The New Life quote is one of Meher Baba’s most beautiful messages, and it holds out such extraordinary hope to everyone:
“But this New Life is endless, and even after my physical death will be kept alive by those who live the life of complete renunciation of falsehood, lies, hatred, anger, greed and lust, and who, to accomplish all this, do no lustful actions, do no harm to anyone, do no backbiting, do not seek material possessions or power, who accept no homage, neither covet honor, nor shun disgrace, and fear no one and nothing; by those who rely wholly and solely on God, and who love God purely for the sake of loving, who believe in the lovers of God and in the reality of Manifestation, and yet do not expect any spiritual or material reward, who do not let go the hand of Truth, and who, without being upset by calamities, bravely and wholeheartedly face all hardships with one hundred percent cheerfulness, and give no importance to caste, creed and religious ceremonies. This New Life will live by itself eternally, even if there is no one to live it.”
Do you think any of us are living it now? I doubt it. It’s a nice thought but, aside from the mandali, I don’t think any of us even come close. Believing it to be so is on a par, I think, with believing we’re the New Humanity. The generations that will earn that name, I believe, are still to come.
As for the New Life, the criteria is certainly clear enough. If you sit down and look carefully at them, I think you’ll see either you or someone you know may be meeting one or even several of those criteria. But all of them? Come on! And I don’t think a partial New Life is what Meher Baba had in mind. It’s all or nothing.
There’s another theory out there that we all start living the New Life at the same time. That sort of thing hardly ever happens with Baba. I like my own theory, based on the last sentence of the message: “The New Life will live by itself eternally, even if there is no one left to live it.” That conjures up in my imagination a sort of bubble which is always there, hovering, waiting. And when we’re ready, as individuals, we simply step into it.