M
EHER
S
PIRITUAL
C
ENTER
December Newsletter 2019
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Love is the reflection of God’s unity in the world of duality. It constitutes the
entire significance of creation. If love were excluded from life, all the souls in the world would assume complete externality to each other; and the only possible relations and contacts in such a loveless world would be superficial and mechanical. It is because of love that the contacts and relations bet
ween individual souls become significant. It is love that gives meaning to all the happenings in the world of duality.
The Discourses (Seventh Revised Addition), p.116.
Meher Baba
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Dear Meher Center Family and Friends,
Season's greetings and a loving Jai Baba to all of you. As the world once again celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ more than two thousand years ago, it is our immeasurable blessing to know that we are also once again in the midst of the age of the Avatar, as He has returned in the form of Meher Baba.
As Baba has said, “Avataric periods are like the springtide of creation. They bring a new release of power, a new awakening of consciousness, a new experience of life – not merely for a few, but for all.” * As such, we are in the midst of a spiritual rebirth in all of creation, awakened by His touch, and enlivened in our hearts. But this rebirth comes at a time of deep suffering in humanity, as the tumultuous history of the past century can attest. In this period, “man seems more than ever enslaved by desire, more than ever driven by greed, held by fear, swept by anger ...
At this moment the Avatar appears.” *
We join with all of you as we rejoice in the love that He has once again awakened in a suffering and longing humanity. “In those who contact Him, He awakens a love that consumes all selfish desires in the flame of the one desire to serve Him. Those who consecrate their lives to Him gradually become identified with Him in consciousness. Little by little their humanity is absorbed into His divinity, and they become free.” *
May your holidays be filled with His abiding, loving presence.
In Meher Baba’s love and service,
Buz Connor
For Meher Center board and staff
* The Discourses (Seventh Revised Addition), p.268 - 269
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Mehera:
Baba’s Radha
By Preeti Hay
How could one explain who Mehera is? Lovers of God strive to emulate her love, and philosophers expend their intellectual prowess to understand her love. But who better than Meher Baba to explain her so simply, “She is the very breath without which I cannot live.”
Whenever God takes the human form, he has a beloved, a divine counterpart, a being who personifies one-pointed love for Him. She is absolute purity. She was Sita for Ram, Radha for Krishna and Mary for Jesus. And in this advent, she was Mehera.
In Mani’s words, “This love between Baba and Mehera is in an inner realm which has nothing to do with ‘love’ as defined in the world’s dictionary ... the keynote of our life with Baba was purity, and Baba was very, very particular and strict about it. He never allowed the slightest compromise in this regard, so our relationship with Baba and with each other was always totally innocent of physical involvement.”
One can say Mehera’s love was the demonstration of the model love, an ideal for all of us, His lovers, to aim toward. And one can also say that because she is Baba’s beloved she gave Baba the opportunity to play the perfect lover to exhibit the eternal oneness of the lover and his beloved. Once, Mani asked Baba, “Baba, if Mehera were to say that the world is square, would you agree?” Baba looked at her solemnly and nodded, “Yes I would.”
Mehera and her mother Daulatmai were the very first women disciples to stay at Meherabad with Baba starting in 1924. Mehera’s tasks were usually helping in the kitchen, cleaning the fireplace, washing the dal and rice, peeling the garlic. She did anything that needed to be done. It was soon after Baba’s silence in 1925 that one day Baba called the 15 women living at the Post Office building at Meherabad. “Can you guess who my Radha is?” Some guessed it was Babajan, some said Gulmai and someone even said Gustadji! But then Baba turned to Mehera and wrote on His slate, “She is my Radha”. At another time Baba told Mehera in private, “From the first time I saw you I recognized you as my Radha.”
That very year in December of 1925, Mehera’s birthday (by the Zorastrian Calendar) was celebrated for the first time. She turned 18 that year. Baba distributed jalebis (sweets) and tea. Years later, buried in her trunk in Meherazad, Mani found a picture of Baba behind which she had written, “Happy birthday to my dear Aunt Mehera. Forget me not.”
How can we forget a soul such as Mehera? As long as Meher Baba’s name shall exist so shall Mehera’s.
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Mehera's Birthday Program
Sunday December 22nd
8:15pm
Video: "Happy Birthday Darling Mehera"
Music: Jamie Newell
Readings
Meeting Place
Cupcakes afterwards at the Refectory
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Christmas through New Years
at Meher Center
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Christmas Eve
December 24th
8:15pm
Carols & Music
Meeting Place
Christmas Day
December 25th
1pm
Christmas Dinner
Refectory
3:30pm
Chai
Original Kitchen
8:15pm
Christmas Gathering
Choir & Music
Meeting Place
Prayers & Arti
December 29th
9:30-10:45am
Prayers & Arti
Barn
New Year’s Eve
December 31st
9-11pm
Light refreshments in the
Refectory & Original kitchen
9:30-11:30pm
Quiet gathering in the
Library Reading Room
8:15pm-1am
Evening Program Schedule
Meeting Place
8:15pm
Films of Meher Baba & Music
10pm
Square dancing
11:45 pm
O Parvardigar film
Midnight
Meher Baba Quotes
12:15 am
Informal dancing
12:45am
Prayers & Arti
1am
Time to Depart
“Avatar Meher Baba Ki Jai!”
