Baba’s religion, folk religion, and tariqa

I wish to sketch out roughly the relationship between mystical scholarship, religion, and folk religion in the future of the Baba World.

1. Baba Tariqa
2. Baba Folk Religion
3. No Organized Baba religion

Baba’s manifestation among the masses will be slower than after Buddha, Jesus, or Mohammad. This is the meaning behind his saying he came to bring about the “slowest of all revolutions.” 

It really only officially gets kick-started in 2039 (in 14 years) when he predicted philosophers will come to pay homage at his tomb, as if some great mystery had been solved. 

What me and Christina and Stelios are doing now is the start of that revolution. Especially me, because I write. I have as much education as Joseph Campbell, an MA degree in my subject. Joseph Campbell earned his Master of Arts degree in medieval literature, specializing in Arthurian studies. So he was basically self-taught and invented his own field of mythological studies.

My MA was in philosophy, specializing in idealism, and my main reading was of Meher Baba.

In a mystical school, there are three things:

1. Official source texts (Baba’s books he himself copyrighted and signed, plus I.I. Folk religion is based on oral transmission and gets fused with other beliefs)
2. A teacher student lineage (That has to start somewhere so it starts with me and Brabazon. Clearly Ward Parks is not in this line as he published mock-Baba-books, not his own. And he is a precritical thinker with no training in idealism or even philosophy. He is a person who thinks he knows more than he does. He’s a real intellectual, but one who doesn’t know there are fields he doesn’t know. He did not leave a body of his own work.)
3. The focus is on spiritual transformation or the passing of esoteric knowledge (The focus of folk religion is on healing, protection, and blessing.)

So my written works and recorded talks are the very start of the new lineage.

But it is different than in the past. In the time of Shankara and Arabi there were already the established religions of Hinduism and Islam. They were already old.

So it is easy to spell out the relation between religion and mystical schools then.

Sufi mystical paths (tariqas) existed and were coalescing into formal orders before the time of Ibn Arabi. While Ibn Arabi revolutionized Islamic metaphysics with his teachings on Wahdat al-Wujud (Unity of Being), the organizational framework of the tariqa was already being established.

So this is like our time. 

“Orthodox Islam” came first.

Organized Sufi schools developed centuries after the beginnings of Islam.

Here’s the rough timeline:

• Islam begins in the 7th century CE with Muhammad in Arabia.
• Early Muslim communities focused on the Qur’an, worship, law, and theology.
• What people later called “orthodox” Islam — especially Sunni traditions based on Qur’an, Hadith, and early scholars — formed during the first few centuries.
• Sufism emerged gradually as a mystical/spiritual movement within Islam.
• Formal Sufi orders (tariqas) such as the Qadiriyya, Naqshbandiyya, and Shadhiliyya mostly appeared between the 11th and 13th centuries.

So historically:

1. Islam itself came first.
2. Orthodox Sunni and Shia traditions developed early.
3. Organized tariqa schools developed later as spiritual traditions inside Islam.

That said, many Sufis argue that the spiritual teachings behind the tariqas go back to the Prophet Muhammad himself, even if the formal institutions and lineages were organized later.

Thus it is not a question of which comes first, the mystical part develops within the formal religion. It is not a set of separate sects of a religion. 

I’m sure the same is true of Hinduism and Advaita. These schools arise within the broader recognized religion. This is the same as me calling myself a Baba lover in my writing.

However, there is a big difference. Baba followers hate religion. So a formal orthodoxy can’t really form, with set customs or beliefs or even a canon of texts. The effect of this is that what I call “the Baba world” for lack of a better name, begins as a set of folk beliefs. 

This is why it was so confusing talking to Ben after writing about my vision for the future of the Meher Center. His mind is full of beliefs that have no solid source (such as Baba’s words or rational arguments), but are beliefs that are simply appropriated from the local religious culture, by word of mouth, and that fulfill certain basic psychological needs among the adherents.

