The Way of Virtue

In His message “To Students, Artists, Social Workers and Public Institution Servants” Meher Baba states in part: “Illiteracy and ignorance invite exploitation, but literacy can also become a willing tool in the hands of those who exploit. Education devoid of culture is inherently destructive, although on the surface it seems to represent progress” (Listen Humanity [first published 1957] 1971, p. 180). And from an educational system “devoid of culture,” we get a society “devoid of culture.” “Fake news” born through the collaboration of politics, journalism, and big-fist businesses is a clear example of social exploitation. “Fake news” is the use of literacy without culture aimed at manipulating and brainwashing people by those in positions of power. I think Timothy Snyder nicely sums up what this leads to: “When we give up on truth, we concede power to those with the wealth and charisma to create spectacle in its place” (quoted in https://hac.bard.edu/amor-mundi/the-fabric-of-reality-2021-01-14). And social media which pours out a constant stream of unchecked “fake news” has become a kind of daily non-stop spectacle in the lives of many people.

Later in his same message, Meher Baba also points out how the word, culture, “has become indefinite in the minds of the public.” This is still seen today, for instance, in a fairly recent ABC Science Report (August, 2018): “Culture may affect the way our brain processes everything.” This report states that “the term ‘culture’ represents a hugely complex web of dynamic systems, including beliefs, language and values. Religion, socio-economic status and gender may also be relevant – so it’s not hard to see that culture is difficult to measure scientifically” (taken from https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2018-08-17/culture-may-affect-the-way-your-brain-processes-everything/10120068). This is a sociological approach to culture which gathers what it defines as “research findings” and then attempts to interpret this material. But this is really just collecting information after the scene of the crime. It avoids telling us anything definitive about the meaning of culture other than it is something that affects everyone according to the specific kind of data it has gathered, which, in the end, is no definition at all.

By way of contrast, Meher Baba gives a very clear and focussed definition from the position of his spiritual authority: “True culture is the result of spiritual values assimilated into life.” In using the term, “true culture,” Meher Baba is pointing us to something that we have to strive towards. He is also alerting us to the fact that we have been living within a situation where the central problem is essentially a crises in truth: we have lost our connection with truth in the way we live. True culture, as Meher Baba defines it, provides a way through life for us to re-connect with truth. And this in a sense is what true religion (re-ligio: to re-connect with Reality) is supposed to do. To dumb down culture as something that people just passively suffer as a consequence of living in “a hugely complex web of dynamic systems” is to emasculate the meaning of the word and destroy its potential to provide guidance and happiness in our lives.

The other key term Meher Baba uses is “spiritual values.” Obviously, he is alerting us to the fact that these values are not “worldly” values. By “spiritual values,” I think he means “virtues” – which is a word that has dropped out of usage but “spiritual values” comes close to it. By virtues, I mean something deeper than living the life of a do-gooder or being outwardly directed according to some set of principles that are judged to be morally and ethically sound. This is all ego-driven.

By virtues I mean human yet eternal values, such as patience, kindness, courage etc. Virtues are inherent in people – a person doesn’t need to be educated in virtues; but a toxic environment can stunt their coming into fruition. Virtues are felt, like faith, through a kind of intuitive knowing. You can have your own individual set of worldly values but you can’t have your own set of spiritual values or virtues. Virtues can only be lived and experienced. To my mind, you participate in the living out of virtues – for example, at any moment you can simply consent to be courageous. It is always there for a person to participate in. In a sense – and I may be off the mark here – but I don’t think we have our own private stash of virtues; some little pile of “my virtues” with our name on it that we call upon when we so desire. And nor do I think that we accumulate virtues and then “cash them in” when we die for some heavenly reward.

In Stay With God, Francis Brabazon, the Australian poet, alludes to this higher idea of virtue when he writes: “. . . and only by the fully and perfect Descent of Himself / as a man can He re-establish the Way of Virtue, / the Way of pupilship and love and delight of human-ness in men” (Stay With God, 1977 edition, p. 115).

Interestingly, the word “virtue” comes from the Latin, vir, meaning “man” but when incorporated in the word virtue it gives the sense of inner power (non-gender based power) and this is what a virtuous life gives to an individual: access to this inner power in a very natural way.

For instance, to be inwardly poised at all times, which I think is a needed virtue today, a person lives and participates in something of real spiritual power. And this is what other people recognise in the person of poise as strength of character. It also leaves an impression in what a virtuous person does like designing bridges or buildings. A bridge can be felt as heroic just as a building majestic. All of this can’t be measured; but it also can’t be denied by those who experience it as a kind of upliftment in consciousness.

Then in his message, Meher Baba gives us a direction to follow: “Therefore you must keep before you the ideal of that spiritual culture which, once developed, imparts life and beauty to all undertakings – educational, technical, industrial, social, moral, and political – and pierces through their difference to produce unity. This results in the development of the highest character in the life of a nation or individual.” What a grand aspiration this is!

