Love Street Lamp Post 1st Qtr 2009

Editor’s ‘Page

Jai Baba Folks, am sure you have all heard the news about the passing of yet one more of Baba’s inner circle. Arnavaz Dadachanji has rejoined her Beloved. She will be sorely missed, as are they all, when He calls each one home to Him. We are wanting to put together a commemorative issue for her—see page four—and are hoping many ofyou will have stories to tell to celebrate her involvement with your life.

However, speed is ofthe essence, seeing as this issue is rather late in getting to you. But the next one cannot be. Cherie will be doing the layout for that issue and th, she leaves for India June 5 so she has to have the entire magazine completed by the first few days in June.

I will be in Australia till May 24tF, cel ebrating my 70th birthdaywith my number two son and his wife and daughter, so will have to hit the ground running when I re turn, no doubt being faced with hundreds ofemails! Strange, how much busier I am now than when I had an eight to five job, three teenagers at home and the Love Street Bookstore as well as the LampPost to deal with. Very strange!

One of the reasons this issue is late is the size! We have never had an 80 pager that was just a single issue! I had no idea so much was going into it as I had been editing the articles since December as they came in and sending them offto Pris who did the layout for this issue. Actually when she had it all together she told me it was 92 pages I had a fit!! Had to start bumping many ofthe articles that we had planned, but never fear, they will appear in the next issue.

There is much to read in this issue, however two of the articles you will find very hard to read.Theyhave already moved many people to tears, as well as outrage.

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Read on, and see how it affects you.

We get many complimentary letters, telling us how much the LampPost means to you, that it is the only Baba light shining around where you live. This one about sums them all up: My copy ofthe LampPost arrivedyester day, and Ive been reading it item by item ever since!! And still have masses to read How exciting! It is afabulous,fabulous issue.

Many hearzjèlt thanks toyou andallthe edi tonal teamfrom this avid reader in the UK I cant begin to enumerate or list all the sponses to thefratures I’vepored over sofaic Enough to say —Ilove the wayyou do thepic ture spreads a realsense ofphoto-journalism —particularly the coverage ofAdele Wolkins departurefrom LA. Also, ofcourse, loved the report you wrote ofMichael da Costas US toui vibrantly described I think he is Mr. Be-Happypersonjfiedanddeserving ofthe ti tle Lamp ofNorwich’!Fact islwasfortunate to be on the Boardduring the ‘90s when Mike was a Trustee andhe was a very specialperson to work with, hisface always shone with love.

Jam saving up thepages aboutDanny but have already lingered over the pictures. I was veryfortunate to be in India when the Maguires were there in November being a particzant at a very special Artifor the outpouring oftheir love.

A big thankyou to the LampPostforpre senting the work ofMirek in a way thatgives space to the amazing and terribly moving poetry he has writtenfor Fiona. And thank you Dinafor giving me a sneak preview of the article you are publishing in this issue such a splendid, deeply understanding, compassionate article, salutingfrom all ofus the heroics ofMirek and Fiona as they are taken way, way beyond our scope of even being able to imagine suffering! What Baba is doing here through these two brave lovers andthen through thepages ofthe Love Street LampPost, is so muchfor us all. It is all His grace. It is all His love. It is all immeasur— ably beyond our comprehension. True sur render So you see, some deep, deep responses.

In His Infinite Love, Sarah [McNeill] Sussex England —

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Errata: e received a letter from one of our favourite Indian visitors, Dr. Digambar Gadekar in Mumbai, telling us about some incorrect information that

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was inJudy’s Meherabad Diaries. She had told us that Dr. Gin’s farm—Naranga on—500-1000 years ago was called Aran gaon, andwas the birthplace ofShivaji, one of Baba’s ‘minor’ incarnations.

In fact, Dr. Gadekar tells us, Shivaji was born in Shivneri Fort in the district of Pune.

Thank youfor the correction Digambar!

It’s That Time Again! nce a year we ask for your help to continue publishing this magazine.

All we ask is that you cover the costs of printing and postage,which these days have escalated considerably. It runs about $25 per person per year and $30-$35 for our overseas readers (and that’sjust for postage!)

However, we do not want to deny anyone the pleasure of reading this magazine, which many ofyou in far flung places have told us is your only Baba connection, so if the $25 is a financial strain foryou,just send what you can and don’t worry about it. We just need to know you do want to continue receiving the LampPost. We do have some very generous donors who send more than the actual cost—MANYTHANKS—and this helps to cover for the dozens we send to India and other people around the world.

The only people who get paid for their work on the magazine are the printers, binders and post office—non Baba lovers all. The rest of us feel privileged to do the work, so any help you can give us so that we may continue to send you the magazine will be mightily appreciated! Spreading love is what we love to do!

If you have recently sent in a check, please don’t think we want more at this time, it’s just easier to remember that there will always be an envelope in the first issue each year and that is the time to donate.

The LampPost now has its own credit card processor, so we are perfectly happy to take your donations via Visa, MasterCard, or Discover, as well as checks (US banks only). Ifyou don’t want to put your credit card numbers in an email you can fax them to me at 310 839 BABA (2222), or call me at my home office 310 837 6419 between 9-5 Pacific time.

Read and enjoy life in His love.

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Love &reerJiimpPosr ‘lcome to Love Street Love Street £ampJ2ost is dedicated with love to Avatar Meher Baba. Itsprimarypurpose is to contribute to a sense ofcommunity among allHis lovers byproviding a placefor sharing His remembrance.

All members of the Baba family are invited to contribute ost is mailed 2 to this feast of Love. Love Street £amp (approximately) eachJanuary, April, July, and October.

SUBSCRIPTIONS: Sending you the magazine costs us $25 per person per year domestic; $30-$35 overseas (and that is postage only!).

Subscription is by donation only, and we can publish only by the generosity ofyour donations.

Please send your checks to:

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SUBMISSIONS:

November 1st, February 1st, May 1st, August 1st for the issue printed in thefollowing quarter (November 1 deadline for First Qiiarter issue).

SEND T0

dinagibson@mac.com. If necessary to mail a disk

(please no hand or typewritten manuscripts), send to Editor, address above.

I have a new email address: DinaGibson@mac.com, Bababook@ pacbell.net is now defunct, and ifyou have an order, question, or request for something from Love Street Bookstore, send to Kathy Hill at bookstore@meherabode.org The LampPost now has its own credit card processor, so we are perfectly happy to take your donations via Visa, MasterCard or Discover, as well as checks (US banks only). If you don’t want to put your credit card numbers in an email you can fax them to me at 310 839 BABA (2222), or call me at my home office 310 837 6419 between 9-5 Pacific time.

For information regarding our Center please go to: meherabode.org, lovestreetbookstore.com, or meherbababooks.com

ove StreeLCamp2ost ispublished and copyrighted by the Avatar Meher Baba Center ofSouthern California.

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The Mumbai Massacre

1214 South Van Ness Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90019-3520

DEADLiNEs:

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19 27 28 39 40 41 42 44 45 47 60

OVER STORY:

Love 5treetJctmp.2ost c/o Avatar Meher Baba Center

We seek expressions of Baba’s message of love and truth. Your stories, photos, artwork, poetry, letters, articles, and humor are all actively solicited, but in digital format only (email please).

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Arnavaz Dadaclianji Goes to Her Beloved A Request from Jonathan Ramsden Amartithi-Bookstore 15 Minute Silence Baba’s Birthday in Meherabad Changes Are A-Happenin’ J esse Massa and His Trees A Much Needed Clarification Pumpkin House Status Report Some First Hand Experiences in India The Miraculous Life On Suffering and its Benefits 2009 Beads On One StringTour Letters from the Front Lines

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Related stories

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EPARTMENTS: c:3—’ Editor’s Page What’s Happening at Meherabad Meherabad Diary Passings Announcements What’s Happening at Meherabode Reviews Worldwide Meher Baba Meetings

2 28 34 50 66 70 73 79

REDITS: Front cover : Compositephotofrom archivalsources, by Cherie Plumlee

STAFF: Editor in Chief: Managing Editor: Design & Layout: The Mumbai section: Assembly and pre-flight: Printing & Distribution: Circulation:

Avatar Meher Baba Dma Snow Gibson Pris Haffenden Cherie Plumlee Tom Hart Ray Madani Pris Haffenden

Please notii5r Pris, our Mailing List WaUi, ofyour address change at the above address or by email: Stillyetmore.more@verizon.net

L,/lrncLvctz

Dadachanji9oes to 1er ‘Beloved 7avem 7ctlk

‘ vatar Meher Baba gath Nariman had never had If ered His dearest Archildren, and Baba once navaz Dadachanji into His said that He and Mehera eternal embrace on Wednes were their children. Arday, 18th February 2009 navaz always held that at 2:34 pm in Meherazad. very close to her heart.

Arnavaz passed away from Although she lived in a heart attack; she was 90 the ordinary world, her years old. Cremation will be one-pointed focus was at Meherabad on Thursday, on Baba, and she gave 19th February at 11 am. even her own family the Arnavaz was blessed to be benefit of her wisdom born into a close family who and perspective on Baba were brought into Baba’s and the spiritual life. This fold by her uncle Chanji, she also generously shared Baba’s first secretary. From with pilgrims who came to childhood she was in His Meherazad, through her frequent company as Baba loving advice and counsel, often visited their home, and and through her beautiful Photo by Shelley Marrich she grew up under His loving book Gift of God, titled direction, obeying His every order. At Baba’s wish she married after the meaning of her name. Her inspiring life of obedience Nariman Dadachanji and they set up an apartment that was to to the Avatar will serve as a luminous example for generations of become a home in Bombay for Beloved Baba, Mehera, and the Baba-lovers to come, ofhow to be in the world yet wholeheart women and men mandali. edly with the Lord.

When Beloved Baba left on His New Life, He gifted MeWe, your Meherazad family, salute you, dearest Arnavaz, for herazad to Nariman and Arnavaz, who remained “pillars” of your vital support to Meherazad in your service to the Avatar, and Meherazad when the Beloved returned to stay there and after He especially for your life oflove and surrender to Him. dropped His form. Nariman’s passing away in 1974 was a great AVATAR MEHER BABA kijAl !!! Meheru, Katie, Falu and blow to Arnavaz, and soon after Arnavaz moved to Meherazad all Meherazad family permanently to be near Mehera and serve Him there. She and

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Editor’s note: ur long time subscribers know that when one ofBaba’s very dear ones returns to Him, we produce a special issue—in color—in tribute to them. We want to make the next issue full ofremembrances ofour dear Arnavaz. For those ofyou who have been touched by her very special brand oflove and have a story to tell, we would love to receive it. Please get them to Cherie as soon as possible, no later than J une 5th. Email only please; due to time constraints we can not accept articles on paper. cherieplumlee@gmail.com We would also love to receive any special photos you have been treasuring. Ifyou have PhotoShop & can scan them, great. Please contact Cherie re formatting. Ifyou can only send a hard copy, please place it with cardboard in an envelope & put your return address label on the back ofthe photo so none go astray &we will make sure you get your precious photos returned. To help us keep all the submissions straight put in the subject line: Photo (or story) Arnavaz S. Hicks. (S Hicks being the person it’s from.) That will help keep track of them.

Whether the issue is in color is up to you. Unfortunately I was not here when the first issue oflast year was mailed out (I was in Australia for the 50th Anniversary ofBaba’s visit to Avatar’s Abode) and the little envelopes we always include for your yearly donation/subscription were not included. Some wonderful, very conscientious folks sent in a check in their own envelopes. We received about 30 that way (out of around 1500 recipients.) So Baba took the matter into His own hands in a most surprising way: At the end of each year Meherabode sends out a request for donations for our Center. Well the very kind Baba lover who prints the letter, stuffs & stamps the envelopes & then takes them to the post office, made a slip up. The Trickster was at work: On the little enve lopes with our return address that he enclosed for you to put your check in, was printed Love Street LampPost Donation. It should have read AMBCSC Yearly Donation. I went to the Center one day &was astonished to see my mail box (for LSLP) stuffed full ofthose little envelopes! Knowing they weren’t included in the magazine I couldn’t imagine where or how they came to be! Then I found out thank you Baba!

However, there are still a great many ofyou who have not sent in a donation (each subscription now costs us $25 per person per year domestic, and a minimum of $35 for overseas mailing). Ifyou suddenly remember you have forgotten, & we get an influx of checks or credit card donations we should be able to manage at least a partial color issue like we did for Mani eight wonderful pages of color photos. Do lets do that for Arnavaz!

Please Baba?

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LA !Request from 3onctthan JRctmsden ‘

onathan Ramsden, California

for them to come. ]\Iore than anything, I is raised.

Jai Baba to all!

So, all you have to do is make checks ecently I had the good fortune oftray— want to help these kids come to the Youth Sahavas this July, 2009. Unfortunately, or money orders payable to: Nunez Fam eling to Argentina and staying with Baba Lovers there, the Nunez family. They I can’t do it alone. So, with the help of ily Fund and send them to: Anthony were gracious enough to host me over my brother Anthony, I have opened up a Ramsden do Nunez Family Fund, 3901 E. Mayfield St. Apt # 6, Long Beach, CA the course of nearly three weeks, and to- charitable gift account in their name, and 90804 gether we all had a Or, if you would fabulous time. The like to pay online children are Joia through PayPal, Er(18), Javier (17), ich Morton has ofCamila (15), and fered the use of his Martin, Joia’s boyaccount. He will be friend (21). [You collecting donations can read the tribute online and then forto their father— warding the total to ‘Quique’ Nunez— Anthony and me. in the Passings Contact him at er section.] Qiique ich.morton@gmail.

Arfirst the was com for more de gentinean Baba tails. is more and Lover To all you Sa responsible or less 4 current havasees, Baba for bringing Martin, Camila, Joia, Javier & their mother Paula please present, and corner of the to that Youth into the people more welcome family help my friends, you writing to I am now America in South lovers world. All Baba who all parents you To family.

Sahavas will join ask ifyou to community Baba and to Quique have directly or indirectly the Saha attended that children would had have that gift a this family in giving me about ) died Qiique thank. Unformnatel vas, I don’t need to tell you of the impact mean the world to all of them. a year and half ago, leaving his three chil a spent this event has directly had on their lives. mother and father their Both sons older two dren in Argentina, and his many And to all people who would simplylike to Beach Myrtle of in time deal good The the US. from his first marriage in your donation is more than appreci help, immensely would be it and ago, years Paula mother, three children live with their soon as our goal is reached, I will the As visit ated. to children their for meaningful cannot Martin, in Buenos Aires. Words The more people who know know.

Sahavas. let you Youth the experience and Center felt by convey how touched and loved I please spread the word! better, so raised the have we far So is goal The $6,000. their graciousness with me, and by their a blog page http://www. created have you I Whether way. our we’re on so $2000, warmth and love as a family. They were to give you a real time nffund.blogspot.com counts. everything or give $5, can $100 all willing to practice English with me to progress for the fimdraising our on my traveling, update currently I’m that Given compensate for my horrible Spanish. They I will conftrmation your For Family. the be Nunez to offered has Anthony brother opened their home and their hearts, and I everyone of so a list or day every include money until the depositor and recipient feel more than moved to offer something from whom we have in return. received donations, So, here is how inspira and a running total.

Every tion moved me response has been The year the family receives g, but overwhelmin material about the Yàuth To help. need still we Sahavas. And every year, have I privacy protect they cannot come. Due omitted the individual to the recent rollercoa.ster amounts donated. It’s nature ofthe Argentinean a team effort anyway. economy, the ever fiuctu Thank you all for your atmg value of the peso, support. and love and the fact that all major expenses—home and car prices, airline tickets, etc—are priced in US dol Ioja, Camila, Martin, Paula, Jonathan lars, it has been impossible

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The 74umbai J44assacre—Rovember 2 6 20 o8 Things Must Get Worse Before They Get Better Michael Files, Mumbai November 26th, 2008 at life, but will also give a new around 9:30pm, ten men tone to the life of the whole armed with AK—47s, hand greworld.” [excerpt from Treasures, nades and explosives, landed at ed. Jane Barry Haynes, 1980 the iconic Gateway oflndia mon © AMBPPCT, taken from the ument in the historic southern Avatar Meher Baba online section of Colaba, Mumbai, in Anthology on February 17, two small inflatable speedboats, 2009 http://home.online.no/ and proceeded to fan out into the solibakk/newhuman.html] city to carry out a sophisticated I was one ofthe people close terror attack on Mumbai that to the attacks on November th, 26 left 173 dead and 308 injured. and through Baba’s grace, It’s an event the world is very fa I was lucky enough to come miliar with by now, and remains a out unscathed. On Thanksshocking blow to those ofus that giving Day, November 28th, I Leopold Cafe owned by Baba lovers Farzad and ShahnazJehani have always loved and visited Inoriginally shared my story of dia. I think for a lot ofus who have always world afresh dispensation of the eternal narrowly escaping the scene of carnage at come here to Meher Baba’s home, it was and only Truth.

Leopold Café bywriting up a lengthy post quite a different and scary thing to think As you will see in the stories below, on my online blog. Since writing that blog, ofthis land, His land, as a place of danger Baba was very much present for these people have approached me and written to and international hatred. It’s not that India attacks, keeping an eye on His close ones me to tell me how wonderful it was to hear hasn’t experienced terrorist attacks before, throughout the destruction and even ofBaba’s presence in keeping me safe that but for some reason this one was different, bringing new ones into His fold. It seems day. It was a story that ended up going out it felt more personal and more brutal. to me that Baba is preparing the world for into the Baba world through emails, other But as we know, even in the worst of His manifestation through these attacks by blogs, etc. so that even now people come times, Baba shows us His presence. He forcing India to take up its role of provid up to tell me how the story effected them, shows us that even in the world’s darkest ing what Baba called “creative leadership” to hear ofBaba’s presence in the midst of hours ofgreed, hatred, and entrenchment to the world. As usual, the riddle of His all that violence and tragedy. in illusion He is still there with us. He is plan is difficult to see, but as Baba once But what I came to learn after that was there to guide us, and He is there to coneven more amazing: that I was not the explained: sole us and sustain us. The world and the only one for whom Baba was present, and “The problems which India has to face media may be going on about the ways in today are, in some ways, more compli that my story paled in comparison to the which the world is getting worse, but as cated than the problems which any other drama that Baba cooked up for one Bom we know, however bad it may get, it is all country is called upon to solve. Men of bay couple in particular that had always Baba’s way ofbringing about a new world all races, creeds, cults and religions have meant to visit Meherabad but had never order of peace, prosperity and brotherly found a home in India, and if this lack of found the time. This couple, Muncher and love, in other words, The New Humanity uniformity in composition has presented Ferozie Wadia, finally ended up coming to As Baba explained in The Discourses, some difficulties in arriving at solidarity Meherabad for the first time on December th, As in allgreat criticalperiods ofhuman as soon as they could after their escape and concerted action in the national life 4 th history, humanity is nowgoingthrough the from the 6 floor of the Ta], which they oflndia, it must in no way be looked upon agonizingtravaiofspiritualrebirth. Great as a pure handicap. The various streams of accomplished while taking Baba’s name. forces ofdestruction are afoot and seem to culture which have poured into the life- And they were kind enough to share their be dominant at the moment, but construc history oflndia have added to the wealth whole miraculous experience with all of us tive and creativeforces which will redeem ofher national personality; and they have here in Meherabad. The things Baba does humanity are also being released through not only created a suitable opportunity to bring us into His presence! several channels. Although the working for arriving at a new cultural synthesis, As it turned out, there were several oftheseforces oflight is chiefly silent, they but have necessitated its emergence. If other Baba-lovers involved in the attacks are eventually bound to bring about those handled with creative leadership, the pres that day. Muncher and Ferozie’s story tranØrmations which will make the furwrapped up with that of the owners was ence of conflicting elements in Indian life therspiritualadvance ofhumanitysaft and can be utilized for bringing into existence of Leopold, who are in fact Baba-lovers: steady. It is all a part ofthe divine plan, a rich world-culture, which shall not Farzad Jehani, his brother Farhang, his which is to give to the hungry and weary only rejuvenate and harmonize Indian wife Shahnaz, and her brother Nozer

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Irani. Then there is the story ofa young Baba-lover who grew up in a Baba family, named Parizaad Khan, who was attending a wedding reception at the Taj It was an event that turned into a terrifying fight for her life along with some 300 other guests. Many people know ofParizaad’s fatherJimmy Khan, a longtime Baba-lover from Mumbai.

Parizaad is a writer for the Mint, a newspaper which is a tie up between the Hindustan Times and The Wall StreetJourna4 and her story of escape was printed in Mint, on November 28t, 2008.

So one by one I will take you through these stories of Baba’s work on and through us on that fateftil night.

First, my own story, written originally th, and reprinted here. on November 28 Then, Parizaad’s story of her escape from the Taj Hotel, and finally, the amazing stories of Shahnaz, Farzad, Farhang, Nozer and ofcourse Muncher and Ferozie Wadia, for whom Baba had to go to extremes to finally get their attention! .

Michaelc Story: Baba HadHis Nazar On Me

From left to right, DanielFiles, MichaelFiles (the author), andMerwan Luck, allyoung Baba-lovers, visit Leopold onjanuary 15th. On thefar right is Chandpasha MebuobAli Shekh whose brothe Peerpasha Mebuob Ali Shekh, was one ofthe two waiters (both Indian Muslims) murdered by the terrorists during the attacks. Six otherpatrons, 3foreigners, and 3 Indians were also murdered that terrible day. Chadpasha happened to be Michaelc waiter both times he returned to Leopold since the attacks.

Baba’s work is mysterious, and perhaps what we are seeing is that His words are now coming true, that things must get worse before they get better.

To tell you a little about myself, I am a young Baba-lover, 26 years old, from the community ofthe Meher Spiritual Center in Myrtle Beach. It has always been my great blessing to be born into a loving Baba family. Eruch used to love to tell the story ofone perfect master’s description of what he called ‘Congenital Felicity’ (literal definition “in-born happiness”), as being the greatest blessing on earth: that is, to be born into a family that trulyloves God. Guess I must have done something right in my past lives!

My parents, Bill andJanet, were always committed to bringing me and my siblings to the place where Baba did the great majority ofHis universal work, to the holy ground of His home here in Meherabad.

I’ve been coming since I was a seven-year old boy and lost count ofhow many visits it has been to the place I consider my true home.

Currently, I’ve been living in India for the past 4 months. Three ofthose months were spent in Meherabad, but the past month was spent in Mumbai, where I had —

recently moved to take a great oppormnit clearly set-up by Baba, to do some work with a very famous art gallery.Through the meeting ofa new friend, who turned out to be a fellow Baba-lover, I was introduced to a chance opportunity to work in my field: art. Then, magically, Baba put the pieces in place for me to be able to live in Mumbai for free. Baba’s hand was clearly in it all, and I could see that He obviously wanted me to be in Mumbai for a while.

Naturally, as time went on, I ended up spending a lot oftime in South Mumbai, sometimes traveling with my gallery to the Ta] Hotel or the Oberoi Hotel: going to panel discussions on contemporary art, or meetings with international contingents about upcoming art fairs around the world, very exciting stuff! But more often than not, the place I would visit the most in South Mumbai was Leopold Café. It’s a place that is owned by Baba-lovers, and has a beautiful poster ofBaba over-hanging the cash register for all to see. So of course I liked to sit there and have a meal and look at Baba’s beautiftil face.

As it turned out, I was in Leopold on the night of the 26th, the night the terrorists attacked Mumbai. I was there only halfan hour before the attacks began,

and Leopold was one of the places the terrorists targeted, shooting automatic rifles into the crowd and killing many. I had gotten offwork, around 7pm, as I usually do, and I had traveled into Colaba as I usually do, finding somewhere to have a bite or waste some time before catching the train later at night, once the insane crowds had died down. When I got to Leopold that night, I had been thinking of sitting down and having a meal and a nice cold beer, as I often do. And believe me, my bag was feeling heavy on my shoulder after a long day’s work, and a nice cold beer was sounding mighty good, but a friend had sent me a text message to join her around the corner at a different restaurant for dinner, so I thought, OK, I’ll skip Leopold tonight. Looking back, I guess Baba didth want me leave this bodyjust yet!

In the end, the restaurant where I ended up eating was very close to the Taj Hotel, a place called Indigo Deli, and a place the terrorists could have easily targeted.

We couldn’t have been much closer to the epicenter of the attacks, the Taj and Leopold was right around the corner, and the restaurant is a place always full of upscale Westerners, including Americans, and thereforejust the sort ofplace the ter 7

rorists had seemed to be after. But again, Baba didn’t seem to want me to exit this incarnation just yet.

I was there in the restaurant at 9:30pm when we heard the first reports of shooting happening outside. At first the reports were vague, people were calling it gang warfare or some such thing. But as time went on we became aware that the city was under attack, mostly right outside our door, and before long the police and the restaurant made the decision to lock us inside the restaurant until we had the all clear, closing the steel curtains for protection, and didn’t let us out until the next morning. We had to spend the night inside, getting any sleep we could in the booths of the restaurant.

People were dying, for all I knew my friends were dying. I could have been dy ing if I had sat down for that beer. But I didn’t think about these things at the time.

Some of the people in the restaurant got a little excited. Some started raising their voices, saying things like “what are we going to do,” a little panicky But it didn’t last. Everyone remained pretty calm. My friends had become quite concerned but I realized if anything was going to happen to us there was nothing to be gained by being a nervous wreck.

Somehow I knew Baba was keeping me safe. I could just feel it in my heart. Even with all the crazy reports of mayhem and death that we were receiving on our cell phones throughout the night, all happening so close to us, I somehow knew we would be OK. I remember thinking at one point, “What are you up to Baba?

I guess it’s time for some shaking of the world!” I even felt comfortable enough to he down in one ofthe emptybooths of the restaurant, and get some sleep.

So I actually slept. Alot ofus did. Espe cially the staffofthe restaurant, who were incredibly relaxed. They never even acted like anything was amiss. They continued to serve us all night and into the morning, giving us food and water and free tea.

They were the first to start napping and I figured yeah why not, I found an empty booth, laid down and got a solid four hours ofsleep. Around 6am I woke up, the lights were turned on, we had a little breakfast: omelets and toast were made, on the house.

At seven we started wondering ifwe were going to be cleared to go.

Word came that hostages were still being held and blasts were still going off in the Taj and Oberoi. I found out that a 8

The Thj Hotel

bomb had gone offin Ville Pane, perhaps in the train station before mine, but I put it out of my mind and I didn’t think too much of it. So many different reports had come through, and I knew that the incidents were sporadic and spread over the city which was scary, but nothing had been huge, buildings were not destroyed, trains were not destroyed, and with the exception of the Taj and Oberoi, large bands of gunmen were not roaming the streets. Word came at 8am that the cops had finally given us the green light to leave the restaurant.

The clack-clack-clack of the steel curtains being rolled back and the natural light pouring into the restaurant was a welcome combination of sight and sound.

It was strange, thrilling, and a bit scary to step out into the street. It was hard to believe that I had really had to be holed up for a night because of terrorist attacks!

Had this really happened? Still I wondered, is this that serious? Suddenly, the streets I had enjoyed freely only hours before were now tainted. It was a terrible feeling—I suppressed it—I still am, thinking that India will transcend this, India doesn’t grip to fear like America does, they move on quickly, but I couldn’t stop that feeling

in my chest that something terrible had happened.

I smelled the smoke from the Taj right away, but I didn’tlookback, I didn’tlook at much at all. The streets were eerily empty, still. The usual bombardment of Bombay traffic was nowhere to be seen. People were about, even some taxis were about, things were starting to get back to normal somewhat but everything was soft, so much quieter. I was surprised that I didn’t want to look, I just wanted to go, to get away from it all. Colaba causeway was blocked with yellow cones, I didn’t want to look down and see Leopold, I didn’t even want to catch a glimpse, I didn’t want to think that my friends might be shot—that I could have been shot—I guess that’s when you know its serious, when you don’t want to rubberneck, when you just want to get away. But I wasn’t sure what to do, should I go all the way home in a cab? It would be a rare opportunity to take a cab home and actually get there in less than two hours.

Traffic would be non-existent. In the end, I took a cab to Churchgate station where I would catch a train home, and only then did I lookback and see the smoke billowing out ofthe Taj, becoming more peaceful as it reached higher in the sky and I couldn’t

believe how sad I felt looking at that sky The Taj hotel is a symbol of Mumbai’s independence, a beautiful, century old relic of a great story ofpride: the legend being that a rich Parsi man ofMumbai, despite his great wealth, was denied entrance to one ofthe prestigious colonial hotels ofthe British simply because ofhis native origin.

Inflamed, the man built the greatest hotel in Mumbai, even to this day, now known as the Taj. And there I finally saw it with my own eyes, smoke billowing from this great and beautiftil symbol of independence...

I couldn’t believe my eyes, and I didn’t look for long.

In the end, I made it home to the North ofMumbai, and after a few days, I returned to Meherabad. I can’t tell you all, my fellow Baba-lovers, how wonderftil it is to be back in Meherabad after being a part of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. I don’t think any ofus forget how lucky we are for every moment we get to spend in this holy ground, but returning here after being a part ofthose grisly events, it really makes me aware of how lucky I am.

Actually, I feel very grateful that Baba put me so close to these terrible events, because being in His presence after the proximity to such madness, hate and death makes it all the sweeter to be in His home again, and makes me realize with such depth how all that matters is Him, and all that is, is Him! I haven’t been this happy in months! How ironic is that?!

It seems that Baba’s hand was very close in these events. Perhaps some of you had previously seen the photo of the bullet riddled car with the photo ofBaba’s face pasted on the window inside—untouched—with bullet holes all around Him, in the newspapers and on television.

The picture was first featured on the cover of The New York Times, which of course has a huge distribution, bringing Baba’s image to millions in this time of great sadness and confusion. Another piece of video footage of the restaurant had the camera stopping on Baba’s poster, and was repeatedly shown around the world on dif ferent news channels over and over again.

In the midst ofthis madness Baba seems to be saying, “It’s bad, but I’m here, and I always will be.” Baba seems to be ramping up His work of clearing the world of its falsehood by bringing the worst on first.

It is all Baba’s work, the despair and the joy of the world, the destruction and the preservation. I suppose it is His work of cleaning our old ways out of us.

This past Tuesday I was lucky to be able to hear Meherwan Jessawala tell stories of his time with Baba, and reflect on the events in Mumbai in Mandali Hall at Meherazad. Something that seemed especially poignant, and mystically fitting for the time, was the fact that itwas the anniversary ofthe terrible car accident Meher Baba and His mandali suffered in Satara, nd, 1953, an event India, on December 2 Meher Baba foretold as a terrible personal tragedy He would have to suffer in order to alleviate the suffering of the world by taking that suffering upon Himself It was wonderfttl to be a part ofthis, to hear how Baba works in mysterious, and some times horrible ways to bring out the best in us, and to help us on our spiritual path.

In the end, Baba went easy on me, giving me a minimal taste of the tragedy, sorrow, and anguish that so many suffered that night. Below is the first story of a Mumbai Baba lover who really endured something tough.

Parizaad Khanc Escape from The Taj As Parizaad describes it, her night started pleasantly enough, with a nice glass of musk melon juice in the Crystal Room ofthe Taj. But things would quickly take a turn for the worse. She had arrived at the Taj Hotel for the wedding reception of a good friend around 9:30pm. The friend who accompanied her actually made a comment on the paltry state ofsecurity as they entered the hotel. They hadn’t been there 15 minutes when the shattering of the glass window of the room they were in, looking into the main corridor, signaled the beginning of the terrible ordeal.

Directly following the smashing of the window there was the sound of gunshots in the room, and it was clear that the sounds they originally took for fireworks were anything but. From there the staff of the Taj ushered them through secret cor ridors to the highly private and secretive members-only club called The Chambers, where they were soon joined by around 300 other guests. The doors and elevators were secured at that point, and the group felt relatively safe, as they couldn’t hear the sounds ofgunshots or explosions anymore.

It was at this point that the staffofthe Taj acted like true heroes, making sandwiches and passing out food, water, and bed sheets, and looking after the comfort and safety of everyone in their domain with grace, even as their colleagues died protecting others.

Parizaad says it was inspirational to see this grace under pressure, and a true example of humanity in the face of terror.

Time went by, and at one point a group of four or five people entered the room with blood on their clothes. They had escaped the carnage in the street, and were looking for shelter in the hotel. At another point, a couple that had lost hold of their 10-year old son in the confusion burst into the room, desperate to find some way to locate their son. More time went by, and as further reports came in about commandos and police securing the building, a decision was made to evacuate everyone from the room and to escape the hotel.

Around 3am everyone lined up at the service entrance, and began quickly and silently to escape down the narrow cor ridor that was barely wide enough for two people. Parizaad was in the fifth group of about ten people each to be ushered through the snaking corridor, but halfway through shots rang out, and the group ran backwith their heads ducked low, creating an almost stampede situation back into The Chambers.

Tense times followed, with injured people being bandaged, and gunfire exchanges and explosions coming from the corridor. Tension was running high.

Hours passed. Finally, around 8:30am, a commando entered the room and took control of the situation, evacuating the entire group of people to buses waiting outside. But even then, they were not home free. Inside the hotel a terrorist who had escaped capture was shooting into the crowd as they attempted to board the busses. But with the commandos protecting them, they managed to get on the buses, not raising their heads until theywere well away from the action.

Parizaad explains that many police personnel and hotel stafflost their lives on that day, many ofthem most likely giving their lives in trying to protect the guests.

She said she prayed to Baba when she was inside, as she waited alongwith others who were also silentlypraying. As Parizaad said to me, she is overwhelmed by how many friends—away from the war zone—prayed to Baba, or to whatever form they worship God in, that night to help her. With Baba’s grace, she survived without a scratch.

Another group ofBaba-lovers saved by His grace that night were the owners of Leopold Café themselves!

Farzad and Shahnaz Jehani are a marned couple who run Leopold as a family 9

business with Farzad’s brother Farhang, and Shahnaz’s brother Nozer Irani. Their story of that fateftil night coincides with the story of their good friends Muncher and Ferozie Wadia, a couple from Mumbai who were staying at the Taj that night, and through Baba’s grace, also managed to escape, and actually ended up coming to Meherabad because of their ordeal.

Muncher andFeroziñ Story Who Was That Man? —

th, Onjanuary 12 2008, the entire group mentioned above all traveled to Meher abad together to tell their story of what happened on that fateful day of Novem th ber 26 and how their lives became ever more intertwined with Meher Baba as a result of this terrible event. They came to Bhau’s talk before the Dhuni and shared with an eager gathering ofpilgrims in the old MPC all that had happened to them on that day.

To begin with some back-story, Shahn az had been trying to get Ferozie and Muncher to come to Meherabad for some time. Shahnaz herselfwas not new to Baba, but had not always been a Baba lover. Growing up—through her family in Mumbai—she had always visited the Baba Center in Mumbai, and she had always been exposed to Baba, though not really falling in love with Him. But as of the last few years Baba had finally gotten a hold ofher, and she became inspired to tell everyone about it. She had become a regular commuter to Meherabad from Mumbai. It seemed every other week she would be at Meherabad with a new group offresh faces from Mumbai, and I would always notice an eager smile on her face to show them her Beloved Baba’s home.

Farzad and Shahnaz I0

But as she explained to us at Bhau’s talk, it wasn’t until a few years back, that one event in particular really brought her into His arms. One day, after hearing so much from friends and family about how Baba was so wonderful, and how He had shown himself to be present in their lives, she chal lenged Baba.

Here, in her own Munchei their daughterAva and Ferozie. words, she explains what happened. th, On the night of the 26 “I said to Baba, ‘OK, Baba, everybody some very says that you prove, that you show your interesting circumstances unfolded for presence, well. I want to see your pres Muncher and Ferozie. As Muncher ex ence, can you make me feel your presence?’ plains it, there were three major instances The next moment I tripped! That very of”fate, luck, whatever you want to call it” next moment somebody tripped me and that intervened on his behalf that night I fell down. And I thought, ‘my God so to save his life, as well as the appearance soon!’ And then the second time I said of a mysterious man that aided them in something I tripped and fell again! So my their escape, but more on that later in cousin said, ‘Will you stop challenging the story.

That night, they were celebrating their Baba! We’ll have to take you home on a th 14 wedding anniversary, and while for stretcher!’ So then I said, ‘OK Baba, that’s them that usually means getting a suite it, that’s enough.” at the Taj Land’s End Hotel, near their And as she explains, from that mo ment on she was His. And since then, home in Bandra, in the far North of the her connection with Baba has deepened. city this year they decided to mix it up and Bhauji affectionately calls her the Queen do something different.

So they went to the Ta] Palace Hotel ofBombay, and she seems to be just that: a bubbly, energetic Queen, bringing so in Colaba to celebrate, where they had many people to Meherabad from Mumbai complimentary reservations through a good friend who was a senior manager at for the first time.

As it was, for some time before the the hotel. But when they went to checkattacks, Shahnaz had been teffing Fero in they found that the room they had zie about Meherabad, and Ferozie had reserved, one of the sea-facing rooms in been planning to come to Meherabad the Heritage wing, the building famously with Shahnaz but it built in 1903, on the sixth floor and one had not yet hap- ofthe most prestigious rooms in the hotel, pened. Muncher was not available. The person who was and Ferozie are Par- staying in the room had decided to stay an sis by birth, but as extra day. The Ta], with apologies, offered Muncher explained instead a room directly opposite, on the to me, they have same floor, room 667, with a balcony fac never been ones for ing in to the inner courtyard and pooi.

