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Editor’s PageDma Snow

Jai Baba Folks,

We are preparing this issue in Apriland as I write, the bombs are falling

all over Kosovo in Yugoslavia and the bullets are flying in High Schools all overthe United States. This in addition tothe usual murder, mayhem and terrorthe world over!

We have only five months to go tillthe year 2000. Renowned psychicEdgar Cayce said the earth will tip onits axis, California fall into the ocean,and major earthquakes will hit NewYork. Prognosticator Nostradamus, Ibelieve, said much the same.

Closer to home, what did our Be-loved say would happen? Three quarters of the world will be destroyed.”From the information many of us havegleaned as we pumped the Mandali forthe literal meaning of these words,“whici I speak in My language, “ itwould seem not to be a physical destruction, but perhaps the wiping outof Sanskaras, or who knows what!

However He did leave us many ofHis thoughts on war and how it was anecessary thing. People do have to unwind their Sanskaras created in manyprevious lifetimes. We felt it an appropriate time to include a section on war.

The Love Street Bookstore sells a pa-perback entitled MeherBaba on Warifyou want to follow it up in greater detail.

Ethnic cleansing (what an innocuousterm for such a hideous thing!) could be seen

to be the cause of the Columbine High

School massacre — disaffected teens think-

ing they were the Supreme Beings and

wanting to exterminate the rest of the

school. The deranged teenagers only lack the

scope and influence of Milosovec, but what

they are all accomplishing has the same goal.The decades old argument between psy

chologists and psychiatrists has always been“Nature versus Nurture. “ Perhaps it is time

to throw a third agenda into the ring — “Na-

ture versus Nurture versus Karma. “ In thelight of what Baba has told us about thewinding and unwinding of Sanskaras, howmuch of how a child turns out, is due to the

circumstances chosen by the soul prior to in-carnation in the particular body needed toaccomplish what has to be unwound — orwound? I asked Jamie Newell — Baba lover,

Jungian, and very talented musician — to explore this theory for us.

Silence Day —July 10th. Will you be able

to make it through the day without utter-ing a word? Read some of the Beloved’smany (unspoken) words on this subject, andgather your strength and determination.After all, if it was important enough to Himto maintain silence for 25 years, surely we

can manage to emulate Him forjust one daya year!

We recently received a notice fromMeherazad with the request that it be posted

on our bulletin board. Upon readingit I found it to be a gentle reminderfrom Eruch as to the meaning of ourpilgrimage to the Beloved’s Samadhiand His home at Meherazad. This pilgrimage is not something to be takenlightly; we are not there on vacation(even if that’s what we told them backat the office or school). We need tobehave differently — with respect, withawareness ofwhere we are, and the effect our presence has on those aroundus. In 1987 I was there with my college age daughter who had insisted onwearing shorts (albeit knee length andvery wide) to the Samadhi where she

was scolded by an Indian woman forshowing great disrespect. Tearfully mydaughter told Mani that she was sureBaba didn’t mind how she was dressed!Mani replied in her infinite wisdomand sweetness, “No my dearest, Babadoesn’t mind, but He wants you toconsider the older, more conservativepeople who do mind and are upset bysuch things. “ Fashions have changedmuch in the past 12 years — the cloth-ing worn by the young ones has be-come even skimpier. Please rememberthat baring your midriff to sun bake

out side the Pilgrim Center (and prettymuch anything you wouldn’t catch

your grandmother doing) is not appropri

ate behavior.Remember also how incredibly lucky we

are to be some of the very few people in the

whole wide world who actually know God!

Not as some Biblical character, but a flesh

and blood Man who walked among us in

our time. In exchange for the Grace He be-

stowed on us (for He has stated it is only by

His Grace that we love Him) let us try to

love and obey Him, but most of all — to

please Him.

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A publication of the A vatar Meher Baba Center of Southern California

LoveStreet Lamgosr

for the January - March issue: November 8thApril - June issue: February 8th

July - September issue: May 8thOctober - December issue: August 8th

Consciousness and Chaos

Meher Baba on War and Oneness

Jamie Newell 4

welcome

The £ovc$trcct £amLLbsr is dedicated with loveto A vatar Meher Baba. Its primary purpose is tocontribute to a sense of community among all HisJo vers by pro viding a place for sharing Hisremembrance. All the members of the Baba familyare invited to contribute to this feast ofLove.

Your stories, photos, art work, poetry, letters, articles, and humorare all actively solicited. We seek expressions of Baba’s messageof Love and Truth.

Please submit your text on computer disks if possible (in anysoftware format) ; typewritten copy on white paper is alsoacceptable. Be sure to clearly identify all submissions and creditevery quote or reference.

submissions, subscriptions, donations:Love Street LampPost

Avatar Meher Baba Center of Southern California1 2 1 4 South Van Ness AvenueLos Angeles, CA 90019-3520

323-731-3737— or —

Bababooks@aol.com

deadlines:

Eric Solibakke 6

Billboards We Have Seen. . . Cherie Plumlee 8

Boy Scouts Accept Meher BabaReligious Study Program Larry Green 9

Gallery of the Heart Various Artists 20

The Midwest Gathering Robert Fredericks 26

Silence Various Contributors 28

The Southeast Gathering . Barrett, Watson, Stevens 30

Avatar Meher Baba’s Natal Horoscope The Awakener 32

Sculptor of the Beloved - Vivian Agostini Kendra Crossen 38

Ebb and Flow Michael da Costa 39

. I_______.. I

Intimate Conversations Sarah McNeil 16

TechnoBaba Robert Kinnery 46

Don’t Worry Be Happy and Souls On Fire Melani Jones 46

Love Street Bookstore:Dma Snow (at the addresses above)310-837-6419 between 7 and 11pm310-839-BABA (2222) 24 hour fax

Bababooks@aol.com

credits:editor: Dma Snow

design and layout: Cherie Plumlee, Betty Lowmandigital preflight: Tom Hart

distribution: Chris Lyttlecover: Baba Silence

Oil painting by Diane LePage

Editor’s Page Dma Snow 2

Poetry various contributors 24

Announcements various contributors 14

Children’s Corner Luke Jamison and Betty Lowman 11

Humor for Huma various contributors 25

The Love Street Bookstore Dma Snow 12

______i____ —

The J.ove5trectJanq1thst’ is publishedquarterly, in January, April, July, and October.All contents © 1996 Avatar Meher Baba Center ofSouthern California.All quotations, photos, or books, of Avatar Meher Baba,© AMBPPCT India

We extend our heartfelt appreciation to all the individualsand organizations that own the copyrights to the Meher Babapictures we have used throughout this issue to bringjoy andlove to the hearts ofall LoveStreet LampPost readers.

All words, images, and graphics in this publication areproperty of the copyright holders and/or the contributors.Messages and photos of Meher Baba © Avatar Meher BabaPerpetual Public Charitable Trust, AhmednagarJndia, and© Lawrence Reiter.

Unauthorized duplication is prohibited by law.

t

Consciousness and ChaosJamie Newell, Nashville, TN

And I beheld, and heard an angel fly-ing through the midst of heaven, say-

ing with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe to theinhabiters of earth by reason of the othervoices of the trumpet of the three angelswhich are yet to sound!” — Rev 8:13

“The time has come for the

pre-ordained destruction of

mu1tiJe separateness which

keeps man from experiencing

the feeling ofunity and broth-

erhoocL This destruction,which will take place very

soon, will cause three-fourths

of the world to be destroyed

The remaining one-fourth

will be brought together tolive a life ofconcord and

mutual understandin& thus

establishing a feeling ofone-

ness in all fellow beings, lead-

ing them towards lastinghappiness.

— Meher Baba, Final Declaration

Any attempt to talk about Meher Babaand his work, in almost any context, endsup sounding reductive. If we could understand and explain God in a few words,we would have no questions to begin with.Baba himself has chosen to use metaphors

and similes in many of his most important explanations, because the final truth

cannot be understood directly. As he saysin God Speaks

“ To understand the infinite eternal reality is not the GOAL of individualized

beings in the Illusion of Creation, becausethe Reality can never be understood; it isto be realized by conscious experience.”Even so, we seek answers to the confus

ing questions that perplex the mind. ‘Why

must the world be plunged into chaos?’‘Why war in Kosovo and Iraq and else-where, why terrorism, why children killing

their classmates?’ and on and on. While I

claim no expertise on this subject, I am happy

to share my thoughts in response to a re

quest by the editors of The Love StreetLampPost.

For answers to the broad questions, wecan only go to Meher Baba himself. Why

war?“

The basic causes of social turmoil that

often precipitates into war may be found in

the individual, the social whole, the functioning of maya and in the very intent of

God’s Will. Inasmuch as these are essen

tially one in the final analysis, this means

no more than that war is a part of the di-

vine pattern.” MeherBaba on War p. 6. But

why should war be part of the divine pat-

tern? “During times of war, great forces of

destruction are afoot which at times mightseem to be dominant. But constructive

forces for the redemption of humanity are

also released through various channels.

Though the working of these latter forces

is largely silent, eventually they are boundto bring about the transformations that willrender safe and steady the further spiritualprogress of humanity. “ Meher Baba on Wai

p. 10.Such answers sometimes feel unsatis

fying to those of us of gross consciousness.

It all seems like such madness, and isn’t it

madness that causes children to build bombs

and shoot their classmates? Why does this

happen?“In feebleminded or mad persons, aber

rations from the average pattern of responses

and actions are the result of their mental

incapacity to adhere to the ordinary ways of

the world... They lose their balance of mind

due either to insufficient mental develop-

ment or to the operation of physiological or

psychic forces of disruption.” Meher Baba,

The Wayfarers p. 4. OK, I understand “in-

sufficient mental development, “ and

“Physiological...forces,” but what are “psy

chic forces of disruption?” Baba seems to

be referring to related phenomena in his

Discourse on The Nature of the Ego and

It’s Termination: II, when he discusses the

necessity that “. ..all of the constituents ofthe ego pass through the fire of intelligent

consciousness.” (p. 169) He explains that

the conscious (explicit) ego forms a barrier

that prevents the contents of the uncon

scious (implicit) ego from entering con-

sciousness. When the unconscious contentsfinally do enter consciousness there can bemany problems. “This release of inhibited

tendencies naturally brings about additional

confusion and conflict in the explicit ego.”

(p. 169) Even more so when someone with

a very poorly developed explicit ego is in-

vaded by these “inhibited tendencies.”For those with a bent toward psycho-

logical exploration, the Analytical Psychol

ogy of C.G. Jung parallels Meher Baba’s

explanations of these phenomena in many

areas. Jung felt that the center of the psyche

was not the ego but a preexisting structure,

which he called the Self, which was essen

tially identical with what is generally re

ferred to as God. In his discourse on God

and the Individual, Meher Baba says:

“We have seen that the possible field of

consciousness is limited by the sanskaras.

This limitation creates a division of the hu

man psyche into two parts. One part falls

within the range of consciousness, and the

other part falls beyond it. The unconscious

part, in its full extent, is identical with the

power that is behind matter. It is referred

to as God by the orthodox religions. The

ultimate reality, which is symbolically rep-

resented through such concepts, can be

known fully only by bringing the uncon

scious into consciousness.” (p. 19).

Jung felt that, in extreme cases of mad-

ness, such as is often demonstrated in war

and in acts of violence (like the Colorado

school killings), there is an overwhelming

of the ego by aspects of this preexisting form

which he calls the Self. The weak ego struc

ture (or, explicit ego) is unable to maintain

balance in the face of the ‘Godhead’ (or ar

chetype) as it were, and becomes inflated

by it through identification with it. In other

words, the individual identifies with the

Godhead (archetype) to such an extent that

he or she, sometimes only briefly, feels that

[‘••“,-,- I

I[ i_1 t;Ethey are the Godhead (archetype), and areswamped with the overwhelming power thatsuch an experience represents. This wouldbe something like putting 100,000 volts ofelectricity through an ordinary light bulb.The bulb, as does the individual ego, burnsout with a great flash.

But, if it is our goal to “make the unconscious conscious, “ then don’t we all have towithstand that 100,000 volts at some time,too? There are at least two ways that immediately come to mind that will help us inthis endeavor. First, to continue with ourlight bulb metaphor, we can use Meher Babaas our transformer, to help us manage thevoltage that we receive. In another context,Baba describes this as developing a “provisional ego” (see the discourse on The Dy-namics of Spiritual Advancement (p. 254)).Another way of managing the high voltageof contact with God is to strengthen the egothrough the development ofwhat Baba calls“Some Divine Qualities” (yes, it must bestrengthened before it can be eliminated, seeThe Nature of the Ego and It’s Termination I (p. 161)). These qualities include:patience, persistence, acceptance, forbear-ance, moral courage and confidence, free-dom from worry, cheerfulness, enthusiasm,equipoise and one pointedness (see the discourse on The Qualifications of the Aspirant: II for details on these “divine qualities.”)

These techniques can help us with ourindividual striving for balance, while stillmaintaining contact with God, but whatabout the social and cultural madness ofwar? This brings us back to Baba’s statementthat all of this is part of “the divine pattern,”and his statement that through war “ . . con-structive forces for the redemption of humanity are also released through variouschannels. “ What can this mean? Jung hassome interesting ways of looking atmankind’s historical relationship with Godthat might suggest some interesting theories in this area.

Jung generally saw the human relation-ship with God as an inner experience, a relationship with the Self, which hashistorically been projected outwardly. In hisbook, Answer to Job, Jung asserts that, ashuman consciousness developed, so did thewidely accepted God-image. In Westernculture, a clear development of the acceptedGod-image can be seen from Job, whereGod is quite barbaric in his treatment of Job,

through to the prophets, where God is seenas much less destructive and indifferent, andup to the incarnation of God in human formas Jesus, where God is described as the goodfather who is wholly benevolent. Leavingaside for the moment the question of therole of the other Avatars, one can imaginethat a similar change in consciousness mustaccompany the advent of Meher Baba.

In Answer to Job, Jung goes on to saythat the book of Revelation describes thenecessary influx into consciousness of the“dark side” of God that has been pushed outof consciousness by the world view that Godis wholly benevolent. Thus, on the eve ofthe new millennium we have hoards ofapocalyptic visionaries (Jim Jones, DavidKoresh, Paul Brunton, et al) who await thehorrible destruction of the world. Jung saysthat this is the natural outcome of the human psyche’s attempt to compensate for theone-sided view that God is exclusively good.

Meher Baba has many times pointed outthat he is in the so-called good as well asthe so-called bad. He tirelessly pointed outthe unity behind all things, lest those aroundhim break things up into opposites and create separateness. In Bhau Kalchuri’s biography LordMeherBaba says: “In a virtuouslife, evil is suppressed and good surfaces; butthe evil is still there. The bad sanskaras remain and have to be worked out, if not inthis life, then in the next or the one after.In the spiritual life, both good and badsanskaras express themselves, and both getnullified. A spiritual life leads one towardnaturalness, whereas a virtuous life, in theguise of humility, inflates the ego and per-petuates it!” (p. 4591).

If we put all of these ideas together, apicture begins to emerge. First, we haveMeher Baba’s statement that war is part of“the divine pattern,” along with his state-ment that through war “constructive forcesfor the redemption of humanity are also released through various channels. “ Then weconsider Jung’s theory of madness as oftenbeing precipitated by the incursion of an unconscious God-image (archetype) , alongwith his theory of the compensatory natureof the unconscious. Putting all of this to-gether, we might surmise that, as a result ofMeher Baba’s manifestation, and the influxof divine energy that has flooded the worldsince His advent over one hundred years ago,more and more people are being flooded by

this unconscious God-energy, which is nowbecoming conscious. It may also be that, asmore and more people have this experience,more and more ‘light bulbs’ will eventuallyblow out as well.

These ideas are nothing more than abrief overview of one approach to under-standing the apparent chaos in the worldtoday. I cannot say whether these mentalmeanderings are close to, or far offthe mark.I do, however, share the concern of manyothers who are saddened to see so manysouls who are unable to withstand the paceof this most troubling and glorious of ages.In the end we can only hold tighter to hisdaaman, and to his words. For as He hassaid in His Universal Message:

4ll this world confusion andchaos was inevitable andnoone is to blame. What had tohappen has happeneo and

what has to happen willhap-pen. There was andis no wayout except through my cominginyour midst. Ihad to comeandlhave come. Jam the

Ancient One.”- Meher Baba

( @ I

Meher Baba on War and OnenessExcerpted and arranged from Listen Humanityby Eric Solibakke, Oslo, Norway

War cannot create any real cleavage,

even between the people who are

fighting against one another. These people

seem to be different from one another because

they have different minds and bodies, but

when judged from the point of view of their

souls, all differences are not only secondary

but simply false. The spiritual unity ofall souls

remains inviolable fri spite ofallwars, and from

the point of view ofultimate reality, no soul is

really at war with any other soul.There can be a war between ideologies,

which may extend to and involve the minds

and even the bodies of the people, but the

undivided arid indivisible Soul remains One

in Its unimpeachable, integral unity.

The basic causes ofthesocial turmoil that often

precipitates into warmay befoundin thekidividua1 thesocial whole, the functionfrig

ofmaya andki the veryintent ofGod, will

Inasmuch as these are essentially one in

the final analysis, this means no more than

that war is a part ofthe divine pattern. Insofar

as war affects the individual, however, it must

be understood at all the levels within illusion

from which it is precipitated.The first is the level ofthe individual him-

self. It may readily be seen that most persons

are immersed in their own egos and selfish

viewpoints. This is the life of illusory values in

which men are caught. If man were to face

the truth he would understand that all life is

one, and in this understanding, forget the lim

iting self (Listen Humanity, p. 128). But man

does not face the truth, regarding himself as

separate from and competing with the rest of

mankind. This attitude often breeds a con-

cept of personal happiness that creates lust for

power, unbridled greed and unrelieved hatred.