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Amartithi
January 31st 2020
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January 31st, 2020 will be the
anniversary of Amartithi, the day when Meher Baba dropped His body to live in the hearts of His lovers everywhere.
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Amartithi Guest Speaker
Larry Karrasch
Larry Karrasch first met Meher Baba in 1952, with his family, at the Meher Spiritual Center, when he was just four years old and then again in 1956 in New York City and Myrtle Beach. He was also with Baba in 1958 at the Center and for the last time at the 1962 East-West Gathering in Poona, India. He attended the 1969 Great Darshan. Also, Larry developed a close relationship with Dr. Harry Kenmore, an intimate Mandali of Meher Baba.
Larry graduated from Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago with a Master of Science degree in Graphic Design and Film Animation. He worked as an art director at the Newspaper Advertising Bureau, Inc. in New York City and later as president of Graphic Express in Lancaster, PA.
Larry and his wife Rita are authors of two books,
The Circle of Life and Death – A Spiritual Guide for Living and Dying Well
and
HARRY –
The Story of Dr. Harry L. Kenmore and His Life with His Beloved Pop, Meher Baba.
They are currently working on a book of talks about Meher Baba given by Dr. Kenmore from 1957 through 1971.
Rita Karrasch first heard of Meher Baba in 1969 as a high school student. She earned both of her master’s degrees at New York University in Clinical Nutrition and also Educational Psychology. She worked as a dietitian in New York City and later as a special education teacher and consultant in New York City and Pennsylvania.
Larry and Rita live in North Myrtle Beach, SC with their pets
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Gifts
by Jamie Keehan
For Meherjyoti, coming to the Center was Baba’s birthday gift— one that reminded her of another gift He gave long ago.
Meherjyoti had wanted to visit the Center for decades, but it was so far from her home in India that she didn’t know when she’d possibly get a chance. Then, this year, her husband Sandeep got a contract to work a job in Houston. When the contract was extended, Sandeep called to see if Meherjyoti wanted to join him. Magically, she was not only granted a visa, but one for 10 years. She knew that Baba had planned it all. She came to the United States and spent her birthday at Baba’s home in the West.
Meherjyoti and Sandeep appreciated the warm welcome of the Center staff and the pristine beauty of the grounds. But most of all, they were moved by the ever-present fragrance of God’s love. Speaking of Baba’s room, Meherjyoti says, “I felt as if I was in the Samadhi… the perfume of jasmine flowers, lilies on the Samadhi; the same I was feeling here … I cannot explain, it’s so beautiful. I felt Baba everywhere in Baba’s room.“
While I talked with Meherjyoti about her experience at the Center, she also related another story—the experience that her mother had with Meher Baba in His physical form.
Meherjyoti’s father, Shalikgram, had always been a staunch Baba lover, but her mother, Pushpa, was raised Hindu. She had never been very interested in Baba, and watched her husband’s devotion to Him from a distance.
After a few years of marriage, however, and not conceiving a child, a question came unbidden to Pushpa’s mind: what if Baba were actually God, and her not having the child she longed for was somehow connected with that? After a few days, she hesitantly asked Shalikgram if he would take her to Ahmednagar to meet Meher Baba.
Shalikgram was overjoyed. He brought her to Ahmednagar, and not only that, but Baba specifically asked a number of his Mandali—including Dr. Donkin and Eruch— to show her all of the best sights in the city. She was concerned, however, despite this care lavished upon her, that she wouldn’t be seeing Baba Himself, since He was in seclusion: internally, she felt that the sight of Him was the one thing that would help her.
Then, on Mehera’s birthday in December, Pushpa got her wish. To celebrate the day, Baba said He would appear in public for His lovers for just a few minutes. Pushpa excitedly went and sat amongst the women Mandali, not far from Mehera, who knew about her desire to see Baba and her questions about His divinity. When Baba came out on the platform, Mehera said to Baba, “Baba, Pushpa has many questions for you. She has many questions in her mind.”
Baba turned His loving gaze on Pushpa. “Oh yes?” He gestured. He called both Pushpa and Shalikgram in front of Him, and then gestured that He would let Pushpa ask any questions she wanted for five whole minutes.
But Pushpa was suddenly faced with Baba, who was shining with infinite love. In that moment, she knew from the bottom of her heart that He was divine. Tears began streaming down her face as she looked into His. She found that she couldn’t utter a word.
Baba just sat there, looking at her with love and also a little amusement. As she stood silent, flabbergasted and weeping with love, He smiled and gestured, “four more minutes!”
Unable to speak, Pushpa remained in mute awe and adoration as Baba continued to count down, “three minutes … two minutes …” Finally, her time was up— that infinite time, the immortal gift, her only moments with Baba in His physical form.
As she started to move away, Baba stopped her. “My nazar is on your family,” He gestured. “Don’t worry.” She left that day with rock-solid faith in Baba that never left her.
And, not long after, she discovered that she was pregnant with another gift, Meherjyoti— who told me this story at Baba’s home in the West a few days after her birthday, as birds sang, and sunlight danced through the leaves, and pilgrims greeted each other with love, everything attesting to God’s continued generosity.
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For more information go to our website
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