Frederick "Rick" Martin Chapman Jrn.

Born : 11th March, 1943 - Witchita, Kansas, USA

Married : Sheryl

Nationality : American

(nicknamed "Moochewalla" – means "the man with the mustache")

1966


Among the birthday greetings, cards and cables was a poem from an American college student at Harvard named Rick Chapman, a friend of Robert Dreyfuss in Boston, Massachusetts. Hearing the poem Baba was touched by it and cabled Rick this message on February 27th: "The music of my love singing from your heart made me happy. Let your heartbeats be my song. I send my love to you and Robert."

  Lord Meher Volume 19, Page 6424

They left Ahmednagar that afternoon and traveled overland to Germany, and from there traveled by plane to America. Mik and Ursula stayed first in New York City and then traveled to California, where they met Robert Dreyfuss, Rick Chapman, Allan Cohen, Paula Gordon and others, and like them helped to spread Meher Baba's message to college students and "hippies" and "acid heads" (LSD users) warning them about taking drugs of any kind.


Lord Meher Volume 19, Page 6433

1988 - Mandali Hall, Meherazad, India ; ( cropped ) photo by Anthony Zois
1988 - Mandali Hall, Meherazad, India ; ( cropped ) photo by Anthony Zois

JAMES HALL MCGREW, known as "Jim," found out about Meher Baba from Rick Chapman in the summer of 1965 after graduating from college at the age of twenty-one. Jim and Rick had been long-time friends in high school in Denver, Colorado, and they had been roommates during their freshman year at Harvard in 1961-62. In the summer of 1965, McGrew was living in Denver and waiting to begin service in the United States Peace Corps in India. Rick Chapman had returned from San Francisco full of enthusiasm for Baba, having met with Ivy Duce and the Sufis there, seen movies of Baba, purchased some books, and signed up for the charter flight to India for the sahavas at that time planned by Baba for December 1965.

Jim McGrew and Rick Chapman had both previously been interested in spiritual development, and McGrew became keenly interested in Meher Baba and purchased some books by and about Baba himself. McGrew began his training program for the Peace Corps at the School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vermont. Rick Chapman was then in Cambridge, Massachusetts, finishing his final year at Harvard University.

In September 1965, Meher Baba canceled the December sahavas, promising to meet with his lovers "somewhere, sometime, somehow." Baba further announced his intention to go into seclusion and his wish to be undisturbed even though he was keenly aware of the heartbreak of his lovers who missed seeing him.

As narrated, Jim McGrew and Rick Chapman's mutual friend, Robert Dreyfuss, had begun a hitch-hiking trip in Europe overland to India before the cancellation and continued on his journey to India unaware of the cancellation of the sahavas. In November of 1965, McGrew and Chapman received word that Dreyfuss had met with Meher Baba in Meherazad.

 

Lord Meher Volume 19, Page 6441

 

Eruch asked him who he was and Jim McGrew identified himself. Eruch said that he was welcome and showed him to a porch. There Eruch showed him some photograph albums depicting Baba at the 1965 sahavas for Easterners in Poona. While Jim McGrew was sitting on the porch, Mani came and introduced herself, as did Rano Gayley. McGrew had literally never in his life met any of Baba's lovers before; these mandali were the first lovers (other than Rick Chapman and Robert Dreyfuss) that he had met.


Lord Meher Volume 19, Page 6444

 
 1988 - Mandali Hall, Meherazad, India ; photo by Anthony Zois
1988 - Mandali Hall, Meherazad, India ; photo by Anthony Zois

MEANWHILE IN AMERICA, Meher Baba’s message on drugs was being widely spread by a group of hardworking young lovers, such as Robert Dreyfuss, Allan Cohen and Rick Chapman, who wrote articles, gave talks and appeared on television and radio shows, appealing to young people to give up drugs. As a result of this anti-drug campaign, many came to know of Baba and several to love him. In fact, back on April 21st, Baba had Adi write the following to Ivy O. Duce, eliciting her full support for this work:

 

 

My dear Ivy,

A special article in The New York Times by Robert B. Semple, Jr., on “Colleges Warned to Curb Drug Use — U. S. Asserts Hallucinogens May Harm Students” was read to Beloved Baba in Poona.

