Series

Meher Baba with Delia DeLeon at St. Mark's Cathedral, Venice

Meeting Meher Baba changed her life. Delia recalled her first momentous time with the Master

I sat next to Baba at the London Coliseum, but he took very little notice of me. I was shy and nervous at first, and could not find my bearings. I felt as if someone had taken a hammer and knocked me over the head. I was stunned with the wonder of Baba. From just seeing him, nothing else existed for me. From first sight, I had implicit faith and trust in him. I asked no questions. I wanted nothing from him. I felt I had to love him as Jesus was loved by his apostles. I therefore gave my life into his keeping and knew that my search was at an end.

I was stunned with the wonder and beauty of him. I had seen his face before in my dreams; the eyes were startling in their beauty; the face seemed of luminous honey-color, framed by a halo of long dark hair. His hands were most noticeable; they were strong, slim and sensitive... 

MSI Collection : 1931 East Challacombe, England - Delia is seated on the right

During the week of his stay in London, I saw him every day. Time and place seemed not to exist. Everyone and everything faded from my mind except Baba. He alone seemed real -- the perfect human being. Compared to him, everyone seemed like a shadow. He drew me irresistably; his love melted me, and his humor and charm attracted me. His silence was more potent than words.

Later, Delia brought her younger sister Aminta Toledano, 23, her brother Jack, 28, and her mother to meet Baba. (Her father had died many years before.) Delia's sister was called Minta and she once recollected her first meeting with Baba:

My sister Delia had met Baba at the theater and was absolutely bowled over. She asked me if I would like to meet him and I said yes. I was not seeking as she was, but when she told me what reactions she had had to Baba, I said I would like to meet him too.

Meher Baba and Kitty Davy

The first time I saw him at Kitty's house, I was terribly moved. I can't say why at all; I found myself weeping and could not stop. Suddenly Baba spelled out on the board to one of the mandali, "Ask her why she is weeping."

I spontaneously said, "Because you are so beautiful." From that point on, I only wanted to look at him and be with him; just sit on the floor and look at him. I didn't want to ask anything.

Baba was wearing a white robe with his hair long; his face was very, very beautiful. There was an aura [of light] around him which one cannot really describe. In his presence, I could not look at anyone else. I couldn't think of anyone or anything else."

London, 1931

Lord Meher online, pp. 1277-1278

 

- Universal Toddy Shop -

Welcome to the Toddy Shop! -- where you can stop by each week to enjoy some amusing or charming anecdote from Beloved Baba's life.

The original toddy shop was run by Merwan Seth (later known as Meher Baba) during the period when His consciousness was being perfected by Sadguru Upasni Maharaj, and in the early years of His universal spiritual work.

Kasba Peth bhajan room in Poona -- photo by Barbara Connors

courtesy of Meher Baba Travels website

-- BABA SAYS IT'S ALL OUR FAULT --

Baba often assigned blame to people for incidents in which they were barely involved. If you answered back, you were needled a bit. But if you simply accepted the blame, he would glow and immediately shift the fault to someone else. You were left with the exhilarating knowledge that you had actually triumphed over your formidable ego.

After some time, the Backetts returned, and we all held our breath, expecting a renewed explosion from Baba. But in the sweetest, mildest way, he said, "Will, I don't quite understand how this happened."

Murshida Ivy O. Duce, Meher Baba, and Charmian Duce  By kind permission of Sufism Reoriented

Will said he'd waited two hours at the gate, but somehow the mandali had passed him by. He was dreadfully sorry. Baba sent the Backetts out of the room and then blamed us all anew. By now, however, we were aware of the divine chess game being played. A sense of fun began to bubble to the surface, and we found ourselves not wringing out hands or hanging our heads in shame, but laughing. That was when he called Will and Mary back in to give them their share of the scolding. At least that's what we thought he would do. Instead, he sat them on either side of him, took their hands, and told us, "These are my archangels."

Only a few minutes later, the exhausted and disheveled mandali came straggling down the hall. They'd reported to another hotel where Baba planned to hold his interviews and, finding no trace of him, had spent most of the night searching London. They finally tracked us down by going clear out to Delia's flat in Richmond, where her brother directed them to the proper hotel.

Baba sent us all out of the room, and the mandali went in to face him alone. Time passed without so much as a peep. Then suddenly the door opened, and out they shuffled, heads drooping.

"What happened?" We asked.

With one breath, they moaned, "Baba says it's all our fault!"...

We roared with laughter and couldn't stop even when we saw their pained expressions. Finally we explained, "You don't understand! All morning long Baba's been saying, 'it's all Rano's fault.', 'it's all Delia's fault'. Then it was Donkin's, Mehera's, Mani's, Meheru's, Goher's, Charmian's, and Baba's fault. Then it was God's Will."

