Henry David Kashouty, Judge (ret.)

1988 - Avatar's Abode, Queensland, Australia. Photo taken & rendered by Anthony Zois.
1988 - Avatar's Abode, Queensland, Australia. Photo taken & rendered by Anthony Zois.

 

Born : 17th August, 1924 - Washington, DC., USA

Died : 12th September, 2017 - Hampton, Virginia, USA

Married : Kecha Costas

Children : Leslie, Michelle and Merwan

Nationality : American

Home : Hampton, Virginia

Parents : George - b. Kasos Island, Greece

                Melake Sheikh Daoud ( Margaret of the House of David ) - Nth. Lebanon

Siblings : Emil - who was an artist ( painter )

                 Ernest - who was a WW2 Pacific pilot

                 Adele

                 Sally Massad

 

Virginia, 2013
Virginia, 2013
The Honorable Henry Kashouty
The Honorable Henry Kashouty

 

Henry said " there's no smallness at Baba's place "

 

Henry attended the 1962 East-West Gathering for Meher Baba at Guruprasad, Poona, India.

 

 

Kecha Kashouty sent this message : 12th September, 2017

AVATAR MEHER BABA KI JAI....ON THE AFTERNOON OF SEPTEMBER 12TH AT 4:59PM OUR MOST BELOVED HENRY DAVID KASHOUTY DROPPED HIS PHYSICAL BODY AND JOINED HIS MOST BELOVED LORD AND MASTER AVATAR MEHER BABA.....XOXOXO  AMBKJ
Virginia, 2009
Virginia, 2009
At home in Virginia, Feb. 2013 ; photo by Anthony Zois
At home in Virginia, Feb. 2013 ; photo by Anthony Zois
Cropped photo
Cropped photo
1958 - Henry wearing sunglasses at the Meher Spiritual Centre, Myrtle Beach, SC.
1958 - Henry wearing sunglasses at the Meher Spiritual Centre, Myrtle Beach, SC.

Henry first met Kecha in Williamsburg whilst doing his law studies at William & Mary Univerity.

He used to hang out at ' Jockey Corner ' which was a 'Kappa Sigma' fraternity area.

Kecha was a modern dance choreographer at the time.

 

Henry played trombone in an orchestra after playing in the Navy. He also did some conducting.

1958 : Henry & his wife Kecha at the Myrtle Beach Centre during Baba's visit.
1958 : Henry & his wife Kecha at the Myrtle Beach Centre during Baba's visit.
This bio was in a flyer for a Sahavas program
This bio was in a flyer for a Sahavas program
1958 : Henry & Kecha either side of Baba during his visit to the Meher Center. Image captured from a film by Anthony Zois.
1958 : Henry & Kecha either side of Baba during his visit to the Meher Center. Image captured from a film by Anthony Zois.
1958 ; Henry at the Meher Center in Myrtle Beach, SC., during Meher Baba's visit. Image captured from a film by Anthony Zois.
1958 ; Henry at the Meher Center in Myrtle Beach, SC., during Meher Baba's visit. Image captured from a film by Anthony Zois.
Lord Meher page 5407   HENRY KASHOUTY'S ACCOUNT
 
 

After my first meeting with Avatar Meher Baba at the Delmonico Hotel in New York City in 1956, I continued to write to Baba. I deeply felt the need to express my love to the One who for me transformed "God the word" into Beloved God, the Divine Reality in everyone and everything. Each time I wrote to Baba I struggled to find words that could express the love and conviction I felt for the miracle of Baba's existence. How could I find the words to praise the One whose life embodied the absolute truth: that all were destined for the Supreme Goal; that Baba's sublime presence and Reality was for everyone to experience through their own struggle to try to put him before self every moment.

Of course my words to Baba were not adequate, but the sincerity and conviction I experienced needed to be expressed to him as best I could.

Beginning in 1956, with Baba's permission, Kecha and I began to have meetings at our home every Monday night [in Hampton, Virginia] similar to the meetings in New York City. In a letter to Baba, conveying my feelings of inadequacy in conducting these meetings, I used the expression "the blind leading the blind." Baba's response was that "when the Avatar is behind you there is no question of the blind leading the blind; and your love, faith and highly developed sense of feeling and understanding of the Avatar of the Age is praiseworthy."

After reading Baba's statement directing those whose special circumstances required specific instructions from Baba, to request them, I did so. Baba's response through Mani was, "If it is possible for you to come next year to India, you should definitely do so. During that month with Baba, he will give you the specific instructions that you mention." In a subsequent letter, Baba stated, "Baba is very pleased with you and your dear wife and says there are no small instructions for you both except to love him more and more with all your heart. This is much more than any instructions he wishes to give you. Baba knows you and your dear wife and sends you both his very dear and endearing love."