After hearing the article, Baba wishes me to let you and those concerned know that if the student world continues to indulge in the use of LSD, half of the U. S. A. would soon become mentally deranged! Hence, a check must be strictly enforced, and the use of these drugs be prohibited, especially among the rising generation.

Of course, the law of the land will take care of this side of the question; but Baba wishes Robert Dreyfuss, Allan Cohen, Rick Chapman and others, who have stopped taking LSD and such drugs, to be his apostles in this particular field and to give lectures on college campuses and speak in social gatherings and meetings, quoting passages from God Speaks and other Baba-literature on the experiences of the spiritual planes, and reading excerpts from letters from Baba to Dr. Richard Alpert and Allan Cohen in which Beloved Baba is emphatically against the use of LSD and ganja (marijuana), and suchlike drugs and smokes.

Meher Baba wants these “Baba-boys” further to submit articles in newspapers against the use of these drugs as based on information from Avatar Meher Baba and from his writings in the Discourses, God Speaks, and so forth. Baba says that this is the best opportunity for Baba-boys to do his work in the States and, at the same time, to be of help to their fellow-beings in America. Their speeches and articles should be illuminating so as to turn the minds of the addicts and guide them to a proper understanding. Baba wishes his boys particularly to tell the students to read God Speaks in which even the experiences of the planes of consciousness are only another kind of an illusion.

Baba clarifies that these experiences of the planes are “real illusion,” whereas those derived from the use of drugs are illusion into “false illusion.” What Beloved Baba wishes to imply is that this mundane life and the experiences thereof are a “dream into a dream,” whereas the traversing of the Spiritual Path by the seekers who gain experiences of the planes of consciousness is a “dream.”

Dear Ivy, it is expedient that these boys of Baba follow in right earnest Baba’s wishes, and do their best to bring home his message for the benefit of all concerned.

with love to you and all dear ones.

Adi K. Irani

  Lord Meher Volume 20, Page 6466-7
1989 New Years Eve - Meherabad, India
1989 New Years Eve - Meherabad, India

In response, the following letter was composed in late April, or early May 1966 by Allan Cohen, Robert Dreyfuss and Frederick (Rick) Chapman in response to Meher Baba’s instructions (April 21st, 1966) regarding anti-drug work. It was sent to hundreds of college campus and city newspapers as a letter to the editor. It was published widely in America, including excerpts in major national media outlets such as the Christian Science Monitor, Time magazine and Newsweek magazine.

 

 

The use of drugs from marijuana and amphetamines to LSD, DMT and peyote is now a major controversy. Psychedelic or consciousness-expanding drugs can provide experiences so impressive and profound that more and more people are looking to them as the most immediate and effective way to deepen personal insight and expand awareness. That these experiences are

impressive is a well-established fact with us; we have actively followed drug research from its earliest roots and are thoroughly familiar with the enchantments of almost every facet of psychedelic indulgence. Searching for lasting positive value, however, we concluded that drugs constitute only a subtle escape from the conscious effort that eventually must be made.

Although drug enthusiasts frequently turn to Eastern philosophers and spiritual teachings for metaphors to describe and justify their psychedelic experiences, no authentic teachings or guides have ever sanctioned the use of drugs in the quest of increased awareness and enlightenment. Here the statements of Avatar Meher Baba are pertinent. Meher Baba is a non-sectarian spiritual Master, living now in India, who is acknowledged in the East and West as the authority on higher states of consciousness. (For one, U. S. psychedelic spokesman Dr. Richard Alpert recognizes Meher Baba’s mastery in this field.)

When consulted about psychedelics, Meher Baba replied: “The experiences which drugs induce are as far removed from Reality as is a mirage from water. No matter how much you pursue the mirage you will never quench your thirst, and the search for Truth through drugs must end in disillusionment. Many people in India smoke hashish and ganja; they see colors, forms and lights and it makes them elated. But this elation is only temporary. It gives only experience of illusion, and serves to take one farther away from reality. The feeling of having had a glimpse of higher states of consciousness may only lull one into a sense of false security. Although LSD is not a physically addicting drug, one can become attached to the experiences arising from its use, and one gets tempted to use it in increased doses, again and again, in the hope of deeper and deeper experiences. But this can only lead to madness.*

Our experience corroborates Meher Baba’s statement: drugs of any kind inevitably become a blind alley for self-fulfillment. To rely on external means is to ignore one’s inherent capacity to realize his own greatest potential.

