God”, there is a chapter ‘The work of the God-Man’ in which it is said that ‘the God-Man . . . is concerned to bring about the unfoldment of the spirit in all whom He helps'. It is further said that the God-Man 'does not follow rules or precedents but is a law to himself . . . He can play any necessary role . . . ' Also ‘the God-Man is not bound by conventional standards. He is beyond good and evil . . . He may do what shocks . . . may seem to be harsh . . . The God-Man helps the soul in bondage by sowing in him the seed of God-realization.’ These remarks, together with the connection in which they are made, seem to me to be primarily intended to apply the Man-God — i.e. to the Perfect Master, who has realized God, for the discourse contrasts Him with one who has not attained that realization. Though we should remember that Meher Baba the God-Man does also the work of the Man-God.

In another discourse entitled 'Avatar', the God-Man is said to take leadership of the five Men-Gods who are the spiritual directing body of the world. No further explanation is given of what this may mean. 'Avataric periods are the springtide of creation', it is said. ‘Life as a whole is lifted to a higher level of consciousness and geared to a new rate of energy'. The discourse is mainly a description of the Avatar, who has a Circle of one hundred and twenty disciples, all of whom experience realization, and work for the liberation of others. This reference to the Circle - there is a separate discourse on the subject - is not developed in Baba's subsequent teachings. In fact the subject is dropped, and we need not pursue it. We can understand from what is said that the work of the God-Man is to awaken men to the realization of their spiritual nature; to demonstrate 'the possibility of the divine life of humanity'.

These are no more than general statements. When we come to the much later book entitled, 'God Speaks' nothing at all is said about the God-Man’s 'work'; the word is not to be found there, except that the God-Man is said to 'recall his divinity to man', and to give 'a universal push to all things accelerating the maturity of consciousness' which is to repeat what He had said earlier. That there is no more is perhaps sufficient indication that Meher Baba does not wish to speak about His work. I have already mentioned the few other references to it made by Him on various occasions. While so little is said, increasing emphasis is implied in all Meher Baba's actions that there is a ‘work’ which counts above all else. When He is in the contact with crowd at a darshan or with individuals, always of obviously giving Himself, there is not mistaking the fact of a 'work' being done. Indeed, all who have observed Him say that He is 'working' always, day and night.

I think we must accept the fact that we are not to know the work. Indeed, does not the silence and the not-writing point to this conclusion? Silence and not-writing are part of the conditions of the work, and, may be, contain the work. If then we do not know what the work is, can we ask how it is done? Certainly there is nothing spectacular, nothing corresponding to what is seen in great re-forming or religious leaders, Neither are there any of the ways in which philosophers or artists or priests work: there is no sign of what is or any show of power.

That the work has to do with the soul, specifically the soul of man, we should find no difficulty in understanding. The work is on the various planes of involution of consciousness for the development of mankind. In the discourses, in some later talks, and in more detail in 'God Speaks', Meher Baba describes the seven evolutionary states in which the soul overcomes the sleep of indifferentiation to arrive at self-consciousness, which belongs to pre-