This is the direct opposite to the kind of unity that we see in many violent groups today that can only be described as expressions of tribalism. Their unity is the result of a spiralling down of the human spirit. Invariably these “tribes” are built around a misguided sense of worldly superiority that generates an ideology of hate which can only end in destruction and ugliness. They have no real culture in Meher Baba’s sense of the word. Other “tribes” seem to attract members who appear to me to belong to what Tom Wolfe called the “Me Generation” that grew out of the sixties. These members carry with them an overblown sense of entitlement and know nothing of self-effacement nor self-sacrifice. While other “tribes” consist of members who appear to share an anger towards society for not hearing them.

Elaborating further in his message, Meher Baba presents a statement of how to re-gain a sense of unity amongst all society’s diverse peoples: “Love for God, love for fellow beings, love of service and love of self-sacrifice – in short love in any shape and form – is the finest ‘give and take’ in existence. Ultimately it is love that will bring about the much-desired equating of human beings all over the world and without necessarily disturbing the inherently diverse traits of mankind.” Any sincere person of good-will must see this as the only practical way forward: to be loving makes a lot of sense. It is a way that is filled with lived virtue. This needs to be placed as the first item on the agenda of every “educational, technical, industrial, social, moral, and political” organisation that presently exists in our society.

Culture based on Virtue

We come into this world with access to the divine power of virtues already latent within us. Through this access and a social sharing of virtues a flourishing human culture grows. But this inner knowing is easily buried under the sanskaric debris from worldly experiences that have become increasingly unnatural. To get back on course, we have to return to and stay with God through love, which naturally incorporates a life of virtue. This, no doubt, will take time. But the beginning phase is the recognition of the sanskaric debris we carry within us and then choosing to live a life of love and virtue to intelligently deal with it. We are all global citizens and have a responsibility to bring about an inclusive and loving culture.

Carl Jung once wrote: “The great events of world history are, at bottom, profoundly unimportant. In the last analysis, the essential thing is the life of the individual. This alone makes history, here alone do the great transformations first take place, and the whole future, the whole history of the world, ultimately springs as a gigantic summation from the hidden sources in individuals. In our most private and most subjective lives we are not only the passive witnesses of our age, and its sufferers, but also its makers (C. J. Jung Psychological Reflections, 1978, pp. 156-157). These “hidden sources,” in Meher Baba’s language, are the action-generating sanskaras we mentally carry within us. To deal with these is to deal with the hub of the problem.

Mani S Irani, Meher Baba's sister, once said that Meher Baba doesn’t want us to suppress those feelings in us that are non-loving but to control them. Control is the adult attitude. From reading Baba’s Discourses I understand that part of this control is made easy through knowing what we are dealing with, namely, the force of our own subjective sanskaras. And that these sanskaras don’t constitute our real Self. The type of control needed to deal with them is self-control, inner control. This is an objective power we can participate in; in other words, it is a virtue at our disposal which supplies us with its own strength.

These sanskaras are not bound within the four walls of our minds for they arise from our experience of the world and so they depend on the world for their sustenance. If I suffer from envy, for instance, it is because something in the world keeps activating and nourishing that envy impression in me. My sanskaras are then dependent on me living amidst things that arouse my envy. One logical way to deal with this is for me to go somewhere that removes myself from the object of my envy, but Meher Baba doesn’t see this as a viable option. I think this is to do with the fact that I will just be replacing my envy sanskaras with different sanskaras and in so doing nothing really changes; I’m still burdened.

In 1965, Meher Baba told Robert Dreyfuss, a young American spiritual seeker, “Go back to the West, because what you are looking for you will not find wandering around India or sitting in a monastery in the Himalayas . . . but you will find it in society with people by trying to be of service to them and loving them (Inner Travel to Sacred Places, 2012, p. 42). It is amazing how Meher Baba completely flipped Robert’s desire to be a kind of wandering sadhu in India seeking God, by ordering him to return to the West, the home of his sanskaras, and forget about seeking God but rather live a life of service to people. A life of service to others, I think, implies a life of virtue for it is only through the power of virtues that such a life can be sustained. This seems to be the most direct way to rid one’s self of sanskaras; and once they are gone, only God exists.

And nor is social change through a political system that is not based on virtues an option for Meher Baba. In 1926, He said to a group of Swaraj (Indian Independence) Party workers: “What is politics but fraud? Whatever your own, honest, candid option might be you have to act according to the creed of the party, [at times] against the voice of your conscience, and thus be dependent upon others for your actions, which is quite opposed to the fundamental principles of Truth” (Lord Meher online p. 720).

In His message “To Students, Artists, Social Workers and Public Institution Servants” Meher Baba is directly addressing everyone who lives in society. It is a message that needs to be re-visited in our troubled times of global unrest. How we choose to live-out this message is up to each individual. However, whatever way we finally choose, it will first spring from what Meher Baba calls “positive forgetfulness.” Meher Baba says: “Positive forgetfulness, then, is the cure, and its steady cultivation develops in man that balance of mind which enables him to express such noble traits [virtues] as charity, forgiveness, tolerance, selflessness and service to others” (God Speaks, 1973, p. 213).