Conversations about Meher Baba

Late Night Chat with Jeff Wolverton: E&G: ”A Glorious Culmination,” May 11, 2026, live Baba Zoom

Dear folks of Baba,There was a woman who came to the Center who had lost the person most dear to her in this life. She was still in grief. In talking with a fellow Baba lover, he felt she was indulging in her feelings and urged her to get over it. She was deeply hurt but didn’t say anything. He had the mental conviction from Baba’s writings that this world is just an illusion, all its happenings a mere dream, but he did not really have this conviction through experience. If he had, he would have had more empathy for this woman. Within a year, someone who was very dear to him passed on and he suffered the loss profoundly. He found out that his idea that it is all an illusion did not protect his heart from great pain. It is through such experiences that Baba in a natural way awakens in us His empathy for others. Knowing with the mind is not the knowing of the heart. Similarly, some Baba lovers claim to have faith that Baba is in charge of this present war, and why are people worrying about it? After all, they assert, everything is in Baba’s hands. But there are people in our community who have family and friends in this war whose lives are being completely disrupted and even some who are being killed. Isn’t it possible to have genuine faith that it is all in Baba’s hands and still “suffer in the sufferings of others?” The mandali, who more than anyone knew the illusion of life, nevertheless showed such deep compassion and care for us through all our troubles and heartache. For myself, this more universal sensitivity has been very slow and painful to awaken in me. Darwin would say that the mind in collusion with the ego is so powerful that it can convince us that we already know the truth about things. The ego has found a way to keep us from dropping down into our heart where true wisdom resides. Those of us around Darwin often pondered what he actually experienced in his inner life with Baba. It was possible to infer from the things he shared with us what his experience was, but that was all. He was not forthcoming on this subject. But then one day, I said to him, “Darwin, you have a lot of rare wine in your cellar [speaking metaphorically] and if you die, it will only go to your relatives! I think we should bring it up and enjoy it now! You have been focusing on Baba for the last seventy years, year after year, day by day, moment to moment. What is your experience now?” He was amused by this lead-in, and so, at the ripe old age of 96, Darwin shared this with us: “Just as when we breathe all day, we don’t have to say, now it’s time to inhale, now it's time to exhale. This all happens automatically. Eventually life just unfolds. We are no longer trying to get things to go this way or that. We’ve let go. Consciousness is then freed at the level of the world. It goes up to the level of the spirit and out to the far corners of the universe, and we live in and through everyone and everything.” That is, when we’re let out of the prison of our finite identity, our life and consciousness expand infinitely in all directions. Looking across the table where he sat relaxed in Baba’s home in the West, who would have thought that this wizened old gentleman contained such a sublime experience! This was the glorious culmination of a lifetime of loving effort in living for Baba.The inner life that Baba spoke of was relatively unknown to us in our youth, but Darwin kept encouraging us to go deeper into Baba, inviting us to move from the monkey mind down to the unspeakable treasures of the heart. Years later, we discovered there was another side of Darwin that he rarely spoke of, and that was his compassion for this world of ours, the many hours he spent alone working inwardly at great depths to send Baba’s love to all those in need who inhabit this fair earth. In this inner work, he would first send love to his family and when he had enveloped them sufficiently with Baba’s love, he would flow out to the city of Schenectady, and then on to New York state and out to the Baba family scattered throughout the country, and then on to the whole world. He would not proceed to the next stage until he had enveloped that stage with Baba’s love. This was a part of the major inner work that Darwin did with Baba. It’s no wonder that such souls seem to us larger than life! I once asked him, “What is the biggest mistake the Baba lovers are making?” Not critically but as an encouragement to us, Darwin replied, “They think of themselves as small and they remain small. Think big! Think outside even the traditional spiritual box. They could open up to a much larger world and would be much happier." One of the lines from Baba's discourses that Darwin would most often quote was: “All finiteness and limitation is subjective and self-created.”The poignant prayer of Mother Teresa expresses all of this so well:“Dear Lord, break my heart so completely that the whole world falls in.”In His love, Jeff