Muncher thought about arguing. He religion and ritual. considered making a fuss and demanding In his words, “we a room facing the sea as they had booked, absolutely, 100% but decided not to make a scene, so he believe in God, but settled for the one looking onto the pool. you know, we are not very ritualistic.” As Muncher explained, it was the first And as I told him, moment of what they would recognize that sounds like a later as some sort of divine intervention.

As it turned out, the room they were Baba-lover to me! . .

promised, the room facing the sea, was absolutely destroyed by the fire. It was in fact the room featured on television, flames and black smoke billowing from it in abundance, darkening the sky The people inside didn’t make it, while the room Muncher and Ferozie were given ended up saving their life. As Muncher explains, if it wasn’t for the large balcony looking onto the pool, there is no way they would have survived the smoke. When it became so thick in the room that they couldn’t see a hand in front of their face, they moved to the balcony where at least they could breathe.

The second stroke of salvation came after checking-in. They proceeded to have some fun by strolling down Colaba Causeway, something they hadn’t done in years. They enjoyed buying things from the street-side vendors, strolling here and there, and eventually came to Leopold Café, where they stopped in, hoping to surprise Farzad and Shahnaz and join them for a bite to eat. It was around 7pm, and any other night they would have had a good chance ofjoining them. On any given night you are almost guaranteed to catch Farzad or his brother Farhang at this hour. Farzad near the register, in his usual spot, with Farhang moving about making sure people are seated comfortably. But as it was, they were nowhere to be found.

As Muncher explained, if they had met Farzad and Shahnaz and sat down to join them for a bite, there is a good chance that they would have still been there, having fan and enjoying drinks and foodwhen the terrorists opened fire, killing eight people and injuring more. In fact, they think they would have almost surely been at their usual table, the very table the terrorists destroyed with a grenade. To this day, a melon-sized crater is in the floor, directly below that very table.

But as ‘fate’ would have it, Farzad and Shahnaz were not to be found, so they continued on, returning to their hotel around 7:30pm, where they enjoyed a glass ofwine in their room, and contemplated having dinner at the Shamiana restaurant. This is one of the famous restaurants ofThe Taj Hotel, and it was one of the first places attacked by the terrorists where many people were shot and killed. Once again, Muncher feels “someone or something” was looking out for them, because they decided to stay in their room and order room service. This was the third stroke of mystical intervention.

As Muncher and Ferozie explain, they were in their room, feeling lazy and tired, enjoying wine and room service and listening to music, when they heard what sounded like firecrackers. Muncher recalls that Ferozie mentioned it sounded like gunshots, to which Muncher replied that it couldn’t be. Sure, in Mumbai you might occasionally hear a few in a strange instance, but never so many at once. The Taj was a five-star hotel, so it must be fireworks for some sort of celebration. It was at that point that they received a text message from a friend telling them to be careful, as there was shooting in Colaba.

They turned on the TV and saw reports of a shoot-out at Leopold. Minutes later the cable went off. It was then that they heard gunshots in the hotel itself. They heard shots on their very floor, outside their room/They called room service, they called the front desk, they called the bell desk—nobody answered. It was then that they realized that something was seriously wrong. Friends called and told them that the hotel was under attack. Two or three hours passed with shooting happening on their floor. Hotel staff eventually got in touch with them and told them to stay put in their rooms no matter what. From there they constantly moved between the bathroom and the balcony.

Friends were calling in and sending text messages constantly, to the point where Muncher said he had to continually delete messages just to keep his inbox clear. At this point he said they were touched by the amount of people praying for them, people calling in and giving prayers in ev ery different faith. He said Muslim friends called and gave Koranic prayers, Hindu friends called and gave Hindu prayers, Zoroastrians gave Zoroastrian prayers, Christians gave Christian prayers, and of course Shahnaz called and told them to take Meher Baba’s name. They took them all and repeated them as they waited in their rooms, unsure of what would happen next. They credit the repetition of these prayers with keeping them poised and calm, and able to handle the stress of the situation. But as Muncher explained to me, he felt an almost unnatural sense of calmness come over him, a sense that they were protected. In fact, he told me how a colleague who was an astrologer called him and told him that there was a Great Power watching over him that night, and that he would be OK.

He felt so calm that he even put on his pajamas at one point and went to bed for a few hours. As he told his wife, ‘well ifwe are going to be stuck here, I may as well get some rest!’ However, finally, around two or three in the morning the fires on their floor and in the hotel became so bad that their room began filling with black smoke, making it hard to breathe and hard to keep their eyes open. They moved to the balcony and started trying to break the windows, and figure out someway to escape. They looked for a ledge, tried fashioning some sort ofescape device out ofthe balcony’s girders, but soon realized that there was no way for them to safely drop the six floors. It was a terrible mo ment. The worst of it, they say, was the sights and sounds they experienced on that ledge. Dead bodies lay below by the poolside, fires raged in rooms beside them and across from them, people screamed for help, explosions and gunshots rang out incessantly. Scenes unfolded before their eyes ofpeople desperately trying to break the windows oftheir rooms as they slowly died from asphyxiation. Tragedy was all around them. It was the lowest moment of the night, and a sense of helplessness was taking hold.

J ust moments before this Shahnaz was on the phone with them, imploring them to take Meher Baba’s name as they tried to escape. Soon Shahnaz tried to call them again, but there was no answer. Shahnaz pleaded with Baba. In fact, she implored and demanded Baba’s help. As she put it in her own words, “I said, “Oh no, this is not happening because I have to bring her there (to Meherabad), I have to bring her there, don’t do this, I have to bring her there!”

She explained that she was holding on to the Baba locket she always wears around her neck repeating, “Baba, she has never come to Alimednagar, she has never come to Meherabad, and she had asked me to take her there, and I have not taken her there because I could not.

PLEASE get her out! Show her the way!

SHOWHER THE WAY!! She can not get out from there, you have to show her the way.” As she put it, it was as if she was battling, or fighting for them. At that moment Farzad was saying to her how it was very confusing in the Taj, and how even without smoke it would be hard to find the way out, but with smoke it would be very difficult, impossible maybe. And Shahnaz responded, “No! No! HE is going I’

to get you out, HE is going to showyou the way!” She shouted out to Baba, her locket in hand, “GO! GO! You go there!”

Shahnaz had gotten offthe phone with Ferozie and Muncher after giving them prayers of Baba’s and imploring them that they must take Baba’s name as they attempted their escape. At this very mo ment, as she tried to call them unsuccess fully (because Ferozie had her cell phone switched off) and demanded of Baba His help in guiding them, Ferozie and Muncher were on the balcony looking for one last answer, some way to escape. And what happened next? A man appeared below. As Muncher explained, it was a very strange occurrence for a number of reasons. For one, no one was around the pool anymore. The entire area had been cleared of people escaping the terrorist’s carnage; the only people that remained were dead bodies. What was this man doing there? For another thing, the man’s voice was clear as a bell over the roaring sounds of destruction, explosions, and gunfire. And he was six stories below! He did not shout, but his voice was strong and clear, defying the realities ofthe situation.

He spoke, and they asked him, “Who are you speaking to?” His answer was, “I am speaking to everyone.”

They couldn’t even make out his fea tures, but he told them with clarity what it is they must do. He explained to them that they must exit their room and take a left, and then explained precisely where they could find the fire escape. Without hesitation, they heeded his words, put damp towels over their faces, and ventured out into the smoke—smoke so thick they could not see each other as they walked steps apart. But as it was, the smoke ac tually worked to protect them from the terrorists that were in the hallway to the right, blocking them from view. All the time Ferozie repeated Baba’s name. They found the fire escape exactly as described, descended it, made it to the second floor, and found that from there it was blocked by some large metal furniture or some such thing. Muncher worked hard to move it as best he could, but when he got a look at the other side, he turned back.

Dead people were on the other side, blood still oozing from their bodies, indicating they were killed only moments ago. They turned back, and directly behind them was a door. Unsure what to do, afraid of expos ing themselves, but with no other options, they took the plunge and opened the door 12

onto a second-floor rooftop. Immediately, a commando stationed across the street below spotted them and pointed out an escape ladder on the side of the building they could not see. Shimmying down the building to the ladder they climbed down and ran across the street, their heads ducked low, and unbelievably, they were finally out ofharms way.

They called Shahnaz, and she picked them up, along with Farzad and Farhang.

The next two days were spent at Farhang’s house in Colaba, directly opposite Nanman House, with a front row seat to the terror that continued to unfold there.

Everyone had miraculously escaped unharmed that night. Farzad, Farhang, and Nozer had all been in Leopold when it was attacked, but were all miraculously spared. Amazingly, Farzad was away from his usual spot, sneaking a glimpse of a cricket game upstairs in the mezzanine level, as were Nozer and Farhang, when two gunman threw a grenade at the very spot where you can find Fanzad ninety percent ofthe time when he is at work. They then unloaded gunfire on the ground floor spraying bullets in places where Nozer or Farhang often make their rounds, killing eight and injuring others. Baba Himself protected His own image that night. Many are familiar with the now famous picture that ran in the New York Times ofthe fam ily’s car that was parked outside Leopold, with a picture of Baba’s face surrounded by bullet holes. As Shahnaz explained, all of the windows were shot out of the car with the exception of the back window, where bullet holes were scattered around the window, but somehow managed to just miss Baba’s face.

I was surprised to find, upon revisiting Leopold after the attacks, that there were two other images inside Leopold of Baba that narrowly escaped damage. Below the cash register was a small bumper sticker with Baba’s face, and the words, “Real Happiness Lies in Making Others Happy,” and directly below it, a bullet hole in the mirrored glass. The entire panel next to it had shattered and fell to the ground.

Above that on the upper most part of the wall was the familiar poster of Baba with His hands clasped and the words again “Real Happiness Lies in Making Others Happy,” and directly next to His poster, at a slightly lower level, a portrait of Zoroaster. Forming a perfect pyramid shape around Zoroaster’s portrait, and just missing Baba and Zoroaster alike, were

three holes from grenade shrapnel. All in all, three instances of Baba’s image just avoiding serious damage. th, Finally, on November 29 three days after it began, all the terrorists were finally reigned in, and Mumbai started to get back to normal as best as it could. Everyone was traumatized, sleep was hard to come by, and nightmares came easily. Sudden sounds disturbed them.

But finally the family took a stand.

Farzad and Farhang discussed it with their staff and it was decided to reopen Leopold, only days after the attacks. The world responded, articles were written in magazines and newspapers all over the world about their defiance of the terrorists, but Farzad put it all very simply. As he said during their discussion at Bhau’s talk in Meherabad on January 12, “We realized we had to put the past behind us, we do not want to live in the life of nightmares any longer. We have to work, make ourselves tired, so that when we go home at night we can sleep.” Shahnaz added that it was only through Baba’s grace that they survived, and only through His grace have they been able to get back to some semblance of normality I had the chance to interview Muncher shortly after meeting him in Meherabad for the first time only about a week after the attacks. He stressed to me how much he wanted to praise the staff of the hotel, and he wanted to be sure that any publication that talked about his experience would be sure to mention the unbelievable poise and self-sacrifice ofthe Taj staff that fateful night. I assured him I would write it in. It was not the first time I had heard about the amazing heroics of the staff, of the way they courageouslylaid down their own lives and safety to help their guests.

So let us all take a moment to think of those ones that lived Baba’s words of selfsacrifice and courage, the ones that truly forgot themselves that night.

To get back to the story, Muncher and his wife Ferozie had finally come to Meherabad, and as Muncher said, he was highly impressed with the place, finding Meherabad’s atmosphere ofserenity along with the natural expression ofBaba’s prac tical spirituality through the people there, highly moving. In the interviewwe talked about how important it was for religions to come together, and I suggested to him that Baba may have been working through him that night as an agent in the eye of the storm, with all of his friends from so

many different backgrounds focusing their prayers on him and his wife. He responded with enthusiasm, telling me that for him, differences of religion have absolutely no meaning, only the humanity ofthe person is what’s important. Since then, Muncher and Ferozie have returned to Meherabad a few more times, and we hope to see them again and again!

So Baba’s work continues even as He is out of the body. He seems determined to shake us from our slumber! The Awakener will not stop His mission of rousing the world from its spiritual sleep! And yet He keeps His eyes on His close ones. I for one can tell you that from my perspective I feel strangely more at peace than I have in a good while, for I feel Baba’s presence so strongly in mylife now. How humbling to know that Baba’s Nazar was on me that day. Strange that this terrible event would make me feel His love so strongly, but how could I not when He put me so close to the killing, but kept me so safe. Things seem simple now. It is as ifBaba did it all for me. It is as ifhe said, “Look Michael, Mumbai is exciting, Mumbai is hectic, but it is illusion, take time to appreciate what is real—I alone.” Sometimes we get so easily caught up in the world, but it is always just as simple as holding on to His daaman, and trying to love Him more and more.

AvatarMeher Baba kiJai!!

© from international: Thdletbolesjust missed Babaface.

This photo ofFarzad and Shahnaz’s car, parked outside the Leopold, was featured on the front page ofthe NewYorkTimes. Baba’s beautiful face was seen by millions!

Al1 of the windows were fixed shortly after the attacks (every window had been shot out except the back window where Baba’s picture was. Farzad replaced Baba’s picture with a new version ofthe same photo.) Shahnaz has gone back and forth from Mumbai to Meherabad two or three times since the attacks. The third time was when she had the talk with Bhau and everyone else involved in the attacks on J an 12th. Then about a week later, she went back to Meherabad with a Baba lover and three other friends from Canada who had never visited Meherabad. Shahnaz was driving as they returned to Mumbai and outside of Pune she got in a serious accident. As it happened, there were 5 people in the car, but Shahnaz was the only one seriously injured. The other Baba lover in the front with her was also hurt but not as badly, and the three in the back werejust slightly injured. The car hit a tree and rolled, and was totally destroyed—the same car that was hit by the terrorists!

As of this writing, it is still lying there on the side of the road. Howevei Shahnaz is doing quite well, and is out of the hospital, but because her ribs were broken so badly and in such a terrible way, she is having to stay very still and not move much for six months in order to ftdly recuperate. But everyone is very thankftii that she will make a full recovery and see that it is indeed Baba behind it all.

:2:lit in 7effor /1ttacks, a J44umbcti Café ‘13ounces Ei3ack From the InternationaiHerald Tribune © December 14, 2008

byThomas Fuller ome day Farhang Jehani might patch up the bullet holes and cover the shrapnel pockmarks. But for now they are the Leopold Café’s new decor. “We are going to let it be,”Jehani said over the din ofhis crowded restaurant, where eight people were killed in the Mumbai terrorist attacks. “It’s part of history.”

In the two weeks since the attacks, this Mumbai neighborhood of narrow streets shared by street urchins and the well to do has staggered back onto its feet. But at the

S

; ‘.

Photo taken by Bha(ya Panday

Leopold Café, it is often standing room only. The restaurant has become a sort of shrine of defiance against terrorism. That, at least, is howJehani portrays it. “I want it to go on the same way as if nothing has happened,” he said.

Tourists come to buy T-shirts embla zoned with the restaurant logo (sales are now five times what they were before the attack). Passers-by stop to peer at the bullet holes in the restaurant’s facade.

And an eclectic clientele—some coming -

‘3

Three holesfrom a grenade blast on the night ofihe attackform an oddly geometric triangular shape around theportrait ofZoroaster next to Baba.

This was one ofthree instances in the cafe where Babai image narrowly escaped damage.

FarzadJehani, Baba-lover and owner ofThe Leopold

out of curiosity others to show their support—sits down for a meal and freely flowing beer. “I thought I’d come to have a look,” said Jagdeep Kishore, a lawyer in his early 60s from New Delhi who came to Mumbai for a conference. Leopold has become a household name in India, Kishore said. “But I never imagined this place would be full of people.”

The diversity ofthe clientele mirrors Mumbai itself. Tourists, especially budget travelers, have been the mainstay ofthe restau rant for years, starting with hippies in the 1960s. But after the attacks, the Leopold has attracted more wealthy and middle-class Mumbai natives. “There are more Indians now,” Amerita Kotak, 16, part ofa group ofhigh school students waiting for a table on Friday night. “People want to see what’s happened.”

The attacks, which left 163 victims and nine out of 10 gunmen dead, began a few hours after dusk Nov. 26. At about 9:40 p.m., dinner at the Leopold was interrupted with a minute-long volley of gunfire and the loud bang of an exploding grenade.

The gunmen never entered the restaurant, said Jagat Khadka, the Leopold’s bouncer, whose left arm was grazed by a bullet.

They stood outside and casually opened fire, sending waiters and customers running for the kitchen or ducking below their tables, according to interviews with the Leopold staff. Six patrons and two waiters were killed. The gunmen then walked down a narrow street to the back entrance of the Taj hotel, where they then terrorized guests and hotel staff for more than two days.

Both waiters at the Leopold who died, Peer Pasha and Hidayat Khazi, were Indian Muslims. A note at each table, placed under the glass tabletop, advises diners that donations for family mem ‘4

The Leopold is as busy as evei Here, a group ofyoung men, outfor a night on the town, are eagerfor me to take theirpicture. As reported in the International Herald Tribune, The Leopold seems to have actually gotten a bounce in business because ofpeople embracing its swjft reopening as a symbol ofMumbaikers thumbing their nose at terrorism.

The diners at The Leopold were indjfferent to the bullet hole behind them in the glass ofthe mirror.

hers of the “deceased staff” can be made at the cashier.

J ehani says he does not know the identities of the other six killed, except that three were foreigners, including one German.Jehani escaped injury because he had gone up to the restaurant’s mezzanine bar to watch the end of a cricket match between England and India. On the way upstairs he saw two young men standing on the sidewalk with large rucksacks, not an unusual sight in a neighborhood popular with backpackers. They looked like “decent” people, he said. “I thought they were waiting for friends.” About three minutes later the men began their shooting spree.

The atmosphere at Leopold’s on the most recent Saturday night was raucous and boozy. But amid the mainly Indian crowd were reminders of the power of the weapons that the gunmen used. The bullet that grazed Khadka had punctured a solid wood door plated with a layer of stainless steel. Bullets had left holes in the restaurant’s granite-paneled walls that looked like they were made with percus sion drills.

Many buildings in Mumbai exhibit perpetual dilapidation, and the Leopold Café is no exception. It is hard to know whether some of the missing tiles and broken windows here were caused by the attack or longstanding disrepair. But the divot underTable 24 is unmistakable. The attackers’ grenade had blasted a fist-sized hole in the granite floor and sprayed shrap nel across the adjacent counter. Shrouded in revelry, the scars of the attacks do not seem to bother customers here. “Nobody seems to give any impression of trepida tion, absolutely not,” said Pat Dunworth, an insurance assessor from Sheffield,

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he Leopold now has asecurity guard stationed at the door at all times.

England, who was sitting two tables down from the grenade hole. “It’s no different from being in Bangkok or Los Angeles.”

Patrons at the Leopold, which first opened as a wholesale cooking oil business in 1871, say they admire the restaurant’s speed in reopening. Restaurant staff took two days to mop up the blood and bits of scalp from the floor. Zoroastrian priests in white robes came to bless the business with burning sandalwood. The first customers were served on Dec. 1,just 48 hours after the siege of the Taj hotel was over.

Ofall the targets the gunmen chose in their killing spree—the train station, the Chabad-LubavitchJewish center, the hos pital and hotels were the main targets—the Leopold was among the easiest to find and gain access to. The restaurant is located on the Colaba Causeway, a main boulevard, and advertised by a large sign, sponsored

by Coca-Cola, that reads, “Coke Time, Join the Friendly Circle.” In Mumbai, life spills out onto the streets, whether at food stalls, wet markets or along Marine Drive along the Arabian Sea, where couples stroll. The Leopold Café is the symbol of these “soft targets,” in the lingo of terrorism experts, and a sign of the city’s continued vulnerability Three police officers are now posted on the street outside the Leopold, but their only weapon is one tall nightstick shared among them. Khadka, the stocky bouncer who is also head ofsecurity at the restaurant, says he is not armed. During the attacks, he ran for his life down a side street. Asked what he would do ifgunmen returned, he shrugged. “Next time I won’t run away,” he said.

7:1w Day ‘1kfore the 7}iolence .Startcd Sarah McNeiIl, England left Meherabad early on Wednesday th and caught the 10:30 November 27 a.m.Jet Airways ffight from Pune to Delhi.

I’d traveled this route before but maybe, on that previous occasion there was cloud cover or maybe I just wasn’t looking, but this time I was peering down at the landscape below as the plane made its ascent in a clear, cloudless skyc What surprised me was the ffight path taken by the aircraft as it gained height, flying as it did westwards

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in a wide curve that took us right over the coast before heading north.

Below us—in perfect outline—was the city of Mumbai with its islands and its Gate of India peninsular in sharp focus set against a sparkling sea. I could make out the Santa Cruz airport and J uhu Beach and run my eyes all the way around Chowpatty along to the high-rises at Nariman Point.

Seated some twenty thousand feet above, my mind idly cast back over

the events of a previous visit to that city—Marchl993—when I’d been at work recording interviews with various local officials and had spent what felt to me like far too much time suffocating in a taxicab with no air conditioning, stuck in the usual city congestion, trying to get from one location to the next and finally meeting the last interviewee downtown at the Oberoi hotel. It was a Friday.

Exactly one week later—that same year—sitting back at home in England in Is

front of the tv, I watched scenes of panic and chaos around India Gate and the Air India building adjacent to the Oberoi and other familiar locations such as the Centaur hotel at Santa Cruz, as news of terrorist bombings came through. I remember imagining the horror of being among the injured in that heat and traffic mayhem; or in an ambulance trying to reach the sites of the various explosions or trying to get injured people back to hospital. On that ghastly occasion as many as 250 people were killed and more than 750 injured in what were seen as sectarian and gangster related acts of revenge foliowing the politically motivated mob-violence and bloodshed of earlier that year when Moslem communities had been attacked.

This year, on that morning of Novem th, ber 27 all unawares, I marveled at the pristine clarity of the view below me. Of course, unbeknownst to me, the events of the 28t had already begun to unfold; the gunmen who would precipitate the S’ were already violence of November 2 crouched in their hiding place awaiting nightfall. By then I would be in Delhi, staying with friends before taking a flight for London; and so it was in Delhi that I first heard news ofthe attacks in Mumbai as they started to come through. From late Wednesday and all through Thursday there was non-stop tv coverage ofthe mayhem with some impressively composed and thorough on-the-spot reporters giving regular updates as information about the many different explosions, fires and shootings became available.

By the time I got back to England on this occasion, the Internet already had pictures of that bullet-riddled car parked outside the Leopold café, with its picture of Baba’s face there on the window. And that was what made me recall the view I’d had ofMumbai from my seat on the flight from Pune thatWednesday—the clarity of the city outline etched on my mind. I’ve experienced a similar memorably clear kind of perception on previous occasions, and it has always been as ifBaba is saying, “Pay attention!” even though what it all means is beyond my comprehension.

Photos in the Murnbai articles ivere taken byMithaelFiles unless otherwe notect

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LA 5ociological c.v4pproctch

to the c7frIcissacre

Madhur Dutta, a high school student in Pune. n an earlier article [not in the LampPost] I wrote about the tipping of crime.

I tried to explain how a minor negligence can result in serious consequences.

Everyone has been moved by what has happened in Mumbai. We are looking for solutions and a whole lot ofanswers. The biggest question we are all facing is—why did this happen? I am going to try and answer that.

In my opinion the cause of the terror attack was not political, neither was it the incompetence of our officials and government. It was a Sociological Failure. In sociology there is an approach called Functionism—under this, society is looked at just like a living organism. Just llke our body, the society constitutes many parts, which together make the society as a whole function. If even a small part stops functioning, it can lead to severe consequences. For example: inadequate circula tion of blood results in a heart attack.

What happened in Mumbai is a failure of a part of our society—the fiuilure of these terrorists being turned from moderates to extremists. The damage caused to these terrorists—psychologically and socially—causing them to turn into extrem ists, can be compared to a heart attack. Now all the other variables such as political and overall incompetence can be compared to lack of an ambulance. The primary cause of the Mumbai massacre on November 26th was the extreme deviation that took place in these terrorist’s lives. The lack of proper security obviously made it worse, however that was not the real cause.

We need to focus more on ensuring that people are not changed into extremists and focus less on politics and security For the root cause of the massacre was the sociological and psychological changes that turned normal men into terrorists.

Editor’s note: Kudos to a thoughtful 17 year old’s evaluation! One does indeed wonder what Baba strove to accomplish through this terrorist act, perhaps a deeper understanding ofhow and why terrorism manifests and how we can all contribute to its end? Perhaps there is no expfanation our “rational” limited intellect would choose to believe?

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The author A’iadhur J)utta

7he 7rctvctil of the ÂŁNew World Order Meher Baba he world-storm, which has been gathering momentum, is now having its greatest outburst, and in reaching its climax it will work universal disaster. In the struggle for material well-being, all griev ances have assumed fantastic proportions, and the diverse differences ofhuman interest have been so accentuated that they have precipitated distinctive conffict. Humanity has failed to solve its individual and social problems, and the evidence for this failure is very clear. The incapacity ofmen to deal with their problems constructively and creatively reveals a tragic deficiency in the right understanding ofthe basic nature of man and the true purpose of life.

The world is witnessing an acute conflict between the forces of Light and the forces of Darkness. On the one hand there are selfish persons who seek their happiness blindly through lust for power, unbridled greed and unrelieved hatred.

Ignorant of the real purpose of life, they have sunk down to the lowest level of culture. They bury their higher selves in the wreckage of crumbling forms which linger on from the dead past. Bound by material interests and limited conceptions, they are forgetftil of their divine destiny.

They have lost their way, and their hearts are torn by the ravages ofhate and rancour.

On the other hand there are persons who unveil their inherent higher selves through the endurance ofpain and deprivation and through noble acts ofbravery and self-sacrifice. The present war is teaching man to be brave, to be able to suffer, to understand and to sacrifice.

The disease of selfishness in mankind will need a cure which is not only universal in its application but drastic in nature. It is so deep-rooted that it can be eradicated only if it is attacked from all sides. Real peace and happiness will dawn spontane ously when there is a purging of selfishness. The peace and happiness which come from self-giving love are permanent. Even the worst sinners can become great saints if they have the courage and sincerity to invite a drastic and complete change of heart.

The present chaos and destruction will engulfthe whole world, but this will be fol lowed by a verylong period in which there shall be no war. The passing sufferings and miseries of our times will be worth

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A T Photo taken by Bhaiya Panday used courtesy of Raju Panday

Meher Baba in Bangalore, India, 1940. enduring for the sake of the long period ofhappiness which is to follow. What will the present chaos lead to? How will it all end? It can only end in one way. Mankind will be sick of it all. Men will be sick of wanting and sick offighting out of hatred.

Greed and hatred will reach such intensity that everyone will become weary of them.

The way out ofthe deadlockwill be found through selflessness. The only alternative which can bring a solution will be to stop hating and to love, to stop wanting and to give, to stop dominating and to serve.

Great suffering awakens great understanding. Supreme suffering fulfills its purpose and yields its true significance when it awakens exhausted humanity and stirs within it a genuine longing for real

understanding. Unprecedented suffering leads to unprecedented spiritual growth. It contributes to the construction of life on the unshakable foundation ofthe Truth. It is now high time that universal suffering should hasten humanity to the turning point in its spiritual history. It is now high time that the very agonies of our times should become a medium for bringing a real understanding ofhuman relationship.

It is now high time for humanity to face squarely the true causes ofthe catastrophe which has overtaken it. It is now high time to seek a new experience of Reality.

To know that life is real and eternal is to inherit unfading bliss. It is time that men had this realisation by being unified with their own selves. ‘7

Through unification with the higher self, man perceives the Infinite Self in all selves. He becomes free by outgrowing and discarding the limitations of the ego-life.

The individual soul has to realise with full consciousness its identity with the Universal Soul. Men shall reorient life in the light of this ancient Truth, and they will readjust their attitude towards their neighbours in everyday life. To perceive the spiritual value ofoneness is to promote real unity and cooperation. Brotherhood then becomes a spontaneous outcome of true perception. The new life which is based upon spiritual understanding is an affirmation of the Truth. It is not something which belongs to utopia, but is completely practical. Now that humanity is thrown into the fire ofbloody conflicts, through immense anguish it is experienc mg the utter instability and futility of the life which is based upon purely material conceptions. The hour is near when men in their eager longing for real happiness will seek its true source.

The time is also ripe when men will ar dently seek to contact the embodiment of Truth in the form ofa God-Man, through whom they can be inspired and lifted into spiritual understanding. They will accept the guidance which comes from divine authority. Only the outpouring of divine love can bring about spiritual awakening.

In this critical time ofuniversal suffering, men are becoming ready to turn towards their Higher Self and to fuffill the will of God. Divine love will perform the supreme miracle ofbringing God into the hearts of men and of getting them established in lasting and true happiness. It will satisi5r the greatest need and longing of mankind.

Divine love will make men selfless and helpfttl in their mutual relations, and it will bring about the final solution of all prob lems. The new brotherhood on earth shall be a fialfilled fact and nations will be united in the fraternity of Love and Truth.

My existence is for this Love and this Truth. To suffering humanity I say:

‘Have hope. I have come to help you in surrenderingyourselves to the Cause of God and in accepting Hisgrace ofLove andTruth. Ihave come to help you in winning the one victory ofall victories to win yourse(f” --

Originally written and published in 1941-1942 Discourses, Vol. III, pp. 18-21 Copyright 1967 Adi K. Irani i8

r2ublic 7 I/kssage on 7 I4eIier 13aba’s Arrival on .2-1is Second 7.}isit to /lmerica 7I1ay 13 I932—J1ehcr 13aba .Societies and organizations have never succeeded in bringing Truth nearer. Realization ofthe Truth is solely the concern of the individual.

Every being is a point from which a start could be made toward the Limitless Ocean of love, bliss, knowledge and goodness already within him. No spiritual Master brings religion to the world in the form it eventually assumes. His very pres ence is a blessing and radiates spirituality.

He imparts it to others by personal contact. The so-called religions are an effort to commemorate that association with a great spiritual Master, and to preserve his atmosphere and influence. It is like an ar chaeological department trying to preserve things which only resuscitate the past. The living spirit being absent, religions or orga mzations graduallylose their glamour. The result is a mental revolt against the estab lished order. Something more substantial and practical is required which expresses the life ofthe spirit.

There exists at the moment a universal dissatisfaction and an indescribable longing for something that will end the chaos and misery that is holding the world in its grip. I will satisfy this craving and lead the world to real happiness and peace by mak ing people look more deeply into things than heretofore.

As a rule, Masters help individually according to temperament and fitness of the aspirant, but this being an Avataric period, which means the end ofthe previ ous cycle and the beginning of a new one, my spiritual help to humanity will be both individual and collective.

The period ofjunction of the old and new cycle usually connotes the advent of a Master who rejuvenates religious thought, infusing new life and meaning into the old order of things. Besides imparting the highest state ofspiritualityto a select fe he gives a general push to the whole world.

The West looks at things only from the standpoint of reason and logic, and is sceptical about things which baffle the intellect. Intellect is the lowest form of understanding and is simply developed by reading, hearing, reasoning and logic. These processes create an illusion of knowledge.

A higher state of understanding is permanent illumination, through which . .

the illumined one experiences and sees all things as they are. In this state, one feels in harmonywith everyone and everything, and realizes the divinity in every phase of life, and is able to impart happiness to others.

Once this state is attained, one attends to all duties and material affairs, and yet feels mentally detached from the world. This is true renunciation.

The last and highest state ofunderstanding is the merging ofthe soul into the Lim itless Ocean ofinfinite bliss, knowledge and power. The Perfect One who has himself attained this freedom can make thousands perfect like himself I intend bringing about a great spiritual revival in the near fhture, utilizing the tremendous amount ofenergy possessed byAmerica for the purpose. Such a spiritual outpouring as I visualize usually takes place at the beginning or end ofa cycle and only a Perfect One, who has reached the Christ state ofconsciousness, can make such a universal appeal.

My work will embrace everything it will permeate every phase oflife. Perfection would fall far short of the ideal if it were to accept one thing and eschew another.

The general spiritual push that I shall give to the whole world will automatically adjust problems such as politics, econom ics and sex, though these are not directly connected with the original theme. New values and significance will be attached to things which appear to baffle solution at the moment.

The benefits that shall accrue to dif ferent nations and countries when I bring about the spiritual upheaval will be largely determined by the amount of energy each one possesses. The greater the energy however misapplied or misdirected the greater the response.

The Master merely diverts the current into the right channel. It will be one of my greatest miracles to bring together and blend the realistic West with the idealistic East; and the West at the zenith ofits material and intellectual attainment and the East at the height of its spiritual manifes tation in the shape ofthe Avatar will meet without shaming or looking down upon each other...

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LordMeher, Vol. 5, Bhau Kalchuri 1986 © AMBPPCT

AmartitIii

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ilgrimctge and a ‘13ookstore J3uying 7rip c_/4 2 7<athy ri-till, Los Angeles Jan. Depart Los Angeles. Slightly sore throat, a little feverish. But I have not been sick for a year, Baba!

23 Jan. Landed shortly after noon. Spotted Pathan’s driver waving a “Jai Baba” sign. Immediately hit the road but it will be tight arriving before 6, deadline for check-in. I feel awful and fall asleep in spite of a very bumpy road and aggressive honkingdriving. Pathan called to assure me that he had a hotel lined up if not there in time. Imagine though, door to door service, Mumbai to Mehe rabad! A miracle compared to 40 years ago.

Every so often the driver’s cell rings: Pathan is in touch with the MPC and they are all tracking me like a UPS package. My driver is doing his very best in horrid traf fic. Then I am too excited at seeing familiar landmarks to rest. There’s the roundabout in Ahmednagar the Prithvi sign, Pumpkin House, Meher Darbar! Almost home. I make it to registration exactly at 6pm then at the MPR, more check-in, and finally I can I lie down on my bed and then I start coughing and can’t stop.

24 Jan. The doors to the dining hall are covered with Amartithi notices and schedules and sign-up sheets, one ofwhich has me moving out on the 29th, alas. Tak ing heavy-duty cold medicine makes no difference at all and my sweet roommate is very nice about getting no sleep while I cough the day and night away. She is an advertisement for always bringing your iPod on pilgrimage, declines my proffered ear plugs.

25 Jan. Occasionally I can manage a shower or a meal, but either one wears me out. It’s only bronchitis, I’ve had it before, it will soon go away. The good monsoon means pilgrims are allowed one shower a day. It’s worth the effort to make it to a meal just for the heart-lifting delight of running into an old friend. And then I try

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The start ofthe queuefor His darshan

not to breathe on them.

26 Jan. Overnight a scary coughing fit broke a blood vessel in my cheek and ruptured eardrums. First in line for the infirmary when it opens after breakfast to get ayurvedic and allopathic cough remedies and advice to keep resting. Easy to follow. By now two angels, Karen and Sarah, have come to my aid, distributing my stack of LampPosts, belatedly paying my driver, finding a hotel for when I have to leave on the 29th, plus supplying toilet paper and kleenex, such blessings.

27 Jan. My fifth day here and I still have not been to the Samadhi! But a long evaluation from Dr Anne suggests more rest needed. She offers antibiotics, does a Frankenstein style EKG with electrodes on ankles and wrists, nebulizes my lungs, tries a second cough medicine, and refers me to a specialist in town about the eardrums. And since the nebulizer I have not been coughing! Someone reminds me to muster my memories ofthe 1969 Darshan and share with Judy Stephens for her oral history project. This is not how I thought I would be spending my first week home in Mother India, Baba, but this must be what you want.

28 Jan. Sleeping better with much less coughing, which I am sure my tolerant roommate likes as much as I do. Definitely on the mend. Start accomplishing tasks,

like laundry, and go belat edly pay the accounts guys for my lodging and meals.

Discover to my total delight that I am to be allowed to remain in the MPR for the duration ofmy stay! This is sweeter news than a pony on Christmas morning.

Checklist: Hat, sunglasses, water bottle, bandanna (for dust), rupees ( for rickshaws), coins (for phones), paper and pen (for appointments), laptop (for this journal), flashlight (in case of delay), kleenex and TP, and I am ready to leave the nest and walk down to the Samadhi. I notice that the trees along the path are very healthy and well watered.

Where did I hear that so many trees have been planted at Meherabad that the arid weather pattern has improved? Here.

Samadhi at last. The queue is quite long at 10 in the morning, mostly Eastern pilgrims, maybe 60 people, most lingering within for no more than haifa minute, and I wonder how these sari-clad beauties can bounce in a bus 500 miles on bad roads and still look bandbox fresh. I hear Meherabad has been welcoming more Iranis than Americans this year.

On the Hill all is as I remember, with holiday modifications still underway, benches removed from the porch but queue railings not yet in place. High mound of garlands on the tomb cloth.

Baba, I am so glad to be home at last. Two pieces ofprasad, one like sawdust, one like peanut brittle. Is there a message in that?

A kiss and a slap, welcome home but what took you so long?

I never saw anything prettier than these bright, gay, color-saturated ruffled and rosetted pandals shading acres of hillside.

