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Companions have not been able to comply with the conditions of the New Life in the strict sense I had expected them to do, although in fairness to them I want to say that each has tried his best according to his own capabilities and understanding. I feel therefore, that this year has been, not a failure, but an eye-opener.
"I have now given my Companions another chance to reconsider their original decision that they would join me in my New Life, and a free choice to rejoin me in the New life as my Servants, or to go away, and become my Old Life Disciples, or to be entirely free and lead independent lives in the world."
Baba thus, as he has so many times in the past, gave his New Life Companions the chance to reconsider their choice, after an "unflinching survey of their experience of one year." If they decided to rejoin him in the New Life, he warned them they would have to try and obey him "100% . . . (and) the Servant Obedience to my Orders must be spontaneous and devoid of any feeling of slavery or compulsion." All agreed, I believe, to stay on as Servant-Companions.
During these few hours in the Old Life, Baba also dictated the beautiful "Sermon” * in which he gives “The established Divine Facts . . . Essentially we are all one. The feeling of our being otherwise is due to ignorance."
The following message, given on the 16th of October, 1950, at Mahabaleshwar, helps to clarify this period:
"If I am the one my Old Life Disciples take me to be, I would wish them to endeavor wholeheartedly to stick to their faith and love, to carry out my Old life instructions without any feeling of enforced bondage on their part and to live a life worthy of real love; and, irrespective of what I am, the most compassionate God will surely reward them spiritually even if they do not seek reward. As to my 'Arrangement-wallas,' I ask God to give them courage to carry out their responsibilities to the very end."
“ . . . My Old Life places me on the altar of Godhood and Divine Perfection. My New Life makes me take the stand of a humble servant of God and His people. In my New Life Perfect Divinity is replaced by Perfect Humility. In my New Life I am the seeker, the lover, and the friend.
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