MEHER SPIRITUAL CENTER
Meher Baba's Home in the West
October Newsletter 2020
Shaw family photo
"The inner voice is the surest means of communication and never fails to reach me. But the response, whether prompt or slow, depends on the sweet will of the Master, and should never give any grounds for disappointment to a soul if its voice is not promptly responded to. 

"In that silence too there is a meaning and reason, as the Master alone knows. He sees far, far ahead and works not for immediately satisfying results, but for the ultimate aim and good of the dear one who has come to him seeking aid and guidance. You may therefore explain and convey to all the dear ones about whom you have written in your several letters to me, in these few words that: 

“Baba knows all and listens to the voice of each loving heart that seeks his aid and guidance and conveys his loving help to each in his own way looking always to the ultimate good. None should worry, for Baba is always with you."*

Meher Baba

*Lord Meher Online, pg. 1705

Dear Meher Center Friends & Family,
 
A loving Jai Baba from Meher Center. 
 
The reopening of the Center’s outside environment, its pathways and sitting areas, continues to go very well. It is heartening to see His many followers and friends able to be in His company once again at His home in the West.
 
We pray you stay safe and remain always in remembrance of His presence within.

In Baba’s love and service,


Buz Connor
For Meher Center board and staff
Journey With God
Meher Baba first declared His Avatarhood during a tour through Andhra Pradesh in 1954. In this video, we see footage of that tour: the thousands of people who came to be in Baba’s presence, and the loving personal contact He managed to make with individuals amidst the crowd. We also hear from Baba’s Mandali who were on the trip about what it was like to travel with Baba through the region and watch Him pour out His love.

Video, 51:51
Courtesy of Sheriar Foundation.
Welcome to My World
By Jamie Keehan
Jane & Bob Mossman at Meher Center entrance
For six months, the Center had waited quietly, and Baba’s lovers from all over the world had waited too. Mark and Lisa, a couple from Vermont, were two of those people: they had been coming to the Center twice a year for twenty-five years, but this spring they weren’t able to. “Lonesome,” said Lisa, when asked to describe what that was like. “It was lonesome. We missed the Center, plain and simple, really.”
 
 And then, they got the message that the Center would be opening on October 16—New Life day. They called, asking if they could come, as they always had, on their way down to Florida. And others called, too: locals who were used to visiting the Lagoon Cabin every day. People from other states who were planning to stay a week in a hotel for just one afternoon at the Center and, when they learned they could visit multiple times, started to cry.
 
Jane and Bob Mossman were called shortly before the Center opened to ask if they would check people in every afternoon when the day visiting began, and they cried too. “We are just so deeply grateful,” says Jane.
 
The day came, and the guests began to arrive at the Center, at Baba’s home, at their home, for the first time in so many months. They found the gate open, a picture of Baba smiling at them from one of the posts, Bob and Jane standing to greet them. And then, as they drove through the gate, a song started playing: “Welcome to My World,” the version that Baba loved by Jim Reeves. “I play this song and a lot of people start crying,” says Jane. “They start crying, some people cry for the whole ride in to the road. It’s like there’s a magnet just pulling them — 'I'll be waiting here, with my arms unfurled, waiting just for you.'"
 
Mark and Lisa made it to the Center from Vermont last week, completing the journey they’ve made so many times. It had been pouring, but a few minutes before they reached the Center, the sun came out. Then they saw the gate, and heard the song. And they got out of the car, there at the entrance, and started dancing together. “We just had such a romantic feeling in the moment, dancing seemed like the natural response to that music being played and the reunion with the Center. [To that] divine romance.” Down the tear-soaked road, they joined the hundreds of other lovers who had also come home that week.
 
The time on the Center, for those hundreds of people, is indescribable, but Jane and Bob see something of it when visitors come out: “We feel such joy from them that we feel we’ve been on the Center with each car that goes in…They come out just flying. Flying. You can just feel the gratitude.”
 
As Mark and Lisa put it: “We were full. Very full and grateful, a real sense of peace. I think the sharp contrast to all the turmoil that was going on in the world, I think of Meher Center as that great sanctuary for the soul.”
 