"Really?" they asked.

Whereupon they cheered up a bit, and off they went.

God, as the Avatar, exhibits human emotions and behaviors. When these human traits are expressed through his human form, we experience them very differently than the way we usually experience these emotions and behaviors. The blame Baba directed at us was imbued with his love and a deeper purpose we could sense, even if we couldn't completely understand it. It held none of the binding anger and pride that normally compel humans to blame others.

Charmian Knowles

Spread My Love, pp. 71-72

(c) 2004 Sufism Reoriented

Snatam Kaur - Servant of Peace - Anandamayi Ma

Lyrics:

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;

where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

where there is sadness, joy;

O Divine Master,

grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;

to be understood, as to understand;

to be loved, as to love;

for it is in giving that we receive,

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born into Eternal Life.

[Lyrics are an English translation of a poem by St. Francis of Assisi]

In the World

Avatar Meher Baba shed His blood on American soil, in an automobile 'accident' near Prague, Oklahoma. This occurred May 24, 1952. With Him and sharing in His sacrifice were some of His closest disciples, including His cherished and most beloved Mehera.

Meher Baba explained that this American accident, and the one in India four years later, symbolized his bringing together the west and the east by shattering first the left and then the right side of His body. He said that this gross exchange in His own body would "result in benefit to the whole world." He said on other occasions that during this Advent it would be necessary for the Avatar to undergo this self-sacrifice. Baba was seriously injured as a result of this event, and combined with the more severe injuries sustained in the 1956 automobile 'accident' in India, was never able to walk without pain again for the rest of His life.

The date of this event was foretold by Baba many years earlier. At Harmon on Hudson, in 1932, Meher Baba gave Elizabeth Patterson a small pink wildflower and told her to always keep the flower and write down the date, that some day she would know the meaning. It wasn't until years after the accident that Elizabeth discovered the flower He had given her that day, and written next to it in her Bible, the date, "May 24, 1932," exactly 20 years to day that she would be driving the accident vehicle.

The Avatar Meher Baba Heartland Center invited the Baba world to participate in a worldwide jap repeating His name on Tuesday, May 24 in remembrance of Beloved Baba's accident in 1952, in Prague, Oklahoma. 

Avatar Meher Baba Ki Jai. 

 

Welcome to Meher 

Baba Books

 

MEETING MEHER BABA

 

New Book

In his memoir Meeting God in Human Form, author Rick Chapman unfolds the tale of his journey to India as a graduate student, his discoveries there, his correspondence with Meher Baba's secretary Adi K. Irani and his hopeless hope to meet Meher Baba -- who was generally in deep seclusion in this late phase of His work (in the late 1960s).  At the conclusion of the book, the author gives a wonderfully detailed, absorbing account of his meeting with Meher Baba.

 

Following Meher Baba - (Hardcover)

New Book

This book is rather a collection of thoughts about what transpires when a seeker happens to come into the orbit of the Love of the Ancient One -- God in human form as the Avatar, the Christ, the God-Man. What are the contours of the Divine Romance; which is the quickest, the easiest, and the most joyous path to Realization? What can you expect of the Divine Beloved, and what might He expect of you?     

                   

             Adventures in India with Meher Baba              

New Book

In his earlier book Meeting God in Human Form, author Rick Chapman unfolded his experiences in India for the first few months leading up to and including his meeting with Meher Baba in August of 1966. About this new book, Rick writes:

Come with me to travel throughout India to visit the people who were among the "early adopters" of the Avatar of the Age, the original 'revolutionaries' in the overthrow of Ignorance in this dark period of the Kali Yuga. Meet, as I did, some of the first proponents of a new worldwide movement and language, some of the earliest followers of the most recent Incarnation of the Lord of Love and the fresh dispensation of His Eternal Message of Love and Truth.

The Joyous Path by Heather Nadel

New Book

The Joyous Path

The Life of Avatar Meher Baba's Sister, Mani

By: Heather Nadel

2-Volume, Hardcover Set 1170 pp.

Two volume book about Mani is now available.

Manija S. Irani (1918-1996), Meher Baba's younger sister, and one of His closest disciples, was a vivacious personality, a gifted writer, a sensitive musician, and an integral participant in all phases of Meher Baba's spiritual work. Long awaited, Heather Nadel's detailed, two-volume biography of Mani has at last been published.

Time and Its Passing

New Book

Originally published in 2009 as a work in 10 parts, this poetical meditation (now in 12 parts) is composed in a prose-poetry form reminiscent of Walt Whitman and Francis Brabazon. The author takes the reader on a journey into Meher Baba's Divine Theme, through the lens of an American poetic consciousness ruminating on the timeless theme of time's passing.