Late Night Chat with Jeff Wolverton: E&G: ”Completeness in Baba,” May 5, 2026, live Baba Zoom

Most people feel incomplete, that there is something profoundly missing in their lives. It is not their fault if they think that such a fulfillment lies in fame, recognition, a soul mate, material success, expertise in some field or producing a great work of art. And unfortunately, even when pursued, these goals are never fully secured. In the partial satisfaction of what they think is missing, the goal post keeps getting moved farther away. There is always much more that is needed! That is why eventually everyone turns to God who is Completeness Itself. The divine incarnations are the very embodiments of wholeness, and the feeling that there is something missing is dissolved when in their Presence. Unfortunately, everything on this side of the Divine is incomplete. That is why the focus on the Divine is regarded as the highest pursuit, which is our own completeness, and it cannot be attained at the level of the world. In focusing on Baba in any way, shape or form, we are moving toward completeness, toward our own wholeness. When our wanting the things of this world ends, wholeness can appear. There are many efforts we can make from our side that will help Baba awaken the experience of completeness in us. Two such methods are to cultivate self-acceptance and self-compassion. We are a mixture of love and selfishness, and we are going to witness ourselves falling short of love time and again. We will one day have to accept these shortcomings in ourselves and remain in the present and not be so self-critical. Baba has said that God-realization is the simultaneous experience of the extreme opposites. We have to one day become aware of life in its totality, including the opposites of good and bad, rather than accepting only its good side. This means being aware of both sides in ourselves and in the world, but without acting out the extremes. At the same time, we must remain sensitive and not become indifferent toward the pain and suffering of others. Such efforts lead to wholeness. Another requirement for attaining wholeness or completeness is to stay in the present and not live in the past or future. 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.” To stay in the present with Baba is to imbibe His oneness and through this, our own wholeness. We must build up an increasing tolerance for mental discomfort, because if we don’t, we will always be trying to escape into the past or future or to some distraction in the present.There is another challenging requirement for experiencing our intrinsic wholeness. Most of us find it easier to experience "the oneness of Baba within” in themselves, but find "the oneness within” in the company of others is a much greater challenge. Baba has said in this Advent that “the path is through people.” This requires experiencing Baba in others, tuning into their essence which lies behind the personality self. It requires a huge expansion of who we experience ourselves to be—that is, to include all others in the experience of our “self”. We have to become more detached from the likes and dislikes of our personality self, to rise above our attitude of approval and disapproval of others, and to penetrate beyond the external level to Baba within others. This oneness, when achieved, is permanent and is untouched by the ups and downs of our reactions to others and the world.When we respond to Baba in others, this does not mean that they will necessarily reciprocate. We have to share Baba’s love with no strings attached. It is enough to offer love from our side, so to speak, and if they respond with love, that is icing on the cake! The results are left to Baba. There are some occasions when we may have to keep an external distance from someone (as in the case of a person who is abusive), but not at the level of the heart; our heart should not close at the inner level because that would deny the truth of our innate completeness. All this requires tremendous work on ourselves, but Baba will make it happen one day in each of us. Our soul is meant to include all, not just those who please our small personality self. "A human being is a part of the whole, called by us “the universe,” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thought and feelings as something separate from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening the circle of our understanding and compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty." - Albert Einstein In His love, Jeff

Late Night Chat with Jeff Wolverton: E&G: ”The Divine Qualities,” April 28, 2026, live Baba Zoom

