Meher Baba Books Los Angeles

Mani s. Irani, Meher Baba, Mehera Irani. Photo courtesy of MN Publications

Baba asked Singh, "Do you know what real love is like?" and then explained,
"The flame of love within does not even give out smoke for others to see. 
When you love me, you burn within yourself, and yet seem cheerful with
a broad smile upon your lips. You bear the pangs of separation calmly and
quietly. Even a sigh of the pangs of separation is an insult to that love!"

                                                                                                       ~ Meher Baba
Lord Meher online, p. 4528



Weekly Reflections No. 40
from Meher Baba Books
(Los Angeles, California)
Aug,14th, 2015 

Hello Dear Companions:

Greetings from Los Angeles, California, once again. Happy summer and winter to all of you dear friends around the Globe. (Winter for the Australians, Brazil, Argentina that is.)
 
Time for us to meet again on Fridays, for our weekly appointment with Meher Baba -- this time to remember Him and His one-of-a-kind sister, Mani Irani. We will reflect on Meher Baba, His sister and her role in this advent. We are getting together to have a good time with His words and Love. I have always called August "Mandali month," and we will be reflecting on the lives of a few of Meher Baba's mandali.
 
   
Mehera and Mani Irani,
Photo: courtesy of MN Publications  
   
Besides Meher Baba's chief woman disciple Mehera Irani , Mani Irani was said by Meher Baba to be his second closest woman disciple and his spiritual sister. Mani was a very unique and multi-talented woman. She played a perfect role of being in the world and not being of it. She was an architect, musician, singer, writer, and eventually served as Chairman of the Avatar Meher Baba Trust in Ahmadnagar, India in her later years. She went to Baba in August 19, 1996.

Mani at Meherazad would greet pilgrims and visitors and cheer them with her incomparable personality. She was fun, with a childlike nature for life, and her faith and surrender to Baba was matchless. She was, indeed, Beloved Baba's literal sister, and a beacon of Baba's Light, reflecting on His Love and Compassion. Visiting Mani's room at Meherazad, seeing the toys, books, jewelry, framed Baba photos, artifacts and artistic items gives us a little hint about how she lived a beautiful and uplifting life fully dedicated to her God-Brother. She was truly an inspiration to all of us.  
  
   Mehera, Meher Baba and and Mani-Photo: courtesy of MN Publications 
 
Also "Aloba" (as Ali Akbar Shapurzaman was renamed by Meher Baba) was born in Iran (in Yezd) to Muslim parents in 1916. When he was seven, he came to stay in India with his uncle. He and a cousin were enrolled in Baba's newly formed Hazrat Babajan School ("Meher Ashram") at Meherabad. In 1934, he came to Nasik to meet Baba again.

~ Aloba ~
Thereafter he continued to visit Baba until 1949, when he and twenty-one other men joined Baba on his New Life. Six months later Aloba was sent home with others, but after two years Baba called him to live with Baba permanently as one of his resident disciples. Aloba had the fortune to be one of the very few who lived with Meher Baba up until Baba's passing away in 1969. Aloba was energetic, full of enthusiasm, and straightforward. His love and 100% conviction in Baba, yet childlike and humorous nature, were quite unique and sometimes amusing. As one of the last of Meher Baba's closest male disciples, Aloba passed away August 13, 2002.

We hope you enjoy these small occasions for reflecting on the divinity of Beloved Baba's words and life. You may email us at:
with any questions and/or requests. Keep Happy in His Love.

In His Love and Service,
Mahoo S. Ghorbani for Meher Baba Books    
                
 
~ I am God's Sister ~ 
 
~ Young Mani colorized by Shaheen Khorsandi ~

Manija Sheriar Irani (December 15, 1918 - August 19, 1996) was the younger sister of Indian spiritual master Meher Baba, and one of his mandali. She was chairman of the Avatar Meher Baba Trust and the author of 82 Family Letters.

Mani was one of only four women out of twenty companions to accompany Meher Baba in his New Life phase, beginning in October 1949. By Meher Baba's directive given during his lifetime her remains are buried adjacent to Baba's samadhi in Meherabad , India.

