The Theme of Creation: An Exploration of Meher Baba's “God Speaks”
DVD from Divine Sport Productions.
Produced and Directed by Tim Thelen
Montage on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpNFBV0ZZmo
Reviewed by Kendra Crossen Burroughs
“Have you read God Speaks?”
“No, but I saw the movie.”
This imaginary exchange, which might have once been a joke, is now in the realm of possibility, thanks to Tim Thelen, who has dared to summarize in 54 minutes of film what Meher Baba lays out in detail in his magnum opus: the journey of consciousness from the beginningless question “Who am I?” to the endless answer, “I am God.”
God Speaks is the book that most Baba-lovers feel they ought to read several times, but more than a few have failed to get through it even once. As Robert Dreyfuss dryly points out, it is not light reading for the beach. With the introduction provided by this documentary, hesitators may be encouraged to accept the challenge. In the multimedia age, it is more inviting for many to watch a movie than to pick up a hardcover book, so I think Tim has done an important service in producing this film. Those who have read God Speaks will also enjoy it.
The film summarizes the book’s content, interspersed with comments by Rick Chapman, Allan Cohen, Robert Dreyfuss, Charmian Duce Knowles, Carl Ernst, Bhau Kalchuri, Pascal Kaplan, Phyllis Ott, Tom Riley, Don Stevens, Adele Wolkin, and myself. Visuals include footage shot in both India and America, simple graphics (not the charts that appear in the book), scenes of nature and animal life, photos of masters, saints, and masts, and images from the world’s sacred art, accompanied by music by Richard Peikoff, Tim Thelen, and Larry Thrasher. Richard Stermer is excellent as narrator.
What are some of the notable lessons of God Speaks that emerge from this film? The goal of life is to love God and become one with God. We become God because we are God. The Grace of the Avatar or the Perfect Master is necessary for God-Realization. Meher Baba is the Avatar of the Age. “Not your average off-the-street author,” says Allan Cohen with a twinkle, but someone who clearly knows what he is talking about.
In addition to the precious footage of Meher Baba, it is the interview sound bites that provide charm. Phyllis Ott, who has led countless God Speaks meetings in Myrtle Beach, tells a hilarious story about Baba’s questioning her understanding of the book. Don Stevens, coeditor with Murshida Ivy Duce, comments on Meher Baba as author, as does Charmian Duce Knowles. Carl Ernst offers his perspective as an authority on Sufism. Pascal Kaplan and Rick Chapman compare Baba’s creation theme with Darwinian evolution. Robert Dreyfuss was one of those whom Baba told to read it again and again—till he felt it “singing in his veins.” Adele Wolkin feels that the book’s most beautiful message is “God alone is real.” Bhau Kalchuri cautions us that we may read it thousands of times, but will not thereby become God. Allan Cohen reassures us: “If you don’t understand a word of it, it doesn’t matter, because God is to be accessed through love.” The observation that struck me the most comes from Tom Riley: “Rather than a book, it becomes your life after a while, and you realize that you’re a part of that process, and you are that process.”
I believe there is a beautiful simplicity to Meher Baba’s Divine Theme. Yet it is not simple to absorb on first reading, or even on first hearing of Tim Thelen’s accessible script. So the DVD bears viewing a few times. Viewers hopefully will move on or return to the book itself. Here’s a study tip (not from the DVD): For a short-short version of Meher Baba’s Theme of Creation, see “The Divine Truths (for meditation through reading): The Journey of the Soul to the Oversoul,” in Discourses (1987), pp. 222-227 (in the 1967 ed., vol. 2, p. 138ff); see also “The Divine Theme,” in the supplement to God Speaks (2nd ed.), pp. 234-239; in the Indian edition, pp. 220-224.