The second level from which wars are bred

is that of the social whole. Here, economic

pressures are often cited as a major cause. Also,

resistance to aggression seems a reasonable

cause. It would be an illusion within illusion,

however, to claim that wars arise merely to

secure material adjustment. They are more

often the product of uncritical identification

with narrow interests which, through associa

tion, finally come to be regarded as ones sole

right. To profess that humanity’s problem is

merely that of bread is to reduce humanity to

the level of animality.The third is that of maya.

When truly understooc/ allconflicts and wars are seen tobe a part of the Divine Game

They are thus a result ofthe divine will, which

finds expression in the world of manifestation,

through the medium of maya — the cosmic

power that cause the illusory world of duality

to appear as real.The purpose served by maya is twofold:

(1) it can be instrumental in trapping the mind

in the duality of illusion, and (2) it can also be

instrumental in freeing the mind from the grip

of spiritual ignorance and bondage. Maya

should not be ignored; it must be handled with

detachment and understanding. Wars are the

work of maya, and are either spiritually disas

trous or beneficial depending on whether they

are based on attachment to or detachment

from the hold of maya.The final level from which the causes of

war spring is no level at all.

ft 1 a part of the Divftie Planof God to give to a hungryand weary world a fresh

dispensation of the Eternaland only Truth.

During war great forces of destruction are

afoot which at times might seem to be domi

nant. But constructive forces for the redemp

tion of humanity are also released through

various channels. Though the working of these

latter forces is largely silent, eventually they

are bound to bring about the transformations

that will render safe and steady the further

spiritual progress of humanity.During war there are persons who unveil

their inherent higher self through the endur

ance of pain, and by acts of bravery and self-

sacrifice. It is better that such unselfish action

be released under the stimulus of danger than

not released at all. It is better that men better

that men forget their petty selves under the

pressure of collective calamity, if need be, than

remain permanently absorbed in fear and

greed.

Great sufferftig awakensgreatunderstandingfti man.

Supreme suffering fulfills its purpose when it

awakens him finally to genuine longing for

real understanding.

Unprecedented sufferingleads to unprecedented

spfritualresults.

It contributes to the basing of life on an un

shakable foundation of truth.

Just as war is not an unmixed evil for the

individual, so it may have certain forward-pro-

pelling effects on humanity as a whole. The

destructiveness of war tends to bring human-

ity to a spiritual crisis born of the physical

nightmare. Inevitably suffering and misery

pose the question ofwhat it alhleads to, how it

will all end. Gradually people become sick of

want and sick of fighting. Greed and hatred

finally reach such an intensity that everyone

becomes weary of them. Then mankind be-

gins to suspect that the only way out is through

selflessness.

The only afternative to warand its suffering is seen to beto stop hatkig and to love to stop

wantingand togive, to stopdomkiatkig and to serve.

L6 LweSee“UiZamiE

Wars require the exercise of cooperativefunctioning, and in this resides one positiveresult. Still, the value ofthis cooperation shouldnot be overestimated, for too often it is artificially restricted by identification with a limited group or ideal. Often war is carried on bya form of love, but a love that has not beenproperly understood. In order that love maycome into its own it must be free, untrammeled and unlimited. Love exists in all phasesof human life, but usually it is latent; or it islimited and poisoned by personal ambition,racial pride, narrow loyalties and rivalries, andattachment to sex, nationality, sect, caste orreligion.

For the resurrection ofhumanity, the heart ofman

must be unlockedso that unadulteratedlove may be manifestedlii it — a Jove uncorruptedand

free from “and ithie.”

People who make unlimited sacrifices forthe sake of their country or political ideologyare also capable of the same sacrifices for Godand the truth. As war teaches that even theman in the street can rise to the greatest heightsof sacrifice for a selfless cause, it also teachesthat all the mundane things of the worldwealth, possessions, power, fame, family andeven the very tenor oflife on earth — are transitory and devoid oflasting value.

In this manner the incidents of war alsowin man over for God through the lessonsthey bring.

It is now high time that universal suffer-ing should hasten humanity to the turningpoint in its spiritual history.

It is now high time that the very agoniesof our times should become a means for thebringing of real understanding of human relationship. It is now high time for humanityto face squarely the true causes of the catastrophe of war. It is now high time to seek anew experience of reality.

ft is high time that men have afresh vision that aiJlife ±c one inGo who alone Is’ reaJ andall

thatmatters. GodL worth livkg

foi andHei worth dythgfor Allelse i’ a vafti andemptypursuit

ofifiusory value.

War is a necessary evil that is in God planto awaken humanity to its destiny as the newhumanity. The time is now ripe. Men are ardently seeking to contact the embodiment ofthe truth in the form of a God-man, throughwhom they can be inspired and lifted intospiritual understanding. In this critical timeofuniversal suffering men are becoming readyto turn towards their higher self and to fulfillthe will of God.

They will accept the divine guidance andlove, which alone can bring about spiritualawakening. Divine love will perform the supreme miracle ofbringirig God into the heartsof the new humanity and of establishing inthem a true, and therefore lasting, happiness.Divine love will satisfy the greatest longingsofmankind, make men selfless and helpful intheir mutual relations, and ultimately resolveall problems.

The new brotherhood onearth will be a fulfilled facland nations will be united inthe fraternityoflove and truth.

Ailthose who must undergo the rigors ofwar have great need for equanimity. It will beprofitable to remember that the soul remainsunscathed by the destruction of materialthings, and death itself is only a gateway tofurther life. Therefore those who would playtheir part well in the divine game should remain unmoved by bereavement and loss, imparting to others a spirit ofcheerful resignationto the divine will.

Due to lack ofspiritual insight, sufferingsof war inevitably embitter many persons, andthey need to be helped to recover a sense ofthe unspoilable sweetness of life. Those whohave been initiated into the eternal value ofinner life must assume the responsibility ofdriving away unwarranted gloom and depression and cheering those who are in deep sorrow. When crisis is upon one, let one thoughtsnot be for self but for others — for the claimsof the divine Self which exists equally in all.

War cannot be justified merely because itbrings certain spiritual qualities as by-prod-

ucts, for these qualities can also be developedin time of peace. It is time now for humanityto develop a spontaneous spirit of love andservice, rather than require the stimulus pro-vided by danger to precipitate unselfish action.

All should face the crisis of war with pa-tience, fortitude and self- sacrifice, never for-getting that the redemption of a distractedhumanity through divine love is much closerthan one dreams at such a time.

Listen Humanityedited by D. E. Stevens

Copyright 1982 AMBPPCT.

Nothing ToWorry About

Meher Baba

Let Me tell you this fact: there is nothing to worry about, nothing to be dis

heartened about. We are all, each of’ us,meant to be happy. God, who is within usall, is to be experienced as infinite happiness, and it can be done only through lovefor Him. To find the Truth, one not onlyhas to depend upon analysis and intellectSbut on the heart. Intellectual understand-ing is not as important as experiencethrough the heart. God is the only Real-ity, and He cannot be analyzed. Reasoncannot reach Him. When one, throughlove, finds Him, one finds Him in every-one. We must seek God in everyday life.Look for God; God loves those who seekHim, and when we seek Him with all ourheart, we find Him in ourselves. The goalof life is to know God, the Infinite one,in everyday life. Baba gives you His love,that love which will eventually help youto find God. Don’t worry. My love willgive you that strength and convictionwhich makes you feel that you belongto God. Seek Truth with all your heart,and Baba will help — I am in this worldto help people to love God, to find Him,and to see Him. Do your work selflessly,and you will be doing it for God. I willhelp you with my Love, that you can dothis perfectly.

LordMthez Vol II pg. 3887.

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Billboards We Have Seen

. . .and Billboards We Would Liketo See

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fl......:‘3. . ...,..®. . .., . .. iiBoy Scouts of America Accept

Meher Baba Religious Study Programby Larry Green, Myrtle Beach, SC

Recalling my youth, the experiences I hadas a Boy Scout were positive, educational,

rich, and rewarding (to say nothing of fun).Because of these memories, I encouraged myson Timothy to join the Scouts, and I havesince become active as an adult volunteer.

There are currently many young Baba by-ers who are of Cub Scout or Boy Scout age,and quite a few who are presently registeredin the Boy Scouts of America. The bargestyouth organization in the world, Scouting is aworldwide brotherhood with members in over150 countries and territories.

With focuses on personal fitness and help-ing other people, Scouting also places greatemphasis on duty to God. In the Boy Scoutsof America, the final point of the Scout Lawis, “A Scout is reverent,” and members are en-couraged to complete a special religious studyprogram given by their faith.

Those who complete their faith’s pro-gram are entitled to wear the Boy Scouts ofAmerica’s religious emblem. Each faith alsoprovides a medal, and pictures of these different awards, displayed in various Scoutbooks, are regularly seen by the boys andtheir families.

As a follower ofAvatar Meher Baba, whatstudy program could my son Timothy complete? For several years, there had been twenty-six religious organizations recognized by theBoy Scouts of America, each providing studyprograms for their members. These includedZoroastrian, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, Moslem, Bah’ai, and several Christian programs.As followers of Meher Baba, we investigatedthe wide array of programs available.

Naturally, each was found to be connectedwith the doctrine, dogma, and religious practices oftheir particular faith. After true deliberation, it was determined with conviction thatthe time had come to implement a new pro-gram for those boys whose “religion” is basedon a Meher Baba program that would em-brace Baba message of Love and Truth andlife as the Avatar of the Age.

The boys from Meher Baba families inour immediate circle of Scouts in the MyrtleBeach area received the news of the development of such a program with enthusiasm.Reactions varied from, “Yeah, I’d like to do

it,” to, “That would be awesome!”As Scouts and their parents from differ-

ent locations around the U.S. heard about thecreation of the program, the responses werealways filled with eagerness and excitement.Some expressed how they had wished for sucha program, and others commented how theywere wondering when one was going to beestablished.

The need for a Meher Baba study pro-gram in the Boy Scouts was obvious. It wasalso clear that as more and more Meher Babakids reach scouting age, the need wouldsteadily grow.

In order to develop the program, a steer-ing committee was formed in July of 1992,made up of myself Charles Haynes, AnneGibes, and Naosherwan Anzar.

Following the Boy Scouts of America’sofficial procedures for establishing a religiousemblem study program and award, we securedManes approval as chairman of the AvatarMeher Baba Trust. After eight months ofconcerted effort, two study programs were developed and written, one for Cub Scouts,grades 2 through 5 entitled “Love For God,”and another for older scouts ages 1 1 through20, entitled “Compassionate Father.”

Jamshed Mistry, of Matamoras, PA, amember of Cub Scout Pack 77, was the firstboy to participate in the required nationwidefield testing of the programs. After completing the “Love For God” study program hewrote, “I think this program is very good forboys; it tells you all about Baba and I like it. Iloved the stories and the sayings and alsolearning ‘How to Love God.”

Once the field testing was completed, theprograms were submitted to the ReligiousRelationships Committee of the Boy Scoutsof America for approval. Finally, after goingthrough all the required channels, on February 8, 1994, the Religious Emblem Study Pro-grams provided by the “Meher Baba Faith”were fully accepted and given official approvalby the Boy Scouts of America for use by itsmembers nationwide.

Now Timothy, a member of Cub ScoutPack 840 in North Myrtle Beach, could begiven an opportunity to complete a religiousstudy program for his faith.

There was no question of which programwould be appropriate for him. As his parent,

I served as his counselor. Going through theprogram together gave us several wonderfulopportunities to discuss stories about MeherBaba, think together about the meaning ofsome of Baba sayings, and converse togetherabout the seven ways to love God as given byBaba in the message “Love and God.”

Timothy also completed a service projectby helping Jeff Wolverton in Baba’s gardenon the Center. The whole program was relevant to him and I could see it made himfeel good.

For completing the religious study pro-gram provided by his faith, on April 22,1994, during a Friday evening meeting atthe Meher Spiritual Center, my son receivedhis recognition as a member of the BoyScouts of America, and as a follower of Avatar Meher Baba.

For further information about these studyprograms, please contact the Committee forMeher Baba and Scouting, 843-272-3498.— Previously published in The Glow

InternationaZ February, 1995.

The Shock ofTheir Lives

Meher Baba

America now leads the material sideofthe world and yet has such poten

tial that she can lead the world spiritually,if awakened. Awakening is love for God inthe form of Jesus — God crucified. AndGod will do it. He can do it. And now thetime is near, very near when the spiritualupliftment has to take place. America isdestined to lead the world spiritually.

Truth never fails, and lovers of God willsoon triumph. In this country at present,unfortunately, the youth is not taught spin-tuality. Youth is not even given ethical education. But be sure that these very youthswho know not of God, but know only toeat, drink, be merry and do lustful actions,will soon get the shock of their lives andknow that loving God is life, real life. theGoal of life.

— Gllnipsesofthe GodMan, Vol. III, p. 42,Bal Natu, Copyright 1982 AMBPPCT.

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@ IIGoing to India?Here’s a check list for you.

First the obvious things:

F1ashhht (torch), small and large extra

batteries. Hairdryer(ifyou simply have

to have one) that is 240 volts. Adapterto fit

the Indian sockets. Insectrepeilant(Avon has

some great non-stinky moisturizing lotion).

Hat— a must. Sunscreen— a must. Toiletpaper — likewise. Bath towel and face cloth.Rubber thongi no bare feet — germs and

worms! Plenty of film for your camera, and

Awater bearer in India had two large

pots; each hung on each end of a pole,

which he carried across his neck. One of the

pots had a crack in it, . -

and while the other ‘

pot was perfect and •. •

always delivered afull portion of waterat th end of the longwalk from the streamto the master’s house,the cracked pot arrived only half full.

For a full two 1years this went ondaily, with the bearerdelivering only oneand a halfpots full ofwater in his master’shouse. Of course, the perfect pot was proud

of its accomplishments, perfect to the end

for which it was made. But the poor cracked

pot was ashamed of its own imperfection,

and miserable that it was able to accomplish

only half of what it had been made to do.

After two years of what it perceived to

be a bitter failure, it spoke to the water bearer

one day by the stream. “I am ashamed of

myself, and I want to apologize to you.”

“Why?” asked the bearer. “What are you

ashamed of?”The pot said, “I have been able, for

these past two years, to deliver only half.

my load because this crack in my side

causes water to leak out all the way back

to your masters house. Because of my

flaws, you have to do all of this work and

extra batteries. !V[odestclothes— no shorts for

women, long ones for men. Teengirlspleasenote: no bare midriffs or bare shoulders, no

low-cut blouses or tight tank tops. Loosepants — no tight clothing of any kind. Re-

member you are here to commune with God— not drive the local guys crazy!

Some not-so-obvious ones:

Soappowderfor the few things you may

wish to hand wash. Clothes pins (pegs) to

hang clothes. Softpillow or neck roll. Nailbrushand manicure kit. Calculator(for those

bazaar forays) . Aloe I/era Gelis great for in-

you don’t get full value from your efforts.”

The water bearer felt sorry for the old

cracked pot, and in his compassion he said,“As we return tothe masters house,I want you to no-tice the beautifulflowers along thepath.”

Indeed, as theywent up the hill,the old cracked pottook notice of thesun warming thebeautiful wildflowers on the sideof the path, andthis cheered it

, some. But at the

end ofthe trail, it still felt bad because it had

leaked out half its load, and so again the pot

apologized to the bearer for its failure.The bearer said to the pot, “Did you no-

tice that there were flowers only on your side

ofyour path, but not on the other pots side?

That’s because I have always known about

your flaw, and I took advantage ofit. I planted

flower seeds on your side of the path, and

every day while we walk back from the

stream, you’ve watered them. For two years

I have been able to pick these beautiful flow-

ers to decorate my masters table. Without

you beingjust the way you are, he would not

have this beauty to grace his house.”Each of us has our own unique flaws.

We are all crackpots.— Submitted by Charles Harmon.

sect bites, sunburn, and other itches Ad-dressesof friends to send postcards to. Largemug for your tea or coffee. Packets of hot

apple cider, or special hot chocolate for the

hot water supplied. Blankbookto write your

experiences in

An Important Letterfrom Eruch JessawallaRegarding Pilgrimage

We His lovers must not forget why wecome to Meherabad in the first place.

Meherabad is a place of Holy Pilgrimage. It

is not a vacation spot, resort or retreat. It

behooves each pilgrim blessed to cross His

Threshold, to accept all conditions of their

pilgrimage as the prasad given to them by

their Beloved Lord. To have one’s pilgrim-

age accepted by the Lord is no easy task, for

it means more than to merely bow down at

His Samadhi. We must accept wholeheart

edly any and all trials and tribulations that

may beset us during our pilgrimage, know-

ing full well, that these very difficulties when

happily accepted without reservation or ex

pectation, mark His acceptance of our pil

grimage. Doubly blessed is the pilgrim who,

in spite of all hardships, remains cheerfully

resigned to the conditions ofhis pilgrimage.

And yet, Beloved Avatar Meher Baba,

in His Infinite Compassion and Benevo

lence, has made our pilgrimage so comfort-

able and easy that we have forgotten all that

He Himself, as Man amongst men, suffered

throughout His Ministry to awaken His love

in our hearts.Dear brothers and sisters, we have been

blessed to receive His gift of love, now it is

time for us to return that love by dissolving

all expectations, reservations and desires intotal gratitudeand resignationto His Will.

With warmregards in Loveand Service of

our BelovedLord AvatarMeher Baba.

Yours lovingly,Eruch

An Imperfect PotAuthor Unknown

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Children’s Corner Gallery ofThe Heart

\ehope you enjoyed looking

through our Gallery of the

Baba’s Bee Heart. Below are listed the artistsand names of their paintings accord-

Betty Lowman, Palo Alto, GA ing to the number in which it isshown in the gallery.