Allan Y. Cohen, Ph.D.

Robert Dreyfuss, A.B.

Frederick Chapman, A.B.

  Lord Meher Volume 20, Page 6469-70
(L-R) Robert Dreyfuss, Allan Cohen & Rick Chapman
(L-R) Robert Dreyfuss, Allan Cohen & Rick Chapman

Frederick Chapman, but called by his friends “Rick,” had graduated from Harvard in June 1966, at age twenty-three, and had been granted a year’s Fulbright teaching scholarship in India. He had specifically applied to go to India fully expecting not to meet Baba, as he knew Baba was in seclusion, but he hoped to be able to meet as many people as possible who had met Baba. He wrote to Adi Sr., informing him of his plans and requesting the names and addresses of lovers he might contact while in India.

Rick arrived in India on June 20th, and following a two-week orientation in Delhi and Srinagar, Kashmir, he was assigned to teach at the H. K. Arts College in Ahmedabad, a large city in Gujarat State. He had ten days of vacation in August, which he decided to spend in Bombay and Poona visiting Baba lovers. Rick wrote to Eruch:

 

Baba’s orders to me have been not to come to him until he himself calls. I will, of course, obey his perfect will.

 

For the first six weeks that Rick Chapman was in India, Meher Baba did not call for him. But on the morning of August 10th, when he arrived in Bombay and was met at Victoria train station by Sohrabji Siganporia and Kishan Chand Gajwani, Rick was informed, “We understand that Baba has called you to see him on August 17th!” As shocked as he was elated, Rick could barely absorb such extraordinary and unexpected news.

But two days later Adi Sr. phoned from Ahmednagar, saying that Baba was putting a stop to all visitors from August 16th, and wished to remain undisturbed until the end of 1967. Therefore, he said, Rick Chapman’s meeting had been moved up to the 15th, at nine o’clock in the morning.

Rick’s first thought was: “Oh, here goes Baba, changing plans like he always does. I’ll probably get word tomorrow that he had changed the meeting to yesterday, with Baba wondering why I wasn’t there!”

Rick arrived in Poona at 5:30 A.M. on Monday, August 15th, and was met at the train station by Adi Sr., Sheela and Bhavsar. He drove with Adi to Ahmednagar, and they had breakfast at Sarosh’s home. “Baba is very particular about time,” Adi said, even as he asked for another cup of tea, Rick recalled. “But don’t worry,” Adi continued, “he will blame me, not you, if we are late for your nine o’clock meeting.”

 

True to the task, however, Adi drove him the nine miles to Meherazad precisely on time, and Rick was taken inside the hall, where Baba smilingly embraced him. In his words, Rick Chapman later described those first moments with the Beloved:

 

 

As I leaned over to lay my heart onto my ‘Heart’ I glanced into his light-flashing eyes — moment of Sun-brightness, moment of wordless joy, moment of moments in the arms of God!

 

Baba kissed him on the forehead.

 

Rick Chapman later recollected the experience:

 

 

I did not clearly recall for about two weeks that Baba had kissed me on the forehead — it was so gentle, so natural. I had just embraced him for the first time in this life, though it was as if he were my oldest friend, beaming, radiating joy as I entered his arms. As I came closer into his tight hug, suddenly a voice came into my mind: ‘Stop! Don’t waste this time — look at him!’ So I turned my eyes a fraction of an inch, from dazedly looking over his shoulder to looking into his eyes six inches away, flashing light. Surely the men sitting nearby on the floor saw him let the light flash out of his eyes into my own... .

 

Rick sat down on the floor across from Baba, and the following exchange took place:

Baba asked, “How did you sleep on the train last night?”

Rick said, “Fine, Baba. I slept well, but naturally, I have been very excited the past few days.”

Baba raised his eyebrows and asked, “Why?”

“The opportunity to see you now, at a time when your lovers all over the world are longing for even a glimpse of you is tremendously exciting,” replied Rick.

