MY SILENCE

The silence which I have been observing for the past thirty-one years is not intended to veil my Truth but to manifest it. When you realize the Truth as the very core of your being you are free from all fear and helplessness, and all rivalries and conflicts reveal themselves to be meaningless, for you know yourself to be inviolably one with all that has life.

  

July 19, 1956, in the Hotel Delmonico in New York City. Murshida, Baba, and Charmian. On the first day of his visit to New York City, Baba approved Charmian's engagement to her beau. Courtesy of the photo archives of Sufism Reoriented

Filis continues her account of the lives of notable Western women disciples of Meher Baba, with the story of Murshida Ivy O. Duce:

VI.    Murshida Ivy O. Duce (Part 2)

But most people at that time were unacquainted with Sufism; a few knowledgeable ones read the great Sufi poets, Hafiz, Rumi and Kabir, but the popular esoteric groups were the Theosophists, Rosicrucians, Alice Bailey-ites, Vedanta groups, the "I am", movement, etc. I don't know whether it was in '52 or '56 but Ivy visited the Alice Bailey headquarters in New York to invite Miss Bailey, who made a great to-do about "the Reappearance of the Christ," to meet Baba, and got a very rude reception. We all went through similar experiences with other leaders of spiritual groups. But as Baba told one of us later, "It is the link of love that draws you to Me." If it's not there, no amount of prestigious books or devotees will help. It was fascinating to observe those that did come to meet Baba and watch Him forge or pull on these invisible golden chains. How fortunate we felt, that His glance had fallen on us!

Longchamps Restaurant, New York; Marion Florsheim with Murshida Ivy Duce.  Photo: Meher Baba Travels

It was her daughter Charmian and Energy (Marion Florsheim) who drove Baba, Mehera, and the others to all their many medical appointments, with Dr. this and Dr. that. As Ivy says, Baba must have given Western medicos a big push in 1952!

It was at Meher Center, in 1956, that Baba tackled the continuing friction between the Sufi and non-Sufi Baba lovers, with a rousing discourse* to us all. "What is the use of My left hand slapping My right hand?" He asked, demonstrating with His graceful hands. He liked groups, He wanted us to work in groups, but not to switch from one to the other. At this time Ivy had moved back to Washington and Baba very graciously visited her home there on His way to California. Here He teased His hostess by "finding" an enormous fish bone in the "perfectly boned" filet.

Meher Baba by Long Lake on the Center, Meher Center. 1956. Courtesy of the photo archives of Sufism Reoriented

Before Baba came on this trip, Ivy and I had agreed to try to document it as fully as possible, and we split up the responsibility: she would try to film and tape the trip and I write it up. She also arranged for publicity for Baba at the various big city stops - New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco. In the beginning, Baba was agreeable; her press conference in New York came off fairly well, but the rest of the trip was not always successful. Baba wasn't at all keen on the public spotlight. This led to a lot of hassles for Murshida, and one or two amusing incidents. Our trip from Myrtle Beach to Washington, D.C., for instance, was amazingly shortened (the pilot was stunned), we arrived so early there was no limo for Baba - and no T.V. cameramen.

San Francisco, where Ivy had a strong group of mureeds, also proved a test for her. How well I recall how we all waited breathlessly downstairs in the hotel waiting to hear if Baba liked the arrangements! No, He didn't! He was going to cut His visit short and leave for Australia! Then Adele and I were called and Baba asked if we would switch rooms with Him - ours was in the very center of the hotel where He wanted to be. Of course, we were delighted. Making arrangements for Baba and His "fellow travelers" is easy and on this trip Murshida was greatly tested. I know she once said the real behind-the-scenes stories could never be told. But that is true of any account of "timeless time" spent with Baba. It would take a Tolstoy to describe it all, perhaps because imagination can do a better job of character delineation, showing the inner conflicts and problems on which the Master is working. It is hard to be objective or even to guess exactly what Baba is doing to you or why. It is a test of your surrender to accept that it will ultimately make you one with Him.

August 1956, Murshida Duce and Meher Baba at Murshida's house in Woodside, California. Later, Baba told her to sell the house.  Courtesy of the photo archives of Sufism Reoriented.

