values with the result that
accumulation of wealth for selfish pur-
poses has been the guiding philosophy
of individuals and nations. This type of
outlook has created in our social structure pernicious class distinctions. There
is a wide gulf between the rich and the
poor. The rich are in possession of
abundance of wealth, whereas the poor
are half-naked and starving; and there is
exploitation of the poor and the weak
for selfish ends. Our political tangle
expressing itself through international
rivalry and conflict is also due to
collective greed for money and power.
Shri Meher Baba, therefore, uncompromisingly denounces all forms of
greed which is the root cause of all our
troubles. But He does not advise the
people of the world to give up their
worldly pursuits. He only asks them to
remain unattached in the midst of
worldly pursuits and to spiritualise
them by subordinating material acquisition to spiritual considerations.
The frame-work of the economic and
political structure of society must facilitate sound cultural life; and the application
of Shri Meher Baba'
s teaching concerning brotherhood and love requires
thorough reconstruction in these fields.
Not only will the basis of the new
world-culture of the future be thus
entirely transformed, but our very
ideas of true culture will change
radically in the light of His teaching.
Culture does not consist in possessions
or power or academic qualifications. It
is a certain attitude to life—the attitude
of love and reason. Shri Meher Baba
emphasises both of these aspects of
Divinity equally; and He is Himself an
inspiring example of a perfect development of love and reason. He is an
embodiment of true culture.
The sign of culture is a balanced
mind, not the static balance of a lifeless
thing, but the dynamic equilibrium of
mind which manifests itself through the
creative response of love and reason to
all the incidents of life. The spiritual
man does not shun life if sorrows befall
him; nor does he wish to add more
years to his life if years shower upon
him. He is not moved by the opposites
of joys and sorrows, pains and pleasures, hut transcends both and enjoys
eternal bliss in conscious union with
the Divinity within. Some persons have
a wrong notion that Supermen or spi-
ritually cultured persons go away from
the world and that they lead a life of
inaction, taking no interest in life. But
in truth the Super-man is more active
than ordinary persons. The common
man is engaged in activities concerning
his own self; but the Super-man has to
consider the good of the world and has,
therefore, a much wider sphere for his
activities. He takes great interest in life
and lives a full life of creative action.
He does not trifle with anything, but he
does everything with all his being.
For the transformation of our cultural
life we naturally look to religion. But
unfortunately religion has been often
misunderstood, with the result that it
has deteriorated into sectarianism. Sectarianism makes men fanatically aggressive instead of broadening their minds.
Instead of promoting the Truth, it leads
to the spreading of dogmas. Instead of
reconciling the differences among men,
it accentuates them. Instead of increasing the
happiness of man, it makes him
unhappy and narrow. Thus chaos and
the misery in this world are due to the
misinterpretation of the true meaning of
religion.
Shri Meher Baba preaches freedom
of spiritual culture. The freedom of the
individual in matters concerning
spiritual life should not in any way be
curtailed by convention or dogma.
There are as many diverse paths as
there are temperaments. All persons
need not accept. the same path to
Divinity. The basic belief of sectarianism is that there is only one path to
realization and that it is binding on
everyone. But this philosophy leads
only to external conversions and compulsions. Shri Meher Baba expects
from us not only tolerance of all religions, but the active attitude of appreciation for the truths which they
reveal. He brings to the forefront the
vital truths of all religions and shows
them as being identical. In his ex-
positions of the Truth we find him
using the terminology of the Sufis, of
Vedanta, or of the Christian mystics
without any sectarian bias. The spirit of
tolerance is a very healthy preservative
of the uniqueness of individuality. It.
secures in the cultural life of the world
a rich variety instead of dull uniformity.
Everyone has his own path to Divinity,
and yet the goal of all is the same.
Freedom of spiritual culture, therefore,
leads to unity, a harmony in differences.
