1. This information (about the context of this lecture) is taken from ChD 62: p. 357. It does not appear in the “Tiffin Lectures” sources (TTL/FF p. 27, TTL p. 27, TLD/FF: 30-5-26 draft A, p. 1 and draft B, p. 1).
2. The “Tiffin Lectures” sources (TTL/FF p. 30, TTL p. 30, TLD/FF: 31-5-26 draft A, p. 3 and draft B, p. 4) give “Sat-Samagam”; the diary source, ChD 62: p. 360 reads “SAT SAMAGUM” (further glossed in the line below as “Guru Sharan,” which means “Guru refuge” or “Guru asylum”). “Sat,” of course, means Truth, and “samagam” (saṅgam) means meeting, union; the confluence of rivers or roads; association; sexual intercourse.
3. Some of the discussion of sharīat that follows, based on TTL pp. 30-31, is presented in another form in “Fragments from the Spiritual Speeches of Shri Sadguru Meher Baba. (24) On Shariat,” Meher Message, vol. 2, no. 8 (August 1930), pp. 4-5.
4. Much of the discussion of rituals and the sharīat in this section and the next two was published in identically titled articles in two successive issues of the Meher Message, “Spiritual Speeches of His Divine Majesty Meher Baba. (2) On Shariat,” Meher Message, vol. 1, no. 2 (February 1929), pp. 8-9, and vol. 1, no. 3 (March 1929), pp. 10-11.
5. The “Tiffin Lectures” sources (TTL/FF pp. 31-32, TTL pp. 31-32, TLD/FF: 31-5-26 draft A, pp. 4-5 and draft B, p. 5) use the unidiomatic English expression “striking off”; but the diary source in ChD 62: p. 362 provides jhaṭakvī, which the editors have inserted here in its Gujarati infinitive form, jhaṭakavũ, “to snap or pull,” related to jhaṭak, “a sudden pull or jerk or snapping action.” What these phrases intend to designate is the act of shaking and snapping the sacred thread in the air, in the same way that teenage boys snap towels in the shower rooms of athletic facilities.