Four years later I transferred to the West Coast and began to gather a Baba group in Los Angeles. It was slow going and I would often fly up to San Francisco to stay with Ivy in her charming apartment on **Knob Hill. She too found her work slow going and often thought she would have to close the Sufi Center. But Baba insisted on her keeping it open saying the souls would come. And they did, in a rush, from '63 on. Baba's young "jewels" of which He had spoken so often showed up, bright-eyed and very bushy-tailed at her [Center's] door on Sutter Street. Now her crew of trained "preceptors" had a lot of work to do. This was the '60's generation and they, as we all did, had to deal with new problems like drug addiction, phony gurus, changing sexual morals, crazy diets, new roles for women, rootlessness, generation gap, etc. One blessing was the wonderful acceptance of these young people of the fact of Avatar -- no Alice Baileyite rejection of the living Christ.

Murshida Duce loved children and wanted to create a school that offered an excellent, affordable academic education, suffused in the arts, along with high-quality year-round daycare for children of working parents, all in an environment of love and compassion. Courtesy of the photo archives of Sufism Reoriented.

In 1974, Delia DeLeon and Pete Townshend invited Murshida to come to England to help with the work there. She did so for a week and was accompanied by Charmian and her husband, Duncan. When her work was finished, Charmian, Murshida, and Pete gathered at the airport before Murshida and her family left for a short vacation in Scotland. Courtesy of the photo archives of Sufism Reoriented.

One of her most effective ways of training her mureeds was through creative and sometimes group theater. The tradition of celebrating her birthday with entertainment had grown to full-fledged musical plays on different segments of Baba's life. Zuhair AI-Faqih, coached by Ivy, was a startling Baba look-alike; it gave you a real jolt to see him walk out on stage with an alphabet board, long hair and white sadra. Music was mainly by Hank Mindlin, the scripts by Charmy and her husband Duncan Knowles, and others. I even played myself (in a wig) in the drama of the '52 trip, I Never Come, I Never Go. The presence of Baba was palpable especially at the last performance which Murshida always attended.

 Anyone who steps out in the public eye must expect criticism; spiritual workers are no exception. Ivy, as head of a "mysterious" closed order (Sufi meetings are not public) was subjected to the usual criticism. The presence in San Francisco of another Sufi order following Murshid Sam Lewis and Pir Vilayat Khan, Inayat's eldest son, was also confusing. But Baba had told her never to defend herself. In any case her group continued to grow and by the mid-70's numbered about 300. She published her book, How a Master Works, which is divided between her autobiography and a collage of Baba quotes and anecdotes, many from the pages of The Awakener.

Meher Baba in East West Gathering

She joined the '62 East-West gathering in India and also was able to make a special trip to see Baba in 1959. Baba said she could see Him "for five minutes, and five more to see the girls," but graciously allowed her to sit beside Him as He gave public darshan for four hours the next day.

In '69 she brought a large group of Sufis to India to "the Last Darshan," cheering the Mandali with their first taste of Sufi theatre. Hank Mindlin's "Arti" was very moving, especially when the eccentric Poona lights flickered on and off in tune with the music! I was supposed to join this darshan group but because of "flu" went later.

Murshida Ivy O. Duce. Photo: The Awakener Magazine, Vol 20, Page 36

Ivy had a lovely smile and a wonderful sense of humor. To me this, plus her kindness, were her best traits. I think she enjoyed having a friend of old standing with whom she could be informal and relaxed. We shared a mutual interest in Baba archives and publishing. We had our disagreements too. I could not go along with her use of psychics, as Baba had plainly stated to us consulting psychics, for any reason, pulls you off the Path.

Inayat Khan appointed Rabia Martin as his successor; Rabia appointed Ivy; Ivy appointed Dr. James Mackie, a psychologist. The controversy over this decision gave her some painful moments before her death in October [actually September -editors], 1981. But she surely had fulfilled Baba's words "She will do great work for Me."

An image prepared at the time of Charmian's passing in 2003. Murshida Duce, Meher Baba, and Charmian Duce.  Courtesy of the photo archives of Sufism Reoriented

 P.S.  In the '50's when I was really broke, I worked for a short time as her housekeeper on West 67th Street, New York. She always had beautiful things; and one was a huge round glass bowl. When washing it, it slipped out of my hands and broke. I worried how I could pay for it, but Ivy said, with a sweet smile, "Never mind, dear, there's a mischievous ghost in this kitchen. He must have done it!" I blessed the old ghost -- and Murshida's gracious sense of humor.

from The Awakener Magazine online,

Vol. 20, No. 2 (1983), pp. 35-39, used by permission.