“You are indeed very fortunate to be here at this time,” Baba emphasized. “I am in strict seclusion, and from this day on, my seclusion will be even more strict — I will be seeing no one outside the immediate mandali, not even any of my close lovers in Ahmednagar.

“But,” gestured Baba, referring to Rick’s excitement, “you should pay no attention to the thoughts of the mind. It is the nature of the mind to have every kind of thought, good and bad. You must long for me in your heart.”

 
   
 
 

Baba continued, “In fact, pay no attention whatsoever to the Spiritual Path, the planes of consciousness, or to any spiritual experiences — they are all nothing but toys for children, because they are nothing but illusion. You must strive to see me as I really am! Then you will be able to know me as I am.

“But, how will you see me as I am? You must long to see me in your heart. And where will you get this longing? By loving me.”

After a few moments, Baba smiled and gestured, “God proposes, but man disposes.” As Rick stared at him quizzically, Baba repeated the reversed epigram, gesturing, “God proposes, but man disposes.”

Then he explained, “I had proposed to bring you here for just a few minutes, then send you away, but you have disposed of my proposal!”

After this lighthearted moment, Baba introduced Francis Brabazon and asked him to read a recent poem of his which contained a reference to LSD:

 

 

“Don’t try to hold me up by offering me a trip on LSD;

I always travel unencumbered, guided alone by love — see!”

 

At Baba’s indication Francis read another poem he had written — an exquisite ghazal, which made Baba beam and snap his fingers as certain lines of finely tuned words came to a climax.

Baba then called upon Aloba to recite in Persian a couplet from Hafiz, which Baba translated as follows:

“Millions of men of God stand in a queue

to cross the threshold to the God-Man,

and only one crosses the threshold.

Out of millions who cross the threshold,

only one can know me as I really am.”

Looking at Rick, once again, for the third time, Baba reiterated, “You must strive to see me as I really am!”

In response, Rick said, “By your grace, Baba.”

Almost without a pause, Baba replied, “You strive — I will help you.”

With a serious look, Baba added, “Don’t let me down.”

The meeting included some further exchanges, with Baba listening as Rick poured out his heart in love for his Beloved.

 

Rick surrendered his time in India at his “Master’s lotus feet,” and Baba gave him some specific instructions.

As the time for Rick’s visit came to a close, Baba stated, “My time (for the breaking of my silence) is fast approaching. The most important thing for you is to hold fast to my daaman. What does ‘holding the daaman’ mean? To do exactly what I say, to obey me implicitly. I am God. I am Truth.”

Baba called Rick to embrace him again, and then sent him out of the hall with Eruch; Rick’s forty-five-minute meeting had come to an end. Baba also sent Francis, Nariman and Adi Sr. out to talk with him. Before anything else, however, Eruch sat with Rick as they together recounted Rick’s interview with Baba, which Eruch jotted down detail by detail. Baba also sent two mangoes, from the mast’s trees in Meherazad, to Rick through Manu, which Rick was to eat as his prasad.

Every day before Baba retired to his room, he would salute the mandali in a joined-handed namaste, which the mandali would reciprocate. On this day, Baba called Rick back to the hall for a final glimpse of him. The only words Rick could muster, as he himself joined his hands in namaste before his Beloved, were “Thank you.” Baba then departed for lunch.

 

After meeting Baba, Rick Chapman returned to Poona and back to Ahmedabad via Bombay. Two days after he left, August 17th, Rick wrote the following to Adi:

 

 

Dear brother Adi,

Still reeling, I am completely unable to express my happiness at meeting my true Beloved. That God disposed of His own proposal and allowed me to stay close to Him for several of His smiles and a thorough soaking in His love — this is nothing that can properly be spoken of by one who can see Baba only as He really isn’t. And if a glimpse of him through eyes that cannot see can give such joy — who then could He be but God Himself!

— Baba’s Moochewalla


Lord Meher Volume 20, Page 6478

Part extract from Ivy Duce's journal written in 1966:


Two different boys [Robert Dreyfuss and Steve Simon] had literally worked their way all across the world to India to find Baba and he told them to come back and tell every one not to take drugs. Then he wrote me and told me to keep my eye on the Harvard boys [Allan Cohen, Rick Chapman and Jim McGrew] and help them to fulfill his commands. I could not help thinking what a weird way to be spending my old age — with a lot of beatnik youngsters and drug addicts. From then on ensued much correspondence among us and we were busy preparing a rebuttal to the big LSD week-long conference to be held here in the city — both the originators of this craze were to be present, Leary and Alpert. By then Alpert said that he mistrusted Baba, which showed his ego working.