The workers are calmly moving everything into place. Oops!There goes the table from under this laptop. Nobody seems hurried, all look serious but cheerful. The stage backdrop is in place, the chairs in front of it, the sound booth, the first aid tent.

Reception was expecting more than 100

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hall, serving cook- no way to provide any sort of orientation ies, cakes and soft as masses of pilgrims in big groups arrive drinks for a nominal tired, overwhelmed and in culture shock. fee. The hot pizza is a So there is a certain cultural disconnect: special attraction, and No clue about leaving the faucets gushing, I chose four éclairs leaving dishes on the table as ifthere were to give to the franti servants, even casual cutting in lines (and cally busy Reception the lines are long now for food, darshan, crew in a gesture of etc.). People even feed the animals. When gratitude for allowing people cut in front ofme I tell them to go me to stay put. There to the end of the line as nicely as I can. is a soft drink that When they argue I tell them to tell it to seems to be straight Baba! Would you cut in front of Him? mango nectar, “Slice.”

30 January. Spent the morning at the Heavenly.

Amartithi Bazaar, mainly purchasing J ust before dinner, lovely rainbow quilted items from Prithvi, The old w(1IL’r tower on the A’IthL’rabaa’ 1711/ the Beads on One from a quilted print tote bag with a rainarrivals this morning, as the trickle became String tour arrived, rather glazed and bow flag for only $12, non quilted flag a flow and then a torrent, to increase right dusty, and then I almost tripped over bags for $6 or $10, webbing straps $10, up to the Eternal Day. Housekeeping Don Stevens. Imagine the hardships of a cell phone bags for $4 (long thin strap), has crammed extra beds into the reading pilgrimage, the fatigue, the discomforts, little zip bags at $3, $5 or $8. The largest rooms. I envision the Samadhi, or Baba and then imagine doing it at the age of would hold all your mail or pencils, 6 x 10 within it, as a great big horseshoe magnet, 90. He is of course, sharp as a tack, with inches, the smallest perfect for credit cards. collecting all us tiny iron filings, first a few, a warm smile and plenty of folks to help Flags are $3, $6, or $8 with the largest 31 then a stream, then big clumps. I believe him, should he need help, though he looks x 36 inches, small 5 and a halfby 9 and a about 35,000 drop-souls are expected to like he does not. The BOS tour has a leg half. Wall pockets, indispensible, $8 or $6. pay their respects. What a darshan line to Ellora yet to do and I invite a friend to I showed them a few designs they might that will be! For now though the Hill is visit myfriendYusun there to pickup more want to copy. They can’t give me a discount pleasantly under populated, for my private hand-loomed Himroo shawls. on their price since they are nonprofit, but enjoyment of Baba’s Gadi, His grinding 29 January. The Beads on One String I want to support the work they do with wheel, the very dust ofHis holy footsteps. Tour has a luxury bus today. I think it AIDS families, helping village women to Over there near the corner where they dry needs some garlands and a big picture of become self-sufficient. They have started the removed tomb garlands, I once smoked Meher Baba on the front, like the buses producing knitted and crocheted hats and beedies with Eruch. carrying pilgrims here from all over India. scarves maybe I will have room for some I have decided that in the spirit of Finally made it to Meher Darbar to catch next time. pilgrimage, we should all give up our cell up on emails. Forgot to get the schedule of Tried to get to Meher Nazar’s booth, phones on check-in, and get them back rickshaw rates and got ripped off. Darbar which is offering several new titles I want only on departure. When they go off at very busy. Now I know that the stones and including a fresh reprint of The Nothing the door of the Samadhi, it’s distracting, necklaces for sale on blankets out front are and the Everything, big crowd in the way, and even worse, when they ring Bollywood vastly overpriced. I still tire easily; still have ran into my2003 Amartithi roommate and show tunes during the Grand Silence on not made it to Arti even once. enjoyed the reunion; apparently she has the 3 1st, it’s an insult. However, I wouldn’t The Amartithi Bazaar is partly open been living in India ever since. A random mind ifa fewwifi hot-spots were available with about half the stalls not yet oc pilgrimage roommate can become a friend at the MPR and MPC and other less sa cupied. There is a cred spaces. Meher Darbar is farther than wealth of treasures I am able to walk today. Also, Pathan has and trinkets but my offered me the loan ofa cell phone, and I bag space is limited plan to accept! Pilgrims buy them at the and I am not sure of Darbar too huge convenience. But one my ability to rope in result of the swelling crowd is the rising “mules” to get cargo noise level everywhere you go. We are all back to the US. I so chatty, for a group brought together by have a big order of Silence! It is most apparent at mealtimes, books to transport when the dining areas, now packed, have and they have to a hundred conversations going in a variety take precedence. oflanguages. I wonder ifthe atmosphere in Great hordes other ashrams is so social, unstructured... continue to arrive LOUD. in big waves of bagAt lunch, the kitchen guys opened gage and chatter. At Hearty Foods at the back of the dining this point there is A crowdpleaser -fresh squeezed sugar canejuice .

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wander during the bhajans. The Me:ø:: herabad Chorus was a large group and while they were being miked, Richard Stermer sat at the Yamaha keyboards and performed an engaging song, “The Edge of Nowhere.”

They were 45 mmutes ahead of their scheduled slot.

One ofmy neighj bors proudly tells me his father attended After hours ofwaiting. almost there for life. There are more familiar faces every both the ‘62 East West Gathering and daybut I am not good at all at recalling the the ‘65 mass darshan. The weather is names that go with them. Meher Nazar extremely hot.

At 5pm Bhauji arrived and was settled asked me to come back at 9am to order a cushioned chair on stage with an into a list.

I made my books, so fan to cool electric and 3pm before hill Headed up the Mehera The him. that insisting stage by found a seat near the repeated Chorus bad the from people remove their pocketbooks . The its performance is seats saving pile on the chair. I think from Center Baba Westerners rude, but people feel entitled. energized Chennai sit, but you will not move their bags to let Easterners will. Thought I’d be in time for their bhajan perfor the start of the festivities but they started mance by waving ahead of schedule. The announcer calls big rainbow flags several acts to the stage in advance, trying and giant photos of to keep to the tight timetable (nearly all Meher Baba during certain parts of each acts are five minutes), but does not always Steve Myhro verse. tell us what act we are about to hear. I sweet ballad sang a managed to obtain a personal copy of the line, “Ev with the schedule, ofwhich very few are printed for God’s love erywhere, some reason, and tried to follow along. little Two is there.”

There are 184 acts on the program, colors bright in girls spread over three days, of which 131 are Indian dance. a classic performed bhajans. And some bhajans take much been most antici I had the act Finally longer than five minutes, few less, and School. This English Meher the pating, managing the microphone placements etc. littlest ones, the First parts. two was in (though the stage crew is highly efficient) on the stage ranked were in white, adds to the time each performer needs. dressed on for emgloves white with On stage there is a small orchestra with in rows, and song.

Then devotional out a tabla, harmoniums and other instruments, phasis, acted purple, in stage, the took that accompany most bhajan singers, and the older children some singers bring accompanists with and did a magnificent rendition of another them, also many are in groups. They all song, without the gestures. All had been have lovely voices. However after a few perfectly schooled by the Principal—Mrs. Stella Manuel—and had great stage pres bhajans they all start sounding the same ence. I wanted an encore. to my untutored ear.

At this point I toiled back up the hill.

The first non-bhajan performer is Rafael Villafane from Mexico, who was To my horror when I tried to organize my excellent. Three bhajans later, the next stufffor the next day, I discovered that, at was Gabriel Lee from Australia, also very some point, I had lost over $100 in rupees! fine, had a great and engaging song, but A bundle ofnotes that had been in my bag broke a string on his guitar and did not was gone. What I did not realize at once get to finish. I tended to let my attention was that so was my passport! I figured . .

when I was looking through my bag for the items for Prithvi I must have accidentally dumped out the money. Baba must have felt somebody else needed it more.

31 January. For many, the day started early with Arti at 6am followed by Dhuni at 7 but I did not get an early start, still resting and recuperating, by no means well. First thing in the morning one of my angels stopped by to return my passport, which is how I learned I had lost it, rendering me the luckiest person in the world.

After breakfast I hired a rickshaw to the ATM to try to replace the missing money before meeting up with Meher Nazar as scheduled, but I had not discovered its secret (the touch screen). I went on to Meher Nazar but again they were besieged by hordes ofcustomers, so Ijust gave them my list and arranged another meeting.

I walked back up to the amphitheater just in time to get a second-row seat forJeff

Meher English School choir

De Loe’s song, ofwhich my favorite line was, ‘We can’t understand the gift we’re given when He takes our hand.’ Ward Parks and the Meherabad Chorus returned for a rousing rendition of”Victory to Allah.” When Sue Biddu took the mike she called our attention to all the hundreds ofvolunteers from near and far who help make the event a reality. She noted that some folks who have never had to clean their own toilets travelled a great distance to clean ours. Then she led her group in an energetic thank-you song.

Ted Judson played and sang a moving version of”I Walkwith the King.” Sohrab and Rustom, Baba’s nephews, led a small group in a rousing song with the memorable line, “No longer I roam, my soul faces home.” I would sure like to hear it again, a great tune about remembrance as the only 21

path to God. At 10:30 there was the announcement, “Hang on to your cameras, pickpockets have entered the pandal.”

Getting closer to the main event now, Sue came back with a whole row ofbeauti ftii women to lead us in an 0000MMMM chant and the Gujerati Arti and the Satchidanand, Paramanand chant. Bhau was resituated with fan and cushions stage front, but his Welcome Address was read out by a young woman. It was a synopsis ofthe part of God Speaks about Nirvikalp and the drop-soul’s journey.

Throughout the morning, the crowd under the pandal has been growing denser and denser. First they sat on the corners of the stage, then the wings, then every inch not used by performers and equipment.

They have crowded in tighter and tighter in all the areas with no chairs. There is no way to budge without stepping on someone.

The AMBC Ahmednagar group took the stage and performed an intricate number with orchestra, chorus and danc ers. Then we heard that scratchy, classic version of Begin the Beguine, the one

by Hutch Hutchison that Baba so loved.

The Ahmednagar group led the crowd in Meher Dhun, the lilting, rousing rhythmic chant of Baba’s name that increases and increases in tempo like Ravel’s Bolero. At the moment ofthe triumphant final note, it was noon, and we all went silent.

Being silent in a group of3O,000 people or so is really an experience. Here is what I heard during the next fifteen minutes while trying to focus on Baba’s last mo ments in His body: cell phones ringing, distant children, rustles ofclothing, lots of coughing, including my own, traffic on the road but no truck horns, one baby crying, a few babbling, loud backstage thump, snor ing for a short while, bit of burping and stomach rumbling, not me, train rumble and train whistle (long.)

And then it was 12:15 and we all shouted Avatar Meher Baba kiJai together and the program resumed with prayers.

After Allan Wagner, our esteemed chef, emoted the Master’s Prayer in English in his inimitable style, we heard it given in Chinese, then in Farsi, Telugu, Marathi, Gujarati, Hindi and Sanskrit. Each was memorable in its own way.

Then artis followed, with the Aus tralian arti first, my favorite, performed beautifhlly and movingly by Ted Judson and Ward Parks, and that was my signal 22

to head back to the MPR. Although I am especially interested in seeing the Argen tinean dancers, I need to rest, and with luck I will make it back for the dervishes at 4:50. The performances continue until l1:OOpm,with Hugh MacDonald’s magic scheduled at 9:30 to keep everyone interested. Wish I could catch every act but my old body is complaining.

After a nap, met with Balaji, hooray! I have the complete sets ofLordMeher again ifl can only get them home. He is a very sweet guy and offered to lend me money.

I never made it back down the hill, missed the dervishes and fire dance and Hugh’s magic, all surely wonderful. This bronchitis has become fairly common I see, with lines waiting for the dispensary

and rumbling coughing heard all around. I am glad everybody did not get it from me!

Tony Griss caught it on a trip to Hamirpur and had to go to the hospital.

I went down to Meher Darbar to catch up on email and the guys selling crystals and beads out front were very persistent, so I tried to engage them in conversation so they would stop bugging me. I discovered they were from Ellora and not only did they know my friend Yusun there of the Himroo-hand-loomed weaving fame, he was their best friend and neighbor and they had him on speed dial. He had been at Amartithi for two nights and had left hours before, after not being able to locate me. Well! We called him and he graciously agreed to return the next day, and now that we are all his friends together, the crystal and bead guys are buying me soft drinks and showering me with gifts of amethyst and crystal and agate and pearl. It’s all about who you know.

1 February. In the very early dawn I

emerged from my mosquito netting to ask large crowd ofloud talkers outside my room to go elsewhere, climbed back in to find a mosquito in there for company. Now awake, observed my two elderly Indian roommates, both of whom had slept in their saris and were packing their bags with much crumpling ofloud plastic bags.

When one changed into her fresh sari, the wrapping and pleating and arranging only took about three minutes. I guess that makes sense if she never has worn any other type ofgarment for six decades but I was still impressed.

After breakfast, walked down the hill for a few more bargains, including lovely large silky golden scarves ($8) with a de sign that includes Hindi characters and “Jai Baba” in maroon—the colors of the Buddhist order that is widespread in India, key chains ($1) and a few nice T-shirts ($8, black, Baba’s face 3 times in color, one size fits most, preshrunk).

Many ofthe booths are packing up afready but the sugar cane squeezers are still marching in circles, pushing the wheel that crushes the canes that makes the juice that all Indians—seemingly— love. Workers are taking down pandals and re moving strings of electric lights, dismantling all the Amartithi accommodations, acre after acre, with a dramatic change in the scenery every time I pass by.

I returned to the front rows of the amphitheater and tried to find my place in the program, but the acts were out of order. There is a group of about 26 lovers from Argentina and their act was most im pressive, with several musical instruments, wonderftd singing, and graceftil, expressive dancing. I was able to get copies of their excellent CD, Muchas Voces, un Corazon, to sell! ($15.) Every note was a marvel, and I was delighted when they were given an encore. Of all the great performances I witnessed, theirs was among the most moving: classic rhythms, heartfelt tones, emotionally moving and such sensual dancing! One ofthe dancers spun in circles over and over and over for way longer than you would think possible without falling over dizzy. I believe this was their first trip

here. How fine it is when a big group from one Center travels as a unit.

A brass band inspired a dozen people to get up on stage and dance. The crowd was fairly thin, but loudspeakers all the way to the top of the area behind the Samadhi broadcast the stage acts to everyone near the great pandal, and sounded nice and clear to my untutored ear. The stage crew puts in really long hours over Amartithi, along with many other crews; this year there were garbage collectors in matching gold shirts that said “Give me your trash” with an image ofYou KnowWho holding a big bag. The grounds are much tidier than they might otherwise be thanks to a lot ofstoop labor.

Bhau’s entourage entered at lOam. More bhajans, then the Meherabad Cho rus returned to the stage, and sang Baba Hu atlength, getting many in the crowd to participate with enthusiasm. My favorite line: “Before one became two, there was no one but you.” This ended in a roar of Avatar Meher Baba ki Jai! I noticed the crowd was swelling, although there was a steady flow offamilies with baggage leav ing, and there were big heaps of luggage scattered about. The darshan line was still inching along but was not as long as yesterday. The crowd was pretty dense near the stage but nothing like the multitudes ofthe day before.

An Iranian group came on stage and performed “Baba Bob,” another crowdpleaser, and Babek Naderi from Iran sang with a group of daf players, assisted by volunteer musicians from the audience, one with a tambourine. A local group sang, then at 12:30 alarge Armenian group filed onto the stage, and I was told they were Armenian Christians from Iran, whose culture predates the dominant Islamic one.

This was their first trip to India.They sang a lovely song in Armenian and sounded very professional.

A young local man and his harmonium group performed a beautiful bhajan and I was told he had learned to sing from Ted J udson when he was a child. The groups were going on in random order so my program was not much help identifying them but made a handy fan.

Finally Bhau was introduced, today wearing something like a belted sadra that looked like a bathrobe, instead of his usual business suit. The master of ceremo nies noted, “He will talk from eternity to eternity there is no limit to his talk.” Bhau said, “I am really really happy to see you

here. Why you have come only He knows.

Different countries they are coming here, why? They are coming here and they feel very happy. Nobody knows but Baba.”

Then he mentioned something about The Nothing and the Everything (which is back in print, but apparently has a page missing!?), and launched into the story of how he came to Baba in Saoner and ate a whole banana with skin, but I have heard that one before and I left.

Locals mentioned that summer has arrived. Walking back up the hill under the noonday sun with the mad dogs and Englishmen I was glad I had replenished mywater bottle and worn a hat, but at the same time realized I was getting overheated and when I got to the MPR I needed badly to rest and recuperate. It’s a bit too far to walk in the middle ofthe day. Even a touch too much sun can lead to all sorts of discomforts and I noted that although my warm enthusiasm for Allan Wagner’s cooking remained high, I was living mostly on cucumbers and yogurt, buttermilk and spinach, my appetite sapped by illness and heat. This is not necessarily a bad thing.

Later when the sun was lower the phone rang and Yusun was waiting for me at the Darbar. A delight to see him again and we had to chat a while over slushy iced Limcas before we could settle down to business. The mandatory social call involved in all business transactions here certainly does ease the bite ofopening the wallet. Wouldn’t it be nice ifwhen we went to the bookstore or the drugstore orTarget at home we were always invited to enjoy a cup oftea and a chat about the weather, the crops, the families and the news, before we started to negotiate a purchase?

Yusun had brought way more in the way of shawls and stoles than I had asked for, way more than I could carry, so after admiring the lovely colors and the fine quality I ordered plenty and asked him to ship them to me. He gave me excellent prices and I will pass them along to the lucky Love Street customers who order before this whole batch vanishes like the last two have.

The choices will be cotton/silk, silk! wool, silk, Himroo pattern (mostly paisley in earth colors) and wool. The lightweight wool and blended pashminas and himroos are just right for a year-round wrap and I don’t know how anyone can manage without owning several. The silkier ones can instantly upgrade a nice pair ofjeans and a good top to the realm of elegance.

I wonder ifthe cottony ones could not be sewn into light tops or skirts? The fabric has such a lovely texture and all the colors are eye-catching. Two ladies from Wales are interested in selling these shawls in Swansea, but couldn’t quite handle a wholesale purchase, and were envious of the riches Yusun piled in my lap. They wanted to know iftheywere the only Baba lovers in Wales. OK, LampPost readers, are they? Email Dma at dinagibson@mac. com ifyou know of any.

Yusun let me buy on credit. Then he let me borrow Rs5000 to tide me over until I could get to the bank! Was this enough? Could he give me more?Just send Western Union some day. Such a friend!

I was sorry to say goodbye. Anyone who is going to Ellora must understand that there are more than caves to encounter there! He’s a gem and meeting with him lifted my spirits. I wish all myvendors were as warm and generous. Actually many of them probably are, as most are trying hard to please Baba through their work.

As usual discovered that my money woes could be much worse. Someone whose plane lay over in Kuala Lumpur tried to use an ATM there but it ate his card. He needs to contact his airline, but none oftheir phones are answering in any city in India.

Jaunting around the countryside it is easy to see that the monsoon this year was a very good one. The cattle are fat and the fields are green. There is a reservoir full ofwater on the road to the MPR and farmyard pumps gush. Plowed earth is a rich black color and not at all dusty. Crops are every shade ofgreen. Verdant gardens 23

and paths have blooms ofevery color. The village of Arangaon has been prospering enough that most of the rooftops sprout satellite dishes! I don’t remember that from earlier visits. I also don’t recall seeing mulch on the shrubs and trees but I am delighted that this practice has taken hold.

2 February. Today, the Monday after the holiday weekend, most of the autorickshaw drivers are taking a break. You ask someone to call for one and they try, but then you are told there aren’t any. Maybe a car for 200 ru pees, instead ofa rickshaw for 40? I have been fortunate to get rides from friends and to share rickshaws with others.

I see some pilgrims have bor rowed bicycles. You need to know that getting back and forth between the MPR and the rest of Meherabad is 25 rupees one way (haifa dollar), 40 round trip, and waiting is 10 for a half hour. I was stupid not to read the bulletin board. During Amartithi the rickshaw ranks swell with ir regulars who are not here for their spiritual well-being. Now I carry a rate chart and have no problem except getting the rickshaw to manifest in the first place. Advice to pilgrims: Always carry a schedule ofrickshaw rates with you, it ends a lot of arguments!

In spite of transportation difficulties, and I don’t know how anyone can drive on these roads without having a panic attack, there is still a certain appeal to moving here on a permanent basis. More and more westerners make Meherabad their home for the more temperate months, costs are low, medical care is good, volunteer op portunities are bountiful. Visas require you cross the border every six months, but few find this a hardship, and vacation in Sri Lanka or Nepal if they don’t have family in the West. I toured an apartment that rents for Rs 5000 a month ($100) with fresh water, solar hot water, and electricity included, two adequate bedrooms, small living room, big kitchen, western toilet, nice tiled shower, even a washing machine, with a small locked courtyard for a vehicle to park, nice neighbors, reliable maintenance, and a view of the Samadhi.

Not large but more than adequate and could easily be sublet. The present occu pant is building a house a few km away. Is 24

there anyone out there who would like to manage the Love Street Bookstore? I also visited one ofTony Griss’s houses in Meherabad; the other is under construction.

He likes to complain about being unable to buy appropriate furnishings but this is not apparent from the nice way his place is outfitted. Some houses are downright palatial, some tiny, it’s possible to build whatever suits your budget.

I stopped by Pathan’s to thank him for the loan ofa cell phone and to arrange my

Handpainted on clothforframing

ochre, the foregrounds in rich jewel tones and earth tones I will put pictures on the website as soon as I can and these are suitable notjust for framing; I can see other uses as well, as they are washable.

Perhaps appliquéd to the back of a jacket or kurta, made into window coverings or wall hangings. Framing a set of three in one mat would be charming. I can sell them for $20 each which for this fine qual ity is quite a steal. I think they are about 10 x 16 inches, taller than wide.

Many Indian businessmen have complained that they have had a terrible year. It was first due, they felt, to the downturn in the worldwide economy, then exacer bated by the Mumbai bombings, which caused the tourist hordes to dwindle dramatically all over India.

I told them my store had had a very bad year too, but perhaps the cause is bad management? Only Baba knows. Everyone seems to be unanimous in their hopes for Mr. Obama, ofwhom pictures are readily available.

I also met with the very nice Mr. Panday today. He is the source of the crystal and silver Baba photograph pendants which are so popular.

He offered two kinds, 70% silver (oval) and 99% silver (round). The difference is not apparent to me but I suppose one or the other demands more polishing. He had to -

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airport trip. He has several Amartithi yendors using his porch and I quite liked their wares. I always wish I was not limited to what I could get on the airplane. One fel lowwas strong competition in the Himroo department. However his bedspreads and pillow covers were more bulky and weighty than I can easily carry home.

Where are those mules when you need them? Dma has a better knack for finding helpers.

I could not resist buying some lovely original handmade batik paintings on cotton, modeled on the art ofthe Ajanta The latest silver and quartz pendants caves. There are im change manufacturers to get better qual ages of Ganesha, Buddha, and a goddess whose name I can’t pronounce, and I met ity (I will replace any that were sold with the talented artist, Mr Kulkani. I chose flaws.) These are a little bigger than last batches ofsimilar images for ease of selling year’s supply, and more variety of images. on the web, but no two are the same. The As an additional bonus I took them all to backgrounds are mostly tones ofgold and the Samadhi to rest on the marble.

Panday is a great source for photo graphs, excellent quality but I could not get any even though I liked them, as the store has not been selling many, we have hundreds in stock! He is doing more with hand-coloring and other enhancements, but has nice versions ofall the classic poses.

Ifyou go to India his work is available at the Darbar, but large photos are so hard to transport! I did get a few metal Baba ballpoint pens (His picture is on the clip), not too chintzy, they write well and have a nice weight in the hand, $3 and well worth it.

The little flat pendants on acrylic with Baba’s image on both sides I have been selling at $ 1 are now available in color, same price, so I got plentyc They make a nice gift, you can make them a zipper pull, hang them on a necklace, put them on a keychain, use for crafts, dangle them from a knob, glue them to a clipboard, put wires in for earrings, sew them to a hat or collar, very nice looking. I got little cell phone leashes that have this same pendant on the end, to retail at $2, and someone is wearing this as a necklace. I swore no more little lucite Baba pictures on stands, but he had fresh images and a new style, a small oval on a diamond base, only takes up an inch of desk space and images are such nice sharp quality These will sell for only $3 and shouldn’t everyone have one near the computer, the bathroom sink, the top of the dresser or the dashboard of the car?

And then I could not resist the refrig erator magnets so I got a few, you will see they are well worth $2 each when I get them on the web. Panday is a meticulous photographer and I really like his work and his industriousness is always pleasing.

Apparently he was in a terrible accident and was unable to work for two years and now is making up for it!

Between Panday and the bazaar I have found some nice key chains and they will also sell for $2, Panday’s have thick acrylic disks with Baba’s picture inside for a fob, plus there are some that have a heavy metal tab to say Jai Baba in English and Hindi ( or maybe Urdu?). I seem to need more than one key chain these days so perhaps I can talkyou into letting Baba guard some ofyour keys too. Maybe it will bless them so they stop running off and getting lost.

I am happy to have a new supply of Nivedita’s DVD ThiefofHearts. It is a popular and pleasant all-pur pose Baba bio-pic enjoyable for the clueless and the de voted alike. I will try to get the retail price down to about $32 if I don’t have too much in excess baggage charges to make this possible.

It runs for 90 mmutes.

At Meher Tailors, Anil, the most pleasant proprietor, offers hot tea, cold drinks and big smiles, and his daughter cheerfully spreads out the wares for viewing, I bought colorful print placemat sets ($16 for 6 with napkins), and twin ($30 a pair) and queen bedspreads ($30 each) in bright colors.

Rose Reed sold me a very interesting new book, Journey of Consciousness, a useful compen dium of Baba declarations on topics like reincarnation, evil, sanskaras, etc. all well-organized and nicely ed ited ($15). It’s everything you need to know in a very userfriendly format. ,! .ibs jj’%*_ And speak4__r —II ing ofDVDs, at ‘Sb / Prithvii Stall—a iiot of colors long last I have —

‘

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in my possession the eagerly awaited film Babac Birthday, made by Australian film-

makers Peter Sumner and Michael Ney, with music by the award-winning com poser Christopher Gordon. They delayed release until they could get the production quality they demanded, though short on funds, and now at last I can sell it to you.

Call for the price; Love Street is the US distributor and it is available wholesale and retail. I am only carrying home 18 copies so order fast! They go for $25 each.

Another drought comes to an end with my purchase of the Indian edition ofLordMeher. One set is eight volumes,

the exact same text as in the Hermes ver sion, but laid out in a more compact (but equally pleasing) manner, with the same photographs, only much better quality. I guess the page numbers ofthe on-line ver sion will not be much use for comparison purposes or research, but to make up for that, there is a nice price break (to put it mildly!) I will be able to sell the entire set for the price ofjust two volumes of the original American set. I understand that people wish to complete their sets and there continues to be demand for individual American volumes, but I have not been able to purchase any since Hermes passed on. I will not be offering individual volumes of the Indian edition, complete sets only. Sorry sold out until more mules bring me more sets!

Tomorrow Meher Nazar has The Noth ing and the Everything (at press time-sold out), and I also picked out the new second volume of The Real Treasure, which has been asked for by a number of customers (only a few left, $5). Tony told me the secret ofwhy I have no luckwith the local ATM. Though there is no indication of -

25

Babac twins, Rustom

es’ Sohrab Irani, speak atAmartithi

any sort, it is a touch screen interface, and pushing the buttons does no good! Well no wonder Baba. Live and learn.

There is a new sign on the dining hall door today warning pilgrims to keep their belongings under lock and key due to a higher than usual number of thefts. We have been warned that not all pilgrims are Baba lovers and not all here are honest!

A receptionist told me that housekeepers are no longer permitted to enter occupied rooms unless the cupboards are secured.

Over the big holiday weekend the guards in the hallway strictly limited access to only those who were wearing their Amar tithi badges. Although the mattresses are rock-hard, the electricity and hot water a bit unreliable, and some fingers perhaps sticky, I am very comfortable and happy here at the MPR, finding the atmosphere pleasant if noisy, the amenities adequate, the food terrific (I hear people say “I couldn’t be hungry again already!”) and the ambience uplifting. It’s not that having someone else to cook and clean and serve is my heart’s desire, it’s just that it’s so easy to get used to. Yes, I should spend the intervals in spiritual pursuits rather than in shopping, but is not making all these Baba books, trinkets and treasures available to the world a spiritual service of some sort?

I hope so. Memo to self: Next year request use ofa foam mattress.

7 Feb. Before departure I had time 26

to take the Historic Tour. I have done it before, but I always pick up something new. I noticed there is a new fence going up around the tomb of Maula Baba (Gilori Shah).

At the Rahuri Cabin we heard how Baba’s Mad and Mast Ashram at Rahuri was such a thriving concern in 1936, with this solid little brick building and so much activity, that the landowner decided to raise the rent by a factor of five when it came due. Baba told his negotiating team to try to get that reduced, but after many discussions, to no avail. So the ashram was dismantled, including this building where Baba lived and worked with masts and the mad, and transported in its entirety to Meherabad. I just found out that since that time, the land has remained fallow, has experienced floods and pestilence and fire, has been inhabited only by squatters, and has been used as a junk yard. The owner was thrown from his horse and drowned, and the property never again earned a penny in rent or from farming! Quite a lesson in how not to cheat God! Baba announced that He was entering the Jhopdi onjuly 9 and would be emerg ing in silence the next day. I knew that. I did not know as He headed in, one of the mandali called out to him—I am para phrasing—”But Baba, how will you teach us, ifyou are silent? And Baba responded with those famous words: “I come not to

teach, but to awaken.” Then again He turned to go in, and just as He was about to cross the threshold, there was some commotion, so He turned back again. It was a snake. Somebody killed it. Baba said, “I can protect you from nearly everything, but I can’t protect you from snakes, they can kill you.” (I am paraphrasing again.)

Interesting.

Then we went to a spot I had never seen, near some farmland managed by the Trust, with their handsome Brahma bull.

This is the site ofthe foundation stone for a memorial tower planned by Baba, laid in 1944. Judy told us of Mehera’s uncle, ColonelMerwan Sohrab Irani, the highest ranking Indian officer in the British army during World War I, who worked hard all his life to oppose and discredit Baba, trayelling far and wide in advance of darshan programs to take out advertisements, print flyers, warn everyone that Baba was a false master, a fake and a charlatan.

There are two graves in this Tower foundation side by side, for Chanji and Masaji. When one had been interred but the other side was still a pit, Baba had a list of His workers read out in “a solemn occasion of supreme importance,” those whose long years of service were to be honored by having their names inscribed on the planned tower, .who served my cause with unimpeachable integrity of character before dropping their physical body. For each one of them, a separate flower is placed in the foundation of the Tower; and the names of all of them will be inscribed on the Tower ofGlory, which will be erected on this foundation.” Lord Mehei What will be the first name to go on the tower? That of Colonel Irani!

My departure was a blur of appointments and emergencies, as the expected buyer of PAL DVDs declined to do business. I scrambled for a solution at the last minute and was still trying to meet up with old friends as the moment for my exit loomed. I stopped to give Stella at Pumpkin House a hug on the way out oftown. With so much extra baggage my driver groaned and strained to pack it all into the car. Now safely home I wish I had stayed one more week and spent the whole “. .

time in the tomb! Maybe next year.

i-J44inute Silence J44arks J44e1’ter Babds Amartit1ii Lilt 7;1is 7omb 5I’trine 1b1 JI1 Rama Rao, Dndict Editor 7e /fázn Thunc

Firsipublished in the above newspapei (Ahmednagar), India, 01 eherFebrua abad ry (Asiantribune.com): The contrast is difficult to miss, more than 30 thousand followers ofMeher Baba have assembled at His tomb shrine on a low lying hillock here. They have come from all over the globe, from Argentina, New Zealand, Australia, United States, Britain, Russia and from Iran and Pakistan to China and Japan.

For them, January 31 is an important day.

It marks the 40th anniversary of the day Meher Baba dropped his body and the body was interned in the crypt at the tomb. And exactly at 12 noon, almost all ofthem without an exception stopped talking, singing and bhajans.Wherevertheywere atthe appointed hour, theyquietlyslipped into silence. For fbll 15-minutes as a mark oftheir respect to their Master, who had observed silence and spoke through silence for years!

Meher Baba said: ‘I am notthis body, I am beyond it. For the good of the world I have suffered infinitelyand sacrificed mybody. I haveworshippedtheworld and especiallyMy lovers and in worship I have left this body’.

Post-Mumbai attacks, India has become paranoid about security Yet here at Mehera bad securityisvirtuallyinvisible,ifthere is any.

There are no handheld metal detectors and metal detector doorframes at the entrance to the tomb or anywhere on the hill.

“With divine love overflowing, police have a minimal role”, remarked a long time visitor to the place. A small police picket is seen in a corner ofthe hillbut goingbythe mood their taskis basicpolicing namelypreventing thefts since pilgrims leave their tents to roam freely on the Meherabad hill till their turn comes for entering the ‘tomb’.

Volunteers are everywhere. They don’t appear to know even the rudiments ofcrowd management. Their given task is regulation of pilgrims’ progress through a serpentine line that passes through some six or seven long rows segregated by bamboo poles tied together with nylon nets.

At a distance from the tomb shrine, music and bhajan sessions are in progress since Fri day, January 30. But at the tomb and inside the tomb, there is absolute silence befitting the ‘Silent’ Avatar, who observed silence for 44years, lOthJuIy 1925 to 3lstJanuary 1969 the day He dropped His body. . .

I asked many people in Meherabad ‘If Meher Baba is God and Avatar, why is the place not a big draw with spiritual seekers’.

Everyone I put the question to gave me an identicalreply. Everyone quotedwhatMeher Baba had reportedly said in 1958. Taking a group ofhis devotees around the Meherabad hill, Meher Baba said, ‘Meherabad would become an important place ofgreat privilege and pilgrimage after 70 years’.

His devotees appear absolutely convinced that the ‘appointed day’ is not too far away.

‘You see, the period (of 70-years) is not yet over. Today only 50 years have passed. So we will have to wait for a while more. Anyhow already we can see a surge in pilgrim arrivals year after year’, said a long time devotee, who said, he has seen firsthand how the crowds have increased in strength since 1969.

Another thing that strikes a visitor to the Amartithi celebrations is the absence of discourses by ‘senior’ devotees. In fact the managers of Meherabad and organisers of the celebrations enjoy no special privileges in matters ofvisiting the tomb shrine. ‘Not even on normal days or on these special days’, said Jal Dastoor, a trustee himself The arrangements for the Amartithi are his sho in a manner of speaking. I have seen him a day before the celebrations begin standing in the line waiting for his turn.

The only speech heard on the occasion was byBhau Kalchuri,who livedwith Meher Baba andwrote a 20-volume biography, Lord Meher. In his capacity as the Chairman of Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charmtable Trust, he only gave a welcome address.

And spoke briefly about what the Trust has been doing.

Bhau began saying ‘Arnartithi is also a very sacred time for those who say, ‘We just followJesus Christ’, and others who say, ‘We are Muslims, who follow Hazrat Moham med’, or ‘We are Buddhist,’ and for all those who follow different religions and different sects’. And said’Mysalutation is to you all, for everyone, because I find God Alone exists and no-one else exists beside God. And He is One and the same and there is no difference. He is the one who has no beginning and no end and will remain there for all time. And therefore, those who have come and those who have not come, for them also our salutations are there, without any distinction.’

Touching upon the theme ofOnenesswith the Creator, Bhau observed, ‘Unless and until the mind is annihilated,we cannot experience Oneness. So it goes on and on with different sects, different religions, that we find in the world. ButtheAncient One does notfind any difference. He is always One. He is that first Onewho reaiizedHimselfandHe found that “I am that One who always Is and everyone and everything is existing in non-existence.”

It will go on and on, because everyone has to find the way to become One’.

He went on to add: ‘The duty ofeveryone is to become One, through annihilation ofthe mind. And that way, Beloved Avatar Meher Baba has presented to everyone. Not in words, but after annThilation ofmind, after achieving Nirvana, immediately, whether you want or don’twant it, you get that state of”I am God, I alone exist.” The journey is complete’.

Observing that those who have come in contactwith’the Highest ofthe High, Meher Baba’ are fortunate, Bhau Kalchuri said ‘when you have bowed down to Him, knowwell that you have achieved one step ofmany steps to reach the final stage ofannihilation of mind, or you can say “Nirvana.” When Nirvana is achieved, mind is annihilated. In the next moment, “Nirvikalp,” and you know that I am God’.

Elaborating ftwther Bhau said ‘Let us go to Him who is lying in His Samadhi. He is asking something from everyone, andwhat is that something? That something is the dirt ofdualit Sowhatever dirtwe have collected, He wants that dirt! And then ifyou give that dirt, what He will give you? He will not give you anything, but He will show the way to go to Him: byputting some dirt in His hand.

