Meher Baba And The Masts, Part 1
Excerpts From Various Sources
Masts are God-Intoxicated souls, who have no interest in modern man. They are completely absorbed by God and often aren’t responsive to external stimuli because they are so focused on God.
Baba worked with the masts and helped them. He bathed them, fed them and made sure they were safe and cared for. He offered them safe housing that he had built for them. But they had a choice. Some were not interested in moving, and preferred living on the streets.
Quote From Lord Meher, Vol. 6, pg. 2031.
“All masts are intoxicated with God. They are intoxicated by divine love.
When a normal person is intoxicated by alcohol or drugs, he enjoys this sensation so long as the intoxicant is in sufficient concentration in his physical tissues. A drunkard feels happy, cares not for anyone or anything, and has one dominant sensation, of drunkenness, in which the past, present or future have practically no meaning.
But as soon as the ordinary intoxication passes away, the drunkard suffers the reverse, the hangover. Stimulated physical intoxication is inescapably temporary, because it is limited by the very stimulant itself, the conditions of the environment, the cost of the stimulant, and the resilience of one's condition.
Now, a person who is God-intoxicated experiences the same sensation that a drunkard enjoys, and cares for no one and nothing, in proportion to the extent of his inner intoxication. The vast difference is, the mast's intoxication is continual, that it may increase but can never decrease, and that it has no harmful physical or mental reaction. It is an inner state of permanent and unalloyed intoxication, independent of anything external. The principal sensation of a mast is this permanent enjoyment of divine intoxication.
The creation is full of bliss, and the mast enjoys this bliss, and thereby becomes intoxicated to an almost unlimited extent, virtually consuming him and absorbing him, and thereby making the world around him vanish. Absorbed in God, such a person is continually absorbed in thinking about God, and with that comes, like a bolt, pure love, consuming him further in a state of divine intoxication.”
One Of Baba’s Favorite Masts: Mohammad
Born: 1908, Sonawadi, MS, British India
Died: 17th June 2003, Meherabad, India
Quote From Lord Meher, Vol. 6, pg. 2031.
“How does it happen that some men and women become masts?
There are those who have become masts whose minds have become unbalanced through unceasing dwelling upon thoughts of God, so that they neglect all normal human requirements.
There are those whose minds have become unbalanced by sudden contact with a highly advanced spiritual being.
There are those who have sought spiritual experience and have met a crisis from which they do not recover.
What characterises all masts is their concentration upon the love of God.”
Quote From Lord Meher, Vol. 6, pg. 2035.
“Masts are not insane or mad in the ordinary sense. Masts are desperately in love with God, or consumed by their love for God.
Masts do not suffer from what may be called a disease. They are in a state of mental disorder because their minds are overcome by such intense spiritual energies that are far too much for them — forcing them to lose contact with the world, shed normal human habits and customs and civilised society, and live in a state of spiritual splendor but physical squalor.
They are overcome by an agonising love for God, and are drowned in their ecstasy. Only the divine love embodied in a Perfect Master can reach them.”
Quote From Lord Meher, Vol. 7, pg. 2435.
“No ordinary man can tell whether one man is a mast and another man is mad without the divine authority of a Perfect Master. However, the unmistakeable quality that masts possess is their abilty to make one happy in their company. Whereas in the company of a mad person one feels depression and sadness.”
Quote From Lord Meher, Vol. 7, pg. 2539. 24 March. 1940.
“These men may be called Yoga-brashtas. Apart from the Circle, who are taken to God blindfolded, there are very few who receive the grace of a Master and who are pushed to even the sixth plane. All this depends mostly on past sanskaras. It is very little of this present life which brings one in contact with a Perfect Master. These souls you see here had been on the Path in their past lives, but were entirely lost as Yoga-brashtas, and became spiritually dazed. Among many examples, one man held on to the fruit of a tree for four years, remaining in the same position until a Master came and gave him experience. so that he released his hold on the fruit and branch he had been holding.
(One of the Mandali asked how masts are able to withstand physical hardships)
Baba: All of you have three bodies, Gross, Subtle and Mental. Ordinarily everyone uses the first two, Gross and Subtle, for experiencing the Gross and Subtle worlds, the former in the awake state and the latter in the dream state. After a soul is spiritually advanced and is stationed on the spiritual planes, he assumes a body which is called Karana sharir (Mental body).
When in this state, the soul has immense powers in proportion to the stage of advancement which he has attained. The power itself sustains the physical body, even in the hardest strains and trials. That is how, even oblivious to the world and their own physical needs, they keep living as fresh and strong as ever. Otherwise an ordinary man would drop the body even under a thousandth part of the strain on the physical body they experience.
Material happiness is a millionth shadow of the true divine bliss.”