ikI 4 2’Iatu Returns 2 iome O
October 7, 2003 at 1:20a.m., Beloved Avatar Meher Baba’s very dear Bal Natu was finally called to his Beloved and peacefully passed Home. Balaji passed away at Meherazad due to complications from his recent surgery He will be cremated at Meherabad today at 11a.m. Our dear friend ofThe Friend will be deeply missed, and the glimpses he gave ofhis heart’s continual conversation with his Beloved Awakener will continue to light up the hearts of the multitude of Baba-lovers from East and West whose lives he touched. Avatar Meher Baba ki Jai! —
Dr. Goher Irani
toBal i sing your praises elder brother as one who has loved so well shined so brightly through trials and doubts reaching the prize of a lover’s journey: total surrender Katie Rose
Dmpressions
3tigre ‘Davis rained suddenly on the evening of the 6th. Everyone had expected Bal to die that day, and he had been unconscious all throughout the day... My plane had just touched the ground [in Mumbai] at 1:19am, and I was admir— ing how the airplane runway lights looked like brilliant magenta and indigo flowers at the time. I later heard Bal passed away at 1:20am. I went to the Samadhi first and bowed quickly at the threshold, and then arrived to Meherazad at around 8:20 in the morning... Bal’s body was laid out at Baba’s feet in Mandali Hall. He had a smile on his face, and his eyes were half open and were illu mined withlightjust as they had been when I saw him last. The coloring of the face was good—in fact, I thought he looked much improved since times I’d seen him while he
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was alive. There was a peaceftil, warm feeling in the hail. The women mandali entered, and together everyone said the prayers, sang arti, and placed flowers on Bal’s body. At nine o’clock, his body was taken in the Swanee to Meherabad, where it was first placed at the feet of Beloved Baba in the Samadhi. His family members and close friends placed a garland first on the marble, and then on Bal’s body. Then everyone gath ered, probably around 60-75 pilgrims and residents, and recited and sang the prayers and artis again. Then the body was placed on the Sabha Mandap, and people stood in a queue to pay their respects. For me, it was when his body was inside the Samadhi that everything made the most sense. .when we were all standing outside, saying the prayers, and Bal’s body was lengthways at Baba’s feet, perfectly symmetrical—everything felt like it was in the right place. Bal was with Baba, his body was in the Samadhi; it was just him and Baba, alone. What had always been in .
his heart was now manifested for all of us to see and feel. The Swanee then conveyed the body to Meherabad mandali hall. One side of the room was filled with musicians. Easterners and westerners collaborated on a beautiful rendition of “Aisa koi”—Ashok singing a Hindi couplet, followed by Ted and Ward singing an English verse. The guitars and harmonium and tablas and bells—and ev eryone in the hail singing the refrains—came together for what I felt was REAL music, and a perfectly fitting tribute to Bal. And over and over, the song conveyed, “In this world, no work is greater than repeating the name ofGod...Go on repeating His name.” The stretcher holding Bal’s body was then carried to the pyre, with the crowd offriends walking along beside him.