Topic: The Divine Qualities, the link to the SoulDear folks of Baba, “To penetrate into the essence of all being and significance and to release the fragrance of that inner attainment for the benefit and guidance of others by expressing in the world of forms--truth, love, purity and beauty--this is the sole game that has intrinsic and absolute worth.”- Meher BabaAs we surrender more and more of our interior to Baba, clearing out the strangers in our heart, we begin to create what Darwin calls “inner space.” With inner-directed awareness, we gradually see into the interior dynamics of our psyche, equivalent to lifting up the hood of our car to observe how the engine operates. We see on one side of this inner space our reactions to life linked directly to our impressions (sanskaras), the conditioning we’ve accumulated in all our lives. On the other, deeper side are our loving responses to life that are directly connected to our soul, to Baba Himself. A part of our essential work is to transmute our reactions into loving responses, through our divine qualities. This is the purification of the heart. As the heart is emptied of our sanskaric reactions, inner space is made for the divine qualities to naturally flow in from Baba. Giving our interior to Baba requires great effort on our part. As we gathered from Darwin, it involves focusing deeply on our reactions and emotional complexes, taking time to feel and delve profoundly into them and then give them energetically to Baba. In this way, these reactions and emotional complexes are gradually dissolved in Baba. Darwin would say, “The deeper the feeling, the deeper the healing.”The divine qualities can all be encapsulated in Baba’s words—truth, love, purity and beauty. For example, Baba says that the opposite of anger (a reaction) is patience and tolerance (our loving response). The opposite of greed (wanting, acquisition) is generosity. The opposite of lust (craving) is purity. The same is true of all our reactions; they have their counterparts flowing in from the soul: for example, retaliation is sublimated into forgiveness, self-centeredness into empathy and compassion, jealousy into appreciation of the qualities of others, suspicion into trust. Our reactions are experienced as a superficial (though sometimes very intense)aspect of our heart, whereas our responses have great substance and depth. In every situation, we are faced with a choice, whether to give in to our reactions or favor our loving responses. It is through the divine qualities coming directly from Baba that our consciousness moves its focus from our ego, with its self-centered reactions, to imbibing the universal love of our own soul. Baba’s divine impressions, as Darwin describes, “filter in through our heart center.” In fact, His Divine Love and Grace is radiating right now in this moment in each of us with full strength; we are mistaken if we think it only happens in His physical presence. I was truly heartened when I read where Baba says that the work we do in cultivating our divine qualities in this lifetime is carried over into our future lifetimes. Whatever progress we make with, say, patience in this life becomes our intrinsic capacity in the next life. We may lose our present material benefits in the next life, but the work we’ve done in cultivating any of the divine qualities is never lost. As our consciousness moves closer to our soul, Baba is then free to express the divine qualities through us. Our heart becomes a vehicle for the divine qualities rather than for our reactions. We are eclipsed by Baba. He becomes more and more the doer. As Darwin would say, we begin to “merge with Him.”Over time, Darwin assures us, “In His infinite, oceanic divine love radiation, we lose track of the little streams of our sanskaric currents. In their place, we experience a steady, sustained flow of truth, love, purity and beauty. We are meant to experience this coming in from Him within us, not in a sporadic or passing way, but continuously.” With our heart in this receptive state, a longing is naturally awakened in us to serve Baba in some way. What are we being called to do in our personal life? What type of service resonates with the unique nature of our heart? Baba says it is enough to be “in readiness” to serve and opportunities will then naturally arise, revealed to us in the needs in the world around us, especially where love is lacking. As Darwin says, “Each person who comes to Baba is put to work.” This may not require always some outward expression. Even just loving Baba within is service because through Him that love goes out to the world. “I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God sending a love letter to the world.” - Mother TeresaIn His love, Jeff P.S. We are continuing on page 89.

Sahavas for Everyone: guest Tracey Schmidt, April 16, 2026 live on Baba Zoom

"I have fallen in love with the world." - Tracey SchmidtSahavas for Everyone, third Thursday of the month.Avatar Meher Baba is in each one of us. And His Love is the focus of this gathering. Open discussion with each session having a topic or theme. Hosted by Laurent Weichberger in SC. Jai Baba!This event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

Late Night Chat with Jeff Wolverton: E&G: ”Surrender, A Giving Over,” April 14, 2026, live Baba Zoom

