same time. He would not be the Beloved if he did not decorate the walls of his wineshop with pretty pictures such as "All the religions being drawn together as beads on one string" and "700 years of peace"; and then invite the lover to cross deserts of heart-dryness and oceans of tears to receive the wine of his kiss; but when the lover at last staggers in at the door, the Beloved spends the whole time showing him the pictures and expecting his interest and admiration.

What a Beloved our Beloved is! What a Beloved we have chosen to serve! What is it to the thirst-crazed lover if a lot of glass beads are strung on one string? Will that make them turn into diamonds? What if there is 700 years of peace? Will not war again follow?

He would not be the Beloved if he did not tell the lover to stand up and sit down at the same moment; to become footless, and walk; to become headless, and think; to exert himself to the utmost, and leave everything to him.

Though it is not the time yet for us to know the wine of his kiss on our lips, we have received the kiss of his Word in our hearts. If it were not so, how could all you dear ones who have never seen his Man-form be here now?

Who but the Beloved of Beloveds could speak his Word silently in your hearts and make you come from across the world to take his darshan, to bow down to him in your hearts? Such a thing has never happened before. I have been at Mass- darshans where tens of thousands came and bowed down to his Man-form. But to come thousands of miles to bow down to him in one's own heart, that is of an entirely different order of devotion.

Why has beloved Baba given you people this extraordinary privilege? Because he required a few to do what the many, what everyone, must eventually do: journey across the world of illusion to take darshan of him in their hearts. What a Beloved is our Beloved; what a mighty Beloved. This Word which he has spoken in your hearts, which will be spoken in every heart in the world, will lead you by the hand, and drive you with whips to the door of your Beloved, to the wineshop of your master — where it will become your own pure song of praise and will cause the Beloved winemaster to open the door and bring you in and pour for you a glass of the wine of self-forgetfulness and Beloved — alone-remembrance. The very Word with which he knocked on the doors of your hearts and aroused you to set your feet on the path to him, the same Word will knock on his door and make him open it to you — himself. I bow down to this mighty one in each of you.

But you also have your parts to play on this grand journey you have begun — you must not leave it all to your Beloved. For every step the lover takes to the Beloved, the Beloved takes 10 steps to the lover. But the lover must continually take that one step. We must practice taking beloved Baba's darshan, bowing down to him in our hearts, every day, then every moment until we have continuous sight of him.

Happenings will happen — even Grand Happenings. But they will not be that Happening which has to happen in our hearts. So do not look to these other happenings to nourish your faith; depend only upon his Word and its song in your hearts.

Be prepared for a long, long journey to have the Beloved's real darshan. But it may only take a mere 700 years to reach his door and bow down to him for the last time and merge in him forever.