A the Meherana gathering in October,1997, the children made a beautiful # 1 Meh er B ab a at D awn and #3

garland out of marigolds, grown by the Meher Baba at Sunrise on page 20;Pearsons from seeds from the Meherazad #7 Baba in the Poppies and #9 Infigarden. The twins Sohrab and Rustom nite Ocean on page 2 1 ; # 1 1 Baba ongarlanded Baba sandals at Dhuni, then the Fence and #1 5 Camelia Baba onafter Dhuni, we were given the garland page 22 are by Margo Watson. Herback,todecoratethechildren’spandalfor greeting cards are 4’x6” photos onthe twins’ visit the next morning. We put 5’x7” cards with matching envelopesitaroundaniceBabaphoto,andputitright $3 and 8”xlO” prints for $30 each.up front on the table, where the twinswould see it first thing. When they came #5 Kalki and His Master on page 20; #6up to visit, they went straight to the photo Baba Clouds, #8 The Ancient One, #10and lovingly paid their respects, then they Lord of Transformation on page 21; #12looked at all the kids’ artwork and joked Beloved, #14 Meher Sunrise on page 22;with everybody there. and #16 MoonDreams and #17 Merwan

Later that day, as some of us (Betty on page 23 are by Cherie Plumlee. HerLowman, Cherri Nelson, Armin Kraemer artwork sells as 4”x6” greeting cards ithand Jennifer Grilli) were packing up the a single gold or silver matte and match-pandal, we started to take the garland off ing envelopes for $3 each, 5”x7” printsthe photo, when we found a big beautiful for $5 each and 8”xlO” prints for $30black and yellow bumble bee nestled in the each.flowers, intently gathering all the nectar

#2 Baba at Zurich and #4 Mehera onhe could.We decided to leave him alone, figuring Jakes Dream pg 2 0 ; # 1 3 Moon and Stars on page

he’d fly away in a Jake Jamison, El Cerrito, CA 22; #18 Meher Baba, 1930s on pagewhile, but he never 23 and the painting on the cover aredid. We finally de- Jhe whole family was at Meherana — by Diana LePage. Full-color printscided to carefully Luke, Mommy, and Daddy. Then a of her oil paintings are availabletake the garland I miracle happened. All the different animals thanks to a revolutionary new pro-and hang it up, so

,

to dance andjump around, then the rabbits tographic prints of the paintings to

intheworldstartedtodance,thedeerstarted cess which enables high-quality phothat we could pack .. ..

andeventhesticksonthegroundwouklpop be transferred permanently to artist’sthe photo and he . I and down in time to the music. Even the canvas.could have his nec-tar, but the bee didnlike that at all. He flew clouds began to dance. The sun would dancearound angrily and wouldnt settle on the bybecoming bright and then getting darker. You can order:garland. Then I saw a statue of Meher Baba and it a small c anvas (8 “ x 1 2 “) for $50

“He must want to be there with Baba’s came alive and began to move. I saw Baba a medium canvas (1 2 “ x 1 8 “) for $75photo,” we reasoned, so, carefully, we put face in all the trees and Baba began to sing a large canvas (20”x30”) for $ 1 50.the garland back around the photo, and, and it was so lovely, and the music could besure enough, he flew back onto it, and pro- heard around the world. It filled the whole ii you are fond of Diana’s oil paint-ceeded to intently gather every last bit of world.Then when Baba stopped singing, all ings, they are also available as colorsweetness from those flowers, and that the animals went back to the forest. At the photos on cards with envelopes. Wephoto, until it was literally time for us to end a shooting star that was Baba flew across have a large selection of her cards,drive away. By then, he was gone. the whole world. at least 20 more than are displayed

here. They are $3 each.Both articles reprinted from TheMeheranaMessenger Left, Issue 2, 1998; right, Issue 1, 1996.

r

xx .ii

51ep 3nside.The

Jai Baba folks,

O nce again, many new items we laybefore you — to help you drink more

and still yet more of His love. Each quar—ter, as I tell you about new books, photocards and audio tapes, realize it is not justa new product on the market, but the cul—mination of, at times, years of work andthe outpouring of a Lover’s praise to hisBeloved.

So it is with the first of our offerings.It has been quite a few years since JimMeyer gave us the impassioned musical

tape called Relentless Love — which stillsells well, and if you don’t have it — youshould! ($12.)

But this time Jim has given us his tourde force — a 75-minute CD entitled WaystoAttain theSupremeReality. Title soundsfamiliar, you muse?

In 1952 Baba commissioned theAmerican poet and Baba lover MalcolmSchloss to create a book of poetry inspiredby the Master’s writings “on the realization of Truth and the attainment of complete, constant, conscious Union with

God.”The extraordinary result was his book

Ways to Attain the Supreme Reality.Baba praised it enthusiastically and

compared Malcolm’s poems with those ofthe incomparable Hafiz and also the Per-

fect Master Shankaracharya. He asked

that it be published. Nearly 50 years haspassed since this rare gem of Westernmystical poetry was completed — its 36poems with accompanying commentary

by Meher Baba has long been out of print.But Jim has set all 36 poems to music

he has composed especially for this collection. The recording was engineered,mixed and co-produced by Grammyaward-winner Bill Szymczyk (the Eagles,

The Who, Joe Walsh etc.) so we know itis going to be of superb quality.

As if all that wasn’t enough, the entiretext of the original book is included as a24-page booklet! All this, for only $18.

Another of our very talented artists hasgained major recognition in the worldoutside of Baba lovers: Daniel Ladinsky.

1

Our Danny, author of the two absolutelydelightful renderings of Hafiz — The Sub-ject ThnightisLoveand IHeardGodLaughing. The Baba bookstores around thecountry weren’t the only ones selling hisbooks — they also found their way intoBordersTM and other commercialbookshops.

Their success made the literary worldsit up and take notice — the huge publish-ing house of Penguin/Putnam is now sell-ing his latest — The Gift. By far the largestof the 3 books, The Giftcontains 250 poems. High praise from two very famoustranslators in their own right is printedon the book jacket — from AndrewHarvey: “These translations should do forHafiz what Coleman Barks’ translationshave done for Rumi. Seekers on all pathswill benefit from the radiance they emit.”

And from Coleman Barks himself:“ There are universes inside Hafiz, a lineage of masters. Daniel Ladinsky followsthe playfulness: the rascal moves well.”

Sylvia Boorstein adds “ These remark-able short poems are magic tricks — verbal sleights of hand — that cause the mindto blink and that replace the imaginedperception of grief and woe with the real-ity of joy.”

Again, quoting from a review, “Withthis stunning collection of 250 of Hafiz’most intimate poems, Daniel Ladinskyhas succeeded brilliantly in capturing theessence of one of Islam’s greatest poeticand religious voices. Each line of The Giftimparts the wonderful qualities of thisspiritual teacher: an audacious love that

empowers lives, profound knowledge, wildgenerosity, and a sweet playful genius unparalleled in world literature. “ Need I saymore? Again — all this for only $14.

Next up is an intriguingly titled videoThree Quarters of the World. Released byMeher Baba House in New York, this 30-minute video was designed to be broad-cast on community access/cable TV, andis now made available for individual view-ing. A major portion of the tape consistsof a video conversation with AlexandraMarks, Senior Correspondent with TheChristian Science Monitor, interviewingBhau about Meher Baba. Among the top-ics: Religions, rituals, and ceremonies, TheDream of Illusion, and Meher Baba andHis Manifestation.

This portion of the tape has Englishsubtitles, which is very helpful for peoplewho have difficulty with Bhau’s accent. Asan added bonus, also included is a musicvideo of images of Baba set to Bhau’soriginal song, “Wake Up, 0 People, YouWake Up.”

This video is priced at an unbelievable

$15. You read that right — $15x! At thatprice, you can be very generous in yourgift giving. It is also excellent to have onhand for your friends who want to knowwho that man in all your photos is.

Diana LePage, originally from LosAngles and now residing by Avatar’sAbode in Australia, painted the magnificent portraits of Baba on our cover. Theoriginal painting in oils, over 7 feet high,hangs in Baba’s room at the Abode.

Diana specializes in painting hugeportraits of Baba, and as such, they arepriced out of the average person’s means.However, she has found a way to makeher paintings available for everyone at veryreasonable prices. They are reproduced ona canvas textured medium, much smallerof course, and look very beautiful. Besidesthe cover, we sell a number of her otherportraits, some of which are featured inour Gallery of the Heart on pages 20-23.Sizes and prices will be listed in the Gal-lery order form.

Danny Ladinsky’s book IHeard GodLaughingwas so popular that a group ofmusicians got together and set many ofthe poems to music. Sufism Reorientedhasjust released 3 different CDs and tapeswith 30 or more of Danny’s poems. Two

[ 12 £WUThs I—

F 3dV t Lt 1iP— II

of the CDs are by a very talented MischaRutenberg, who has composed the musicand sings the songs. One is called DanceDervish Dance and the other Come to MyHouse. The third CD - WhisperlLove You— is many of the same poems, but sung bydifferent musicians, each of whom hascomposed their own music — so they arequite different to Mischa’s. A very talentedand musical group indeed!

Sufism Reoriented wants as manypeople as possible to be able to enjoy thisbeautiful music and to absorb the won-derful words — the great love for God thatflows to you in Hafiz/Danny’s originalwords — and then passed on to the listenerwith an extra dollop of love from Mischaand the other singers.

To this end, they have set the purchaseprice at an unbelievable $9! That’s right —

both CDs and tapes are $9 each!Since they only arrived this morning,

I have not had time to listen to them all —

we will review them in the next issue —

but I think by then many of you will havebought them for your self. But at the moment I am listening to and absolutely by-ing the Dance Dervish Dance CD. These,as are the other two, are love poems fromthe East presented in popular song styles

from the West, such as Bossa Nova, rock,pop, ballads, blues, cabaret, and others.

We have two beautiful new tee shirtsto tempt you. As always, printed in coloron 100% cotton and available in M, L, XL,

XXL, and XXXL. The first 3 sizes are $12each and the last 2 are $14. Better orderimmediately if you want the XXL andXXXL as we have very few in this size.

We used to sell car license plate hold-ers made of metal that have “Don’t WorryBe Happy — Avatar Meher Baba” engravedtop and bottom on them, bought about10 years ago. We were able to sell themfor $10. I can’t get them made in that quality for less than $18 now, so I decided todowngrade to a flexible plastic that theytell me has an expected life of 5 years.These sell for only $4.

Finally we were able to buy some ofBaba’s 7 color flags in India. They measure 19”x 34” , are brightly colored cottonand sell for $8. We also have the shoulderbags, quite roomy for tucking books etc.in, made from the same material for thesame price.

To order anything from the Bookstoreyou may phone, write, or email me. Allinformation is on the table of contentspage.

Till next time — see you,In the Bookstore, Dma

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,4

T-shirt createdby Lance Faladino

Three New Sortg Albums WhIsperirtg”l Love You”

: ...., .

‘‘ ..

InspIred by Meher Babas Love for RaFIz

Whisper 1 Love You15 new songs composed and performed by Antoinette Davis, Randy Hammon,Hank Mindlin, Mischa Rutenberg, Victor Seckeler, Julia Skiff.

lJartce Dervish 1Jarce14 new songs composed and sung by Mischa Rutenberg.

Come To tvty Rouse14 more new songs composed and sung by Mischa Rutenberg.

Hafiz Love Poems from the East presented in song styles of the West: rock, pop,ballads, blues, cabaret, bossa nova and more. All lyrics adapted from IHeard GodLaughing Renderings ofHafiz by Daniel Ladinsky. Each album contains more thanan hour of music.

2 -shirt created by Bob Fredericks

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Mother’s Day — May the 9th, was agrand day for celebrating — and not

just for the usual reasons!At our weekly meeting at Meherabode

three very lucky winners were drawn outof the hat ( read -“chosen by Baba” ). This

was the drawing of the fabulous Around

theWorid, Follow in His Footsteps Sweep-stakes that we had told you about in the

January issue.The Grand Prizewinner was our own

Sam Ervin, a long time member of ourCentei and major contributor to all ourefforts. Sometime the ways of our Belovedare difficult to fathom — we must realizethat nothings happens by chance; as Hehas said, “Not a leaf falls but by My will,”and as Mother Teresa so succinctly put it,“It’s easy to tell what is God’s Will — it’swhat happens!”

Many thousands of us would have lovedto have gone — thousands for whom anaround the world trip is totally beyond ourfinancial reach. Sam is one of the fewpeople who could have afforded to go under his own steam — but would he ever?Probably not, as he is a very busy executive. However Baba obviously thought heshouldgo and this is His message to Samand family!

So many of the Baba Centers around

the country are running these Fly to Indiasweepstakes to raise the much needed funds

for their respective Centers, so if you winone do not everthink it is by chance, andso generously give your ticket to someone

else you feel may need it more than you.That is, in effect, saying “Thanks. but nothanks Baba!” Consider it your very per-sonal message from Him.

The second prize of every video we sellin the Love Street Bookstore went to anoverjoyed Ossian Stoddard ofKershaw SC.“It was truly a kiss on the cheek from ourBeloved Baba. What more can one say!”There will be a Baba feast at the Stoddardhome for a long while to come! ConnieCrawford, currently residing in AZ, butpreviously a member of the Center herewon the third prize of a $250 gift certifi

cate to The Love Street Bookstore.

Entries came from around the world,including Australia, India, Canada andEngland.

Congratulations to our three winners andmany thanks to the hundreds of you whoparticipated.

Unfortunately we raised only sufficientto cover all the costs, so on a realistic fund-raising basis it was a bit of a disappointment,but it was certainly fun trying, and I knowwe have brought a lot ofpleasure to the win-ners. Perhaps we should not be quite so am-bitious next time as we were hoping for$30-40,000 on that one. Baba gave u’s thismagnificent Center, but it is definitely a‘fixer-upper’ and needs a lot of work beforewe can get our permit from the City, so wewill definitely be holding many more fund-raisers in which we hope you willjoin to helpus achieve our goals.

A/litchellRose reports on the following

headline in an Indian newspaper:

Rocket Fires India IntoCommercial Orbit

By Suresh Seshadri

SRIHARIHOTA, India

(Reuters)...

Lynne Berry

I you’ve been thinking that some timeyou’d like to make a love-donation to the

Trust, today may be the perfect time.The Avatar Meher Baba Trust runs a

first-rate school, provides medical care forvillagers and maintains Baba’sTomb Shrineand Trust properties. There are also beneficiaries ofthe trust whose living expenses arecovered by donations from Baba-lovers. Allof these worthy projects were specified byBaba Himself, in the Trust Deed. Many ofthe Trust’s charitable projects arid outreachprojects are carried outbyEastern and West-em volunteers.

Some projects, however, require the as-sistance of paid Indian workers, and as In-dia raises its standard of living, the cost ofmaterials and labor is on the rise also.

Morelove-donations are also needed forthe ongoing archives project; preservation ofthe precious articles used and touched byBaba that mean so much to all of us.

If this appeals to you, please make yourcheck payable to Friends of Meher BabaTrust, and send it to: Lynne Berry, 267Hanover Drive, Costa Mesa, CA 92626

D you ever find yourselfin a ‘dry spell’spiritually? Are you bored listening

to the same old negative news, weather andtraffic reports on your way to work? Wouldyou rather have something inspiring to us-ten to? Do you need an interesting themefor your Baba meetings. . .? Well, the audio library has many interesting and intel-lectually stimulating discourses on life withBaba. We have over 150 titlesjust waitingto be delved into by inquiring minds. Whatunsuspecting treasures to behold! Don’twaste your time on this tired old world anylonger. Make your choice to move into thecosmic Baba linkup. Lynne Berry (official

tape walli) is ready to assist you. For catalog or info write to: AMB Lending AudioLibrary do Lynne Berry, 267 HanoverDrive, Costa Mesa, CA 92626-6 173.

I I

AnnouncementsAnd the winner is...

A Note from OurTrust-walli

Mitchell comments “ Tho bad —

fused to like India where it was.”

Audio TapeLending Library

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Dinner Auction at MeherabodeO Annual Fund Raising Dinner

Auction was a wonderful success.The committee, headed up by a very

creative Cookie Reindeau, transformedMeherabode into a Persian Night Under

:

: the Stars. The decor was simply fantas. ‘. tic! No one had ever seen our Center

looking this glamorous! It took Cookieand her he’pers 3 days just to transformthe Center, and many weeks before thatin preparation. The catered Persian Din-ner was sumptuous and the entertainmentand donated auction items were all topnotch. Rick Flynn was flown in fromAtlanta GA to be our MC and chief auc

tioneer. He kept the evening gothg at a livelypace and helped us to raise $29,000!

Our main item was a signed copy of GodSpeaks that went for a very loving donationto the Center of $ 1 1,000. And it was all accomplished by cell phone! We had a callerfrom Northern California who was having awonderful time bidding blind — going onlyby the auctioneers descriptions. Elias endedthe evening with some wonderful Baba treasures, and in the process, moved us closer togetting that new roof we so badly need.

Some of the other treasures that were do-nated for auction were some ivory prayerbeads that belonged to Princess Norma

Matchabelli — they fetched $660, a signedbeautifully framed photo of Maui — $700,$ 1000 for a photo of Upasni Maharaj thathad been touched by Baba, and $2,200 fora framed button and locket, also touchedby Baba. These evenings are so much fun,and do so much good! We had an enormous amount of treasures for Silent Auction, some as low as $5. so no one left emptyhanded. Everyone went home happy andthe Center can now breathe a little easierin the financial department.

A very big thank you to everyone whohelped make this night such a success!

A selection ofiterns for the live auction.

Searching for cherishabies amongst silent auction treasures.

Rick Flynn. Linda Zavala, Wendy WarciCookie Reindeau andFred Stankus, the hard- working committee!

Cookie takliig bids by phone forGod Speaks

I•14 ( II

Book ReviewsIntimate

ConversationsSarah McNeill, Sussex, England

When I finished reading Bal Natu’s

book, Intlinate Conversations with the

A wakenez I turned back to the start and read

it again,just for the another chance to visual-

ize what goes on in the mind of one who is

solely focused on Meher Baba. The book is a

unique work. Inner landscapes of great beauty

are revealed. Baba strides easily into view or

appears quietly beside the author and is re

ceived with a natural and spontaneous delight

so that the reader feels privileged to share the

encounter.The range of Bal Natus personal ques

tions to his Beloved Baba fill the pages of the

book in patterns that intertwine like ara

besques in a Kashmiri shawl. The reader can

follow any one ofthe designs along a thought-

ful thread of question and answer. My per-

sonal starting point at the time ofreading was

this question: “How can the individual expe

rience God as an inner presence when the body

functions as a perceptual apparatus that con-

stantly directs attention to the outer world?”