Mani was born in Pune , India , the sixth and last child of Sheriar and Shireen Irani . Sheriar and Shireen had one earlier daughter Freiny who died of plague as a small child in 1902. Thus Mani was Meher Baba's only surviving sister and the youngest in her family. Meher Baba was 24 years old when Mani was born, a period when he was still under the care of sadguru Upasni Maharaj in Sakori outside Ahmednagar . By the time Mani was old enough to know about her famous brother, he was already attracting disciples of his own in Meherabad . Mani attended Catholic school and longed to accompany her brother and live in his ashram as his disciple even as a young girl. She wrote persistently to him, pleading to be allowed to come. Finally Baba made it possible through difficult family negotiations with their mother Shireen who was worried about Mani's safety and health in the austere and harsh desert life of Baba's ashram outside Ahmednagar. As a result of such efforts Mani joined her brother as a full resident disciple in September 1932 at the age of only 13.

              Wikipedia, "Mani Irani"


 
 
 

                                         

~ THE 'HONEYMOON' IS OVER ~
Mani S. Irani and Don Stevens
 
Don: So he gives you a tremendous challenge, but he sustains you to meet the challenge?

Mani: That's right. As I say, if with one hand Baba hits with a hammer, with the other hand he sustains you. He's not leaving you unsupported while he works on you. If the nut is to be cracked, he's holding the nut in his hand.

Don: You know, this comes as quite a shock to many young people, because after a certain period of just being wildly in love with Baba, an individual will suddenly start encountering not only some of the old problems in his life, but even some new and more complicated ones as well. At that point many feel, 'Oh, I must have lost my grip on Baba. How can this happen to me? Something must be wrong with my attitude.' They get terribly distressed.

Mani: No, Baba's only just begun working then. The 'honeymoon' is over and work begins in earnest.

Don: The real work is beginning and the important point, as you brought out, is that Baba is sustaining the individual if he'll only have faith and hold onto the daaman (trusting and obeying him implicitly).

Mani: There's no doubt about that. Do you think we could go through what we do and surrender to him by any merit of our own? It is our effort, yes, but it is not by any merit of our own that we can completely surrender to Baba. No, it is he who helps and sustains. It is his love - it all comes down to that - it is Baba's love and compassion which makes it all possible, makes even our love for him possible. He allows us to feel that we are giving, that we are serving, that we are loving. He will even appear weak so that we can feel we are supporting him.



An example: in that last month (January, '69) when Baba was sitting in that chair (in mandali hall at Meherazad), he was looking weary and weak. When he indicated it was time to go back to his room Eruch and Francis jumped up, each giving Baba a hand to help him up from the chair. I was there at the time. Baba was holding their hands, and they were ready to pull him up when he gave the slightest little tug, pulling them towards him. Instantly they started to tumble forward, doing all they could to keep from falling on Baba. And yet a second before Baba had looked so weak! Recovering, Francis exclaimed, 'Baba, you are strong!' With a twinkle in his eyes Baba nodded and said, 'But never mind, help me up,' again being weak.

That, as everything he did, is an expression of his compassion, giving us an opportunity to express our love in our little ways. All the time it is Baba who supports us and holds us to him, he who loves us, he who tolerates us. I can talk like this now, but to begin with we too have been raw and hard material. Now we wish we could have been more pliable. We have learned, we have grown - to some extent - but one can never grow enough to meet Baba's love, never.

Don: So the real challenge to the individual is to persist during the tough times. The real challenge is to look for and find that, in fact, Baba's love is there to sustain one, and to work through the necessary problems involved in dissolving one's sanskaras, with Baba's love.

Mani: There's no other way. Baba won't let you avoid experiencing that, once you're in his net. Some may feel afraid that they're lost, but we must remember that while we are holding onto Baba's daaman, he is holding our hand. Baba never makes it easy, but he always makes it possible. He makes it beautifully possible when we rely completely on him. It comes about at that point when you are no longer for your self, but are for Baba. His love equips you to meet life's challenges as you would want to in order to please him.

from D.E. Stevens, et al., eds., Tales from the New Life with Meher Baba (1976), pp. 187-188  
  
 

~ Beautiful Mani - photo by Win Coates. ~

My sister Mani loves me very much.
She doesn't worry about anything. She simply obeys me.
From morning till night, she is working for Baba.
She knows Baba is God, and loves Baba as God.

~ Meher Baba

from David Fenster, Mehera-Meher, A Divine Romance, Vol. 3, p. 151  




~ MANI'S REUNION ~
 
As Beloved Baba's family around the world now knows, His darling sister Mani rejoined Him on 19th August 1996, in Meherazad after a prolonged illness.
 
