MEHER SPIRITUAL CENTER

Meher Baba's Home in the West

July Newsletter 2024

Meher Center Archive Collection

"In sincere surrender to the Master, the disciple comes very near to the stopping of the mind, which is the goal of most yogic processes. In obeying the Master at any cost and serving him selflessly, he nearly arrives at the culmination of the Path of understanding and action. And in loving the Master above everything else, be becomes one with the Master as Truth and thus attains Godhood—the goal of all search and endeavor— through his grace."


Meher Baba


Life At Its Best, compiled by Sufism Reoriented, p. 21

Dear Meher Center Family and Friends,


Greetings from the Center. As Youth Sahavas participants and workers spend their days immersed in Baba's presence at the Center while keeping busy with activities, I would like to share an account of how Baba spent His days at the Center in 1952, as told by Kitty Davy.


Kitty writes, "Baba walked over each morning around five a.m. from his house at  the far end of the Lake to the Guest House where he breakfasted - just tea and cereal. Before seven a.m. he would be seen literally racing down the path to the bridge, crossing  the Lagoon, up the steps to the main dining room; he would look around to see all were present, send for the absentees and then sitting just inside the doorway discuss various details of the moment whilst we finished eating. Then ...he went for a brisk walk to the  beach along the lower path by the lake, returning by the upper road. ...In the afternoons, Baba suggested games outdoors. ...This time it was croquet on the ground outside the  Guest House. Did we play fair? Why ask? With Baba, it is not the winning but the fun. ...Another form of recreation was boating on the lake. ...The evenings at the Center would  be spent with Baba at the Guest House, where all the women would be called to be with  Mehera, Mani, Goher and Mehru. Jokes were told to make us laugh. ...Then Mani would  read passages selected by Baba from Hafiz and other Persian poets and Baba explained  their spiritual meaning. Also, we talked about saints... At 7:30 sharp, Baba would say  goodnight to all and leave the house. Outside the gates, Adi Sr. would be waiting to walk  back with Baba to the New House (Meher Abode)." *


In His Love and Service,



Buz Connor

For Meher Center board and staff

*The Awakener Journal, Vol.  6, No. 4, pp. 31-33

"How to Love God"

On September 12th, 1954, Meher Baba gave a message on how to love God, including eight steps to help illustrate how we may truly do so. In this beautiful video put together by Bob Fredericks, those eight steps are read out, accompanied by footage of the Avatar.


Video, 2:35

Courtesy of Bob Fredericks

The Most Beautiful Voice

By Valerie McKean

Meher Nazar Publications

On July 10th, 1925, after thirty-one years of speaking, Meher Baba, began observing silence. On the 99th anniversary of that day, I found myself wondering about the sound of Meher Baba’s singing voice. My interest sparked, I spent the coming afternoons searching for and reading about the voice that Mehera, Baba’s closest female disciple, described as,”the best in the world.”  


“‘Baba’s singing and talking voice was medium in pitch, not a tenor or a bass but in-between,' Mehera reported. 'He sang with all his heart. He could take high notes beautifully, as well as low notes. Baba was particular about taking the high notes. He would look up to take them, and every note was perfect.”'[1]   


As a boy, Merwan Irani, (named Meher Baba in 1922 by His devotees), would sing at dawn each morning. Aspandiar R. Irani (nicknamed Pendu) recalled, "In my childhood, Baba used to sing Persian poems in praise of God very loudly at the crack of dawn. Every morning at 5:00 A.M., I remember hearing his voice as I was sleeping in my bed. None in the neighborhood would complain about it disturbing their sleep, because they liked the song and his voice. They would say, 'Ah, Merwan is singing.' " [2]  


Pendu’s sister, four-year-old Naja, would sit on her bed by the window and listen as Merwan and His father, Sheriar, sang their morning prayers. A childhood friend, Bairam Jamshed Irani (nicknamed Baily), rose early to listen to Merwan sing. He recalled, "The melodious sounds of his prayers would strike my eardrums from a long distance. It would create unique waves in my soul. As I drew nearer and nearer, the sounds would create more and more uncommon experiences in my heart."[3]   


In 1914, Merwan and five companions journeyed to Udwada to visit the sacred Zoroastrian Temple, Atash Behram. During the three day visit, their mornings were spent in prayer at the temple. One afternoon as they were returning to their rooms, Merwan sang a song in Persian. His voice was a magnet that drew people out of their rooms and He honored their requests and sang ghazal after ghazal -some were well known and others composed on the spot. 