The thread I chose to follow through formed,

in the end, a perfect circle, though at the start

I could not see where it was leading. But after

I’d copied out carefully selected passages from

some of the answers Bal Natu received in re

sponse to his questions, here what I found in

answer to mine:“The purpose of ha ving a human body

is to understano feel and realize the blissfu]

formles Infinite spirit ever residing in you,

that I am. Understanding the paramount im

portance and function of the human body

must become a longing of the heart - an in-

tensepassion. Yourmindis ‘7iydra-headed soyou

are unable to make anyLirm decision that is dose

to your original nature. This impedes the bios-

somingofhfBlossoming is a very natural and deli-

cate process ofgradually becoming a ware of

Mypresence withinyou ftis an art ofabid

ingjoyfufly, withouthinerresistance to thenum

beriess laws ofnature that are operatthg in and

throughyour life.Just start to witness whatever it is that is

FL ‘,

•:

happening withinyou andaroundyou, whith is

oniy theperihery oflife, andreturn to the Cen

tre which Jam. Thi is the way to grow in my

presence. Let thli beyour deep passion, your sole

focus.Ifin your life you allow the insignificant

to become significant, you will find that even

ordinary chores and duties become channels

to feel my loving presence. Start to remem

ber me at the beginning and also at the end

of every major activity ofyour daily routine.

The you will notice that I am also particiat

ing with you. Occasionally my intimate re

sponse will flood your being.Subtler than space, finer than time, My

presence is ever accessible, though not nec-

essarily easy to reach. Silent dialogue with

me is one of the ways of feeling my pres

ence. Ifyour inner attention is focused on

Me you will sense a delicate tug within you,

regardless of the activity you are engaged in,

andyou will become aware that I am caring

for you, anxious to help you. No activity is

insignificant.Th be practical, start with any ordinary

activity, like sl4oping into your clothes, lift-

ing a spoon orputtingpen to paper Jam

verypleased whenyou rememberme during very

ordinary actions. Because your ‘i-ness “ is most

deepfrandfirmlyrootedin ordinary thihgs. Call

on mein the little - nayin thelittlest things that

youdo. Fortheythen sprout tinyyetmighty wings

which wilgracefully transportyou to the higher

andsubtlerrealms ofMypresence withinyou.

Wash the dishes, dean anddry them softly as

ifyou were offeringyourprayers toMe. Attendto

your bills and memoranda as though you were

doing all that buskiess for Me. Don divide life

into the temporaland the spfritual. Jam the In-

divisible One.Calling on Me helps shed unwanted bur

dens gathered during the initial pursuit of

external goals. One begins to feel light in

heart and mind. Gradually the burden of

thoughts and feelings falls away, the douds

of confusion disperse. This marks the auspi

cious moment when one perspective shifts

from outer to innerIt is only when you slow down that the

secrets of life can begin to reveal themselves

to you. But you have to understand that go-

ing slow isn the same as moving slowly To

go slow means to stay centred in my remem

brance. It means honoring every activity by

giving each its full measure of attention.

Perhapsyou may wonder how this is done?

Bybringingbody, mindandheartintoharmony

Once this harmony is establisheo then even the

most rapid movements ofa dancer or an athlete

are clow”because they are totally centered lii the

movement. What Ic harmony? When there is no

conflictbetween thoughts, feelings andactivities,

they express themselves in one resonance. That Ic

harmony. Moments ofharmony are precious of-

ferings to Me. W]th this harmonyyou will find

that life takes on a subtiei more precise rhythm.

You become aware ofthe sheer immensity oflife,

withits diversityandinterconnected-ness. A time

wilcome whenyou wiigo so slow thatyou won

be concernedabout what wiihappen even in the

next moment.Th ctay low”is toperceive myglory in ev

eryone andeverythingand to honourit with all

respect. ft is to be conscious that Myglory Ic the

source andfoundation ofFerception itself”

That statement brought me back to the

question I’d had in mind at the outset and I

felt this completed the answer. A great deal

has been left out in selecting these particular

quotes. To fill in all the gaps, you will have to

read the book! All I have done here is to pur

sue one line of thought through the pages of

this book. Just one thread in the pattern Bal

Natu weaves through his narrative. The over-

all design is rich enough for each reader to

find and follow a different line of thought,

guided by the signposts ofBal’s questions and

answers in this third volume of his Conversa-

tions with theA wakener

Published by Sheriar Press, available atThe Love Street Bookstore, paperback $12.

Music ReviewsTechnoBaba

Robert Fredericks’ New CD

by Robert Kinnery, Meeker, AK

Techno Baba is an interesting mix of

neurotic visionary ambition and

acoustic inner-achievement. It has entered

the left field of Meher Baba musical cul

ture and will leave it’s mark on it some-

where. Never before has the Baba-culture

been injected with 648 megabytes of elec

tronic music that pretends to be solemn,

sober, sagacious and danceable at the same

time.

,

- —- . - ---

u ‘3 t ( ‘3 t (b \3 @ i]The mix master of TB has taken

soundbytes from Meher Baba’s mandali(and also a Meherabad volleyball game)and has mixed them into electronic mu-sic to, as he puts it, “reframe them” so theresult is a collage of sound and speech tohelp the listener into a meditative modeof absorbing the content of the talk.

What to say about these 73 minutesof insolent yet innocuous yet for some reason, satisfying sounds, except to say “MayBaba’s Nazar be on the conflicted soul whocreated it!” I would recommend TechnoBaba to all those who are ready to hearsomething different.

You can hear samples of this CD onthe www by going to: http://westwood.fo r t u n e c i t y. c o m I m c q u e e n I 6 8 4 Itechnobaba.html

Following are some of the commentsfrom folks who have heard this most unusual work:

TechnoBaba tracks finally knock my Babamusic world out of the 70s framework.“Baba can use any means” as Mani says(in TechnoBaba)” — Ken Neunzig

“The TechnoBaba is great. . .it is a greatthing for the youth to hear Mani’s andEruch’s voice. It is a great thing you did.Baba gave you a good idea.”

—Rustom and Sohrab Irani toRobert Fredericks.

“Cool Man! Radical! Like — wow!Awesome, dude!”

. . .overheard by a gaggle ofunidentified older teenagers.

IThokltasa SignSomeone sent a band to my house,

Andit startedplayingAt five in the morning

Itook this as a signGod wantedme to sing!

Then the moonjoined inAnd a few ofthe tenor- voiced stars,

And the earth offeredits lovely bellyAs a drum.

Before Iknew it,

IrealizedAflhuman beings could be happy

Iftheyjusthada few music lessonsFrom a Sweet OldMaestro

Like Hafiz.

IHeard GodLaughing, Renderings ofHafiby Daniel Ladinsky, Dharma Publishing, 1996.

“

This CD is totally awesome! the

[IE £ov&Streetf.,nmosr 17 j

I I ( e II

Video ReviewsDon WorryBeHappyand Souls On Fire

by Melani Jones

Don WorryBe Happy. Cindy Paulsoninterviews Dr. Meredith Moon and BillStephens on Hawaii Public Television,March 17, 1999, 60 minutes, VHS.

I this heartwarming video, MeredithMoon, Ph.D, tells for the first time the

story of her search for God, and the excite-ment of coming to Meher Baba. Throughouther life, until 1970, Meredith sought Godwithout finding any evidence of God’s reality.Everywhere she went, she asked people, “Howdo you know that God is real?” No one evergave her a satisfactory answer to that question.

On the morning of December 7, 1970,without warning, Meredith Moon saw a brilliant white light streaming into her room. Herattention became focused on an oval-shapedaura at the foot ofher bed. Suddenly the real-ity of God Presence filled her entire being,and she began to weep uncontrollably. “You’rereal. You’re real! You’re really real!” she cried.A kind of sweet energy came from the auraand wrapped around her like a cocoon. Fromthat moment on, her heart was filled with unconditional love and she knew that God isLove. At the same time, she realized that nolearning had led to that experience. It was agift, pure and simple—a gift of God’s preciousgrace.

The sense of God immediate Presencestayed with Meredith for about a month.Then, to her dismay, it left her, and she beganto experience her own personal “dark night ofthe soul.” During that long and difficult penod, she traveled widely, going to ashrams,visiting spiritual groups, seeking contact ofsome kind with that Presence of God she hadknown. But nothing helped. Nothing seemedto bring her closer to that Reality she knewexisted. Once she happened to open a MeherBaba book and read the words, “I am God inhuman form,” and she threw the book downin disgust.

She was led to study psychology and psychotherapy. Attracted to Carl Jung, she tooksome of her training at the Carl Jung Institute in Switzerland. But still she could not

find the peace and bliss she had known forthat precious month in 1970. But then, whileliving in Virginia, she met Charles Haynes,who had met Meher Baba and who was thenteaching college religion classes. Charles’knowledge, sincerity and humility won herovei and she somehow knew that Meher Babawas a truly great Master. SubsequentlyMeredith Moon and Charles Haynes taughta course together. Finally Meredith went tothe Meher Spiritual Center in Myrtle Beach,where she recognized Meher Baba as the God-man, and as her personal Master. Soon after,she made her first of many pilgrimages to In-dia, where she immersed herself in Baba and

became close to Baba’s intimate disciples.Meredith lives on the island of Maui, whereshe does her Baba-centered psychotherapyand dreamwork with her patients, and is active in the Meher Baba community..

This highly recommended video featuresa spirited discussion by Cindy Paulos and BillStephens. along with Meredith, about MeherBaba’s life and work, His Samadhi andmandali in India, and the Meher SpiritualCenter in Myrtle Beach, SC. It also containssparkling footage of Meher Baba from PeteTownshend’s great video OParvardigaralongwith Pete himself singing his rousing versionofthe Parvardigar Prayer, $20, one hour long.

Souls OnFire. Cindy Paulson interviewsWilliam M. Stephens on Hawaii PublicTelevision,March 3, 1999, 60 minutes,VHS

Whether you’ve read Bill Stephenss latest book Souls On Fireor not, you’ll enjoy thisinterview of Bill by popular TV host CindyPaulos. Stephens tells some of the stories be-hind the stories featured in his book, Souls OnFire, which profiles some of Meher Baba’s favorite saints, mystics and masters, such asMirabai, Hafiz, Rumi, Teresa of Avila, theimmortal Babajan, Ramakrishna and manymore great souls.

Get this video and learn why the greatsadguru and immortal poet, Kabir, is buriedin two separate tombs. One ofthe tombs is ina mosque, and the other is in a Hindu temple.Learn, too, why Kabir, when death was near,insisted on traveling to Magar (despite theancient belief that persons who die in Magarreincarnate as monkeys) instead of droppinghis body in the holy city of Benares (wheretradition held that dying in Benares wouldassure a high birth in the next incarnation).Learn, too, how a great sorcerer who hadmurdered dozens of innocent people became,through the grace of God, the most famoussaint in all of Tibet.

One story of Bill’s that touched my heartis his account (first related by Meher Baba) ofRabia of Basra, reputed to be the most beau-tiful woman in the world. As a child, Rabiawas sold into slavery after her parents died ina famine. Growing up under harsh, even brutal, conditions, Rabia was sustained by innerstrength, and she radiated serenity and purity.Toiling day and night as a slave, she wouldpray to God in the early hours before dawn.One morning her owner, a merchant, observedher in prayer and saw a great light over herhead. Convinced she was a saint, he releasedher from bondage. For a time she lived in acave and earned money as a musician. Latershe actually lived in a brothel. But this was acover for her real work of saving souls, for heronly lover was God.

Rabia, of course, was one of Meher Babafavorite saints. And Baba told us that Rabialater reincarnated (for her last birth) asBabajan, the great Master who lifted the veilfrom the consciousness ofAvatar Meher Baba.

Another wonderful story is about Mirabai,a sixteenth century Hindu queen whose heartwas aflame with love for God. After her husband, the king, was killed in battle, the newking and queen were embarrassed by Mfrabasreligious fervor, her consorting with sadhusand dervishes, and her ecstatic dancing. Timeafter time, they tried to murder her but theLord Krishna always protected and saved her.Mirabai’s songs are still sung all over India.

There’s all this, and much, much more inthis hour-long video, including Bill Stephenssown personal story ofcoming to Baba througha near-death experience that changed himfrom an agnostic to a lover ofGod, and erasedhis addiction to alcohol in the bargain! Thisoutstanding video should be in every Babalove?s library. $ 15 — 1 hour playing time.

I ...... ,

=-_

ii. 4:’3.e. eli

Three-Quarters oftheWorlcL’A Chat with

Bhau KaichuriThis is a 30-minute video with subtitles.Interview conducted by Alexandra Marks.Directed and Edited by David Hammer.Produced by ‘Destroyer’ (LynwoodSawyer).

Review by Kendra Crossen Burroughs,Meher Mount, Ojai, CA

S eated in front of a formal backdrop ofblack drapes, the little man stuttering in a

heavy Indian accent seems slightly awkward.The beautiful, poised, articulate Americanjournalist is asking him a logical question—“Who is MeherBaba?”—and shewants a logical an-swer. She wants himto explain that Baba isa spiritual master, thathe was born in India,that he calls himselfthe Avatar. But BhauKalchuri won’t playthe game. His reply issimple: “He says, ‘I amyou.”

It’s a promisingbeginning to thisunique video with itsprovocative title. TheJune 1998 interviewcame about by auspicious coincidence after Bhau’s scheduled talk on peace at theUnited Nations was canceled owing to strictsecurity around a conference on drugs attendedby world leaders.

Alexandra Marks, a Baba lover who is Se-nior Correspondent for the Christian ScienceMonitor, is the interviewer. In addition to stillsand film clips of Baba, there is a song withlyrics by Bhau, “Wake Up, 0 People, YouWake Up,” beautifully performed by BetsyGreene and others.

The excitement of the folks who put thisvideo together seemed somehow tangible as Ilooked at the box, read the accompanying flyer,and viewed the tape. They know it is good,and that it is all Baba’s doing.

The conversation touches on several vitalthemes—world peace, drug abuse, religion.

Most significant, I believe, is Bhaus emphasisthat the mind must go and the heart mustcome. This is a strange assertion to make to atelevision audience (for whom the video wasdesigned)—the “average” people who, as Alexkeeps reminding Bhau, are out there wonder-ing what on earth he talking about. But Bhaumakes the assertion with confidence. This is aman who was trained by Baba to withstandridicule and humiliation. He is not worriedabout what people think; he is determinedsimply to deliver to them the Name of MeherBaba and the message that they must stopthinking and start feeling. I watch the videoagain, to practice and learn to hear with theheart what he is saying, because it is very important, and it does not make sense whenheard with the mind.

It strikes me thatthe interview is actuallya conversation betweenthe mind and the heart.But don’t worry aboutAlex having to play thepart of the bad guy. Itonly an act — her lipswhen she pronouncesthe lovely name ofBaba betray her.

I think this is animportant video. Iimagine it beingwatched hungrily bypeople in the not-too-distant future —

people who have justrealized who Baba is. Isavor the thought of

what they will experience when they get tothe end, with that incredible image of a littlegirl’s face dissolving into Baba’s, and that dynamite bit of eye contact with the Beloved.Incidentally, Baba did say that someone wouldget Realization through watching Him on afilm (see G1owInternationa August 1998,page. 19). Love Street Bookstore. $10.

Dios Hablaby Don Stevens, Nice, France

O ne of the first projects discussed be-tween Baba and Don Stevens to be

carried out was the start of translating theDiscourses into French, Spanish and German. The French and Spanish translations

were made and published some years ago,but it soon became clear that unless suchworks were brought to the market by awell-established publisher, they tended toremain in storage unsold and not in thehands of devouring aspirants. Finding andinteresting the publisher link then becamethe goal of much of Don’s and Companion Books’ efforts.

Not long ago Don’s last boss, the Secretary for Energy for some time in theSpanish government, upbraided Don fornot having used their friendship earlier tosolve the problem in Spain, and promptlyturned up the personal introduction toSpain’s most respected publisher in theesoteric field, Editorial Kairos, owned bythe Paniker family, which is half Spanishand half Kerala Indian, a wonderful combination thatjust has to have been set upby Baba.

Paniker father and son immediatelybecame enamored of God Speaks, but decided that its publishing would have to bepreceded by the appearance of a biography of Baba half on his life story, and halfoutlining his philosophy. After a few ad-ventures, they set the specifications forthis book and told Don to write it forthem. After a few more adventures’ Dondid just that, and Heather Nadel andMeherwan Jessawala spent a month withhim going over the final draft.

Meanwhile, that great adventurer JoséHenriques, residing in Argentina, discovered the man waiting in the wings for thetranslating of God Speaks, which was yetto be done. Hector Morel promptly turnedout stunning translations of both GodSpeaks and the Baba biography.

Kairos have now given a firm releasedate for the Spanish biography of 0cm-ber, and Sheriar expect to complete MeherBaba, the Awakener of the Age this sum-mer. Kairos have set a realistic sales goalfor the biography, and will then publishBios Habla. All three books will be avail-able throughout the Americas and Eu-rope. If you don’t know Spanish you’dbetter start learning it right away to enjoythe artistry of Morel’s translation, whichhad the Sufis’ Spanish language expert lostin a sort of continuing ecstasy. Do youhave a favorite bookstore which you canpersuade to stock these treasures?

19J

Bhau Kaichuri with MeherBaba.

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What of theWarm-Housed Ones?

Francis Brabazon

What of the warm-housed ones,

and us on this trackless journey?

How great the distance between us —

we are bound

and they are free.

I would return to the hills of my youth

and work

in the fields —

But what woman would I now lead out

at the harvest festivals?

To partner me could only be one whom

all other men scorn —

Yet to match my spirit’s step no goddess

has yet been born.

Following the melodies and rhythms of

your glance

Has made me an expert in every type

of dance.

I have been dancing since you sent the

stars out on your breath —

Dancing with my pretty shadow in a

Dance of Death.

