By Charles Haynes
(Excerpted
from the Treasures from the
Meher Baba Journals, Sheriar Press, 1980)
It was love
that drew Meher Baba’s early disciples to him and it was for
the sake of love
that they remained with him. Today it is still love that draws those
who seek
him. This is as he would have it; for Meher Baba’s only
message has always been
of Divine love. His is a message given not in words but through an
awakening of
the heart.
The story
of this extraordinary man is thus a story of love. For while there are
many who
speak of Divine love, Meher Baba lived it. His live was a life of such
love,
purity and service that it will stand for all time as the divinely
human
example of life as it should be lived. To those who have witnessed the
simple
beauty of his ways, he is the Ancient One: the One who comes age after
age to
reveal the love of God in the world.
Meher Baba
was born Merwan Sheriar Irani on February 25, 1894, in Poona, India.
His
parents were Persian, and his father, Sheriar Irani, was known as a
true seeker
of God. Though Merwan was much loved and respected as a youth, there is
little
about his early life that indicates his spiritual destiny. He attended
a
Christian high school and then Deccan College, both in Pune. At age 19
the veil
was shattered and Merwan came to realize who he was. The unveiling
began one
day in
January of 1913 when Merwan
while cycling home from college, encountered an ancient Muslim woman
known as
Hazrat Babajan. She was reputed to be Perfect Master, one who had
achieved
God-realization. From the moment of His first contact with Babajan,
Merwan’s
life changed completely. He began to know his true identity as being
one with
God. Merwan was then led to contact four other Perfect Masters, each of
whom
played a significant role in the process of unveiling. One of these
Masters,
Upasni Maharaj, worked with Merwan over a period of seven years.
Finally in
1921, Upasni folded his hands before Merwan saying, “You are
the Avatar, I
salute you.” Merwan began his work as the Avatar of the Age.
Who is the
Avatar? At critical junctures in human history, Meher Baba has
explained, God
becomes man. Though the titles may be many (Avatar, Christ, Messiah),
the
message if Divine love is eternally the same. In his compassion, the
Avatar
invariably takes on himself the suffering of the world, and in doing so
brings
about the spiritual rebirth of humanity. In light of this, Meher Baba
has
affirmed all the great religions as revelations of God for it was the
same
Ancient One who inspired each of them.
In the
nineteen twenties “Mastery in Servitude” quickly
became the theme of Merwan’s
life. Tirelessly he and his disciples served the poor, the sick, the
outcasts
and the mentally disturbed – establishing schools, hospitals,
and ashrams for
this work. Then and throughout his life the master personally cared for
those
in need. He washed the feet of lepers and bowed down to them saying,
“I bow
down to the God in each one of you.” He cleaned the latrines
of the
untouchables and worked to end the caste system. Not surprisingly,
Merwan
Irani’s early disciples began to call him “Meher
Baba,” which means
“Compassionate Father.”
During this
period of intense activity, on July 10, 1925, Meher Baba began his
silence; he
would not utter a word for the next forty-four years. There have been
enough
words given, he said, it is now time to live them. Even in silence Baba
continued to communicate on many levels; his warmth and ever-present
humor
remained undiminished. When he wished to use words he spelled out what
he
wanted to convey by means of a wooden board with the letters of the
alphabet
printed on it. Many of his sayings and discourses were given by this
method.
After 1954, Baba gave up the board and relied on hand gestures alone.
Meher Baba
always stressed that he began his silence in order to break it. By
choosing to
speak from silence, he speaks the word of God in our time. This Word is
an
inner Word heard only in the depths of our being. As Baba himself
expressed it:
“External
silence helps inner silence and only in internal silence is Baba found;
in
profound inner silence. I am never silent. I speak eternally. The voice
that is
heard deep within the soul is my voice.”
This, then,
is the spiritual revolution Meher Baba came to bring: the awakening of
Divine
love within each individual.
Six years
after Meher Baba began his silence, he traveled to the West for the
first time.
There he contacted his earliest Western disciples, some of whom were
eventually
allowed to return with him to India for training in the spiritual life.
