Meher Baba’s “Final Declaration:” What Is the Meaning of “Destruction”?
In honor of the anniversary of the Final Declaration, September 30th
by Talat Halman
Written in Summer 2012; posted Sept. 28, 2013, at meherbabafinaldeclaration.blogspot.com/. Reprinted with permission.
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 three quarters 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” (Purdom, The God-Man [1971], pp. 272–275).
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 ten 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.
Quotes may be found at
https://www.meherbabamanifesting.com/principal-statements/the-final-declaration/