Lately, bushman-eyed (so I thought)

I have been tracking

your footprints to your

dwelling-place —

Baba, our hearts are brokeninto by You

everyday!Breaking and entering is the charge.

Now, what do Youhave to say?

Larceny, too, for we have foundsome worries

have disappeared.If You offer up an alibi

from these charges You can becleared.

Still the evidence is mountingthat You are the

Master Thief,And that You’ll be found guilty,

well, we havefull belief.

But we’re prepared to bargainas regards

Your plea.Just promise to keep on breaking in,

and we’ll happilyset You free!

Meher Baba on LoveWhatisLove?

To give and never to ask.

Whatleads to thisLove? . .

Grace. .. . .

., .%:“•‘.. . .‘

Whatleads to this Grace? :.4:jøGrace is not cheaply bought.

It is gained by being always ready to serve and reluctant to be served.There are many points which lead to this Grace:

Wishing welifor others at the cost ofonei’ selENever bathbftinTolerance supreme.

Tryingnat to worry.S----

Trying not to worry is almost impossible — so try!Thinking more of the good points in others

and less of their bad points

< .;.:•

Whatleads to this Grace?Doing all of the above.

If you do one of these things perfectly, the rest must follow.Then Grace descends.

Have Love — and when you have Love,the union with the Beloved is certain.

When Christ said, Thove your neighbor,”

he did not mean fall in love with your neighbor.When you love, you give: when you fall in love, you want.

Love me in any way you like, but love me. It is all the same.

Loveme

I am pure, the Source of purity, so I consume allweaknesses in my fire of Love. Give your sins,

weaknesses, virtues, all to me — but give. I would not mindeven one falling in love with me — I can purify; but when you

fall in love with anybody else, you cannot call it love.Love is pure as God.

It gives and never asks; that needs Grace.

ThePath ofLove, ed. Filis Frederick, pp. 98-99Copyright 1986 AMBPPCT.

Baba Our Hearts Are Brokenby Ron Greenstein

Only now to discover that all along

I have been in love

with my shadow’s charming face!

Walled on one side by desert and on the

other by sea,

There is nothing for it now but to await

your whim’s mercy.

From The BelovedisAiin All

© 1988 Avatar’s Abode Trust, Australia,Published in the U.S. by Beloved Books.

[ 24 4 Jtreet£;thsr

---- -

Humor for Huma

Limericks

I all began when Jamie Newell and hiswife Zo were discussing some Baba re

lated topics and she began reading a quotefrom Lord Meher (page 4169) in whichMeher Babasays: Ynlranliveda wall namedSabir.“

Jamie began to laugh, and Zo stoppedreading to ask why he was laughing. He replied:

‘in Iran liveda Wall Sabirwho went around quoting KabirHe said “Thereyou arethough Godseems so faihe actually is very near!”

They had a good chuckle, and he put itout on the Baba List serv, suggesting thatwe could all have fun making Baba limericks.

Following are some of the better efforts.If any of our readers want to join the game— we would love to hear from you.

From Frank Bloise

There once was a disciple who thoughtThat in his Master’s web he was caughtSo he tried his bestTo pass every testAnd treasured what his Master taught

There was once a sweet child born in PoonaAn event for the world per fortunaHe came and He wentLeaving most to repentThe missed chance to dive deep in Varuna

From Jamie Newell

A great master named Babajansat with a boy named Merwantwixt his eyebrows her kissbrought the young man such blisshis consciousness of the gross world was gone

From Ron Greenstein

There was once a disciple named ManiWith a disposition so sunnyShe’s passed and we’ve missed herThe Beloved’s kid sisterHer stories were charmingHer smile quite disarmingAnd her jokes were well-told and funny

From Anne Fahy

As He walked in MahabaleshwarFew knew He was ParameshwarHe took in the sightsBooked a room for the nightHavingjust arrived for Alwar.

An actress by the name of Tallulahhad interests that ran to peculiarShe told the Avatar:“You are the Real Star,BABA Dahlirig I never could fool ya”

As Annie I make my confessionBefore Baba, my life was depression.He yanked me by the mane,Said “you’re missing the best part of my game.”Now my blues are only impression.

As He rode up to Harmon on HudsonBaba dreamed up the man named Ted JudsonAn architect will he behe will sing hymms to meI’ll make him taller than Elmer Fudd’s son.

From Sarah McNeill

A Delhi djinn in a djellabaWas corked in a flask in the harbour;And he tried to get freeWith ten thousand and threeShouts of “Jai Avatar Meher Baba!”

A flower-loving lady from Saaba,Decided to make a nice arbour.When her friends went in thereAnd beheld a fine chair,They said, “Hey! Its an arbour for Baba!”

Said a foot-weary pilgrim from Pune,Overcome by the heat of mid-June,“If I say Baba’s NameAgain and againI’ll eventually reach Dehra Dun”.Then he cried, as the fierce heat of noonWas dispelled by a sudden monsoon,“If I’d done that beforeHe’d have helped even moreAnd I could’ve reached Dehra Dun sooner.”

A Westerner offered prasadSaid “I can’t eat that stuff. Suga?s bad!”Though, reclining at easeIn her salwar kameez,Her Real Self was feeling real bad.

A Thai teacher teaching Tai ChiWhile drinking a cup of chal tea,Said, “I think I can seeThat my future should beTeaching I Ching instead ofTai Chi.”

Dog and Cat

A newly discovered chapter in the Bookof Genesis has provided the answer to

“ Where do pets come from?” Adam said,“Lord, when I was in the garden, you walkedwith me every day. Now I do not see youanymore. I am lonesome here and it is difficult for me to remember how much you loveme.”

And God said, “No problem! I will createa companion for you that will be with you for-ever and who will be a reflection of my lovefor you, so that you will love me even whenyou cannot see me. Regardless of how selfishor childish or unlovable you may be, this newcompanion will accept you as you are & willlove you as I do, in spite of yourself.”

And God created a new animal to be acompanion for Adam. And it was a good animal. And God was pleased. And the new animal was pleased to be with Adam and hewagged his tail. And Adam said, “Lord, I havealready named all the animals in the King-dom and I cannot think of a name for thisnew animal.”

And God said, “No problem! Because Ihave created this new animal to be a reflection of my love for you, his name will be areflection of my own name, and you will callhim DOG.”

And Doglived with Adam and was a corn-panion to him and loved him. And Adam wascomforted. And God was pleased. And Dogwas content and wagged his tail.

After a while, it came to pass that Adam’sguardian angel came to the Lord and said,“Lord, Adam has become filled with pride.He struts and preens like a peacock and hebelieves he is worthy of adoration. Dog hasindeed taught him that he is loved, but per-haps too well.”

And the Lord said, “No problem! I willcreate for him a companion who will be withhim forever and who will see him as he is. Thecompanion will remind him ofhis limitations,so he will know that he is not always worthyof adoration.”

And God created CAT to be a companion to Adam. And Cat would not obey Adam.And when Adam gazed into Cat’s eyes, hewas reminded that he was not the supremebeing. And Adam learned humility. And Godwas pleased. And Adam was greatly improved.

And Dog was happy. And the cat didn’t givea fig one way or the other.

11 25 “j

---_-

—,...

( : (zi \3

The Midwest Gatheringby Robert Fredericks, Chicago, IL

Meher Baba’s twin nephews, Rustomand Sohrab Irani, Jal and Dolly

Dastur and musical guest Jane Brown di-rected our focus for the weekend to ourBeloved Avatar Meher Baba. This was thetenth anniversary of the Midwest gathering under the organizational efforts ofCarol and Miron Kovalevych, HelenKeuller, and Louie Fladger who put theirheart and soul into the work of providingthe 80 attendees with a wonderful week-end of worry free accommodations, anabundance of guests, and all you can eatmeals. Rene, Miron and Loule spenthours in the kitchen sacrificing their timeto create the best tasting homemade Ia-sagna, salads, fruit and veg-etable dishes, veg andnon-veg meals arid dessertswest of Bombay! But Sat-urday morning found JalDastur in the kitchen preparing dessert, a specialtreat of watermelon juiceenjoyedby all!

The attendees of theMidwest Gathering hailfrom Illinois, Wisconsin,Minnesota, Indiana,Michigan, Iowa, and a fewother places around theU.S. The opportunity torenew friendships madefrom many years of Gatherings andjourneys to Myrtle Beach and In-dia, created the warmth that so many valueand which draws people from miles away toattend.

This weekend of love and sharing beganwith home cooking created and organizedby Renee Keuler, then a musical performanceby Jane Brown and guitarist John Poeg, followed by Rustom and Sohrab deliveringtheir famous foot-stomping, hand-clappingghazals, and humorous and poignant stories of their life with their Uncle Baba andAunt Mani. These two can lift even the mostworld-weary spirits with their music and pat-ter in a matter of moments.

Dolly Dastur led the 7 am Arti with mu-sic from Ten Veras, Michelle Shaffer, Bob

Fredericks, LisaNelson, Linda

Jones and others.A breakfast offruit salad,homemade breadand croissants,and then back tothe meeting hallfor more Babastories.

Jal and Dollytold us of theirtimeless moments spent withBaba, their rela

tionship to the Mandali - Mani, Eruch,Mehera, Padri and the others, and theirfeelings and thoughts on how to live withMeher Baba today. Though Jal and Dollyare travelling across the U.S. this year, this

h was the only Sahavas program they areattending and the Midwesterners werevery fortunate to hear their stories in theexpanded format that the Sahavas pro-vides.

After lunch, a musical dessert was en-joyed by all as Jane Brown sang, accompanied on viola by Mira Lutgendorf. Thenthe twins launched once again into theirtreasure trove of Baba, Mehera, and Mani,stories, musical favorites, and concludedwith the rousing Gaate Chelo.The Saturday night program began sol

emnly when Kyle Morrison offered up a fewthoughts on what the tenth anniversary ofthe Midwest gathering meant to him, andthen moved into a lighter arena with songsand poetry presented by the youngestsahavasees. The evening concluded with adance featuring music from Techno Baba,the wildly different Avataric Trance DanceCD. It started with the track, A.M.B.K.J.which features Rustom and Sohrab speak-ing over electronic dance music. People weretorn between listening to the words or dancing up a storm to the music. Either way — itwas a big hit!

Sunday morning began again with Artiat 7 am, and then following breakfast we

At Rockford, Illinois, May 22-24th

JalandDollyspeaking to all.

I I 26 jtreetJamj1bsr J

Brown brought her warm charmand sweet voice to the Midwest for

L the first time and she moved deftlybetween poignant Indian ghazals to

4‘60s rock and roll. We hope she willreturn as our guest singer soon.

f i But most of all, the reason for

F ; the Sahavas was to receive and share

ABeloved Baba’s love and warmth

I ‘and family and His tender hug tolast us all another year. Baba’s presence was felt by all as they departed

r for only a short separation as theBob Fredricks andMarvin Shaeffer entertaining us. .

iviidwest will have a second gath

gathered for the last story telling session with ering on August 27-29th with guest speaker

Jal and Dolly. Jal speaks slowly and deliber- B h a u

ately, retelling stories that he lived through Kalchuri.

with a weight that underlines their signifi- For infor

cance to him. Dolly speaks more brightly and mation on

freely with a lightness that reveals her peace attending

andjoy in living with her Beloved. Together the August

they make the perfect couple, complement- gathering

ing each other and filling in each others sto- call Carol

ries when necessary. They are a treasure of at (312)

the Baba community and the Midwest 6330696.

Gathering thanks them sincerely for the timethey spent with us.

Sohrab speaks and sings boldly, Rustomrelaxes and waits for the next song. They areBeloved Baba’s incomparable twins, whohave so enriched us and will continue to do

so for many years. They are a favorite of theMidwest and we look forward once again towelcoming them with a Baba embrace. Jane

A Wio HolyBandHafiz

Your breath is a sacred clock, my dear—Why not use it to keep time

with God’s Name?

And if your feet are ever mobileUpon this ancient drum, the earth,

0 do not let your precious movementsCome to naught.

Let your steps dance silentlyto the rhythm of the Beloved’s Name!

My fIngers and my handsNever move through empty space,

For there areInvisible golden lute strings all around,

Sending Resplendent ChordsThroughout the Universe.

I hear the voiceof every creature and plant,

Every world and sun and galaxy—Singing the Beloved’s Name!

I have awakened to find violin and cello,Flute, harp and trumpet,Cymbal, bell and drum—

All within me!From head to toe, every part of my body

Is chanting and clapping!

Hafiz,The Beloved has made you

Such a Luminous Man!

For with constant remembrance of God,One’s whole body will become

A Wonderful and WildHoly Band!

IHeard GodLaughing, Renderings ofHafizby Daniel Ladinsky Dharma Printing, 1996.

Iane Brown dancingSaturday niqht.

The Midwest Gathering. Jai Baba!Allphotos byJohn Poag.

F 2J1

( (

Silence Day QuotesMeher Baba (from various sources)

God has been everlastingly working insilence, unobserved , unheard, except

by those who experience His infinite silence.If my silence cannot speak, of what availwould be speeches made by the tongue? Thevery moment when He thinks my speakingshould be heard universally, God will makeme break my silence.

Through endless time Gods greatest giftis continuously given in silence. But whenmankind becomes completely deaf to thethunder of His silence, God incarnates asman. The Unlimited assumes the limited, toshake Maya-drugged humanity to a con-sciousness of its true destiny and to give aspiritual push to the world by His physicalpresence on earth. He uses the body for Hisuniversal work, to be discarded in final sac-rifice as soon as it has served its purpose.

God has come again and again in van-ous forms, has spoken again an again in different onds and different languages thesame one Truth - but how many are therethat live up to it? Instead of making Truththe vita! breath of his life, man compromisesby making over and oven again a mechanicalreligion of it - as a handy staff to lean on intimes of adversity, as a soothing balm for hisconscience or as a tradition to be followedin the footsteps of the past. Man’s inabilityto live God’s words makes them a mockery.How many Christians follow Chris’s teach-ing to ‘turn the other cheek’ or ‘love thyneighbor as thyself’? How many Muslimsfollow Mohammed’s precept to ‘hold Godabove everything else’? How many Hindus‘bear the torch of righteousness at all cost’?How many Buddhists live the ‘life of purecompassion’ expounded by Buddha? Howmany Zoroastnians ‘think truly, speak truly,act truly’? God’s Truth cannot be ignored;and thus by mankind’s ignorance and weak-ness a tremendous adverse reaction is pro-

duced - and the world finds itself in acauldron of suffering through wars, hate,conflicting ideologies and nature’s rebellionin the forms offloods, famines, earthquakes,and other disasters. Ultimately when theapex is reached, God manifests in humanform to guide mankind to the destructionof its self-created evil, that it may be reestablished in the Divine Truth.

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ijltCflCCIfyou were to ask me why I do not speak,

I would say I am not silent, and that I speakmore eloquently through gestures and thealphabet board. Ifyou were to ask me why Ido not talk, I would say, mostly for three reasons. Firstly, I feel that through you all I amtalking eternally. Secondly, to relieve theboredom of talking incessantly through yourforms, I keep silence in my personal physical form. And thirdly, because all talk in it-self is idle talk. Lectures, messages,statements, discourses of any kind, spiritualor otherwise, imparted through utterancesor writings, arejust idle talk when not actedupon or lived up to.

I am never silent. I speak eternally. Thevoice that is heard deep within the soul ismy voice. . the voice of inspiration, of intuition, of guidance. To those who are receptive to this voice, I speak.

Baba Keeps SilenceIvyO.Duce

There are as many theories about whyBaba kept silence as there are people to

propound them. One thing is certain, and thatis that Babas silence had no resemblance what-ever to that held by religiouses who under-take it for the sake of undisturbed meditationor contemplation.

Watching Baba handling three or four as-pects of communication at once, on different

levels and perhaps over vast distances, con-vinced me that it was absolutely necessary forhim to conserve every second in order to gethis universal work done. He always came di-rectly to the pofrit and never wasted a wordwhen dictating to us. Of course he often reminded us that when he did finally break hissilence, his word would have the effect of anatom bomb and that if he did not observe silence, how then could he break it and make itthat effective?

He also said, “The Avatar always goesthrough some special crucifixion. Jesus spentforty days in the wilderness. Baba keeps silence.” In 1965 he had been silent for fortyyears!

Howa Master Works, p.86Copyright 1975 Sufism Reoriented, Inc.

Meher Baba’sDeafening Silence

by Sky Emerson Wiseman, Billings, MT

M eher Baba’s Silence is perhaps themost remarkable and intriguing aspect

of His Advent as Avatar of the Age. I havespent considerable time contemplating His Si-lence and reflecting on its meaning. Mysticalconcepts such as “Speaking the Word” and“The Soundless Sound” present challenges tomylimited mind but penetrate to a deep heartlevel beyond the realm ofthought. The physical difficulty of maintaining silence for evenone day in my routine worldly existence causesme to view Baba’s incredible silence with awe.For Baba intensely active life as The Avatarto have been carried out in silence is beyondcomprehension. Beloved Baba has given usmany esoteric statements regarding His Si-lence, and each of these statements is in itselfa multifacetedjewel capable oftaking us wherewe have never been. Yet finally, no matter howmuch I draw my attention to Baba’s Silence,the beauty and power ofits exquisite meaninglies far beyond the arena of my limited experience and my limited power of expression.

There is one particular experience for mein this lifetime that stands out as one in whichI felt, if only briefly, something of the essenceof Baba Silence. It was a Silence that never-berated in my inner being out ofthe depths ofHis Ocean. To this day the experience remainspowerfully etched in my consciousness. InMeherabad on Silence Day morning 1988, I

11284/ vtcr :,:.;:i ii

I \3 ‘ 4 ‘3 0 t (a @ êi Ihad the privilege of entering the Jhopdi Hutwhere Baba had retired that night of July 9,1925 to begin His Silence. The Jhopdi hadbeen opened especially for all to visit on Si-lence Day, and yet I remained in the hut forwhat seemed liked an eternity. While I satquietly in that simple sacred space Baba’s Si-lence became tangible. His Silence emanatedfrom every corner of the room, and my per-ception was that it was not only deafening butblinding. Never have I experienced an atmosphere more light and ethereal. The impact ofBeloved Babas Silence was so intense that forweeks after returning to America I coulddeepen into a feeling ofbeing in its midst. Eventoday, I can sometimes feel the Silence of theBeloved pouring forth that morning in HisJhopdi.

