1953 :   EVENTS

COMING  SOON

February 1953

On Wednesday, 11 February 1953, Baba's 59th birthday was celebrated in Meherazad. No outside lovers were invited, but Adi Sr., Chhagan, Ramjoo and Nusserwan Satha came from Ahmednagar, Don, Padri and Sidhu from Meherabad, Adi Jr. and Jalbhai from Poona and Babadas also attended. That morning, at 7:30, Baba washed the feet of 150 poor in Meherazad. After placing his head on their feet, he gave each two rupees as prasad.

Jadhav Qawaal gave an qawaali performance for two hours in the afternoon. The qawaal's singing was quite good and pleased Baba.

Irene Conybeare, who had come the previous morning from Poona with Meherjee, was present for the function. Irene, being an inquisitive, intellectual, took advantage of the fact that in Meherazad Baba was not surrounded by a crowd of thousands to ask him certain questions. "Baba, how old is Adam?" was one question she asked.

Baba smiled and gave this reply:

If I answer that the first man came on this earth 84 million years ago, what would that mean to you? But the whole explanation will make you understand how the first man evolved, and how this first-evolved man has been repeatedly, millions of times, appearing not only on this earth, but on millions of earths, and so he is ageless, timeless. But this has all to be explained properly.

The book which I have personally written when I had just stopped speaking and which I wrote in one year, and which now lies in the bank to be touched only when I order, explains this point clearly.  It is important for the world and the scientists to know, and therefore I have explained about cycles, the position of the earth for Realization, the earth dying and the simultaneous evolution of another earth — not any other planet. When was the first human being evolved, when was the first Realized Being, whether the chicken or the egg came first?  All has been written in detail in that Book.

During the day, Irene discussed certain points with Ramjoo in the manuscript for her forthcoming book, titled Civilization or Chaos? which Irene envisioned as being a "general textbook or introduction to Baba's work." She and Meherjee left the following morning.

https://www.meherbabatravels.com/his-close-ones/women/irene-conybeare/

Sahavas at Dehra Dun, India

7th VISIT to DEHRA DUN -  THE FIERY FREE LIFE

1953

Kumar made everyone stand in a row, and when Baba came to see them off, according to Kumar's suggestion, the men gave him a smart military salute. Thus ended their farewell. Baba embraced Kumar and related to Kumar and Kishan Singh that he intended to stay for several months in Dehra Dun after the middle of February 1953, and he instructed them to rent two houses for him and the mandali.

Lord Meher on-line p.3268

The men — Aloba, Baidul, Babadas, Gustadji, Kaikobad, Krishna, Nilu, and Pendu — left by train on the 15th February for Dehra Dun. Vishnu had left four days in advance to make sure all the arrangements were suitable. Don was instructed to go to Kashmir, after obtaining the necessary permit, as Baba intended to travel to Kashmir for work at the end of March.

Baba and the women spent the night of the 15th at Bindra House in Poona, and then went by train to Dehra Dun, via Bombay. Everyone arrived there by the 18th February. Kishan Singh had arranged for the mandali to stay in his bungalow at 107-A Rajpur Road, and a separate villa at 103-A Rajpur Road was rented for Baba and the women. The bungalows were nearby and Baba would walk from one house to the other. (Goher would accompany him in the mornings and Aloba would escort him back at 11:00 A.M. for lunch.) Baba had permitted a few close lovers of Dehra Dun — Elcha Mistry, Keki Nalavala, Burjor Chacha and Hellan — to see him, and Kishan Singh and Kumar were permitted to stay with the mandali.

Lord Meher on-line p.3273

The journey in Saharanpur came to an end when the group returned to Dehra Dun in the afternoon. Pendu and the others also arrived from Muzaffarnagar. Coincidentally, the Russian dictator Joseph Stalin died the next day, 7 March, in Moscow. He had been head of the U.S.S.R. since 1924.

Baba had intended to go to Kashmir also for his work, but he now "indefinitely postponed" going. Don had applied to the Ahmednagar police for a permit to go there, but now joined the group in Dehra Dun.

Lord Meher on-line p.3289

On Saturday, 6 June at 6:35 A.M., Baba left on a mast trip through Uttar Pradesh and the Punjab, accompanied by Eruch, Pendu, Baidul, Gustadji, Kumar, Elcha, Hellan and Dr. Deshmukh, who brought a Kodak 16mm movie camera along. They travelled in two vehicles, a jeep driven by Elcha and Kishan Singh's car driven by Hellan.