He has come and He always comes, but what does He collect? All ofour dirt, and makes us on the way towards Him. And ifyou succeed in doing this, you will find, “Zoroaster, Ram, Krishna, Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed and Meher Baba, they are just One!” Let us try and become the dust of His feet. That dust becomes very,veryvaluable. It contains all the dirt ofduallt So see how great our Beloved is! We give Him dust and He gives us purity and feels happyto collect it. So we should say, wholeheartedly, Avatar Meher Baba KiJai!’ To view the original article in the Asian Tribune click on http://asiantribune.cornl?q=node/15408 27

WIictt’s 2 1appening cit J44eherctbctd L/4

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25th 3ebruary 2009 “TO LOVE ME FORWHAT I MAY GIVE YOU IS NOT LOVING ME AT ALL. TO SACRIFICE ANYTHING IN MY CAUSE TO GAIN SOMETHING FOR YOURSELF IS LIKE A BLIND MAN SACRIFICING HIS EYES FOR SIGHT I AM THE DIVINE BELOVED WORTHY OF BEING LOVED BECAUSE I AM LOVE. HE WHO LOVES ME BECAUSE OF THIS WILL BE BLESSED WITH UNLIMITED SIGHT AND WILL SEE ME AS I AM.” =AVATAR MEHER BABA = The above message was given out by Baba for the occasion ofHis 75th Birthday in 1969. Ifyou are wondering how Baba’s birthday message could have been sent out after He had dropped His Man-form a month earlier on 3lstJanuary, you are not alone, as many individuals asked that same question at the time. The answer reveals a glimpse into life with Meher Baba.

As Eruch recalled, “After Baba passed away on the 31st ofJanuary 1969 and we returned to Meherazad, Mani sent out the final Family Letter, giving His lovers the whole history ofwhat had happened during Baba’s last days. Although He had passed away on the 31st ofJanuary, Mani included in her letter Baba’s birthday message. So quite a few people wondered whether the message was from Baba. They asked us, ‘Did you all make up the message?’

“We said, no, of course not. It is Baba’s message. You see, before Baba passed away, His birthday was already being celebrated at centers throughout India. Here, the centers begin the celebrations according to Baba’s age. So for His 75th birthday, the centers had begun their festivities 75 days in advance, culminating with the grandest program on the 25th ofFebruary. Naturally, the centers had asked for a message from Baba and this is the message He gave out which has become a message for the whole world for all time.”

73hau’s 9enerctl J44essctge for 73eloved 13aba’s Birthdcty ebruary 2009

‘ Beloved Avatar Meher Baba Ki Jai! 25th February the whole world will celebrate Beloved Baba’s Birthday as we do at Meherabad and Meherazad.

Therefore, I should dictate a message as I did for the 31st January. 31st January is called Amartithi, the Immortal Day, because the Avatar does not take birth and does not die, though it appears that He takes birth and then disposes ofHis body.

Amartithi is an Immortal Day, and Beloved Baba’s Birthday is also an Immortal Day. He comes down on the earth in Illu sion, so that Amartithi is not the actual day ofdisposing the body. Really speaking, He has no birth and no death, but He appears in the gross world as if He took birth and then disposed ofHis body. That is the dis posing of the gross body, but He is above birth and death.

You must have read in The Nothing and the Everything the story about the Mischievous Chicken. It goes like this: When the Whim, “Who am I?” came to the Beyond-Beyond Ocean, duality took birth. Illusion came along with God, and that Whim remained in Him. When the mind is annihilated, you come to know that

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He is the only One. There is no birth and death, though it appears as ifthere are. The Infinite, Eternal Ocean divided into drops.

The first drop that came out ofthe Ocean Baba called, “The Mischievous Chicken,” and this Mischievous Chicken came out of the Mother Hen to find the answer to “Who am I?” It is a long story. I am just giving it to you in short so that you may understand the purpose of births and deaths. When you read the whole story, you will see how Baba told it in a very humorous and pur poseful way.

This Mischievous Chicken went out from under the Mother Hen’s wings and had to pass through various journeys. The Mother Hen felt very concerned that this chicken was very, very mischievous. But when he came back from his journeys, the Mother Hen was happy, and the Mischie vous Chicken also was happy.

Being mischievous, again he went out.

Six times this Mischievous Chicken went back to the Mother Hen and then again went out. But when he came down from the seventh plane to sixth plane, he could not bear the Light, and he went back.

The Mother Hen was not at all happy and decided, “This chicken is very mischievous.

If he comes back, I will not allow him to be with me.”

Knowing fullywell that the Mother Hen would not allow him to come back or give him any place, the Mischievous Chicken crossed the sixth and the fifth planes of the mental world. Then he came down to the subtle world.

“It is better to go further,” he thought.

But he felt hungry and cried out, “What should I eat?”

And a voice came, “So many things are there. Eat as much as you like.” The Mischievous Chicken started eating and eating.

He came into the gross plane and continued eating. He took birth once when he came out from under the Mother Hen’s wings.

And then, in dualit he took birth and died. Again, he would take birth. Actually, this was all Illusion. There is no question of births or deaths, though it appears that he was taking birth and that he would die.

In this way, births and deaths continued in the gross world until the Mischievous Chicken crossed the seven kingdoms ofthe evolution of consciousness. Afterwards, he

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entered into the internal worlds, the four to Me. Why did you not inform Me ear- when He tells us, we can understand only planes of the subtle world and two planes lier?” the words. But He Himself gives a push, ofthe mental world. As soon as he entered “Baba, you know everything. That’s why and our consciousness grows and grows into the subtle planes, the involution of I did not inform You.” towards Him. conscious began. When he reached the “Why I have come in this form?” Baba Therefore, My prayer for His Birthday sixth plane of the mental world, the Misasked. “Yes, I know everything, and I’m in is as follows: chievous Chicken saw Light, and he called everyone. But why do I come age after age?

0 Ancient One, Beloved Avatar Meher out, “What should I do now?”

Because nobody knows Me as divine, and Baba!

And the voice came, “You eat your- when I come down, this is the opportunity How compassionate you are that you self” for you to tell Me everything. When I drop have taken on Your duty as the Ancient When he ate himself the Mischievous My body, then you will not see Me in this One. This duty no one except You can do.

Chicken found that he was Everything. form. I take on this body to meet you all. Even the Perfect Masters cannot do this Duality disappeared, and he duty. So You come down on earth was One with God. His journey to suffer, and still, even when ended.

You are not on earth, You ftulftll Then he looked on this side your responsibility. How precious and the other side, and what did Your birth is to us when we see he find?

You in form.

That the innumerable chickAnd this is our prayer to you: ens who had been in the Infinite “Pleas e, we are in duality.

Ocean, under the wings of the Throug h Your love, just give us Mother Hen, had followed him. the progre ss that brings us closer The whole responsibility for and closer and closer to You. them fell upon him.

Then one day, we will cross du The Mischievous Chicken ality and become One. We will became the Ancient One, and know that this is the Real Life. To this Ancient One took on the find this Real Life, we must get responsibility for the innumer the mind (which creates duality) able chickens that were following annihi lated.

Him.That’s why He comes down What can we say in words? age after age on earth, to look We must obey Your order and after these innumerable chickens we must follow Your wish. We and give them progress for further shoald live for You and die for consciousness. He is One and the You. same in every age, and He is the As Beloved Baba said, “Love Drawing done by Meher Babajuly 30, 1953 ofhimse’fas a chicken responsible One for the innumer is a gift from God to man. A able chickens.

This is your opportunity to ask Me ques Perfec Master never gives the gift t Births and deaths are in duaiit Illusion. tions, talk to Me, so you know Me. But you oflove. Obedience is the gift from Master The drop thinks that it has taken birth and don’t know Me as I am. You may think that to man. Surrender is the gift ofman to the that it has dropped its body, but this is only I am all-Knowing.

Thenwhatwas the need Master.” apparent. How many births and how many for Me to ask you any question?

Avatar Meher Baba Ki Jai! deaths do you pass through? No one has any “I come to live with you all, ask different Please come down on earth, age after idea, but then, ultimately, you find God. things about your family, about different age, because we do not know what we When you eat yourself, that is, when you things. So realize this: Your son is happy should do andwhatwe should not do. Show eat duality you enter into Oneness. in Me, and that’s why I asked you about us the way in a very practical manne r. Our Beloved Baba did not meet people him. But you didn’t give me any informa duty is to lose our own self in Your love previously, but after His second accident tion. You say, ‘Baba, you know’ You must and to find You. You do your duty, and You in 1952, in 1953, He began His darshan take advantage ofthe fact that when I have suffer and suffer. But no one knows Your programs. He called those who knew Him come to this gross world, taking on a body, suffering. Even those Mandali members from different places to Meherabad for a I come for the purpos e of meeting people. with You could not know Your suffering. small meeting. There was one person from I remain immortal all the time, but I have Youwould suffer and suffer, but theywould Saoner, near Nagpur. Baba asked him, also My duty In order to perform My duty, have only some outward idea ofYour suf “How is your family?”

I have to come down, because you don’t fering. And as You suffer, what a gift You “Baba, by your Grace, everyone is fine,” know Me. In order to know Me, you have give to the world. It is unimaginable. We the man replied. to become Me.” must remain bowing down atYour feet and “What about this son? What about How compassionate our Beloved is! following Your instruction at every step of that son?”

He does not come down to eat sweets our lives in order to get rid ofthis duality .

But that son had already expired. “Baba, and to enjoy life. He comes down to look Victor y to you!

Victor to y You! Victor y he has come to You,” the man replied. after us and show us the way, how to go to You, 0 Beloved Avatar Meher Baba!

“Now you tell Me that he has come further to become free from duality Even Victory to You!

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iau’s J44essage for Ij 3 E13aba’s iith J3irthdaj Meherabad “ he Ancient One has to come back again and again and appear on earth in man-form.Though He is birthiess and deathless, He is so duty—bound that He has to ap pear in bodily form to do His work in the world.

We cannot understand Him, but He knows that though we don’t un derstand, He comes into our midst to bring this fact to light: Victory to You, victory to You, vic tory to You, my Beloved!

You are the only One. You are victorious in making Cre ation know that whatev er seems to be happening all over the world is the play of Illusion. You make people know that Illusion is illusion, and Reality is Reality You should have knowledge of Reality so that you may know that this Illusion is the shadow of the One Who is behind everyone. Then you come to know Who you are. This experience is for all, and the time is fixed for everyone. Then everyone does not have a place; One has the place. Everyone becomes the dream, the shadow.

This same Ancient One appeared as Zoroaster, Ram, Krishna, Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed and ultimately as Meher Baba. This time, the impact ofHis Mani festation will be felt in every country of the world. That’s why we see people from all countries coming to Meherabad to work

for Him. Once, Beloved Baba took us to Upper Meherabad. He was standing at a spot just above Panchvati Cave and said, “You see this area where the army was? The army is

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become spiritual. You will be working for Him, and you will belong to Him. And therefore, I offer the following prayer to Him on your behalf: May you all celebrate Beloved Baba’s Birthday and forget the world for at least these days.

This forgetfulness should be such that you work, yet still you forget.

That is true forgetfulness. Try and try, and you will succeed.

May Beloved Baba bless you all with His love so that you know that births and deaths are merely a dream to get rid of the mind through Manonash to know Who you are. This boon He gives to everyone.

Let us dedicate our life in His Love to the world, and make Mastery in Servitude our life motto, so that one day, we may achieve Manonash and become One with Him, Aham Brahmasmi.

Let us become the true slaves and al ways remain serving His Cause through the real mantra, Mastery in Servitude.

Let us have unity in our Centers, and through this unity, after Manonash, become One with Him.

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still here, doing vehicle research. But this area will be frill of Baba lovers! All this surrounding area will be the living place for My lovers from different countries, of dif ferent colors and different nationalities.”

How fortunate we all are that we are here in this era, where we have the great fortune to be close to Him. According to His instruction, we are able to do anything we like under Mastery in Servitude. Those who can devote time at Meherabad should devote it. Those who cannot devote their time but want to have a job or want to do business, to do cultivation, whatever they want to do, they are allowed to do, but under Mastery in Servitude. We all must not think, “We arejust worldly people. We cannot serve Him.” Ifyou follow His instructions, you can

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2low the Jndefatigable EBhau Celebrated ‘13aba’s 73irthday i:ynwood few days ago, Bhau declared that he wanted to participate in all ofBeloved Avatar Meher Baba’s 115th Birthday celebrations.

Sure enough, at 2:35 a.m. the morning ofthe 25th, he took a bath. Then, at 4:00 a.m. we all drove out to Mehe razad to celebrate Baba’s Birthday in Mandali Hall: the same recording of”Happy Birthday” that was played to Baba in the 1960s, prayers, embraces and many shouts of Avatar Meher Baba Ki Jai. Afterwards, we all greeted Meheru, Katie and Manu (Eruch’s sister) and their Meherazad team on Mehera’s Porch.

Meherazad was decorated like a fairlyland, strings of lights threaded through the branches. Glimmering colored foil and garlands made Mandali Hall feel like a cross between Christmas and Divali. Beautifully done rangole [colored chalk drawings] brightened the ground in front of Baba’s house.

Bhau took darshan in Baba’s room, and made a circuit of the pictures hanging on the wall. He paused at the painting ofJe sus and Peter, the one which Baba pointed out on 3lstJanuary 1969, when He said, “Eruch is my Peter.”

Unfortunately, the painting ofJesus and the Beloved Disciple John, which Goher had brought on Baba’s instructions on 30th January 1969 could not be found. This is the picture about which Baba remarked, “Bhau is my John.”

Efforts are now going on at Meherazad to locate this historic painting.

On the way back to the Mandali Hall verandah, Bhau paused, and indicated the room where Arnavaz had lived. “Every year I would go and visit her,” he observed quietly.

As a final Meherazad treat, Falu and Meherwan served chai, bananas and sweets on the verandah. Baba’s bed in the Blue Bus was covered with garlands, every time

&twer,

J4/kherabad

someone opened the door ofit, a delightful fragrance oftuberoses, reminiscent of the Samadhi, wafted across the verandah. A loud chorus ofbirds echoed from the tree branches, filling the air with chirrups and warbles as tentative rays from the rising

Babac Gadi decoratedfor His birthday

sun crept over the hills in the East.

Bhau returned to the Trust Compound, where he attended the entire musical program at Ahmednagar Centre. The meeting hall was more jam-packed than a Bombay commuter train at rush hour.

Nevertheless, Bhau lingered until he had greeted each and every Baba lover after they had taken darshan.

Following short naps for us all, we went out to the Samadhi. Three ofus were in the lead Ambassador [Indian car], and Bhau was in a nice A/C Indigo several hundred yards behind. A train was coming, but the Ambassador managed to squeak by right before the guard closed the gate. As ajoke, the driver, Ananda, informed him, “Laloo Prasad, the Indian Railway Minister, has instructed that Chairman Bhau must be allowed to pass.”

Sure enough, the guard opened the gate just long enough for Bhau’s car to cross the tracks.

Mother B (Barbara) had brought

garlands, with which Bhau and his team garlanded Baba’s Samadhi and Mani and Mehera’s tombs.

By then it was well after 4:00 p.m., and the play was to begin at 4:30 p.m..

Unfortunately, we were again caught at the railway crossing. Not even the Universal Qiieen’s (Suzie’s) entreaties to the guard to let the Chairman ofAMPPCT pass nor her invocations of Laloo’s name could persuade him to raise the gate.

At last the train hurtled past, and a few minutes later, we hur tled across the tracks ourselves, arriving at Hostel A right at 4:30 p.m..

Baba’s Birthday play this year was entitled “Across the Seven Seas” and was created by Steve and Corrine Wasson from the U.K. The play depicted the spiritual progress of a character named Nobody through the span of six Avataric advents. Steve directed the production, which starred Alan Wagner and two professional actors from Steve’s school and featured what seemed like a cast of thousands ofpilgrims and residents. The production was visually spectacular and kept the audience enthralled all the way to end, when a powerful image ofBaba lit up the screen. Bhau sat through the play’s two-hour length, and then his team managed to navigate him through the scrum of people who wanted to greet him and give him their love.

We hurried back to the Trust Com pound, where Bhau managed to sit in his favorite chair at 7:01, just in time for his ZeeTV serials to begin.

Despite yesterday’s punishing schedule, today Bhau had a full series of intensive meetings regarding Trust work and his forthcoming children’s book, as well as greeting a passel ofpilgrims. He is already chomping at the bit to see the pilgrims and residents at his MPC talk on Friday and then visit with far-flung dear ones during Sunday’s Internet Chat.

3’

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3rcrnk E13loise, JI/Iehernbad his year, in cornrnernoration of the 115th anniversary of Ava tar Meher Baba’s birth, the Avatar Meher Baba Trust, through the rnedium of its Music and Arts Centre, is happy to present an origi nal drarna by Steven Wasson and Corinne Sourn, entitled “Across the Seven Seas.”

As rnany of you know, over the last thirty years and rnore the birthday play has becorne a regular feature in our annual 25th February birthday celebra tions here at Meherabad.

Pulled together quickly in the three weeks that follow Arnartithi, and drawing on the talents of Meherabad pilgrirns and residents and anyone else available and willing to lend a hand, these plays have always been, in their essence, hornespun productions, labors of love, created in the sarne spirit in which Baba’s own rnandali used to put on little plays for His arnusernent during His physical lifetirne.

In fact, Baba’s rnandali have always warrnly supported and in various ways inspired these birthday perforrnances.

In the seventies and eighties Baba’s beloved Mehera would sornetirnes give the thernes or elernents of content that were used in thern. Having lived their lives in the Avatar’s intirnate personal association and contact, Baba’s mandali had cultivated within thernselves the finest sensitivity and attunernent to what He liked; and sorne of this, we hope, they have been able to cornrnunicate to those who have followed thern. Frorn their guidance and exarnple we have understood that there can be no higher goal in art than to please Hirn, our Beloved God, in Hirnself and in the hearts of His lovers.

This dedication to His pleasure we hope and believe will always be at the core and centre ofthe drarnatic arts at Mehera bad. Great rivers begin frorn srnall strearns.

Every Avataric advent, as we know frorn history, has eventually precipitated a flood

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tide in the arts. Surely the advent of our Beloved Avatar Meher Baba will do the same.

This year’s play continues and arnpli fies on all that is rnost essential to the artistic life of Meherabad. Yet in rnany other ways it rnarks a change and a fresh departure. For the first tirne the play has been written and directed not by residents ofour Meherabad-Meherazad cornrnunity but by Baba lovers who are by profession artists plying their trade in the world. In that arena they have cultivated their own kind ofart and expression for their Beloved Baba, and this play is their birthday pres ent and offering to Hirn. In the future we envision Meherabad continuing to rnake its stage available to Baba lovers and Baba artists around the world who want to ex press their love for Hirn here.

Steven Wasson heard ofBaba in 1968 and his wife Corinne Sourn in the early 1980s. For thirty years they have specialized in a forrn of art known as corporeal rnirne, that rnakes extensive use of body rnovernents to create rnood and charac ter and to forward the story. Steven and Corinne operate a theatrical cornpany in London. Though Corinne had to stay behind and rnind the shop, Steven has traveled here to direct the play, bringing with him two actors, Kentaro Suyama and J orge Correa Bethencourt, who will play leading roles in today’s performance.

Since the style and manner of this drama may be new to those of you accustomed to the more realistic history plays of birthdays past, let me say a few words about what you are going to see. The drama revolves around thejourney ofMr. Nobody (representing the seeker) as he passes through various scenes of the world in the af termath of the various Avataric advents. In each age Mr. Nobody experiences the decline of religion as repre sented by its priests, who mislead the public and corrupt the true message of the religion’s founder.

Spearheading these forces of worldliness and ignorance is Dr. Ahrirnan, the play’s arch-villain, who is accompanied by Max, his sidekick, and Maya, the eternal widow.

Dr. Ahriman persecutes and tries to enslave Mr. Nobody, the seeker; but Nobody remains steadfast in his longing for his true Beloved against all odds.The ship that you will see on stage is the vehicle and symbol of Mr. Nobody’s on-going quest, which actually occurs all within Nobody’s mind, since the world is nothing but the mind’s illusory projection.

The seven scenes of the play include a prologue, which introduces the characters; an “age of Zoroaster,” in which Mr. Nobody begins his journey; an “age of Ram,” which features a battle between the demons and Ram’s army of monkeys; an “age of Krishna,” in which gopis sing to their Beloved and Dr. Ahriman for a moment doubts himself; an “age of Buddha,” in which Max and the priests quarrel about the Buddhist “nothing”; an “age of J esus,” culminating in a Last Supper and Mr. Nobody’s crucifixion; and an “age of Muhammad,” in which crow-priests feed on Nobody’s body. In the end, as you will see, Nobody proves victorious in his struggle and finds the One he has been searching for.

on

Preceeding Page: Mr Nobody (Kentaro Suyama) being persecuted Above Left: Mr. Nobody and the Angel (Kris Hines) Above Right: Mr. Nobody and Ahriman (Alan Wagner) Below: The Last Supper To see the complete cast ofcharacters go to: http://www.ambppct.org/events/program.php

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Jll4eherctbctd Dictry 3udj Stephens December. I returned to India in the early morning. I had so much enjoyed the cold weather in the States compared to the hotter climate of India. We drove straight to Pune, where I bought groceries.

I was very eager to get home. We went to Beloved Baba’s Samadhi first. How excit ing it was for my heart to be Home!

10 December. I went to the Gadi under the Tin Shed. To my surprise, there was now a railing around three sides ofit. The railing was made with such beautiful taste that I was sure Ted Judson had it made.

Ted designed and built many buildings at Meherabad, including the Meher Pilgrim Retreat. He has also put a new enclosure around Gilori Shah’s tomb.

1 1 December. I drove to Meherazad. It was so pleasant to see Meheru and Katie again. I also quietly went into Arnavaz’s room. She was asleep and visitors had not

9

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been allowed in. I only quietly whispered Jai Baba and silently left the room. I only wanted to see her as she had not been well for some time.

was covered with a beautiful cloth, and Mani wrote the songs that were sung at arti or they were songs about her love for her ‘God Brother’. The energy has an extra joyous feeling to it. Cool weather, most people wearing hats and jackets morning and evening.

17 December. According to our ex pected arrivals list, we will be thU for the holidays. We will have to move some women out of the MPR to Hostel D, as we will have 100 women without them.

We can house a total of 200 pilgrims in the MPR. The women’s side will have overflow for a few days. Receptionists met to plan the new year’s budget and decided a new desk station and credenza would be more ftmctional and aesthetically nice than our hodge-podge desk and computer table.

However, the Trust doesn’t have a lot of money so we decided we would not request anything other then essential computer stuff. We agreed to design our new work-

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No longer can weplace our head at Hisfeet! The Gadi neededprotecting A newprotective railing has beenplaced around the tomb ofthe saint Gilori Shah

14 December. My heart feels so happy looking at the trees Mehera and the other women Mandali had planted to give Baba shade on the walk up the hill. I sometimes stop and talk to the trees, telling them how fortunate they are to have given God Himself comfort.

15 December. First day back on duty at the MPR. Mani’s birthday. Her shrine

34

station; who knows, maybe the moneywill come. We may be able to pay for a lot of it by ourselves. Another item was to put a nice sign on our Reception Office door that says ‘Reception Office—welcome—— please come in.’ We were surprised when we found out that pilgrims are unsure if it is okay to come in when they see we are busy. We do want pilgrims to come into

would be Mehera’s birthday, a film about Mehera, narrated

by Meheru, was shown. I called the fiowerwalla and ordered all the garlands for Mehera’s birthday tomorrow.

22 Decem ber. Meheru was coming from Meherazad for this special time.

Arti was beauti ful. Being able Now this is wh’reyou are cilppoct’d to haizg your clothes to dry jfyou don’t use the laundry service to be at the Sa the office any time we are there. madhi to celebrate 19 December. In Pune, I went to have Mehera’s birthday brought a feeling of a manicure. The hair salon is in one of warmth and caring that touches the heart. the nicer hotels. They began the security The songs to Mehera and songs about her check on all cars a few months ago. Now special love for her Beloved made us all there is an additional security arch you feel we were so fortunate to be there. The walk through before being allowed to go prasad was chocolate brownies, very tasty. into the hotel. The Mumbai terrorist at- Bhauji gave his weekly talk at the MPC. tack was November 26, less than a month Peter Booth showed a film of Mehera at ago. After lunch I went to Ishanya. It is 9:00 pm. the largest mall in India and a space age 24 December. Staffvery busy at Hostel place. There is a lot of security; you go D, expecting a lot of early arrivals. Hostel through a security arch and have your D will often receive busloads of pilgrims bags checked. It seems this is becoming at one time. There they bring their own a measure of protection for places where bedding and do their own cooking. There not only foreigners go, but also high-end were 56 pilgrims due at the MPR. Because shoppers. It wasn’t that way even one year there would not be a Christmas program ago. I saw a most interesting sight in Pune. at Meherazad this year, it was in our MuAn oxcart had four car tires on it! Usually sic & Arts Center. I heard the skits and they have wooden wheels. performances were enjoyed very much.

20 December. Around 2:30 pm, as I At the Samadhi during evening Arti, only was taking a nap, I heard someone yellChristmas carols were sung. ing, “help!” I got up, grabbed my bamboo 25 December. Christmas day. When pole, and ran to the nurse’s quarters, next we arrived at Meherazad, the line to take to where I live. One of the women there darshan in Baba’s room had already started saw a small snake. She is very frightened to form. This would be the first Christmas ofsnakes and wanted someone to kill it. I that the program was not held at Mehe saw it was a young cobra because it opened razad in many, many years. A small stage its hood. I kept hitting it until it didn’t was set up near Mehera’s porch. A choir move anymore. We live in a rural area, and was singing Christmas carols while pil snakes are part of the environment. grims went into Baba’s room, then greeted Two films were shown of Mehera in Meheru and Katie, who were sitting near celebration of her birthday this coming the edge of Mehera’s porch. Mehera’s Monday. One was Happy Birthday Mehera, chair was next to Meheru and Katie, so and the other ‘Mehera, Babac Beloved.’ the pilgrims were able to take Mehera’s 21 December. There was a ballet darshan. Then they entered another line to performance by two pilgrims. One of take Baba’s darshan. Santa Claus (resident them was Amy Wallin who had studied Martin Horda) gave out a bag of goodies with Margaret Craske. They both wore to each pilgrim that had a quote by Belong, flowing skirts and the performance loved Baba in it. I thought to myself ‘this was graceful. Then, because tomorrow is how it will be when all the Mandali are

‘i

gone.’ It was kind ofsad to see the change afready happening.

26 December. Bhauji came to the MPC to give a talk and a Baba film was shown. It is cold now when the sun goes down. We don’t have any type of heating, so we have to put on warm clothing to keep the chill off This is the time of year when pilgrims ask for extra blankets.

27 December. In the morning you have to bundle up to keep warm. There was a whole busload of pilgrims from Gujarat State. Some old-time Baba lovers brought along a lot ofnew Baba lovers. A concert of ghazals and bhajans was performed in the Music & Arts Center. Haresh and Dilip Soni are brothers who perform professionally, and their father was a famous singer.

Their performance was so enjoyable.

28 December. There were three buses and many cars at Meherazad. Baba’s room was open for only a short time and the main house was closed, as Katie and Meheru would both be in Mandali Hall.

It was really nice to see Katie there, as she has not been in Mandali Hall during the performances for quite some time.

Sally Pearson did a dance to one of Bob Dylan’s songs about everyone has to serve someone—the devil or the Lord. Ward Parks and an Indian performer sang “Baba Hu.” Then the performers from Saturday sang ghazals.

29 December. Ajang and Iraj shared the story oftheir family member, Khosrow, the last surviving Prem Ashram boy, who went to Baba on 24 December 2007. MPR volunteer supervisors decided where to put clotheslines for the pilgrims to hang up their hand laundry. We find their wash drying in our gardens, on our gates, on chairs, over the parapets, and they even pull out the drying racks from the bathrooms and put them on the verandahs.

It makes the beautiful MPR look like a laundry facility. The official place to hang out wash will be on top of the roof of the Administration wing. This way both men and women have access to it. We do provide a wash and iron service but some pilgrims want to wash their own stuff.

Ted had designed a special area in each bathroom for that very purpose, but the clothes don’t get dry there in cloudy or rainy weather.

31 December. Such a full, busy, and at times chaotic day. But, it would end in a most beautifuiway—bringing in the New Year at Beloved Baba’s Samadhi. Within the first hour the steel ball-bearing hook 35

After din- 200. The hostels had several hundred ner I went to more. It was a crowded and happy group, all smiling and feeling the joy of Beloved the MPR party.

Scott Hammel Baba’s love. What a wonderful way to start bach, a pilgrim the New Year 2009.

3 January. There was a concert in the staying in one of the condos, han- Music & Arts Center with Simon Reece, Lorraine Brown, and others. dled the deco5 January. The tire swing has been rations and the music. He did a fixed. Weekly program ‘Meherabad Mornbeautiftiljob. He ings’. This is a forum for Baba stories told had daisies and by those who met Beloved Baba. Bhauji other flowers all gave a talk.

6 January. I got a phone call asking along the walk from the park- if I could help take care of Jaloo during ing lot to the the night I immediately said yes! I got Dining Hall. He to spend the night up on the hill again! also had flowers J aloo was not well, and they wanted more The new ambulance garage at Meherabad heart-shaped than one person staying with her. She in to the children’s tire swing broke. Why? ofthe lobby lives in the building directly behind the on corners four arrangements How? A grown man had been riding it strings of Samadhi. had long office.

He reception and standing up when it was full of children.

7 January. The day was long and once archways. across the flowers ioops going in His weight was just too much. But, it again I had to put in almost eleven hours! them. small lights through These all had didn’t break with him on it. No, he only starting to get really fed up with these am the Dining I theme this in Scott continued weakened it so badly that shortly after, hours. It is too much. There long extremely festive feel.

Hall.

It had very a with six children on it, the steel hook Allan and broke off—just as if it had been cut!

Thank God the hook didn’t land on any the kitchen staff of the children’s heads! I will not be able made delicious to have it fixed until after Amartithi. Then éclairs, several someone came in to tell me a screen door kinds of dips, chips, nuts, and was accidentally broken.

There were complaints of children other snacks. running up and down the halls, pilgrims They also served playing their guitars in their rooms until soft drinks. The midnight, pilgrims using their cell phones hall was full of in the sleeping wings and keeping oth happy, dancing I ers awake. Well, you know, sometimes pilgrims from hostels, commu are—chaotic.

With things that is how nity members, 66 expected arrivals! Not to mention the and the MPR were wanted who already pilgrims changes We pilgrims. as receptionnot finish a my day here. I did The fun! had 11 hours in pm—that ½ was ist until 8:30 music was a the office with only twenty minutes off.

The garage is outside the clinic, isolation ward, and the hospital. selection so great but I knew it would be a super busy day, Where thefood tent used to beforAmartithi back in the old days! surprisingly I was not exhausted when I the floor was full of dancers. The are four times as many pilgrims as when closed the office doors. was and a bus 11:30 pm, party ended by we were at the MPC. And, we can’t just Driving down the pitch-black road, I Samadhi. the take everyone to waiting to and have someone call us when go home passed a Western woman with her only as I 11, left party shortly after I the had arrives. We have to stay at pilgrim a late light her cell phone. I thought to myself place sit. wanted to a to get because we live too far MPR wait, the and “what in God’s name is that woman dosingfor Samadhi stayed open The had bring want up at our next meetaway. to I ing on that road alone in the pitch black? continued Singing after evening arti. ing some changes. make to need that we ing Doesn’t she know it isn’t safe?” So I turned Ted midnight. judson until five minutes to snack at 4:00 and Tea and January.

9 around and went back to ask her. She said with the singing chant and the began looked at the Am4:30.We talk Bhau at she got lost and was going to the MPR. prayers the midnight, we said stroke of 100 new be almost There will list. artithi I told her there were bad bootleggers were songs artis. few more sang A and two pil many have so We coming.

Iranians around, also snakes! After dropping her announcement was then the allowed, and waiting long there is a that grims coming off, I drove back down that road—and I say this before God—I passed a snake on made for everyone to depart. There were list for the MPR. lOJanuary. Went to see howJaloo was the road not far from where she had been hundreds of pilgrims here for the New almost celebration.

The MPR had Year doing.

I was very happy to see her foot standing!

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infection was almost gone. There was a special Australian concert in the Music & Arts Center.

11 January. Went to the MPR to get our copy of a drawing of the MPR. We want to make smaller ones and give them to pilgrims who are new so we can cut down on orientation which now takes around 20 minutes. Residents have been asked to please take in pilgrims if pos sible. l2January. Dhuni Day. We no sooner opened the MPR Reception Office doors than a flood of pilgrims entered. One group was from Mumbai. I was told it was the birthday of one of the men so of course I wished him a Happy Birthday. I also gave him a small Baba photo. Later, I found out these pilgrims were survivors ofthe Mumbai terrorist attack. The Leopold Restaurant has been a family-owned restaurant since the 1 800’s. The Baba lover whose family owns the restaurant brought his brother and sister-in-law. His brother had been upstairs above the restaurant when the attack happened. The other couple had been in the Ta] Hotelwhen the attack happened. They all felt Baba saved them. The list ofpilgrims going to hotels during Amartithi was put up on Dining Hall door. There was also a list telling the pilgrims what accommodations are available. There was a talk by Naosherwan Anzar about growing up with Baba. Some young pilgrims had a very large card for pilgrims to sign for Bhauji’s birthday. In the afternoon, Bhauji gave a talk and had the Mumbai terrorist survivor pilgrims tell their stories.

Evening Arti was at 5:00 pm. The Dhuni was lit at 6:00 pm. Itwas very sweet to see one of the Chinese pilgrims had been selected to help light the Dhuni, as was a young boy from Serbia, and several others. Bhauji was helped to walk from the MPC to the Dhuni. He was the first one to put a stick in. He was then helped to a car to go back to the Trust. After the Dhuni, there was a ‘fire dance’ by two German pil grims, Samarpan and Archana Hattendorf They are really amazing, such skill.

15 January. David & Gusi, who own the house behind my house, just had another underground water storage tank made and built a storage shed above it.

Marge & I drove to the organic farm.

It is a ten-acre farm. We picked lettuce and tomatoes—now you can’t get fresher produce than that! The farm grows a lot of wheat and millet for breads. I think I will

start getting the wheat to make chapatis —all organic.

16 January. Though Bhauji’s birthday is on the 13th, this was the day for the celebration. Tea, chocolate cake, and a snack were served on the Music & Arts Center verandah. The auditorium was frill with Trust workers, Trust residents, and other Baba lovers from Ahmednagar. From Meherabad were Hostel D and Meher Pilgrim Retreat pilgrims, residents and the Baba communitywho also happily joined in the celebration. Balloons and pretty decorations surrounded a chair for Bhau to sit on. A large card, signed by many, was given to Bhau. Susie Biddu was the MC and announced singing by Iranians, Angela limura, Rama (Bhau’s wife), and

A bar to hold on to while removing your shoes at the Samadhi

the Trust workers. A play ‘Glory of Love’ was performed by those who help take care ofBhau. In the evening Peter Booth showed a Baba film. l7January. At the receptionists’ meeting we had to decide how we were going to fit 320 pilgrims for Amartithi. We had to decide how many hired help we needed, how many volunteers, what and where to put signs giving the pilgrims the informa tion theywould need to know. During the meeting, we got a phone call that Steve Edelman had died. We said the ‘Beloved God’ prayer for Steve.

18 January. In Meherazad Mandali Hall Drew Andreotti sang ‘Begin the Beguine,’ an Iranian woman sang a song while playing the daaf, and Angela limura

I

sang a song while accompanying herself on guitar. Gary Kleiner talked about Steve Edelman, what a noble man Steve was, and how much Eruch enjoyed Steve’s company.

Eruch had told Steve he wanted him to be with him when he died so Steve wound up his business and went to live at Meherazad with Eruch during his last year oflife, and was with Eruch when he died. It was a beautiful tribute to Steve.

20 January. I kept the TV news on to watch the excitement building for the inauguration of Barack Obama. I had invited any American resident in Lower Meherabad to watch the inauguration in my room if they wanted. I had someone cover my Samadhi duty so as not to miss any ofthese historic events. I am so proud ofAmerica! What a major jump we have made in the equality of all people! And, what a beacon to the world! How much one can see Baba’s hand of love in this historic day!

21 Januarc I had another receptionist cover for me so I would be free to watch more ofthe inauguration. At Meher Dar bar I saw a new sign on all the computer booths. A driver’s license or passport is now required before using the computers, a new security law of the Indian government.

24 January. Meherabad Hill already has the colorful pandal being put up, so it looks very festive. The bamboo poles to hold all the stalls are also being put in place all over Upper and Lower Meherabad. The concert ‘The Love Street Wine Shop’ had songs, ghazals and poetry celebrating the life and work of Francis Brabazon on his 102nd birthday.

25 January. This was the last Mehe razad day until after Amartithi. Mehera’s room was not open, as Katie was resting.

Baba’s room had a very long line and only a few pilgrims were allowed in at a time.

Meheru came into the hail when the bell rang announcing it was time for the performances. Jan Kris Hem sang while Ward Parks accompanied her on the piano. Peter Booth showed a Baba film.

The weather was lovely, a nice day to be at Meherazad.

26 January. At 8:45 am the pilgrims started pouring in to Reception. We had a group of 14 from Argentina, some for the first time. We have begun giving out Amartithi badges and token stickers for darshan queue on the 31st. We have so many notices up on the Dining Hall doors: the names of pilgrims going out, where

37

they are going, what time the bus comes for them, where to get accommodation badges, tokens, exchange money, curfew, and on and on.

27January. Many pilgrims moved out to the MPC and private accommodations.

We had only a few arrivals, but housekeeping had to change all those beds and make them ready for the next day. Rearranged the Reception Office for faster check-in with large crowds.

28 January. 105 expected pilgrims!

Four receptionists on duty. A group of 35 Christian Armenian Iranis arrived.

They are mostly young and here for the first time. Rafik (who had been here before) helped me give a Baba flag that had flown on the hill to the group. We do not wash the flags, we give them just as they are when they are taken down from the tower—torn, faded, and this one had bird 00 on it. Don Stevens’ ‘Beads on One String’ tour group arrived around 5:30 pm.

There were 40 of them. Wonderful news!

Alan’s kitchen guys began the Amartithi canteen. There are cookies, cakes, brownies, coffee, tea, and soft drinks.The hill was already packed with the 1000 volunteers that stay in Hostel D and Hostel C. They do security and protect the thousands of pilgrims that sleep in the tents by guarding the doors. There are also policemen everywhere. At evening arti, when the Argentinean women started to sing and drum, their sound was so lovely everyone around stopped talking and listened.

29 January. I slept late, knowing I would have little during Amartithi. I had an appointment with Kathy Hill to video her story ofcoming to the 1969 Darshan in Pune. Kathy told her amazing story of her travel around India before the darshan time, and then Darshan itself. This video will be available at the LA Meher Baba Center.

30 January. I woke to talking and the sound offeet walking through leaves right outside of my window. I looked out the curtain, but saw nothing. Anne was in the kitchen, and had looked out to see a group of men, women, and children, all with bedding on their heads, looking for their accommodations as they had just arrived for Amartithi! Already there was a long line for Baba’s Cabin, and it continued all through Amartithi. I think we had around 135 expected arrivals, and it was exhausting. The food line never seemed to end. When the Armenian Iranian group arrived, one man came only because his 38

friend brought him; he knew nothing about Baba, the MPR or anything. He was unsure ifhe wanted to stay. I saw him the next night on the hill and he said he felt joy and peace.

31 January. I went up the hill early to check on Baba’s Cabin Room. The volunteers were doing a good job. There are so many wonderftil performers around the clock on the stage. I especially love listening to the Argentine group and the Iranians. Some performances were incredible. You just can’t describe the feeling of Amartithi. The energy, the joy, the feeling ofbrotherhood, the awareness of the reality of God, it is all embracing.

This year others also told me they felt it more strongly.

At Baba’s Cabin the line was endless, but the line was halted by 11:30. All the space from the Samadhi outward to the compound, and down to the stage was packed. When it was getting close to noon, Begin the Beguine was played. Then everyone began chanting Meher Baba’s name. As the pace picked up, the clapping increased. The energy was building in beautiful love for His advent. At noon, everyone said Avatar Meher Baba kiJai— then, absolute silence for the next fifteen minutes. When it was 12:15 pm everyone yelled Avatar Meher Baba ki Jai.’ Then prayers in different languages followed. I had reception duty from 4:00 to 7:00 PM. We still had arrivals, plus many who were already at the MPR wanted assistance.

1 February. This was the last day of Amartithi. I had the 12:00 midnight to 2:00 shift at Baba’s Room. By the end of my shift, the Samadhi line looked like it was only 30 minutes long. I was back up the hill by 8:00 am to listen to the Iranian group singing. This year there was the international group singing, the Argentine group sang two beautiful songs, and the Iranian group sang. Mr. Tada, the com mentator, asked the Argentines to please come back again next year. I had not heard him ask that ofa group before. He so very much enjoyed their magical music. Susie Biddu then made an announcement that the Armenian group from Iran would perform. They had fallen in love with Baba, and the fire oftheir singing sparked the audience who also went wild with the fire of their singing and playing the daaf.

They are all Christians living in Iran whose families had fled persecution.The last song was a collection of international pilgrims singing ‘Baba Hu’. This is traditionally

the final song and I have to say the whole audience catches fire expressing the joy of singing it to Baba! It is electric! Some try to jump on the stage and dance.

As much as I enjoy Amartithi, I am happy when it comes to an end. There were a record number ofpilgrims this year who had accommodations at Meherabad, 14,699 all together. The estimated attendance, including those not staying in our accommodations, was around 30,000 pilgrims.

Many pilgrims will be going to Hostel D for Baba’s birthday. When we moved into the MPR, we thought we were finished having to do this to pilgrims and here we were in our third MPR season and already so full!

Meherabad and the surrounding Baba community have a recycling system now.

Near the nurses’ and doctors’ quarters, we have barrels for glass, plastic, boxes, and water bottles. Burnable paper is separate from the recycle system. We each take a one-month rotation to keep it in order.

The pickup is once every two weeks by Prithvi, an environmental group that raises money to help village women.

8 February. At Meherazad the group from Argentina sang a few songs, then an introductory film ofBaba for new people was shown. It was very well done, and we all enjoyed it.

9 February. I attended the Meherabad Morning session in MPC Hall. This week’s sharing was on the 1969 darshan at Guruprasad in Pune. This is the 40th anniversary of the ‘Last Darshan given in Silence.’ Those who attended were invited to share. I had gone to the ‘69 darshan with the LA and Sufi group. There were some very moving stories, and I was so glad I went.

14 February. There was a concert in the Music & Arts Center by the Argen tine group. Just before the performance the electricity went off and did not come back on so they moved to the front of the stage. When they began singing, it was like magic. They have the most beautiftil singing voices, rich and soothing. Spanish is really a beautiful language, and when put to song, it captivates the heart with its beauty. The women performed very graceful dances.

CIictnyes Are A-21ctppenin’ on the 21i11 7he J4/leherabad £ibrctrj

Y?ectd :2-us 0 vVorks Over and Over LAgctin Adi :i<. EJrctni

xciting changes have been occurring Forty Acres ofNew Afforestation on at the Meherabad Library on the Hill, Meherabad Hill which has recently expanded to include the During the monsoon and early winter large study hail room on the first floor. The months of2008, the Trust’s environmental he history of having to own Baba library has just launched a new program of conservation team, in collaboration with literature begins from 1922, the year exhibitions and displays, to be housed in the Social Forestry Department of the I joined Avatar Meher Baba. It was then the east room of the study hail. The first government ofMaharashtra, embarked on (before He began His Silence) that He ofthese exhibitions, entitled “Welcome to a major new effort in the afforestation of told me and others in Manzil-e-Meem, His World,” is a photographic depiction Meherabad Hill. Over the three-year pe ofMeher Baba’s life and work. The exhi nod of2008—11 the project envisions the “In time to come I will give you such writbition includes 120 beautiful 12” by 15” plantation of a total of 35,000 new trees. ings that will convince you without doubt the validity ofMy Realitc” photographs arranged on thirteen display The Trust is implementing its own irriga I was ever so eager to receive and read boards around walls of the room, each tion system to provide periodic watering His writings. But the process of conviction representing a different phase of Meher for the young trees. Under theTrust master on my part began then slowly and surely.

Baba’s work. Other exciting new programs plan this entire 40-acre spread of newly have recently been initiated, among them a afforested land will be kept as an open Manyyears after that came the full-fledged lecture series. During each ofthe last four area for the large gatherings of pilgrims revelation of His entire writings when all pilgrim seasons the library has organized in times ahead who will want to pay their the dark corners of my understanding a large two- or three-day educational respects and linger in the vicinity ofMeher became fully enlightened.

No wonder, on many an occasion, Baba gathering commemorating some major Baba’s Samadhi. advised old and new comers to read His event or episode in Meher Baba’s life. AdRainfall Harvesting at the works over and over again. To borrow ditional educational programs are planned Meher Pilgrim Retreat Baba books and read them is one thing; to for the future.

The previous issue of the newsletter own His books and read them is another.

NewTitles in the Online Library described the system implemented over When you own Baba books, you can refer Since its inception in January 2007, the last two years for the reclamation of to anything and everything at any time you the Trust’s online library (a section of the Meher Pilgrim Retreat wastewater. Dur spontaneousl y feel like asking yourself a Trust web site) has added several signifi ing December of2008 another part of the question which of you don’t easily get a cant new titles to the original twelve. In Trust’s greater water reclamation scheme reply.

Baba books should always be on late November, the three-volume 1967 was put into place, with the construction hand to read, re-read and for purposes of sixth edition of Meher Baba’s Discourses of a reservoir and associated network of reference. was added. With this release, the online conduits designed to harvest monsoon Owning Baba books is a Sahavas or library now makes available all four of the rainfall from the Retreat and vicinity All companionsh ip which has so much grown major compilations of these magnificent ofthis reclaimed water, from human waste in need, especially after Baba dropped essays. More additions to the library will and rainfall, will be used for watering the His body. be appearing soon. gardens and trees around the Retreat, as May His Love enlighten the hearts of Silence Day Gathering Commemo well as for the irrigation of the forty-acre the readers of His works, and may His rates 50th Anniversary of “Universal tract of the new tree plantation between messages give them a perfect understandMessage” the Retreat and Baba’s Samadhi. ing of who Baba is—the Avatar of the The number ofpilgrims coming to MeAge—to enable them to give this underherabad to observe Silence Day has grown standing to others! to the point that the event has become a Lettersfrom the Mandali, ed. Jim Mistry, kind ofmini-Amartithi. The 2008 Silence pp. 97-98 1981 © Avatar Meher Baba Day pilgrim tally reached about 2000 atPerpetual Public Charitable Trust tendees at day programs, ofwhom about 1500 were registered overnight pilgrims.

The 2008 celebration was made doubly Love Me whole-heartedly. The time for the momentous by the fact that it marked Power House to be switched on is so near that the the golden anniversary of a Silence Day gathering that Meher Baba Himself cononly thing which will count now is Love. That is ducted at Meherabad, the last such event in that place during His physical lifetime. why I have been telling you all to love me more See how the anniversary was observed at and more. Love Me, love Me, love Me, Meherabad, and learn about the debut of a significant documentary film created and then you will find Me. especially for the occasion.

E

T

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3 esse J44ctssct and Jb1is 7rees J41ol!j 3ones, California

-‘ ; 71ien I first walked from the Meher V V Pilgrim Retreat to Baba’s Samadhi on my most recent pilgrimage, I marveled at all the vibrant trees that had been planted since I had been there three years ago. Here are some excerpts from journal entries about my visits with the people who have done the planting, Jesse Massa and his crew of workers from Arangaon village.

were a few minutes of silence broken by Jesse with a n Av a tar Meher Baba ki Jai. H e g ave them their -

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assignments and they returned to work. Jesse and I sat and talked a bit. He explained that some of them are mahars, the begging class; none ofthem own land. AU barely have enough to live. We went out to check on their work.

Near the path to the Sama dhi a little ways from Jesse’s cottage, a young man named Mahendra had dug a big hole for a tree. ‘

L

November 26, This morning I attended Jesse’s snack time for his workers— such beautiful, clear, calm people.Jesse, who used to be an elemen tary school teacher, had them sitting in a circle on the stone floor of the porch of his cottage, on plastic sacks.

He gave them bananas, cookies, peanut brittle.

Then they played dice to see who would win pomegranates.

The women, dressed in brightly colored saris that never seemed to get dirty, looked at me with amusement and sweet openness. Next came a reading in Marathi by one ofthe workers, from The Everything And The Nothing; I

followed along in an English version. There 40

J esse complimented him on his work, tell-

ing me that there had been huge rocks that had been very difficult to remove. When Jesse asked : Mahendra what tree he wanted to plant there, Mahendra’s smile was tntly joyful. We walked over to the nursery where hundreds of trees grew in those Baba Sackaran, the one in overalls, met Baba and is still white plastic working at 85years ofage!

sacks. Mahendra chose a graceful, healthy gulmar.

J esse said later he would have preferred to put a champa there.

When I asked him if the workers felt resentful toward the pilgrims who obviously have so much more, he asked, “Do you see any resentment?” I said no, and he said he didn’t either.

December 3, At Jesse’s this morning, in the circle taking pictures, I looked intently at an older woman who had met Baba, her smile so serene and deep. I took her picture and felt tears, deeply moved by her being; the life she has seems hard, yet no malice is evident.

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December 11, Jesse says he is happiest here with these simple people. Without the breaks with games and laughs and reading Baba’s words, it would just be a long hot day in the sun. They know they are doing service to God. This conscious work practice of love and service, these strong graceflil workers, their purity and welcoming of me —thank You Baba for this enrichment of my pilgrimage.

Pictured are: Ackiananda and Zoomber bai, Hirabai (who met Baba,), Gangadar, Menshet, Shankar, Kantabai, Narayan, Malanbai and Mahananda. Thefriow in the tee shirt isJesse Massa.

LA 7fr1ucIi Reeded

Clarification on the 2umpkin 21ouse “Orphanage” LA

ince there has been so much made ofthe fact that Pumpkin House for children is NOT an orphanage in the strict sense ofthe word, I feel this mea culpa is very necessary I do believe that it may have been our fault that the wonderftil home for abandoned, homeless and orphaned children that goes by the name of Pumpkin House got to be known as the Pumpkin House Orphanage!

Originallyitwas called Pumpkin House not only because it was named after ofthe home our Beloved grew up in, but because their building was actually painted orange. I felt Pumpkin House Orphanage had a catchy sound to it and was easier to say and write rather than their official title: Pumpkin House for Children Trust. When Stella started the Home and got it governmentally approved and did all the necessary official paperwork, it has always been known as Pumpkin House for Children Trust-India.

So I offer my most humble apologies to Stella for all the stress we have unwittingly caused her. She has suffered so much from numerous people who were apparently outraged that it was not really an orphanage.

So this is my attempt to clear the air, set the records straight and get the unbelievably hard working Stella Manuel Pillai out of the doghouse.

First ofall,lets hear from the lady herself and then numerous other people will have their say.

S

Pumpkin House for CbildrenTrust-India A Glimpse OverThe Past FiveYears.

Stella Manuel PiiIai We have moved steadily and with deep commitment, dedication and determination, amidst the cyclones oflife. PH India, being a non religious, non profit, non government aided independentTrust, has its doors open for children from all walks oflife, irrespective of their caste, creed and religion. We cater for the lonely, needy and destitute children whom the Lord sends to our threshold.

What is the nature ofthe children cared for at PH India?

“A shady tree gives shade to any and every weary passer by.”

Let’s understand the “pains and groans”,

J44ea Culpct from the Love Street £ampJLost “the misery and poverty”, the agony ofbeing disowned by our very own. Relationship is a seed.We should allowit to growwith goodness, happiness and love resulting in serving more than ourselves.

1] We take children from brothels at the early age of two years, before the child is aware of the environment it is being raised in.

2] We have children from separated parents—where the child is disowned by the father and the mother.

3] Children saved from beggars’ homes.

4] Total orphans, semi—orphans, illegiti mate and unwanted children.

We are a seed, and if the seed does not sprout, then we have done an injustice. Can youjust sit back and feel their agony?

Our Activities: Pumpkin House currently has 47 chil dren. The age group is from 18 months to 13 years. We have seven children going to Meher English School as they are in the higher classes, with 40 of the children being educated in the Kindergarten and first grade—”Divine Grace”—run on the premises of Pumpkin House. We are the only trust in the whole ofAhmednagar that provides English education to our children, others give Marathi medium education.

Singing, music, academics and over all personality development are provided to all the children at PH. We mould and shape with an essence oflove and tender care.

Health And Hygiene: As soon as a child is brought to us, we consult our doctor who is a pediatrician to have a thorough checkup—especially for AIDS—and a regular follow up done.

The children go for regular vaccinations, and/or any medical advice given by the doctor. A proper tile with their complete medical status is strictly maintained. Their health is our concern!

Our Home: In its initial stage and with a tight finan cial situation, we try our best to cut down expenses wherever possible. PH [India] does not have a permanent establishment. We are working hard to collect funds for the same.

However our home at present has made

facilities to extend rooms and halls, fenced for their security and aiming for a shed on the terrace soon before summer.

We have still not reached the required amount for the purchase ofland. We intend to set up a permanent establishment with boarding, lodging, schooling [formal and informal] on the premises.

Our Staff I, Mrs Stella Manuel, the Founder of the PH India, have experience in the educational field and as a social worker for the last 25 years, in Ahmednagar through the Pune Uulversity I have completed my educational degrees and post graduate and work on my research papers. We have three teachers, my daughter Fiona, two graduates from a high school I taught, Miss Melissa, Miss Mubina and Mrs Mangal Salve. The first three are all volunteers, and Mrs Salve is paid Rs 1800 monthly. [$36!]The Divine Grace school classes are conducted in the newly built extended hall on the premises.

We have highly qualified members on the board and a staff of eight members working as volunteers. We join hands with other NGO’s, (Non Governmental Organizations) various groups like the Women’s Welfare group, Rotary club, etc.

As consultants we have doctors, lawyers, teachers etc.

Our Partner: Since its inception PH USA has been legally registered and has 501(C)(3) status, and has helped us with quarterly financial funds. They are our only source of help.

We express our gratitude to them and look forward to their continued support.

Let’s transform these children’s lives to be colourftil, nourishing and frilfilling. Go to our website wwwpumpkinhouse.in to view the pictures ofour Annual day.

Editori note: this was written before the erroneous notice about the Home not needing support due to having received a government grant was sent out to Baba Centers worldwide andpostedprominently at the MPR, causing such a backlash StellaJèlt she had to rfuse all donations. Needless to say, this has causedgreat hardship at the Home.

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Status Report on the ¶1umpkin . louse for 7 Children in Jndict EJLumpkin 2 1ouse 2002, a small group of Baba lovers began meeting in Atlanta with the vision of creating an orphanage near Meher Baba’s home in India. After three years ofwork, this dream became a reality when the group, organized as Pumpkin House USA, agreed to support an Indian educator’s plans for a new orphanage near Meherabad.

The Pumpkin House for ChildrenTrust opened in the village ofVidnyanagar with 10 orphaned, homeless and/or abandoned children.The orphanage has grown rapidly and now is the home of 47 children, all under the age of 12. Each child receives shelter, food, clothing, medical care, and an education, and Pumpkin House respects the different faith traditions of all of its residents. The children live in the home of the director, but fund-raising recently began for the purchase ofa three-acre site for a new residential facility The Pumpkin House for Children Trust requires substantial monetary support, and individuals throughout the world have responded to these needs with great generosity. Thanks to these donations, Pumpkin House USA has been able to provide a quarterly stipend to the home’s trust and recently contributed a grant towards the purchase of a site for the new residential facility Other groups in India, Australia, Europe and the United States have also given support to Pumpkin House.

With its rapid growth, Pumpkin House has attracted considerable interest in the worldwide Baba community and increas ing numbers of pilgrims to Meherabad have toured the place. Many ofthese visi tors have been greatly inspired by the work done there on behalf of the children, but a number of questions about the project have continued to circulate through the Baba community This article is Pumpkin House USA board’s attempt to shed light on the project.

How Pumpkin House Was Organized One important concern has been the organization of the home and its sources of support. In 2005, a group of Indian

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Lt&.A Boctrd of rDirectors

citizens living in the Ahmednagar area established a public trust to operate the Pumpkin House for Children. Mrs. Stella Manuel Pillai, an Indian educator and social worker, is the trust’s secretary and the orphanage’s day-to-day director.

The trust receives financial support from a variety of sources, but Pumpkin House USA has been one of its main sponsors.

Pumpkin House USA is operated by a board of directors in the State of Georgia and has gained 501(c)(3) status so that it can accept tax-deductible donations. Over the last several years, Pumpkin House USA has provided financial assistance to several other projects for children in Ahmednagar and Pune, but its primary beneficiary has been the Pumpkin House for Children Trust.

One common misconception has been that the Pumpkin House orphanage is a project of the Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust (AMBP PCT). Both Pumpkin House USA and the Pumpkin House for Children Trust operate independently ofthe A1VIBPPCT but the two organizations have strong connections with the Meher Baba community Nearly all members ofthe Pumpkin House USA board of directors, past and present, are Meher Baba followers. The inspira tion of the orphanage project, stated in the Pumpkin House USA by-laws, is Meher Baba’s example of selfless service to humanity Mrs. Pillai is not only director of Pumpkin House for Children but also principal of the Meher English School, which is a project of the AMBPPCT. Her work as director of the children’s home however, is totally separate from her activities as principal of the Meher English School.

During the initial stages ofthe project, both the Pumpkin House USA board and Mrs. Pillai consulted with Bhau Kalchuri, chairman ofthe Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Trust, about how Pumpkin House should be organized and supported. Bhau gave his blessings to the project but asked that Pumpkin House USA not issue direct

solicitations for donations from members of the Baba community Because of the Trust’s pressing needs for financial support, Bhau was concerned about overtaxing the capacities of supporters with ap peals for additional new charitable projects in Meherabad.

Since that time, Pumpkin House USA has never issued fund-raising appeals nor asked Baba lovers to make donations.

The board, however, has disseminated information about the project and accepted unsolicited gifts given freely from the heart. In addition, Pumpkin House USA has made a point of encouraging Baba lovers worldwide to support the many fine projects ofthe AMBPPC’T and members of Pumpkin House USA spearheaded ftmndraising in America for the Meherabad Ambulance Project.

The Home’s Need for Support In recent months, questions contin ued to abound about the support being received by the Pumpkin House for Chil dren Trust. In the fall of2008, a letter on this topic went out to Baba groups around the world written byjanaki, an American woman residing in Meherabad. Her letter stated that Pumpkin House had received a grant from the Indian government and would no longer need financial support from Meher Baba followers. When asked if this report were true, Mrs. Pillai emphatically responded that her Trust had not received such a grant and, in fact, still had a great need for continued financial support. AMBPPCT board member Mehernath Kalchuri later confirmed that Janaki’s letter was his idea. This letter, Mr. Kalchuri said, reflected his beliefthat Mrs. Pillai was getting a grant from the Indian government.

The question of Pumpkin House’s need for support took a startling turn dur ing the fall when Mrs. Pillai announced that, after December 2008, she would no longer accept donations from pilgrims to Meherabad, members ofthe Meher Baba community, or Pumpkin House USA. According to Mrs. Pillai, she had been overwhelmed with outsiders questioning

her motives and methods of operation, and she wanted to avoid these distrac tions in running Pumpkin House. She also reported that Mehernath Kalchuri had asked her to stop taking donations from Pumpkin House USA and from pilgrims visiting Meherabad. Mrs. Pillai said that she felt she had no choice but to comply with this request because Mr. Kaichuri supervises her work as principal of the Meher English School. When asked about Mrs. Pillai’s claim, Mehernath Kalchuri stated that Mrs. Pillai had made her choice unilaterally and without any pressure from him.

He has gone on record stating that neither he nor the AMBPPCT has any “jurisdiction” regarding B aba followers’ support of projects like Pumpkin House or any others outside the umbrella of the AMBPPCT In correspondence with the Pumpkin House USA board, Bhau Kalchuri ex pressed the concern that many pilgrims believe the Home is an activity ofthe Trust and that contributions to Pumpkin House are, practically speaking, donations to the Trust. Although Pumpkin House USA’s organizational literature and web site have always made it abundantly clear that the project is independent ofthe AMBPPCT, the board offered to send out supplemental information to Baba groups around the world and to post signs in Meherabad reiterating this fact.

Bhau also raised the concern that the Pumpkin House work is being portrayed as “seffless service” when it is actually “so cial service,” in contrast to AMBPPCT projects that are rooted in service to God. The founders of Pumpkin House USA have never claimed this project is doing “selfless service” in the strictest definition of the term, but rather that it is seeking to help orphaned and homeless children with their developmental needs as human beings. Nonetheless, in board members’ visits with Mrs. Pillai at the Home, her work with the children has appeared to exemplifr the actions of a person living a life of seffless service. As Meher Baba states in The Discourses (pg. 13-14): “there is no hard-and-fast line dividing selfishness from sefflessness. Both move in the domain of duality; and from the ultimate point ofview that transcends the opposites ofgood and bad, the distinction between selfishness and sefflessness is chiefly one of range. .Persistent and continuous performance ofgood deeds wears out selfish.

ness...Goodness is the means bywhich the soul annihilates its own ignorance.”

The situation as it now stands: Despite Pumpkin House USA’s efforts to resolve this controversy, in earlyJanuary 2009 Mrs. Pillai reiterated her decision not to accept contributions from individuals or groups in the Meher Baba community.

She intends to keep operating the home for the children and will seek other sources ofsupport, hopefbllywith some success! In a recent note to the Pumpkin House USA board, she said, “We assure you we will still struggle to do our best for the children in our care, to shower our love, care, concern and a dignified standard of service within our capabilitc Whether one considers my motives for Pumpkin House are selfless, selfish, social, spiritual, self-directed, selfimposed, self-indulgent, or whatever. .we will just continue doing the best we can for the children in our care.”

Pumpkin House USA has decided to observe a “cooling off” period for the next few months. After this time has passed, the board will determine if there is any chance of resuming financial assistance to Mrs. Pillai’s home for the children or if Pumpkin House USAwill be forced to re direct its financial support to other worthy projects addressing the needs of orphaned, homeless or abandoned children.

To keep up with future developments, please contact board members Charlie Gard’ner at arangaon@aol.com or Mark Hodges at markhodges4427@gmail.com.

More information about the project is also available at the Pumpkin House USA web site (www.pumpkinhouse.org) or Mrs. Pillai’s web site (www.pumpkinhouse.in). .

Selfless Seroice .)ersus 7 Social Service rDina9ibson ° what exactly is the difference? There has been a lot of talk about it of late, and frankly, it’s beyond me! In fact, Bhau even went to far as to insert a rather pointed remark in his internet chat on February gth In answer to a question on how to help others, Bhau responded: “To help others, whom should you help?: Those who are helpless. Those who are neglected Those who are very, very sick and have

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no help from anyone. Help them. If you do, that is good. Always remember that there is a world of difference between seffless service and social service. The help of social service is just outer help. Selfless service is service where there is no self You don’t do service for any outer thing, and you have no thought for yourself.

“With social service, people say, ‘I am doing so many things. I have a school and so many children in the school.’ Yes, that is social service but not selfless service. If you keep yourselfpresent, how will you do selfless service? It is good that you can do seftess service.”

Maybe I’m being brainless, but when you rescue 2 children from a father who is trying to murder them and take them into your own home to love and care for them, wouldn’t that qualify as seffless ser vice? [“Those who are helpless.”] And when you rescue children who have been found crawling around garbage dumps trying to find something to eat, [“Those who are ne glected”] and when you take children who have been living in a brothel with their mother and have to live in the very room wherein she plies her trade, and you get no money for taking care of such children, it seems to this feeble brain that that would qualify as seffless service!

But you know what? Who cares about the semantics ofthe question?! You are doinggoodfor others. You are helping others.

And you are making these abandoned little waifs happy!Didn’t Baba tell us “Real happmess lies in making others happy?”

I freely confess to being spiritually retarded, but this argument—to me— smacks of the age old question that can never be answered: ‘How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?’

Why would you eschew social service and aim only for selfless service unless you were looking to simply rack up points in heaven?!

Are any of us that crazy? But maybe that’s just me...

of all

the forces that can best overcome all difficulties, the greatest is the force of love, because the greatest Law of God is Love, which holds the key to all problems.

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.Some fE:fiTst 2lctnd Experiences in Dndict Ckarlie9ard’ner, 3ounder 2umpkin 2louse for Children 7rust Lt&A -

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People bring their )The followkids there and pay ing conver Stella to board sation takes place at them.” the Meher Center in “Really? OK, Mtle Beach.

Let me check this “Wow I hear that out. Thanks for Pumpkin House is telling me this.” really in bad shape.

I go down to The kids are so poor PH. Talk to Stel they don’t even have la. shoes to wear!”

“Is it true that “Where did you you are taking hear this?” in kids that are ‘A Baba lover vis dropped off by ited PH, and went their parents?” to town and had to “Yes.” She re buy a whole bunch sponded. of shoes.”

“OK, What’s “Who was she? the deal? People Thanks for telling are talking up at me. I will checkit out the MPR.” immediately.”

Stella points I call the woman The little ones in the Divine Grace school are soproud oftheir new unjforms! to a scruffy little ras living in Washington cal picking his nose, DC who bought the on hand it would be useftil.” shoes.

The woman went into town, bought “See that little boy over there?” she asks.

“His mother came by about a month ago “What’s the deal?” I ask her. about $20.00 worth ofshoes and took them and asked if we could look after him. She “Well I had been hanging out at PH a back to Stella. lot, and as I was leaving India I asked Stella Stella said...”Let’s put them up in this works in one ofthe brothels in ‘Nagar, and the ifthere was anything I could help out with. cupboard, store them here, and we will get boy, her son, lives with her in the room where sheworks. She knowsit is notgood for him to She said that WI wanted to I could go into them down as we need them.” the Bazaar and buy some spare ffip-flops (This is what she does with a lot of her live in that environment, so she brought him for the kids. She said that they were always supplies. She knows what she will need here. We took him in and his mother visits breaking one, or the dog was stealing one ahead of time. When people want to help him every few weeks for a few minutes. He and chewing it, so if they had some spares out she tells them what she needs, or antici is not the only one who has moved in from pates needing, the brothels. There have been others.”

So! The rumors are true! Stella is taking receives the kids who are not orphans! goods, and in (3) Kids who are not orphans. stores them in I know ofat least two kids who are defi a cupboard and brings them nitely not orphans. They are a brother/sister down as she team, probably five and seven now. Mother dead, father an alcoholic. Father gets drunk needs them.) one (?) night, decides he doesn’t want the (2) The fol lowing con- kids, and hangs them with rope from the versation takes rafters of his hut. Neighbors hear them place at the screaming. Come in. Cut them down, and Meher Pilgrim take them to PH. Yes it is true. Some of the kids are not Center Meher abad, February orphans.. they have a parent--who tries to kill them! They are not orphans! Anyway, 2008 “You know you get the drift. This is not Social Services PH is not really in Beverly Hills. This is another planet we an orphanage. are dealing with!

Vianny (Stellac son-in-law) leads the happy children in a sing along

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1/lirctculous Life and DecttIi 1 ‘The J of r:DannLI J4’kJUiTC, ¶:&trt 2 34f J4laguire, Los .Angeles the last issue of the LampPost, to consciously surrender that burden I promised to write more about to the Beloved a thousand times a Danny’s journey in this issue. I day. When I forgot to give it to Him, køMm&ca planned to construct an article from and tried to take too much of it on the many emails I’d sent out from myself, heartache and anxiety were July 17, 2005, when Danny was hit inevitable. by a drunk driver, until May 18, The day after we gathered to pray, 2008, when he passed on. But the Danny started to breathe slightly on task overwhelmed me. It was not his own and we had reason for hope. only the emotional strain of writing The day after that, I wrote to our about Danny’s ordeal and our loss, it friends and family: was that there is so much to tell: the July 20, 2005 three years of emails came to over I awoke very early after a fitful 800 pages! When the LampPost’s sleep, feeling anxious, and came in editor recently asked for the next to find over a hundred messages on installment, I assured her that I had my computer, all sending love and not forgotten her I was just trying prayers. I am so grateful to every to avoid her. one of you for writing. I really feel To ease my strain I proposed Beloved God’s caress in every mes that I simply cull passages from the sage. You have helped us cross the updates and tie them together with bridge: we have stopped listening to notes to tell Danny’s story over the nay-saying doctors and now only pay next several issues of the LampPost. attention to the optimistic ones. We Dma graciously agreed to allot me now speak of Danny with joy, not the space, and so here we are. sorrow; and we speak to him with Thephoto was taken in Decembei 2003 at the Toyota The emails started as brief upnot fear. love, Training Center in El Segundo (the rink where the L.A. dates to keep a small circle of family As you all know, we’re expecting Kings train). Danny andlplayedtogether on a team called and friends informed, but soon they a miracle, but yesterday we found KAOS when he was home on vacationfrom C. U Bouldei Danny was the bestplayer on the team so whenever he was were shared all over the world. The out we’ve already witnessed one: in town, the otherguys asked me to bring him. mailing lists, maintained by my mom despite being run over by an SUV and Mitchell Rose, expanded month underwent surgery and was comatose not a single bone in Danny’s body by month, until thousands ofpeople were in the Intensive Care Unit. Thirty-six was broken. Except for some stitches reading of how Danny confounded the hours after the accident, a neurosurgeon over his left eye, his face is unbroken and medical experts, transcended physical pointed to a series of CT scans and told unblemished. Amazing. suffering and profoundly changed a great us that Danny would never open his eyes July 21, 2005 many lives, especially ours. or communicate with us again. Moments Today, the neurosurgeon who had sug Because the updates went out to later, our family gathered in a small room gested we donate Danny’s organs came Baba Lovers, Christians, Muslims, Jews, near the ICU. I told the others that we to his bedside, lifted Danny’s eyelids and Hindus, Zoroastrians, Native Americans, had to choose whether we would “hope” shined a light into his pupils. He was Bahá’Is and non-believers alike, I often re for a miracle or “expect” one. For me, hope surprised to observe a slight reaction. In ferred to “God” or “The Almighty” when I wasn’t enough. Ifwe weren’t united in the silence, the doctor studied Danny’s chart was thinking “Meher Baba”. Ramakrishna belief that Baba would return Danny to while we anxiously awaited his pronounceonce said, “God reveals Himself in the us, then I didn’t think I had the strength ment. Then he muttered, “This kid’s got a form the devotee loves most,” and we were to fend off the doctors who urged us to chance.” I’ve never heard sweeter words. grateftil that Dannywas receiving so many take him off life support. Unanimously, Whether you find God in Meher Baba, prayers no matter the name the supplicants we decided to expect a miracle. We held J esus, Allah, Krishna, Buddha, Ram, Zo used for their Beloved. However, Baba’s hands and said Baba’s three prayers. From roaster, a tall tree or a warm ocean breeze, name and His quotes were constantly in- that moment, I felt lighter: we had offered may He bless us all. yoked and many people came to know and our burden to Beloved Baba and He had Ten days after the accident, Danny love the Beloved through the emails. lovingly accepted. opened his eyes. The doctors were stunned.

In the last issue, I described how Danny In the three years that followed, I had We’d been expecting it.

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Danny on the ice in New Hampshire

I’ll continue the story in the next issue but wanted to include here the most recent email which I wrote this past Christmas Eve, a little more than seven months after Danny passed: December 24, 2008 Dear friends and family, We’re enjoying a bittersweet holiday season, our first without Danny. We often shed tears at unexpected times and places, as when I heard “Have YourselfA Merry Little Christmas” in the produce section of the supermarket the other day. Thankfully, we’re still receiving vast amounts of love from family and friends.

Initially, we decided not to get a tree or deck the house in the old, familiar ways, feeling that each ornament or mantle dressing would be too reminiscent of Danny spreading seasonal cheer to one and all with his music and humor. But our reluctance slowly diminished: Lynn went out and got a small tree which she and Katie trimmed. And one-by-one the boxes came in from the garage and decorations found their way to the usual places.

We also planned to forego our tra ditional trip the day after Christmas to New Hampshire, where we have a house alongside my mother’s place on a frozen pond in idyllic woods. The first day of everywinter trip was spent shoveling snow and grooming a most excellent hockey rink. Each year, we’d drag a pair of small hockey goals out of the basement and spend days and nights on the ice. We’d play 46

marathon hockey games with local friends or with whatever family members we could persuade to come out in the cold. But more often we played one-on-one, Danny and me, for hours and hours. Long after dark, we’d be out there using a clear plastic puck illuminated by a tiny glow-stick. In a good year, we’d enjoy moonlight as well. on more than one New Year’s Eve Lynn had to call us in at midnight for the family celebration. It was the best.

So I figured it’d be too hard to gaze out on the pond this year, especially when the sun is going down and the cold wind rises in the shadows. But then we got word that my sisters and brother and all their kids will be up there with my mom, and Lynn decided she reallywanted to go. So we got tickets. And now Andy and Tricia have decided to come along too. And we’ll all excited about going.

And the best news ofall is that we only have to make it through this one difficult Christmas, because at this time next year we’re going to be busy with TWO babies underfoot: when Lynn and I returned from a perfect trip to India in November, we were ecstatic to learn that Tricia and Andy are expecting twins. As I’ve told many friends, I can’t help but think Danny had a hand in arranging for two babies to come: had there been only one, Tricia and Andy might have kept to themselves, but with two they’re going to need help, plenty of help, from all the grandparents. And in the wake ofDanny’s passing, we’ve got plenty

of time and love to lavish on them. With Lynn being an identical twin, Andy and Tricia have a veteran on their team. (We have since learned that the twins will be identical girls.)

Loved ones pass and our hearts sink.

New souls to love appear and our hearts are picked up again. Danny taught us that our time in the material world is temporary and often painful but can be transcended with love, faith and good cheer.

When Danny was in second grade, he came home from school confused because Ian Cogshall had told him there’s no such thing as Santa Claus. He asked me ifit was true. I thought for a moment and replied, “Well Danny, all I know is that the kids who believe in Santa gets gifts from him; and the ones who don’t believe in him don’t.” Danny considered this, nodded and went out to play. We never discussed the existence of Santa again, from that day to the day he passed, and everyyear until this one there have been gifts beneath the tree marked, “To Danny. Love, Santa.”

It may sound sappy but, for reasons I don’t claim to understand, faith works much the same way: those who have it receive comfort and strength; those who don’t have it, don’t. In May ofthis year, I lost what was most precious to me in all the world, and I’m still able to smile and love my family and friends. For that, I feel blessed and grateful every day. Thank you.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, a belated Eid Mubarak, and here’s hoping we all enjoy a happy, healthy 2009.

Love, Jeff Alluding to the “Unity” tattoo on Danny’s lower back, Lynn added: Merry Christmas! With Love, and UNITY Lynn Our holidays and the trip back east were full of light and love. Yes, we felt Danny’s absence, but we felt his sweet presence much more profoundly. If we remember to give Baba the opportunity He will amaze us every day.

[ To be continued in next issue]

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on Suffering and its... 21entØLc (?O rDina9ibson

After our readers had digested page 76—the poetry page—from our last issue, I received many comments and exclamations of shock, love, support and outright awe ofhow Fiona andMirek are handling whatBaba is dishing out or shouldl say blessing’ them with. But alas, it is not overyet Baba has come up with more ways to wze out Fionas sanskaras in onefell swoop, (at least it seems that way to me, in my ignorance ofHis workings.,) I recently received an emailfrom her with the latest medical diagnosis: —

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won’t be there a prior engagement thank goodness, but I’m hoping the plastic surgeon will. I’d like to hear his opinion about the new team of doctors, because at the moment, I’m not feeling much confidence in them. The three of them stood at the other side ofthe room when they spoke to me, looking absolutely ter rifled. My last surgeon, Mr Ganley, sat so close his knees were touching mine... what a difference! So we’ll see how it goes next week, just hope they’re more relaxed and inspire a bit more confidence.

The up shot is they want to remove the top of my mouth & some teeth & I’ll probably lose the rest ofmy nose. The finer details will be revealed at the next meeting.

That will be followed up by a fewweeks of radiotherapy. They confirmed that it was missed in last surgery. A large area can be removed from inside the body to get a clear margin on cancer, but it’s a lot more tricky to do that with the face, because there’s not so much there to start with, so there is a higher instance of it recurring. They reckon the radiotherapy should take care of rogue cells this time.”

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Then This Is Your Wish (for dearest Fiona]

Fiona &Mirek, Meherazad2007 ((

had scans last Tuesday [in February] &then met with a team ofthree doc tors Oncologist, Head &Neck Specialist & Dental Surgeon. I then had to go to a clinic where the dental surgeon took five more biopsies under local anesthetic...

OUCH! I ended up having lOjabs, seven straight into the cavity, because the first four didn’t work. But it might have helped if he’d waited longer than three minutes for the anesthetic to take effect! He took a large chunk out ofthe top ofmy mouth, three out ofthe cavity &a ratherlarge piece ofbone. What a fiasco! The plastic surgeon wouldn’t even contemplate doing one biop sy with me awake, let alone five! Needless to say, I felt pretty traumatised afterwards.

I have to return next Tuesday for another meeting results of biopsies & details of proposed surgery. The dental surgeon -

Being theAvatar-Christ andAll Knowing, Baba, You must have known all along that this would happen.

But we only heard the throat-cutting news yesterday That my wfèc cancer had returned and had again made itc home In the livingflesh and bone thatforms her face.

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For all we know, Baba, perhaps the cancer Had never completely and all-together left last yeai When my wjft, Fiona, had a third ofher face removed...

For all we know, it may havefallen in love with her beauty And stayedput -just burrowed down deepei Like a child happilyplaying at hide and seek

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But itc not hiding now, Baba. ..!

So therec more talk ofsurgery and removing Even more ofFionas lovelyface...

And things I don want to talk about here.

But how muchface can be removed, Baba?

What is clear and certain, Baba, is that Whatever must happen will Whatever we must live through we will For I know that the Grace ofYour Most Living Love Willfurnish us with whatever we need, Baba...

Because there is only the One Will and Purpose Activating andguiding everyparticle of Ljfr That ofGodc Desire to realise and know Himsef -

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The rest is nothing more but apassing dream ofchanging shadows Illusory silhouettes created by Time and Space Locked together in an eternally turning wheel.

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Even so, itc all becoming tofeel too much Baba!

Andyet, itc only that very oo much’ That can take us beyond our limited-se(f So that the Real can manjfèst within us.

Dearest Baba, what can I say..?

Ifthis be Your Wish, then this is Your Wish!

Butjustpromise me one thing, Baba, Ibeg you.

When Fiona has no morefacefor Your Wish to remove, Promise me, Baba, you’ll replace herface with Your Own! Mirek February 2009

As I sat here thinking what in God’s name can I say to my friend in re sponse to this new information, something Mani told me popped into my head. I wonder Who put that there... so I told Fiona this story from Mani: Dhun Satha, a sister ofRoshan Kerawalla and close friend ofBaba and the Mandali had muscular dystrophy &towards the end ofher (short) life, when the women Man47

dali were feeding her & she was drooling & finding it hard to keep the food in her mouth so crippled up was she, Mehera turned to Baba and was about to ask Him to cure her when He put up His hand and said “Don’t ask me this. I cant, I love her too much! If I were to take her to me now, she would have to come back next lifetime and begin the suffering all over again. This way, it is over & done with in one life time & the sanskaras are erased.”

I went to LordMeher.org to see ifl could find that story but it is not there, so it must have just been a story from Mani, given, no doubt, so that many years later I could repeat it to you & in some way make you feel better about the horrors you are going through. It is all His love, and He loves you so much!

Lc

Experiences The Soul J44ust9o 7hrough 7Vkni S. Drani Your point about cancer and illness interested me, it is ofcourse the old point of ourlack ofunderstanding that the enlight ened ones have. We always see it from the material point of view, and they (experi encing creation as illusion) must act for the spiritual good. It’s far from the Divine Plan to have no illness ofthe body, after all it is one ofthe main mediums of experiencing pain which is the opposite of pleasure.

Duality (however illusory) expresses itself in dual experiences, and misery is as much in the Divine Plan as is so-called happi

.

‘N4

© Win Coates ness. They are both experiences the soul must go through some time or another.

Another way I look at it is this: even with all the misery there is, it is so difficult to away’ from the world, well-nigh im ‘turn Lord 7frIeher 7}ol i6 page 5570 possible to be disgusted sufficiently to turn Duringthis period,Dhun Sathacame for to God alone. Just imagine if everything Baba’s darshan from Bindra House. Being were fine and serene, no illness, no misery, a cripple, she was carried in a chair by their we’d stick to our ignorance like leaches, and servant, named Kesar. Baba commented such a stagnant way would hardly serve the to her, “Seeing your plight, I feel I should development of the ever-awakening soul! heal you, but it is good for you to suffer I remember someone remarking, “Why if and have patience until I break my silence.” there are spiritual masters in India don’t Dhun said, “I did not come to you for they do something about the backwardness this purpose to make you suffer. I do and disease ofthe country?”Just as though not wish that you should be troubled theywere a crowd ofmissionaries, or a soon my account. I want only your love. ciety for the prevention ofdisease and dirt!

This body has to go one day anyway.” I replied that although they did a sweeping Baba expressed how pleased he was by job it was not on germs, but on our igno her reply. rance, and even if they do not completely

r:Dhun &ttlut’s 2 cttient Suffering

48

wipe it out, atleast theyjolt us enough from our self-satiated complacency of accepting our illusory existence as the only and all.

Letters From The Mandali, ed. Jim Mistry, p. 37 1981 © AMBPPCT And from the Master Himself On April 2nd [1930, in Nasik], some of the mandali complained to Baba, “Staying with you is nothing but harassment. Life is so full ofhardships now. There is no other thought in our minds and hearts except death. We look happy to others; we eat and drink with everyone who comes, but who sees the dagger piercing our hearts?”

In reply, Meher Baba explained, consol ing them: “It is my grace. This is my real mercy which descends on a very, very select few.

These are my friends. They are my lovers to whom I give the gift ofsorrow and dis tress. It is a gift much greater than gold— ofincalculable value—and not given to all.

This gift is only for my beloved children.

We Masters can grant a world ofgold, of happiness and prosperity to others by our blessings, but this rare and great gift of privations, troubles and suffering is destined for only a few. So, dont be anxious.

Remember that I love most those whose hearts I pierce and who, though their hearts are wounded, staywith me and stick to me through thick and thin. Were I to use my dagger on outsiders, they would not dare approach me. I keep them happy with praise and encouragement so that they may be in my contact and gradually be fit to bow down to me in the real sense ofthe word. For my friends I kill them and it is myhighest mercy on them. What is my mercy? What is my grace? It is your trouble and harassment.

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LordMeher, Vol. IV, pp. 1294-95 © AIVIBPPCT

Fiona

—

take heart. You are a friend of the Avatar!

The Latest from Fiona March 3yh I received another emailfrom Fiona telling me what she has just passed through. Baba is truly supporting her as He puts her through the most horrendous oftna/s. What an amazing woman, she comes up with herfaith and/oveforHim even stronger than before. Afterdying on the operating tab/e she te//s me shefee/s /ike she has been reborn in His /ove. A new /ft, and eventually a newface. What can I say? I am in awe of this woman!

—

—

Thken in MeherabadMay 15 1936 © Reiter Her emailfollows:

I’m home for a few days before returning for my next operation on Thursday, 2nd April. .had three operations already during a .

two and a halfweek stay in hospital.

The first didn’t go so well...Lasted over fifteen hours & complications. Sudden loss ofblood pressure my heart stopped. They had to pump various drugs into my body to keep me alive, which in turn affected [reduced] blood flow. Bone, muscle & a blood yessel had been taken from my hip & transplanted into my mouth where my top jaw used to be. [Top jaw had been removed in same operation. What was left ofmy nose was also removed]. But with the lack ofblood flow to feed the reconstructedjaw it failed &had to be removed in another eight-hour operation and replaced with a sponge dressing, skin graft inside mouth, and titanium implants, a denture plate basically. Skin graft applied to face in third operation. I have a lovely collection of scars, including a rather huge one across my left hip & neck talk about bride of Frankenstein! Skin grafts were taken from my legs, one from each thigh.

I was in intensive care for a week. It was touch and go, so thank God Mirek was allowed to stay in ICU with me. I wouldn’t have made it through without him. In a constant sea of hallucinations, Mirek’s face was all that remained lucid for me. the power of True & Real Love. One can’t pretend in a scenario such as this and Mirek really does love me so much. With so many lines & tubes coming out of me and too critical to move, I lay flat on my back staring at the ceiling. Every minute seemed like an hour. I had a tracheostomy in my throat to breathe through dreadful thing! so I couldn’t talk, drink or eat. It was left in for two weeks. I had & still have a stomach peg a tube directly into the stomach through which I feed. Although the tracheostomy has been removed now, the hole in my throat hasn’t been sewn up yet. There’s a dressing over it, and so that, along with my mouth being very swollen, means talking remains difficult. I can drink with a child’s beaker, but continue to feed & take meds via the stomach peg. ‘bolusing’ as it’s called.

So all in all it’s been one hell of a nightmare! Going to take a while to recover from this one, dear Dma. I have a very different and still changing face, but am able to look in the mirror without having a nervous breakdown every time! I intuitively knew I had died in the first operation. [It was only some ten days later that the surgeons told me what had happened]. Despite everything, my whole being felt utter gratitude and love for Baba, for what I knew He had done. I had repeated Baba’s Name whilst being put to sleep before each operation and had seen Him as The Surgeon, as indeed He is.

I will never be the same again a truly life changing experience to the very core of my being. We really do have to die to ourselves to be awoken to Love and God. Funnily enough, I do actually feel like a new born baby, which is no doubt enhanced by being un able to eat, talk or walk very well. Inwardly there is a blank screen a definite sense of a new life. My treatment is ongoing of course, a few more operations to go, a course of radiotherapy. I’ll be in & out of hospital over the coming year. There are a lot of surgeons involved, simply because it’s a very rare form ofcancer everyone wants a look in! So please bear with me ifyou don’t hear from me -

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for a while. One thing about dying

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it makes you a lot more easy going about life!

49

1?ctssinqs 2<ennedy J4/lc’bntosh 3anuary 21, 1949 7[1arch -

Baba chose to take ourfriend and member ofthe LosAngeles Baba Center to Him with two massive strokes on Friday the 6”. We knew Kennedy hadbeen aproJèssionalbasketballplayei but I had not realized the extent ofhisfame. Do an Internet search and you willfind all sorts ofinformation about him.

Followinga Lakersgame on nationalTVthe announcergave news ofhispassing! Then a few days later a CBS radio station was talking about him, his still standing record, and hispassing. Here are some ofthe statistics ofhis professional ljfè, followed by hearz’ftlt tributesfrom some ofhisfriends. ennedy McIntosh (born in Detroit, ichigan) was a professional bas ketball player from 1971-1975. Though born in Detroit, McIntosh attended high school on Michigan’s western half playing basketball at South Haven High School in South Haven. McIntosh went to college at Eastern Michigan University before being drafted in the first round (15th pick) in 1971 by the Chicago Bulls. McIntosh played with the Bulls in the 1971-72 season and then, early in the 1972-73 season went to the Seattle SuperSonics for whom he played 56 games that season. McIntosh stayed with the SuperSonics for the fol lowing two seasons, leaving the NBA due to injuries in 1975. He is survived by his daughter Kourtney, son Kevin, daughter Kai. Fred and Gigi Stankus, Los Angeles While living on Long Island NewYork in the 70’s I heard about an NBA player who is a Baba-Lover! Being a fan of all sports—both college and pro—I was sur prised and happy to hear the news! I never met this person until the late 80’s in Los Angeles, when the former Chicago Bulls and Seattle Supersonic NBA player attended a Friday night Baba meeting at our L A Center on little Santa Monica Blvd.

This tall, blue-eyed regal looking man came into the meeting room and I was im pressed with his soft and quiet nature and his impeccable dress, and I was thrilled to come over and introduce myselfand shake his hand and then embrace him!

That’s how I met Kennedy McIntosh for the first time, and over the next 20 or so years Fve had the privilege of getting

so

6 2009

to know him. Kennedy attended the Lord Meher reading nights in the mid 90’s and then in 1999,just before the end ofthe year we traveled together to India. That was a memorable trip. We took a Singapore Airlines B747 and got exit door seating, since we both are tall gents, Kennedy 6’7” and I, 6’5”. Besides being dressed to perfection, Kennedy wore a glow in the dark green compass around his neck, which became a conversation piece for the flight atten dants. Kennedy told them that he wanted to understand how a compass works so the head steward relayed this to the pilot and lo and behold we were invited to come up and enter the cockpit and get a direct orientation on how the electromagnets of the aircraft can adjust for the magnetic field that stabilizes the electronic compass ofthe aircraft. We spent about 20 minutes

in the cockpit ofthis jumbo jet (definitely pre 9/1 1) and it was amazing!

When we arrived in India we took a hired car to Meherabad and Kennedy had the opportunity of going up the hill to Baba’s Samadhi! It was wonderful to see him in India where he enjoyed so much he stayed past his departure date. Reason for that is—he met and married a Baba lover! It was one ofthose amazing Baba instigated happenings. Those two obviously had karma they continued to work on from a previous lifetime. What better place to do that than at Meherabad?! He was up on the Hill at Baba’sTomb for the Millennium Celebration on 31 Dec 1999 at midnight.

When hearing of Kennedy’s passing, I was both sad for the loss, but happy for him for he is now free to be with Beloved Baba, and not have to bear the strife of the physical suffering as a result from the second stroke! (He had had one a few years ago that took a long recovery period.) This time it was two massive strokes that took him out. Happily, his familywas with him in the hospital.

I went on the Internet and did a search for Kennedy McIntosh and was amazed at what I found: he is the all time leading scorer in Eastern Michigan University’s basketball program, even topping great NBA stars like Earl Boykins, and then he was a first round selection in the 1971 NBA Pro draft by the Chicago Bulls, and you know who was also a first round pick in the eighties—Michael Jordan!

In January 2006 I recall Kennedy saying to me “I’ve got to fly back to Eastern Michigan University for a spe cial ceremony for me. They are retiring my college uniform number and it will hang on the wall of their sports arena.”

[L—±r A’c’lllZL’dy

‘L

at the ceremony to retin his jersey

1’-II1

Kennedy with Babac twin nephews Rustom & Sohrab Irani

Kennedy was very private about his former career as a professional basketball player, and lived a quiet and modest life in Los Angeles. He was quite the scholar on God Speaks, and would relish a lively discussion about the various topics in the book, and also would love to discuss the Inner Circles ofthe Avatar, which Baba gave to Rano Galey to produce on a huge 12 feet x 14 feet canvas that hangs in the historic museum at Upper Meherabad, India.

We will remember Kennedy as a giant of a man, with a heart as soft as fleece and a smile and laughter that would lighten up your day! Kennedy was 60 years old and will be very much missed by his friends at Meherabode and around the country.

And from Gary Kleiner, Meherabad: I remember meeting Kennedy McIn tosh in the mid 1970’s when he returned to Chicago after a career ending injury in Seattle. Kennedywas only around 25 years old when his professional basketball days came to an end.

It was “cool” to have a former NBA player to hang outwith and have him come to our Baba meetings. He would share stories about the “glory days” of being an NBA player. He would tell us tidbits about how the fans would treat them like demigods. And how the ladies loved to be associated with the players.

Well, Kennedy’s career came to an end right before the NBA players were to start making the reallybig bucks. So, after some time being out of the limelight, Kennedy ran out of money and ran out of adoring fans. But he did not run out ofBaba, and he did not run out on Baba. Even though the circumstances in his life became ex tremely difficult he always accepted that it was Baba who was charting his course

Katie Irani, Prasava & Kennedy, Meherazad

for him.

Once, in those lean years, Kennedy asked me if I could give him some help so that he could get something to eat. He smiled at me and said, “What a game our Baba plays. He put me on a stage where I lived a life as though I was a royal and then He turned me into a pauper, all in the same life. I am neither a royal or a pauper, I am just a Baba Lover who is trying to love Baba more, in order to find out who I really am.” We salute you Kennedy for the way that you played the hand that Baba dealt to you. Happy Trails. Until we meet again.

Prasava Nassif Mike Leaver was Kennedy’s Baba contact. In 1971, Mike Leaver had sent an envelope via snail-mail to Kennedy that contained 2 tickets for them to attend a basketball game together and a sheet of paper that had printed on it “The Game”

by Meher Baba. Kennedyloved the quote so much that he asked Mike, “Who is Meher Baba?”

The quote is from The Discourses, and it remained Kennedy’s favorite Baba quote.

“The Game” by Meher Baba To penetrate into the essence ofall being andsignjflcance andto release thefragrance ofthatinnerattainmentfortheguidance and benefitofothers, by expressing, in the worldof forms, truth, love,purity andbeauty—this is the solegame which has intrinsic andabsolute worth. All other happenings, incidents and attainments in themselves can have no lasting importance.

Mike Leaver had kept a box of “Kennedy memorabilia”. Shortly before Mike passed, he’d mailed that box to Kennedy.

It was amazing, all old newspaper clippings and the Kennedy McIntosh collecting card. I was so happy to see it all. Mike

loved Kennedy so much, and was a great friend to him until the end. Kennedy and Mike are probably playing The Game together now.

Kennedy spent his whole life trying to understand The Game.

Another story Kennedy told me took place in his childhood when he was around five. He was playing marbles and struggling with the game. His childhood playmates would always beat him at it and he wanted to get better. One day when he was alone, thinking how he wanted to master marbles, a man appeared to him in a white sadra. The Kind Friend showed him exactly how to play—He was a Mas ter!—the marbles shot with such precision and power! Kennedy was amazed and impressed. After the visit from the Friend, Kennedy never lost at marbles again. But his playmates noticed he had a strange technique, using the middle finger to shoot the marble instead of the standard American method of using the thumb or index finger.

After Kennedy became a Baba-lover, he saw a photo of Baba in the sadra and he realized who the Friend was who had visited him in his childhood.

Then, during Kennedy’s first visit to Meherazad, in late 1999, Kennedy ar ranged some time with Eruch, in order to tell him the marble storywhich he enjoyed immensely. Then Eruch demonstrated physicallywith his hands, how Baba would shoot the marble. Eruch was using his middle finger! It was exactly as Baba had shown Kennedy.

r

SI

2<ennedy J44cDntosI’t 1 Jli4cDntosh S&tterltagen, Los /lngeles rKourtne father was the second of four chil dren. His siblings are myUncle Aaron and Aunts Cheryl and Ruth. Dad moved to South Haven Michigan when he was in el ementary school. My mother was raised in a nearby town and my parents met when they were both high school fteshman.Theybegan dating their sophomore year and mom got pregnant with me the summer before their senior year. It was quite the scandal back in 1967. I was born in May right before they graduated from high school. Dad went off to Eastern Michigan Universitywhile Mom raised me with her parents on the western side ofthe state. My half-brother Kevin was also born a year later. My dad’s senior year

M

Kennedy at Eastern Michigan University

at Eastern, my parents got married—I was three years old. As a child I was a chatterbox, especially at mealtime as I had a captive au dience. Dad ate pretty much in silence, but when my talking became too much, he’d look up from his plate with those steely blue eyes and utter one word, “Eat.” I’d pipe down for as long as I could manage and then start up again. After a few minutes, Dadwould look up and say only, “Eat.” And that was pretty much how mealtime went until I was the last one at the table with no one left to talk to! Dad got drafted by the Bulls, we moved 52

to Chicago and Mom was soon pregnant with my sister Kai. I was five years old and my cousins of the same age visited our home.

Being kids, we decided to break a major rule and jump on my bed.

We all froze F :;— mid-air when Dad appeared in the doorway. He 4 said nothing, but 1’ gently grabbed Ke/zized)’, KourinLy a’ the kids re/ax at home my cousin Curtis by the wrist and in complete rhythm with with my second grade classmates, enjoying the illegal bounce, swung Curtis through the story time with our teacher. Then someone air swatted his behind and sofflyplaced him in the back let out a blood-curdling scream. on the floor. My cousin Stephanie received The entire class turned to the door curious to her swat in the same mild manner. I was last, see what terrified our classmate. At the very but received TWO swats. “Why did I get top of the long, narrow elementary school two?” I said with a frown. “Because you’re door windo were two piercing blue eyes mine” Dad replied. searching the cluster of pint-sized people, The death ofboth ofmy father’s parents looking for the one that belonged to him. happened during his rookie year in the “Oh, that’sjust myDad”I happily exclaimed NBA—Dad was only 22 years old. My par- with absolutely no sensitivityfor the poor girl ents’marriage failed andMom took my sister whose father was obviously not 6’7”. and I back to Michigan right before Dad When I was 14, my mother remarried got traded to the Supersonics. I was blessed and we moved to Texas. Dad had the un to have a mother who was smart and loving canny ability to call to check on us whenever and she raised me to see only the best of my my stepfather was out oftown. Mom and I father. She spoke of his strengths and taught me 1 that he had to find his own way and for me not to be attached if he didn’t keep promises to see us or send money or whatever. My mother filled our lives withjoy and Dad’s occasional appearances were cause for celebra tion.

One day, I was sitting on With Big Papa at the Santa Monica Pier the floor huddled ‘

‘

statement instilled in me the desire to be a complete person, with or without a relationship.

Many people are astonished that Dad and I were so close because during my early years he wasn’t anywhere near a consistent presence in mylife.When my mother remarried, seven years passed without me laying eyes on him. But when I became an adult, Dad and I dealt with our karma directly. Once we were so mad at each other,we didn’t speak for two years. I found out later that he called my mom constantly during that time to check up on me. He used to always tell mymother,”Kailooks like me and thinks like you. Kourtneylooks like you and thinks like me.”In 1996 my study ofEastem philosophy began. I moved to the Himala yan Institute, an ashram in Pennsylvania in August of 1999, met my future husband, Luke Ketterhagen, and inJanuary200l was

I

With Prakash

reallygot a kick out ofthat. Dad has spoken ofMeher Baba for as long as I can remember.

The summer before my senior year of high school, I spent six glorious weeks with him in Los Angeles. It was an amazing adven ture. One week during this visit, money got lean three days before Dad’s next pay day.

The pantrywas almost empt andwhile he managed to provide my three daily meals, Daddy fasted until payday arrived, refus ing my offers to share even one bite. For as long as I remember, I’ve been teased about my very unfeminine walk My mother always said, “You walk just like your father.” That same summer, Dad and I were entering an office building with huge glass doors. We spotted our reflections, completely in step, with our lower legs kicking out to the side. We stopped, looked at each other and laughed like crazy--both understanding in that instant how amazing DNA is. Dad made a point to take me to the Baba center in Santa Monica. Our conversations over that summer planted the seeds that would later lead me to study Eastern philosophy.

Over the years, Dad maintained relationships with all ofhis children and his Godson, Sean Higgins, who Dad taught to play basketball when Sean was 12 years old.

Sean went on to play 7 years in the NBA; he gives Dad fill credit for his work ethic and success. We are all close to him in a very untraditional way. Dad could give a major life lesson during one phone call. During my LA summer he told me, “Kourtney, a man doesnt want a woman who needs him; he wants a woman that wants him.” That

With Mangala

married in Allahabad on the banks of the Ganges. Our children, Prakash and Mangala, called Dad “Big Papa” as he refused to be called “Grandpa”. After Dad’s first stroke in May 2007, he came to live with us at the Himalayan Institute, where he was under the care ofa western-trained ayurvedic physician and several natural health practitioners. He stayed at HI for five months and healed.

He returned to LA in February of2008 and my husband and I moved our family to Los

Angeles two months later. I am grateftil for that 11 months I had with him in the same cit and feel extraordinarily blessed to have been alone with him when he passed. I lit a candle and chanted the Gayatri mantra.

In that moment that matters most, he was very much at peace. My sister Kai has two children, Kiana and Zach, and my brother Kevin has a daughter Kadeisha. All of his children and grandchildren were present at his memorial service. He wasn’t a traditional father, but he was the perfect father for me.

LA lan Connie .lfr4jrtlc 73 each I met KennedyMclntosh in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the winter of 1974. He was in town as a member of the Seattle Supersonics who were playing the Boston Celtics on Friday night. When I went to our Thursday night meeting at Harvard Divinity School, Charles Haynes told me that he had gotten a call from Kennedy and that he was coming to the meeting. We had averypleasantvisit with him that night and he enjoyed the meeting and being with all ofus immensely.

The next night Ward Parks and I went to the Boston Garden to watch Kennedy and his team against the Celtics. The Celtics beat the Supersonics, butWard and I were impressed with Kennedy’s spirit and team awareness on the bench. He was cheering and supporting his teammates to the best of his ability and I remember Ward making the comment that it was easy to see that Kennedy was, as Ward put it, “The Heart ofthe Team.”

I met up with Kennedy 17 years later when I was visiting I Los Angeles and staying with Fred and Gigi. We met outside the LA Bookstore and he was veryupbeat and happy. Fred had been f]iing me in on events in Kennedy’s life and it was good to see him doing so well. Fred continued to keep me updated about Kennedy. His call last week notifying me that our friend has passed, saddened me for the loss we suffer in not having him with us, but I rejoiced in the knowledge that he was reunited with his Beloved.

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3:arewell to One of 73aba’s &alwctrts &eve Cdelmctn .Jlugust 12, 1948 jctnuciry 17, 2009 9ary 2<leiner, Jlileherctbad -

veryone who is born will one day die. Steve Edel man’s day came on January 17th, 2009. Those of us who loved Steve felt that at the age of 60 he was too young to be taken away from us. But it is Baba who puts us on the stage of Life and it is Baba who pulls us off We, as Baba Lovers, may agree in principal with this idea, but very few of us actu ally accept it when the author of”The Play OfLife”,writes a death scene for us or one ofour loved ones. Steve completely accepted Baba’s Will in his life and with his death. It is for reasons like this that for me and to many others, he was not just a friend, but an inspiration.

Many can talk the talk, but only a few actually walk the walk. Steve walked, all the way into Baba’s heart.

Another heart that Steve walked into was Eruch Jessawala’s. In Steve’s 50 or so pilgrimages that he made to Baba’s home in India, he became very close to Eruch. I have heard Eruch say to Steve that Baba would be pleased with the equanimity and poise that he possessed. I was there when Eruch asked Steve to be with him when he died. Steve came to India for a year, and was there in Eruch’s room when Eruch passed away. During that last year of Eruch’s life, on a number of occasions I heard Eruch tell Steve, “Don’t get old.” At the time I thought that Eruch was just making commentary on the travails of old age. But it seems now that perhaps he had a bigger story in mind for Steve.

You see, Steve was a Baba stalwart from a young age. In the early 70’s, when Steve was just in his mid 20’s he took on the charge of running Meher Prasad which distributed Baba films and Baba music.

From there Steve went into Baba film production. He raised the bar of qual ity with the kind of Baba films that he

E

54

produced. Steve’s films and videos were primarily made for Baba Lovers to enjoy, but those same Baba Lovers could proudly show them to their parents and friends.

And I believe that a time will come when the world will be grateful for the creative distribution and preservation work that Steve did in Baba’s name and cause. I personally am very grateful to Steve for working with me on editing and distrib uting some ofthe Eruch interviews that I did. Without Steve’s help those videos may havejust stayed in storage and people may have missed out on the delight of seeing Eruch’s very personal side.

Perhaps Baba is calling Steve back to play an even bigger role for Him in his next life. We, who knew him and loved him, will miss our dear Steve. But more than “our” Steve, he is Baba’s Steve. Of course our love and support go out to Steve’s wife Ann and their children, Norina and Nadine. Nadine is married to J eremy McCowan with whom she has an eighteen month old son,Jake, and on Feb

th she just gave birth to ruary 5 Owen David. A few days before Steve passed away, Steve asked Nadine if it would be okay if he left his body before she gave birth. Nadine and the rest ofthe family told Steve to go in peace, and not to linger in pain.

A few weeks before Steve died, one of his doctors said to him that maybe they could try a new kind drug which perhaps could offer the hope of a miracle. Steve replied to the doctor that, “The thing that you should know about me is that I am a firm believer in God’s Will. So, I believe that if God wanted to perform any miracles He has had many opportuni ties up till now to do them. I accept my condition right now as God’s Will. Therefore, in my last days, I just want to retain I the quality of life that will al ::: low me die with the ability to appreciate God’s love, the love of my family and friends and all the love that comes to me from the people who have good wishes for me.”

Steve got his wish. And at the end, he was mirroring his Master, by being love personified.

“Love is a gift from God to man.

Obedience is a gift from Master to man.

Surrender is gift from man to Master.”

Steve Edelman completely surrendered to the will ofhis Lord and Master, Avatar Meher Baba!

It was a surrender that proved to be a victory for both of them.

We stand and applaud you Steve for the beautiflil love drama that you have enacted.

Bravo! Bravo! Encore! Encore!

E13rad 2<unin çJlpril 14, 1949 December 20, 2007 .Rebeccci 2<unin, 2ectlctnd -

New

many ofyou may now, my father, Brad Kunin passed away suddenly at year’s end in 2007 at his family home just outside of Auck land, New Zealand. He passed so quickly and without warning that there were no conscious goodbyes. It has now been one year since Brad passed, and I feel it is time to share some of my memories of Brad’s life with the wider Baba family. I hope that shar ing these memories will help to provide a space for the unsaid goodbyes, for myself, and for all those that knew Brad.

I want to begin by putting Brad on the hot seat in Mandali hail, right there under the window next to Eruch, and retell his Baba story as best I can.

Brad was born and raised in Los Angeles. As an intensely idealistic and headstrong young student, he transferred, along with my mother Golda, to UC Berkeley to be at the heart ofthe ideological revolution that was taking place in the late 1960s. It was there in Berkeley, on the walls of the Arbor Café, that he saw Baba’s picture for the first time. But it wasn’t until travelling to the other side of the world that Brad’s personal Baba story really began.

In October 1969, only months after Baba dropped his body, Brad married Golda in their native Los Angeles. At the tender age of twenty they had absorbed the ideals of the hippie revolution and fearlessly left the US in search of a new, more authentic life in New Zealand. After hitchhiking up and down both islands of New Zealand (living out of one backpack for seven months), they reached Motukiekie a tiny, uninhabited island in the Bay of Islands, in the far North of New Zealand. It was now the southern winter of 1970. Although they had one very ba sic cabin, the island did not have its own water source. Luckily, the very first day the caretaker of the neighbouring island visited in a small motorboat. In the boat the caretaker brought what he felt was S

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heading up the coast to Avatar s Abode where they stayed with Sim and Di. It was at the Abode that they met Francis Brabazon. For Brad, meeting Francis totally changed his preconceived ideas of the spiritual path. He had read Francis’ po etry, and was amazed that the author of such eloquence lived, at an advanced age, in fierce simplicity. Francis’ immense strength of character made a deep impression on Brad. By the time he returned to New Zealand he was hooked. In the following months he read Baba books voraciously. Brad’s connection to Baba deepened and became absolute, remaining so for the rest of his life. It must have been a dramatic lifealtering few months, all happening at the tender age of 21.

Brad and Golda’s first child (Amir Merwan) was conceived on that first trip to Australia. I (Rebecca Channah Mehera) followed a few years later. By the time I was born, Brad and Golda had moved to Swanson, and started work on the house and property on Christian Road that was to be one ofBrad’s lifelong labours oflove.

John and Maria Parry also moved to Auck land, had children of a similar age, and remained close to Brad and Golda. When Brad would tellJohn that he thought Ava tars Abode was a wonderful place, John would always say, “You think that’s good, wait till you go to India!”

Brad got a chance to fully appreciate John’s words on his first pilgrimage to Meherabad, along with John, in 1979.

I imagine it was an intensely emotional first pilgrimage, where Brad was lucky to spend intimate time with many members of Baba’s Mandali who were so young and active in the late 1970s. I distinctly remember the gifts that Brad brought back from that first trip in a scented suitcase with hand-stitched lining a brass pot with a brass drinking cup that he taught us to drink from without touching the sides, .

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necessary sustenance for the young couple he had never laid eyes on several flagons full of fresh water and pamphlets about Meher Baba. That caretaker happened to be the Australian, John Parry. After severaiweeks Brad and Golda had to leave Motukiekie, due to a communication lapse between the family members that owned the remote island. Unaware that Brad and Golda had received permission to stay, the owners’ family back in Auckland were horrified to hear reports that young hippies were squatting on their island! Amidst this scandal, Brad and Golda simply moved in with John, a heavily pregnant Maria, and their young daughter Hannah on the neighbouring island, Moturua, for the rest of the winter.

Brad said it was the perfect set of circumstances for ‘the seed to be sown’.

He was literally stranded in a remote paradise, with nothing to do for the long winter nights but listen toJohn talk about Baba, and read his extensive library of Baba books. The books had an immense impact on Brad, and the two couples became close, beginning what was a pivotal lifelong friendship.

In the following months Brad and Golda had to leave New Zealand shores to apply for permanent residence. They were sad to leave their new home, even for a short time, but John excitedly organised for them to stay with his Baba friends in Australia. Brad and Golda stayed with the Borthwicks in Sydney before —

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my first bucket bath, and starting our walk up the white rock trail. As soon as we crossed the railway tracks I started to cry, overwhelmed by homesickness and the thought of spending 5 weeks in a strange place mostly surrounded by adults (as it was in those days). I remember Brad taking my hand, and I saw that he too had tears in his eyes, but I knew that his were tears of joy.

He told me that we all had different reactions when we approached Baba for the first time, and that it was ok to have confused or conflicting emo tions. At the time, I thought, no, I’m not confused, I just miss my mother.

But looking back, it was one of the most significant walks of my young life. Now I see that one of the most important gifts Brad gave me as a father, is that he brought me to Baba without pressure guiding, but with such a gentle hand.

Although Brad was mostly private in his everyday life about his rela tionship with Baba, he was an active member ofthe small, close-knit group ofBaba lovers in New Zealand, and trans formed into a veritable social butterfly in Meherabad, Myrtle Beach, and Avatars Abode. He was always ready to open up his home to Baba lovers traveffing through New Zealand. There have been many, many wonderful characters, young and old, who have stopped in Swanson over the years to share cups oftea, Robyn’s famous homemade cookies, and Baba stories.

Brad, Robyn, Abraham and Manija ( Brad’s youngest daughter), were even lucky enough to have Katie and Mehru Irani, and Jal and Dolly Dastur as guests in their home over the years. Anyone who has visited 85 Christian Road can see the years ofhard work and love that Brad and Robyn devoted to making the house and gardens the idyllic and welcoming place that it is today. I know that being able to share his beautiful home and family with Baba’s Mandali and close ones was one of his most precious memories.

Brad was an intensely academic man who was engaged in learning his whole life. However, his learning was always with the goal ofhelping others. He was an energetic and creative primary teacher for 14 years, and went on to become an extremely respected family counsellor, practicing for 18 years. One of his colleagues describes his practice: Although slightly built, Brad had a —

Brad & EruchJessawala

a terracotta child’s tea-set individually wrapped in bits oflndian newspaper small silver anklets, and Amar Chitra Katha comics that I poured over for many years.

He also brought back several pairs ofwhite drawstring pants and the ability to bathe with two buckets ofwater when our water tank ran low in the summer!

In the years that followed Brad and Golda divorced, and Brad married Robyn, who was to be his partner for the next 28 years. Brad and Robyn started another young family, with the birth of their son Abraham.