One older man in the impromptu audience patted Merwan on the back and said, "The glow on your face while you sang, and the ghazals you, yourself, composed to the glory of God, lead me to believe that someday you will be a great man whose name will be known throughout the world."[4] 


Merwan loved to sing devotional songs. He sang for hours at a time. He sang while sitting near Hazrat Babajan. One night, at Sakori, He sang so much that Upasni Maharaj asked Gulmai Irani (Meher Baba’s spiritual mother) to bring Merwan tea, as His throat must be parched. As co-proprietor of a toddy shop in Kasba Peth, Merwan was often found leading spiritual discussions and joining patrons in bhajan singing, and on occasion, the whole group would move to Bund Gardens, where the singing would last until the wee hours of the night.


Adi K. Irani met Meher Baba in1921, he wrote: “At that time Baba used to speak. Baba has a beautiful voice. He could sing and play the dhol and I used to play harmonium or sitar as an accompaniment. His voice is "juicy" as I used to call it, and considered as the best voice I ever heard. When Baba spoke I always felt that, in a way, his voice, when he talked, excelled his voice when he sang.The sound of his song and talk always ring in my ears when I think of it and feel that, were it not for the great spiritual work of redeeming humanity from illusion that Baba took upon himself to this silence, I would for one go on a hunger strike till death than to see Baba give up speaking all these years. But surely what we wish is for our self satisfaction and what the Avatar wishes is for the redemption of humanity. We have to be resigned to His wishes.” [5]  


Khorshed Irani, one of Meher Baba’s early women disciples, met Meher Baba when she was twelve. She recalled, “I first heard Baba speak when He was still with Upasni Maharaj at Sakori. For more than three years, from 1922 until 1925, I heard Baba speak. During those years, I felt the pleasure, the happiness, and the joy of listening to His lovely voice. It was a deep and strong voice, yet gentle. Baba’s voice would draw us to Him. And Baba sang so beautifully. 


“...So on July 10, 1925, Baba began observing silence. Until then, we had not needed any interpreter or medium to talk with Baba. The words were spoken through His lips and pierced directly into our hearts.” [6] 


Naja observed,“For one who loves to talk, keeping silent was very difficult and a great sacrifice. No one believed it when Baba first announced his plans to keep silence, because he was always so talkative, singing and joking. Before this time, Baba would sometimes say, ‘I am talking too much, no? I talk the whole day long.’” [7]  


I continue to spend my afternoons in search of stories about Meher Baba’s voice, as I read accounts of Baba singing Tukaram bhajans that He loved; Baba teaching bhajans to the nearby Arangaon village children who sang for sweets; and of Mehera teaching Baba to sing the American popular song “Swanee.” Fortunately, some of the world’s best storytellers have left accounts of what it was like to be amazed by His beautiful voice.


[1] Mehera Meher, Vol I, by David Fenster p.118

[2] Lord Meher, Online Edition, by Bhau Kalchuri,p.175

[3] Lord Meher, Online Edition, by Bhau Kalchuri, p.124 

[4] Lord Meher, Online Edition, by Bhau Kalchuri,p.160

[5]”Avatar Meher Baba’s Silence”, by Shri Adi K. Irani, Divya Vani, Vol I no. 2 p. Oct. 1961 p. 9

[6] Fortunate to Love Him, Stories of My Life with Meher Baba, by Khorshed Irani, pp.152-153

[7] Mehera Meher, Vol I, by David Fenster p.171

Life on the Center: A New Display at Baba's House

The croquet set that Baba and the women mandali used to play croquet

at the Guesthouse compound in 1952.

A lively new display at Baba’s House is up for guests and visitors to see. It is called, “Fun in Myrtle Beach” and has many special items showing Baba’s never-ending efforts to shift our focus on Him with the fun games He would play with His lovers. The display includes treasures such as the alligator hat given to Him by the Alligator Watchers Club in 1958 and the ping pong paddles Baba played a game with and won, of course!


Below is a picture of a special sand dollar garland made with seven painted and decorated sand dollars by Betty Thibodeau. Baba wore it on July 25th, 1956. Baba said it represented the seven main evolutionary stages, from unconscious stone to conscious man. The tag on the garland says, “O, all ye works of the Lord, bless ye the Lord: praise him, and magnify him forever.” 

Baba's sand dollar Garland worn by Him in 1956. 

The Pull to Come Home

By Preeti Hay

Mikayla Frigon at Saroja Library

What is home? Many have argued that it is not a place – it is a feeling. A sense of longing, of belonging, of familiarity, of instant comfort. A place to go to in the depths of your being from any physical location. What if such a place existed, but you had never been to it before? For Mikayla Frigon, when she first arrived at Meher Center, the intangibility of her longing and belonging found an external manifestation. “I will never forget my first moments at Meher Center, Baba’s home in the West. The air was heavy with humidity but bright and full of life. So many trees! So much beauty and love all around me! I was extremely shy and awkward (and still am!), but this place was immediately my home,” says Mikayla Frigon.


Mikalya’s first trip to the Center was for Youth Sahavas in 1994. Before that she had heard about the Youth Sahavas as part of a group named Meher Miniatures which was a preteen and teen group at the LA Sahavas. A California resident, she dreamed of going to Myrtle Beach, not only because she had never been, but also because it was the place where her Baba lover parents had married and had their honeymoon on the Center.


She flew to Myrtle Beach with her best friend, Shireen. She remembers being picked up by the local Branch family and going to stay at their house for the night before Sahavas. She loved their house, she loved their neighborhood and she already loved Myrtle Beach even before stepping on to the Center. That night the unthinkable happened.. She had a vision of Baba. “There was a chair in the bedroom where Shireen and I slept at the Branch house. I was awoken in the middle of the night and I opened my eyes to find Baba sitting in that chair. As I remember, He looked like the Baba I knew or had seen in pictures from the 1960s. When I woke up in the morning, to my surprise, Shireen told me that she had seen Baba in the chair in the middle of the night as well! The only difference in her description was that she remembered a younger Baba,” recounts Mikayla.


After this outstanding welcome, her time at Sahavas was a true homecoming. “I made lifelong friends on that trip. I cried so hard at the Barn while saying goodbye to my new home and family.” 


She returned in 1995 and then in 1997. Why the one-year gap? I jerked to ask. Mikayla straightened up in such a way that I knew I had unintentionally scrapped a wound. With much seriousness, she said. “I got into a lot of trouble at school that year and could not come. But that was the year that the sahavasees made a video for Baba’s sister, Mani. I loved Mani very much and it was a blow to have missed that,” she says. Mani died that year. The sadness that enveloped Mikayla created a deeper longing and accentuated the pull of living in Myrtle Beach. “From the beginning, I wanted to live in Myrtle Beach. I cannot explain it but I felt a strong pull, especially to the library. I wanted to work and help out at the Saroja Library.”


It took Mikayla twenty years to return. Her longing simmered for years until it came to a boil and she could not stay away. For three years between 2017 and 2020, she returned to the Center once or twice a year. During Covid, she started volunteering at the library by doing remote projects. “The draw to be near the Center became so strong that it consumed my every thought. I would cry and cry and just want to be there. Every day, in my mind’s eye I looked at the entrance of the Center, as if I were seeing it from the mall across the street.” Mikayla’s longing became an itch that she could not scratch. It was so deep that nothing would satiate it except to be here. It was time. Baba was undoubtedly calling her home.


Mikayla recounts with wonder how Baba orchestrated her exit from her old life and pulled strings together to settle her into the new life of her dreams. Within three months she was able to sell her business and her house! She moved across the country with her supportive husband, her mom and two cats. They now live fifteen minutes away from the Center. 


Through the challenges of life and health, Mikayla has stood strong in Baba’s love. She is a dedicated volunteer at the library and also helps with research projects related to the library. 


As we concluded our interview, we watched delivery trucks coming into the Center for the set-up of this year’s Youth Sahavas. It occurred to me that it’s been exactly thirty years since Mikayla’s first, life changing arrival. If she could, what would she say to the Youth Sahavas participants? “I would ask them to do something that I wish I had done: say yes. I would ask them to say yes to sitting with a stranger, say yes to playing volleyball, say yes to being on stage, participating in discussion groups and finding some time alone to be with Baba at His home.”


I think Mikayla did say yes. She said yes to Baba being the engine of her life. She attached herself to Him like a bogie and He eventually brought her home.

MEHER BABA

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