MEHER SPIRITUAL CENTER
Meher Baba's Home in the West
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"I don't like things to go smoothly or easily. There is no credit in doing things easily. One must experience resistance, difficulties, and pass through awkward situations. These are real tests and bring out the best and worst in men. The more opposition you have from maya, the more you should resist and face it with fierce determination. Don't feel anxious. Do your best."
Meher Baba
Lord Meher Online, p. 1934
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Dear Meher Center Family and Friends,
We are happy to announce that Meher Center’s Board of Directors will be holding a virtual meeting to talk about the reopening of the Center. The meeting will be held on Tuesday, July 13 at 8 pm EDT, and can be accessed here. Approximately 30 minutes in length, we will include a short presentation addressing the opening of the retreat, answer some questions submitted ahead of time, and have a song or two at the end.
A special announcement will be sent out tomorrow with more information. We hope to see you on July 13.
We are also very pleased to say that the yellow barrier, which had been stretched across Long Lake near the dock for nearly seven years, has been removed! Thanks to the ingenuity of Lee McBride and his crew, a process has been developed to gradually sweep the chara detritus from the lake bottom over time. It's a new day.
In Baba’s love and service,
Buz Connor
For Meher Center board and staff
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His Ways Are Unfathomable |
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This video of Eruch Jessawala takes place in Mandali Hall at Meherazad over the 1991 pilgrim season. Eruch, who lived with Baba as one of His close Mandali beginning in 1938, tells a variety of stories that reflect Baba’s humanity, divinity, and unfathomable love.
Video, 1:04:01
Mandali Hall, Meherazad, India, 1991
Used with permission from Sheriar Foundation
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Welcoming Back His Lovers
By Jamie Keehan
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Last Saturday, after fifteen months of not being able to enter the Barn or the Lagoon Cabin, Jeff Craddock walked up the old brick steps to the Barn door, opened it, and went inside.
It was the beginning of Jeff’s first shift at the Barn since it opened for visitors, and it was one of the many intimate reunions in these two special buildings over the last two weeks. Jeff stepped into the vast, quiet, sun-dappled space that so many of us have missed so much, and as he waited for Baba’s lovers to arrive he opened the other doors too, the ones facing the lake, letting in the breeze.
Jeff’s main feeling in the Barn after all that time was of Baba’s overwhelming presence. “I guess I was really taken aback by how powerful it was,” he says. “I had forgotten! Either that or it was more powerful than it was before. Just being on the Center and being near the Barn is powerful enough, but going into the Barn—wow. How can I put it? His Presence is huge in there.”
I don’t think that Jeff had forgotten. In the first number of months that the Barn was closed, I had the immense privilege of helping to clean it; entering into the hush to run a gentle brush over Baba’s chairs, to check the corners and windows, to make sure everything was tended to. And in that hush, there was always an expectancy, as though Baba’s presence was full, ready to overflow, ready to pour over His lovers when they returned.
Jeff had a similar experience when he entered the Lagoon Cabin. It was, again, the first time he had been inside in fifteen months. There was someone behind him waiting eagerly for their turn, so he knew he only had a few seconds. But he walked into that precious, familiar space, and, standing directly in front of Baba’s chair for the first time in so long, folded his hands to God. “Oh boy,” he says of that brief initial moment. “Wow… all I can say is, whatever I was looking for, it was there in thirty seconds.”
On that first day in the Barn, after Jeff had opened the doors, a few more people came in very quietly to sit with the Beloved. “I guess I’m most moved by just seeing how happy and moved people are when they come after they’ve been away for so long,” he says of the guests. And the atmosphere is “like all the quotes that we’ve read: that it is the quiet where Baba is found, the profound silence. It’s very sweet.”
At one point, into the silence walked a family on a tour, coming to the Center for the first time ever. They had a connection with Baba; Jeff recalled that one of their family members had met Him, long ago. And they came into the indescribable atmosphere of the Barn and just sat; the young boy in the party sat on the floor facing Baba’s chair, quietly. Jeff said of the moment: “Their presence felt very holy to me. In fact, I guess the Barn feels very holy to me at this point, since it’s reopened.”
Finally the group got up to leave, and, as he has begun to do these days from his seat in the corner, Jeff quietly acknowledged them as they passed. In that moment, he says, “for some reason I was moved to stand up, do a full namaskar. It just felt like the right thing to do.” To be one more small part of Baba’s welcome, welcoming His lovers home.