One of the
significant dimensions of Meher Baba’s life is his work with
the
God-intoxicated individuals known as masts. There
are, according to
Baba, many different types of masts, but in general they may be defined
as
spiritually advanced individuals whose love for God is so intense that
they
often appear insane to most observers. In fact, Baba has explained,
they are
not insane; they simply refuse to adjust to the world, lost as they are
in
their longing for God.
Although we
cannot fathom, the exact nature of Meher Baba’s inner work
with the masts, we
do know that he gave them spiritual help. Beyond this, he indicated
that he
inwardly channeled their love for God into directions which have
benefited the
entire world. Baba undertook long and arduous journeys to contact masts
and
others with whom he had special work. The statistics alone are
staggering: from
1937-1946, the years of his most extensive mast tours in India, Baba
personally
worked with more than 20,000 masts, seekers of God, and with the poor
in
journeys totaling over 75,000 miles.
Meher
Baba’s mission as the Avatar entered into an important phase
in 1949.
Dispersing his ashrams and giving up all possessions (Meher Baba kept
only the
small plot of land on Meherabad Hill – near Ahmednagar India
which he had long
before designated as the resting place for his physical body when he
laid it
aside) in India held in his name, Baba set out on what he called the
“New
Life.” He made the startling announcement that during this
New Life he would
cease to be the spiritual Master in order to assume the role of a
seeker of
God. A small number of companions were chosen to accompany Baba and
together
they set out to live a life of “helplessness and
hopelessness.”
Living
fully in the present, without certainty of shelter and food, the New
Life
companions gave up everything to trust solely in the mercy of God.
Though the
full meaning of the New Life is still unfolding today, at least this
much may
be said: In the New Life God became fully human, forging in human
consciousness
a new path to himself. The New Life is a life in the world, yet free
from the
world, in which the seeker loves God for the sake of love alone. In
becoming
the companion and the seeker, Baba brought into being a new way of
seeing and
living for all in years to come who would have the courage to follow.
In his
life, Meher Baba had now expressed his full Divinity and his full
humanity. In
1952 he emerged from the New Life to declare publicly that he was the
God-Man,
the Avatar of the Age. For the next seventeen years Baba gave of
himself to an
unprecedented degree as he moved toward the completion of his work. Baba forewarned his
disciples that this work
would require of him great suffering including the shedding of his
blood on
American and Indian soil. Outwardly, the suffering took the form of two
car
“accidents”, the first in the United States (1952)
and the second in India
(1956). In one the entire left side of his body was injured, and in the
other
the entire right side was severely damaged.
In spite of his suffering, Meher Baba opened the gates of his love by giving darshan (personal blessing) to thousands of people during the nineteen fifties and early sixties. During this time he made three visits to the Meher Spiritual Center in the United States, which he called his home in the West. One of his last darshans, the East-West Gathering held in Poona, India, in 1962, symbolizes the awakening of oneness through love which he came to bring about. People of many races, nations, and religions came together as one family in the presence of Divine love, and Meher Baba told the gathering what he now tells us all:
“May
my love make you feel one day that God is in everyone.”
Meher Baba
spent his last years in seclusion, finishing his universal work. The
strain of
his work in seclusion took a tremendous toll on his health.
Nevertheless Baba
was pleased with the results, saying:”My work is
done. It is completed one
hundred percent to my satisfaction.” Shortly
thereafter, on January 31,
1969, Meher Baba laid aside his physical body to live forever in the
hearts of
those who come to experience his love.
Today, Meher Baba’s tomb located at Meherabad in Ahmednagar, in the state of Maharashtra, India (about 2 hours by road from the city of Pune) is a place of pilgrimage for people from all over the world.
Bif Soper has prepared a visual comparative - Meherabad Then and Now - chronicling the changes that have taken place at Meherabad since the ashram days in the 1920’s to the present time.The photo compilation presents some very rare photographs of Meher Baba and the life at Meherabad during the 20's , 30's , 40's 50's (with Meher Baba at Meherabad). The photo-collage also shows recent pictures of Meherabad completing a picturesque and deeply inspiring Then and Now photo journey. MSU is grateful to Bif for this contribution.
Kendra Crossen Burroughs has compiled 108 Sayings of Meher Baba that
provide a wonderful collection of Meher Baba quotes on a wide spectrum
of spiritual and life subjects. MSU is grateful to Kendra for this
contribution.
More
information
about Meher Baba can be found at: