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"God has been everlastingly working in silence, unobserved,
unheard - except by those who experience his infinite silence."
Meher Baba
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Weekly Reflections No. 36
from Meher Baba Books
(Los Angeles, California)
July,17th, 2015
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Hello Dear Companions:
Greetings from Los Angeles, California. Wishing you well in Beloved Baba's Love and Compassion.
Time for us to meet again for our weekly appointment with Meher Baba -- this time to remember Him for His silence again. I've received positive feedback on last week's topic, and have decided to continue with this theme for at least one more week.
The question asked most often about Meher Baba is "Why is He Silent?" The Master Himself made many illuminating statements about His silence, which began July 10, 1925. "When the Word of My Love breaks out of its Silence and speaks in your hearts, telling you who really I am, you will know that that is the Real Word you have always been longing to hear."
He further clarified this point in telling us that "The moment I started observing Silence, I started simultaneously breaking My Silence in the hearts of those who are ready to receive my love."
So, it
may
make sense to
believe that Meher Baba has broken His silence in the hearts of those who are ready to receive His infinite Love. We are
grateful
for His presence in our lives.
Yesterday, some rather sad news came from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina that our dear friend Adele Wolkin has entered a hospice and is believed to be nearing the end of her days in this lifetime so richly devoted to Meher Baba, beyond words. Loving remembrance and prayers on her behalf are a good idea. We are thinking of you, our most loving Adele. We love you.
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Meher Baba with Adele in Mandali Hall, Meherazad, India
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As you may recall, in recent circulars we have also been reflecting on the topic of "Women In the West and their Roles". Filis Frederick notes in The Awakener Magazine (a periodical she edited and published) that "In the early Twenties, Meher Baba predicted His work in the West would be done by women, and in the East by men."
Filis wrote a great series of articles on this topic, from which we continue to draw. This week, we continue to cover the life full of service of Kitty Davy (part 1). Enjoy reading.
We hope you enjoy these small occasions for reflecting on the divinity of Beloved Baba's words and life. You may email us at:
with any questions and/or requests.
Keep Happy in His Love.
In His Love and Service,
Mahoo Ghorbani for Meher Baba Books
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"I speak eternally. The voice that is heard deep within the soul is my voice, the voice of inspiration, of intuition, of guidance. Through those who are receptive to this voice, I speak.
My outward silence is not a spiritual exercise; it has been undertaken and maintained solely for the good of the world. God has been everlastingly working in silence, unobserved, unheard - except by those who experience his infinite silence."
Meher Baba
(September 1967 at Meherazad)
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NOT UNTIL THE WORLD CRIES OUT FOR GOD
WILL I GIVE UP MY SILENCE!
Baba's last verbal discussion with his mandali covered three topics. Meher Baba's general advice to all: "You have to live for others and use your bodies for the benefit of others." This implied the labor or service the mandali had to continue doing. Then he explained that one reason for him no longer speaking concerned Hazrat Babajan: "I must keep silence for some excessive spiritual work that will result when Babajan drops her body in the near future." He explained that his self-imposed silence related to the future of the world: "There will be religious hostilities, riots, wars and natural disasters. These events will cause the shedding of blood of millions of people throughout the world in general, and throughout India in particular. But, thereafter, peace and brotherhood will come back into the world." Meher Baba turned to Gulmai K. Irani, one of the few women present, and added, "There will be another world war ; it will be much more destructive and extensive than the one before. Rivers of blood will flow! I will dip my kerchief in that river of blood and tie it around my head! Not until the world cries out for God will I give up my silence!" The teacher Pandoba then pleaded with Baba that if he became silent, people would no longer have the opportunity of hearing what he had to declare, and the world will be deprived of his teachings. Meher Baba replied,
I have come not to teach, but to awaken! These were to be his last words to anyone outside of his circle, and this message was the meaning of his divine mission to the world. During the evening of July 9th, Meher Baba walked to the women's quarters at the post office building to convey his final instructions: "Now listen to my last words, because from tomorrow I will keep silence for one year. Attend to your duties with love and fulfill them with all your heart. Cook for the children at the school as if they were your own. "I have much work to do for the world. When my work is done, I shall speak." Meher Baba left them at eight o'clock in the evening and, accompanied by Masaji, went to visit the men mandali's quarters. He told them, "I am going to be silent from tomorrow for one and a half years. All of you take care of everything at Meherabad as usual. And take care of your health. "Whenever you go out during the night, always carry a lantern with you. Always beware of snakes ! I will save you from every calamity under the sun, but I won't help you if you are bitten by a snake. So be careful! "Keep on doing your work. I have given you all of your duties. Continue doing them - every one of you. There will be no hitch in the work; although I will be silent, everything at Meherabad will run smoothly. You don't have to worry. I have my own reasons for keeping silence. I must do it. Stick to your jobs and do as I instruct you. Don't deviate from the work and don't worry about it. If you obey me, nothing will be difficult." From Lord Meher, 1st edition, Vol. 2, pp. 731-734; compare Lord Meher online, pp. 599-600 |
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JUST FOR ONE MINUTE
If those who love me will just for one minute be silent in their minds just before they go to bed and think of me and picture me in the silence of their minds, and do that regularly, this veil of ignorance will disappear and this bliss that I speak of and which all long for will be experienced.
~ Meher Baba
Sparks From Meher Baba
, p. 8
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Amidst all your duties and attachments, let the background of all your
thoughts be only the one thought that: "God alone is real, all else is
illusion."
Lord Meher online, p. 2340
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WHAT HAS NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE
There are 18,000 worlds in creation which are inhabited, some by human beings with 100% intelligence, others with lesser and varying degrees of it. But the value of our Earth, where mind and heart balance, is inestimable. For it is here and here alone that one can go through the process of Involution and experience the subtle and mental spheres; here alone that God-realization can be attained.
Thus it is that souls (jiv-atmas) from other inhabited worlds finally take birth on this Earth for their emancipation, more so during the Avataric advent when the highest spiritual benefit is gained - and most so when the Avataric manifestation is greatest. Hence the present influx of population on Earth is but the natural outcome of the rush of 'migration' from other worlds, and the ones migrating from the worlds of highest intelligence are responsible for carrying science to the peak it has reached today.
Baba said, "All this has been recurring since timeless ages, in a never ending tide and ebb. Even this Earth expends itself in time and another such earth takes it place. Science will soon come to know a little of what I have said.
"I will break my Silence and manifest when on the one hand science reaches its highest level and on the other hand anti-God elements rise to their peak. Accordingly, my spiritual Manifestation will also be of the highest.
"When I break my Silence the world will be shaken into realization of Who I Am. When I break my Silence the impact will jolt the world out of its spiritual lethargy, and will push open the hearts of all who love Me and are connected with Me. What will happen when I break my Silence, is what has never happened before."
Meher Baba
The Advancing Stream of Life, K.K. Ramakrishnan, ed. (1969, 1974), pp. 144-145
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"When the Word of my love breaks out of its silence and speaks in your hearts, telling you who I really am, you will know that that is the Real Word you have been always longing to hear."
- Meher Baba
Lord Meher online, p. 5142
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SILENCING THE MIND
To drive away thoughts means not to entertain or encourage other irrelevant thoughts. Just imagine that you are on a special watch duty to guard yourself against grave danger to your very life. This "guard" means watching over unexpected and sudden attacks from deadly enemies who are determined to kill you.
During that time,you have to keep reproducing in your mind only one word BABA. BABA, BABA, BABA, BABA, BABA, BABA, BABA, BABA, BABA...
Meher Baba
Lord Meher online, p. 2342
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W
HEN HE BREAKS OPEN HIS SILENCE
For the world, while oblivious to it, the greatest event is when God visits the earth as Man. Of all the planets in all the galaxies among all the universes, Earth alone is where this miracle happens, again and again.
But when it happens, poor Earth is unconscious; it is like a king who is crowned in his sleep and misses his coronation. The God-Man (Avatar) visits the Earth when it is dark in pain and sorrow. He comes in the dead of night, and only a few see Him by the light of His Love and follow Him in adoration.
The Dawn comes after He leaves, and with it comes the growing awakening, the remorse, the agonized waiting for His return, the resolution not to miss Him the next time ... many a 'next time' slipping through many a worn out resolution ... until, at last, that time is here.