Lord Meher on-line p.3316

This was the final contact of Baba's journey, and at four o'clock that afternoon they started their return to Dehra Dun. They had covered 1,947 miles in five days, often travelling in summer temperatures over 100°. Reaching Dehra Dun at four o'clock on the afternoon of the 10th June, they were exhausted.

Lord Meher on-line p.3326

World  Conditions

31st July 1953 - Dehra Dun

Baba observed:

I feel that a lot of ups and downs will be experienced in the world; tremendous upheavals will take place, and many parts of the world will be affected. This will be from natural and unnatural causes and will happen as a result of something small. Egypt is there, Iran is there, Kashmir is there, Berlin is there and *Austria is now coming up.  If war breaks out, the disaster will be unprecedented. They will use atom bombs and deadly gases. But what I am going to tell you is different. It may precipitate war. A surface fire is easy to extinguish, but fires in mines and collieries are most difficult to put out. Quetta was in ruins in five minutes when rocked by an earthquake. Forty thousand people perished in it. Was there any remedy to prevent it when it occurred? Such destruction occurs through natural and unnatural causes.

* Austria was still partitioned after WW2. 

Floods from the Kosi River took a toll of hundreds; villages were [literally] wiped out. But the destruction could not be averted. Such disasters are on a small scale, limited to specific areas. If there is war and atom bombs are used, all nations will be involved [affected]. There will be floods and earthquakes, and no remedy can be suggested for such calamities.

It is said about atom bombs that they create widespread earthquakes. In the case of atomic warfare, there is a possibility of the Earth's outer crust cracking. As a result of the experiments of testing the atom and hydrogen bomb, a whole island [part of the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean] disappeared within five minutes. This happened because the origin of matter is gas. I have written about it in my book. When matter is vaporized, space and gas have three factors. The world, crores [tens of millions] of years old, can be destroyed in seven days. How long-lasting is this world, and how many times has it been formed and wiped out?

Many a world has gone, and this too will go. To take its place, another world is being made ready. Three-fourths of it is already ready, one-fourth remains to be formed. If this world is destroyed today, evolution will start in another.

Evolution consists of a fixed process of ages — stone age, vegetable age, worm age, and so forth. If this world is destroyed today, an interval will remain, but by natural processes new life in a new world will take millions of years to materialize. Millions of years are required for another world to come into being.

Natural and unnatural catastrophes come in cycles [of time], not in ages. A cycle is made up of so many ages. Just as after four years a leap year occurs, and a day is added for calculation purposes instead of adding a fraction of a day monthly — similarly this destruction will mean leaping millions of years. There is no question of time. Millions of years mean one second, because there is nothing such as time.

Baba's comments on atomic warfare were particularly timely. Twelve days later, Russia exploded its first hydrogen bomb.

LM O/L p. 3382-4

On Friday morning, 11 September 1953, Baba left Dehra Dun for "a mast journey without sleep." He was accompanied by Eruch, Pendu, Gustadji, Baidul, Hellan, Kumar, Kishan Singh and Elcha. Hellan drove Kishan Singh's car, and Elcha drove the jeep. They proceeded to Delhi and then toward the Punjab, contacting seven good masts with whom Baba had worked before.

Lord Meher on-line p.3397

It had been nine months since Meher Baba set up headquarters in Dehra Dun. Baba left Dehra Dun with the men and women mandali at noon on Sunday, 29 November 1953. Peter, the cocker spaniel, and Sheba, the colt, were also taken to Mahabaleshwar, as were the two Nepalese boys, Kirpal and Khushal, who used to cook for the mandali in Dehra Dun.

Most of Baba's lovers wanted to see him off at the train station, but he did not allow it and permitted only Kishan Singh, Prakashwati, Keki Nalavala and his family, Kumar's family, Bal Kisan, Meher Kanta, Virendra and Alka Pandey, Virinder Singh, Mohini Rani and Charpat Singh, Hellan, Harichand Kochar and Elcha Mistry. The departure was painful for them, but such pain is born out of good fortune.

Baba and the group arrived in Bombay and from there, he and the women travelled to Mahabaleshwar by Nariman's car, arriving late in the afternoon on 1 December 1953.