The history of humanity has been a
history of blunders. But humanity has
been redeemed again and again by the
Masters of Wisdom and Love. Shri
Meher Baba brings to the world a new
dispensation of the spiritual Truth. He
has come to promote the life of the
spirit which alone can contribute to-
wards happiness and harmony. If a
person has learnt the art of spiritual life,
he is bound to express creative culture
in all the different spheres of human
activities, and thus transform entire life
by the release of love. Not only by his
teaching but also by the inspiration of
his supreme example, Shri Meher Baba
helps humanity in its onward march
towards Divinity. He sees God in every
person and teaches us the fundamental
truth of the unity of all life. The Light which he
brings will lead us towards that Abode
of Eternity which is God and which is
the fountain-source of life, creating
harmony out of chaos and giving
meaning to all the mundane activities
of man.
Meher Baba Journal, Volume 1, No. 4 February 1939
Saturday, February 14, 2026
La Vergine Degli Angeli - Amira Willighagen - 2020
La Vergine Degli Angeli is an aria from the 1862 Italian opera La forza del destino by Giuseppe Verdi. It is sung here by 16 year old Dutch-South-African soprano Amira Willighagen as part of her 2020 streaming concert "African Christmas with Amira and Friends." The full concert is available both on CD and DVD as "Streaming Shows of 2020" exclusively at Amira's website https://www.gelukskinders.org/en/store/. The concert was recorded in Pretoria, South Africa in late November 2020 and premiered December 23, 2020. Amira is accompanied by a men's choir compiled for the occasion by Christo Burger and a string orchestra. Piano and musical arrangement by Professor Charl du Plessis.
"Ave Amira" Documentary – 2016
Amira Willighagen was catapulted to stardom at age 9 after auditioning for Holland's Got Talent in 2013. In this Dutch documentary made when she was 12, Amira reflects on her unexpected meteoric rise. In 2023, I had the privilege of meeting Amira at a fan event in Madison, GA (U.S.A.) and took these photos.
Stranger Than Paradise – I Put a Spell on You – 1984
Stranger Than Paradise opening scene, 1984. The song is I Put a Spell on You by Screamin' Jay Hawkins. Below, Norwegian singer Angelia Jordan records her own cover of the same song at 9 years old, in 2015.
Friday, February 13, 2026
'The State of Things,' 1977 – Wim Wenders
After being temporarily kicked out of Zoetrope Studios while making the film Hammett, German director Wim Wenders filmed The State of Things, a self-reflexive film written extemporaneously while filming, in which Wenders reflects on the state of things in cinema. In this scene the fictitious producer Gordon waxes on to the director Friedrich about the reaction of some loan sharks he borrowed from to complete Friedrich's most recent black and white film. The scene was shot in a moving van while driving up and down Hollywood Blvd and ends with Friedrich and Gordon both being killed by the mob. The State of Things was filmed in Portugal and Hollywood, California.
The song What did you do out in Hollywood? was written by actor Allen Garfield, who played Gordon, especially for the scene.
End Credits for 'Nema Aviona Za Zagreb' (2012)
Filmed noncontinuously from 1964 - 2012, the self-reflexive film Nema Aviona Za Zagred ends with the filmmaker Louis Van Gasteren reflecting back on his life at the age of 90. Van Gasteren died two years after completing the film at the age of 92. See the full film here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7BhnI81P8w
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| Louis Van Gasteren in 1964 |
Six of my favorite Westerns
- Westward the Women (1951)
- High Noon (1952)
- Rio Bravo (1959)
- Man in the Wilderness (1971)
- Westworld (1973)
- Tombstone (1993)
In Westward the Women (1951), women hold a wagon upright to keep it from capsizing as a baby is born inside. The women strain as they wait to hear the baby's cry. Based on a story by Frank Capra.
In Man in the Wilderness (1971), a man left to die after being mauled by a bear reconciles with God and men as he survives and returns homeward to raise his son. Based on a true story.
Monday, February 9, 2026
Thursday, February 5, 2026
Tuesday, February 3, 2026
Nine year old Amira Willighagen sings "Nella Fantasia"
From her first CD, Amira, 2013. Sony Masterworks.
In the Sony recoding studio in Salisbury, England, February 15, 2014. Her mother wrapping her in a coat to keep her warm while she records.
Amira Willighagen was by far the greatest classical singing prodigy since recording was invented. She is now 21 and still studying music at the University of Prague in South Africa, where she emigrated in 2018.