In 1987, Brad decided that it was time to return to Meherabad, this time with his two older children, Amir and I, who were 14 and 12 at the time. I remember Brad instructing us thatwe could only take what we could carry ourselves, wise advice that I have continued to follow when travelling to India. Carrying just our small carry-on bags we arrived in Meherabad wonderfully unprepared for the pilgrim experience. I say wonderfully unprepared, because as a parent, Brad kept his personal relationship with Baba somewhat private, that is apart from the copious photos and paintings of Baba that covered the walls of our home.

He was very clear that he felt it was his job to bring his children to Meherabad, but that the rest was up to Baba.

I remember dropping our bags, taking

presence about him, a drywit and tremen dous personal and professional integrity He was a master craftsman in the field of counselling, and was fully absorbed in this work. Brad hated clichés, labelling and clutter. His room was decorated simply, yet artistically. In his counselling, he somehow managed to combine pragmatic, solution focussed counselling, with the artistry of narrative therapy, art therapy, and psychodrama. His sessions seemed effortless and simple, yet I have witnessed so many men and women, children, couples and families, moved to a much better place in their lives through Brad’s work.

Brad firmly believed in the value of service to others and he was able to put this beliefinto action every counselling session.

Through his participation in and delivery of extensive training courses, supervision ofother counsellors, and research, he was continuously passing on knowledge, upskilling, and searching for new and effec tive ways ofhelping people make positive changes in their lives. So extensive was his personal counselling library that we have donated the bulk of his books to begin a memorial library.

Brad brought this same sense of intellectual vigour into his relationship with Baba. I think it was this very aspect of his mind that drew him to Baba so quickly and deeply in his youth. This vigour never waned and I am now heir to another incredible collection, a library that contains pretty much every Baba book printed in the last 50 years.

One of the last Baba events Brad was involved in was hosting and organising Dr. Murti’s visit to Auckland in 2005. Brad was very excited about the visit, especially about the fact that Dr. Murti wanted to hold public talks. We printed up ffiers, and the two of us spent a day driving around Auckland giving them to cafes, new age hang-outs, and Indian temples and stores.

Brad was so energised by the feeling of giving Baba’s picture to strangers. I am sure it reminded him of the buzz of the early years with John, when they would often hold public Baba talks and hand out Baba cards at music festivals. As a result of the outreach, Dr. Murti delivered his enthralling talks to a diverse group, many who came back night after night. All through the visit Brad was blissfully happy to be doing Baba’s work. By the end of the week he was almost physically shining as he took on the role of host introducing Dr. Murti, greeting old Baba lovers, and -

were visiting from Australia.

Brad was in his favourite role the patriarch ofthe extended family, tending the barbeque surrounded by the deep pink flowers of the bougainvil lea tree he had planted 30 years earlier. A few days after Christmas, he awoke feeling unwell and uncharacteristically returned to bed soon after wak ing. Only a few minutes later, after no sounds or signs of dis tress, Robyn found him already gone, in his sleep what was for Brad, an incredibly fast and peaceful passing. Ofcourse for us, his family and loved ones, it was a shocking and deeply traumatic morning, which is still hard to accept. Brad was a fit and trim 58. He passed away from a massive aneurism of his ascending aorta, a condition that he was totally unaware of.

Close family flew in from the United States, and we held a very beautiful and moving ceremony for Brad at his home on New Years day 2008. Over 200 people overflowed into the blooming gardens and spoke at length about Brad as a son, brother, husband, father, teacher, coun sellor, Baba lover and friend. It was an overwhelming tribute to how many lives Brad had touched. Beyond close family and friends, Brad had made a huge impact in the extended community through his years ofwork as a teacher, counsellor, and men’s health advocate.

Brad was very introspective and spintually self-aware. He knew that he had reached a plateau of sorts in his life, both professionally and personally. He was genly talking about this next phase of life as he approached 60 and entered into his new role as a grandfather. He was ready for a new adventure, and we are all still so sad that he had to leave us for this new journey. I do believe that he reached a form of equilibrium and was at peace when he passed. Perhaps this was a reflection of a balancing of sanskaras at least I think that is what he might say if he was here to reflect.

Although Brad wasn’t able to say goodbye, I can say that he experienced a great sense of camaraderie, support, and joy from his Baba friends scattered all over the world. He also had the unwavering ability to truly live in the moment while -

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Brad with his Grandchild

welcoming new people.

The last few years ofBrad’s life were ex tremely happy. He was working part-time as a counsellor from home in a sleep-out he proudly named Nazar Studio. He spent the rest ofhis time helping Robyn in her home-based ceramics business, tending to their home and gardens, and in the later years finding his artistic feet with the cre ation ofgarden sculptures. He and Robyn cherished this time together, and nothing made Brad happier than not having to leave the property On a counseffing course he took in his last year, participants were asked to describe their dream home, and Brad said he was at a loss, as he had lived in his dream home for over 30 years.

Brad’s last months were especially joyful, as he became a grandfather for the first time to my daughter, Ariel Lila Renee. I remember the look of pure bliss on his face as he held Ariel only a few hours after her birth. He was absolutely delighted with his new role as Zayde. He surprised us all by wanting to be called by this Yiddish name, but it was his personal acknowledgement ofhis part in the ongo ing cycles ofbirth and death, as he thought about his own Zayde, born in Russia over a century earlier.

Brad’s last weeks were the warm summer days ofthe December holiday period.

The house on Christian Road was fttll to bursting with family. Ariel was just ten weeks old and her paternal grandparents

. . .

on pilgrimage. Making the most of every precious day, he cherished every minute he was able to spend with Baba’s Mandali and at various Baba centres around the world.

One of Brad’s wishes upon his death was that each of his four children would take his ashes to Meherabad. He joked with Robyn, saying that it was a sure way to get us all back there! For me, I will make that trip as soon as I can take my daughter.

This time I will be the one holding the child’s hand, with tears in my eyes, as we climb the white rock trail and gently give Brad back to Baba.

Real Birth and Real rDeatli J4leher i3aba There is one real birth and one real death. You are born once and you really die only once.

What is the real birth?

It is the birth of a “drop” in the Ocean of Reality What is meant by the birth ofa “drop” in the Ocean ofReality? It is the advent of individuality born ofindivisibility through a glimmer of the first most-finite consciousness, which transfixed cognizance oflimitation into the Unlimited.

What is meant by the real death?

It is consciousness getting free of all limitations. Freedom from all limitations is real death; it is really the death of all limitations; it is liberation. In between the real birth and the real death, there is no such reality as the so-called births and death.

What really happens in the intermedi ate stage known as births and deaths is that the limitations ofconsciousness gradually wear offtill it (consciousness) is free of all limitations. Ultimately, consciousness, totally free ofall limitations, experiences the unlimited Reality eternally. Real dying is equal to real living. Therefore I stress: Die for God and you will live as God. The Path ofLove, pp. 76-77

©1986 Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust

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Whj 7Jid9od Choose 2dim?

11 2Mñez LA 7ribute to Eduardo uique 2slovember 13, 1944 .Jlpril 9, 2007 -

duardo Nüñez, best known among his friends as “Quique” (a nickname for Enrique, his second name), was born th, in Buenos Aires city on November 13 1944, and returned to his Beloved Baba on April 9, 2007.

Shortly after his birth, a rare disease af fected his eyes, leaving him actually blind.

His mother, Julia, remained besides her son’s cradle to take the most loving care ofhim, applying a medicine every twenty minutes, for more than a month. She could sleep for a while when Anselmo, Eduardo’s father, would be back from work to replace her. What’s the meaning of this story?

Eduardo opened his eyes again, totally cured, and would see the light, on Decem th, Christmas Day, at dawn. ber 25 Eduardo grew up along with his elder brother, Carlos, in the Province of Misjones, where the family moved following Anselmo’s jewellery work. Both kids fol lowed the happy life of being a friend to every kid oftheir neighbourhood, poor or rich, European or native, in the most exu berant landscape of the Misiones jungle, not far from the wonderful Iguazü falls.

Within those dense rain forests, Eduardo began to appreciate God’s Creation.

Then the family returned to Buenos Aires with a newbaby, Monica, who would enjoy her brothers’ love, which increased as they grew up.

Eduardo attended a Christian school in Buenos Aires, where he proved to be a very good pupil, above all in Religion. Julia showed me Quique’s monthly bulletins, where you could see the highest marks on that subject. She even showed me two or three medals Quique was given for their merits in Religion.

Time would pass by and we find Quique living the life ofevery young man of the 1960’s, enjoying all he could, as he developed his sympathetic and sweet personality Nevertheless inside him an ar dent thirst began to grow. An urgent need called for him, though Quique didn’t know what it exactly was. He got married first in the late 1960’s, but regrettably it didn’t work for long. He then decided to move to America, beginning a time ofsearch of his own truth.

Some of Quique’s dear friends of that

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time told me that he would become popu lar among the people he met within a few minutes, almost without being conscious of his magnetic smile (that smile that forever would appear in his eyes first), his tenderness, his loyalty, his capability to understand and listen to every human being he ever might meet.

Quique’s life was not easy, though. He was a taxi driver, restaurant waiter, then a restaurant owner, a photographer to Life magazine, and a myriad of other jobs he took to earn his living. While he was living in New York he met his two elder children’s mother, who was in contact with an Indian spiritual teacher named Meher Baba.

In a flash, he discovered that the old thirst that had burned his soul for so long would be finally quenched. Note that it was not love yet, but the idea of being in the right place.

Then the Meher Baba NewYork group planned to attend to the next Sahavas in India to be held in April, 1969. Arrangements were made and the entire world was in a mood of joy and excitement, when st, 1969, an urgent telegram on February 1 came from India. Sadness and an inde scribable feeling ofloss overtook Quique’s group. However, they were told that the Sahavas would be held anyway, and they decided to go ahead with their plans.

Quique was supposed to make a pho tographic chronicle for Life ofthat “Silent Master” the magazine’s publishers came to hear of. Quique told us that when he arrived at Meherabad, he shot six or seven pictures, and then decided to follow the queue that had formed to worship a pair of Meher Baba’s sandals. Quique was interested but not beyond that. When it was time for his turn, he only did what he saw from the others: bow down, touch the sandals with the finger tips and leave.

Quique did so, and when touching the sandals, he noted a nail sticking up through one of the sandal’s leather soles.

He thought to himself “How great was the suffering of this Man, walking with this sandal that wounded His foot, and He surely didn’t utter a single word about it”.

And in the following second, he felt deep in his heart: “Why did You make me wait

for so long?!” Then Quique felt a strong electric shock up and down his spine, and fainted on the spot.

When he recovered, he found himself in one of the men Mandali’s room, being cared for by one of them and a doctor.

Quique couldn’t help weeping for a long while. After this “weeping feast”, as Mark Twain would say, Quique’s mind seemed to be erased, as he began to wander, going to and fro all over Meherabad.

Life magazine, of course, remained without the ordered pictures, but how beautiftil the verbal pictures we enjoyed years later, through Quique’s delightful conversation! In the plane back to America he recovered his normal consciousness when he caught himselfadmiring a beautifhl flight attendant. “Airight, I’m back again!” he thought.

What a paradox! That ftmnny scene at the plane let him know that all the worldly pleasures wouldn’t be the same anymore, as the fire of love for Meher Baba began to slowly burn his soul. He couldn’t wait to return to Buenos Aires and announce the good new to his relatives and friends.

However, he didn’t hear the answer he expected. The God-Man had other plans for Argentina. They weren’t yet ready.

Back in America, Eduardo would return several times to Meherabad, where he was acknowledged as a sincere Baba lover by the men and women Mandali and the rest of the Baba family there.

However, years had to pass for him to return to his fatherland and see the results of his earlier words. Slowly but surely, his fertile seed of Love began to grow in Buenos Aires, later on in La Plata, Mar del Plata and other cities in Argentina.

For most of us, Quique was not only the first and major reference for Meher Baba; he was also a friend, in the deepest sense ofthe word; a soul mate whose house was always open to everybody, whose car was always ready to visit us in a Baba meeting, no matter where it might be; whose Argentinean mate or cigarette was always ready to be shared with those who needed to listen to his incomparable talks about his Beloved Meher Baba (enriched by his huge knowledge of art and culture, of course). If you felt lost in the middle

of the universe, a short visit to Qtique’s house or shop would guarantee a relaxed “return home” for you.

So, why would Meher Baba choose Eduardo Nüñez as a medium for Him to be known in Argentina specially and the rest of South America? He knows, of course, but let me propose that Baba selected Quique not only because he was a good guy for everybody, I think He did it because Eduardo was never afraid of his own humanity Only recognizing himself as he was, without the slightest postur ing, and at the same time accomplishing his duties as a Baba Lover; and we may add, above all perfectly accomplishing MyWish, given by Baba in Meher Baba’s Calling.

I think that despite all these words I am not doin justice to Eduardo’s memory. If you knew him, you can simply remember how comfortable you used to feel near Quique. If you don’t, don’t worry: You can easily find him in the best part ofyour heart. Very, very near the place Meher Baba resides.

‘The Significance of Deat1i J4leIier Baba

he worldly man completely identi times, they seek it with the false hope of fies life with the manifestations and putting an end to all the worldly worries activities of the gross body; and for him, and problems, which they are unable to therefore, the beginning and the end of face or solve. Thus, in the minds of most bodily existence, are also the beginning persons, death assumes an accentuated and and the end ofthe individualized soul. All overwhelming importance.

The overwhelming importance of his experience seems to speak to him about the transitoriness ofthe physical body; and death is derived from man’s attachment he has often witnessed the disintegration to particular forms; but death loses much ofthose physical bodies, which were once of its sting and importance, even for the vibrant with life. So, he is naturally im worldly man, ifhe takes a broader view of pelled to believe that life is conterminous the course oflife. In spite ofthe transito riness of forms, and, in fact, even in and with bodily existence.

The worldly man takes death to be through these forms, there is an unbroken the cessation of life itself and he gives continuity oflife, discarding old forms and great importance to death, in his general forging new ones for its habitation and outlook. There are few who contemplate expression. The recurring incident ofdeath on death for prolonged periods; but, in is matched by the recurring incident of spite of the fact that most persons are birth; in spite of the unceasing activity of completely engrossed in their worldly the hand of death, life continues to flourpursuits, they can hardly resist being im ish; old generations are replaced by new pressed by the incident ofdeath,when they ones; life is reborn in new forms, inces are occasionally confronted by it, in their santly renewing and refreshing itse1f the lives. For most persons the earthly scene streams of life, with their ancient origin, oflife has as its background the inevitable are ever advancing onwards through the and the irresistible fact of death, which forms, which come and go like the waves J4leIier Baba irth and death do not mark the be- imperceptibly enters into their greatest of the ocean. ginning or end of life. Whereas the triumphs and achievements, as well as in numerous stages and states of life which their keenest pleasures constitute the so-called births and deaths and rejoicings. are governed by the laws of evolution and Apart from giving reincarnation, life comes into being only a general background once, with the advent of the first dim rays to the scene of life, oflimited consciousness, and succumbs to death also assumes an death only once on attaining the unlimited accentuated and overconsciousness of infinite Existence. whelming importance, Existence, all-knowing, all-powerful, even among the mul all-present God, is beyond cause and ef ticolored incidents of fect, beyond time and space, beyond all life. Death is among actions. Existence touches all, all things the happenings which and all shadows. Nothing can ever touch are the most dreaded Existence. Even the very fact of its being and the most lamented; does not touch existence. it is also among the To realize Existence, life must be shed. things which people, It is life that endows limitations to the in their malice or anger, unlimited Self Life of the limited self is try to inflict upon each sustained by the mind creating impres other as the last penalty sions; by energy supplying the impetus to or worst-revenge, or accumulate and dissipate these impres which they rely upon, sions through expressions; and by gross as the surest way of re forms and bodies functioning as the moving the aggression instruments through which these impres or interference by oth sions are spent, reinforced and eventually ers. People also invite exhausted, through actions. death upon themselves GodSpeaks, pp. 289-290 © 1973 Photo by Walter Mertens in SwitzerlandJuly 1934 in token of supreme © Toby Mertens Sufism Reoriented, Inc. self-sacrifice; and, at

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Beads On One String 7our iR.L/4.

Stermer, Los Angeies

he idea for the Beads On One String Tour came to Don Stevens (editor of the Discourses and God Speaks) as a “morning intu ition.” The title was drawn from a quote given by Meher Baba to the press in London in 1932: “I intend bringing together all religions and cults like beads on one string and revitalize them for individual and collective needs.”

The idea ofthe Tour was to travel to some ofthe sites ofspiritual significance visited by Baba during His lifetime with the inten tion ofinvoking the sense ofuniversality mentioned in His quote. Each site was assigned a leader who was responsible for lecturing the group on its historical, architectural and spiritual significance. In all there were 13 sites on the agenda scheduled to be visited over a two-week period.

The group numbered about 50, drawn from both Europe and America. The sites visited were: .

The Qutub Minar in New Delhi, which is the world’s tallest brick minaret, built upon a former Jam and Hindu site .

Birla House, the site of Gandhi’s assassination, also in New Delhi .

Moinuddin Chisti’s tomb representing Islamic Sufism, in Ajmer .

The Dilwara temples, representing Jainism, at Mt Abu in Rajasthan .

Babajan’s tomb in Pune .

Two houses lived in by Meher Baba and His family, also in Pune .

Shivaji’s fort in Satara and a temple there.* .

Manonash cave, in Hyderabad .

The Panchgani cave in Tiger Valley, Mahabaleshwar .

A field in Satarawhere Baba and some others held an impromptu cricket matchjust down the road from where Babawould be involved in a car accident about a year later and the house where Baba was taken immediately after the accident, also in Satara .

The Ellora caves, near Aurangabad.

AU of this was accomplished by shuttling our group via train, bus and rickshaw over approximately a 3000 kilometer area. Accomodations included hotels and Baba centers in New Delhi, Hyderabad and Pune. The lectures were given sometimes the evening before the visit and sometimes in the morning ofthe day we visited the site.

Once at the site, an appropriate spot was found where the group would collectively repeat the name of God particular to that site for five or more minutes. This was then followed by two minutes of silence.

A documentary film crew accompanied the tour to record the event for posterity The tour ended at Meherabad in time to attend Amartithi.

There is discussion of repeating this tour on a regular basis. Stay tuned! * Baba told us Shivaji was one of His ‘minor’ incarnations. He was a great warrior king who united India under Hindu rule.

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Group shot, taken at Mt. Abu, where the Di/wara temples are located

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The Qutub Minar in New Delhi, which is the worldc tallest brick minaret, built upon aformerJain & Hindu site

Meher Baba, New Delhi, February 1939.

Note the Qutub Minar in the background.

Photo courtesy ofMSI Collection India Meher Babaplaying cricket. It was at this site that the second motorcar accident occurred, but Baba won the match this day!

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Kailash Temple, Flora Caves, nearAurangabad

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Outside the Panchgani Caves

The Group inside the Panchgani Caves

ŠReiter Baba at the Panchgani Caves 62

Baba in New Delhi with Mansari, Irene Bib and Mehera,January 1939

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Birla House, the site of Gandhi c assassination, also in New Delhi

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MA. Stermer Two houses (Pumpkin House on the left andBaba House on the right) lived in by Meher Baba andHisfamily in Pune

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r;r Shivaj?cfort in Satara and a temple there

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The Dilwara temples, representing Jainism, at Mt. Aba in Rajasthan

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Buddhist Temple in the Eiora Caves nearAurangabad

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Babajan tomb, Pane

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Inside the Manonash cave, in Hyderabad

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L/lnnouncements Original Sixth Edition of rjDiscourses .Relectsed Online Compilations of Discourses 2’Jow ,‘4uailable in Online Library 3our JJI4ctjor

Ward JParks, .7frte1terabad November 2008 he Avatar Meher BabaTrust is happy to announce the completion ofa major online publishing project that has been in the works for almost four years.

This week an online version of the original sixth edition of Meher Baba’s Discourses, edited by Don Stevens and Ivy Duce and published by Sufism Reoriented in 1967, becomes available in the online library ofthe Avatar Meher Baba’s Trust’s web site at: http://ambppct.org/ meherbaba/discourses.php. As doubtless many of you know, the sixth edition was republished by Sheriar Foundation in 2007 as what is being called the “revised sixth edition.” But what we are publishing on the Trust web site is not that redesigned and slightly revised text, but the original text ofthe three-volume 1967 edition, as presented in its fifth (1973) reprinting.

That original text has been reproduced exactly, without any changes at all. We have not even corrected misspellings.

With the release ofthe online sixth edi tion, the Trust web site now completes its undertaking to make available online the four major compilations ofMeher Baba’s Discourses. Those editions are: (1)The five-volume set, originally published in India between 1939 and 1943.

The various volumes of this collection went through multiple editions, the last of them published in 1955. Edited by Dr. C. D. Deshmukh and others ofMeher Baba’s mandali, the five-volume set contains all sixty-nine ofthe original discourses.

(2) GodioMan andMan to God, edited

by Charles B. Purdom and published in 1955 by Victor Gollancz, a distinguished publisher in London. Purdom’s edition contains sixty discourses, many of them substantially pared back and reduced in their verbiage.

(3) The sixth edition, edited by Don E. Stevens and Ivy Oneita Duce and

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published in three volumes by Sufism Reoriented in 1967. The editors used the original five-volume set as their source text and retained all sixty-nine discourses.

(4) The seventh edition, edited by Eruch Jessawala, Bal Natu, and J. Flagg Kris and published in a single volume

by Sheriar Press in 1987. Working from the sixth edition, the editors added one further discourse of Baba’s to the original sixty-nine.

The online availability ofthese the four major compilations will serve the interests ofmany Baba lovers, especially those who wish to study the history of these essays and the variations between their different versions. Those investigating this subject may find of use the “History of the Dis courses” incorporated into the Discourses, revised sixth edition (Myrtle Beach: Sheriar Foundation, 2007), vol. 4, pp. 3—80.

Actually, the five-volume set does not represent the original and first-most publication ofthe discourses. By the time the five-volume set appeared, fifty-one of them had already been released in the Meher Baba Journal (1938—42); the first four volumes ofthe five-volume set reproduced Baba’s essays from the Journal on a year-by-year basis. It is our hope eventu ally to publish the entire contents of the Meher Babajournal in our online-library.

When thatlarge undertaking is completed, readers will have access to those fifty-one discourses as they were first presented to the world. Until then, however, users of the online library can know that the first editions ofthe five-volume set reproduced Baba’s text from the Meher Baba Journal essentially unaltered, except perhaps for some misspellings corrected and some new mistakes that may have crept in un intentionally.

This present online sixth edition, like all of our online editions, should not be misconstrued as a facsimile reproduction ofthe original books. In creating these online versions, we digitally scan the original print versions, read them through OCR (“optical character recognition”) software, reflow and redesign the text, and proofread it. The content ofthe original publications has been reproduced on a page-by-page basis. We have not used the same fonts, however; and the page design, lineation, and text flow has all been done afresh. The

virtue to this process is that it results in In— ternet files that are more easily searchable and faster to download. You’ll have to go to the printed books, however, ifyou want the exact original appearances.

Since we work with a small though dedicated volunteer staff, it is possible that mistakes have wormed their way into these online editions. Ifyou find any ofthese, we will be grateful ifyou inform us. You can contact us at: frank@ambppct.org.

So J44an 9 Wonderful 73aba Things Online! would seem a pity not to have a com puter in this day and age. Following are just a few of the web addresses that will provide a feast for the soul.

Now Online:

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A Virtual Tour of Meherazad.

Frank Bloise, Meherabad new feature has been added to the vatar Meher Baba Trust website’s “Pilgrimage” section in the form of a vir tual “Tour of Meherazad.”

Included are a briefhistory and descrip tions of the various buildings, rooms, and treasured artifacts associated with Beloved Baba and His mandali.The Tour is divided into three categories: the Women’s Side, the Men’s Side, and Outlying Properties.

Each web page includes photos, some depicting the various sites as they were in the past, and many more showing them as they appear now. The Tour also includes video clips, most never made available before, in which Mani, Goher, Katie, Meheru, Eruch, Aloba and Merwan, give compelling first hand accounts of their experiences relevant to particular Mehe razad sites.

We welcome you to take a virtual tour of Meherazad at: http://ambppct.org/pilgrimage/ meherazadtour.php A Meherabad tour and history will be added to the website soon.

An online Baba magazine can be read here: OmPoint International Circular, issue #2 is now available: http.//ompoint.com/OmPoint_Circular_2.pdf

lI’1ore Cinks oogle.com has some great photos of the Ellora caves: http://images. google.com/images?hl=en&q=Ellora+Ca ves&btnG= Search+Images&gbv=2. http://www.meherbabafilm.com/film info.html. Click on play film. The user name is “perfect” and the password is “master”. www.meherdhamhawaii.com We are happy to announce the completion of the Meherdham Hawaii website so long in progress. Among its many features are the history and purpose for Baba’s retreat center in Hawaii: the home of the pre cious Baba treasures given to Stan Alapa and meant by Baba for the peoples of Hawaii. http://www.ambppct.org/meherbaba/ online.php has a lot ofbooks on line

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http://home.online.no/solibakk! joltus.html, another great website for quotes and stories, created and maintained

by Eric Solibakke, the hard working man behind the Baba Listserv!

Places of Pilgrimage—The Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust in India is at wwambppct.org. The Meher Spiritual Center in the U.S. is at www.mehercenter.org The Meher Baba Heartland Center in the U.S. is at www. ambhc.org. Avatar’s Abode in Australia is at www.avatarsabode.com.au BabaBooks—The BabaTrust has over a dozen Baba books available online for reading and searching at www.ambppct. org/meherbaba/online.php The Baba Trust Archives also has digital images of diaries kept by Baba’s mandali and of correspondence to and from Baba at ambppct.org/archives/. Sheriar Founda tion Books is at www.sheriarbooks.org/ The bookstore ofthe Avatar Meher Baba Center of Southern California is at www. lovestreetbookstore.com/. Searchlight books is at www.searchlightbooks.org/.

The London Baba Centre’s bookstore is at www.meherbaba.co.uk/books.htm. For Baba books in India, go to www.meherba batheavatar.org/books/. Also, LordMehei Baba’s biography, can now be read and searched online at www.lordmeher.org.

Bhau Chat—Bhau Kalchuri, one of Baba’s mandali, has an Internet chat al most every Sunday for four hours. There is also often a live video and audio stream.

The site ofthe chats is http://jaibaba.com/ echat45/public/index.html. The site ofthe video and audio stream is http://www. ambppct.org/events/bhaulive2007.php General—Some eclectic Baba websites are www.avatarmeherbaba.org www. jaibaba.com, www.trustmeher.com and www.meherbabatheavatar.org ,

Baba Radio—wwwBabaRadio.org is a very enjoyable Baba Internet radio station.

This site also streams (and has downloads of) a very good Baba interview program.

Baba Videos—www.meherfilmworks. org has complete versions of You Alone Exist and God in Human Form, the latter film in English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Hindi, Telegu, and Farsi.

There are also other lovely Baba films that can be viewed at www.meherbabafilm. com/filminfo.html, http://mehermedia. com, and www.technobaba.com. Finally, YouTube now has over 250 Baba videos on it, including videos of Mehera, Mani, Eruch, and Adi. To view these videos, go to www.youtube.com and search for “Meher Baba.”

Baba Listservs—These are forums for Baba lovers to share emails about Baba and Baba-related topics. Also, a daily Baba quote is delivered via the Baba Listserv.

The sign-up pages allow one to choose to “receive list mail batched in a daily digest,” meaning the different emails people send are “batched” into one email in your inbox.

The links to sign up for the listservs are http://mymeherbaba.com/mailmanl listinfo/baba and http://mymeherbaba. com/mailmanllistinfo/baba-talk.

Amartithi Webcasts—The Baba Trust in India has a live video and audio webcast ofAmartithi events onjanuary 31 and days prior (and sometimes of Baba’s birthday events on February 25) at www. ambppct.org/events/web-cast.php This site also has downloads ofpast Amartithi videos, as well as other videos. Check in at the site a few days before the festivities begin for a schedule of events.

Tavern Talk—Sign up for this email newsletter at www.ambppct.org/events/ news.php to keep up with the latest happenings at Meherabad, the home ofBaba’s Samadhi or tomb-shrine, and Meherazad, the other main spiritual site associated

with Baba in India. This newsletter, which is distributed by the Baba Trust in India, also publishes diaries of Baba’s mandali and beautifidletters that Baba had dictated to His lovers.

Baba Magazines—Love Street LampPost is at www.lovestreetbookstore.com/ LSLP.htm Glow International is www. belovedarchives.org/glow_international.

Meher Baba, a Telegu Baba magazine, can be read and ordered atwww.srimeherbaba. com Information about Meher Pukar, a Hindi magazine, is at http://www.me herbabatheavatar.org/books/pukar.htm.

Baba Centers and Retreats—India: The Avatar Meher Baba Bhopal Cen tre is at http://members.tripod.com/ meherbhopal. The Avatar Meher Baba Hyderabad Centre is www.avatarmeher. org or http://members.rediffl.com/ambhyd/. The Avatar Meher Baba Delhi Centre is at www.meherbabatheavatar.org The Avatar Meher Babajabalpur Center is at www.trustmeher.com. For other centres in India, please see http://meherbhopal. tripod. com/centres .html. U. K. : The Meher Baba Association in London is at www.meherbaba.co.uk. U. S. : The Avatar Meher Baba Center of Southern Califor nia is at www.meherabode.org. Meherana is at www.meherana.com. Meher Mount is at http://mehermount.com. Australia http://www.avatarsabode.com.au/ Baba Websites in Languages Other Than English—Farsi: www.meherestan. org, Spanish: wwwmeherbaba.com.ar and http://mehery.googlepages.com, German: www.meher.de, Norwegian: http://home. online.no/solibakk/nor, Chinese: www. meherbaba.cn. For Baba movies in languages other than English, please see the listing for “Baba Movies.”

7”kher 3ilmworks—A 2’Iew i’Vebsite for 3films Debbie Nordeen, North Carolina n honor of Avatar Meher Baba’s 115th birthday we are happy to announce a new website: Meher Filmworks. www.meherfilmworks.org Fulllengthfflms, GodlnHumanForm and You Alone Exist, are hosted on this new website.

Meher Filmworks is devoted to quality video presentations ofAvatar Meher Baba His life, His image and His Mission. Two films have been produced. The first film,

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Godln Human Form, has been translated into eightlanguages. The Hindi version of this biographical documentary of Baba’s life and work has been featured on India television several times. The Farsi version was satellite broadcast into Iran several years ago. You will find seven language versions hosted on the website in their entirety English, Hindi, Farsi, French, German, Italian and Spanish. We hope to have Telugu ready next.

The second film, You Alone Exist, is a music video ofthe prayer-poem written by Meher Baba and disciple, Bhau Kalchuri with music by Jim Meyer. Beautiftil im ages of Baba and His creation are woven together creatively, accompanied by the evocative, energetic music. Viewing this ifim is a real meditation on the all-encom passing nature of God. Thanks to Baba and Bob Fredericks for their perfect timing in creating this website. We hope you will visit the site, view the films, and share the news of the Avatar’s life and work!

I can be contacted at meherfflmworks@ gmail.com -

http://meherbctbctisrael.org Etzion 13ecker e launched a special web site for the occasion of the print of the Hebrew Discourses of Meher Baba.

This project started during 1963, when Carrie Ben Shammai, the first disciple of Meher Baba in Israel, published a small book containing a few discourses ofMeher Baba. Baba was very pleased, signed a book and sent it back. The signed bookwas lost.

During 1980 I inherited the center of Carrie with her library, and during 1984 started the translation work. This was ac complished during 1993. Till now it was available as A4 format, and now it was printed as a book.

SI-tore to Slioreless now available on line free!

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n his October email to Professor J.S. Rathore, Director of Meher Spiritual University, Bhau wrote: “I have noted that Shore to Shoreless was published in 1999, and I had placed it at the feet of Beloved Baba inside the Samadhi. The book was very well received by Baba lovers and scholars and acclaimed in reviews. I am very happy to transmit this announcement to all Baba lovers.”

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From Professor J.S. Rathore: Shore to Shoreless: A Voyage Across the Ocean ofExistence with Meher Baba I am pleased to inform the availability of this book as a free downloadable e book from the Meher Spiritual Univer sity http://www.meherspiritualuniversity. org/resources.html.

This book was first published in 1999, and all printed copies of this book have been exhausted. We felt that it would be best ifthis bookwere made available in its electronic version as a free download from the Internet.

Shore to Shoreless tells the story of five tormented individuals who meet acci dentally and agree to embark on a voyage across the Ocean ofExistence with Meher Baba. Across its 12 chapters and 460 pages, the book follows the interesting journey of this diverse group in search of lasting happiness, a chronicle that attempts to explore the synergy between Meher Baba’s cosmology, diverse religious traditions and modern science.

We hope you will enjoy reading the e-book edition of this book, which we humbly dedicate at the Lotus Feet of our Divine Beloved Avatar Meher Baba.

PS. In December, MSU will be adding a new course prepared by Jamie Newell, “Music and the Spiritual Path.”

)3our ‘Coming to ‘13aba’ Story Wanted

9okaran and Ltnnilla Slirivastava, £i&rarians, 7frkherabad 1illJibrary he library is taking up the continuation ofthe “Bal Natu Project,” which was very dear to Bal Natu’s heart. Bal Natu was a resident of Meherazad for several years, and he ran a project of collecting Baba stories from the Baba pilgrims visiting there. The stories are very touching and reflect upon Beloved Baba’s inner working as to how He would draw different souls in different ways to Him, exclusive to each individual.

Bal Natu published these beautiful stories in a series of books that were not only cheap and affordable but very popular also. Two books in the series are entitled Showers of Grace and The Compassionate Father. After Bal Natu’s passing away, his cherished project came to an apparent end, but now the Meherabad Hill Library is reviving that project and requesting

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Baba lovers all over the world to send their stories to the library, with a limit of 4-5 typed pages (1200-1500 words). The most welcome aspect of these stories would be how Baba initially drew one to Him or any such episode which would be worth sharing with other Baba lovers.

These stories can be sent via e-mail as an attachment, and a separate typed copy can be sent directly to the library by post or pilgrim courier. The library’s mail address is Meherabad Hill Library, Post Meherabad, Ahmednagar (M.S.) India 414 006. The library’s e-mail address is <hill.library@ambppct.org>.

These stories will be made available in the library to readers, and when enough material is collected, then the publication ofthese stories can be taken up.

2’Iew Caretakers cit the 2lectrtland Center CDebbie 21ordeen, 2’IortIi Carolina he Board of the Avatar Meher Baba Heartland Center is happy to announce our new caretakers, Ron Lansing and Miriam Rose. They will move to Oklahoma in June. They have lived in Portland, Oregon as a married couple for the last 21 years. Miriam first heard about Meher Baba and came to love Him in the early 70’s. Ron heard about Baba from her in 1978 when theyworked together at ajet engine parts foundry in Portland.

Both in their mid fifties, Ron and Miriam felt the pull from Baba to come to Prague. Still employed part-time, Ron’s flexible work-at-home job is as a field engineer for an Austin-based company. He will sometimes take short work-related trips. Miriam is a “newly minted” physi cian following Baba’s winding path to set up a part-time Oklahoma practice where she can do osteopathic cranial treatments with children and babies as her focus.

Between the two of them, the Heartland Center pilgrims will always have a host to welcome them to the Center.

The couple recently had a ‘trial run’ as caretakers for the Heartland Center last February when they covered for Michael Ivey while he was in Meherabad. Miriam writes: “While I was there in February 08, I felt Baba’s Presence so strongly and my

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inner connection with Him was so much clearer. I feel called by Him to live with Him there in Prague, OK. And such a sweet gift it is! I feel very fortunate that Baba has arranged for us to be with Him in Prague and am looking forward to hosting the pilgrims who come to visit.” Ron adds, “We are very anxious to get to Oklahoma and settle in at the Center. Meher Baba has been puffing on me strongly to come since I first visited there a year ago. Where the comparatively stark and sometimes harsh landscape is so much different than our long time Oregon home, the essence ofBaba’s Love at His accident site and in the Prague hospital are too sweet to resist.

We are looking forward to being protectors of these sites as well as caretakers for the Burleson house and hosts for His Lovers, old and new.”

When Ron and Miriam arrive in June, Michael Ivey, our current caretaker, will show them the ropes and introduce them to all the wonderful people he has met in Prague. We thank Michael for his three years of loving service to the Heartland Center. He is moving to the Upper Peninsula ofMichigan to start a self-sufficient homestead. Michael will continue as a board member for the AMBHC. ( Read more about Ron and Miriam in our annual newsletter later this summer.)

From the Board of the Avatar Meher Baba Heartland Center

Ylemembering E13ctba— .A4ay 23th, 2009 Prague, Oklahoma —

OnerDt:ty 9cttIiering and J44orrison 2touse Dedication he Board members ofthe Avatar Meher Baba Heartland Center invite you to this One-Day Gathering remembering Baba and the time He spent in Prague, Oklahoma in May 1952.

The Gathering will be Saturday, May 23’, from 9:30 am 10:00 pm. Day-long activi ties include: Arti at accident site, tour of * hospital, open house for public, afternoon tea party and evening •a — ?) program of sharing. i.

