Spirituality Includes the Whole of Life
Bill Le Page
Bill Le Page - who regularly visits Meher Mount to share stories of his life with Meher Baba - reported the following message from Avatar Meher Baba in the book Over the Years with Meher Baba.
By Bill Le Page
About spirituality, Avatar Meher Baba said, spirituality does not "necessarily imply the renunciation of worldly activities. True spirituality signifies the internal renunciation of mundane desires.
AVATAR MEHER BABA (left) with Frank Simon Hendrick, Francis Brabazon and Bill Le Page in 1954.
"Mere external renunciation - asceticism - does not lead to spirituality. Perfection is a misnomer if it tries to escape from entanglement by shrinking from the dual expressions of nature.
"The perfect man must assert his dominion over all illusion, however attractive and however powerful. A Perfect Being functions with complete detachment in the midst of the most intense activity and in contact with all forms life."
'Spirituality sought apart from life, as if it had nothing to do with the material world, is a futile search. Creeds and cults emphasise [sic] some aspect of life, but spirituality is totalitarian in its outlook.
"Spirituality is an enlightened attitude to all of life. It includes the whole of life."
Source
Bill Le Page, Over the Years with Meher Baba, (Hyderabad: Meher Mownavani Publications, 1999), pp. 91 & 100. (c)Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust.