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çr/Ifl 3fltTVWW with ,7PkI,cniim 3essaiiki n Aujust 9, 2003 1?itrt Don C. &evens and £cturcnt VeicIibcrgcr, 2”Iovenibcr 2005 his article is based on a transcript of an interview with Meherwan Jessawala by Don E. Stevens and Laurent Weichberger conducted on August 9, 2003 at Meherazad, India. The transcript has been reviewed, cor— rected and approved by both Meherwan and Don, and the article contains only minor edits to retain the conversational flow. In this article, we use (inaudible) when we cannot understand what is being said on the recording, and we also use the curly braces [to help describe the “when there is a situation), and three dots long pause, or an interruption in the flow of conversation. Any words inserted by the edi— tors appear in [square brackets] to differentiate from what is directly transcribed. This article representsjust over fourteen minutes ofthe in— terview itself Part three will be coming soon. This is part two of the article: The Book, An Interview with Meherwan Jessawala August 9, 2003 which was published in Series in Neti Neti International Meher Baba Newsletter, April 2005, and also in Love Street Lamp Post October 2005. [Meherwan [MJ] Don [DES] and Laurent [LW] are sitting at Meherazad].
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MJ: Anyway, so, I think it might corroborate if you recollect what year you saw the bundle’, what happened, and we don’t know. [Note 1: For those who did not read the first article in this series, the phrase “the bundle” refers to Meher Baba’s book (The Book) written by His own hand, which Meher Baba himself showed to Don Stevens at Meherazad in the 1950s, as we will soon hear from Don] DES: Well, I know approximately. Let me tell you that little bit of the story and how it happened. We had not been very far into the publishing and making public the first edition of God Speaks when Ivy Duce. so ofcourse this is about ‘54 ‘55 something like that at the latest. Ivy Duce said to me on occasion, “Don, you get to see Baba very fre quently now and now you and I have finished a bigjob ofediting GodSpeaks, so when you see Baba next time will you say, ‘Baba, you were very pleased, we understand, with the editing work we did on God Speaks. Baba would you entrust to us the editing of Your , so it can now be brought out?” [Note 2 Book 2: The phrase “Your Book” here means The Book written by Meher Baba in His own hand] And, so, I have to confess, Meherwan, . .
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ence of The Book in, certainly within the I was not enthusiastic about carrying this two-three years of Baba’s dropping the last soldier, good was a I But message to Baba. So, their knowledge that it was still in body. Baba and Sufis the of Boss and she was the and in the locked box in Bombay existence can help you every her .give had said, been much later than when Baba have to had this bring to bound Don.” And so I felt duty me. it to showed the was this And Baba. message from Ivy to story I got from Perviz. the is This MJ: later no say would I only time. now this. delighted to know that it was am I Yeah. DES: than ‘56 or ‘57. it out ofthe locked box. took who Ramjoo in arrived I when So, this was the only time be the last, last ten feet. not may it But MJ: see to brought I India to visit Babawhere was to the locker and return be a might There but Hall, Him immediately, not in Mandali knows? Who again... then surprised this sitting in Eruch’s shack. And me, because always before I was always in DES: Who knows. I don’t know. Mandali Hall where I would meet Baba. So MJ: We don’t know all this, that’s lost in antiquityc at any rate, after Baba puts His questions, you That’s lost, yeah. DES: starts He know, sleeping, diet and so on, and thing is, it was put in Baba’s Principal MJ: I must to talk about other things, I remember later on, when people asked Then hands. forget put Ivy’s question early otherwise I’ll Eruch himself stayed in see you Eruch, So it because I wanted to forget it, frankly. asked Baba, seeing His once Guruprasad, answer I put it to Baba, and Baba made no of health, “Baba, what condition delicate got to me, and He gestured to Eruch. Eruch do you want to do? What Book? The about end up in [the] shack, walked to the opposite will ask. Baba says, people and it, is Where of the room where there was a big wooden worry” don’t after, looked well is “It box with I think a lid that opened up on the he may not So tells us. Eruch what That’s in top. He took out a package and put it the package with did Baba what knowing be is Baba’s hands, and Baba said, “Don here possession. Eruch’s in it was after The Book.” DES: Well, the last Eruch knew it was back MJ: He said that? in the lock-box in Bombay. It is absolutely DES: Yes, right. And it was in Baba’s hands, clear from my conversation when we were and He was showing it to me. And then He said, “Don, this is not the time for it, perhaps both at Baba’s entombment. later.” Gave it back to Eruch. Eruch put it MJ: Oh! It went back. back in the wooden box. So, all this was in DES: It had to have gone back, it had to. Eruch and Elizabeth were very clear that it the mid-50s somewhere. had recently been in the lock-box. MJ:Ahhh. MJ: I see. Rarnjoo died before Baba. So, I don’t DES: So it was considerably before... know. It’s all very confusing. Anyway, so this MJ [interrupts Don): It could be that [inau dible word) in the ‘50s. And that Ramjoo is a digression from what I was saying. DES: Please. must have handed it over to Baba. , do 3 DES: Well, but in the ‘SOs, I have the impres MJ: So, Eruch tells me, “Just look at this 3: The [Note Book?” The is sion from the telephone conversation with you think it at the look means here this” Elizabeth Patterson that it had been in the phrase “look at scribe’s unknown in an locked storage box considerably after I saw manuscript written hand, given by Eruch to Meherwan to read, it in the 50s. I had that impression, but she did NOT say, “Last time I saw it was ‘56,” now published by Sheriar Foundation as the book, Infinite Intelligence, after having or something... not at all. been edited by Bhau, Meherwan, Ward, MJ: It may have gone back to the locker. DES: It could have gone back. I don’t know and others. For more information, read the booklnfinite Intelligence which gives a com what... prehensive account of the editing process.] MJ: We don’t know. Now, Eruch asks me this question, so he may DES: But my impression from the conversa tion with both Eruch and with Elizabeth, not have seen... 4 discovered is that they had both known of the pres DES [interrupts): This recently “. .
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