Monday, February 2, 2026
Achatnis Dichongta sings an Amira Willighagen cover, 2026
Achatnis Dichongta is a fourth-year student at the Margaret Shishak School of Music, Patkai Christian College in India. At the inaugural programme of the 4th Patkai Badminton Open Tournament, she performed “With All My Heart,” an Amira Willighagen cover from her 2018 album by the same name. It is reported that her perfomance captivated the audience. Yet there is almost no publicity about Dichongta that I can find. So I am creating this post partly in hopes of search engines capturing the information. The language is Liangmai.
The Liangmai people are a Tibeto-Burmese ethnic group and one of the Naga tribes primarily inhabiting the Tamenglong, Senapati, and Kangpokpi districts of Manipur, and the Peren district of Nagaland in Northeast India. They share a similar culture and language (Lianglad/Liangmai) with the Zeme and Rongmei tribes. The tribe, numbering around 50,000 to 80,000, has a rich, traditionally oral culture and is largely Christian.
Sunday, February 1, 2026
My favorite Reaction Video to Red Dead Redemption 2
Prymbra (often referred to as Jenni) is a German content creator, YouTuber, and Steam partner known for her gaming and "Let's Play" videos. She creates immersive content and often shares her emotional, often highly invested, experiences with video game characters. She has over 30K subscribers on YouTube and is active on Instagram. She describes herself as getting easily attached to game characters and often refers to her community as her "blazers".
Friday, January 30, 2026
Tuesday, January 27, 2026
Amira Willighagen
Amira Willighagen appeared as a guest performer at the annual MAX Proms concert held in Utrecht, Netherlands on December 2, 2017. The program was later broadcast on Max TV on Christmas day. Amira was 13 years old. It was her last European performance before moving to South Africa. "Your Love" is the theme song from the 1968 spaghetti western "Once Upon a Time in the West," composed by Italian composer Ennio Morricone.
Sunday, January 25, 2026
Saturday, January 24, 2026
Friday, January 23, 2026
Twenty Years, Three Books, One Theme (2004 – 2024) The Evolution of Perception
I have written three books, 100 essays, and recorded over 100 videos describing my concept of an evolution of perception. Many subjects interest me that I would love to discuss. However, I don't because I don't want to distract from this one original idea, that I remain confident will be important to people one day. In short, I spent two decades writing about and communicating in any way I could think of this one theme, an evolution of perception.
The Evolution of Perception & The Cosmology of Substance: A Simpler Theory of Everything – June 24, 2004
Evolution of Perception Re-Explained: A radical new view of reality – February 25, 2021
Further Reflections: A discussion of the concept of the evolution of perception with a deep dive into the subject of causation – November 21, 2024
And two anthologies.
Two Philosophical Works: A Republication of The Evolution of Perception and Evolution of Perception Re-Explained, with a new introduction – April 13, 2024
EOP TRILOGY: The three original books on the evolution of perception concept – January 26, 2025
See my web hub at https://sites.google.com/view/chris-ott-hub/home.
Thursday, January 8, 2026
"Unshaken" – Music from Red Dead Redemption 2 performed live at The Game Awards 2018
Featuring Daniel Lanois and Rhiannon Giddens.
In this cover of Unshaken below you can hear the words better.
Lyrics (Song by D'Angelo)
May I stand unshaken
Amid, amidst a crashing world
Did I hear a thunder?
Did I hear you break?
I can't quite remember
Just what guided me this way, oh
May I stand unshaken
Amid, amidst a crashing world
The pines, they often whisper
They whisper what no tongue can tell
He who drinks from the deep water
May he know the depths of the well
Well
May I stand unshaken
Amid, amidst a crashing world
May I stand unshaken
Amid, amidst a crashing world
Mmm, oh, traveler
What have you seen?
Were there crossroads
Where you been, where you been?
I once was standing tall
Now I feel my back's against the wall
May I stand unshaken
Amid, amidst a crashing world
May I stand unshaken
Amid, amidst a crashing world
The morning light
When it comes to me
It was there but I could not see
Am I to wander
As a wayward son?
Will the hunter be hunted
By the smoking gun?