This account is to share with you some of the events of her final days of love and service to Him.

* * * *

A few years ago, Mani related that she had heard a voice, clear and distinct, saying within her:

"I am the bird, I am not the cage."
 
Perhaps that is why, when her health first began to fail in March 1995, she often would remark, "The bird is singing away, but the cage is in need of repair!" Despite her ensuing struggle against "NPH" (Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus) that involved two surgeries (in November '95 and February '96) Mani remained a radiant singing "bird" - meeting Baba-lovers in Meherazad whenever she could, scooting around Mehera's garden in her "Begum" (motorized scooter) as her walking became more and more difficult, and finally greeting people for a few moments from the confines of her chair inside the house in Meherazad. At the end of February 1996, having returned to Meherazad from her second surgery, she appeared on Mehera's porch just before Meherazad closed for the season. She was eager to spend time with her Baba family, and she loved the hour that followed as she "held forth" to a porch full of people and they performed for her, a wonderful giving and receiving of His love. Afterwards many remarked that it was like a darshan, and Mani was more joyous and radiant than they had ever seen her.

            * * * *
Mani had a dream towards the very end of her life that she related to us. She woke up from sleep, and looking around, asked, weren't we going? When we said, no, we weren't going anywhere, she said, "Oh, it must have been a dream. I dreamt we were all dressed up and going to a great celebration."

So now we can imagine that celebration in His highest Court, with Beloved Baba at the head of the table, Mehera on His right and Mani on His left, as in the celestial company of Perfect Ones, saints and angels, He welcomes her to His World! As one of Mani's close ones wrote: "Surely the heavens and the heavens beyond the heavens are reverberating with Beloved Baba's divine satisfaction at His glorious handiwork in the form of His little sister Mani!"

      * * * *
To end this account, I turn to Mani. Some years ago, while writing her book God-Brother, Mani laughingly said, "This is what I want for my epitaph!"

She was pointing to a line written by Shireenmai, her mother, in a letter to Baba, describing Mani who was then 7 years old. What Shireenmai wrote to her Son about His little sister was simply:

"Mani remembers You night and day."

There can be no higher tribute than that.

AVATAR MEHER BABA KI JAI!

Copyright (c) Heather Nadel
Meherabad, 24 August 1996

Celebrating the inauguration of electricity at Meherabad, 24 May 1977, early residents Heather and Eric Nadel and Janet Judson, with Mehera and Mani, perhaps hearing some of the very stories being shared each week in these postings. (Photo courtesy of MN Publications) 
 






The God-man (Avatar)

"The God-man (Avatar) may be said to be both the Lord and servant of the universe at one and the same time. As the One who showers His spiritual bounty on all in measureless abundance, He is the Lord of the universe. As the One who continuously bears the burden of all and helps them through numberless spiritual difficulties, He is the servant of the universe. Just as He is Lord and servant in one, the God-Man is also the supreme Lover and the matchless Beloved.

The love He gi ves or receives goes to free the soul from ignorance. In giving love He gives it to Himself in other forms; in receiving love he receives what has been awakened through His own grace, which is continuously showered on all without distinction. The grace of the God-Man is like the rain, which falls equally on all lands irrespective of whether they are barren or fertile; but it fructifies only in the lands that have been rendered fertile through arduous and patient toiling. "
 
              Meher Baba
Discourses (7th Edition), The Work of the Man-God, pp. 287-287  





The Awakener Magazine, Volume 13 Numbers 1, page 41 

~ Darshan Glimpses ~ 


Mani had us sing Baba Bhagavan, which she accompanied on the sitar. This is a song with the simplest of words. . . a remembrance of all the sorrows taken on by Baba each time, and a recognition that, sure enough! - here we are in the Kali Yuga, with no way out, and Baba has once again given His all for us. Mehera was struggling not to weep at this time. I knew I was going to, so to prevent it, I sang louder and louder. Mehera shook her head at me fiercely. Oh no, I thought. My loud singing is making it even harder on Mehera! Later, Mehera told me, in the gentlest way possible, that I was singing out of tune.
 