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Caring for Meher Center:
Thank You Volunteers
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Caring for the Center is also caring for its people.
Being able to visit the Center has been such a joy for Baba’s lovers, and sharing in this joy have been the day volunteers who have helped immensely in this process. Rain or shine, heat or cold, these committed workers have cared for the Center every day since the first day of last October, when we re-opened for day visits.
In the uncertain circumstances of the pandemic at that time, about thirty volunteers were called upon to help monitor the crowds for day visiting. They helped check people in and out, watched over buildings and gave feedback at periodic meetings about future possibilities. This last month, the volunteers met again to take the next step toward opening the buildings. Thank you Baba for making this possible and thank you volunteers for your loving help.
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A Gift for Service
By Preeti Hay
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One of the buildings that Meher Center visitors have had the pleasure to return to in the last month has been the Saroja Library. For many, including myself, this quaint spot is a favorite! In thousands of handpicked books lining its white pine shelves, there are many stories waiting to be read and re-read by hungry seekers, but what many may not know is the equally charming story of how this Library came to be. This is a story of the parallel paths of love, devotion and desire of two women who loved Baba, and how their paths crossed. All under Baba’s direction.
Ruth White met Meher Baba in 1956 at Meher Center after knowing Him spiritually for ten years. She was 87 years old at the time, and Baba in His infinite compassion and care asked her to move to Myrtle Beach (from California) to live with Elizabeth Patterson. The following year Ruth moved into Youpon Dunes, Elizabeth’s house in Myrtle Beach. She was given the “sunny, front ocean view room that Baba occupied after the accident in 1952.”* When the household moved to Dilruba, Ruth followed. Kitty Davy, the other key character in this story, had lived with Baba in India for fifteen years but had been left behind by Him in 1952 to work with Elizabeth at the Center. Kitty and Ruth shared the south wing of Dilruba, and as the years passed Kitty became more and more involved in Ruth’s care.
Simultaneously, Kitty ran a small library at the Center out of a room in the Green Building. If anyone has stayed in what is now the Upper Room, it’s not hard to imagine that this room was soon too small for the expanding literature that the Center had to offer. The Library was then moved to the Pine Lodge in 1965. This location was better but still not ideal. While happily giving out books at Pine Lodge, Kitty garnered a dream – of one day having a real library at the Center.
This is where the two women’s desires met. Ruth’s desire had been to pay Kitty for the loving care she was providing her, but Kitty would not accept any remuneration. It was not in vain that Baba had called Ruth “My soldier” at the East-West gathering. She was determined and she persisted. In regard to Kitty, she finally had a brilliant idea. She wrote to Baba asking if she could donate funds to build a library at the Center as a gift for Kitty’s service. Baba gave His approval and blessing to this idea with a condition that the library be called ‘Saroja’ which was Baba’s name for Kitty. On the eve of Silence Day, July 9, 1967, the Library was dedicated in a ceremony and was ready to be used. It went on to host Baba movie screenings, meetings and concerts until the Meeting Place was built in 1970.
Saroja in Hindi means ‘Lotus,’ or ‘Lake born.’ The Lotus is a symbol of purity and higher self. In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna adjured Arjuna to become like the lotus, to work without attachment and dedicate all action to God. Another symbology of the lotus is its ability to be unperturbed in its beauty by the muddy waters around and beneath it. I am reminded of reading about the time soon after Kitty had first met Baba. Quite unexpectedly He asked her, “Is there anything you want?” Without time to think she said, “Yes…an increased capacity to love and increased opportunities for service.” As an afterthought she added, “And yes, spontaneous goodness.” Baba said, “You will have all in a few days.”**
Those who knew Kitty witnessed her bubbling goodness, love and service. But what about those of us who did not know her? As I rock myself on a cushioned rocking chair overlooking the lake, with a book in my lap, I see the namesake library in a new light. In the harmonious coexistence of words and silence, I see a trail of legacy. A living serving reward. A wish granted. A promise fulfilled. A lasting gift from the Master, now for us all.
*"Who Is That Woman With Baba?" by Glady A. Spratt, The Whitehorse Journal, June 1995
*Love Alone Prevails, by Kitty Davy, p. 14.
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