Speaking in the Heart
Does the breaking of Meher Baba’s silence refer to an audible sound that we will hear with our human ears, or is it a silent “Word” that we must be prepared to receive intuitively in our hearts? By studying Baba’s statements, it is possible to come to either of these conclusions (or possibly both). David Carter, who compiled most of the quotes on this site, gives this opinion in his essay in the section Views & Visions: “Rather than an event that is time- and space-bound in our gross world, Baba’s breaking His Silence will mean something much deeper: it will mean that we will feel His love in our hearts. Baba said that He would touch the very core of our hearts. When He does so, we will feel His love there. For the world in general, this will mean coming to know who Meher Baba is; for His lovers in particular, it will mean a tremendous ‘opening’ of the heart.”
This section brings together quotations in which Baba specifically alludes to the breaking of his Silence in our hearts or in a manner that will affect the heart.
Had Baba not broken His Silence, you would not have come to Him in India to adore Him. The day He began His Silence He broke it, and He continues to be silent and to break His silence in the hearts where He resides and where He sleeps and is awakened continually.
The moment the heart recognizes the Ancient One, at that very moment He has broken His Silence in that heart.
It is the echo of that breaking heard by the heart that makes the heart yearn for Him and adore Him. Now it is left to you to nurture His Word.
—Eruch Jessawala, Letters from the Mandali of Avatar Meher Baba, vol. 2 (1983), letter of January 4, 1976, p. 18
Meher Baba on Speaking in the Heart
When I speak, it will be only one Divine Word; but it will be the Word of words or the Manifestation of Truth. This word will have to be harkened by the heart, and not merely by the mind. It will go home to you and bring you the Awakening.
—Source: The Awakener, vol. 5, no. 4 (Fall 1958), p. 36
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My Word of words will touch the hearts of all mankind and spontaneously this divine touch will instill in man the feeling of oneness of all fellow beings. 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: The Awakener, vol. 5, no. 4 (Fall 1958), p. 38
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I am not silent. How can I be silent? I don’t speak with My tongue. I speak continuously with My heart. But when I open My lips to speak the Word, then all sorts of things will happen. Everything will be topsy-turvy. But the hearts of the world will get the Word.
—Source: The Awakener, vol. 9, nos. 1-2 (1963), p. 21
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The silence which I have been observing for the past thirty-one years is a call from the silence of unfathomable Divinity. Invite that Divinity into your hearts so that you may become permanently established in the immortality of universal life….
—Source: “The Immortality of Universal Life,” in Life at Its Best (1956). Quoted in The Awakener, vol. 5, no. 4 (Fall 1958), p. 39
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Charles Purdom wrote: I was once told by Ramjoo (Abdulla) that years ago Baba informed some of the mandali that he proposed to speak, and brought a number of them to a distant place, which they reached after days of strenuous walking. When they arrived he made each stand around him at a distance of fifty feet or more with their backs to him, he standing in the center; at the clapping of his hands they were to turn to him and he would speak. He clapped his hands, they turned, but heard nothing. He smiled and beckoned them to him. Why had he not spoken? they asked. He [conveyed], “Do you not know I am always speaking?” Indeed, he has said that “the voice of intuition is my voice.”
—Source: C. B. Purdom, The God-Man (1964), p. 413
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[W]hen from the depths of his heart, man desires something more lasting than wealth, something more real than material power the wave of destruction will recede. Then peace will come, joy will come, light will come.
The breaking of my silence — the signal of my public Manifestation — is not far off. I bring the greatest treasure which it is possible for man to receive — a treasure which includes all other treasures, which will endure forever, which increases when shared by others. Be ready to receive it.
—Source: Discourses (1987), p. 270
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When I say that my Manifestation is connected with the breaking of my Silence, people should not expect the outpouring of verbosity. I will utter the Word of Words that will irresistibly impart to those who are ready, the “I-am-God” (Ana’l Haq or Aham Brahma Asmi) state. When you try to speak with your mouth completely closed, a particular sound resembling “Om” is without exception uttered in a certain unfailing uniformity. This is the seventh shadow of the Word of Truth.
My mission is to utter this Word of Truth which will pierce the mind of the world and go to its very heart. It will convey the simple Truth in its utter and indefinable simplicity. It will mark the moment of fulfillment of the Divine Life. It will throw open new gates to Eternity. It will bring new hope to despairing humanity. But for the fulfillment of the Divinely Ordained Plan, it is necessary that humanity should throw away all its accumulated impediments and surrender unconditionally to the abiding love of God — the unfailing and supremely universal Beloved. God has to be accepted in all simplicity and not by laboriously proved intellectual conclusions.
Wine is prepared by the crushing and further crushing of grapes, when it acquires the capacity for intoxication, which usually takes away one’s command of understanding. Close and repeated feeling of love for God also brings intoxication, but this takes you toward true understanding. This understanding is not gained through reason or intellect. As long as you remain separated from God and try to understand Him, He cannot be understood. There is no separation between you and God. Lover and Beloved are One. You yourself are the Way. You are God.
The Word that I will speak will go to the world as from God, not as from a philosopher; it will go straight to its heart. With the dawn of the realization of the Unity of all life, hatred and dissension will come to an end. There will be unfaltering love and unfailing understanding and men shall be united in an inviolable brotherhood, based on the realized Oneness of God.