Dear folks of Baba, In attempting to surrender to Baba as He has asked of us, if we were to experience that we are actually surrendering our limited love in favor of His supremely unconditional Love, it would be much more acceptable. But we have to actually know and feel this greater Love in the One we are surrendering to. We are not comfortable with blind faith, and fortunately Baba allows us to test His love through the many situations in our life. Once our soul is fully convinced of Baba’s unconditional Love, we can then become completely confident in our efforts to surrender. Here is how Baba, back in early 1968, introduced me to the initial step of what He means by surrender. It was during college, and I found myself in great mental turmoil. I found myself agonizing over what I was going to do in the future, I was deeply regretful and ashamed of many of the things I’d done in my college days, I was nostalgic about my childhood that had been truly idyllic, and, I was faced with the prospect of being drafted into the Vietnam War which I determined was not going to happen! After struggling for months in this disturbing mental state, Baba rescued me one day with these words, conveyed to me within with perfect clarity: “In every moment, there is always something loving that can be done.” With those words came the implication from Baba: just look around and feel what love is prompting you to do. I found that even being in readiness to love was enough for Him. This message from Baba became the blueprint for my life. Years later, in working with Kitty Davy here at the Center, I found someone who was the very embodiment of these words from Baba! I saw that she came—unfailingly--to each moment with full awareness and gave her best in her efforts to please Him.With Baba, I found that surrender is not a one-time accomplishment. It is a moment-to-moment endeavor to try to express love for His sake. Baba brought home to me something that I found supremely important: in trying to love, that is, even if I am doing a poor and inadequate job of it—it is still love itself! It is the intention that counts with Baba. He has said, “Whatever you do with love has perfect results.”On the subject of surrender, Darwin would often share with us the importance of being a vehicle, a conduit of Baba’s love. Ideally, love is coming from Baba through us. It becomes important not to impede this flow from the inner dimension by imposing our expectations, our likes and dislikes and wants on this love as it expresses itself through us; we must eventually surrender completely to this flow of love. In order to accomplish this, Darwin would impress upon us the need to become intimately sensitive to our intuition in the moment, the voice of the heart, rather than the voice of the mind. Ultimately, Baba says, “Surrender is a gift from man to Master.” We need to make continual efforts on our part, however inadequate, to yield to the flow of His love through us. When this becomes more and more our natural state, Baba says that we will one day experience this truth: “He who surrenders knows no one but the Beloved.” He will become our All in all, and His love will be the only doer! A part of surrendering to Baba is our adopting the attitude that it is really Baba doing everything through us, what He calls the provisional ego. About the provisional ego, Darwin says, “It is a matter of taking responsibility for our actions and feelings, yet bypassing the ego and attributing everything to the Master, to His doing. Our purpose is to minimize the sense that we are doing anything.” This means not imagining that we are doing anything in isolation from Baba, that He is a part of and included in everything we do. Darwin confirmed this: “It means not holding anything back or keeping a secret life of your own on the side.” Everything is shared openly with Baba, even our so-called greatest sins. We discover that we can go through our most difficult periods much faster than if we face them alone, for He is our most intimate friend who always supports us through everything without condemnation. We are being invited into the intimate world of complete surrender. We move out of our old place where we once lived alone, and, as Darwin so aptly describes, Baba becomes our new address.There is no greater embodiment of this supreme surrender to Baba than Mehera, His Beloved. She responded to His every move, His every wish, His every mood, with perfect surrender, like the eyes surrendering effortlessly to light. In the few movies with Baba in which she appears, we see that intimate love and surrender. There is a popular song with words that capture Mehera’s one-pointed devotion to Baba: “You’re my world, you’re every breath I take. You’re my world, you’re every move I make. Other eyes see the stars up in the skies, but for me they shine within your eyes.”In His love, Jeff

Late Night Chat with Jeff Wolverton: E&G: ”To be natural most godly,” April 6, 2026, live Baba Zoom

