Avatar's Abode is a 99 acre property on the summit of Kiel Mountain near Woombye on Queensland's sunshine coast in Australia. The trustees have recently published a very elegant brochure describing the beginnings of the Centre devoted to Meher Baba. The Beloved visited the Abode in 1958 with four of His mandali. The heart of Avatar's Abode is the beautiful timber room known as Baba's Room. It is simply furnished with items used by Baba during His stay — a bed with pillows and bedding, two chairs, a rustic table and floor mat. A photograph of Meher Baba is above the entry outside the room and another is above the door inside the room. On the bed is a small glass and timber case which contains a pair of Meher Baba's sandals. Poet and writer Francis Brabazon, who chose and purchased the property, lived with Meher Baba for ten years and returned to Australia after Meher Baba dropped His body. He continued to write, and through his manner and deep conviction in Meher Baba became, for many young people, a measure of a life of simplicity and honesty lived in loving service of the God-Man.
In a letter to the Editor, Bal Subhedar writes from Sagar, Madhya Pradesh: I read your recent issue of the GLOW and references to Meher Baba's Silence. My comments are: Silence is the nature of God and Meher Baba being God in human form, His Avataric form is the embodiment of Silence. When Beloved Baba dropped His Avataric form — the symbolic embodiment of Silence — His Silence was broken. Thus, just as His Silence (body) was witnessed by all, so also was the breaking of His Silence (dropping of the body) witnessed by all. Meher Baba had once remarked, "Hear my Silence now when I am amongst you, for when I break my Silence, there will be nothing left to be heard." This message is from Family Letters Number 60.
When Prophet Mohammed dropped His body, His disciples were, of course shocked and stunned. One of His intimate disciples, unable to accept His demise, stood over the body, and, drawing his sword, declared to all: that if any man said that the Prophet was dead, or attempted to take the body for burial, he would cut off that man's head on the spot.
This presented a real problem for the other disciples who could not approach the body to intern it as was fitting. Finally after two days had passed, Ali approached the man, and laying a hand on his shoulder said, "What you say is true; Mohammed as God is alive! But Mohammed as man, lying here, has died."
If Baba has said that He would go into a coma then it must be true, for He is Truth so whatever He says is true. However, He says what He says in His own language to serve His own purpose. One can say that Baba is in "samadhi" as He cannot be seen moving amongst us; it is also true that He will come again, as He always does, perhaps after 700 years, which from the vantage point of eternity is no time at all.
However, our concern should be to love Him wholeheartedly and serve Him in our daily lives as best as we can because Baba lives as the Eternal Beloved "with us, in us, and around us" always.
In the February 1996 issue of GLOW INTERNATIONAL, Henry Kashouty explained to Louis Agostini, Meher Baba's statement that the Avatar is a speck of dust to all specks of dust, an ant to all ants, a pig to all pigs, etc. Louis asked Bal Natu the same question. This is Bal's reply: Carlyle said, "God is a circle whose centre is everywhere, and circumference nowhere." I feel this explains Meher Baba's statement in GOD SPEAKS very well. When the Avatar comes amongst men as man, He is that circle whose centre is everywhere. Whether in ant or antelope, atom of matter or emperion, He is there. Perhaps this is why Meher Baba succinctly explained once, "I come to awaken Myself in everyone and everything because I become everyone and everything."
As I understand it, if an ant or a bird were to look at Meher Baba, due to their limited consciousness, they would behold the perfect Ant, the perfect Bird.
One last thought about birds and ants seeing Meher Baba as the perfect Bird, the perfect Ant. I mean not that they will literally see a bird or an ant, but will see the epitome of ant consciousness or bird consciousness, whatever that might be, just as we see Meher Baba as the epitome of human consciousness but still fail to see Him as He really is.