Lord Meher on-line p.3421

The Master's Prayer

Baba dictated on 13th August 1953 - Dehra Dun

O Parvardigar, the Preserver and Protector of All,
You are without Beginning and without End,
Non-dual, beyond comparison, and none can measure You.

You are without colour, without expression, without form and without attributes.

You are unlimited and unfathomable, beyond imagination and conception, eternal and imperishable.

You are indivisible, and none can see You but with eyes Divine.

You always were, You always are, and You always will be.

You are everywhere; You are in everything;
and You are also beyond everywhere and beyond everything.

You are in the firmament and in the depths.

You are manifest and unmanifest on all planes and beyond all planes;
You are in the three worlds and also beyond the three worlds.

You are imperceptible and independent.

You are the Creator, the Lord of Lords, the Knower of all minds and hearts;
You are Omnipotent and Omnipresent.

You are Knowledge Infinite, Power Infinite and Bliss Infinite.

You are the Ocean of Knowledge, All-knowing, Infinitely-knowing,
the Knower of the past, the present, and the future;
and You are Knowledge itself.

You are All-merciful and eternally benevolent.

You are the Soul of souls, the One with infinite attributes.

You are the Trinity of Truth, Knowledge and Bliss;
You are the Source of Truth, the Ocean of Love.

You are the Ancient One, the Highest of the High;
You are Prabhu and Parameshwar;
You are the Beyond-God and the Beyond-Beyond-God also;
You are Parabrahma, Allah, Elahi, Yezdan, Ahuramazda, and God the Beloved.

You are named Ezad: the only One worthy of worship.

The Highest of the High

Dehra Dun

On Sunday evening, 6 September 1953, after Baba had sent the mandali for their food, Eruch was with Baba when a car pulled up and stopped outside their house. Out of the car came a few men carrying a young woman who seemed disturbed and almost out of control. They brought her and laid her down at Baba's feet, imploring him to cure her. Baba looked at her, caressed her, patted her and assured them: "Take her; my nazar is on her. My blessings are there. Take her back."

After this incident, Baba was upset that those people had come for such a thing. "Don't they realize who I am?" he remarked to Eruch. "They approach me for such things — that which I have ordained for their benefit, they want to be rid of!".

Distressed by this incident, the next morning, Monday, 7 September 1953 (which also happened to be Zoroaster's birthday), Baba spontaneously dictated his wonderful and important message, "The Highest of the High":

Consciously or unconsciously, directly or indirectly, each and every creature, each and every human being — in one form or the other — strives to assert individuality. But when eventually, man consciously experiences that he is Infinite, Eternal and Indivisible, then he is fully conscious of his individuality as God, and as such experiences Infinite Knowledge, Infinite Power and Infinite Bliss. Thus Man becomes God and is recognized as a Perfect Master, Sadguru or Qutub. To worship this man is to worship God.

When God manifests on Earth in the form of man and reveals His divinity to mankind, He is recognized as the Avatar — the Messiah — the Prophet. Thus God becomes Man.

And so Infinite God, age after age, throughout all cycles, wills through His Infinite Mercy, to effect His presence amidst mankind by stooping down to human level in the human form. But His physical presence amidst mankind not being apprehended, He is looked upon as an ordinary man of the world. When He asserts, however, His divinity on Earth by proclaiming Himself the Avatar of the age, He is worshiped by some who accept Him as God, and glorified by a few who know Him as God on Earth. But it invariably falls to the lot of the rest of humanity to condemn Him, while He is physically in their midst.

Thus it is that God as man, proclaiming Himself as the Avatar, suffers Himself to be persecuted and tortured, to be humiliated and condemned by humanity, for whose sake His Infinite Love has made Him stoop so low, in order that humanity, by its very act of condemning God's manifestation in the form of Avatar should, however indirectly, assert the existence of God in His Infinite Eternal state.

The Avatar is always one and the same, because God is always One and the Same, the Eternal, Indivisible, Infinite One who manifests Himself in the form of man as the Avatar, as the Messiah, as the Prophet, as the Ancient One — the Highest of the High. This Eternally One and the Same Avatar repeats His manifestation from time to time, in different cycles, adopting different human forms and different names, in different places, to reveal Truth in different garbs and different languages, in order to raise humanity from the pit of ignorance and help free it from the bondage of delusions.