It is in this time, now! This God-visit is to be different. Our Earth-world will not be left asleep in darkness. The Compassionate One will shake it awake, and it will witness His Love's rising in the dawn of His Word.
All the world, our God-Man tells us, will know Him when He breaks open His silence and gives to it The Word.
82 Family Letters from Mani Irani
(1979), p. 324
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Singer-songwriter-guitarist Billy Goodrum (who is still part of the LA Baba family, though he moved).
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Billy Goodrum - We Should Always Be Together
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Heroines of the Path By Filis Frederick
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Meher Baba with Kitty Davy in Venice. Courtesy of Lord Meher, p. 1506
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Filis continues her account of the lives of notable Western women disciples of Meher Baba, with the story of Murshida Ivy O. Duce:
VII - Kitty Davy
England was the first Western country visited by the Avatar of the Age, and 32 Russell Road, Kensington, London, Kitty Davy's family home, was the first place He stayed. The year was 1931, eight years before World War II, the same year Gandhi first visited England. In fact, he and Baba arrived on the very same boat, the Rajputana, at Marseilles, September 11. Gandhi's mission was the liberation of India, Baba's mission was, of course, the liberation of mankind, with, as His target on this first visit to the West, a group of very special souls.
It was an attack of pleurisy that led the young piano teacher to visit Meredith Starr's retreat at East Challacombe, N. Devonshire, and so hear of Meher Baba for the first time. Her brother Herbert had discovered this retreat through an ad in Light, a metaphysical journal. On July 17, 1931, came Baba's cable to Meredith, "Love calls Me to the West. Make preparations." Meredith and the group he had drawn together carried them out and Kitty's home* was chosen for His first visit.
That very first evening under the same roof with the Master, Kitty together with her brother Herbert and Margaret Craske, fell under the spell of the Beloved. She was one of those who saw Him alone that evening:
"I was impressed with Baba's long hair and His kindly face and manner. My eyes filled with tears. I spoke to Him only of my brother, who was so soon to depart for China. Baba said not to worry - He was sending Herbert for His work."
Margaret told her that in the middle of the night she had jumped up from the floor and going to her bed, shook Margaret awake. Margaret said, "What is the matter? Anything wrong? Why are you weeping?" Kitty replied, "He is so wonderful, so lovely." In the morning, she had no recollection of this. And thus began a lifetime of dedication to her Master, "Shri Sadguru Meher Baba," as He was called then, in the Thirties.
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Kitty Davy, 1979. Photo: The Awakener Magazine, vol. 20. page 40
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Of all the Western women Baba has contacted, Kitty has spent the longest time in actual day-to-day residence with Him, and thus holds a unique position from which to describe what it was like to follow the living Christ, day to day, month to month, year to year. Knowing this, I had asked her years ago to write up her reminiscences for The Awakener Magazine, which she kindly did, later adding more material and publishing her book Love Alone Prevails. Fortunately, she had kept continuous diaries, and her book as no other, gives a coherent story of life with Baba from 1931 to His demise in 1969. It is a wonderful book. I can only give a few highlights here.
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Love Alone Prevails:
A story of life with
Meher Baba
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It was at Meher Center in Myrtle Beach, in 1952, that I first met Kitty. Baba had arrived from India with 12 disciples, 6 men and 6 women, 2 of whom were Westerners, Rano Gayley and Kitty Davy. I'll always love Kitty for her wonderful advice. I was very shy, hanging in the background when others crowded around Baba. "You must go up close, Baba likes that," she told me. So I did, and it was true. Baba liked you to show that you always wanted to be near Him. Another point Kitty stressed was always to be on time, more than that, to be early, then you might win the sweetness of a few extra moments, maybe an extra embrace, from the Beloved. In Kitty you always felt such a generosity of sharing Baba with you. Whatever possessive feelings about Him she must have had (everyone does, in the beginning) were completely worn away.
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Original Kitchen, Meher Center, in the 1960s. - L-R Kitty Davy, Elizabeth Patterson, Murshida Ivy Duce and Laura Delavigne. Photo: the Meher Baba Travels website
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As in India, Kitty was involved, at the Center, in making Baba's meals. I was helping her wash up, when the phone rang, and Rano gave Baba's message: "Filadele" are not to do any work while they are My guests at the Center." Baba not only knows what is happening everywhere, but how to play the perfect host. And, as workers for Baba, you can see how His Western women also, played hostess graciously to so many seekers, following His example. (Who, at the Center, has not tasted Kitty's delicious stew, or her rice-and-dal?). I recall too a little scene in the Hotel Roosevelt in Los Angeles, in '56, of Kitty cooking spinach and rice for Baba on a little Sterno stove on the rug in her hotel room. On this same '56 trip it was only Kitty who had a copy of Baba's Prayer of Repentance. When Baba asked us all to stand and say it, Kitty ran to get it, and recited it for us all.
These little memories of Kitty - her quick and ever-present alertness to the needs of the Master - come back to me as I write. Her selfless service is unique. But as with the others, the shine and polish came through many years of discipline with Baba, which she describes so well and so honestly in her book. It is hard to imagine today that Kitty had "moods". But as she says in her article Come and See, Baba makes you face up to the truth of yourself. "There is no escape in a life lived in a group, living at close quarters . . . every detail of the life of each is known to the Master.
For example, someone insults you, calls you names, calls you a liar. Immediately your ego is hurt, you boil inside, and if resentment is not controlled, it shows itself in anger and excitement. In this way you feed the ego, and instead of decreasing, it increases. Shri Baba, who sees all, calls both parties together. He rebukes, He scolds for this lack of control and lack of love, saying: 'If you cannot love each other, and it appears that you cannot, then take practical steps to see that you do not fight and can give in to one another. When you begin to feed the ego with the help of the mind and you feel resentment and excitement approaching, start laughing, start dancing, go outside for a moment till the mind is under control. But control at all costs!!
She remarks: how slow all are to learn this lesson of control! But obedience to Baba's order makes it easier, especially His last words: 'Now go, forget about it and do not brood. Throw it all over. Be happy, be cheerful. This is My order.' "So one learns to jane do, let it go, and forgive, from the Divine forgiver. The blue bus tours were an especial testing ground for learning to control moods and reactions.
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Nasik 1933 - Left to right: Elizabeth Patterson, Norina Matchabelli, Delia De Leon, Rano Gayley, Kitty Davy, Jean Adriel ; courtesy of MSI Collection
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In India and in Europe Baba made good use of Kitty's managerial talents. She was often the one chosen to "hassle" the travel agents to make the constantly altered arrangements on His trips to the West (Cannes, Portofino, Avila, etc.) She was involved in finding "the perfect boy". And, in the ashram, for a long while she was in charge of the kitchen.
Next week we will continue with Kitty Davy (Part 2).
from The Awakener Magazine online,
Vol. 20, No. 2 (1983), pp. 39-43, used by kind permission.
Editor's Note
:
Katherine Laura ( Kitty ) Davy " Saroja "
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'Silence Day Poem'
Eternal perfect beloved
in the silence beyond every distraction
of man and machine,
you call your lovers with a song.
those who hear you, sit in rapt charm
like the fully absorbed face of lord buddha.
in this ever present silence
attention moves behind mind's temporary meanings,
far from the incoming deliveries of sensual information.
with such a subtle melody Krishna summons his gopis.
your immeasurable silence, like dreamless sleep,
reveals the face of reality itself,
at once unspeakably empty
while at the same time the source, cradle
and inescapable participant in all fullness.
oh beloved, see that!
even the concept of silence
doesn't describe you properly
since it calls to mind the duality of silence and sound.
your real face lies in unity beyond all duality.
we might as well search for you
in the squeals of children at play
or the whistling rumble of landing airplanes.
you clothe yourself there too
in your inescapable omnipresence,
but your real form, your naked beauty,
is the shape of undisturbed silence.
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Goodbye for now. See you at our next appointment, next week. We finish with Baba image. In this photo He may be saying remain in your heart and not mind. Smile ... Jai Baba.
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Meher Baba Books (Los Angeles)
www.meherbababooks.com
Avatar Meher Baba Center of Southern California
1214 S. Van Ness Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90019
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