Lord Meher Volume 20, Page 6481

 
February 1969 - ( L-R ) Eruch Jessawala, Jal Irani, Rick Chapman, Allan and Aneece Hassen inside Baba's tomb.
February 1969 - ( L-R ) Eruch Jessawala, Jal Irani, Rick Chapman, Allan and Aneece Hassen inside Baba's tomb.

A Boston man named Bob Dreyfuss and later Jim McGrew, went to see Baba. Baba was in seclusion, but he agreed to see Dreyfuss when he learned that Dreyfuss had worked his way to India in time to arrive in Poona for the December Sahavas we were scheduled to have, but which Baba had meantime canceled, and Dreyfuss did not know it. Baba told him to stop taking LSD and to go back to Boston and tell everybody else also to stop. Two boys he talked with, Rick Chapman and Allan Cohen became interested in Baba — and the Master put his will behind them, using me as a sort of central bureau for the work, and they got into magazines, newspapers, television and radio. It was fantastic. Rick went off to India on a Fulbright scholarship and eventually Allan came out here and is working on the campus of the University of California in Berkeley.


  Lord Meher Volume 20, Page 6484
February 1969 - ( L-R ) Eruch Jessawala, Jal Irani, Rick Chapman, Allan and Aneece Hassen inside Baba's tomb.
February 1969 - ( L-R ) Eruch Jessawala, Jal Irani, Rick Chapman, Allan and Aneece Hassen inside Baba's tomb.

Rick Chapman arrived in Poona about a week later in April and stayed in makeshift quarters at the Poona Center, where K. K. Ramakrishnan also stayed in a small room as the Center's caretaker. But although he would occasionally call Ramakrishnan concerning certain work, Baba did not call Chapman during this time to have darshan. Not wishing to disobey Baba's order that no one should disturb his seclusion, Chapman, likewise, did not seek Baba's darshan before returning to America on May 6th. When Eruch casually suggested that Baba might call Chapman, Baba remarked, "No, that one visit was enough for him."

The following is an excerpt from a letter from Rick Chapman to Allan Cohen, dated May 11th, 1967:

 

… Before I left Poona Baba sent me a message which contained immense emotional charge:

"You, Allan and Bob [Dreyfuss] are the ones who can spread My Message of Truth to the Americans."

 

On May 26th, this telegram was sent to Allan Cohen:

 

 

Your cable and letter to Adi received. Spend no more time contacting [Richard] Alpert. Rick will soon join you in the work of spreading my message. Press on with this work for my time is fast approaching. My love to you. – Meher Baba

 

Lord Meher Volume 20, Page 6509-10

Malcolm Sebastian Baker, Rick Chapman and Robert Dreyfuss-1981-2. Courtesy of Ursula Reinhart
Malcolm Sebastian Baker, Rick Chapman and Robert Dreyfuss-1981-2. Courtesy of Ursula Reinhart

1967


Allan Cohen sent Baba newspaper clippings and a report of his recent work of spreading Baba's message against drugs. Baba cabled him around the 20th of July:

 

 

I am very happy at your response to my call to accelerate effort, for the time is fast approaching. I am proud of you, Rick [Chapman], Bob [Robert Dreyfuss] and Baba boys and girls. My love-blessing to you all.

 

 

  Lord Meher Volume 20, Page 6520

July 1967


(1)  There is one very important point: that none of the mandali should disturb Baba until November end with any sort of correspondence or news received through telegrams, however important the letters or telegrams may be, EXCEPT important letters which are received from Maharani Shantadevi, Nariman Dadachanji, Don Stevens, Allan Cohen, Rick Chapman, Robert Dreyfuss and Louis Van Gasteren, and these letters are to be read to Baba only on Saturdays at 9:00 A.M.

 

There were 3 further points that refered to other people.