Mani said, of the song: Baba Bhagavan: "Baba was resting in Meherabad in the Tomb, and some of the lovers from Andhra sang it and it was just a spark and it caught fire. For all the seven days, we sang it: therefore we continued to sing it, and whoever heard it started to sing it like the first darshan group did:
 
" Baba Bhagavan (that means God) Meher Baba Bhagavan -then all the names of the Avataric Advents, Zarthus Bhagavan - that's our way of saying Zarathustra; then Ram Bhagavan, Krishna, Buddha, Jesus, then for some reason we've always said Allah instead of Mohamed, that 's how it was said at the "Tomb, and that 's how we continued."
 
Mehera murmured "Mohammedans don't believe in the God-man, they don't take Mohamed as God." Mani then got out her sitar and played it for us and we all joined in. There was a bird in the background, that joined in too! Next, Mani said: "It's been fascinating how the different families of Baba at different Meher Centers have all made a song with Baba's 'jai' in it - 'jai jai kar', for instance. But one song fascinated us, it was simply "Avatar Meher Baba ki jai" - so catchy and lovely. This was the group from Hamirpur and they had bells on their feet and made rhythm with it -."
 
She played and sang this on the sitar, and we all joined in. Mehera translated: "In every house Baba's jai should be said, may the whole world say Baba's jai. Poona Boli Baba ki jai, Bombay Boli Baba ki jai, one day the whole world will say it . . . someone in the group said America Boli Baba ki jai!"

~The Awakener, Volume 13, Numbers 1 and 2, page 44,
with kind courtesy of The Awakener online
 







 
Meher Baba in Manzil-e-Meem (House of the Master),  
his first ashram, Bombay, 1922
 
     
... But love entails pain - the pain of the pangs and thirst of separation while constantly burning. This gradually minimizes the strength of the ego and eventually destroys it, because love never thinks of or cares for itself. It just burns its victim in love for its Beloved. And after this burning gradually diminishes the ego and it is eventually totally annihilated, love makes its victim realize the Self.
Meher Baba.
                                                                                           ~~ Lord Meher online, p. 1158 

Now Farsi version,



 




Bujaawe naar jallatani aye kar kudratnay farma too
Chhe laagi aas bhaktoney kay bakshay nooray ima too;
Aiya moorshad Meher Baba charanpur toojna dhariyay sir
Khoodana zat thi vakef thai betho Meherba too
Toochhe malik hakikatno too aashek bhi nay aaref bhi
Too chhe dariya aye vahedat marefat no hoi toofa too;
Humo raherav nay aiy saalek bakhash jay gnanyan eezad noo
Kay too Parmatma gnayani chhe nay mookhtaar irfaa too;
Khoodana premno pyalo pilaavi must hamnay kar
Chhe toojapur jaan sadkay saakiya aapi day paima too
Humaari naav bhar dariyay taraavay tow humay tariyay
Humaara nakhooda aiy Meher Baba chhe nighebaa too
Humaara nakhooda aiy Meher Baba chhe nighebaa too


~~ English Translation ~~

May you command the divine power to extinguish the fire of our ignorance,
Your lovers yearn for you to bestow upon them the light of faith.
O Murshed Meher Baba, we lay our heads at your feet.
O Meher Baba, you have made yourself perfectly aware of the nature of Godhood.
You are the Lord of Truth, you are lover and beloved in one,
You are the ocean of oneness being verily a storm of infinite knowledge.
O saalek, bestow upon us wayfarers the knowledge of Ezad,
For you possess the knowledge of Paramatma and are the Lord and master of Divine knowledge itself.
Give us to drink the cup of God's Love so that we become intoxicated,
O Saki, we offer our lives in sacrifice to you, give us this cup.
Only if You steer oue ship while in mid-ocean can we remain afloat,
O Meher Baba, the captain of our ship, You are our protector.
O Meher Baba, the captain of our ship, You are our protector.
 

 




    


Mani Is singing. We just can not get tired of her singing. She is all heart. Singing to her Beloved God (Borther)
Mani is singing. We just can not get tired of her singing. She is all heart. Singing to her Beloved God (Brother)

  

  

Time to say good bye. Keep Baba with you at all times, and be Happy.
He alone exists.

 

 

   
   


Meher Baba Books (Los Angeles)

 

www.meherbababooks.com

Avatar Meher Baba Center of Southern California 
1214 S. Van Ness Avenue 
Los Angeles, CA  90019 


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