Dear folks of Baba,In my early years with Baba, I tended to do everything in the extreme. During one period, I had decided to say His name inwardly with each footstep. It was during this time in the early 1970s in Meherazad that Eruch was taking a group of us up Seclusion Hill, sharing stories as we climbed. I was ten or so feet behind Eruch, and at one point I looked up from taking Baba’s name and Eruch gave me a poignant look which clearly said, “Jeff, you are so preoccupied with what you’re doing there that you are not with us in this moment!” At that very moment, I felt deeply the truth of his words. I had been so preoccupied with my little practice that I was not being natural. This is not to say that saying Baba’s name isn’t important and invaluable, but not to the extent that we are elsewhere in the moment and not really present.One day at Meherazad, during this same trip, a close friend and I were sitting just outside Mandali Hall on a bench with Eruch, and my friend said, “Eruch, I work as a house painter, and sometimes hours go by and I haven’t even thought of Baba. What can I do about that?” Eruch replied in his very casual way, “In the beginning, it’s important to remember Baba, to repeat His name, to see the movies, to go to where Baba has been, and to read all the literature. But in time it becomes important to forget yourself. When you forget yourself, then Baba can live through you. You’re not aware of it, but He is living through you. So, lose yourself in your painting.” He affirmed the supreme value of self-forgetfulness. That was a turning point for me in my life with Baba, because I had become a bit rigid and unnatural in trying to remember Him all the time. I had lost the playfulness that had always been a part of me since childhood, the spontaneous enthusiasm of my college days, the genuine fun in life that I experienced over the years. Since that brief, life-changing exchange with Eruch, I have found that self-forgetfulness and remembering Baba make a vital and complementary dynamic in my inner life. Eruch would say, “Get wholeheartedly lost in your activities, and when coming out of that absorption, remember Baba.” And he would add, “When you remember to remember, remember Him!”All the practices we do as a part of our inner life with Baba—such as dressing our soul with Him, saying His name inwardly, our prayers, giving our interior to Baba, the provisional ego, focusing on His companionship--are like golden tributaries flowing into a glorious and magnificent river as it makes its way toward Baba’s all-inclusive ocean of Love. Eventually, all these practices become integrated into what Eruch would call “a natural life” with Baba, in which we forget ourselves as children do. Children spread innocence and spontaneity and love in this world, simply by their enthusiasm in the moment. Being “natural” is not a transcendent state, but is very much in “the here and now”, where we are in the world, in touch with what is happening. Over the decades, as we are swept up more and more in Baba’s love, the separation that we have felt our entire life begins to dissolve: between ourself and Baba, ourself and others, ourself and life. These distinctions gradually blur in the warm and simple presence of Baba’s love.Sooner or later, Baba brings us to a state where we are no longer driven by our usual agenda, ulterior motives disappear, and our life requires little micro-managing on our part. This does not mean that there are no ups and downs, but we take them as welcome challenges to be overcome with Baba. We will eventually find that the extremes of life, often experienced in youth, have been miraculously harmonized in a way that we could not have imagined! We find that Baba knows exactly what He is doing with each of us to bring us to a place where we are on our knees in gratitude. We realize that Baba has delivered us naturally to a state far more loving and full of warmth than we could ever have imagined possible.In following the many forms of remembrance of Baba, there comes a sense more and more that He is actually the doer, and we are the witness. An unexpected transition gradually takes place where it seems that Baba is orchestrating everything, that He is behind the unfolding of our day, a day definitely full of more love than if we were actually in charge. I am reminded of the words of Baba most often quoted by Eruch over the years in Mandali Hall: “To be natural is most godly.”What Baba meant by “natural” can mean many things. For me, I tend to believe it is doing what aligns with our deeper heart. How have you dealt with the challenge of making efforts to change while at the same time being natural? Do you feel ”being yourself”, so to speak, sometimes can lead to complacency without making any deeper efforts at all? What part does self-forgetfulness play for you in being natural?In His love, Jeff

Caregiving Discussion Group Part 2, April 4, 2026, live on Baba Zoom

Last Saturday's discussion on giving and receiving care was so well-received that we wanted to give another opportunity for people to share. Many of us are at a time in life when we're either receiving or giving care to friends, family or pets. We can use some shared wisdom to buoy our spirits when caring gets tough. Join us this week! Last week's meeting is recorded at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3JpkDRHFQ8Hosted by Betty Lowman in CA This event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

Late Night Chat with Jeff Wolverton: E&G: ”The Provisional Ego,” Mar 30, 2026, live Baba Zoom