May I stand unshaken
Amid, amidst a crashing world
May I stand unshaken
Amid, amidst a crashing world
May I stand unshaken
Amid, amidst a crashing world
Wednesday, January 7, 2026
Darwin vs. Meher Baba on Evolution
I recently asked ChatGPT to explain the difference between Meher Baba's teaching about evolution and Darwin's theory of natural selection. I was surprised that it got it quite wrong. The way AI programs work is they scour the internet for what is written on a topic and regurgitate it, often with very good grammar. But if other people have misunderstood or misrepresented something, it will robotically mirror those falsehoods as true. It has no way to study something and discern.
For this reason I want to re-clarify the difference between Baba and Darwin on evolution. Meher Baba does not agree with Darwin about the control mechanism of evolution. He does not say it is random mutation and natural selection. Baba agrees that evolution has occurred, but says it has an entirely different cause.
Baba is not talking about "another level" of cause. He disagrees with Darwin. Baba and Darwin cannot be right at the same time, a common misconception about what Baba taught. They are mutually exclusive. Either Darwin was right about the cause of the origin of species or Baba was.
While Baba's teaching on the force behind evolutionary change does not agree with Darwin's, he does not teach Intelligent Design. In Baba's teaching, an intelligence could not have designed evolution, because it is the kind of intelligence required to do such things that is part of what evolved. In Baba, while there was originally Infinite Intelligence in a cosmic sense, it was not the kind of intelligence that can think, though that capacity was a latent potential in it. The ability to think and consciously realize thoughts was what the evolutionary process largely took place to bring about. So Baba definitely did not teach Intelligence Design.
However, Baba also did not teach the Darwinian principle that evolution is random, purposeless, aimless, and accidental, or that it continues once human form is reached. Baba teaches that evolution occurred to bring about the human form to bring about the capacity for God-realization.
Darwin concluded that evolution lacks any directionality or purpose. It occurred through random accidents. Darwin did not appear to notice that over the course of evolution, consciousness is always increasing and never regressing. Baba points out what anyone can see if they take notice, that consciousness increases over evolution, and he says this is the real underlying drive behind evolution. Evolving consciousness must constantly forge more and more complex media for its expression. And this is the subconscious underlying driver of evolution.
ChatGPT also said another falsity. It said what is commonly taught, that random mutation and natural selection as drivers of evolutionary change is scientifically observed and proven. This misconception about science is a relic of what has come to be called 'scientism.' In the field of philosophy of science, which played a major role in philosophy in the 20th century, it has been realized that science is theory laden (See Norwood Hanson's Patterns of Discovery). This means scientific procedures and its emphasis of specific facts and not others are often directed by its theories, rather than the other way around. It has also been realized that science works within changing explanatory paradigms when seeking and interpreting data (See Thomas Kuhn's Scientific Revolutions). In other words, science, including scientific observation and interpretation, is far less objective than most people realize.
I have frequently brought up an example to show this. The most common example given of observed evolution in schools is the example of the 19th century peppered moths that changed from mostly white to mostly black over time due to the trees in a certain forest becoming darker due to soot from London smokestacks, allow birds to better see and pick off the white ones.
This is supposed to be an example of natural selection observed. In Baba, evolution refers to new species evolving, not the color of a species being selected through culling. The color didn't change. Rather the white moths were simply culled from the gene pool. To conflate this with evolution is lazy thinking. This is not an example of the origin of a new species. For Baba's teaching on evolution see his main book God Speaks: The Theme of Creation and Its Purpose.
I am surprised that ChatGPT got this wrong, because the difference between Baba and Darwin is prominently stated in the Introduction to the Second Edition of God Speaks.
The very force of evolution of form becomes, not a random selection of the fittest, but a result of the necessity of the residues of experience to express themselves through increasingly more complex instruments. The evolution and perfecting of consciousness is itself described as the entire purpose of Creation. (God Speaks, 1973 2nd edition, p. xxxi)
I wish to add and emphasize what some do not understand about Baba's teaching on evolution. Baba is not talking about a second 'spiritual' evolution occurring concurrently with biological evolution. Baba is speaking of the only evolution that is, which includes biological. He is not describing 'another level' of Darwin's. For Baba, Darwin't theory of natural selection is simply wrong.