In 1976 I stood at the domed-tomb of Shams-ud-din Muhammad Hafiz in Shiraz and recited the Master's prayer. I bowed down to his love for God expressed so very eloquently in a series of quatrains. Over the centuries these songs have touched the hearts of kings and emperors and of the Beloved One Himself. Hafiz was known to Persian students as ‘The Tongue of the Unseen’ and ‘The Interpreter of Mysteries’. Sufi scholars Wilberforce and Arberry have translated his verses and his Diwan (Collection of 693 poems) was consulted as an oracle by scholars and courtiers during the Mughul dynasty. It is said that the Emperor Jehangir consulted the Diwan often and believed that the odes of Hafiz prophesised events accurately.
This year a young seeker and a devout lover of Avatar Meher Baba has presented a superb collection of renderings of Hafiz, simply titled I HEARD GOD LAUGHING. Meher Baba described Hafiz as "a Perfect Master and a perfect poet." And this collection gives the reader an insight to the beauty and majesty of a God that Hafiz terms as the Divine Beloved. It is the tender relationship between the lover and the Beloved and the meaning of union that Hafiz explains so tenderly and Ladinsky renders so effectively. The cover illustration by Diane Cobb shows a Sufi with a mischievous glint in the eye setting the theme to the book — God's Divine Playfulness. A delightful book worthy of the Beloved. Available for $14 plus shipping from Searchlight Books, PO Box 5552, Walnut Creek, CA 94596
SHARING HIS NAME
V. Nagendra Prasad is a Forest Officer from Yellamanchili in Andhra Pradesh. It is his mission in life to let people know Meher Baba's Name. In his recent letter to me, he writes, " In January 1996 I met and informed 492 people, men, women and children, about Beloved Baba." In February he told 828 people about Meher Baba, and so on. Each month he keeps a count of the people he has met and shared his conviction in Meher Baba's divinity. He continues, " While returning from Meherabad in February after Amartithi pilgrimage, our train got stuck with engine trouble for two hours at Rajahmundry railway station. I took this opportunity to visit each compartment and tell atleast two people about Meher Baba. On that trip I shared Meher Baba's message with 50 people." I bow down to his love for Beloved Baba.
NEW BOOK AWARDS
Judy Ernst's book The Golden Goose King won the Skipping Stones Book Award for 1996, honouring exceptional contribution to children's literature. Skipping Stones, an international nonprofit magazine, believes that human societies can flourish only if we are able to understand, and respect each other as equals and if our lifestyle is ecologically sustainable. In this enchanting book of stories, the Buddha is a magnificent golden goose, the king of a flock of 94, 000 geese dwelling near the city of Benares. The Queen of Benares has a dream in which she converses with a beautiful and wise golden goose. Upon waking she realizes that it was only a dream, and yet it was so vivid that she longs to see such a goose in the flesh. This ardent wish propels the story through various episodes to its ultimate conclusion, illustrating the virtues of love, loyalty, and self-sacrifice.
And Sheriar Press won the Award of Excellence for the book jacket of the hard cover edition of That's How It Was, Stories of Life with Meher Baba by the Printing Industries of the Carolinas (PICA).
INSIDE JOBS is a delightful collection of stories narrated by the versatile writer, poet and painter Max Reif appears on a cassette encased in a handsome plastic jacket. The stories are whimsical and habited by characters that reflect the aspirations of a seeker; in one of the stories, by a dreamer. Max performs the stories as if on a stage with music support by Jeff Williams on guitar, Ambika Sharan on flute and harp, Chris Riger on drums and Doc McClure on flugelhorn. The stories are animatedly narrated, and as Reif tells us "there are a lot of people within each of us" and in all the stories the characters emerge with a point of view. Innovative and dramatic in its presentation, this collection of stories is simple and imaginative. Order from Real Nothings, 3308 Dunes Street, North Myrtle Beach, SC 29582.
Q: How best can we be of service to Meher Baba?
A: The Silent One gave His love to humanity in silence and it behooves us, those who love Him, to spare no effort in moulding our life in a way that we may be capable of absorbing this love and reflecting it in our own life.