Sometimes, people come out, dripping with love, and ask Jane and Bob for another song. They found one that seems to suit the mood of those moments. When they played it for one woman, she just sat in her car throughout, weeping. “The song is Nessun Dorma, sung by Andrea Bocelli,” says Jane. The translation: “None shall sleep. I will break the silence with a kiss.”
Levitating Cabins
Far and Near cabins
If you have day visited Meher Center recently, you might have seen the surreal sight of levitated cabins! Yes, the Near and Far cabins did reach the higher planes of consciousness while guests were away. And rumor has it that the Lake Cabin is following suit. Well, these cabins have had Baba’s physical darshan, they have housed the Mandali, weathered all types of storms and served His lovers over decades, so it’s no surprise that the Beloved raised them…quite literally!

Okay, while that might still be true, the maintenance crew and outside contractors are also replacing the foundations at these two cabins and creating a more spacious crawl space under them, which will improve the ability to maintain these precious original cabins for many years to come. This work that has been on the Center’s wish list for decades will continue for several months. The eventual goal is to do the work with other older cabins as well.
Work As Worship
By Preeti Hay
In 1985, when Tom Talley was contemplating leaving Myrtle Beach where he had moved in 1981, he randomly opened the Discourses and found himself on the Selfless Service chapter. It read, "The spirit of service which is invariably present in aspirants and good persons can be harnessed and creatively utilized for spiritual purposes if it is allied with the work of a Master. The Master serves the whole universe…those who serve the Master and obey him also have their share in his universal work."

It is no coincidence that he was brought to the subject of service. Perfectionism, attention to detail, and meticulousness are pronounced character traits that define Tom’s work at the Meher Center Gateway. If you were ever paying your bills at the Gateway and saw Tom come out of nowhere to make sure you got your change back correctly, you would have gotten a glimpse of his absolute dedication to his work. Similarly, you might find him diligently sweeping the three steps to the Gateway to get rid of every pine needle, because Elizabeth Patterson always wanted Baba’s entrance to be welcoming. I’ve always seen Tom as someone who exemplifies the proverb, “Work is worship.” What I have learned over the years, though, is that this literal conscientiousness is rooted in the desire to serve, and to serve wholeheartedly.

His story started when he became disillusioned with religion at a very young age. He decided that all religion had to offer were rules and superstitions. But there seems to have been an undercurrent of service, even then. In fact it was this need to help that first brought him to find out about Baba. He offered to help move an acquaintance who he ran into at his university campus in 1977. While helping unload his books he saw the Discourses and the man offered to let him borrow it. “Baba’s teachings tied together various elements from other religions and philosophies I had read about into a comprehensive and intellectually satisfying framework,” he says.

Association with Baba offered Tom the room for a personal path. Among other things like independence and answers to questions about the ultimate reality, he was seeking guidance through intuition and a way to live a good life. Being a naturally skeptical person, it took him a lot of reading of Baba literature and a special experience on his first trip to India in 1980 to finally accept Him as the embodiment of divinity.

Even before visiting Meher Center in 1981, Tom had a passing thought about moving to Myrtle Beach. After Kitty Davy coaxed that thought out of him during his first visit, she pulled out the phone book to look for places Tom could work at in his field of computers. He ended up moving to Myrtle Beach and working for a Baba lover until 1985. Meanwhile he was a volunteer at the Center and had put in a word with Jane Haynes about being a paid worker. That fall he was hired part time to work with Cabin Crew and Grounds. The following year he was made full-time. 

Another one of Tom’s lesser known traits is his wry sense of humor. He was happy to have the privilege of working on the Center full time, but he also had a feeling of being trapped. “I questioned if this was for the rest of my life? A life of poverty and drudgery? Then this spontaneous answer appeared in my mind, ‘Until you're forty.’" And that’s exactly what happened, at forty Tom decided to take a break and work on other Baba projects and a day job. But his connection with the Center was not done; when another opportunity came knocking in the form of a one day a week office job at the Gateway, he took it. That grew into full-time work and here Tom is today.

At the Gateway, we lovingly call Tom ‘the Gateway Micro-Manager.’ He is always ahead of the curve, whether it is keeping all the supplies handy, updating all our computers or having every pencil sharpened. I wonder if he’s the same way at home, “Not at all! I am very lazy in my life outside of work. I hate all personal chores and love watching movies,” he laughs. Ah well, all micro-managers need breaks.