ECPPA Collection

Dear Meher Center Family and Friends,

While in Andhra, India in 1954, Meher Baba gave the following message:

 “In the Beyond State of God, sex does not exist; there, only one indivisible Existence prevails. It is in the realm of illusionary phenomena, called the universe, that sex asserts itself. 

“Babajan, the Perfect Master who, in less than an instant, made Me experience My Ancient Infinite State, had the form of a woman. Upasni Maharaj, the Perfect Master who brought Me down to normal consciousness, had a male form. 

“Babajan came from a high noble and rich family. She was beautiful when she was young. But just before she was going to be married, owing to her intense longing to be one with God, she renounced the world. In Poona, with one kiss on My forehead, she made Me realize that I am the Ancient One. She was about 100 years old at the time, yet, like a true fakir, she would sit under a tree day and night, in rain or sun. 

“Everyone of you, man or woman, of any caste or creed has an equal right to attain Divinity. I tell you with divine authority that I experience eternally, consciously and continually being one with you all and the One in you all. So, any worship or obeisance done to any deity, animate or inanimate, to any saint, yogi, advanced soul, or Master, eventually comes to Me. 

“Being rich or poor, literate or illiterate, of high caste or of low caste, need not interfere with your loving God—the supreme Beloved. By offering pure unadulterated love to anyone and anything, you will be loving Me. And let Me assure you on divine authority that we are all one. I give you all My blessings for the understanding that loving God in any form, in any way, will make you eternally free.” *

In His Love and Service,

Buz Connor

For Meher Center board and staff

Glimpses of the Godman, Volume V, by Bal Natu, pp. 273-274.

Meher Baba gave many talks and discourses at the 1955 Sahavas which took place at His home in Meherabad, India. In this beautiful compilation of photos and videos from the gathering, one of these talks is read out.

Video, 7:20

Meherabad, India, 1955

Courtesy of Bob Fredericks

Meher Baba at the 1955 Sahavas, on Seclusion Hill

Meher Nazar Publications

While visiting Meherazad in 2006, my wife Wendy and I spent one morning walking the property with Meherwan Jessawala. The Jessawala family were long-time devotees of Baba’s, with Eruch, Meherwan’s elder brother becoming a close mandali member, living with Baba the last decades of His Advent.

Meherwan told us this story as we walked past Seclusion Hill. The following is an excerpt from our journal at the time.

“During a darshan program in 1955, Baba took four different groups of men up Seclusion Hill at one point during that darshan. As He walked up the first straight part of the path, He said that this was like the beginning attraction between the disciple and the master. The disciple feels the fresh flush of love and attraction to the master with a master’s full gaze and attention on the aspirant. There is then created a hair-thin connection between the disciple and the master, a hair-thin string. Then Baba and the group came up to a U-turn, a cutback, on the path. Here, Baba said, 'The master begins to seem less focused on the disciple and gradually appears to become indifferent to him. As a result, the lover begins to feel distant from the master, and that the master no longer cares for him in the same way.'

“So, the disciple begins to drift away and falls back into old habits and patterns. He gradually forgets about the things that keep him close to the master, the Beloved. His life becomes focused on fulfilling worldly desires and ambitions. Gradually, he becomes more and more desperate about his life. But the master has to be careful to keep the ball of string loose so the hair-thin connection will not break. If it should snap, the connection is broken forever.

 “At this point on the path, Baba and the group came to another cut back. Here, Baba said, ‘Due to the desperation of the disciple and his longing for the master, the master is able to pull the disciple closer to Him. Even though it looked as if the disciple had drifted away, there was still a forward movement because of his connection with the master.’ On and on it goes in the lover and Beloved relationship.

“Meherwan remembered Baba saying to a group once that they had no idea how fortunate they were to be in His presence. He told them not to let their minds wander if He is present even though He is the very one stirring up all manner of thoughts they should not let their minds wander.”

Also during that walk, Meherwan remarked that life around Baba was filled with the ordinary things of daily life, household things, practical things. “Baba would say that at the court of the Highest of the High it was not like other ashrams and masters where there was more of a pious atmosphere. Around his court, things were very natural. The Avatar accepts everyone. The focus is on love and only love. This means self-effacement.”

For those who have been to the Center recently, you may have noticed that Long Lake, which stretches nearly the length of the Center all the way to Baba's house, has been looking a little green. This is due to a build-up of an algae called Chara, and after careful research and consideration, the Center will be taking steps to address this issue with the help of a team of specialists.

When speaking to Joe Dunn, a member of the Center's Maintenance team, about the project, he said, "We know Long lake is very unique and pristine, and we don't want to do anything that would compromise its natural ecosystem." But the health of the lake is at stake, so he told us that, "[a]fter many years of research and data collection by volunteer scientists as well as on site consultations with lake management specialists, it has been decided to begin a series of monthly probiotic applications to the entire lake, except for the Lagoon and Boathouse areas which will be dredged in September. . . .The purpose of the probiotic is to accelerate the decomposition process of all the dead plant material, and we have been assured that it will not harm the plant and animal life in the lake." By Baba's grace, Long Lake will once again be restored to its healthy, magnificent state which Baba looked out over during His visits to Myrtle Beach in the 1950's.

"There is no creature which is not destined for the supreme goal, as there is no river which is not winding its way towards the sea. But only in the human form is consciousness so developed that it is capable of expressing the perfection of its own true self, which is the Self of all.

However, even in the human form the soul is prevented from realizing its birthright of joy and fulfillment because of the burden of sanskaras which it has accumulated as a by-product of its arduous development of consciousness. Like the dust that accumulates on the shoes of a traveler on foot, these sanskaras are gathered by the pilgrim as he treads the evolutionary path.

In the human form, which is the crowning product of evolution, the divine life is enmeshed in the sanskaric deposits of the mind. The expression of the divine life is therefore curtailed and distorted by the distractions of the sanskaras, which weld consciousness instead to the fascinations of the false-phenomenal.

One by one the many-colored attachments to the false must be relinquished. Bit by bit the sanskaric tinder feeding the deceptive flames of the separative ego must be replaced by the imperative evidence of the unquenchable flame of truth. Only in this manner can man ascend to the height of divine attainment: the endless beginning of life eternal.

The life in eternity knows no bondage, decay or sorrow. It is the everlasting and ever renewing self-affirmation of conscious, illimitable divinity. My mission is to help you inherit this hidden treasure of the Self."*

*Listen Humanity, Third Edition, by Meher Baba, p. xiv