Hazrat Babajan, the Sufi Perfect Master who (having lived for years at the foot of a Neem tree at the side of the road in Pune) "unveiled" Meher Baba to the experience of God-consciousness in 1914, will be remembered and honored in this second in a small series of Sunday programs marking the centennial of "the kiss" of Babajan's that served to awaken the young Merwan S. Irani (later called Meher Baba) to Infinite Reality.

Program host Deborah Ash, fresh back from pilgrimage to Meherabad in India, will moderate a group sharing of readings and reflections on the life and work of this profound and enigmatic spiritual luminary of the modern era.

Program host David Raphael Israel will lead a group sharing as a remembrance and "belated wake" for the superb Baba-lover musician Robbie Basho (1940-1986), who rode a wave of obscure popularity rising from the folk-music scene of the 1960s and beyond. Robbie attended Meher Baba's "Last Darshan" in 1969, and gave fluent expression to multi-faceted love for the moods and modes of spiritual search through a rich vocabulary of lovely and innovative music.

Special guest Liam Barker will share footage from the documentary film he is currently producing focusing on Basho's life and music.  Come and enjoy the music (several slections from which we'll play) and the many stories!

To learn a bit about Robbie Basho, glimpse Liam's film project, and sample some of Robbie's music, you can view the Kickstarter film trailer:

Program moderator David R. Israel notes, "I remember visiting Robbie's North Berkeley apartment, greeted by the 'Don't Worry, Be Happy' Meher Baba card always tacked to Robbie's front door. Robbie was influenced by a Native American approach to spirituality (which he felt close to from past life experiences), and by writings of the Lebanese poet Khalil Gibran and the saint Hazrat Inayat Khan. Robbie was a student of Sufism Reoriented, and he concertized extensively throughout the United States for several decades before his sudden demise in the mid-1980s. Robbie held special reverence for Mehera, and he dedicated many long-playing record albums to Meher Baba. Musical influences included sitarist Ravi Shankar (whose records Robbie would imbibe, laying on the floor for hours soaking up the music), the impressionistic Armenian-American composer Alan Hovhaness. as well as a tradition of American steel-string guitar playing -- in which tradition Robbie was deemed a maestro by his musical peers.

I recall Robbie's concerts at the Meher Baba Bookstore in Pasadena in the early 1970s, where we carried his albums. A thesis underlying Liam's film is the idea that Robbie was "a musician's musician" who, by a twist of fate, failed to achieve the public recognition his work merited. However, such recognition might still (even if belatedly) be on the future horizon. Robbie's albums were out of print for many years, but in the past year or two there have been several re-releases, and I'm told more are now forthcoming.  Robbie Basho seems to be attracting fresh public interest -- as typified by Liam's wonderful film project."