—Source: Message The Word of Words, quoted in The Awakener, vol. 1, no. 4 (Spring 1954), pp. 1-2
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I have to give My Word to the world. The heart of the world has to feel the impact of My Word.
—Source: The Awakener, vol. 9, nos. 1-2 (1963), p. 32
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Throughout the years I have been giving many messages and discourses. Today I simply want to tell you who are gathered here in My Love to shut the ears of your minds and open the ears of your hearts to hear My Word when I utter it.
—Source: The Awakener, vol. 9, nos. 1-2 (1963), p. 34
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[Baba said to Lud Dimpfl] “Forget your worries . . . and find Me within you. When I give out the Word let it touch your heart . . . it will give you such happiness that the loss of even millions of dollars will not matter. No amount of money can give you that Experience! The time must come when I will give My Word. Meanwhile I want your love. . . . I want you to love Me as you should.” . . .
[Baba said to the entire group] “To maintain an atmosphere of cooperation and harmony is most essential,” Baba told us. “Do you know that I am also there with you all at the meetings?” About the problem of establishing other centers, Baba said, “All these problems will be solved when I give the Word. The problems of the whole world will find a solution. Continue to love Me . . . and those who love Me will feel the impact of that Word in their hearts. . . . you may even topple over or do a somersault!”
—Source: The Awakener, vol. 9, nos. 1-2 (1963), p. 37 (East-West Gathering, session of 3 November 1962)
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. . . “But only one in a billion can see Me as I really am, in My Real Form,” Baba added. Then He gestured, “In this hall all the cups of wine are empty. But when the Divine Wine-seller opens His eyes, simultaneously all cups will be filled with love! Let us hope it will be soon! When I break My silence with that Word of Words, all your cups will be filled full of love — then you may drink to your hearts’ content.”
—Source: The Awakener, vol. 9, nos. 1-2 (1963), p. 41
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When I break my Silence, the hearts of all those who have come in contact with me will be ignited with love.
—Source: The Awakener, vol. 9, no. 3 (1963), p. 30
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The talk drifted to the Poona East-West Gathering. He [Baba] said, “Only on certain occasions do I open a little of My Heart and give out a little love. At Poona this time I opened a small window in My Heart and doled out a love.* But I soon closed that window. When I break My Silence, I shall open My Heart completely and keep it open.
—Source: Kari & Joseph Harb, “A Visit to Meherazad, 9th December 1962,” The Awakener, vol. 9, no. 4 (1964), p. 12
*Version of this quote in Kitty Davy, Love Alone Prevails, p. 600, says “doled out a little Love.”
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The time has come when I shall break my silence. The whole world will get a spiritual push, but the hearts of my intimate lovers shall be opened then.
—Source: The Awakener, vol. 9, no. 4 (1964), pp. 22-23
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I have told the Easterners and Westerners that they should hold My garment firmly for the time is approaching very fast when the impact of My WORD of words will be felt by the hearts of My lovers.
—Source: The Awakener, vol. 10, no. 1 (1964), pp. 19-20
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This time of your being with Me, I do not intend giving you a lot of words to exercise your minds. I want your minds to sleep so that your hearts may awaken in My love. You have had enough of words; I have had enough of words. It is not through words that I give what I have to give. In the silence of your perfect surrender, My love which is always silent can flow to you—to be yours always to keep and to share with those who seek Me.
When the Word of My Love breaks out of its silence and speaks in your hearts, telling you who I really am, you will know that that is the Real Word you have been always longing to hear.
—Source: The Awakener, vol. 11, no. 1 (1966), p. 28 [Edited slightly to reflect better language in version given in 82 Family Letters, p. 226.]
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Mani wrote: I remember Baba once saying, years ago when someone asked Him why He did not speak, that the question should have rather been why He did not remain silent, for in reality He spoke continually — it was just that we had not yet tuned our heart’s ears to be able to hear Him.
—Source: Mani S. Irani, 82 Family Letters, p. 77
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When I break my Silence the impact will . . . push open the hearts of all who love Me and are connected with Me.
—Source: Quoted by Mani S. Irani, 82 Family Letters, pp. 164-65
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Just as an atom bomb, which in itself is so small, when exploded causes tremendous havoc, so, when [I break My] silence, the universal spiritual upheaval that will take place will be something that no one can describe. It will happen in a second, at a time when nobody expects it. Just as when an earthquake takes place suddenly, when no one is ready, and no one can do anything, but everyone in the affected area feels it, so the breaking of [My] silence will create a spiritual upheaval and everyone will feel it in his heart.
—Source: C. B. Purdom, The God-Man (1964), p. 271
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To affirm religious faiths, to establish societies, or to hold conferences will never bring about the feeling of unity and oneness in the life of mankind, now completely absorbed in the manyness of illusion. Unity in the midst of diversity can be made to be felt only by touching the very core of the heart. That is the work for which I have come.
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.
In order to bring this about, I am preparing to break my silence. When I break my silence it will not be to fill your ears with spiritual lectures. I shall speak only one Word, and this Word will penetrate the hearts of all men and make even the sinner feel that he is meant to be a saint, while the saint will know that God is in the sinner as much as he is in himself.
—Source: C. B. Purdom, The God-Man (1964), p. 274
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I am waiting for the moment when I can break My Silence … when at last the heart of the world can be touched.
—Source: The Awakener, vol. 9, nos. 1-2 (1963), p. 19.