Later that Silence Day afternoon I waspresent when Mehera, Mani, and the otherwomen Mandali walked to Baba Samadhi.His Silence once again came raining down asthe women moved majestically up Meherabad Hill. Mehera caught my eye and noddedalmost imperceptibly as She passed by. It wasas if She spoke to me inwardly saying, “This isHis Silence. Do you hear it? Do you feel it?”The events of that Silence Day often comeflooding back to me. I experienced only themerest sense of Baba’s deafening Silence thatday, but it penetrated deep into the core of my

being. He filled my cup with Silence that dayand I was incapable of receiving any more.

When the question of the meaning of

Baba Silence is posed, the closest I can cometo answering is to silently reflect on the exquisite light of the Jhopdi illuminating myheart in great waves of His Divine Love — HisJhopdi and a glance from the One who lovesHim as He “should be loved.” Silence — Deaf-ening Silence.

Language of the HeartBal Natu, Meherabad, India

S tarting in 1959, Meher Baba beganspending the summer months in Pune at

Guruprasad. This was a mansion on BundGarden Road, given for His use by the Ma-harani of Baroda. Through the early 60s Hecompassionately allowed His lovers to comefor His darshan on some weekends. FrequentlyMadhusudan of Pune, who was regarded by

Baba lovers in India as their song writer laureate, would visit Guruprasad to sing for Baba

at small and large gatherings. He had composed many Baba songs and Baba would en-joy hearing them. The lively tunes made thewords ofpraise that much more appealing andBaba would often have Madhusudan, accompanied by others, sing for Him and the as-sembled group.

One of his songs which was well receivedwas “Meher Ekam.” One interesting featureof this song was that all of the lines, as far as Iremember, ended with the letter “m.” Thisstruck Baba fancy. So much so, that for a whileHe took to adding an “m” to the names of thoseresiding with Him at Guruprasad. For example, Pendu became Penduem (not the sameas in the earlier years, Baba had nicknamedhim as Pendulum) , Vishnum, Meherjeem, etc.

One weekend, in the group of lovers whohad assembled was a judge, a Mr. Mukarjee,from Calcutta, along with his wife. When hereturned home after the darshan, he wroteBaba aletter in which he said that he had beenso taken with the song “Meher Ekam” that heand his wife now sang it to themselves every

day.When Baba heard this, he suddenly looked

concerned. “What kind of impression willpeople get,” Baba wondered, “if they hear thissong being sung? It is a mixture of languages,”Baba gestured, “Marathi, Sanskrit, and Hindi.When people hear this song with these Un-usualwords, what will they think of Me? Willit give them the wrong impression?”

Baba turned to me and asked me what Ithought. I said, “Personally, I like the songBaba. It has a nice tune and the words seemheartfelt and I think people will understandthat it’s only a song.”

“Is it grammatically correct?” Baba asked.“Baba, it seems okay to me,” I replied again,

but Baba was not satisfied.“Do you know Shastri Pandurang?” He

asked me. Of course I knew of him. He was awell-known Sanskrit scholar working at theDeccan College Research Institute of Lan-guages. In addition, he would come himselfto have Baba’s darshan whenever he could,since he lived nearby. (Late Shastri Pandurangtranslated all of Shankaracharya hymns fromthe Sanskrit into Marathi. Baba even gave abriefmessage to be included in the book whenit was printed. When he came to Guruprasad,Baba would sometimes have him, or his son,recite the famous hymn of Shankaracharya,“Shivoham,” which contains the essence ofVedanta.)

me.“Do you know where he lives?” Baba asked

“I don’t have his address,” I replied, “but Iknow he is living somewhere on the DeccanCollege campus.”

Baba seemed pleased. “ Go and ask hisopinion ofthis song,” Baba gestured. I acceptedthis command, but perhaps I didn’t seem eager enough, for Baba gestured, “Don’t waituntil tomorrow. Go today.”

So, after getting a copy of the song, Itook a rickshaw to Deccan College andfound Shastri Pandurang’s quarters. He wassurprised to see me, and we made casualconversation for a while before I came tothe point of my visit. I showed him the songand explained Baba’s concerns about the ungrammatical use of Marathi, Hindi and San-skrit words in the song. Shastri Pandurangreplied that he also liked the song andthought it was a good one.

“Yes,” I agreed, “but what about the Ian-guage?’

“It is written in the language ofthe heart,”he replied, “so ordinary rules ofgrammar don’tapply.”

I was happy to receive a verdict I touldrelay to Baba. I stayed for a short time, as

Shastri Pandurang offered me some refresh-ment. Then, as soon as I could politely takemy leave, I hurried back to Guruprasad. It was

as ifBaba had been waiting for my return. Assoon as He saw me, He gestured, “Well, whatdid he say?”

“Baba,” I replied, “he says it is written in

the language of the heart awakened by YourLove, and ordinary rules of grammar don’t

apply.”Baba appeared to be very relieved to hear

this. He smiled and gestured, “Then it okayif the judge and his wife continue to sing thesong. “ He seemed pleased with the end resultand gestured for me to come closer. He gaveme a fresh sumptuous grape, His divinebounty.

The language ofthe heart inspired by loveis truly beyond all rules. This reminds me of atime Beloved Baba conveyed to His lovers,

“The prayer God hears is the prayer fromthe heart...God does notlisten to the language

ofthe tongue, nor to the language ofthe mind,He responds to the language ofthe heart. Thelanguage of the heart is the song of love for

the Beloved. The Beloved can only be foundwithin you, for His abode is the heart.”

Jai Baba!

*2

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r( tjj

The Southeastby Winnie Barrett, Jim Watson, and Bill

Stephens; Photographs by Rusty Rust

The twenty-second Southeast Gatheringwas the best one yet!’ exclaimed Lela

Stephens, who went to her first gathering in1982, when she was seven months old, andhas been to every one since except the one in1998, when she was in Australia on a scholar-ship. “Every year I see good friends I haventseen for ages. There’s nothing like it! Next tothe Youth Sahavas, it’s the top event of theyear!” Lela was echoing the sentiments ofmore thai-i a hundred teenagers who attendedthe latest South East Gathering.

As always at the Gathering, held in thefoothills of the mountains of North Georgia,there was lively and memorable music, andthere were skits, games, hikes, focus groupsand square-dancing. There were warm andwonderful speakers who have spent the bestdays of their lives with Meher Baba, who isthe inspiration for theGathering and the focal point of all the joyand play and discus-sions. On the stage, be-hind the speakers andentertainers, were exquisite paintings ofBaba done by RogerStephens.

This year, for thefirst time, we were for-tunate to have as a special guest K.K.Ramakrishnan, truly abeacon of Baba loveand service. He told ofa “chance” encounterwith Kaikobad in theearly 1950s, which ledto his meeting Adi K.Irani, who told him hemight see Meher Babaat the Pune railway sta

Gathering ‘99He knew that Baba was God, because Babahad responded to his thoughts in the midst ofhundreds of people.

From that day forward, K.K.Ramakrishnan dedicated himself to the taskof spreading Baba’s message of love and truthto the world—by speaking, writing, publish-ing and working tirelessly with the Pune Me-her Baba Center. Ramakrishnan wasaccompanied on his trip to Georgia by PascalKaplan, who shared information about SufismReoriented, and in a presentation titled “Practical Spirituality: Is There Any Other Kind?”showed beautiful videos from the Consortiumof the Arts.

A wonderful surprise at this yea?s Gathering was the unscheduled visit—a “bonusgift” for all--of an endearing Baba-lover whomet his Beloved in 1930. A. K. Kasthuri andhis lovely wife Leela have lived in Californiafor a number ofyears, but only a relatively fewBaba lovers from the Southeast had known of

them. Thanks toMeher Baba’s perfecttiming, all those whoattended this year’sSoutheast Gatheringhad the rare opportunity to meet AK., whohas been with Baba foran incredible sixty-nine years, having firstmet Baba when AK.was five years old! AK.was the grandson ofone of Meher Baba’searly disciples, Mr.Sanpath Aeyangar ofMadras.

During formal andinformal sessions at thegathering, A. K.Kasthuri shared mar-velous stories, diaries,letters from Baba andother memorabilia of

The multi-talentec/Annalena Phihi,s sings

at the ciosingmusical session. Paintings inbackground by Roger Stephens.

tion as He departed forAndhra. Ramakrishnan perched on a bridgefor an hour, gazing at Baba while He sat in arailway car, waving to His devotees and wait-lug for the train to depart.

Later Ramakrishnan was invited to Me-herabad for two days at the end of the ThreeIncredible Weeks. Having completed a Biblecorrespondence course, he was familiar withstories of Jesus. As Baba walked up the hill,he thought of the verse, “He went up themountain and the multitudes followed Him.”

Then, asBaba took aseat, hethought,“And Hesat on themount andthe multitude sat around Him.” Suddenly hethought, “So Baba must be the Christ!” Atthat instant, Baba looked directly at him, andhe feltlike a piece ofice had touched his chest.

Meher Baba peers out from behind thispyramid ofbeautifui andtalentedyoungsters.

the Ancient One info-cus groups and casualconversations. Wherever he went, people

I gathered around him.As important as thestories he told was theatmosphere created in

the telling. His loving, humble, eloquent andlively presence created a splendid exchange ofBabas love from heart to heart.

Another fascinating guest was Bili Eaton,

3o £ovestreett:am1;:sr ‘

FL: r1iK ( $ 31iIwho came to Baba in 1952 after trying to pushGod away for many years. An atheist at agethirteen, she became curious about various religions years later while work-irig as a dance instructor forArthur Murray’s Studio inNew York. But none of thepaths she studied satisfiedher, and she was quite happywith her life of dancing,nightclubbing and partying.At one point, when she wasout of work and trying tochoose between two job of-fers, a friend suggested shepray about it—a novel idea toBili. However, after thinkingabout it, she decided to testGod (ifHe existed). She said:“Ifyou’re real, give me a sign.If by tomorrow at nineo’clock, the studio agrees tothe salary and terms I pro-posed, then I’ll believe inyou.” Next morning at ten minutes before nine,the studio agreed to her terms. Bili was astonished, but surely it was only a coincidence, shedecided. God had nothing to do with it.

Years went by and Bili became interestedin Religious Science—using the mind toheal—and she and others met regularly to discuss mental powers and such. A man namedMr. Frederick began meeting with the group.One night Mr. Frederick suggested they mightlike to invite his daughter Fills, who had meta spiritual master named Meher Baba. So FillsFrederick told the group about her experiences with Meher Baba. Not long after that,Bili Eaton, while walk-ing down the street,had an intense experience of utter bliss.Soon she was attend-ing meetings at Fredand Ella Winterfeldt’s.Then onjuly 20, 1952,after Baba was injuredin a collision in Oklahoma, Bill met Baba inNew York. That firstmeeting was over-whelming, and thenshe and her friendFrank went out on thestreets, where the temperature was 104 degrees. Bill broke outinto a cold sweat andstarted shivering allover, her teeth chatter-ing so she could hardly

talk. At the same time Frank was gaspingand clutching his stomach. Not knowingwhat to do, they went to a bar and drank whis

Irrepressible auctioneers EdLegum %/ø

anclRoger Stephens. ,:‘-

key sours whilewatching base-ball on television. SuddenlyBill began sob-bing uncontrollably and theyleft in embarrassment.

That wasBill Eaton’s in-troduction towhat she nowcalls “A Love

so Amazing,” which is the title of her livelybook of memories of Meher Baba. Buy it.You’ll love it. Just as everyone at the Gathering loved Bill Eaton and her unique Sm-

ries of her Divine Beloved.A real show-stopper was the heart-stir-

ring music of Cathy Riley. Cathy has a natural way of involving others in her music (asshown by the choir she pulled together inonly two days) , and also in helping childrentap into their own creativity to composeoriginal pieces that were shared withsahavasees. Cathy’s songs are always a joyto ear, head and heart, as she gathers words,ideas and symbols from such great souls asRumi, Bhau, Tagore, and of course Meher

,“ , 4

Baba. Along with her ownrich singing voice, Cathybrought forth a bounty ofBaba-full sounds from others of all ages during thethree-day sahavas..

#

And then there was the

r auction an annual fund-

:? 4 raising event. Roger.

I Stephens and Ed Legum

,were dynamic, entertainingand most successful auctioneers who succeeded inraising over $4,000 for theAvatar Meher Baba Trust

! in India. Paintings andphotographs with links toBaba or to His close oneswere in great demand, andan exhilarating time washad by all.

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InMusicalguest Cathy Riley helps both children and

adults create their own music.

/—...., - - .,. .. . ,.., . . . . .

Ourguest speakers express final thoughts andfeelings at the closthgpanel discussion on Sunday morning.

Left to right: A. K KasthurL Bii Eaton, K K Ramakrishnan, Pascal Kaplan.

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(MeherBaba horoscope was cast by an as-trologer named Zoltan Mason, who owned ametaphysicalbookstore in New York City.)

Mr. Z. S. Mason, a well-known NewYork astrologer (at 789 Lexington

Avenue, N.Y.C.) , was given Meher Baba’sbirth date, without his name or other identifying material, from which he cast the chartand gave this remarkable interpretation ofBaba’s life and mission for the upliftment ofhumanity in the New Awakening. He is,indeed, the “Aquarian Avatar,” so long predicted by the Magi of our times.

“This is the horoscope of a practicingoccultist. Aquarius, the sign of metaphysics,is rising; it is the eleventh Sign of the Zodiac, showing the advanced state of his rein-carnation. This sign is ruled by Uranus andSaturn. Uranus is in the 10th House, that ofthe profession and of destiny. Saturn is inthe 9th House, that of God, ofhigher think-ing, religion and philosophy. Both thesePlanets are retrograde, showing that mate-rial and worldly interests are not desired, butthat the mind and spirituality, will be thedestiny for this life: the Sun and the Moonare in Watery Signs in Trine to each other

(harmony between his first and second nature, or between his soul and will of realization). The Sun is in Pisces, the Twelfth Sign,the ultimate of the possibility of reincarnation. The Moon is in the 9th House, whereSaturn is also placed. The old astrologers saidthat a destiny can be powerful only if, bybirth, the Planets are either in their ownSigns or in Exaltation. Here, in this chart,we have Saturn exalted (pure) , and Mars,which rules the destiny in this horoscope, isin exaltation also, the latter is the dispositorof the Moon and Uranus.

“The cusp of the Tenth House (the des-tiny) is in Scorpio, the strongest Sign, calledthe sign of the Magician, but not the magician ofthe hands; it is the Sign ofthe Magician of the Soul, or that of somebody whomakes Magic with the soul of others. Wehave a confirmation ofthis in our horoscope;it is given by the Moon in Scorpio, the Signwhere the Moon is in the fall. It is hard to

understand the meaning of the Moon inScorpio, but it seems that this Planet here ismuch more important for the realization ofpsychic phenomena, and, very often, we findthe same in charts of psychiatrists, occult-ists, and, in general, by people having a magicpower over others.

“Mars, the ruler of Scorpio, is in the 12thHouse, called the Occult House. People whohave the ruler of destiny in the 1 2th Housewill have seclusion in their destiny—will-ingly or forced. In this chart, Mars is verywell aspected by the Sun and the Moon; alsoMars is in exaltation (purity) , showing thatit will be his free choice that he lives some-times in seclusion. Mars in Capricorn is thestrongest expression of the will for realization. This combination shows that the seclusion has a purpose: that of practicing theoccult. This is not the chart of a dreamer,but of one who has the power of occult real-ization. There is another indication of thevery high standing ofthis personality: in thefirst House, Venus is rising in the Sign ofAquarius, as so often is found in the chart ofoccultists. Venus here is retrograde: this per-son is not interested in the love of only somepeople, he is not interested in physical love,as indicated by Venus in Aquarius (ruled bySaturn) , and Saturn in Libra is ruled by Venus; each in the House of the other, called a“reciprocal reception” in terms of astrology.Venus and Saturn are in Trine, the best possible aspect. This Venus is not a “low” Venus. The native is not a man who goes forlittle things; he is not a charlatan; accordingto this chart he has a very high spiritualstanding.

“This horoscope gives the following in-formation about his financial possibilities. Itshows that he will have money, mostly received from others, which often comes in theform of important gifts, as the Sun is in theHouse of Money. The Sun rules the 7thHouse, the House of Followers. He has important followers. Pisces is very prolific,showing a great number of followers, butPisces also shows that they are occult followers, and not followers of worldly inter-

ests. The ruler of Pisces, Neptune, in theHouse ofLove, shows that the gifts are givenwith love. There we have another “reciprocal reception” between Neptune and Mercury; Mercury in the House of Moneyconfirms that he gets his money not onlyfrom his followers but from the sale of spin-tual works. Once more Pisces shows that theworks are more than one, and that the sub-ject must be of occult and spiritual love.People read these writings with great plea-sure.

“It would be possible that he healspeople—that is, masses rather than one; ingeneral, he must have magical power and isusing it for unusual attainments. The wholehoroscope is unusual in its beauty, serious-ness, by his exaltation for God and by theexaltation of his will to realize God. Saturnrules Mars here; he has an unusual destinyand it is not a simple one—it is extraordinary. He must eventually be important notonly abroad, but in his own country. Jupiterpartly rules the Sign of Pisces, meaning thathe will not only be unusual in the outerworld, but also in his own home. The endof life will be in important surroundings, asJupiter is in the 4th House, the House ofthe End. In general, it seems to me the horoscope is too important to be that of a healeronly; this man thinks about himself as anoccultist.

As a soul he is much superior to the average, and an unusual reincarnation. This isshown by the Sun and Moon in this chart.This person has a mystic soul, but he wouldnot go in for simple healing. “In general, hemust be a tall man, not very big, but strong,with sharp eyes, deep voice. I would say, darkeyes, maybe dark brown.

