Poems Inspired by Meher Baba's 'God Speaks'

POEMS INSPIRED BY ‘GOD SPEAKS’
BY MEHER BABA

Paul Smith

Meher Baba’s metaphysical views are most notably described in God Speaks. His cosmology incorporates concepts and terms from Vedanta, Sufism, and Christianity. Meher Baba upheld the concept of non-duality, the view that diverse creation, or duality, is an illusion and that the goal of life is conscious realization of the absolute Oneness of God inherent in all animate and inanimate beings and things. Meher Baba compares God’s original state to an infinite, shore-less ocean that has only unconscious divinity - unaware of itself because there is nothing but itself. From this state, God had the ‘whim’ to know Himself, and asked ‘Who am I?’ In response to this question, Creation came into existence. In this analogy, what was previously a still, shore-less Ocean now stirred, forming innumerable ‘drops’ of itself or souls. Meher Baba often remarked… ‘You will find all the answers to your questions in God Speaks. Study the book thoroughly and absorb it.’ The poems in this book were composed by Paul Smith during studying Meher Baba’s masterpiece. Pages 168.

COMMENTS ON PAUL SMITH’S VERSION OF HAFIZ’S ‘DIVAN’.

“It is not a joke... the English version of ALL the ghazals of Hafiz is a great feat and of paramount importance. I am astonished.” Dr. Mir Mohammad Taghavi (Dr. of Literature) Tehran.
“Superb translations. 99% Hafiz 1% Paul Smith.” Ali Akbar Shapurzman, translator into Persian and knower of Hafiz’s Divan off by heart.

Paul Smith is a poet, author and translator of over 150 books of Sufi poets of Persian, Arabic, Urdu, Turkish, Pashtu and other languages, including Hafiz, Sadi, Nizami, Rumi, ‘Attar, Sana’i, Jahan, Obeyd Zakani, Nesimi, Kabir, Anvari, Ansari, Jami, Khayyam, Rudaki, Yunus Emre, Lalla Ded, Iqbal, Ghalib and many others, as well as poetry, fiction, plays, biographies and screenplays.