Late Night Chat with Jeff W: Baba’s Unveiling of Divine Love, Mar 9, 2025 live on Baba Zoom

Topic: Baba’s Unveiling of Divine Love

Dear folks of Baba,

I once asked Darwin Shaw, one of Baba’s Western mandali, “What is the biggest mistake Baba lovers are making?” Without a trace of criticalness, he said, “They think of themselves as small, and they remain small! Think BIG! Think outside of even the conventional spiritual box.” Baba encouraged this also, even using the word “BIG” in capital letters. Darwin would impress upon us that we are embodiments of Divine Love right now, rather than thinking that we will attain this only in some distant future. On an overcast day, we say the sun isn’t out. But it is there in full glory. The clouds are just blocking it. And in the same way, the clouds covering our consciousness are blocking the stupendous sight of the Divine Love within us right now!

Back in the early-1980s in the old Pilgrim Center, Baba gave me a metaphorical vision of this dynamic with His unfailing sense of humor. I see before me a man sitting on a chair with a faucet or spigot in his hands. Behind him is the infinite ocean of Divine Love which is ceaselessly striking against him with full force! But by the time the ocean passes through him, all that he offers from his little spigot is a few miserly drops! Where did all the love go! What Baba implied in this vision was that by the time the inner ocean of Divine Love passes through the countless layers of our ego and personality self, all that comes out is severely limited: the ocean is reduced to a mere stream, at most a river, or with some people only a few measly drops! I found with Baba’s mandali that His love came through them with few obstructions, few impediments, and we received their love to the extent that we were receptive. Baba would often say that we have to get out of the way. We are the cloud cover blocking the sun! It is not that our love has to grow really, for it is already fully developed and present, and merely has to be unveiled and expressed. I find this dynamic supremely hopeful, a different paradigm from what people normally think about love.

How to unblock the sun of Divine Love within us? There are so many ways that Baba has given. Foremost, as Eruch would share, is to focus on Baba’s personality in any way, shape or form. Baba has said that even though His form is illusory, it contains the Reality, and as we focus on His form the clouds of consciousness automatically, though gradually, dissolve in His divine presence. In whatever way we focus on Him--His presence, His personality, His life, serving His cause of Love, saying His name--the Divine Love that He is and which is our very soul can flow through us.

How does this help us? If we think that we are embodiments of Divine Love right nowrather than sometime in the distant future, then we are not only asserting the truth of our being, but we are honoring our own Soul. Our Soul will never agree that Divine Love is only a future attainment. And not to be in alignment with our Soul can create a deep, unnecessary disharmony within our inner life. Darwin would stress that the proper use of the intellect is to unfailingly assert that Baba with His Divine Love is always with us in every moment. Although we might not be aware of it, to think otherwise is profoundly disheartening and pulls down our spirits.

How can we help in channeling the Divine Love within us? Darwin used to say, “Don’t think of yourself as a base of operations. Think of yourself as a conduit.” In this way, we are less apt to obstruct or impede the flow of Divine Love when we think of ourselves as a vehicle, with love flowing through us rather than coming from us as most people think. This can result in what Darwin encouraged in us, “High self-esteem without egoism.” With all their love, the mandali did not radiate a sense of self-importance.

Do you feel at the innermost level that you embody Baba’s Divine Love, even if you are only sometimes aware of it? In what ways do you observe that you are obstructing the flow of this love? Can you see Darwin’s distinction of thinking of ourselves as a conduit rather than as a base of operations? Can you see how that impedes the flow of love through us? Do you spend too much time dwelling on the past and the future and are unavailable to this love within that is in the present?

I once quoted Baba’s words to Meherwan Jessawala, one of the mandali, “Live more and more in the present which is ever-beautiful and stretches away beyond the limits of the past and the future.” I asked him what these words meant to him. He replied, “You won’t find Baba in the past or the future. You will only find Him in the present.”

In His love, Jeff

To join the email list for Late Night Chats, contact Angela

This event was recorded live. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily