The Master’s Promises
Once, in Cannes, in discussing a letter which he [Meher Baba] had recently received, and in which the writer was bewailing the fact that Baba’s promises were not materializing according to his schedule, he indicated to me that everything he had promised would come true, “but in my own time and in my own way.”
Source: Jean Adriel, Avatar, p. 146
Meher Baba says:
The promises given by the Masters are never vague or unfulfilled. They always come true and are fulfilled, but in their proper time. The question of time depends on the conditions or circumstances in which they are given. When Masters give their promises, they are given from the mental, or subtle, or physical plane, and thus differ in the time of their fulfillment accordingly.
For example, if a train is rushing ahead at full speed and the brakes are applied, the train does not come all at once to an immediate halt due to the momentum. It stops gradually. The period for the fulfillment of my promises is just like this momentum. If I give a promise from the gross plane, it is fulfilled exactly at the time given and comes true. If a promise is given from the subtle plane, the momentum, or force of fulfillment, is halved; the promise takes a certain amount of time, for its fulfillment was given from a higher plane. If a promise is given from the mental plane, it takes even longer for fulfillment — like a train at full throttle takes longer to come to a dead stop when the brakes are applied.
This is why the promises given by me at different times vary in the period and details of their fulfillment. Out of sheer ignorance and inability to understand the secret behind it, you misjudge my way of working. This is the reason why some people have doubts about my power and ability to fulfill the promises I have given. They blame, ridicule and slander me in public and in private. But I go on doing my work in my own way, refusing to explain or disclose the manner in which I do it.
[1932]
Source: Quoted in Lord Meher, rev. online ed., p. 1458
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It seems to all that I give promises, and break all of them. But I fulfill all of them.…
I am master of the art of telling lies, of giving promises and not fulfilling them. But remember, I am beyond all that too, and therefore I fulfill every promise given.
[1956, Sakori]
—Source: Glow International, Aug. 1993, p. 9
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Avatars, Sadgurus, and Masters never reveal their way of working. If they do so, it entails more work for them.
Source: Quoted in Mehera-Meher, digital ed., vol. 2, p. 101
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I ask you … not to be disheartened by My frequent procrastinations and not to despair; and I warn you all to be alert and vigilant, ready to meet humiliations and difficulties with faith and confidence in the eternal victory of the divine Truth. [1953, meeting with mandali]
Source: Meher Baba, quoted in Bal Natu, Glimpses of the God-Man, Meher Baba, vol. 4, p. 34.