Meher Baba became the substance and direction of life for Kecha and me. There was no thought or occurrence for which he was not the total answer. The very difficult work for us was to give up self for Baba. What keeps us struggling to this day, trying our best to surrender our will to Baba's will, was and is our great good fortune, in knowing beyond question, we have no choice. Meher Baba is the sublime destiny that excludes no one.

It is with this background that we came in the presence, again, of Meher Baba, God in human form, at his Center in the West in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, in 1958.

'Kangaroo tie" - Virginia - 2003
'Kangaroo tie" - Virginia - 2003

Henry was was a guest on the Alan Burke TV Show in New York City in the 1980s, in which he spoke of Meher Baba.

 

 

Henry donated many books many of which were at A.R.E. - Edgar Cayce's Association for Research & Enlightenment at Virginia Beach, Virginia.


It was at their library that Lawrence Reiter "Hermes"  first read about Meher Baba.


In the early 1970s, Henry took Adi K.Irani, Meherjee and John Bass to A.R.E. and they gave a talk about Baba to the audiance. Hugh Lynn, the son of Edgar Cayce was in the audience and was very happy to hear them. He revealed that he had gone to India to see Baba, but he was in seclusion.

Henry had another meeting with Hugh Lynn in his office which was in a church.

Henry with Baba. Photo courtesy of Kecha Kashouty
Henry with Baba. Photo courtesy of Kecha Kashouty
LSLP : Oct-Dec 1995
LSLP : Oct-Dec 1995

Elizabeth Sacalis who was friend of Kecha ( Henry's wife ) and who was working at the time at the Robert Blackman Institute in New York City, sent a copy of "God Speaks" to Henry's office. This was the first time that he had heard of Meher Baba.

 

 

Chuck May, Henry & Tony Zois at Melbourne - May 2003
Chuck May, Henry & Tony Zois at Melbourne - May 2003
Chuck May, Henry & Jasmin Fricker in Melbourne - May 2003
Chuck May, Henry & Jasmin Fricker in Melbourne - May 2003
Henry & Tony Zois - Avatar's Abode Anniversay 1988
Henry & Tony Zois - Avatar's Abode Anniversay 1988
Henry with Ralph & Stella Hernandez
Henry with Ralph & Stella Hernandez

Avatar Meher Baba Bombay Centre

7/21/12

JULY 22, 1956 - YOU WILL EXPERIENCE THE TRUTH.

 

Henry David Kashouty, age thirty-three, was a lawyer from Virginia who had been looking all his life "for the kind of answer that would be able to hold up no matter what happened in life." He had read widely, but in 1955, as he wrote to Swami Nikhilananda (a disciple of Ramakrishna of Calcutta) in New York, "I am growing tired of reading of the Reality I am now convinced exists. I want to meet someone who has experienced that Reality."

His wife Kecha's childhood friend, Elizabeth Sacalis, came from New York to visit, and Henry told her of his inner longings. When she returned in December 1955, she sent him God Speaks as a Christmas present. Henry unwrapped the package in his office and saw Baba's picture. "He looked so ancient, so timeless," Henry remembered. "There was something about that picture. It was instant recognition. He was someone who had that authority, who knew everything there was to know. Someone in whom I could place my confidence. My conviction was one hundred percent."

Kashouty had only read the inside flyleaf of the cover when he picked up the telephone, called Elizabeth Sacalis in New York and told her, "Meher Baba is the One. Please find out how we can meet him." Later, Elizabeth contacted Henry to say that she had been to the office of Dodd, Mead, and was told Baba had come in 1952, and was not expected again. There was an address in India on the back cover of the book (King's Road, Ahmednagar), so Henry sent a special delivery airmail letter to Baba in which he stated: "Dear Meher Baba, I have your book God Speaks. It has great meaning for me. I want to meet you and I do not think that is impossible." He received a reply that Baba would be in New York the following spring. Kashouty said: "That was the beginning – the beginning of this love affair."

When Baba arrived in America, Henry and his wife Kecha, age twenty-four, drove north to New York from Virginia. On July 20th, they drove to the Hotel Delmonico to meet Baba. Kecha had some errands to do, so Henry got out and went inside. They got to the floor where Baba was meeting people and gave their names to John Bass. Here is Henry's account of his first meeting with the Knower of All:

When I finally had the opportunity to go into the room where Baba was, I looked at him and my reaction, my feeling was of total knowing of this person. There was no barrier of any kind. There is always a barrier between a person and a friend, or a relative, or a mother or father – things you would not say, whatever. But here, there was absolutely no barrier between me and that person – which meant that those things that I would not tell a soul, I would not have hesitated to say to him. That is what I mean when I say I felt as if I had always known him – such an intimate closeness.

He was the most familiar person, someone more than a friend. He is the Friend, that no matter what you are, he will never condemn you. He is the friend that understands you completely, that is why he never condemns you and consequently loves you totally. He is a friend who is never absent. He is a friend who waits forever, if necessary, for you to come home.

