Was Meher Baba's Last Warning Totally Misread?

I have often thought there was something strange about Meher Baba's Last Warning, a message delivered in his last year to "those who love Him, obey Him
and all who would want to do so." Besides ordinary things like an admonishment for his lovers to stay out of each others' family affairs, and to "be less aggressive toward others and less tolerant towards themselves," he asks that they avoid contact with anyone who claims to be a saint, a perfect master, or to have powers.

Now the reason this last warning seems strange, is that if taken literally for all time, those that loved and obeyed Baba or wanted to, would have to reject the avatar in 700 years as a fraud, based on their 'doctrine.' Yet there are plenty of quotes and whole discourses by Baba stressing the imperative of finding a perfect master if one is serious about advancement and especially realization.

So the message deserves a closer reading. To begin, the message refers to a "critical period" in which this applies urgently no less than three times, appearing in each opening paragraph:

This is a very critical period of the Avataric Age and all His lovers must strive to their utmost to hold His daaman very firmly so that it does not slip out of their hands under any circumstances.

It is very important for all His lovers, especially in this critical period not to succumb to lust. Temptations are and will be great, but your love for Him should be greater. Remember Him wholeheartedly and rise swiftly from where you have fallen to march ahead in His love & service.

It is equally important at this critical period of the Avataric Age to beware at all times of persons who lead others into believing that they are saintly and pious and profess to possess supernatural powers.

What is this period Baba is referring to? I have for some time believed we are, in fact, in a unique period in Baba's work. It is a period that extends for 70 years after he drops his body, and we are in it with 20 more years to go. This period is one in which he appears to be holding back the world for the sake of his lovers.

I get this distinction of a unique period by considering two quotes juxtaposed, each given at Meherabad in the 1950s, albeit three years apart. They are on pages 4825 and 5296 of Lord Meher (1986 print ed.) respectively. The first, given in 1955 in Meherabad, reads as follows:

"I will go to Nagpur for a day – but no darshan to others, no publicizing in the newspapers. Deshmukh do you hear what I say?"

Referring to Deshmukh's insistence a few days back on Baba's attending a philosophical conference to be held in Nagpur at the end of December, Baba ridiculed him in front of the group:

"I am not for philosophers and celebrities! I understand your point that through your conference there would be other contacts, but I am for my lovers."

In the second quote, given in Meherabad three years later in 1958, Baba uses cryptically similar language (about "philosophers and celebrities"), but implying a very different time to come. 

"Seventy years after I drop my body, this place will turn into a place of pilgrimage, where lovers of God, philosophers and celebrities will come to pay homage."

Notice the reference to 'seventy years.' What is the significance of it. It took a long time for it to occur to me.

In the 1973 print edition of God Speaks, p. 271, Baba says an Avataric cycle (yuga) is 700-1400 years. Each such yuga has 11 ages. For a cycle of 1400 years, such as the one that began after Muhammad, these ages are 125 years each, the 11th of which the avatar appears.

So Baba's life has to be understood as an occurrence taking place during the last 125 year age, the last of 11 such ages since Muhammad.

"In each cycle of time, which ranges from 700 to 1400 years, there are eleven ages of 65 to 125 years each. . . In the last, the eleventh age of each cycle, the Avatar (Saheb-e-Zaman) is also present."

So now it becomes clear what Baba is referring to by this 'critical period' mentioned in his Final Warning. It is critical, for it is the remaining 70 years until the end of the final 125 year age, and thus the end of this yuga.*

How do we get this? Babajan revealed Baba to his destiny when he was 19, marking the start of his advent as Avatar. He died 55 years later, at the age of 74. Now add to this 55 years another 70 years after he dropped his body, and you have 125 years. That marks the end of the age in which Baba's advent takes place. We are still in the period of the advent, for at least another 20 years, until 2039.

And this is the period in which it is critical to stay away from other masters if you are, or want to count yourself as, one who loves or obeys Baba. This is not a permanent condition. It is not a fatwa for all time. If it were, then by such a fatwa all those who loved Baba in 700 years would have to reject him, or be an apostate or heretic.


*See God Speaks Glossary for how Baba used the word "yuga" in God Speaks.

yuga (V): (yuga) A cycle of time, of about 700 to 1400 years duration. (GS, 1973 ed., p. 323)