Happy Anniversary to me = My story with Meher Baba

HuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuBabaHuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu.................fresh from the 'oven':

Jay Meher Baba…. To day is 06/08/2006 … last year, this day, I arrived in this holy land, with a truck full of my belongings, to live/die here. I have told the story, in brief, many times to Baba-lovers, but today I was asked by an Irani sister, living in USA, to tell her the same, so I welcome the synchronicity of the date and put the story in letters for more of His lovers to know.

If we do not ‘limit’ our Baba to ‘1984-1969’ and believe that He is The Ancient One, obviously the connection is an ‘ancient’ one. But in this name/form, I see that the RE-connection started 9 months before my DOB = Sept 21.1951…the moment of my conception! I was being formed as the fifth child to a middle class Irani family and I was told by my mother that the moment she became aware of ‘another’, she tried her best to abort me, by ALL possible and ‘lawful’ means! Medical abortion is considered a ‘sin’ and she used only simple effective means like carrying heavy objects, fasting and doing hard labour, in a hope to get rid of me! But me, being very stubborn and persistent, from those early days, just hung there and survived. Did Baba keep me during those hard days of fasting? For what purpose? Now I can see better the ‘wisdom’ behind it! Anyway, I passed the tests of enduring, born healthy but little weak in stamina, and grew up in the family of 8; the sixth child came 2 years later! Naturally we had a ‘rich’ home environment as far as the range of human emotions are concerned: hatred, jealousy, rivalry, …, kindness, and compassion, love; the whole spectrum.

To give a picture of the ‘religious background’, my mother was educated and ‘religious’, while my father was not educated, almost an ‘atheist’, who loved the concept of God as described in The Chariot of Gods, by Erich von Daniken, yet very honest and self-made man. So you may imagine the conflicts and the rich environment for exploring ‘what is the truth?’

So from the childhood, I tried to make up my shortcomings, by playing with books and magazines and whatever I could use as the ‘source of information’. His blessing, an early innocent ‘love affair’ at the age of seven, oriented me ‘inwards’ and since then, I am trying to reach a balance between being an introvert and also an extrovert.

(Compensate my verbal deficiency by writing and non-verbal communication!)

Reading philosophy in my teens was very rewarding and brought me to the Indian way of thinking and around 1968-69 (cannot remember the year) I attended some Meher Baba satsangs in Tehran and read a few books in Persian about His ‘teachings’! But, as I was ‘raw’ and needed some ‘seasoning’, I forgot about this and went my own independent way to ‘find God = Truth’! from here, a typical ancient story __best described in The Alchemist by Paulo Cuelo ___ starts, which needs not much explanations. To be brief, the following experiences added up to my coming here, at His Holy Land: an intense ‘love affair’ in my teens, the army service, going to USA for education (1973-1979), coming back in the delusion that we may experience peace and justice under a ‘religious regime’! __The disillusioned soon followed. Married life with all its challenges… these were all the background.

Now, the specific events that brought me BACK to Baba: during the years that I used to live in Tehran (and then in Pune since 2001) and translated Osho’s books, I came across Meher Baba’s name, many times, AND always with respect. Those who have read Osho know that he used to talk about ALL spiritual schools & figures in the history of mankind and was mostly critical of the ‘organized religions’. I found that Meher Baba was the only ‘figure’ he never criticised and always talked with due respect. But even then for me Baba was just another Master and ‘gone’. But in Pune, I heard that His place is somehow preserved and His SILENCE can be found there. So I was curious to see what kind of a place is Meherabad.

Thanks to Baba that I never believe what I hear, UNLESS I experience myself, otherwise I would not be herenow! The real story is that I had an Irani friend, living in Bangalore, who had come to Meherabad once, and I asked him about the place. Poor brother, since had a negative encounter with an Irani sister who lives here and ‘serves’ Baba (at least physically, if not spiritually), he said some positive things about the silence of the place and also some negative remarks about the human relationships here (his own experience with this sister). This was registered in the back of my mind, until a young brother from Ecuador, whom we knew since 2001, arrived in Pune last June, and was our guest for a few weeks. He wanted to visit Meherabad and I thought it is a good chance to go with him and check it our myself. So we made the reservations for July, Guru Poornima (Full moon night), to spend 2 nights here. Tough luck, my friend got sick and could not travel, but I made it……

The first 2 days were spent in total awe and wonder about the energy of the Hill and also about the type of people who came for pilgrimage… the more I stayed and interacted with the place and people, the more attraction was built within…. The third day, a visit to Meheazad was enough for me to extend my stay and think/feel more about my life and His Leela….So the 2 days visit became 5 days and on the way back to Pune ___with my dear brother Alan Connie, who was a great source of information and inspiration all these days__ I had already decided that I shall move back to live/die in this sacred place.

Enough of words and time to go to Smadhi to recharge the ‘battery’!

Jay Baba Huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

And thanks to ALL those who made it possible for me to stay here and enjoy the challenges!