“The health is good, although Uranusand Mars in this chart could show some accidents or operation. Didn’t he die already?Did he have an accident and die in it? Wasthe accident in line with his profession? Werehis feet or legs hurt? He was not by himselfwhen he had the accident; others were in-volved.

“Children of Saturn have a long life.Venus rising also denotes something favor-able. He dies under Mercury. Mercury is verybad in this horoscope, good for the occultand bad for the health. Mercury is ruled byJupiter and Neptune. Neptune gives mostlyunusual death causes which cannot be clearlydiagnosed. No physician will find the clear

Avatar Meher Baba’sNatal Horoscope

The Awakener

£oveSfreet£ambsr

ii:cause of this man’s death. Could he be murdered? No. The planet of death, Mercury, isin a very good aspect with Jupiter, from thefourth House, showing that he dies a natural death in his home, but as already said,

the true cause will not be found. His openenemies cannot cause his death, unknownenemies also cannot come into consideration.It would be an unknown sickness.

“I see no bad traces of character. He musthave an absolutely pure life. He is living asexless life and is absolutely perfect as horoscope, from the occult standpoint. His souland will are pure, in perfect harmony.”

From TheA wakenez vol. 2, no, 1(Summer 1954), pp. 9-12.

[So do you still think astrology is allnonsense?! Ed.]

Meher Baba:

The FBI FilesSUBJECT: Merwan Sheriar Irani

FILE NUMBER: 105-73696

SECTION NUMBER: 1

Brad Mandel, Annapolis, MD

My hands shook slightly as I noticedthe return address on the envelope:

The Department ofJustice,FederalBureau of

Investigation.

After 2 and a half years, I finally had the

requested file. I opened the envelope...

(Let me back track a little. About three yearsago, Ihad subscribed to the Baba listserv andenjoyed the Baba talk on the Internet. Someoneasked a question about whether Baba had anFBI/lie. Idecidedto write to theFBlunder thefreedom ofinformation act, (‘FOIPA) to see ifthere actually was a file on Baba. Iga ye themthe name of Meher Baba, also known asMerwan Sheriar Irani. About 6months laterIgota letter backsaying there wouldbe a delayas the FBI had so many requests under theFOIFA. It eventually took two moreyears.)

...in my hands. My mind spun at the thoughtof it. What would be in this file? Should I

make it available to other Baba Lovers?

Would it cause a big scandal in “Baba-Land?”Well, here is the information in the FBI files:

It begins with a letter dated Oct. 24, 1958forwarded to the Norfolk office of the FBI

from the state department by a woman in

Williamsburg, VA. Her name is “blacked out”as are many names and locations (to protecttheir privacy) . She was concerned over the activities of Him because both of her daughtersbecame interested in Baba. She suspected that

Baba was “an American who lived on the west

coast.” She went to a meeting in Myrtle Beach

and was concerned because Baba said that“Russia would bomb the United States inOctober of 1957.” She called the group in

Myrtle Beach a religious cult and after attend-ing the meeting she was definitely convincedthat they were Communist. She mentionedthat Baba communicated to his followers by“mental telepathy.”

This woman had also contacted the Nor-folk, Va. and New York City Police Dept.about her concerns telling them she believedthere was something subversive about the or-ganization.

Finally there is a closing paragraph that

stated “the discussion group meetings weresmall and unobtrusive and no further investigation is being conducted in the NorfolkDivision (of the FBI) and this matter is be-

ing considered closed.”Well, there it is, some of the high points

of Meher Baba’s FBI files. I can see a smile

on Baba’s face at the thought of it.

Ceremony DiscardedBut Arti Will

ContinueSam Kerawala, Meherabad, India

L udwig Dimpfl: ‘Sam, you were tell-ing us this evening about a conver

sation you had which led to Baba expounding on the future of worldreligions. Would you tell this to ourfriends here?’

Sam Kerawala: ‘I don’t remember exactly what year it was, but it was during one of my short stays in India—justgot home on leave after my three-yearcontract. In Meherazad I was talking toone Baba lover named Shatagan Kumarfrom Dehra Dun, and I told him thatone thing I liked very much aboutBaba’s statement was that after his Ad-vent, this religious ceremony and allthat, would be mostly discarded. I saidthank God, at least this will happen,because ceremony seems to be a bigburden of mankind today. But ShataganKumar said that he didn’t feel it in thesame manner, because right in Iaba’sown living presence such things as sing-ing Baba’s arti, performing certainprayers and all, were allowed by Babahimself, with the result that even after

his Advent, things like artis and per-forming pujas will be adhered to.

This conversation was slowly takenup to Eruch and thence to Baba, andBaba then said that yes, things like artiand puja will continue, but there willbe one difference. There will be no suchthing as sectarianism about it. Each andevery individual willjoin in this performance of arti and puja. He may be

Christian or Zoroastrian or Hindu or

Muslim. Religion will not matter at all.They will all join in and sing the praisesof the Lord from the bottom of theirhearts, irrespective of what religion they

belong to.’—Sam Kerawala in conversation with

Ludwig Dimpfl, 1964, from How aMaster Works, by Ivy Oneita Duce,Copyright 1975 by Sufism Reoriented,Inc. , Walnut Creek, California.

33Jj

t :4 ( c :z ‘3 .iiSpiritual Freedom of

HumanityMeher Baba

A over the world the spirit of man iscrying out for freedom. Love of free-

dom and the search for freedom are the principal characteristics of humanity. In all racesand in all climes, in all countries and at alltimes, the watchword for groping and struggling humanity has always been freedom!There are very few persons, however, whoreally understand the full implications of trueand unqualified freedom. And there aremany who, in their partial understanding ofthe real conditions of freedom, strive onlyfor the attainment of that kind of existencewhich gives them a sense of relative free-dom. Thus different persons long for different kinds of freedom according to thedifferent things they have come to value.

Freedom to live as one wishes is soughtin all spheres oflife. This imperative demandfor freedom usually expresses itself by fastening upon some external conditions of thekind ofexistence people wish to lead. Hencethose who identify their being with theircountry. seek national or political freedom.Those who are animated by economic purposes seek economic freedom. Those whoare inspired by religious aspirations seek free-dom of religion. Those who are enthusiasticabout sociological or cultural ideology seekfreedom of movement and freedom to express the ideals that they cherish and wishto propagate. But there are few who realizethat the basic freedom, which alone gives thestamp of true value to any of these differentkinds of relative freedom, is spiritual free-dom. Even if all the external conditions of afree life were completely fulfilled and guaranteed, the soul of man would still remainin woeful bondage if it failed to realize spin-tual freedom.

All the different types of freedom thatfasten upon some external conditions must,in their very nature, exist within certain limits. For the freedom that an individual orcommunity or state seeks must be consistent with a similar freedom for other mdi-viduals, communities, or states. Nationaleconomic, religious, or cultural freedom expresses itself in and by means of the dualityof existence. It lives on duality and is sus

tamed by duality; therefore it has to be relative and limited and cannot be infinite. Itexists in varying degrees. Even when it is wonthrough persistent effort, it cannot be a per-manent attainment, since the external con-ditions having once been secured are notsecured forever but are capable of deteniorating in the course of time.

Only spiritual freedom is absolute andunlimited. When it is won through persistent effort, it is secured forever. Though spin-tual freedom can and does express itself inand through the duality of existence, it isgrounded in the realization of the inviolableunity of all life and is sustained by it. Oneimportant condition of spiritual freedom isfreedom from all wanting. It is want thatfetters life through attachment to conditionsthat would fulfill that want; if there is nowant, there is no dependence or limitation.The soul is enslaved through wanting.When the soul breaks asunder the shacklesof wanting, it emancipates itself from itsbondage to the bodies — gross, subtle, andmental. This is the spiritual freedom thatbrings with it the final realization ofthe unityof all life and puts an end to all doubts andworries.

From Discourses, by Meher Baba, copyright1987 AMBPPCT, Ahmednagar, India, Printed

by Sheriar Press, 1995.

What is Spirituality?Meher Baba

I is the undoing of what you have beendoing since ages. You always thought ofself-

ish motives of eating, preserving your life andattending to every need with zeal. All theselives you have made a habit oflooking to your-self. If the slightest thing goes against yourhabit you are upset. Now, to undo all theseselfish bindings, you have to do what you havenot been doing, or not do what you have beendoing. What you have been doing always isthinking ofyounself; so now you must not thinkofyourself but think of others. This is what iscalled LOVE. But it needs character, poise,perseverance. POISE - what is POISE? Thatstate of mind where nothing excites you, nothing upsets you; then only can you help others,then only can you make others happy. Thatmeans LOVE. Thinking NOT OF YOUR-SELF BUT OF OTHERS.

If you are in the Sahara and for four daysyou have no water to drink and all of a sudden

one bottle of water appears, how do you react? If you have poise, you will let your companion drink and not mind dying and lettingher live. But, if you fight and grab for it, youlack poise and spirituality. It is this poise thatmakes you sacrifice and makes others happy.For example, I always say: Make the best ofeverything. Here you have food, swimming,boating. Make the most of it and feel happy.Do not say it is not spiritual to enjoy innocentpleasures. But when we are driving on tourand there is dust and we feel hunger, thirstand feel sick, then feel as happy as you do now.This is poise. Ifyou do not feel happy when itis not easy to feel happy, then (under theseconditions); you are not spiritual in enjoyingthis swimming, boating etc; is this clear? I donot mean making a show of being happy, butto really FEEL HAPPY.

For you, My circle, it is all right. You livewith Me, leave all for Me, so you are servingthe Universe. But for those who are not livingnear Me, this Poise is 100% essential for spin-tuality. Again, what is spirituality? POISE,PERFECT POISE. MAKE THE MOSTOF EVERY SITUATION. HE WHO UP-SETS NO ONE IS A GOOD MAN. HEWHO IS UPSET BY NO ONE IS AGOD-MAN.

From Gift ofLove, Sayftigs andMessages ofA vatarMeherBaba, Copyright 1994 AMBPPCT.

Prime MinisterVajpayee Pays Tribute

to ShivajiFrank Bloise, Vineland, NJ

The followingnotice is ofinterest to Babalovers because Baba told us that Shivaji wasone of His ‘ninor ‘ incarnatIons. Excerptedfrom Indian Express Ne wspapers BombayMarch 31st.

M umbai (Bombay) and Raigad:Prime Minister Atal Behani

Vajpayee paid a day long visit toMaharashtra during which he namedMumbai airport after Chhatnapati Shivajion the 319th anniversary of his death atopthe historic Raigad Fort.

The Prime Minister paid rich tributesto the State’s warrior king ChhatrapatiShivaji Mahanaj and urged fellow country-men to draw inspiration from the life of thegreat Maratha. He described Shivaji as thegreatest ever war-strategist, a ruler par ex

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cellence and a champion of social and cultural uplift.

“ Not everybody possesses such a mix ofqualities like Shivaji a war-strategist, aruler and a strict disciplinarian who under-stood the problems of his subjects andfollowers. . .and was a champion of peace,”the Prime Minister said.

Vajpayee spoke from a dais which waserected right below the spot Shivaji used toaddress his subjects and followers. “If Shivajiwere still alive, he would have completed histask, but now his followers would have totake the lead and take the country ahead,”he said.

“ This is the unconquered fort, fromwhere Shivaji laid the foundation of HindaviSwarajya and later was coronated, “ thePrime Minister reminded the gathered audience.

The Habit of NindaMeher Baba

The three most important things to beeliminated before attaining God Re-

alization are greed, lust, and ninda; the last,meaning “back-biting,” is the worst and mostdisastrous.

One can overcome greed, or even lust,though both of these are very hard to getover; but the worst and most difficult of allto eliminate is the habit of ninda: speakingill and trying to find faults or flaws in others, because this particular act or vice incursthe burden of sins or what is technicallytermed as sanskaras of others.

Treasures, ed. Jane B. Haynes, pp. 128-129copyright, 1980 AMBPPCT.

After That, RuanoSmoked in Peace

Margaret Craske

O ver and over again, Baba emphasizedHis wish that we should not criticize

one another, especially with that form ofcriticism known as “ backbiting. “ Here is aninstance in which He did not give a straight-forward correction but without a wordshowed us what we were doing.

Living with us in the ashram in Nasikwas a most charming woman by the nameof Ruano. She loved Baba and, not havingbeen told by Him that she should not do so,continued as she had done for some years tosmoke cigars. Well, this roused the criticalire of some of the group, those who had decided ideas of what should or should not bedone in the ashram of a great spiritualteacher.

Baba said nothing and, seemingly unaware of it, allowed the affair to go on forsome little time. He waited until one daywhile we were sitting around Him, then Heproduced a large box of cigars and with aloving smile and gesture presented it toRuano.

The gentle correction was perfectly clear,and after that Ruano smoked in peace. Andon that particular issue at least, we were released from the sin of “backbiting.”

TheDanceofLove, p. 58 © AMBPPCT.

,,,. .,,, .

IfYou Were to Get an E-mailfrom GOD...

Dear One,

A got up this morning, I watchedyou and hoped you would talk to me,

even if it was just a few words, asking myopinion or thanking me for something goodthat happened in your life yesterday—but Inoticed you were too busy trying to find theright outfit to put on and wear to work.

I waited again. When you ran aroundthe house getting ready I knew there wouldbe a few minutes for you to stop and sayhello, but you were too busy. At one pointyou had to wait fIfteen minutes with nothing to do except sit in a chair. Then I sawyou spring toyourfeet. I thoughtyouwantedto talk to me but you ran to the phone andcalled a friend to get the latest gossip.

I watched as you went to work and Iwaited patiently all day long. With all youractivities I guess you were too busy to sayanything to me. I noticed that before lunchyou looked around, maybe you felt too em-barrassed to talkto me, that is whyyou didn’tbow your head. You glanced three or fourtables over and you noticed some of yourfriends talking to me briefly before they ate,but you didnt.

That’s okay.There is still more time left,and I have hope that you will talk to me, yet

you went home and it seems as if you hadlots of things to do. After a few of themwere done you turned on the TV. I don’tknow ifyou like TV or not, just about any-thing goes there and you spent a lot of timeeach day in front of it, not thinking aboutanythingjust enjoying the show. I waited pa-tiently again as you watched the TV and ateyour meal, but again you didn’t talk to me.

Bedtime I guess you felt too tired. After you said goodnight to your family youplopped into bed and fell asleep in no time.Thali okay because you may not realize thatI am always there for you. I’ve got patiencemore than you will ever know. I even wantto teach you how to be patient with othersas well. I love you so much that I wait every-day for a nod, prayer or thought or a thank-ful part of your heart. It is hard to have aone-sided conversation.

Well, you are getting up again andonce again I will wait with nothing butlove for you hoping that today you will giveme sometime.

Have a nice day!Your friend,GOD

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A Letter from BhauDear Brothers and Sisters in Baba,

This fall Bhau had asked me to post anote on the Baba Listserv and various

Baba web sites conveying that, owing to thegreatly increased pressure of Trust work, it isno longer possible for him to continue his per-sonal correspondence. We fmd we must postthis letter again as Bhau is still getting mail.This was not at all a step that Bhau wanted totake, and he delayed long before taking it; butthe force of circumstances has left him withno alternative.

Since then, many dear friends and closeones throughout the world have, as requested,desisted from their personal correspondencewith Bhau. Bhau has been deeply touched bythis; indeed, the silent consideration they haveshown attests to their love more than any let-ter could do.

At the same time, a fair amount of per-sonal mail condnues to flow in. Those of usaround Bhau know how virtually impossiblehe finds it to keep from replying in these cases,keenly conscious as he is of the feelings of thepersons concerned. Unfortunately, a trickle ofsuch correspondence will inevitably increaseto a stream and a river, as has happened in thepast: and this will interfere with Trust work ata particularly critical juncture.

Therefore, Bhauji has asked me to reiterate his heartfelt request to all Baba’s dear onesto refrain from sending him personal letters

(as distinct from letters concerning necessaryTrust work). He continues to give talks at thePilgrim Centre at Meherabad, for those whocome here on pilgrimage, and he is currentlyplanning another visit to the West next year.

By Baba’s grace, there will be many fur-ther such occasions in the future for the freeflow and sharing in our One Beloved DivineLove. In Him, Ward Parks

The Weaver

N one knows the secret of the weaverwho spread his warp through the uni

verse. He dug two ditches, sky and earth,made two spools, sun and moon, filled hisshuttle with a thousand threads, and weavestill today: a difficult length! Kabir says,they’rejoined by actions. Good threads andbad, that fellow weaves both.

TheBgjakofKabfrTranslated by Linda Hess and Shukdev Singh.

ThePath ofLoveNeeds Reprinting!

Adele Wolkin, Los Angeles, CA

I was through the medium of “TheAwakener” journal that Meher Baba

chose to have many of His original messages first circulated in the English lan-guage. It is never to be forgotten whatBaba told Don Stevens about His ownwords, “My spiritual charge is in thosewords.” Fills Frederick founded and edited TheAwakenerfrom 1953 to 1986. Iwas present at the time when Filis per-sonally presented to Baba her long cherished dream to publish ajournal dedicatedto Him. Baba’s response to Fills was offull approval along with a few conditions,which she fully obeyed. Thus, with Babasblessing and direction, Filis nurtured her“baby,” TheAwakenei for 33 years.

In the 1970’s she made an exquisiteselection from articles that she was soprivileged to receive from Meher Baba di-rectly. That unique selection Filis collected in a soft cover book entitled ThePath OfLove. For many years this price-less treasure has been out of print despiterequests for reprints from Baba Loversthroughout the world. Now, Sheriar Presshas determined that $5,000 is required toreprint 1500 copies, bound with PerfectBind and featuring a newly designedcover. As we are first and foremost raising funds for the County mandatedupgradings to Meherabode, we do nothappen to have a spare $5000. We needyour help! All wishing to contribute to-wards this undertaking please contact theAvatar Meher Baba Center of SouthernCalifornia, 1214 South Van Ness Ave.,Los Angeles, CA 90019-3520, Attn:Treasurer. And please mark your donation Path of Love. Donations of $50 ormore will naturally net you a free copy,hot offthe press!

