Jane Haynes, Kitty Davey, & Wendy Connor
In 1991, shortly after the first Youth Sahavas, Kitty Davy called Buz Connor. “You have no idea how wonderful it is,” she told him. “You have to come for it next year.”
Kitty was 99 at the time, but she had been invited to the very beginning of Youth Sahavas, the orientation where the first participants and the first counselors started to get to know one another for the first time. One of the games they played was to find other people who had experiences in common. Unfortunately, Kitty was the only person who had ever milked a cow. Nevertheless, she felt it: that deep connectedness and love in the room that have continued to be a central part of the event for the past 30 summers. It was Kitty’s first and last Youth Sahavas, as she died later that year. But there will always be pictures of her there—seated next to Jane Haynes and Wendy Connor, in a room full of teenagers, glowing.
Kitty wasn’t the only one of Meher Baba’s close disciples who loved the Youth Sahavas from the very beginning. Margaret Bernstein, the young adult who first gave voice to the deep desire of Baba youth for an event like the Youth Sahavas— a direct result of work Lois Jones had done with teens at the LA Sahavas— talked with the Mandali about the idea while she was in India in 1990. They were instantly behind it. Margaret also wrote to Jane Haynes, the head of the Center at the time. Jane said, “Let’s try it.”
And so, with that foundation, it happened: in the summer of 1991, talented and thoughtful adults came from all over to make the idea a reality. Linda Hansen was asked by Jane to help because of her extensive youth development experience. Wendy Connor joined with her youth-led improvisational theatre background. And so many others brought their love, creativity and talents: Lois Jones, Mary Leiter, Marshall Hay, Roz Taubman, Charles Haynes, Christopher Wilson, Barbara Plews. They did their best to build an event where young people could come and be fully themselves as they formed their own unique relationship with Meher Baba. And young people did come—70 of them that first year.
Mani wrote to the Youth Sahavas that summer on behalf of the Meherazad Mandali. That first letter begins: “We greet you Meher Minors, majoring in Beloved Meher Baba’s Love, representations of young humanity gathered together as one heart in His beautiful home … We love you, Meher Minors, and from across the oceans we join you in a thunderous: Avatar Meher Baba ki Jai!!”
The Youth Sahavas grew and grew. The second year there were 80 participants, by the fourth there were 120. It was filling a need and young people were responding. And as the Youth Sahavas grew, so did its deep relationship with the Mandali. Often, groups of young people would finish Youth Sahavas and go straight to India. And so it happened that, still shining from the event, they would be sitting in Mandali Hall, recounting their experiences to the Meherazad Mandali. And each of the Mandali responded to the energy and the love that filled the room. As Eruch wrote in a letter to the Youth Sahavas in 1998: “How blessed you all are that He has broken His silence in your hearts which has made it possible for you to receive the greatest gift of all— the recognition of His Being amongst you … Share this bounty with each other during this unique Sahavas occasion.”
But perhaps the most consistent and enthusiastic correspondent continued to be Mani. Every year, she sent a letter full to the brim of her love and support for Baba’s young lovers, and she began to send gifts, as well, for each one: photos that Baba had touched. Pieces of bark from Baba’s tree. As she wrote in a 1992 letter:
"In the Youth Sahavas we witness the birth of His New Humanity aspiring to see Him more clearly, to love Him more dearly, and to follow Him more nearly. Above all our hearts are moved by the affirmation of HIS Love for each one … Jai Baba from all Meherazad mandali wishing you BABA-JOY in your Sahavas with the Beloved. His sweet grace has made it happen, and the support of His wonderful team at the Center will sustain you at every need-time and feed-time in His bountiful Love."
In 1993, Mani sent a song to the Youth Sahavas, hand-written with hearts drawn at the top. The first verse:
"Drink in deep, drink in deep, liquid light of His Love/ Bask in the Sunshine of His Grace/ Melt your hearts, melt your hearts in the joy of His presence/ Drown in the beauty of His face."
In 1995, the year before Mani died, she sent one of the most precious gifts. It was shells that she and the other women Mandali, in a joyful, intimate moment with their Beloved, had collected on a beach in Bombay in 1952— right before they joined Baba for their first trip to the Center. Each shell had been touched by Baba. In 1995, Mani lovingly and painstakingly placed each one in its own tiny box to send to Baba’s beloved sahavasees. “Now it so happens,” she wrote, “that the seashells thus blessed with His touch in 1952 are destined for His young ones coming together at Myrtle Beach Center for the 1995 Youth Sahavas! … These precious shells are as pearls from His Ocean of Love.”
Two months before Mani died, the Youth Sahavas of 1996 sent a precious gift back: a video of all the participants, shining from a week of Baba’s love and presence, gathered together in front of His house. They, along with Jane Haynes and so many other long-time supporters of the event, sang for Mani another song with lyrics that she herself had written: “Open Up the Door.” Like the rest of the Mandali, Mani seemed to know that, for so many young people over so many years, the Youth Sahavas has done just that.
