Dear friends, I would like to express my appreciation and joy in being able to share with many from so far and near in this significant event of 1984, Avatar Meher Baba’s fifteenth Amartithi anniversary year. Seeing you all gathered here today, I am reminded of an excerpt of a letter from Mani that was printed recently in the Meher Baba Washington (D.C.) Gathering Newsletter. Whilst sitting in Mandali Hall, Mani had a thought which she shared with the group. The excerpt reads as follows:
“Word comes from Baba’s world family of the many personal trials and difficulties Baba lovers are facing at this time. When Beloved Baba was physically present with us, He carried the cross of the world’s suffering on His shoulders. It’s as if when He dropped His body, this cross fell and shattered into thousands of pieces and each of His lovers now carries a little piece of this cross for His sake, and always with His love to uphold it.”
So today we find ourselves gathered together, the pieces as it were, each with his or her own unique connection with Meher Baba—the One whose Amartithi we have so recently observed.
Thinking back on that recent Amartithi celebration, linked so strongly in the minds of many of us and connecting it with Meher Baba’s New Life, two words come to mind: Remembrance and Joy. They have a strong connection, I feel, and bring to the forefront of consciousness something we can share with one another today.
Two words that truly one connects so strongly with Meher Baba, whose message of Love and Truth certainly corresponds with the message Baba came to bring: “I have come not to teach but to awaken,”[ii] and His words in connection with the Amartithi celebration: “When I drop this body, I shall remain in all who love Me.[iii] I am the Ancient One. I live eternally in the hearts of each one of you.”
For the mandali, Eruch expressed it thus: “We have not felt that we have lost Baba, but feel His presence with us all the more. May His love be awakened in the hearts of all so that he may reside in them eternally.”
Remembrance and Joy—our theme for today.
To begin with Joy. Although Baba used both the words “joy” and “happy” on occasion, and they are often used interchangeably, I feel they have a slightly different connotation. Joy can be perceived as the epitome of happiness, an experience that touches both the heart and the spirit. In one of the Family Letters, Mani points out that joy and sorrow both reveal glimpses of the poignancy of human experiences. Although joy is often preceded by an element of sorrow or suffering, it frequently results in drawing one closer to God. The dictionary defines “joy” as a forceful, sustained state of happiness that is associated with sharing, self-realization, and high-mindedness—an exultation of the spirit.
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* Excerpted from the book One Fine Thread: Talks on Meher Baba, by Kitty Davy, An Avatar Meher Baba Trust eBook, Copyright 2014, 2015 Meher Spiritual Center Inc.
[ii] From “The Universal Message” (1958). In Purdom, The God-Man, p. 343.
[iii] May 20, 1958, in Myrtle Beach, SC. Charles Purdom, “The American Sahavas with Meher Baba,” in The Awakener Magazine, vol. 5, no. 3 (Special Sahavas Issue, 1958), p. 7.
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