MEHER SPIRITUAL CENTER
Meher Baba's Home in the West
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Shaw family photo
Meherazad Gate 1954
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"Love and forget. This is the only thing that matters. Love, always try to love."
Meher Baba
Lord Meher Online, p. 1819
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Dear Meher Center Friends & Family,
A loving Jai Baba to you all.
In 1937, Meher Baba said to a group of Westerners in the Nasik ashram in India:
You have all promised to try your best to die [to low desires], so let us begin with food. Let us have no more clashes about food. Let Norina go on giving the same as before.
You [pointing to Norina] are much too blunt. And for the role of Mother, you ought to be more gentle. Be one without duality. Be gentle. Listen to all suggestions. If you can fall in with them, good; if not, kiss and say no gently. This is tact. It hurts if you are too frank sometimes, and this I do not want.
So, I repeat: all begin to try now or, seriously, I will tell you to go back home. And be honest in your trying. There must be harmony, love and peace — real harmony, love and peace, not forced.
Petty things take up all your energy, thoughts and time. No more of that. Love and forget. This is the only thing that matters. Love, always try to love.
You do not like Norina being so blunt. Love her all the more. She needs it. If she finds you weak in your wants, then she too must love you. You need it. If a mother found her child sick or weak, she would fondle it more, love it more. So, if anyone of you is weak, the rest of you should love that one more.
By weak I mean taken up with desires. Anger is weakness, pride is weakness, and so on. So all try. As Kaka says, 'No discuss; just try!'*
Meher Baba has said the Avatar's message to the world is and has always been to love God. And that the most practical way to love God is to love our fellow human beings.
It is difficult to imagine more appropriate advice as we face our lives each day. How blessed we are to live in the age of the Avatar.
In Baba's love and service,
Buz Connor
For Meher Center board and staff
*Lord Meher Online, p. 1819 & 1820
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Padri began his life with Meher Baba in 1922 when he was 18 years old. Called one of the “four pillars of Meherabad” by Baba, Padri was in charge of building and maintenance projects there for decades. In these videos, filmed in 1981 and 1982, Padri is interviewed by Gary Kleiner about his work and his relationship with Baba. His answers, sometimes playful and sometimes forceful, give us a glimpse into a life of literal obedience, work as worship, and an unwavering faith in the Master’s presence.
Video, 59:14
Meherabad, India, 1981 & 1982
Copyright 1983 by the Avatar Meher Baba Public Perpetual Charitable Trust
Courtesy of Sheriar Press
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Labor of Love
By Jamie Keehan
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“For us, however, it is only hopelessness and helplessness. How else can I describe to you what our New Life is?” This was the last line of the “Song of the New Life,” which Baba sent to Elizabeth and Norina in 1949 as they toiled at the Center, preparing for His long-awaited arrival. It also seems to describe the work that Baba Himself was doing for the Center, half-way around the world.
On August 2, 1949, Baba had sent Elizabeth and Norina to America from India to get the Center ready for Him. Just a week later, in Myrtle Beach, they received a telegram from Him: “Am disposing of everything here and positively entering new life of absolute renunciation from sixteenth October.”[1]
Baba soon sent them another telegram, that “everyone in the East and West have been informed to stop all communications with me forever.”[1] But He made one exception: “I give you two the freedom (after 16th of October) to cable me whenever necessary, only regarding [my visit to the Center]”[1]
Then Baba embarked on His indefinable New Life, wandering across India, renouncing His role of “Master,” going cold and hungry, bowing to thousands of saints, suffering for God as an aspirant. And as Elizabeth and Norina did their own work—preparing the cabins, building Baba’s house, trying to put together finances for the upcoming trip—they were in close touch with Him about all of it. At one point, Baba cabled that they were “participating [in the New Life] by following all cables and letters sent up to date.”[1]
But in addition to the complications Elizabeth and Norina faced in preparing for Baba’s trip, there were increasing complications for Baba: His health was deteriorating due to the strains of the New Life, and He changed His proposed arrival date numerous times. His companion Doctor Donkin wrote a letter to Mildred Kyle in 1951: “I really do think that Baba must come West next February or March, or not for ages and ages.”[1] Still, Baba had Donkin write to Elizabeth and Norina: "Baba tells me to repeat and repeat that his coming is DEFINITE, not only because of the desire of the people in the West that he should come, but also because of what is destined by God."[2]
Finally, in late 1951, after years of painstaking work, Elizabeth cabled Baba that the Center was ready for Him. Baba replied how happy their work had made Him, and that He would come in March or April of next year, “If God so wills it and if I am alive.”[1] Then He went into the seclusion of His Manonash phase—Manonash, or “annihilation of mind.” Soon after, He began preparing to leave for Myrtle Beach.