So that is neither a religion nor a tariqa line. It is folk religion. It is deeply felt folk belief. This explains why he could neither quote Baba nor explicate a logical argument for anything he said. 

It had something to do with believing the Center had “good bones.” This is clearly an expression he heard somewhere. It implies a kind of metaphysical substantiveness. This is totally contrary to Baba’s teaching. Metaphysical bones are not in any serious tradition except materialism, and even there the idea is blurry. Baba teaches that the word is apparent, not substantive. And the Meher Center is no exception.

Anyone who studies Baba will know this. Anyone who relies on hearsay from the local community will not.

So in this unusual circumstance, where the Baba “leaders” in America are more concerned with cultural concerns like environmentalism and gender issues than theological matters, the tariqa lines are bound to evolve first. For there is no orthodox opinion to act as an umbrella. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but the result will be like in my paper What I Now Think the Future of the Baba World in the West Is, where I describe the Baba world as breaking apart into very small but cooperative camps sharing notes and exchanging guest speakers at conferences.

This is a kind of hodgepodge of folk religions, with occasional intertwined mystical elements. 

It is out of these where true tariqa schools are bound to emerge, formed out of necessity by the few outliers with a real interest in science and mysticism and a respect for Baba’s books. 

A quick word about of books

The Ward Parks Baba-book inventions are liable to be the cause of great confusion in the future, perhaps as serious as the Suni-Shia schism or the Catholic-Orthodox schism. A separating of ways. For while these have their origin in Baba’s words, they were not set aside by him in his lifetime. But such books were liable to be assembled eventually. 

For me the canon is simple. It includes five books:

1. God Speaks
2. Intelligence Notebooks
3. Discourses
4. Beams
5. The Everything and the Nothing

Worthwhile adjuncts are Lord Meher, The God-Man, The Nothing and the Everything by Bhau, Stay With God by Brabazon, and Evolution of Perception and Evolution of Perception Re-Explained by me.

Everything else read at your own risk.

I included myself in this list not because I’m exceptional, but because I’m alone and seminal. The publication of The Evolution of Perception preceded even that of Infinite Intelligence.

So its place is secure. Just as Stay With God and The Nothing and the Everything are secure.

The Meher Center

The Meher Center, where I grew up and about which I talk a lot, is a very special case and relevant to this discussion of the relation between folk religion, tariqa, and any orthodox Baba religion that might form.

It is important because it openly identifies itself as what Baba said he didn’t want, an organization. It refers to itself as a “religious organization,” and quite incongruously a “non-sectarian religious organization.” That means it’s a religious organization that does not endorse or prefer any religion or religious belief, but carries Baba’s name on it.

So, it’s like “The Meher Baba college of comparative religion.” Yet the Center does not engage in discussions or seminars in comparative religion. So looking at Baba’s words carefully — and ignoring the local folk beliefs about the Center — it is a good example of something earmarked for dissolution when its initial purpose is exhausted. I have already assembled those quotes in my paper: Baba tried to get them to give up their desire for a Center for him, but after being badgered he relented. 

Consider just this quote from that article: 

I do not wish to limit myself or bind myself with any such thing. I create things on a firm foundation and then pull them down.

Baba was literally responding to the original suggestion of the Meher Center. Even Baba’s use of the phrase “full foundation” reflects my friend’s reference to the Center having “good bones.”

I bring this up because it again shows the trajectory things appear to be moving in. They are moving away from a centralized organization, and toward a multi-polar religious movement.

And therefore, there is likely not to be an orthodoxy ever established, which would be unprecedented. 

The conclusion of all this is very obvious, and conforms to Baba’s own words on his movement. People are free not to leave their birth-religion. Baba said there are enough religions, not that there are too many. He said he would bring “the great and recognized religions and creeds of the world” together as beads on one string, not form a new religion.

This leaves only one possibility. There will be folk religions with no central authority, operating cooperatively but autonomously. And there will be “the great and recognized religions and creeds of the world.” 

