yourself a Meher Baba lover at all. But if you really call yourself a Meher Baba lover, you have to prove all your actions by your very life, not by theory. Meher Baba is not a toy to be played with. We wade through many philosophical, spiritual books, many books of yoga, many books of religions, and we do not know. We get so much confounded that the little things, the important things that we had in mind are defaced and we forget and we get confused; we do not know whether "I should do this or I should do that." But Meher Baba makes it very simple. I really think in the future of humanity, it may be fifty years hence, a hundred years hence, two hundred years hence or more, it is only Baba and His messages that are going to come to the relief of the entire world. There have been conflicts, challenges thrown by the intellect, to religious tenets and dogmas, and the religions as said and practiced do not stand the test of the intellect. Meher Baba can stand to the very last. There will be no alternative left but Meher Baba and His messages.

This is not an egotistic saying. It is a thing that comes from the Man, from the Personage who knows. I know that He knows. You ask me a question, how do I know that He knows and I shall definitely say that I know He knows - because I am convinced about it. If I am convinced about a certain thing there is nothing in the world that can shake my conviction and everyone of you can get it. It is not difficult at all. But we must give ourselves a chance to get that conviction. Once gotten never lost.

Am I not convinced that I am I, you are an audience, this is a university? Am I not convinced? I am. Why? There have been certain things which have contributed towards my conviction. So you should give yourself a chance to study those things, allow them to come near you. Somebody may ask how are you convinced that there is a sun: "Please give me a logical proof." How the heck can I give a logical proof when the sun is shining there. But he says, "I cannot see." That is another thing: because you can't see doesn't mean that it doesn 't exist, doesn't shine. It shines equally on all. Meher Baba's grace is equally good for all but I'm not able to see, I'm not able to get it. But what if I break out of myself, this shell in which I am entrenched - all my preconceptions, all my ideas, all my thoughts, all my habits, all my weaknesses? But this is a work of a brave man. If you decide, you are able to do it. I have seen persons who are used to a certain habit for fifty years; decide and give it up in a flash; they have taken decision in my presence and given it up for all times to come. How could they do that? If one man is able to do it, do you mean to say I'm not able to do it? The thing is whether you want to do it. If you want to, you can. If you say, I'm too weak, that means, you don’t want to. There are always difficulties, no doubt. It may not be the same for all. You see, everybody differs in his mental constitution. There may be certain difficulties undoubtedly, but there is no difficulty we cannot overcome so far as we ourselves are concerned. Take a decision and throw it out.

But what happens is somebody spits out the decision and then again goes and tries to lick his spit, fall back upon the old habit. That is not right. It is better to keep away. One has no right to call himself a Meher Baba lover if he cannot live the life. You can stay home, not call yourself a Meher Baba lover, study all His messages academically and do not bother about anything at all that is easy. But that is not Meher Baba.

Meher Baba says, "I have given this book, God Speaks, to satisfy the convulsions of the human mind." It is like Meher Baba's Gita. It contains intellectual understanding of the spiritual truths. But by reading it we do not get the experience of those truths at all. The domain of experience is far removed. We are bound by our intellect, our imagination. But human imagination is so powerful it can rise to the feet of Meher Baba. Then when the Master sees your imagination is all the time disturbing Him and striking against His feet, He will try to just lift you up and take you up and make you experience what He Himself is. So we have got everything in our hand, and we should be prepared to use it.

I do not know if I should ask you to ask questions on this occasion. Yes? No?

Q: When did you get "Conviction?"

So far as I am concerned, it was not overnight that I got the conviction about Meher Baba that He is the Avatar of the Age, the personification of God. It took me quite a long time. But definitely I did have love for Him, whatever He was. My mother took me to Him and gave me entirely to Meher Baba and I was very happy about it. But I, at that time, did not bother about who He was. Neither did I take care to have that conviction. But as the years rolled on, there