Of the most recognized and much worshiped manifestations of God as Avatar, that of Zoroaster is the earliest — having been before Ram, Krishna, Buddha, Jesus and Muhammad. Thousands of years ago, he gave to the world the essence of Truth in the form of three fundamental precepts — Good Thoughts, Good Words, and Good Deeds. These precepts were and are constantly unfolded to humanity in one form or another, directly or indirectly in every cycle, by the Avatar of the age as he leads humanity, imperceptibly, toward the Truth.

To put these precepts of Good Thoughts, Good Words and Good Deeds into practice is not as easily done as it would appear, though it is not impossible. But to live up to these precepts honestly and literally is apparently as impossible as it is to practice a living death in the midst of life.

In the world, there are countless sadhus, mahatmas, Maha Purushs, saints, yogis and walis, though the number of genuine ones is very, very limited. The few genuine ones are, according to their spiritual status, in a category of their own, which is neither on a level with the ordinary human being nor on a level with the state of the Highest of the High.

I am neither a mahatma nor a Maha Purush, neither a sadhu nor a saint, neither a yogi nor a wali. Those who approach me with the desire to gain wealth or to retain their possessions, those who seek through me relief from distress and suffering, those who ask my help to fulfill and satisfy mundane desires, to them I once again declare that as I am not a sadhu, a saint or a mahatma, Maha Purush or yogi, to seek these things through me is but to court utter disappointment, though only apparently, for eventually this disappointment is itself invariably instrumental in bringing about the complete transformation of mundane wants and desires.

The sadhus, saints, yogis, walis and such others who are on the via media, can and do perform miracles and satisfy the transient material needs of individuals who approach them for help and relief. 

The question therefore arises that if I am not a sadhu, not a saint, not a yogi, not a Maha Purush, nor a wali, then what am I? The natural assumption would be that I am either just an ordinary human being, or I am the Highest of the High. But one thing I say definitely, and that is that I can never be included among those having the intermediary status of the real sadhus, saints, yogis and such others.

Now, if I am just an ordinary man, my capabilities and powers are limited; I am no better or different from an ordinary human being. If people take me as such then they should not expect any supernatural help from me in the form of miracles or spiritual guidance, and to approach me to fulfill their desires would also be absolutely futile.

On the other hand, if I am beyond the level of an ordinary human being, and much beyond the level of saints and yogis, then I must be the Highest of the High. In which case, to judge me with your human intellect and limited mind and to approach me with mundane desires would not only be the height of folly but sheer ignorance as well, because no amount of intellectual gymnastics could ever understand my ways or judge my Infinite State.

If I am the Highest of the High, my Will is Law, my Wish governs the Law, and my Love sustains the universe. Whatever your apparent calamities and transient sufferings, they are but the outcome of my Love for the ultimate good. Therefore, to approach me for deliverance from your predicaments, to expect me to satisfy your worldly desires, would be asking me to do the impossible — to undo what I have already ordained.

If you truly and in all faith accept your Baba as the Highest of the High, it behooves you to lay down your life at his feet, rather than to crave the fulfillment of your desires. Not your one life but your millions of lives would be but a small sacrifice to place at the feet of One such as Baba, who is the Highest of the High; for Baba's unbounded love is the only sure and unfailing guide to lead you safely through the innumerable blind alleys of your transient life.

They cannot obligate me who surrendering their all — body, mind, possessions — which perforce they must discard one day, surrender with a motive; surrender because they understand that to gain the everlasting treasure of Bliss they must relinquish ephemeral possessions. This desire for greater gain is still clinging behind their surrender, and as such the surrender cannot be complete.

Know you all that if I am the Highest of the High, my role demands that I strip you of all your possessions and wants, consume all your desires and make you desire less rather than satisfy your desires. Sadhus, saints, yogis and walis can give you what you want; but I take away your wants and free you from attachments, and liberate you from the bondage of ignorance. I am the One to take, not the One to give what you want or as you want.

Mere intellectuals can never understand me through their intellect. If I am the Highest of the High, it becomes impossible for the intellect to gauge me, nor is it possible for my ways to be fathomed by the limited human mind.

