What is the meaning of the term “destruction” in Meher Baba’s “Final Declaration”? -- A Clarification
I take the forthcoming "destruction" that Meher Baba announced on
September 30, 1954 to mean the end of our “multiple separateness” and the dawn
of our “unity” – “the feeling of oneness through love” -- as Meher Baba
describes and explains in the Final Declaration here:
“The time has come for the pre-ordained destruction of multiple
separateness which keeps man from experiencing the feeling of unity and
brotherhood. This destruction which will take place very soon, will cause
three-fourths of the world to be destroyed. The remaining one-fourth will be
brought together to live a life of concord and mutual understanding, thus
establishing a feeling of oneness in all fellow beings, leading them towards
lasting happiness.”
…
And this comment also is presented by Meher Baba to describe
the “destruction:”
“Unity in the midst of diversity
can be made to be felt only by touching the core of the heart. “
I take Meher Baba to be explaining that the “destruction”
involves eradicating what gets in the way of our unity and our ability to live
in the heart. As I interpret our recent
global history, much of our separateness has dissolved and we are experiencing
a life of inter-connectedness. The ecumenism of this age is unprecedented.
Meher Baba describes the outcome of his uttered word (which
he describes as related to the destruction of ¾ of the world) as including: “the feeling of the oneness of all fellow
beings.”
In paragraph 10,
Meher Baba describes the “world” in terms of “confusion and unrest…misery,
hatred, jealousy, frustration and fear.” This “destruction” means the
eradication of national, caste, and religious boundaries
“The present universal confusion and unrest
has filled the heart of man with greater lust for power and a greed for wealth
and fame, bringing in its wake untold misery, hatred, jealousy, frustration and
fear. Suffering in the world is at its height, in spite of all the striving to
spread peace and prosperity to bring about lasting happiness.”(paragraph
10)
In paragraph 18
Meher Baba identifies what the “destruction” that his speaking of his Word will
bring about:
“I have come to sow the seed of love in your
hearts so that, in spite of all superficial diversity which your life in
illusion must experience and endure, the feeling of oneness, through love, is
brought about amongst all the nations, creeds, sects and castes of the world.”
According to Meher
Baba, this process of “…sow[ing] the seed of love…” will lead over the course
of 700 years to a world in which “spiritual brotherhood will prevail.”
(paragraph 20)
Summarizing this
process Meher Baba reiterates that it means the destruction of the
separateness, suffering hatred, jealousy, greed
and the advent of “the oneness of all fellow beings” and “happiness:”
“During this short period, my Word of words will touch
the hearts of all mankind, and spontaneously this divine touch will instill in
man the feeling of the oneness of all fellow beings. Gradually, in the course
of the next seven hundred years, this feeling will supersede the tendency of
separateness and rule over the hearts of all, driving away hatred, jealousy and
greed that breed suffering, and happiness will reign.” (last paragraph)
Meher Baba describes
this “destruction” also in terms of decreased suffering and increased
happiness:
“Thus, it is God who has
brought suffering in human experience to its height, and God alone who will
efface this illusory suffering and bring the illusory happiness to its height.”
As for the disease he refers to,
Meher Baba certainly suffered a strange disease that convulsed his body. I take
that characteristic of convulsion to be violent as he describes that he would
endure a “violent physical end.”
Although in his
later clarifications of November 13, 1954 Meher Baba gave the date of April
1955 for these events, he ends by pointing out that the date could change:
“But if the time limit is changed considerably, the events will take
place without any modification whatsoever.”
Meher Baba’s closing words of the “Final Declaration”
summarize the nature of the breaking of the silence, the destruction of
separateness, and the “feeling of the oneness of all fellow beings:”
“During this short
period, my Word of words will touch the hearts of all mankind, and
spontaneously this divine touch will instill in man the feeling of the oneness
of all fellow beings. Gradually, in the course of the next seven hundred years,
this feeling will supersede the tendency of separateness and rule over the
hearts of all, driving away hatred, jealousy and greed that breed suffering,
and happiness will reign.”
—Source: C. B. Purdom, The God-Man (1971),
pp. 272-75
Source: C.B. Purdom, The
God-Man, (1971, pp. 272-275) Accessed July 27, 2012 at:
As quoted in The God
Man, p. 282, Meher Baba on April 10, 1955 expressed flexibility about
"the time factor" of these events:
"I decided that all I had declared in my
Final Declaration must come to pass exactly in the same sequence and with the
same intensity of effect but with modification in the time factor."
– and also
–
"There is now no limitation to any point in time, nor contact with
any point in time. Things may happen after one month or three months, after
three years or twenty years. In short I may speak tomorrow or my silence may be
broken after 10 years. I am free from all promises, bindings, undertakings and
arrangements."
Does Meher Baba include the breaking of his silence
as subject to "the modification in the time factor?"
So Meher Baba is not really pointing
to a great cataclysm, but rather to the dawning of an age of love; he is
explaining the process that will birth the New Humanity.