Lord Meher Volume 20, Page 6521

Robert Dreyfuss met Van Gasteren through a mutual friend in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in June of 1965. In September 1966, Dreyfuss stayed with Van Gasteren for a week in Amsterdam and during that visit spoke to him at length about Baba. The filmmaker and his wife had been guests of Rick Chapman in California the previous August. Van Gasteren told Dreyfuss about his plans to make a 35mm color film entitled, "Nema Aviona Za Zagreb" (translated from the Croatian, "There Is No Plane for Zagreb" Zagreb is a town in Yugoslavia). Van Gasteren said he wished to include Baba in it but had no money to finance it. Later financing was arranged.


Lord Meher Volume 20, Page 6528

 

Photo courtesy of Love Breezes - 2012
Photo courtesy of Love Breezes - 2012

Baba then stated to the Ahmednagar group:

 

 

My work is being actively carried on in Andhra, Hamirpur and other Centers throughout the world. In America, many, many new lovers are coming to me, and they too are active in my cause. Highly educated youths like Allan Cohen, Rick Chapman and Robert Dreyfuss are always busy with my work there. Rick and Allan appeared on a nationally syndicated radio and television show [The Joe Pyne Show] on August 23rd, and spoke about me to millions of listeners and viewers. Bill Le Page has done the same thing in Australia and writes that the response has been tremendous.

And here you are – you do not do anything, though you are only nine miles away from me! You get the chance of my darshan, which outsiders do not have. Even from my seclusion, I am meeting with you today so that you should know how to do work for me. Remember that only God is real, and all else is illusion.

 

Baba concluded, "My time is near and very soon I will break my silence."


Lord Meher Volume 20, Page 6548

Rick, Eruch Jessawala & Ursula Reinhart. Meherazad, Jan.1979
Rick, Eruch Jessawala & Ursula Reinhart. Meherazad, Jan.1979

1968


Regular reports of anti-drug work done by Allan Cohen, Rick Chapman, Robert Dreyfuss, Paula Gordon and Alain Youell, among others, would be sent to Baba despite the ban on correspondence. On April 26th, Baba cabled Chapman and Cohen:

 

 

In the midst of my seclusion work, I had Eruch read out today your work report including April 12th to the 14th. I am very happy with the work done and want you to remember that under no circumstances can Truth ever let down Truth.

 

Chapman and Cohen cabled back on the 1st of May:

 

 

Mysterious and wonderful are the ways of the Avatar who sits silently in seclusion and draws the whole world to his feet. Your work is our joy to behold as it awakens Truth in others to find in you the only Truth. We rejoice in the certainty of your love.

 

 

Lord Meher Volume 20, Page 6631

 

Robert Dreyfuss
Robert Dreyfuss

Baba started to say something about Rick Chapman, when one of the men mandali (who had been told to remind Baba when five minutes had expired) interrupted him. Baba gestured, "Yes, Rick Chapman was here for a long time too." Baba laughed and indicated it was all right.

Only then did Jerry Paulson realize he had overstayed the five-minute limit by twenty minutes. Baba suggested that Jerry Paulson contact Rick Chapman when he returned. "Make an attempt to see him."

 

Lord Meher Volume 20, Page 6657

 

 

 

1968


On November 3rd, 1968, Allan Cohen, Rick Chapman and Robert Dreyfuss were written by Eruch that Baba wished them to convey a message from him to about twenty of his chief young lover-workers in America and England who had taken the responsibility of starting projects in Baba's name. The letter from Eruch read:

 

Here is an important task but a pleasant one which Beloved Baba has set for you. Baba wishes you to convey his message as given hereunder to all his chief young lover-workers in the U.S.A. and England – those who have taken the responsibility of starting Baba projects and have inspired others to rally around them – you are to send the following message from their Beloved Avatar Meher Baba:


"YOU ARE DEAR TO ME AND I AM PLEASED WITH THE WAY YOU HAVE COME FORWARD IN MY NAME AND WORK. THE TIME IS HERE AND SOON THE WORLD WILL KNOW THAT I AM THE ANCIENT ONE."


Of course the message applies equally to you three. I will appreciate it if you will please send me a typed copy of the names and addresses of these fortunate young lover-workers of Baba.

