God Speaks
There isn't another book quite like God Speaks.
From Don Steven's Introduction:
..."In the choice of a title for his book God Speaks Meher Baba has succinctly stated both the major thesis which he is to elaborate, as well as his right to speak authoritatively on subjects which may be treated by only the most advanced of our era. Before discussing the right of the author to imply such a sublime source for his work, it might be well to complete the complexity of the issue by stating quite simply that the greatest proportion of Meher Baba’s disciples and followers from all over the world regard him as the Avatar of the Age. Put in Western terminology, they consider him as the Christ of our times, the successor to the tradition of Muhammad, Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, Rama, Zoroaster, and so on back into the dusky past, and as the identical nature which reincarnated in those specific and successive personalities.
If Meher Baba occupies such a crowning position in the spiritual structure of our civilization, then there would be no question of his right to speak positively and with authority on the deepest mechanics of Creation. But the simpler issue of his Divine Source then becomes the much greater one of the legitimacy of his function in the key role of a religious hierarchy which in turn is doubted or frankly disbelieved by many people.
...Meher Baba’s silence of almost three decades and substitution of an alphabet board as a means of communication are equally puzzling. Many people may regard it as unproductive to use an alphabet board, and some even label it a subterfuge.
There have been a number of discussions by Meher Baba and others on the reasons for this prolonged silence. I do not wish to go into the various potential explanations here, but rather to call attention to the most astounding fact of all. Despite such a severe handicap, the equivalent of having one hand tied behind one’s back, Meher Baba has planned minutely and personally the most complex undertakings, taught hundreds and blessed thousands, directed undertakings and given words of cheer to persons at far distant points, and “dictated” in a relatively brief period of time as monumental an enterprise as this book."
From Don Steven's Introduction:
..."In the choice of a title for his book God Speaks Meher Baba has succinctly stated both the major thesis which he is to elaborate, as well as his right to speak authoritatively on subjects which may be treated by only the most advanced of our era. Before discussing the right of the author to imply such a sublime source for his work, it might be well to complete the complexity of the issue by stating quite simply that the greatest proportion of Meher Baba’s disciples and followers from all over the world regard him as the Avatar of the Age. Put in Western terminology, they consider him as the Christ of our times, the successor to the tradition of Muhammad, Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, Rama, Zoroaster, and so on back into the dusky past, and as the identical nature which reincarnated in those specific and successive personalities.
If Meher Baba occupies such a crowning position in the spiritual structure of our civilization, then there would be no question of his right to speak positively and with authority on the deepest mechanics of Creation. But the simpler issue of his Divine Source then becomes the much greater one of the legitimacy of his function in the key role of a religious hierarchy which in turn is doubted or frankly disbelieved by many people.
...Meher Baba’s silence of almost three decades and substitution of an alphabet board as a means of communication are equally puzzling. Many people may regard it as unproductive to use an alphabet board, and some even label it a subterfuge.
There have been a number of discussions by Meher Baba and others on the reasons for this prolonged silence. I do not wish to go into the various potential explanations here, but rather to call attention to the most astounding fact of all. Despite such a severe handicap, the equivalent of having one hand tied behind one’s back, Meher Baba has planned minutely and personally the most complex undertakings, taught hundreds and blessed thousands, directed undertakings and given words of cheer to persons at far distant points, and “dictated” in a relatively brief period of time as monumental an enterprise as this book."
I am not come to establish any cult, society or organization; nor even to establish a new religion. The religion that I shall give teaches the Knowledge of the One behind the many. The book that I shall make people read is the book of the heart that holds the key to the mystery of life. I shall bring about a happy blending of the head and the heart. I shall revitalize all religions and cults, and bring them together like beads on one string.
-Meher Baba (From the Introduction to God Speaks 2nd edition)
Short publication history: God Speaks was first published by Dodd-Mead (New York) in 1955. Its revised and enlarged second edition was published by Sufism Reoriented (Walnut Creek, CA) in 1973. The third printing of this second edition, though it did not in any way revise the text, changed the pagination. This third printing of the second edition was republished in its first Indian edition by Meher Mownavani Publications (Hyderabad, India) in 2001. This online release, provided by the current publisher and copyright holder, is a digital facsimile of the 1997 third printing of the second edition.