This schedule includes free time for meals, which are not included in the Gathering plan.

A special highlight of the day will be the Morrison House dedication. This house adjoins the Burleson House property and was purchased in 2008, offering a wonderful expansion for the Heartland Center. The Morrison House is currently undergoing plumbing and electrical upgrades, which are the first steps to prepare this house for retreat accommodations.

Several experienced home renovators will be working on the house during the week before the One-Day Gathering. There will be a Grand Opening in a year or so

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when the house is furnished and ready for pilgrim occupancy, but we wanted to mark this wonderful gift from Baba by having a dedication now.

Since the Day-long Gathering is occurring during the annual board retreat, and the renovation volunteers will also be on site, there are no accommodations available at the Heartland Center for the Gathering. Many reasonably priced hotels are located in Shawnee, OK 74802, which is a twenty-minute drive from Prague. (Google “Shawnee OK Hotels”) We are happy to emailyou the detailed schedule, directions, and a list ofhotels in the area. We regret that we cannot offer any transportation assistance from the airport. Please email RSVP ifyou plan to attend, and contact us with any questions at: ambhc1952@gmail.com. You may also phone Debbie Nordeen at 828-274-0307, or caretakers Ron Lansing and Miriam Rose at the Heartland Center, 405-5674774.

What a wonderful way to remember Baba this Memorial Day weekend. We hope you can join us.

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Vhat is the J /1orrison 21ouse?

4 eople have been asking this question, so here is your answer for those not already in the know. In July of 2008 the Avatar Meher Baba Heartland Center purchased the Morrison House. Baba lovers donated towards the purchase of this lovely property directly adjacent to the Burleson House in Prague, OkIa homa. The Burleson House shares a city block with the Prague Hospital where Meher Baba and His party spent 12 days recuperating after the accident. The only other adjacent structure on this block is the two story brick residence that was the home of the Morrison family from 1930 to the present. With the passing ofWalter “Speedy” Morrison, (age 98) a contempo rary ofDr. Burleson, the Morrison family

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decided to sell the house and offered the first option to the Heartland Center for a very reasonable price.

The acquisition ofthe Morrison House is a move for the ftiture of the Heartland Center. It doubles the capability for pilgrim accommodations and opens the possibility ofgroup pilgrimages for Baba groups around the country and many other activities.

In 1931 Baba stated there would be five Spiritual centers in the US, and one would be established in the center ofAmerica. In a letter to Baba in 1944, Elizabeth Patterson wrote: “The plan for five spiritual centers in the U.S.A. was projected by you when you first came in 1931, and you told us that you would use them for

different spiritual activities.” (Lord Meher page 2950) The Heartland Center was dedicated in 2005 in the family home of Dr. Ned Burleson, who cared for Baba, Mehera, Elizabeth and Meheru in the aftermath of the auto accident close to Prague, Okia homa, on May 24, 1952. Establishing the AMB Heartland Center in “the Burleson House” has been a grand success, provid ing information and lodging services to a steady stream of Baba’s lovers to Okia homa over the past four years.

For more information about the Avatar Meher Baba Heartland Center, please visit www.ambhc.org.

Debbie Nordeen —

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What’s 1appening at J4/kherctbode Special 9uests!

Don Mahier, who was one of Margaret Craske’s dancers, was our special guest for our celebration ofBaba’s birthday and kept us spellbound with his talk on his life with Baba.

Adrienne Shamszad, visiting us from Northern California, sung us many of her beautiful songs to the beloved.

Pascal Kaplan gave us a talk on Understanding Death (the book he wrote) and the meanings of this chart of Baba’s on evolution and reincarnation

J ohn Page, one of the origina tors ofthe Baba Bookstore back in the 1970s, tells of how he came to Baba.

His wife Karma told us a fascinat ing tale of her early adventures in life and how she found Baba.

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Christmas ¶:PartLI

When stringing lights on the tree —many hands make light work.

Deborah Ash looks radiant after her cancer surgery

3 year old Sean is fascinated by Baba in 3-D

The Still Yet More Chamber Players lead the children in Christmas carols

The children decorated their own cookies, then ate them all!

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Don Mahier, our Special Guest, with Cookie Riendeau

Bob Een and friend Mader play Bob’s composition “Director’s Waltz” e

Bottom, Center: Michael Campagna plays for us

The Persians sing a rousing song for us as Payam plays the daf 72

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Behnaz, Rosie & Nasrin did a wonderful job transforming the Center for the Birthday

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JReviewed by 2<endra Crossen E13urroughs this lively memoir, Bhau Kalchuri’s daugh ter, Sheela, tells her storywith the help of her husband, David Fenster, who edited transcripts ofher rec ollections given over many years. This has been a labor of love for both ofthem, and we must applaud the Fensters for shar ing so many inspir ing and intriguing glimpses of Meher Baba as well as the men and women who surrounded him. Accompanying the text are 146 photos (halfofthem in color), most ofwhich are being published for the first time. Accompanying the 800+ page text are 146 photos.

Born in 1952, Sheela first met Meher Baba when she was less than a year old, and she lived in close proximity to him from the age of five until Baba dropped his body in 1969, when she was seventeen.

She was aware from her earliest years of the sacrifice her family had made in order for her father to serve Baba as one of His close mandali. When she was older, Sheela told Baba, “A rose surrounded by thorns is like God’s beauty we have to undergo suffering to reach Him.” Baba replied: “True, but when you are near me, I pluck off the thorns, so you don’t get hurt.”

Sheela has had her share of suffering. As a youngster she suffered a terrible, painfhl accident, with severe burns on her back and arms from boiling milk. She almost died oftyphoid and from a serious mastoid infection; Baba told her He had saved her from death several times.

Sheela’s parents, Bhau and Rama, both came from wealthy Hindu families and lived in comfort in Nagpur prior to setting aside their lives of privilege for the inestimable blessing of being with Baba.

Bhau initially had no interest in spirituality and was pursuing three simultaneous graduate degrees; but a couple ofpowerfial dreams, an unexpected experience at the tomb ofthe Perfect MasterTajuddin Baba,

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and a single meeting with Meher Baba transformed him. With the agreement of his pregnant 21-year-old wife, Rama, Bhau left his young family right after his graduation in 1953 to join Meher Baba.

Sheela was barely a year old; her brother, Mehernath, was born a few months later.

Rama then raised her children alone, although with the loving guidance and support ofthe Avatar ofthe Age. Bhau was ordered to give up his attachment to his family, although Baba also required him to write regularly to Rama (a number of these letters, containing news, advice, and occasional admonishments, are included in the book). Baba praised Rama for not complaining about being separated from her husband. (In addition, she accepted living in reduced circumstances compared with her upbringing as the daughter of a raja.) Baba has to remind Bhau of the extraordinary nature ofhis wife’s sacrifice: “You have no idea about her. No woman in the world would live like her, all alone there with two small children. She is re ally good.”

After a few years Baba called Rama from her parents’ home to come with the children and live near Him. They arrived at Meherabad around April 1957 and moved into a bungalow near Arangaon village. Sheela describes her frequent visits to Meherazad, where she witnessed the qualities and quirks ofthe mandali, as well as precious times with Baba at Guruprasad in Pune. In 1963 the family moved to

Khushru Quarters in Ahmednagar, the site of the present Trust Compound, which in those days was a private residence for Adi K. Irani’s family as well as the loca tion of the Ahmed nagar Baba center.

Sheela recalls that Baba never referred to her and her brother as Bhau’s children, but always called them the mandali’s children. “Don’t ever say they are Bhau’s children,” Baba de dared. “They do not belong to him. They are my family.” At other times, Baba would tell her, “Who is Mani? My sister, you think? I don’t have any sister; I don’t have any brothers. I don’t have a mother God doesn’t have any rela or father. tives. God has only lovers.” A recurring undercurrent in the book is a kind of tension between attachment and detachment in relation to family. Sheela reports that she has always felt that Baba was her true parent. Yet her sense of family is strong as well. Although she did not have much contact with her father while growing up, since he was always busy serving Meher Baba, she loved him dearly.

If anyone ever wondered whether God really cares about the thoughts and feelings ofone little pigtailed girl, Sheela is here to lay that doubt to rest. A remarkably bright child—outgoing, talkative, and bold— “Baby” (as Baba and her family called Sheela) would ask Baba outrageous ques tions, and get answers to them: How can we tell if someone is from another planet?

Why doesn’t Baba either make everyone in the world good or kill offthe bad people?

Why did God have to create ugly creatures?

Would Baba please give her some powers so she can fix things that are wrong with the world? Why can’t he make her win the lottery? (Baba’s reply: “Never do that. So many people buy tickets and all their sanskaras go into that. The person who wins thinks he has won lakhs of rupees, but in reality he gets lakhs of sanskaras.”) . . .

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If her imperious manner as a child drew complaints from the mandali, Baba defended her, saying that her sanskaras were those of a wealthy, sophisticated person—a princess. “Babywas supposed to be born in a royal family,” Baba explained, “but in order to be near me, I’ve given her birth in this family.” He also said she was supposed to have been born a man—and Bhau was supposed to have been a woman!

Baba admitted he had made a mistake in assigning their genders.

Baby’s best childhood friend was Dr. William Donkin. William, as she called him, taught her the English alphabet, fixed her hair in a cute way, impressed her with his artistic talent, and explained to her how to love Baba: “Never demand anything from Baba. Accept what he tells you and follow His orders accordingly. If He wants you to live like this [on little money], accept it. Never ask Baba for anything.” Sheela took such lessons to heart and had an instinct for loving the Beloved: “Because Baba would sometimes pat my head or remark that my brain was sharp and tap me on the head, I never wore hairpins or clips in my hair when I went to Meherazad. Baba might get hurt when I embraced Him or when He put His hand on my head. So I braided my hair into two braids to keep it in place.

Mehera asked me once in front of Baba why my hairstyle looked old-fashioned. I explained why I had not used any clips, and she was pleased.”

Sheela was allowed to help Bhau with the Hindi correspondence and could not resist adding her own advice directed at any writers whose letters to Baba had annoyed her—but Baba always found out and made her cross out her contribution to the reply. Mehera let Sheela file Baba’s fingernails and comb His hair. She was fortunate to spend hours alone with Baba at Guruprasad, sometimes massaging Him. And she received various orders from Baba, including one in which she had to shout insults at the mandali. Baba gives her tips on how to spend Silence Day and deal with assorted encounters with ghosts, and assigns her a special short daily prayer meant for her alone.

We are treated to glimpses of many of those who were closest to Baba—in addi tion to Mehera, Mani, and other women mandali, she writes ofEruch, Dr. Donkin, Padri, Pendu, Vishnu, Chhagan Master, Feram Workingboxwala, Dr. Deshmukh, Nana Kher Mohammed the Mast, and es 74

pecially Bhauji himself The weaknesses of some ofthe mandali do not escape young Sheela’s observant and discriminating nature. Padri never laughed, and Mansari gave terrible fashion advice. We see the mandali fighting over sweets—and even worse behavior. But Sheela’s insights into the love between Baba and His closest disciple, Mehera, are surelyworth the price of admission. The book concludes with a powerful account of Meher Baba’s death and entombment.

I can only hint at the amazing range of details revealed by Sheela. I bet you didn’t know that Baba read palms and facial features, for example; he even interpreted the meaning of a mole on Sheela’s foot!

Some ofthe details are deeply significant, while others are entertaining or amusing: for example, when at Guruprasad, Aloba slept with Pegu the Siamese cat, who he believed would protect him from ghosts.

One of my favorites among the touching anecdotes: When Baba was driven to the Arangaon tuberculosis sanatorium to see the patients, He also visited a room where white rabbits were used for tuberculosis testing, and “Baba fed a few pieces of grass to each ofthe bunnies through their cages.”

Growing Up with God would make an excellent candidate for reading aloud and discussion in a group. There are plenty of surprises in store. And I expect Sheela may find herselfmore in demand as a speaker at Baba events after this publication.

2?eyoud

7ue

ci new CD b 11 Carol9unn 9?eviewed by Debbie 2sIordeen, 2ort1t Carolina eyond Time is a wonderful new addi tion to the rich treasure chest of Baba music. Carol Gunn sings her heart out in this beautiful gem of a CD. Hearing Carol’s lovely soprano voice—ethereal, light, exquisite—takes me right back to the Samadhi where over the years, she has offered these songs to her Beloved.

The time was finally ripe for Carol and husband John to produce this CD and make it available for us all.

B

Carol wrote many of the 15 songs on this CD. I love to sing along with her opening original, “Open Up”. Accompa nying herself on piano, her rich, textured arrangements support the lovely melodies,

and lyrics. Carol’s voice shines in its purity supported by accompaniments in contrasting motion to the melodies, yet often leaving space and silence. Her song, “Be determined to be His” is a lovely waltz in a haunting minor key, with renaissance and impressionistic flavors. One can feel the inspiration of Eruch’s encouragement in always saying “Be determined to be His”, and the waltz evokes the dancing from His lovers that Baba requires in being ‘His’. The piece “Age after Age” takes unique form, with Carol’s vocals expressing Baba’s text, and her original solo piano performance supporting spoken narration of Baba’s powerful words from “Meher Baba’s Call”. “Liberation” is a piano solo for contemplation. Also on the CD, are several popular love songs, including, “I’ll be loving you always”, “My Romance,’ and “Over the Rainbow.” Compositions

by Baba’s lovers, Bob and Jane Brown, Francis Brabazon, and Ward Parks, add to the finely woven selections of music.

Baba friends and family add to the harmony of instrumentation, including occasional saxophone, flute and guitars.

Some fun background vocals inspire us listeners to sing along, too. Sharon Muir’s artwork, and Mary Gunn’s graphic design complete the beautiftil package of“Beyond Time”.

The Master is indeed beyond time.

Bravo to Him for inspiring this touching, timeless, beautiful addition to His treasure trove ofsong. $15

&ekers ofL’ovt

bj Amiya 2<umar 21azra and 2<eith9unn Reviewed by 2<endra Crossen Ei3urroughs

I’m a

great admirer of Amiya Kumar Hazra, author of the unforgettable Memoirs ofa Zetetic. My LjJè with Meher Baba, so I was pleased to see this new book with his name on it, along with that of his friend Keith Gunn. Professor Hazra has collected, over many years, a number of personal stories by Indian Baba-lov ers, most of them first-person narratives originally recounted in the speaker’s native Hindi, some of them retold by Amiya or Keith. Here Westerners will encounter some unfamiliar names and faces as well as old friends such as Pratap Ahir and Subhadra Pund ofthe Pune bhajan group; Shaligram Sharma, who toured the U.S. last year; Gita Ram Tiwari, a familiar figure at Meher Baba’s Samadhi; Pleader, a member of the mandali who was hellbent on God-Realization; Janglimaster, “Baba’s servant”; and Kharman Masi, an important woman in Baba’s circle who He said would be His father in the next Avataric advent.

The book will be a treat for Westerners who appreciate the unique sensibility that Indians bring to their experiences with Baba. In his introduction, Keith points out two notable aspects seen in these stories. One is the degree ofhostility that Hindus have had to suffer in their own communities because oftheir devotion to a “foreign” master—even to the extent of their lives being threatened. For example, in one story an invisible force narrowly saves a Baba-lover from being murdered by co-workers. (The examples in this book are Hindu, but certainly Parsi and Muslim Baba-lovers have also endured social op position.)

The other aspect is the degree to which Indian lovers take “occult realities” for granted. I’ve often thought that the many instances in which Baba discouraged attachment to miracles or unusual spiritual experiences were chiefly aimed at His Eastern lovers. In India people grow up with a much greater awareness of God and the sacred dimension of life than in our societ)c (However, even an Indian is bound to be a bit startled when, as told here, a smelly, naked mastani suddenly

appears and secures a seat for him on a crowded train.) I assume that Baba wanted His Eastern lovers to learn to depend less on the miraculous and to love Him for His own sake. He often told people in America and Europe, “The Eastern lovers revere me, bow down to me and worship me—but I want only love from you” (Lord Meher, 6: 1895). Yet,judging by these sto ries, Baba has clearly not withheld amaz ing experiences from His Indian lovers: rooms flooded with the fragrance ofroses, Baba mystically standing in for someone taking an examination, the apparition of Baba at the deathbed ofa loved one, a tiger lying down like a lamb. We even learn that someone who was harassing a Baba-lover dropped dead! Who says prayers aren’t answered?

Even in the land of the miraculous, where gurus are common, Meher Baba stands out as something special: Pratap remarks that “in our traditions, Indians have information about God and all that, but until we came to know about Meher Baba, we had no thought of coming in God’s contact.” Incidentally, the book

presents Pratap’s own version of a muchmisrepresented incident in which Baba asked him as a young teenager to remove all his clothing. The event remains mys terious, in that we don’t know why Baba did it, but I think Pratap’s acceptance of it as a holy moment helps us to contemplate the mystery in the right spirit.

I’d love to give away more of the content, but I won’t spoil it for you. Seekers of Love is a welcome contribution to a growing oral history, and I thank Amiya and Keith for bringing us closer to our Indian Baba family through these accounts. The authors promise a sequel with stories from the West and conclude with one sample, from Vreni Trutmann of Switzerland.

As a sneak preview we give you two excerpts: My hobbies were carpentry and making things. Where the Trust Office is today was my workshop in Baba’s time. I had a workbench, and I used to make whatever took my fancy. I had some aptitude for engineering, but I had a greater desire to be a pilot. My mother’s brother was a pilot, and he was such a romantic figure.

Like most young boys, I thought piloting would be very exciting.

Once when we were seated before Baba, He told my brother Vinod, “You do M.Sc. [pursue a master’s degree program in science]!”

I spoke up and said, “Baba, what should I do? What should I become?” Baba didn’t reply. I told Him, “Baba, I want to be a pilot.”

Baba said, “No, you will not be a pilot.”

But in my mind I said, “Let Baba saywhat ever He wants to say. I am going to become a pilot.” That was as late as 1967-1968.

Soon after that, I became myopic, and I had to wear glasses, and then it was out of the question to be a pilot. That’s how He made sure I wouldn’t be a pilot.

Meher Baba works slowly and imper ceptibly. Darshan always started with an embrace from Baba and the opportunity to kiss Baba on His cheeks. Even as a boy, I used to feel that I was kissing the cheeks of God. I used to think, “Nothing is left in life. The greatest thing that can 75

ever happen in life has happened and now there is nothing more.” In my childlike way I thought that now that I had seen God there was nothing left to see. But I was conscious that I might have years of life ahead of me. As the years have passed by, I feel how little I know God, and how little I have seen of Him, and I am very mindful of the times Meher Baba would point to His own body and say. “This is not Meher Baba. This is only the coat that I wear to make Myself visible.” As the years pass, you realize how He has to make you grow inwardly.

—Raj Prem Khilnani (who became a police superintendent) So my mother and father [Mr. and Mrs. L. D. Vajpayee] went into Guruprasad bungalow. We children were with them but there was a ban on children, so we had to stay outside. When they came out, we asked father what happened. He said, “I am unable to tell you, because when I put my head on His feet, I somehow lost consciousness.”

We asked our mother what happened.

She said, “I never had any faith in saints and babas, and even when I was in their presence I never had any respect for them.

I was not interested in Meher Baba, so I remember Guruprasad bungalow more than Meher Baba. What I saw was very objectionable according to my orthodox concept. I saw Meher Baba giving embrace to both men and to women. This is such a person who is embracing women? I didn’t go up to Him because I didn’t want a darshan in which He would embrace me.”

Baba understood the whole thing, called her to him and instead of embracing her asked her to touch His feet. She touched Baba’s feet and came back to her place.

Thereafter Papa took Baba’s darshan on two additional occasions. Papa had read somewhere that Baba used to wear his hair in a pigtail. My father wanted to see the pigtail ofMeher Baba and there was a long line at the darshan, and he also stood in the queue, and it was a hurried affair, just a second or two, because it was a long queue. You just touch Baba’s feet and you go out. The moment he took a step aside, a member of Baba’s mandali came up to him and said, “Have you seen Baba?”

He said, “Yes, I have.”

“Please come back. Baba wants you to have another darshan.” Mr. Francis Braba zon objected, saying that he had afready taken Baba’s darshan. . . .

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“But do you not see, Mr. Brabazon, that Baba is calling him?”

When he got to Baba, Baba said, “You stand behind my chair.” My fa ther stood behind Baba’s chair, where he obtained just that view of Baba’s pigtail for which he had wished! Papa used to tell me that it had been a great honor and a great good fortune for him.

—Siddharth Vajpayee Published by: Meher Mownavani Publications, Hyderabad. 2008. 218 pages. $12.50

On 7’he 2&z/h WitIi .Avcttar 7frkher 13aba— the DVD ofMichaelDa Costac one-man showfilmed at the Sufi Centei Walnut Creek, California, September 28, 2008 9?eviewed by Rachel Dacus efore I saw him perform, I had heard Michael Da Costa’s whimsy-filled monologues, poems and songs, but noth ing quite prepared me for Michael’s charm, wit and energy. Having watched the DVD several times, it gets better every time.

He is remarkable! Wearing his signature Baba-pink shirt, smile at the ready, and richly soothing voice roffing into action, he puts the audience immediately at ease. His opening song has a very sing-along-able refrain—Everything and Nothing—and this compelling performer invites the audience inside the song. From that first song on, it is a program full of Baba wisdom clothed in music, embroidered with whimsy and studded with gems of observation.

Michael’s bright and sparkling energy carries along his well-crafted offerings, his delicious songs, poems and monologues.

They sometimes springboard from Meher Baba’s statements, sometimes from conversations with the Mandali, or even sayings ofmystics. One song I particularly liked blends the words of the medieval mystic Julian of Norwich, “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner ofthings shall be well” with Baba’s “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.”

But my very favorite piece is Michael’s “Ego” monologue, first performed in 1979 in Mandali Hall. Michael quips that on hearing it, Eruch thought it was about

B

him! But of course, it is about all of us, the running monologue of “I, My, Me and Mine” that Baba pointed out forms our obstacles in drawing closer to God. With verve and impish humor, Michael lampoons these ego processes, and his comic timing is finely tuned.

One other big favorite for me is the sweetly jazzy song “Meher Baba Is The God-Man,” with its refrain, “He’s the one and only Ancient One, come to wake us up with Love again, and it’s the dawn of the new world.” Most special too is the closing song, “I shall Return” whose tenderness and beauty celebrates our Beloved’s eternally recurring Advent.

Michael’s charming work reminds us that as we follow Beloved Baba, all shall indeed be wonderfully well.

This DVD is available from the Love Street Bookstore $20

My manifestation will embrace the economic, social and religious aspects of life.

It will spiritualize all human activities in art, science, music, politics and drama. In the near future a great universal drama will be enacted, the theme of which will be pure love, selfless service. I will play the leading part in this world-awakening drama.

pt:: etters from the 3ront Lines Sarah Weichberger, Arizona Editor’c warning: the following letters make for tough reading! Many ofyou willfind it very shocking, not to mention unbelievable, that such behavior couldbe happening in the Belovedc home.

The Pumpkin House-USA Boardwouldbe much happier fI did not make Sarahc letterspublic, espe— cially considering that as of April, circumstances have changed. However, I have Manic words uppermost in my mind when I have to make decisions such as ‘topublish, or not to publish?’Afewyears after the Board ofthe Los Angeles Baba Centergave me thejob ofediting and publishing the Love StreetLampPost, Mani [Babac sister] told me that this magazine was archivally important as it would let p eople know hundreds ofyearsfrom now, just how Baba lovers behaved, the things they said and did. It isfor this very reason Ifeel it is my obligation to report on the do— ings ofsome ofHis lovers, shocking though they may be.

Sarah, a Baba lover living in Arizona, hadvisitedthe Pumpkin Housefor Children and met with Stella Manuel Pillai, the founder in November 2007 when she, her brother and mother went to India. At that time her mother had donatedfundsfor a new bathroom. Sarah hadbeen so moved by this meeting that she decided to take a three month sabbaticalfrom herjob, go on apil grimage to Meherabad and also help Stella out while she was there over Christmas and the New Year.

Sarah hadheard about all the controversy that had caused Stella to refuse any and all donations to the children. Not quite believing such things could actually be happening in the Belovedc home, and knowing I was going to be writing an article about the Pumpkin Housefor Children Trust, she said she would email me with the truth as shefound it. Even tho she went thereforewarned, she was stunned tofind outjust how bad the situation was. Slanderandbackbiting two ofBabac very big no nos!

—

recite the prayers for forgiveness at Arti are verbally abusing Stella an hour later at 4 dinner and I do consider it abuse. 90% of these rumors are coming from people who have never even seen the Pumpkin House.

Notwithstanding, I am enjoying being here with the Beloved and spending time in the Samadhi, but then to go back to the MPR and be faced with more lies, gossip, rumours & outright slander—it is such a depressing scenario; I feel like I am plodding along and trying tojust ignore everyone, which has been very draining. I have been discussing quite candidly with Stella all that is being said to me about her.

She has heard all the rumors, and honestly it has been taking such a toll on her health that I am sure that’s why she decided to stop all funding from the States—indeed, from all Baba lovers. It is so unnecessary and cruel what is happening here.

Jan 18 As I told you in an earlier letter I have been speaking very candidly with Stella about all of the rumors, and for the most part she has been very stoic about the whole thing. I think she isjust about at the end of her rope—understandably so—and sometimes when I am telling her and Fiona the latest gossip they even laugh, it’sjust gotten to that point of ridiculousness. I go there two or three times a week to help with the children, and there are always new things to tell them. Literally every few days I get an earful. No better way to enjoy a meal than to have random people tell you that you are volunteering your services to a crook. That’s essentially the overtone here: that Stella is a crooked woman. Everyone seems to know I am volunteering there.

I was there this past Saturday, and Mehera and Pia Kleiner (Sophia, her daughter who is now called Pia) were there. They go ev

:JF

Lr)A

Jai Baba Dma, came to India to be with Baba and to help Stella. As you know I went out on a limb financially to do this work. I am a self-employed massage therapist, living paycheck to paycheck. This pilgrimage was a huge decision for me to make. I left my life behind, and I am not sure what the ffiture holds, but I am with Baba and I am trusting Him to care ofit. I am so grateful to my family for making this trip possible for me. I have incurred quite some credit card debtjust to be here.

Having recently arrived, there really isn’t too much to say, except that yes, the rumors are abundant and they are vicious. At least a few times a week I get pulled aside in the Meher Pilgrim Retreat and told by various people—many ofthem people I have never met—about how Stella is a crook, etc., etc.

This started a few days after I arrived. And I have not been hiding the fact that I am helping there even tho I had been warned that I may be asked to leave the MPR if it was found out that I was helping Stella at the Pumpkin House.

This is only my second trip to India, and it has been life changing in so manyways. It is pretty intense for me here.The fact that I have had to deal with so much slander and backbiting is reallyvery disappointing. For a community of”spiritual seekers” it is downright hypocritical. The same people who

I

77

Ic’

ery Saturday for a few hours, share meals, and Mehera is helping the children with conversational English. Also, Ijust learned when relaying the latest story that I heard about Fiona and Vianny reftising things someone had brought to them, that Stella has a strict rule for Fiona and Vianny and anyone else there not to take ANY dona tions, be it rubber thongs, blankets or treats for the children, unless Stella is there too.

The saddest thing to me now, is that even though Stella has publically asked Baba lovers not to donate money, in that now infamous letter, which, by the way, is posted but it’s very hard to read, and you really have to look closely to even see what it is, the rumours still abound.

Her making that choice to entirely stop receiving any sort of money as of Jan 1, 2009 is having absolutely no impact on the viciousness or frequency ofthe rumors. And moreover if I am hearing this much from people, imagine what I am not hearing, as everyone knows my position and they are still saying these awftil things! All I can say is, I wouldn’t want to be in Stella’s shoes.

I would be in a padded cell by now. All this woman has set out to do is help some 78

poor children with shelter, clothes, food, medical attention and above all love.

Judy Mangold, a Baba lover from Florida who was here a while back, came with me one dayto see the kids. She had heard about the PH, but had no idea where it was, so when I mentioned it to her she was excited about coming. We spent an afternoon there, laughing and having so much fun with the kids. When we were going back to the MPR in the rickshaw she said “You know, it would almost be a shame if someone adopted one of those children, because then they would have to leave Pumpkin House. They are a family there and they are all so happy. They would be alone.”

But Stella is so determined to stop the ridiculous gossip that she is reftising any more help from the US. I believe her intention is to cut off all connection with the Baba community in hopes of stopping the gossip, but as I see it, the damage has been done, and the rumors—no matter how outlandish and far fetched they are—have taken on a life of their own.

I have so much respect and admiration for Stella and the work she is doing: rising at the crack ofdawn, taking care ofthe little —

ones here, then leaving for the Meher Eng lish Schoolwhere, as the Principal, she not only has the administrative work but also teaches some of the classes for a full day, then comes home and continues her work here till they are all tucked in their beds for the night. I doth know of another woman who could handle such a workload, and to do it with such grace under the attacks 1eveled at her. Baba definitely has His Nazar on her and boy, does she need it! When I return home I’ll look back on my time here with Stella and the children with awe —at what she accomplishes.

Ed note. As we go to press in March we have just received wonderful news from Stella: “Since Charlie met with Bhauji and Mehernath during his visit to Ahmednagar in February I think it is clear that they now have no problem with us, and Pumpkin House For Children Trust India is open for donations from anybody and everybody.

This is a blessing for these children.”

Jai Meher Baba! Thy willbe done.

0

Worldwide JJVIeIier 73ctbct J44eetings Thefoiowing is information about the various Babagrozqss around the country and afewfrom overseas. Ifyour local data is not includedplease send it to me and should things changefrom thepublished details, please let me know that before the next issue deadline. —Dma

cf

OKLAHOMA

Prague—Avatar Meher Baba Heartland Center, for retreat and visiting Baba’s accident site. 1319 Barta Ave., 74864, 405-567-4774. ambchc@charter.net, www.heartland.meherbaba.org.

TEXAS

DoMESTIc AR Tucson—Irma Sheppard, 520-321-1566, 7320 N. Village Ave., 85704, ihs222@theriver.com.

Flagstaff—AMB Lovers of N. Az., 928-774-8305, 4505 5. Lance Rd., 86001, laurent@ompoint.com.

CALIFoRNIA

Los Angeles—Meetings are Sundays, 1 1 AM to 1 PM, held in our center”Meherabode,” 323-731-3737, 1214 South Van Ness Ave., Los Angeles, CA 900l9Just east ofthe intersection ofArlington andl2th Street. The Avatar Meher Baba Center of Los Angeles now has its own web site at www.Meherabode.org to bring the local news, programs, activities and announcements to the Baba community and the public.

San Francisco Bay Area—Call for information regarding meeting times and related information: 510-845-4339 or Ben Leet at 510-351-8259, Benleet@ earthlink.net. The Northern California Avatar Meher Baba Center is located at 6923 Stockton St., El Cerrito 94530-2931, www.MeherBabaMeherBaba.org.

Sacramento—Meetings first Friday of the month at 7 PM. Marilyn Buehler, 916-925-4451, premsay@ sbcglobal.net. www.premsay.com/MeherBaba.

COLORADO

Denver—Meetings Sunday evenings at 7 pm at various homes in the Denver-Metro area. The contact person for Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Arizona is Barbara A. Roberts, 303-238-4649; 3475 Moore Court, Wheat Ridge, CO 80033-5543 (near Denver), babara@fone.net.

FLORIDA

Tampa—Jane Paladino, 813-962-8629.

Clearwater—Tom Decker, MD, 727-536-9282.

Defray Beach—Mickey and Wendy Karger 561-638-3114 GEORGIA

Nacogdoches—Chris and Anne Barkex 936-560-2631, 3101 Skyline Drive, 75965, rockbl@yahoo.com.

WASHINGTON, MAINE

Newcastle—We meet once a month on the third Sunday and take turns hosting the gatherings at 1 PM starting with potluck, then meeting. Noreen O’Brien, 207-273-3173; Heartwood Cottage, 101 Hart Road, Warren, Maine 94864, ompoint@tds.net Midcoast—Our meetings happen and are planned spontaneously and irregularly by the Maine Baba regulars. Contact Ken Lux 207-975-6687, ompoint@roadrunner.com MASsAcH USETTS

Cambridge—Meher Baba Information Center Michael Siegell 617-864-3997.

Brewster—Kathleen & Nancy Geagan, 1 Ellis Landing Rd. For Information, contact Nancy Geagan, 508-869-0096 or 843-421-4755. Email-geagannae@ gmail.com. Second Sunday ofthe month at 2 pm. All are welcome!

MISSISSIPPI

J ackson—Avatar Meher Baba Sahavas Center Peter Rippa, 3404 Casa Granda Circle Jackson, MS 39209, 601-317-0848, film and information presentation upon request; weekly prayer/Arti; monthly Dhuni, peterrippa@gmail.com.

MONTANA

Missoula—Andy Shott, 406-549-5949; 336 Connell, 59801.

Emigrant—Anne Haug, 406-333-4582; 24 Liberty Ln., 59027.

NEW HAMPSHIRE

Liz Miller 603-749-3668, mceliz2001@yahoo.com.

NEW MEXICO

HAWAII

Santa Fe—Robert Reser and Edle Andersen host meetings on the last Thursday of the month at 7 PM in their home, 505-983-6621; 1921 Fort Union Drive, 87505, robertreser@yahoo.com.

Maui—Meredith Moon, Phone: 808-573-1188 or 808-572-6556, Fax: 808-573-1189; 1940 Olinda Road (or P0 Box 1269 for mail)Makawao,Maui, HA 96768, mm@dreamcircle.org.

Las Vegas —Dick and Carol Mannis, 702-326-1701.

Meetings at 5 PM, followed by potluck dinner 10809 Garden Mist Dc, 89135, rkmannis@aol.com.

Molokai—ShirleyAlapa at ‘Meher Dham”, 808-5676074 or 808-567-6383, Fax: 808-567-6363 Message: 808-567-6363; 69K Farrington Ave., Hoolehua, HI 96729 (mail: P.O. Box 177, Kualapuu, Hawaii 96757), salapa@aloha.net.

N.Y. City—www.MeherBabaHouse.org 212-971-1050, irababa@hotmail.com Albany/SaratogalSchenectady—Regine Brate 518-383-0598

Atlanta/Athens—Contact Ed Legum 770-552-8980 ed@hownet.com

ILLINOIS

Chicago—Meher Baba Information Center Carol Kovalevych, 312-633-0696 amk@a1ishya.com

Lou ISIANA New Orleans—Avatar Meher Baba Center for monthly meeting and ifim program please contact: Joe Burke 504-616-1111 for the date, time, location and directions, burkeno@aol.com.

NEVADA

NEW YORK

D.C.

Pamela Butler-Stone, 310-946-0236, Friday and S aturday Meetings, www.lifeimages.com/ MeherBaba.

WASHINGTON, STATE

Seattle—Meher Baba Group Meetings: Fridays at 8 pm. Also gatherings for special events (Amartithi!

Baba’s Birthday). Location rotates each week in homes.

Mail do Cynthia Barrientos, P0 Box 16081, Seattle, WA 98116. 206-713-9905, cybar7@comcast.net.

INTERNATIONAL ENGLAND

London—Meher Baba Centre, 228 Hammersmith Grove, London W6 7HG, (0044) 020 87 43 44 08, www.meherbaba.co.uk.

FRANCE

Marseille: C. Dallemagne, Le Sylvereal Al. des Pins, 13009 Marseille. Ph: 4 91 39 02, Marc Molinari.

Cannes: Debby Sanchez, 1300 Route de Callas 83490 Le Muy (near Cannes). Ph: 4 94 41 39 02.

St. Nazaire: Christine and Phil]ipe Joucla, 7 Alee des Pins, La Salette 56610 Arradon. Ph 2 97 46 13 19.

Connerre: Andre Grimard, Champ Brule Duneau, 72160 Connerre. Ph: 2 43 89 01 94.

Paris: Claude Longuet, 13-15 Rue Pastourelle, 75003 Paris.Ph:14459 30 06.

ISRAEL

Jerusalem—Michal Sivan, phone/fax: 02671-5835 46 Hebron Road, Jerusalem, Israel 93513, myb@ netvision.net.il.

MEXICO

Mexico City/Cancut/Alcapulco—Rafael Villafane, We have meetings about every month at 7 PM—no particular meeting day—people on the list are contacted prior to any meeting. Email addresses are preferred. I am also found in Cancun or Acapulco at times, so email me ifyou will be in those areas, Ph from US: 011 52 555 295-0512. Cell from US: 011 52 555 502-7225. Email is best as I travel a lot, raal@royerlabs.com.

Zihuatanejo/Ixtapa area—Jeff and Cindy Lowe, We will have a meeting any time there is a request for one. Please contact us if you’re going to be in the Zihuatanejo/Ixtapa area. Phone from US: 011 52 755 544 6303, cindearaba@yahoo.com.

For changes, additions or deletions,please email DinaGibson@mac.com

NORTH CAROLINA

Asheville—Winnie Barrett, 828-274-7154, winkiebal@charter.net.

Peter and Debbie Nordeen—nordeeni@bellsouth.net.

Greensboro—Sheldon Herman, 336-288-8090 or 336-235-2730, bikewalla@gbronline.com.

Chapel Hffl-Durham-Raleigh—CarolVerner 919933-3550; carolverner@nc.rr.com.

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