MEHER SPIRITUAL CENTER

The Heart of Every Lover:

Weekly Offerings

March 24, 2023

Shaw Photo Collection

Dear Meher Center Family and Friends,

We want to once again invite you to join us for a conversation with the Meher Center board on Sunday, March 26, at 4 p.m EDT. Please click here to access the meeting. 

One programmatic change: Daniel Stone’s weekend presentation of the Journey in Consciousness has been moved to June 2-4. Please check out our calendar on the Center’s website for detailed information.

On February 26, 1954, in Andhra, India, Baba said:

“The Avatar, however, wants to free people from their suffering, so He wants to make them suffer for God. This suffering is known as ‘real suffering’ because it loosens the bindings of people’s sanskaras and leads them to Reality.

“How does the Avatar bring this about? He burns His own cloak of illusion (which is His constant crucifixion) so that others’ illusory cloaks will also be burned. And the brilliance of the Avatar’s Shama (flame of a candle) attracts the moths (parwanas). The Avatar burns His own cloak of illusion to attract His lovers to Him. Once His lovers are drawn to Him, His naaz (whims of the Beloved) may make them suffer, but this suffering is ‘real suffering’ as it frees them from all suffering and eventually unites them with God.

“The life of the Avatar is an Illusion-consuming Flame. The Avatar’s lovers, like moths, gather, hovering about Him, the Flame. A few are even so possessed by love that they fly into the Flame and burn themselves, their false selves, and so experience the ‘I Am God’ state. To be so consumed, however, depends upon the grace of the Avatar.”*

Buz Connor

For Meher Center board and staff

*Glimpses of the God-Man, by Bal Natu, Vol. 5, pp. 176-177

Family Letter #61

Read by Rabia Foreman

21:44

These are readings of a collection of letters written by Mani, Meher Baba’s sister, to the Western family of Baba lovers between 1956 and 1969.

Filis Frederick was born in 1915, and first came into Baba’s orbit in 1942 after meeting Baba’s “Trio,” Princess Norina Matchabelli, Countess Nadine Tolstoy and Mrs. Elizabeth Patterson. She felt an instantaneous connection to the three women, and through living with them came to accept Baba as the Avatar. She met Baba for the first time at the Center in Myrtle Beach in 1952, and during that visit was given permission by Baba to write a publication dedicated to Him, which took the shape of The Awakener Magazine. In this talk, Filis discusses what it means to work for Baba, and how to put yourself aside in order to love God through service.

Video, 21:35

Courtesy of the AMBCSC Archives

Ali Akbar Shapurzaman, known as Aloba, first met Baba at the Prem Ashram spiritual school in 1927. The only student from the school to become a resident Mandali member, Aloba spent his life in service to Baba. In this recording, Aloba discusses the importance of remembering Baba, and offers us metaphors and concrete examples of how to keep Him at the front of our hearts and minds.

Audio, 9:58

Mandali Hall, Meherazad, India, August 4, 1987

Courtesy of Mandali Hall Talks