Dear folks of Baba,In the chapter on “Changing Our Address”, Darwin discusses at length the provisional ego recommended by Baba as a means of bypassing our ego, that small, limited self that hides our wholeness, our inherent divinity. Putting the provisional ego into practice is profoundly challenging and elusive, but it is where we are ultimately heading. How do we get there? What are the intermediate steps? Here is how Baba describes what He means by the provisional ego (provisional meaning temporary, a substitute arranged for the time being only):“Think of me in everything you do. Eat, dance, but forget yourself in the action and think of me instead. This is union through action. The less you think of yourself and the more you think of Baba, the sooner the ego goes and Baba remains. When you — ego —go entirely, I am one with you. So, bit by bit, you have to go. Today your nose, tomorrow your ears, then your eyes, your hands, everything.“Think of me when you eat, sleep, see and hear. Enjoy everything, but think it is all Baba. Baba enjoys it. Baba is eating it. Sleep soundly in Baba, and when you wake up remember it is Baba getting up. Keep this one thought constantly with you. If you do wrong, then think it is Baba doing wrong. If you get a pain, think it is Baba getting a pain. Then it will be all the time Baba ... Try to forget yourself and do all for Baba. Let it be Baba all the time!”For those on the path of self-effacement, the provisional ego is the final practice in annihilating the ego. It usually begins as an exercise, but ultimately the truth behind the provisional ego will be revealed in us through experience. That is, the provisional ego is useful as a method, but it has to eventually become a reality.In lifetime after lifetime, we identify with the character before us and are pulled into the whole illusion of Creation. What we are being asked to do is to remain fully aware of Creation and express love, but not identify with anything in it. Baba has said that we are really infinite, but we identify with the mind, and instantly we become a person! If we didn’t do this, we would remain the Infinite that we really are. All this is a very tall, tall order from Baba. Bit by bit, we have to go. We are not really our roles; we are really Baba in disguise.Kitty Davy would often quote this line from the Bible, “… I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” What I found most difficult to reconcile in the practice of the provisional ego is Baba’s statement: “When you do wrong, then think it is Baba doing wrong.” That initially seemed like giving us a blank check to do anything. In spite of my wholehearted efforts to think of everything as being done by Baba, it took over a decade for this to begin to be real for me. I remember Eruch saying one day in Mandali Hall on this subject, “The moment you take credit for doing anything, the whole provisional ego collapses like a house of cards.” Too often my reaction to some of the selfish things I would do was just too intense to blame it on Baba and the provisional ego! I would have to go back again to the drawing board and start the practice all over again. Here is an exchange that took place years ago that was profoundly helpful to me as a valuable intermediate step leading toward practicing the provisional ego. I was in Mandali Hall in Meherazad, and I said to Meherwan Jessawala, one of the mandali, “I have tried Baba’s practice of the provisional ego over the years, sometimes for months on end, but I’ve never been able to make it stick. I do it for a while, and it is very helpful but then it somehow unravels and I don’t keep it up. It becomes more of a mental exercise rather than an actual experience. What do you suggest I do?”Meherwan looked at me very intently and said, “Try this. When you wake up in the morning, say to Baba, 'Come with me as I begin my day.' When you have breakfast, say, 'Baba, join me for breakfast.' When you go to work, say, 'Baba, come with me to work. Be with me when I come home.' When you have to piddle, say to Baba, 'Come with me. I have to piddle.'This was the perfect answer to where I found myself inwardly at the time—the perfect intermediate step. He was suggesting to me to first be more grounded in Baba’s companionship, He and I, before attempting to practice the provisional ego, a very tall order!I said to Meherwan, “What you have suggested is plan B until I’m ready for plan A.” He smiled at that and said, “Yes!”In following this practice, there comes a sense more and more that Baba is actually the doer and we are the witness. An unexpected transition gradually takes place where it seems that Baba is orchestrating everything, that He is behind the unfolding of our day, a day definitely full of more love than if we were actually in charge.What challenges have you faced in trying to put the provisional ego into practice? In His love, Jeff (or shouldn’t it be Baba?)