I am not to be attained by those who, loving me, stand reverentially by, in rapt admiration. I am not for those who ridicule me and point at me with contempt. To have a crowd of tens of millions flocking around me is not what I am for. I am for the selected few who, scattered among the crowd, silently and ostentatiously surrender their all — body, mind and possessions — to me. I am still more for those who, after surrendering their all, never give another thought to their surrender. They are all mine who are prepared to renounce even the very thought of their renunciation and who, keeping constant vigil in the midst of intense activity, await their turn to lay down their lives for the cause of Truth at a glance or sign from me. Those who have indomitable courage to face willingly and cheerfully the worst calamities, who have unshakable faith in me, eager to fulfill my slightest wish at the cost of their happiness and comfort, they indeed, truly love me.

From my point of view, far more blessed is the atheist who confidently discharges his worldly responsibilities, accepting them as his honorable duty, than the man who presumes he is a devout believer in God, yet shirks the responsibilities apportioned to him through Divine Law and runs after sadhus, saints and yogis, seeking relief from the suffering which ultimately would have pronounced his Eternal Liberation. To have one eye glued on the enchanting pleasures of the flesh and with the other expect to see a spark of Eternal Bliss is not only impossible but the height of hypocrisy.

I cannot expect you to understand all at once what I want you to know. It is for me to awaken you from time to time throughout the ages, sowing the seed in your limited minds which must, in due course and with proper heed and care on your part, germinate, flourish and bear the fruit of that true knowledge which is inherently yours to gain.

If, on the other hand, led by your ignorance you persist in going your own way, none can stop you in your choice of progress; for that too is progress which, however slow and painful, eventually and after innumerable incarnations, is bound to make you realize that which I want you to know now.

To save yourself from further entanglement in the maze of delusion and self-created suffering which owes its magnitude to the extent of your ignorance of the true Goal, awake now! Pay heed and strive for Freedom by experiencing ignorance in its true perspective. Be honest with yourself and God. One may fool the world and one's neighbors but one can never escape from the knowledge of the Omniscient — such is Divine Law.

I declare to all of you who approach me, and to those of you who desire to approach me, accepting me as the Highest of the High, that you must never come with the desire in your heart which craves for wealth and worldly gain, but only with the fervent longing to give your all — body, mind and possessions — with all their attachments. Seek me not to extricate you from your predicaments, but find me in order to surrender yourself wholeheartedly to my will. Cling to me not for worldly happiness and short-lived comforts, but adhere to me, through thick and thin, sacrificing your own happiness and comforts at my feet. Let my happiness be your cheer and my comforts your rest. Do not ask me to bless you with a good job, but desire to serve me more diligently and honestly and without expectation of reward. Never beg of me to save your life or the lives of your dear ones, but beg of me to accept you and permit you to lay down your life for me. Never expect me to cure you of your bodily afflictions, but beseech me to cure you of your ignorance. Never stretch out your hands to receive anything from me, but hold them high in praise of me whom you have approached as the Highest of the High.

If I am the Highest of the High, nothing is then impossible for me; and though I do not perform miracles to satisfy individual needs — the satisfaction of which would result in entangling the individual more and more into the net of ephemeral existence — yet time and again at certain periods I manifest the infinite powers in the form of miracles, but only for the spiritual upliftment and benefit of humanity and all creatures.

However, miraculous experiences have often been experienced by individuals who love me and have unswerving faith in me, and these have been attributed to my nazar or grace on them.

But I want all to know that it does not befit my lovers to attribute such individual miraculous experiences to my state of the Highest of the High. If I am the Highest of the High, I am above these illusory plays of maya in the course of the Divine Law. Therefore, whatever miraculous experiences are experienced by my lovers who recognize me as such, or by those who love me unknowingly through other channels, they are but the outcome of their own firm faith in me. Their unshakable faith often superseding the course of the play of maya gives them those experiences which they call miracles. Such experiences derived through firm faith eventually do good and do not entangle the individuals who experience them into further and greater bindings of illusion.

If I am the Highest of the High, then a wish of my Universal Will is sufficient to give, in an instant, God-realization to one and all, and thus free every creature in creation from the shackles of ignorance. But blessed is Knowledge that is gained through the experience of ignorance in accordance with the Divine Law. This Knowledge is made possible for you to attain in the midst of ignorance by the guidance of Perfect Masters and surrenderance to the Highest of the High.

Lord Meher on-line p.3391-7