But Baba’s suffering only seemed to increase. He had a severe reaction to the smallpox vaccine He was required to take for the journey to the West: His arm and armpit swelled up and He had pox marks and a fever. On March 17, Elizabeth and Norina were cabled: “Baba’s condition is getting worse every day, but He still says that ‘unless impossible, will come, because if not this time, then I will never come.’”[3] Padri wrote in a note to Adi Sr. around that time, “God help Baba and the West!”[4]
Baba and His companions spent the week before they were set to leave in Bombay, and in addition to the health problems Baba’s mood darkened and intensified. Looking tired and haggard, Baba asked Eruch to telegraph the following to those staying in Ahmednagar, Meherabad and Meherazad: “Health is not good. There is much disturbance in and around the building … Although going to the West is a must, visit to the West seems uncertain.”[5] When Meheru describes the women Mandali’s perception of Baba’s state at the time, she ends simply: “We felt it was His work.”[6]
Finally, in spite of everything, the day came: April 18th, when Baba and His party got on the plane for the home that had waited for Him for so long.
When Baba arrived at the Center, His sister Mani described feeling Baba’s presence so strongly that it seemed He had already been there. Baba happily greeted Norina and Elizabeth, told them how pleased He was with their work, with their love. And then, a few days later, He said to a few of His close ones: “Most persons suffer because of their karma. A few suffer for others. Masters suffer for the whole universe."[7] All the work and hardship over those many years, for Elizabeth and Norina and for Baba Himself, all part of the unfathomable labor of love.
[1] The Meher Center and Meher Baba’s New Life, Video by Jamie and Zo Newell
[2] Lord Meher Online, p. 3043
[3] Lord Meher Online, p. 3035
[4] Mehera Meher, Vol. 3, p.12
[5] Lord Meher Online, p. 3040
[6] Talk by Meheru Irani, 1993, courtesy of Avatar Meher Baba Center of Southern California
[7] Lord Meher Online, p. 3047
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Caring for Meher Center:
Three Special Buildings
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Meher Baba asked that three special buildings on the Center be kept as close as possible to how they were when He visited: His house Meher Abode, the Lagoon Cabin, and the Barn. For decades, His lovers have spent intimate moments in these places, where His presence can feel especially tangible and close.
Since the Center closed last April, Baba’s guests have not been able to enter the three buildings. However, they are still being cared for in the same loving and painstaking way that they always have been. This includes maintenance, both for the usual issues that inevitably arise in older structures, and also projects that haven’t been able to be completed until now, such as re-varnishing some interior areas of the Lagoon Cabin. As always, all maintenance activities are conducted with the deepest commitment to keeping these sacred places as near as possible to their original state, so that entering them feels close to how it would have felt when Baba was physically present.
In addition to maintenance activities, Center workers carefully and continually tend to the buildings. Windows in the Lagoon Cabin and Barn are opened daily to ensure fresh airflow, and Meher Abode continues to be climate controlled to help preserve its delicate original furnishings and treasures. Every week, each of the three buildings is cleaned according to preservation guidelines. Peter Goodman, who has helped with the weekly special cleaning at the Barn and the Lagoon Cabin for over a year, describes how honored he is to be a part of this process. “I imagine Baba being at both special buildings and clean both with detail, double checking my work and making sure everything is spotless as if Baba is going to come and use the Barn and Lagoon Cabin.”