Caregiving Discussion Group, March 28, 2026, live on Baba Zoom

Baba says, "If we suffer in the sufferings of others, and feel happy in the happiness of others, we are loving God." Many of us are at an age where we need care, or have dear friends and family who need care. Let's get together today and share stories of our experiences. Bring helpful quotes or stories from Baba to share.Hosted by Betty Lowman in CA This event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

Late Night Chat with JeffWolverton: E&G: ”Longing, A Divine Attribute,” Mar 23, 2026, live BabaZoom

The Topic: Longing, A Divine AttributeDear folks of Baba, Darwin used to say that our longing is an invaluable essential in carrying us on our journey home to Baba. As he maintained, it is critical in “redirecting our energies and transmuting our lower desires to a higher purpose. We slow down the wanting machine…by diverting the imagination to more constructive ends. This is sublimation.” Longing is not an emotion but is one of the divine attributes, like gratitude, that flow into our deeper heart directly from Baba. Darwin went so far as to refer to the sublimation of our lower energies into longing as the “new mysticism.” Rather than struggle endlessly with our desires, that is, fighting the negative in us, we make positive and herculean efforts to turn our full attention toward our longing for love, for the divine, for Baba’s immediate presence in our lives. Darwin would say that the tremendous energy locked up in our desires can actually be transmuted into longing for God. How can we help Baba in awakening this longing in us? I think all of us find that focusing on His lovely form through photographs and movies, and steeping ourselves in the details of His life naturally awakens a longing to be more intimate in our relationship with Him. We are so attracted by His personal attention and care for us; no one in our life has ever loved us and responded so deeply and knowingly to who we are. We cannot help but long for a greater and greater intimacy. We may sometimes feel relatively content with our love for Him, but if we focus more deeply on our love, we will see its limitations: the conditions we place on expressing it in this world, our tendency to put so much focus on our problems and worries, and all our likes and dislikes. If we compare our love to Baba’s unlimited and unconditional love--its sweetness and uplifting quality, and His personal care for each one--we will never be fully content: our soul will never be satisfied with our love for Him and will eventually come knocking at our door with intense and deep longing to break out of our limitations! Feeling the limitations of our love and comparing it to Baba’s unlimited love in itself creates longing. Mansari, one of the women mandali, used to say, “Always be satisfied with Baba’s love for you. Never be satisfied with your love for Him.” However, if the limitations of our love create a feeling of unworthiness, the ego has entered the picture: we are letting unworthiness and sometimes even the delusion of not wanting to burden Baba keep us from asking Him for love. He has clearly said, “He who asks for my love will be my chosen one.” Longing will eventually lift us above our desire nature and self-centeredness and turn our focus on Baba’s ever-present, expansive love. In time, the longing within us becomes abiding, and it is a quiet joy at various moments during the day to feel this longing for Baba’s divine love. Rumi has said it beautifully, “Longing is already a taste of what we’re looking for.” And elsewhere, he has written, “Your longing for Me is My message to you. All your attempts to reach Me are in reality My attempts to reach you.” Darwin is not referring to the acute longing that some advanced souls experience due to their separation from God. Baba has said, “One who obeys the Master who is one with God, need not suffer these things, for in obedience is the Grace of the Master.” In obeying Him by remembering His love and in carrying out our responsibilities in the world wholeheartedly, we needn’t suffer the agony of separation; in our obedience is Baba’s presence. Our longing grows steadily and is in fact an actual participation in the goal of Baba’s Love itself, which dissolves to a large extent the pain of separation. Longing is not felt then as a lack of love in ourselves, but is experienced as a taste of Baba’s sweet love in this moment and in the moments to come. Baba said to Rick Chapman in 1966, "Pay no attention to the thoughts of the mind … It is the nature of the mind to have all variety of thoughts, good and bad. You should just keep longing in your heart for me." On another occasion, at a small gathering, Baba had this couplet read out, written by Hafiz on the night of his Realization: My ceaseless longing has achieved this union, I am reaping the reward of that longing tonight. What awakens and inspires longing in you? Seeing Baba in photographs and movies, reading about His life? Yearning for a deeper love and intimacy with Him and with others and the world? Is it Baba’s many precious interventions in your life that create longing in you? What do you do when you are not experiencing longing?In His love, JeffThis event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net.