And, in regard to the evolutionary process, it is well to remember always that the beginning is a beginning in consciousness, the evolution is an evolution in consciousness, the end, if there be an end, is an end in consciousness. (Ditto)
You don't have to believe Baba on this, but it behooves one to know what he taught, and not pretend he gave a teaching consistent with a more popular and common narrative. And incidentally, for the many who likely don't know this, Darwin's theory, along with our current theory of reductive materialism, is no longer universally accepted by intellectuals. Philosopher Thomas Nagel, professor emeritus at New York University, expresses his skepticism boldly in his 2012 book: Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False. Other professors, such as professor of mind David Chalmers, have come close to suggesting ideas quite close to the evolution of perception concept I have talked about.
Monday, January 5, 2026
We don't have karma; we are our karma
If we follow Meher Baba, ordinarily we think of ourselves as a person first, who has acquired specific karma in previous lives that we must play out. But really, if we think about it, we don't just have karma, but are our karma.
Let me give an analogy to clarify what I mean. We’ll use the analogy of a first person computer game.
Consider the popular computer game Red Dead Redemption 2. The game takes about 70 hours to complete its main missions and most people become extremely immersed in its story. In such a game a player not only becomes immersed in the story but even identifies with the character they are playing. If you watch reaction videos of the game you will see players refer to the main character Arthur in first person. Of course we all know that Arthur is really just the visual representation of scripted computer code.
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| Arthur Morgan in Red Dead Redemption 2 |
Arthur is not a character who simply has a code added to him that determines his physique and actions. He is none-other than that code. Arthur is that code.
This gives us a good analogy by which to explain our relationship with our karma, as well as the sanskaras we have gathered that determines that karma.
Let me give an example of how events in the game are predetermined by the script embedded in its code. A main turn in the story is when Arthur visits a man named Thomas Downes and contracts Tuberculosis from him. People have asked if they can avoid this occurring. This is what ChatGPT had to say:
You can't put off visiting Thomas Downes indefinitely in Red Dead Redemption 2; the game forces the mission after a certain amount of time, usually when you try to rest or trigger another event, making it mandatory to progress and ultimately leading to Arthur contracting tuberculosis. Trying to avoid it too long results in Strauss intervening, locking you into the mission, and skipping it leads directly to the inevitable cough.
Now of course, the player playing the game is not controlled by such code. The player, like the soul of a man, is not really in the illusion of the game. He or she are simply observing it and identifying with Arthur.
Using this as an analogy, we can compare the scripted story to Arthur's karma. And the code in which that story is embedded can be compared to Arthur's sanskaras or impressions.
So the analogy goes like this:
- The player is the soul, the conscious witness. He or she is not in the game, but immersed in it, and identifies his or her self as Arthur and feels the full emotional impact of the story.
- The story is Arthur's karma.
- The code that determines the events in the story can be compared to sanskaras.
Playable characters like Arthur don't have code. They are code. They don't exist and then someone adds code to them. They are that code. A person is his karma.
Everything about our lives, including the shape and look of our body and even the moment we will die is determined by our karma. Our body does not have consciousness. You who identify with your body and its actions have consciousness. And you are really a transcendent soul.
Clearly, Meher Baba says that we are not really our bodies or our actions, but are really the Oversoul, the witness. But those qualities we take ourselves to be before God-Realization, along with our life and all that occurs in it, is simply code. Sanskaric code.
So, though one’s real self is God, all that one currently takes himself to be, i.e. his body, his thoughts, the story of his life, are an illusion determined by his sanskaras.
A cinema operator who is cranking the projector with his own hand and is at the same time deeply absorbed in watching the images on the screen. He becomes so deeply absorbed that he forgets that it is his own hand which is cranking the machine, out of which is being projected all of this which he sees on the screen. He laughs and weeps according to the scenes presented on the screen. In the process he forgets the unreality and non existing state of the scenes on the screen. (Meher Baba, Intelligence Notebooks, Second Notebook, p. 32)
Thursday, January 1, 2026
Sunday, December 28, 2025
The Future of the Baba World
First of all, the United States Baba world, as it is currently put together, has no future at all. Throughout history, numerous minor religions and cults have vanished due to cultural shifts or outright self-destruction. Examples from the ancient past include Neoplatonism, Manichaeism, Donatism and the Adamites. More modern examples include the Peoples Temple, Branch Davidians, Aum Shinrikyo, and Heaven's Gate. An example of a dying religion is the Shakers, who have dwindled from thousands in the 1800s to only two remaining members as of recent records.
