Contents. Early life. Silence. First contacts with the West

Contents

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· 1 Early life

o 1.1 Silence

o 1.2 First contacts with the West

o 1.3 The Discourses

· 2 1940s

o 2.1 Work with 'masts'

o 2.2 The New Life

· 3 1950s

o 3.1 Automobile accident in the U.S.A.

o 3.2 Highest of the High Declaration

o 3.3 Automobile accident in India

· 4 1960s

o 4.1 Seclusion and East-West Gathering

o 4.2 Position on drug use

o 4.3 Final Seclusion and Amartithi

o 4.4 Last Darshan

· 5 Metaphysics

o 5.1 Sanskaras

o 5.2 The Avatar

· 6 Followers of Meher Baba

· 7 References

· 8 Bibliography

o 8.1 Books by Meher Baba

o 8.2 Books fully about Meher Baba

o 8.3 Books about Meher Baba and other subjects

· 9 External links

o 9.1 Biography and teachings

o 9.2 Web portals

o 9.3 Videos online

o 9.4 Photos online

o 9.5 Centers and places of pilgrimage

o 9.6 Miscellaneous

Early life

Meher Baba was born in Pune, India. His given name was Merwan Sheriar Irani. He was the second son of his father Sheriar Mundegar Irani, a Persian Zoroastrian who had been a wandering Sufi dervish before settling in Pune, and Sheriar's young wife, Shireen, who called him her "most beautiful child." His schoolmates nicknamed the charismatic and sometimes mischievous youngster "Electricity." As a boy he formed The Cosmopolitan Club amongst his best friends, a club dedicated to remaining informed in world affairs and giving money to charity — money often raised by the boys betting at the horse races. Merwan had a sonorous singing voice and was an accomplished multi-instrumentalist and poet. Fluent in half a dozen languages, he was especially fond of Hafez's Persian poetry, but also of Shakespeare and Shelley. He was known for his lightning wit and universal knowledge, embracing both commerce and the arts. He claimed that all major established religions are essentially different beads on the same string, quoting freely from those traditions.

In his youth, Merwan had no mystical inclinations or experiences, but was more interested in sports, especially cricket. At the age of 19, however, while bicycling home from Deccan College in Pune, he met a very old Muslim woman, a spiritual master named Hazrat Babajan, who kissed him on the forehead. Shortly after this, he also had direct contact with four other spiritual figures in India, who he later said were among the five "Perfect Masters" of the age, Tajuddin Baba of Nagpur, Narayan Maharaj of Kedgaon, Sai Baba of Shirdi, and Upasni Maharaj of Sakori. ^[3]

Meher Baba explained that Hazrat Babajan was a "Perfect Master," whose kiss unveiled him spiritually to his state of God-consciousness or God-realization. Subsequently, he reportedly went without food or drink for nine months, frequently beating his head against a stone to maintain contact with the physical world. Later he contacted the sadgurus Sai Baba of Shirdi and Upasni Maharaj of Sakori, who he said helped him to integrate this experience with normal consciousness, thus enabling him to function in the world without diminishing his experience of God-realization.

After living for seven years in Sakori with Upasni Maharaj, Merwan started to attract a following of his own. His early followers gave him the name "Meher Baba," or Compassionate Father.

In 1922, Meher Baba and his followers established "Manzil-e-Meem" (House of the Master) in Bombay. Baba demanded strict discipline and obedience from his disciples and spent this period in meditation and fasting. After a year, Baba and his disciples moved to an area a few miles outside Ahmednagar, which he called "Meherabad" (Meher flourishing). This ashram would become the center for his work. In 1924, Meher Baba created a resident school at Meherabad, which he called the "Prem Ashram" ("prem" means "love"). The school was free and open to all castes. The school drew multi-denominational students from around India and Iran. ^[4]

Silence

From July 10, 1925 until his death in 1969, Meher Baba was silent. He communicated first by using an alphabet board, and later by hand gestures which were interpreted and spoken out by one of his mandali (devoted disciples), usually by his disciple Eruch Jessawala.

Meher Baba said that his silence was not undertaken as a spiritual exercise, nor as a vow of silence, but undertaken and maintained solely in connection with his universal work.

“

I am never silent. I speak eternally. The voice that is heard deep within the soul is My voice...the voice of inspiration, of intuition, of guidance. To those who are receptive to this voice, I speak. ^[5]

Man’s inability to live God’s words makes the Avatar’s teaching a mockery. Instead of practicing the compassion he taught, man has waged wars in his name. Instead of living the humility, purity, and truth of his words, man has given way to hatred, greed, and violence. Because man has been deaf to the principles and precepts laid down by God in the past, in this present Avataric form, I observe silence. ^[6]

”

In the 1930s, Meher Baba began a period of extensive world travel, circling the globe many times. He made frequent trips to Europe and America. It was during this period that he established contact with his first close group of Western disciples.

On his first trip to England in 1931 he traveled on the SS Rajputana, the same ship that carried Mahatma Gandhi. Meher Baba and Gandhi had many private conversations onboard including Baba's permitting Gandhi to read portions of his "book" which Gandhi offered to help get published. In the West, Meher Baba met with interested individuals who had heard of his spiritual status and his work in India. Many of these were celebrities and artists, such as Hollywood stars Gary Cooper, Tallulah Bankhead, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and the film producer Gabriel Pascal. He enjoyed watching Chaplin movies, comparing Creation to movie-making. Although few celebrities maintained their contact with Baba (Pascal being an exception), these western expeditions did yield a number of close followers who stuck with Baba for the duration of their lives.

In the late '30s, Meher Baba invited a group of western women to join him in India, where he arranged a series of trips that became known as the Blue Bus Tours. When they returned home, many newspapers treated their journey as an occasion for scandal.