This is what one can reasonably base on Baba’s words. Local popular beliefs may vary. The main completing popular belief among followers close to the Meher Center is that the Center will grow so much in some undisclosed time in the future, that people will have to be turned away. And then an undefined “they” will “make it a religion.” And that will be the end of the “good ol’ days.” None of this has any basis in anything Baba ever said.

It is a syncretic idea that combines Christian apocalyptic literature with terms Baba used like “break my silence” and “this Avataric manifestation will be the greatest.” 

The concerns of folk religion and mysticism are different

The concerns of adherents of folk religions include wanting blessings, protection, and the ability to know the future. This is why you get palmistry, tarot cards, astrology, and psychic healing. These are bodily concerns. They are different from the concerns of mystics, which have to do with knowledge and salvation.

So it is up to the mystic to be patient and understanding of the folk belief adherent, and not the other way around.

This would be the source of a distinction between tariqa strains emerging from Baba’s words and folk religion. For occult practices such as divination and divining games have basically no support in Baba’s teaching, unless unreasonably stretched.  

Folk religion is supported by the psychological needs of the group.

Tariqa is supported by scripture and reason.

Overlaps will occur. But the line is not hard to discern. They are very different interests and concerns. They are for very different places on the path.

Constantine tried to reach out to representatives of different schools to try to find unity in ideology. No one would wish to do that, or have the authority or influence to do that, today.

So there will only be “family resemblance” between groups. One will have to artificially come of with terms to include more than one, such as groups that accept Baba’s avatarhood. Or groups that believe some of his words and not others.

There is no fix for this. Those with administrative roles on the Center like Preeti, do not have time to study Baba’s words. The focus will be solely on managing the behavior of adherents to the folk religions.

The things I talk about here will become obvious clear and present issues in 20 years, and not much before then. This is due to Baba’s prediction about 70 years and the death of the baby boom.

Even if the Meher Center tries to exert influence then, it has no religious opinion, so would not be able to do so. It will be forced to disband or turn into something else. 

Consistency

All that I’ve said and written on this subject has been consistent. There won’t be a Baba orthodoxy, or a centralized church. Rather there will be diversity and a certain amount of chaos. You can either have unity in orthodoxy or chaos in diversity. This time Baba will allow chaos in diversity. 

The Baba lovers cannot sit down and discursively figure any of this out. Therefore, they have contradictory visions. They picture that ‘everyone will come’ to Baba, yet there will be ‘no established religion or teaching.’ Masses will flood to the Meher Center, but the Meher Center will not be for any one opinion about Baba, nor exert control over groups, and will not even show the slightest interest in theology. The unity they envision will be caused by what?

The Baba lovers near the Center don’t get it that their belief that the Center is so sacred, so much so it needs an archive, will not be a universal opinion. It is the opinion of a group of geriatrics who don’t even like young people, and make fun of them and all the things they like. 

What is the difference between these names?

Meher Spiritual Center

Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust

Only one has the name “Baba” in it. One manages his tomb. The other is a “retreat for renewal.” A cheap resort. What is spiritual renewal? When do you know when you are getting it? 

The thinking is New Age, not spiritual.

I have been remarkably consistent on all this. In my paper The Religiology of the Baba World I concluded that by rejecting religion the Baba lovers wound up creating folk religions. I wrote there:

It’s very ironic. Because Baba lovers have over the years repeated a trope that goes, “They’re gonna make it a religion.” And they sigh like it is an unavoidable travesty that an undefined ‘they’ will stupidly do this in the near future. The irony is that this ‘they’ that these Baba lovers dread is themselves.

By the time Baba returns in 650 years, his lovers will wish he had established a formal religion, for they will be exhausted by arguments, no matter how well-intentioned those arguments are liable to have been. 

And I said the same in my video The Baba World - Chris Ott Talk 3: The Future of the Baba World. For I described a multi-polar Baba world of the future, in line with the multi-polar geopolitical new world that will gradually unfold. 

I am proud that I have at least been consistent on these points, even if I turn out to be wrong.