The Baba followers will not commit suicide, nor will they be exterminated or banned by any authorities. The reason for their disappearance will be loss of interest. The Baba followers are 70-90 years old. Their children drifted away long ago and there are no new converts.
Why the loss of interest?
The current surviving followers of Baba came from the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s. They were adverse to authority, certainty, any fixed orthodox interpretations of Baba's writings, and anything they perceive as organized. This is a recipe for extinction as no one agrees on anything except that the community never organize into a religion. There is no positive conception of what they are. They also happened to be hostile to young people and fresh ideas due to a kind of generational narcissism common to their generation. They were also adverse to relinquishing positions. So instead of retiring, they just lost their vitality. Essentially they were afraid of the future and wishing things to remain stagnant. They became a very uninteresting gerontocracy with no clear ideas.
So, why is this paper titled The Future of the Baba World? For while I think the Baba community in its current state is doomed to die out, I see Baba himself leaving behind a legacy that will endure. It simply needs to be rediscovered by a generation in the future. When they do die off this will liberate enormous potential to be put together in numerous vigorous and interesting ways.
Why would anyone bother? What would be the allure? Why would it spread? And what would the consequences of such a vibrant movement, based on Baba's actual teachings, be? A lot of good questions. I'm going to try to answer each one.
Thursday, December 25, 2025
Looking for Dumb Ideas to Improve
It sounds terrible, but philosophy would not exist if there weren't people who need straightening out. A philosopher doesn't think in a vacuum, but most of his deeper thoughts are inspired from hearing other people say the most absurd things, and his desire to help them with those thoughts. There is no better example of this than Socrates, who walked with his followers in the streets of Athens helping people with their thinking -- and in doing so leaving the first great written legacy of wisdom on nearly every subject. Philosophy can actually be described as hearing thinking and seeking to improve upon it. So a philosopher should never condemn ignorance, but be grateful for it. As it is his life's blood.
This of course will never thrill the people around a philosopher. Socrates was, after all, sentenced to death for his efforts. And rather than discouraging future thinkers his sacrifice only inspired more to want to be like him. Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake. Galileo spent the last years of his life under house arrest.
Most people don't like to hear they might be wrong, though real contemplatives enjoy learning they are wrong, for it opens up new vistas.
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| Socrates condemned to drink hemlock for his words |
The First Avatar to Emphasize the West
Meher Baba is the first avatar to focus on the West.
Baba was born in British India in 1894. London was the new Rome. Baba's Discourses were worked up from his notes by Dr. Deshmukh, a philosopher with his Ph.D. from the University of London. In 1944 at Breton Woods the capital of the Anglo-American Empire turned to the USA. God Speaks was published in the U.S.
While Baba toured the world during his lifetime, he spent the most continuous time in the U.K., the U.S.A. and Australia. All of these are considered Western nations, and all speak English.
All of Baba's books were originally published in English.
In his lifetime most of Baba's followers were in India and the English speaking West.
At the time of Mohammad the seats of world power were the Eastern Roman Empire and the Persian Empire. England at that time was just a collection of competing Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, not a major power. The Americas and Australia had not even been discovered yet.
So it makes sense that Baba was the first Avatar to stress the West.
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| Meher Baba in London's Chinatown, April 1932 |
"And did those feet in ancient time / Walk upon England’s mountains green: / And was the holy Lamb of God, / On England’s pleasant pastures seen?" – William Blake
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Achatnis Dichongta is a fourth-year student at the Margaret Shishak School of Music, Patkai Christian College in India. At the inaugura...
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Meher Baba is the first avatar to focus on the West. Baba was born in British India in 1894. London was the new Rome. Baba's Discourses...