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Reborn in HIs Love
By Preeti Hay
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Kitty Davy, Elizabeth Patterson, and Jane Haynes |
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Norina Matchebelli, Elizabeth’s companion in the creation of Meher Center, died on June 15, 1957. She asked Elizabeth and Kitty to not grieve her death. Knowing that Baba would wish it so as well, on the night after her death Elizabeth, Kitty and Margaret went to watch a play at the Carousel Star Theater. At the door they were met by a woman named Jane Barry Haynes, who in fact founded the theater but was collecting tickets that night because the ticket collector had taken ill. As soon as Elizabeth walked in, Jane said, “Come in, I have been waiting for you.” In that moment, Elizabeth experienced an instant recognition of Jane. Meanwhile, Jane had no memory of this meeting.
Jane’s recognition of Elizabeth or even Meher Baba for that matter was not instant. Perhaps because the fruition of such long-drawn and deep longing requires the Master’s impeccable timing. In her own words, Jane believed she was veiled. As a theatre actress, words like drama, beauty, ambition and larger-than-life are often used to describe Jane, but that very Jane was so much more than met the eye. She wrote, “Years were veiled under a heavy curtain of superficial life; a life of pleasure, pursuit of all facets of illusion. This seemed a darkness of my own making; needs for achievements, worldly pleasure – a reaching out in all directions – excesses of every kind. Needs that I never recognized as one single need: the need to love God to know him and to serve Him.”
In 1957, at thirty-two years of age, Jane had a spiritual crisis. She had told her mother that she would not live past thirty-three. In an experience of leaving her body she cried out loud, “But I am not ready.” That’s when she was extracted from that deep pit by the hand of God.
Shortly after this experience, she moved to Myrtle Beach with her three children, to pursue work as a director and producer in the local theater. During this period, an arrangement was made for her to actually visit Meher Center as a companion to acclaimed stage actress Zazu Pitts, who was curious about Meher Baba. As it turned out Ms. Pitts never did show up and Jane went alone. It was then that she met Elizabeth Patterson, Kitty Davy and Margaret Craske for the first time at the original Gateway. That is when Elizabeth recognized her to be the lady from the theatre. The next year, Jane met Meher Baba for the first time.
Her son Charles Haynes says, “She was completely drawn to Baba and inspired by the lives of Kitty and Elizabeth. But in Baba she did not want to see a holy man or a good person, she wanted to see Him as Christ.” In the Barn in 1958, the unthinkable happened for Jane, “a miracle that only God can perform – the unveiling, a glimpse of the God Man’s Divinity.” She saw him as Christ, the Christ of her dreams, her prayers, her pain. And she knew Meher Baba to be the Ancient One. Later, Meher Baba sent a cable to Jane saying, “Reborn in My Love, You are blessed. Love Me more and more.”*
On the same trip, Baba gave Jane another gift that would last a lifetime. He spoke of saints, one among them being St. Teresa of Avila. About her He said, “She devoted her entire life to Jesus Christ – to Me.” Another recognition occurred for Jane, that of her own purpose. Her heart surged in a sigh affirming that she herself would like to try to love Him in that way. Later she visited Avila and the sixteen foundations of the Discalced Carmelite order. Christopher Wilson, who shared her love for the saint, says, “St. Teresa’s writings helped Jane construct her own life of prayer and constant focus on Meher Baba, the eternal Christ. St. Teresa's primary instruction to her nuns was that they remain in unceasing prayer, regardless of the situation in which they find themselves – whether alone in their cells or working in the convent's kitchen. That was Jane’s aspiration also – to always keep her eyes on Baba, to listen to Him, and to praise Him for His mercies.”
Nothing that the Avatar says is without meaning. At the East-West Gathering in India in 1962, Baba asked Jane, "Tell me Jane, do you have work?" Knowing well that she had no theatre work, she said, “Yes – Baba’s work.” Baba replied, "So be it – always. It will always be only Baba's work." ** And it was. Just as she played her role in the world to the utmost, she did so at the Center as Elizabeth’s “spiritual twin.” After Elizabeth died, she became the second President of the Board of Directors of Meher Center from 1980 to 1995. Whether one met her or just heard about her, one thing is for sure, in her dramatic depth of love and beauty, she was and continues to remain unforgettable.
* Letters of Love, By Jane Barry Haynes
**Lord Meher Online, p. 4838
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