 

 

Lord Meher Volume 20, Page 6676

Meherazad : AMATITHI period 1979 (L-R)  Robert, Alan Cohen & Rick Chapman
Meherazad : AMATITHI period 1979 (L-R) Robert, Alan Cohen & Rick Chapman

1969


In Adi K. Irani's words: "It takes time for Meher Baba's Word to penetrate the universe."

 

Several thousand people arrived during this week, from near and far. The first to arrive among the Westerners was Don Stevens. Soon after came Harry Kenmore, Adi Jr. and Delia De Leon. Rick Chapman, Allan Cohen and Aneece Hassen arrived on the 4th of February, and Irwin and Edward Luck arrived at Meherabad three days later on the morning of the 7th. They were all accommodated at Sarosh and Viloo's home.

 

  Lord Meher Volume 20, Page 6731 

BOOKS PUBLISHED

Meeting God in human form
MMB Postcard.pdf
Adobe Acrobat Document 362.4 KB
90 pages
90 pages
Translated by : Jean Gousseff. Available in both Cloth and softback , 140 pages each
Translated by : Jean Gousseff. Available in both Cloth and softback , 140 pages each
140 p.
140 p.
STEVENS, D. E., Rick M. Chapman, James M. Hastings and Gary & Patty Freeman, eds

Berkeley: The Beguine Library, (1976)

 

 

BUG CONSCIOUSNESS,

DRUG CONSCIOUSNESS &

FLYING RUG CONSCIOUSNESS

- The dope onf drugs - pot, peyote, acid & beyond from the source of truth

 

RICK M. CHAPMAN

 

2022

 

Published by : Self Published

129 pp.

Following Meher Baba

A Handbook for Baba-lovers in the New Humanity

Rick M. Chapman

Hardcover 298 pp.

2015

From the back cover:
"A 'how-to' book about following the Lord of Love? No way! He is above and beyond all the machinations of the mind, all the doctrines and creeds, all the tenets and laws that characterize not only all the religions of the world but also the countless 'spiritual paths' that all eventually must, however circuitously, lead to the One Infinite Reality. This book is rather a collection of thoughts about what transpires when a seeker happens to come into the orbit of the Love of the Ancient One - God in human form as the Avatar, the Christ, the God-Man. What are the contours of the Divine Romance; which is the quickest, the easiest, and the most joyous path to Realization? What can you expect of the Divine Beloved, and what might He expect of you?

Love is, of course, a game all to itself, and the lover-Beloved relationship between the smitten heart and the Divine Beloved is a Divine Game beyond all description. Yet some of the wisdom shared by the Kalki Avatar and His closest disciples may be of interest to the cunning lover: for who would not wish to know more about how to curry the favor of the One Who has stolen your heart? Who would not be desperate to try to learn what pleases and displeases that most lovely Beloved of all beloveds, so as to help insure your certain passage to His inner court? Open this book, then, to find my side of the conversation about what 'following Meher Baba' is all about. May it begin to provoke a deeper longing in us all to discover and live the life of the true lover of God."
- Rick M. Chapman
Published 2015.

A Review of Rick Chapman's Book, Adventures in India with Meher Baba, 
by Mickey Karger. 