We appreciate so very much all helpyou can give — this book must be madeavailable again.

For further information contact:Adele Wolkin714A Pacific Coast HighwayRedondo Beach, CA 90277(310) 540-8414

Lust, Greed,and Anger

Meher Baba

The chief forms in which the frustratedego finds expression are lust, greed, and

anger.Lust is very much like greed in many re

spects; but it differs in the manner of its fulfillment, which is directly related to the grosssphere. Lust finds its expression through themedium ofthe physical body and is concernedwith the flesh. It is a form of entanglementwith the gross sphere.

Greed is a state of restlessness of the heart,and it consists mainly of craving for power andpossessions. Possessions and power are soughtfor the fulfillment of desires.

Man is only partially satisfied in his at-tempt to have the fulfillment of his desires,and this partial satisfaction fans and increasesthe flame of craving instead of extinguishingit. Thus greed always finds an endless field ofconquest and leaves the individual endlesslydissatisfied. The chief expressions of greed arerelated to the emotional part of man. It is aform of entanglement with the subtle sphere.

Anger is the fume of an irritated mind. Itis caused by the thwarting of desires. It feedsthe limited ego and is used for dominationand aggression. It aims at removing the obstacles existing in the fulfillment of desires.

The frenzy of anger nourishes egoism andconceit, and it is the greatest benefactor of thelimited ego. Mind is the seat of anger, and itsexpressions are mostly through activities of themind. Anger is a form of entanglement withthe menta!sphere.

Lust, greed, and anger respectively havebody, heart, and mind as their vehicles of expression.

Discourses, p. 1 1 © 191 1 AMBPPCT.

The Lesson

Then Jesus took His disciples up themountain and gathering them around

Him, He taught them, saying,

‘Blessedare thepoorin spiritfor theirsis the kingdom ofheaven.

Blessed are the meekBlessed are they that mourn.Blessed are the merciful.Blessedare they who thirst forjustice.

11

i[ •“6•

sr • • •••‘“:, .. ....

fL ...@ . E!!!•! ...... . ,, IBlessed areyou whenyou sufferBe glad and rejoice for your re ward

isgreatin heaven...”Then. . . Simon Peter said, ‘Do we have

to write this down?”and Andrew said, 4re we supposed to

know this?”and James said, “Will we have a test on

and Phillip said, “Whatifwe dothknow

and Bartholomew said, ‘Do we have toturn this in?”

and John said, “The other disciples didnhave to learn this.”

and Mark said, Yfwe donfinish this, canwe take it home?”

and Matthew said, “When do weget out ofhere?”

and Judas said, “Whatdoes thishave to dowith real life?”

Then one of the Pharisees present asked

to see Jesus’ lesson plans and inquired ofJesushis terminal objectives in the cognitive do-

main...And Jesus wept...

A Happy Chappy

This interesting exchange was

posted on the listserv

The following is one of a number ofpoems that Baba wrote to Harry

Kenmore in an exchange of poetry between

the two of them:Harry dear, you arefineyetyou need celestial winewine that makes God out ofswineand in one case out ofninemakes one Qutub who does shineover the world ofmine and thine.

Here’s another from that series when

Kenmore was staying with Baba for an ex

tended period while treating Him as a doc

tor (chiropractor) following His accident at

Satara (I believe) , Baba wrote this for him

just before the end of Harry’s stay:Harry dear, do obey Meas did Peter, as didJohn

MeherazadMind and body in New YorkSpiritualiy eating Babaphysically, steak andporkI will missyou, You will miss MeBut one day, we will be Oneand departing happy, smilingknowyour task here is done.

A brief exchange went something like this:

Note from Baba:Dear ChappyAnswer snappy;Areyou happy?And Kenmore shot back:Chappy Happy!

Another piece goes like this: Baba wrote:It the law ofLove Divinethatyou must withei you mustpinethatyoumustsuffei butnot whinespeak no word and write no lineifyou longfor lentine.

Mel Gibson MeetsBaba!

By Jim Migdoll, N.S.W. , Australia

I n September, 1987 my wife Tricia

and I were at the Sydney, Australia air-

port. Tricia was off to India on pilgrimage.Suddenly she exclaimed, “Look . . . there’s

Mel Gibson, let’s go talk to him.” As we approached he was squatting down lookingthrough his carry on bag and the first thing

I noticed was how completely ordinary the

bag — and it’s contents were! The same

jumbled mess anyone would have in their

carry on bag.Next I noticed his clothing. Even if one

tried to ‘dress down’ it couldn’t be that au

thentic. As Tricia gripped my arm, trembling

nervously, we mumbled something really stu

pid and embarrassing ... like, “Hi. We really

like your movies. “ I expected an exasperated,halthearted “thanks”. Instead he looked up

directly at us with a big smile and genuine

energy (a ‘real’ person!) and intensely re

sponded with an Australianism like, “Good

on ya’...thanks a lot — appreciate that” Not a

note of phoniness in it. So we wandered

away.Several minutes passed and Tricia said,

“Hey . . . we should have given him a Baba

card.” I agreed and felt frustrated that we

hadn’t thought of it. So then Tricia says we

should go back and do it. He was still there

in the check-in line. I argued that it would

be imposing and stars were exposed toenough of that stuff; but Tricia insisted itwould be for Baba (and Mel of course!)!

“O.K. — you do it.” “No, you.” “Come on Jim— you’re better at this sort of thing, I’ll feel

too embarrassed.” “Yeah, but it will be less

threatening from a woman.” Well Tricia won

out. I got the “Don’t Worry Be Happy” card

from my wallet and started back across the

terminal. I felt very apprehensive about how

Mel might react. How could I present Baba— via this card — without being pushy or in-

trusive? Suddenly the perfect line popped

into my mind. “I’d like to give you this... it’s

in appreciation of your work.” After I said

my line and handed him the card I expected

to make a clean, quick getaway! But it was

not to be. Again he looked directly at me

with a big smile and said thanks. Then he

held the card up, focused all of his attention

on it, and said very clearly and powerfully,

“Don’t Worry... Be Happy... Meher Baba.”Incredibly he pronounced Bab&s name per-

fectly. Like the way Mandali say Meher! Well— mission accomplished — now I could be

off. Nope. After a second or two of staring

at the card, he looked at me and in a veryclear and direct manner said, “Who is MeherBaba?” I answered roughly, “Well... you know

how there are all these so-called gurus

around nowadays who ask people for money,or collect lots of cars? Well, Meher Baba is agenuine Spiritual Master” Again he smiledand said something like, “O.K. — well

thanks.” When I got back to Tricia we decided to keep watching him to see what he

did with the card! We could see it clutched

in his hand as he waited in line. Then after

check in as he walked to the escalator... stillheld in his hand. Up the escalator and out ofsight — still holding on to Baba!

P.S. Tricia and I both decided that he wasmuch more handsome in person than anyphoto or movie we’d ever seen! Incredible eyes.

P.S. #2 The Baba card was one we hadprinted in Sydney and it had the Sydney

Meher Baba Information P0. Box address

on it. For weeks afterwards I had an ongoing

fantasy of getting a request for more informa

tion — and then we’d casually invite Mel overfor a cup of tea! Several years later when theDon WorryBeHappysong swept the world I

would wonder if he still had the card.

Keeping in your heartYour Daddyyou willgo as not goneLeaveyour mindin dear

37

[1 r3 ® * ISculptor of the Beloved

Vivian Agostini (1902-1999)

by Kendra Crossen Burroughs, Ojai, CA

V ivian Agostini, a gifted sculptor whocaptured the living beauty ofBaba like-

ness in a commemorative bronze medallion,died on March 24, 1999. Vivian was stayingwith her husband, Louis Agostini, at an as-sisted living facility in Florida until she hadan aneurysm that sent her to a nursing home.Louis visited almost daily. Although Vivianappeared to be unaware of her surroundings,she surprised him by saying, “Thank you,thank you!” after he had twice recited Baba’sprayers and twice sung her favorite hymn,“The Ocean of Love. “ He writes: “I alsopoured out into her ear exhortations to remember Baba, and I feel sure she must havedone so two days later when she died someminutes before I arrived.”

Vivian was born Ida Losh in Russia in1902. While Louis describes himselfas a “Sun-day painter, “ Vivian was a professional sculptor specializing inportraiture; she wasalso gifted in oilpainting and draw-ing. 1mong herworks is the master-ful bronze bust ofElizabeth Pattersonthat sits in the PineLodge at MeherCenter in MyrtleBeach. Louis toldme how Elizabethhad sought Baba’sOK for the in-scription at thebase of the sculpture, “Elizabeth,Disciple of Baba”; Baba corrected it to read:“Elizabeth, Disciple of Meher Baba.”

Louis Agostini was a secretary to PaulBrunton, the mystic who wrote negativelyabout Baba in his book A Search fri Secret In-dia, so Louis was initially skeptical about Baba.But after visiting Meher Center and readingListen, Humanity and The Wayfarers, both heand Vivian were drawn into the Beloved or-bit.

When the 1962 East-West Gathering wasannounced, Louis was ready to go to India,but Vivian insisted she could not bow downto any man who called himself God. Shechanged her mind after Louis received a mes

sage from Baba saying he was happy that “atleast one of you” was coming — yet they hadnot told Baba there were two of them!

Vivian first meeting with Baba upset herbecause Baba had barely looked at her (shethought at least he would compliment her on

her bust ofElizabeth!) ; shewanted to goback to NewYork, but Louishelped her calmdown. At thenext gatheringit was an-

Inounced that

/ there would beno more intro-ductions or private meetingswith Baba. Butthen Ranobrought the

I message thatBaba wanted to see Vivian Agostini! Baba in-dicated that he wanted to give Vivian a special embrace, but she could not accept it. Shesank to her knees, telling Baba in tears howmuch she loved him. (And he did embraceher after all.) After returning to New York,Vivian decided to sculpt the medallion in commemoration ofthis experience.The design wasapproved by Baba, and the medal was struckin 1964. It was reissued in 1994 in honor ofBaba’s 100th birthday and is available fromthe Love Street Bookstore.

“I can hardly believe that my soul-mate of52 years is no longer here, “ Louis wrote in arecent letter, “but I am consoled by the many

truths we have received from the Beloved.Though at home the fits of crying come attimes, I know that reason will prevail eventually and what will remain uppermost in mymind is ‘her gain,’ and that ‘myloss’will evaporate entirely.”

Louis Agostini is at 5 14 West Mango,Lantana, FL 33462.

Viv, Viv, Viv-Viv-Viv, I Love ThineA love poem in the “Merz” style

by Louis Agostini

(‘Dada&artistshke Schwitters were lookingfornewforms ofexpression. Their experimentalwork led to much of what today is regarded asmodern art. Inhis orithal verse, on whichLouipoem is baseo Schwittersintendedapenetratingsatire oflovepoems.)

O h thou, beloved of all the senses, I lovethine! Thou thee thee thine. I thine,

thou mine.We? That belongs on the side not here.Who are thou, many-gifted woman?

Thou art — art thou art?Some may say, thou they don’t know

let them say.They don’t know how the church tower

stands.They don’t know how the Avatar comes.Thou wearest thy scarf on thy feet, or never

at all;Or never at all.Hallo thy dark blouse, clashed in light

folds.Dark I love Vh light I love thine! Thou

thee Thee thine, I thine, thou mine — We?That belongs on the side in the cold glow.Viv-Viv-Viv, how say those who don’t

know?Prize question:1. Viv has hands directed from above.2. Viv is dark and light, light and dark.3. Then what color are the folds.Thou other-worldly soul fri everyday dress,

thou dear Baba child, I love thine! thou theethee thine, I thine, thou mine We?

That belongs to the glowbox of time.Viv, Viv, Viv-Viv-Viv, I trickle thy name.Thy name drips as softly as the rain.Dost thou know Viv, dost thou already

know it?Thy name reads from behind as from the

front,Thus dearest one, thou belongs to all time.Honor strikes all who gather here nowTo admire thee wholly for earths task you

have done.

Bas-Reliefscuipture ofMeher Baba

[1 38 I

F ( t r3;

Ebb and FlowBy Michael da Costa, Norwich, England

I am sure that most of us have experienced

the ebb and flow of Baba’s presence; the

closeness that feels so good, that enlivens

everything; then the apparent absence which

makes everything feel empty and meaning-

less and back again, etc. Well, this is an ac

count of an experience of ebb and ebb!

A few years ago the tide went out for me

in a way it had never done before; in fact it

nearly disappeared over the horizon! Hay-

ing lived with the ebb and flow of Baba’s

presence for so many years, I did not at first

worry about it, being fairly confident that

the tide of His love would soon enough flow

back in to give me the life-nourishment that

I needed.However, time went by and the ebb con-

tinued to such an extent that it seemed as if

a plug had been pulled on the ocean bed.

When, after a trip to India failed to stem

the tide, a note of desperation began to creep

up on me and gave rise to this piece:

Another year went by and still my fin-

gers continued to slip and my desperation

grew as I felt no sign of return. Once the

wine of Love has been tasted, two years

or more in the wilderness without even

water to drink is hard to bear. I planned

another trip to India, hoping that this time

my heart may be reclaimed, even though

I know that it was foolish to go to that

blessed place with any kind of expectation

other than to be open to receive whatever

Baba offered.In fact whilst there, things got even

worse! I felt distant from everyone and

everything; my emotional landscape be-

came more barren; I went through the

motions, attended Arti, said the prayers

like an automaton, bowed down to furni

ture! I felt totally alone. There seemed to

be no point in standing in long lines for

Mandali hugs. I think I grew as removed

from Baba as it is possible to be without

actually letting go of His damaan. I could

not have been more unhappy.

This continued for nine days. On the

tenth day I went up for morning Arti as

usual. As I listened to the words of Begin

the Beguine I felt a faint stirring in my

heart. Could it be. . .? No. As flat as ever. I

went into the Tomb for darshan, and re

ceived my prasad.

As I began to move away I found

someone was blocking my way. She

smiled, opened her arms wide, and en-

folded me in the warmest of warm em-

braces. Then she whispered in my ear, “I

have a message for you from Baba!” I can

barely remember now what the message

was — something about how much He

loves me — but whatever it was, it came

crashing through my defenses, with full

orchestral and choral accompanirrent

penetrating to my very core. Over-

whelmed, I collapsed in a flood of tears.

Later, over breakfast, I asked her how

she had received the message. She told me

that whenever she goes into the Tomb, she

opens herself to receive whatever Baba

may give to her. On the previous evening

this message had come through loud and

clear with the instruction to pass it on to

me. However, she forgot to do so, and

when she had gone for darshan that morn-

ing, Baba scolded her for not doing as He

had ordered, and He insisted that she do

so immediately.On hearing this I hurried back up the

hill and was blessed to have the Tomb to

myself. ‘So why,’ I complained to Baba,

‘did you have to send a messenger? Why

did you not tell me Yourself?’ I swear He

chuckled as He replied ‘I have been try-

ing to get through to you since ages but

you have been so self-absorbed that you

could not hear. And even ifyou had heard,

you would have doubted that it was Me.

So this was the only way I could be sure

you would receive my message, my love.’

He was right of course — is He ever wrong?

I came out of the Tomb into the sunlight.

The prodigal son had returned home.

39 11z_ -z----

heart has still a glimmer of life in it.

But nothing, nothing! and it has been

so long; so long that a darkness is begin-

fling to grow in me feelings of

hopelessness. . ..feelings of helplessness....

unless..Could it be that somewhere concealed

within despair lies the seed of hope?

Somewhere in the darkness, a thin shaft

of light? for if I did in fact feel nothing,

would I not indeed feel nothing? For

what would it matter? What would I

care?But it does matter, and I do care, for

without the felt presence of your love,

there is nothing, flothing which matters,

nothifig which makes sense of the whole

crazy mess of things. Is that the paradox

ofthe New Life? that in hopelessness lies

true hope ? that in helplessness, help ul

timately comes?

So here I am, desperately hanging on

to your damaan, for I know, somehow,

that You are here, standing right beside

me, as once you stood, silently, over the

sleeping figure of your beloved Jean

Adriel, tortured by your apparent aban

donment. She did not know then that

you were there, but now surely knows,

being. as she is, with you, at peace, for-

ever.So yes I am holding on, for I know also

that you are here, deep within me, wait-

ing patiently for the moment of my

awakening. I too am waiting, but impa

tiently, to be shaken awake once more by

your love.So I beg you my Lord, please hurry,

my grip on your robe is slipping! please

hurry, hurry, my fingers are slipping

Slippery Fingers — The Crisisof a Faltering Baba Lover

It has been going on for far too long!

Many separations I have experienced, but

each one brief in duration, painful and

lonely, but brief, until soon, with a sigh,

I would find myself back, clearer and

stronger in the warm glow of your pres

ence.But this one has been going on for far

too long. What is its meaning, its pur

pose? What is the lesson to be learned?

Is it you, in your compassion, who with-

draw yourself in order to create greater

longing in me? Or could it be me, who,

blindly self-absorbed, turn my back on

you? Or both? or neither?

And why so long, such an absence?

Why so strong the separation? I look at

your picture, and feel nothing; I hear your

words, and understand nothing; films

which once enthralled me leave me cold;

your lovers’ utterances irritate; I travel

half way round the globe, sit with your

most beloved ones, and their love and

wisdom float right by me; I place my

head on your blessed Tomb, hoping for

just a whisper which will tell me that my

SilenceA day ofSilence

Can be a pilgrimage in itself

A day ofSilenceCan helpyou listen

Th the SoulplayIt marvelous flute and drum.

Is notmost talkingA crazed defence ofa crumbling fort?

Ithought we came hereTo surrender in Silence,

Toyield to Light andHappiness,

Th Dance withinIn celebration ofLove Victory!

IHeard GodLaughing Renderings ofHafizby Daniel Ladinsky, Dharma Printing, 1996.

A vatar Meher BabaT-shirt art created by

Lance Paladino.

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