For years, I looked for someone to whom I could say anything. But the only thing I could say to Baba when he embraced me was what I said in his ear: "I adore you."

When Henry Kashouty was let out into the corridor where everyone went after having their interview with Baba, he was totally dissatisfied. He did not feel that he had said what he needed to say to Baba, although he did not really know what to say. He further stated:

Baba was God, and I wanted to look at God in human form – how he blinks, how he turns his head – everything! If I could not see the Godliness there, my blindness, if it looked enough, would see. There was not any question in my mind that his Reality would touch the deepest aspect in me if I looked long enough.

Every time the door opened, Kashouty tried to peek inside for another glimpse of Baba. Finally, Eruch approached him and said, "Baba wants to know what you want."

Henry said, "I must see him again," and he was allowed to see Baba once more. He later explained: "I found it very troubling that I could not strip away everything false about me, to find my own reality enough to address this great Reality." The best he could do was to say: "Baba, I must experience the Truth."

Baba beamed and said, "You will experience the Truth. I am helping you. I will help you."

 

Lord Meher, 1st. ed., Bhau Kalchuri, Vol. 14, pp. 4961 - 4962. 

The Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust, Ahmednagar, India are the copyright holders of all of Meher Baba's messages, discourses and photographs, unless otherwise stated.

Photos courtesy of Mathew Talbot - Urban Sahavis, California - 2005

1958 : Henry & Kecha either side of Baba with Lud Dimpfl far left during Meher Baba's visit to the Meher Center in Myrtle Beach, SC.
1958 : Henry & Kecha either side of Baba with Lud Dimpfl far left during Meher Baba's visit to the Meher Center in Myrtle Beach, SC.
Glow mag. February 1995 p.15
Glow mag. February 1995 p.15
 1958 ; Henry at the Meher Center in Myrtle Beach, SC., during Meher Baba's visit. Image captured from a film by Anthony Zois.
1958 ; Henry at the Meher Center in Myrtle Beach, SC., during Meher Baba's visit. Image captured from a film by Anthony Zois.

1958 ; Henry & Kecha at the Meher Center in Myrtle Beach, SC., during Meher Baba's visit. Image captured from a film by Anthony Zois.

1962 - Guruprasad, Poona ; Henry is behind Baba. Also in the picture is Charles Haynes wearing a brown jacket, Baba holding onto Lud Dimpf ( white shirt ) & Anita de Caro on the far right.
1962 - Guruprasad, Poona ; Henry is behind Baba. Also in the picture is Charles Haynes wearing a brown jacket, Baba holding onto Lud Dimpf ( white shirt ) & Anita de Caro on the far right.
Baba with group including Charles at East West Gathering 1962. Henry is standing far right with dark hair.
Baba with group including Charles at East West Gathering 1962. Henry is standing far right with dark hair.
Henry in the US Navy
Henry in the US Navy
Henry playng in India
Henry playng in India
Henry playing in India
Henry playing in India

Courtesy of LSLP ; April-June 2000 p 35

Henry playing his trombone during Baba's birthday celebrations at Meherabode

Henry playing his Bach trombone at home in Virginia
Henry playing his Bach trombone at home in Virginia
( L-R ) Henry, Merwan Dubash, Bhau Kalchuri, Bob Brown & Jane Viscardi Brown
( L-R ) Henry, Merwan Dubash, Bhau Kalchuri, Bob Brown & Jane Viscardi Brown
Photo courtesy of Robin Reeves-Oppenheim
Photo courtesy of Robin Reeves-Oppenheim
Cropped image by Anthony Zois
Cropped image by Anthony Zois
Henry embracing his audience at Beloved Archives, New York - October 2011
Henry embracing his audience at Beloved Archives, New York - October 2011
Henry ( right ) at Beloved Archives, New York - October 2011
Henry ( right ) at Beloved Archives, New York - October 2011
2013 - Hampton, Virginia,USA. Photo taken by Anthony Zois.
2013 - Hampton, Virginia,USA. Photo taken by Anthony Zois.
2013 - Henry with Kecha at home in  Hampton, Virginia,USA. Photo taken by Anthony Zois.
2013 - Henry with Kecha at home in Hampton, Virginia,USA. Photo taken by Anthony Zois.

" Meher Baba Calling "from Philip Ludwig: "In December of 2009, Henry Kashouty visited our house for a Baba meeting. I persuaded him to read the booklet “Meher Baba Calling” from cover-to-cover, with the plan to release a CD.
Because of the length, I was only able to complete the first half of the booklet, which I called Part 1.
The attached mp3 is a 4-selection excerpt from that unfinished CD in tribute to a wonderful man and a great soul who helped us understand the significance of our having been given the conviction of Baba’s Godhood."

 

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