Over the Years with Meher Baba
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Over The Years With Meher Baba By Bill Le Page An Avatar Meher Baba Trust eBook Copyright © August 2020 Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust Ahmednagar M.S. India Source: Copyright © 1999 Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust Ahmednagar M.S. India Cover painting of Meher Baba by Diana Le Page Photograph of Meher Baba by kind permission of Lawrence L Reiter All Rights Reserved Published by Meher Baba Foundation Australia Avatar's Abode Meher Road (PO Box 22) Woombye Queensland 4559 Australia Printed by Meher Mownavani Publications Hyderabad Andhra Pradesh India eBooks at the Avatar Meher Baba Trust Web Site The Avatar Meher Baba Trust's eBooks aspire to be textually exact though non-facsimile reproductions of published books, journals and articles. With the consent of the copyright holders, these online editions are being made available through the Avatar Meher Baba Trust's web site, for the research needs of Meher Baba's lovers and the general public around the world. Again, the eBooks reproduce the text, though not the exact visual likeness, of the original publications. They have been created through a process of scanning the original pages, running these scans through optical character recognition (OCR) software, reflowing the new text, and proofreading it. Except in rare cases where we specify otherwise, the texts that you will find here correspond, page for page, with those of the original publications: in other words, page citations reliably correspond to those of the source books. But in other respects-such as lineation and font- the page designs differ. Our purpose is to provide digital texts that are more readily downloadable and searchable than photo facsimile images of the originals would have been. Moreover, they are often much more readable, especially in the case of older books, whose discoloration and deteriorated condition often makes them partly illegible. Since all this work of scanning and reflowing and proofreading has been accomplished by a team of volunteers, it is always possible that errors have crept into these online editions. If you find any of these, please let us know, by emailing us at [email protected]. The aim of the Trust's online library is to reproduce the original texts faithfully. In certain cases, however-and this applies especially to some of the older books that were never republished in updated versions-we have corrected certain small errors of a typographic order. When this has been done, all of these corrections are listed in the "Register of Editorial Alterations" that appears at the end of the digital book. If you want the original text in its exact original form, warts and all, you can reconstruct this with the aid of the "register." The Trust's Online Library remains very much a work in progress. With your help and input, it will increase in scope and improve in elegance and accuracy as the years go by. In the meantime, we hope it will serve the needs of those seeking to deepen and broaden their own familiarity with Avatar Meher Baba's life and message and to disseminate this good news throughout the world. Meher Baba, Washington D.C. 1956 Over The Years With Meher Baba Bill Le Page Copyright © 1999 Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust Ahmednagar M.S. India Cover painting of Meher Baba by Diana Le Page Photograph of Meher Baba by kind permission of Lawrence L Reiter All Rights Reserved No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise without prior written permission of the publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review written for inclusion in a magazine, newsletter, newspaper or broadcast. Published by Meher Baba Foundation Australia Avatar's Abode Meher Road (PO Box 22) Woombye Queensland 4559 Australia Printed by Meher Mownavani Publications Hyderabad Andhra Pradesh India When I consider how my days are spent In company of God - singing His praise First in my heart and then in written lays For other lovers and sweet friends' enjoyment, I wonder at such fortunate employment, Such happy days, such happy, happy days Out in the fresco of beforetime maze Called living - sure, clear, without argument. These are the days that in the years to come Men will inquire of - probing every word He spoke, seeking the meaning of each look And gesture recorded. Some this, and some That, will find - some, agreement; some, discord: Some will build churches, some will write a book! - Francis Brabazon (From a letter from Meherazad December 4, 1959) Contents Acknowledgments Preface - A Little Personal History Sunrise..................................................................................... 1 Meher Baba's Presence ........................................................... 7 The Jessawala Family ............................................................ 10 Bindra House, Poona ......................................................... 10 Mary Lodge, Nagpur .......................................................... 14 Bindra House continued .....................................................22 Mary Lodge continued ....................................................... 25 Baba Stories From The 1970s ................................................ 28 Meher Baba's Humour ....................................................... 31 Meher Baba's Attributes .................................................... 33 Some Stories Of Meher Baba's Mandali ............................ 53 Some Letters From The '50s And '60s ................................... 61 Meher Baba And Miracles ..................................................... 68 Meher Baba's Journeys ........................................................... 72 The Blue Bus Tours ........................................................... 74 Prophet Mohammed ............................................................... 81 Sayings Attributed To Prophet Mohammed ...................... 83 Stories And Anecdotes From The Life of Mohammed........ 85 Not We But One ..................................................................... 91 Spirituality Is Everyday Life ............................................. 91 Intelligent Action ............................................................. 103 Love ..................................................................................117 Books Dictated by Avatar Meher Baba ............................... 129 Acknowledgments In 1962, when Judith Garbett met Beloved Avatar Meher Baba at The East-West Gathering, He told her to help me in my work for Him. This latest book is a further tribute to her fulfilment of His wish. Despite increasing old age and debilitating physical ailments, but with cheerfulness and patience, she has typed the whole manuscript from my atrocious writing, edited my careless flow of words and made numerous helpful and correct alterations to the text. All praise for our Beloved Lord who creates such sweet and fruitful connections. Another Baba lover who has helped much in the past, and has again, is Liz Gaskin. She has created the form, design and layout of this book. My deepest gratitude to her. My grateful acknowledgment is extended to Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust, Ahmednagar, India, for permission to print extracts from some published material for which they hold copyright. The contents of the chapter on Prophet Mohammed were gathered many years ago from early biographies of the Prophet. I thank the authors and I regret that I am unable to individually acknowledge the sources. A belated heart-felt thanks to John Grant who so patiently recorded on audio tape Eruch Jessawala talking on Beloved Baba in Mandali Hall at Meherazad. Those recordings have supplied so much of the material in my various books. This brings me of course to my final acknowledgment for this book, Eruch Jessawala, 'right hand' to God-Man Meher Baba. His reliving his life with Baba, his telling of incidents with Baba, stories of other Baba lovers, stories from spiritual tradition, all this, countless hours of giving out from the depth of his love for his Master, again forms the base of this book as it has with the others. I hope that Eruch does not inwardly groan but graciously accepts this latest attempt to do justice to his Beloved and to His 'right hand'. Preface - A Little Personal History It was in June of 1947 that I was casually introduced to Meher Baba's Discourses, and a subsequent seven-year period of intense study culminated in my meeting and being with Him in India over three weeks in September 1954. Over those seven years I sought Truth - yes, Truth was God and Meher Baba was God, and by the study of His Discourses and messages, attendance of meetings, discussions, and through meditation ('thorough thinking' as Baba defines it), I believed that I would come to a plateau of certainty and understanding. I was very earnest and diligent, and I did have insights and experiences that encouraged me, bringing a concentration more and more on a relationship with this supreme spiritual Master, Meher Baba. I no doubt accepted Baba intellectually as the Christ, and although there was fervour, there was not the depth of attachment to the Body of the Avatar until my meeting Him in 1954. Not that this 'depth' was instantaneous, but the promise of its increasing assurance was. How was this not possible in His physical Presence? The magic quality of those days in 1954,