were three distinct instances which gave me 100% conviction that Meher Baba is nothing but the personification of God, the Avatar of the Age.

The first one was that after Babajan implanted the kiss on the forehead of Meher Baba, when He was so young, He had an inner urge to see Sai Baba and He bowed down before him. Sai Baba said, "You are Parvardigar." This was the first thing and this was revealed to me by Gustadji, one of the elderly disciples of Meher Baba who was a disciple of Sai Baba, of Upasni Maharaj and of Meher Baba and who observed silence for nearly thirty-seven years under the instructions of Meher Baba. That was as far back as 1922. I just took a mental note about this; I didn't much bother about what Sai Baba said. Parvardigar means, "you are God," and he addressed it to Meher Baba.

The second occasion was when Upasni Maharaj used to come to Ahmednagar, fifty miles away from Sakori. There a prayer room created by my mother. Upasni Maharaj never used to go anywhere else in Ahmednagar without first stepping into that room and staying for quite a while. It may be for five hours or for half a day or a whole day. Then he would go to the house of another of his disciples in Ahmednagar where he would stay for a number of days. So one day he happened to come to my home. That was in the thirties, nearly ten years after, and I was staying at Meherabad with Meher Baba then. Sometimes in the evening Baba allowed me to go home to my parents' house. Upasni Maharaj happened to arrive just then. The moment he stepped down from the car, he entered the room. I also entered and my mother Gulmai was also standing nearby. Upasni Maharaj asked my mother to bring a tray and a lamp. The tray and a lamp is there to perform an arti . . . song of praise offered to God or which the disciple offers to his Master. The Master never offers arti to the disciple. But here Upasni Maharaj was a Master and in front of him was placed a photograph of Meher Baba and he asked for the tray and the lamp, which my mother immediately gave to him, and he started waving them and he sang an arti to Meher Baba. The Master is singing an arti to the disciple! I was absolutely astounded at that time. And after the finish of the arti he turns his face aside and asks me, "Do you know who Meher Baba is?" I said, "How could I know; you are His Master so you are supposed to know better. What is it, Maharaj, that you are asking me? I do not know. I know Him but you know Him much more than I do." "He is the Avatar of the Age," he says. Then I put those two things together. There Sai Baba had said "You are Parvardigar" and here Upasni Maharaj said "You are the Avatar of the Age" - there must be something in it. I was a little convinced, so much so that more than fifty, sixty percent I was convinced. But I was not fully convinced that Meher Baba was the Avatar of the Age.

Ten years later or maybe more, fifteen years later, Meher Baba himself came out with the declaration that "I am the Avatar of the Age." Then I put these three things together and my conviction of Him as the Avatar of the Age was absolutely sealed, became unassailable. I started shouting at the top of my voice through correspondence. I did not give talks in those days but in private conversation I would say that Meher Baba should now henceforth be addressed as the Avatar. When I received letters addressed in the old slide as Shri Meher Baba, Sadguru Meher Baba, I used to return those letters and write to them, "You address him Avatar Meher Baba, then alone I shall read your letter to Meher Baba." And then, in like manner, everybody had to change his habit.

For that man who has got that conviction so far as Meher Baba is concerned, his entire life is insured. Life is not one span of life we live for ten - twenty - fifty - sixty - seventy - or at the most a hundred years or more. That is not the life. The life contains many lives in which there are so many physical deaths and births of the body. The life is of the mind, the birth is of the mind, and between the birth and the death of the mind there are millions of births and deaths of bodies. So Meher Baba is concerned with that mental life of yours, from beginning to end. And when you go into this love orbit and when you get that conviction, your life is absolutely insured. You may come back again into this earth or may be you are completely released, relieved from this illusion. You don't know. He may, for example, for His own work (for His own work means for the benefit of humanity) give you complete release, but on the strength of your conviction you are absolutely registered with Him. You are insured with Him for all times. This is the thing.

And during the Avataric period every man, every person, every Tom, Dick and Harry has a chance to get it. During the lifetime of the Perfect Masters (every generation has got five