There isn't a Baba lover in the world who couldn't, with very little effort, relate intimately and intensely to this most unique of all adventures, unique because the adventure is both an inner and outer one, the outer one not without some of the risks and daredevil hazards associated with most worldly adventures. There also isn't a Baba lover in the world who won't find himself or herself wishing that it could have been their adventure as well. But this book does more than just make me envious, because in so many ways it takes me on that adventure vicariously. 
In 1966 Rick had left the comforts of life in America to travel to Ahmedabad, India, on a Fulbright Scholarship to teach English to some of the most intractable, lazy and uncooperative students any teacher would give a painful tooth removal to avoid. 
While in Ahmedabad Rick was in constant contact with Adi K. Irani, Eruch Jessawala, and sometimes Mani by Baba’s direction. Baba’s strict seclusion and Universal Work made the chance that Baba would give Rick the once-in-a-few-million-lifetimes opportunity to meet Him seem highly unlikely, so Rick essentially pushed that idea out of his mind, more or less resigned to the fact that no, he would not meet Meher Baba, though Baba was not only living in the same country, but was just a day or so’s journey to His Heart and Home. 
That Golden Opportunity came, however, in August of 1966, when Rick was suddenly summoned to Meherazad to meet Meher Baba for no more than just a few minutes, which invitation couldn't have come as a greater shock or surprise to Rick. The date and time had been set, and now Rick found himself being driven by Adi to Meherazad to meet the Avatar of the Age, God in Human Form, Meher Baba. At Meherazad Rick was greeted by Eruch, tried vainly to calm his beating heart, took off his shoes and entered Mandali Hall and…well, what happened next you'll have read for yourself. 
That handful of minutes' meeting with Baba turned into the better part of an hour, during which infinitely small slice of time Baba gave Rick what can only be described as the very core of all His messages, whether written or given personally to one or five thousand-and-one of His lovers. 
It's as though, knowing this would be Rick’s first and last visit with Him, the Avatar of this Age condensed everything any aspirant would need to know to love and please Him, a sort of cut-to-the-chase, jump-to-the-head-of-the-class, jettisoning-along-the-way-all-detours, rest-stops-and-every-possible-distraction sling shot into the very Heart of the God-Man Himself. What was that amazing message? Ah, once again you'll have to read it for yourself, for it is too precious to try to excerpt…but I'll give you a hint. Baba’s message to Rick and to all His lovers can be summed up in just one word: longing. 
This part of the story alone would make its own volume, and in fact it did. You can read the full account in Rick’s previously published book describing that first trip to India and his meeting with Baba, a book entitled Meeting God in Human Form. 
But there's a great deal more to ADVENTURES IN INDIA WITH MEHER BABA than just the summary of Rick’s meeting with the Avatar. Following that meeting Baba mapped out for Rick what could only be called a whirlwind, India-wide tour of almost every place in India that Baba had ever visited, and He asked that he not only tour each place but also contact the Baba-lovers living in those places, many of which, as you'll read, amounted to little more than dust-dimmed villages or small out-of-the-way towns that had been blessed by His footsteps. At the conclusion of those tours, Beloved Baba also asked Rick to write up his experiences so they could be printed and widely distributed to Baba’s lovers around the world, and those accounts, read out word-for-word to the Avatar, make up a significant part of this book. 
ADVENTURES tells the story of those tours and visits with verve, economy, and a down-to-earth humor that's often hilariously graphic. And speaking of graphics, what makes this book even more enjoyable is the variety of type fonts and sizes suited to each story or passage; the book is also liberally laced with color and black-and-white photographs and images of notes and letters that had been typed or hand-written at the time, so that, nearly fifty years later, one gets a feeling of time-traveling back to the Sixties. 
For those of you who still remember the worldwide upheaval that was the Sixties, you'll recall only too well the huge (and ultimately self-destructive) role that LSD played in the lives of millions of young people around the world at the time, but especially in America, where a great many spiritually starving kids were "tripping" on LSD under the misconception that they could attain enlightenment, or even become God Himself, through the ingestion of this sometimes thrilling or terrifying, but enormously powerful and often dangerous substance. 
Baba had asked Rick, as well as Allan Cohen and Robert Dreyfuss and others of His Baba kids, to spread the word about the dangers of LSD, marijuana and other hallucinogens, and to make absolutely clear that continued use of these substances, especially LSD, would be mentally, physically, and spiritually harmful and could potentially end in madness or death. This direction by Baba led to Rick & Co. giving many talks at colleges, universities and other places, as well as on the leading TV and radio shows of the day, while also seeing that the Avatar's warning got published in as many magazines as possible. Now, half a century later, Baba's message about drugs is particularly pertinent once again, as marijuana is now legal for recreational use in Alaska, Oregon, Colorado, and Washington, with more states to soon follow. 
In the end, ADVENTURES is well worth reading because, from what I know of him, what Rick experienced in less than an hour under the Sun of Meher Baba’s Love seems to have left him still Sun-burned more than fifty years later. Truly, Rick's Baba-inspired story is unique from every Baba perspective. It's not only one hell of an adventure, but it's also an inspiration. 

Adventures in India with Meher Baba can be purchased from Meher Baba Information (www.MeherBabaInformation.org) and from Sheriar Books (sheriarbooks.org).

 

 

VIDEOS