Meher Baba in Zurich, Switzerland 1934.

Avatar Meher Baba was born Merwan (Meherwan) Sheriar Irani into a Zoroastrian (Parsi) family at Pune, India, in 1894.  During his teens and twenties, Merwan associated with, and was proclaimed Avatar (‘descent of God into human form’) by five spiritual Masters from long-established Maharastran lineages within the Chistiyyah and Qalandari Sufi, and Hindu Datta avadhutas traditions.  These figures: Hazrat Babajan (? 1790-1931), Sai Baba of Shirdi (1836-1918), Upasni Maharaj (1870-1941), Narayan Maharaj (1885-1945) and Tajuddin Baba (1861-1925) command pan-Indian followings.

 

Meher Baba’s spiritual mission began in 1921.  In that year, he drew together his first close disciples in Pune.  It was these early disciples who gave him the name Meher Baba, which means “Compassionate Father”.  After years of intensive training of his disciples, Meher Baba established a colony called Meherabad, near Ahmednagar, in Maharastra State.  Here the Master’s work embraced a free school, where spiritual training was stressed, a free hospital and dispensary, and shelters for the poor.  No distinction was made between high castes and untouchables; all mingled in fellowship through the inspiration of the Master.  To his disciples, who came from different castes and creeds, he gave a training of moral discipline, love for God, spiritual understanding and selfless service.  It is at Meherabad on the 31st January each year that up to 70,000 people from the East and the West visit Meher Baba’s tomb for the anniversary of his death.

 

In 1925, Meher Baba hinted to his disciples that he would soon begin a period of silence.  On July 10 of that year he began observing this silence which he maintained for the remaining 44 years of his life.  Of his silence, Meher Baba said, “You have asked for and been given enough words – it is now time to live them” and “If my silence cannot speak, of what avail would be speeches made by the tongue”.  Meher Baba’s discourses and messages were dictated by means of an alphabet board and later solely through unique hand gestures, interpreted by his disciples.

 

An important part of Meher Baba’s work through the years was to personally contact and serve hundreds of those known in India as masts.  These are advanced souls who have become spiritually intoxicated from direct awareness of God.  For this work, Meher Baba travelled many thousands of miles to remote places throughout India and Sri Lanka.  Other vital work was the bathing of lepers, washing the feet and bowing down to thousands of poor, and distributing food, clothing and money to the destitute.

 

By the 1950s, as many as one hundred thousand people came daily to seek Meher Baba’s darshan, or blessing.  People journeyed from all over the world to spend a few days, or even a single day, in his presence.  Nevertheless, in his later years, Meher Baba placed himself in ever-stricter seclusion for the purpose of what he called his “universal work”.  This intensive work, which he did inwardly, combined with the effect of two serious car accidents, took a great toll on his health and on the 31st of January, 1969 – a few months after having announced that he had completed his work 100% to his satisfaction – he died.

 

Meher Baba’s cosmology may be summarised as follows: all souls are One; any apparent differences between souls are due to their differing levels of consciousness and experience.  These souls and the cosmos burst into existence out of God’s “original whim” to know itself.  God found infinite ways to do this through constantly evolving and dissolving worlds, life forms and spiritual states.  Each soul is unconsciously God, gradually becoming more self-aware as it evolves.  Over countless millions of years, on numerous planets, souls evolve from gas through to mineral, plant, invertebrate, bird and mammal forms, culminating in human beings.  This evolutionary process creates a ‘false ego’ of countless impressions and desires that must then be tediously ‘unwound’ through innumerable reincarnations.  Eventually, however, the soul involves (starts realising its Divinity through sudden or sequential stages of spiritual unfoldment).  Ultimately this culminates in ‘God-realisation’: the soul living eternally as God in everything.

 

According to Meher Baba, a ‘spiritual hierarchy’ of advanced souls, saints and Masters governs the universe.  The head of this hierarchy is the Avatar: the very first soul to complete the involutionary process and become one with God.  Every 700–1400 years, “when the wick of righteousness burns low”, the Avatar is brought down to creation by the five Perfect Masters of the time.  He has appeared previously as Zoroaster, Rama, Krishna, Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad and other great religious founders.  Meher Baba claims that he is that same God-man: “the Ancient One, the Highest of the High.”  According to Meher Baba, the Avatar is the quickest, safest path to God-realisation and “the eternal Redeemer of humanity.”

 

Meher Baba did not encourage set spiritual techniques.  As he explained, “I lay down no precepts.  Throughout eternity I have laid down principles and precepts but mankind has ignored them”.  He taught that “approach to Truth is individual” and that meeting the challenges of everyday living is the best means of spiritual growth.  Consequently, Baba lovers do not have distinctive practices or customs.  Meher Baba considered love – especially love of God – as “the solution to our difficulties and problems.”  He also emphasised the importance of obeying and constantly remembering the Avatar, and the importance of selfless service: “forget yourself in love and service to others”.

 

Meher Baba had no desire to establish temples, ashrams or organizations.  He often moved and dismantled his main centre.  Today, there is no global Meher Baba organization.  Instead, there is a range of varied and autonomous centres and groups.  Many Baba lovers do not associate with any of these, preferring to follow Meher Baba privately.  Others meet in an informal way in private homes or Baba centres to discuss his teachings and share their love for him.

 

It is impossible to estimate accurately the numbers of people worldwide who consider themselves ‘Baba lovers’.  India has the majority: many hundreds of thousands, and hundreds of ‘Baba centres’ and Baba groups.  In the West, the largest concentrations of Baba lovers can be found in the USA, followed by Australia and England.  The most important foci for the movement in the USA are Sufism Reoriented (in San Francisco) and Meher Spiritual Centre at Myrtle Beach in South Carolina.  Over the last decade, many new groups have formed in Scandinavia, Iran, Latin America, the former Communist bloc and China.

 

Meher Baba travelled to the Western world thirteen times – firstly in 1931.  His last visit to the West was in 1958.  During Meher Baba’s first visit to Europe and the USA, he attracted most of his earliest close Western disciples and ‘lovers’.  Over the next 30 years, these men and women set about the task of establishing his centres in the West and slowly spreading his name and message.  However, it wasn’t until the late 1960s and 70s that the West witnessed an ‘explosion’ in the number of young people who came to accept Meher Baba as the Avatar.  Many young Western men and women, disillusioned with the materialism of the West, but also increasingly disillusioned with the false hopes of the modern pop culture – particularly the use of drugs such as marijuana and LSD as a means to gain happiness and spiritual awakening – turned to the East for guidance.  In their search, many of these young ones came across Meher Baba’s teachings and a few, in spite of Meher Baba’s deep seclusion during most of the 60s, sought and were given permission to travel to India to meet him.  In Meher Baba they instantly recognized their ideal.

 

To some of these youth, Meher Baba gave the task of returning to the West to spread his name and message, in particular his strong anti-drug messages.  Meher Baba gave out many messages highlighting the futility of seeking happiness through the use of drugs and other intoxicants: “If God can be found through the medium of any drug, God is not worthy of being God”; and “The experiences which drugs induce are as far removed from Reality as is a mirage from water.  No matter how much you pursue the mirage, you will never quench your thirst, and the search for Truth through drugs must end in disillusionment”.

 

As early as the 1930s, a few Australians met Meher Baba.  By the 1940s and 50s, two small groups had emerged in Sydney and Melbourne – mostly former members of the (Inayat Khan) Sufi Society.  They followed their Australian leader, Sheikh Francis Brabazon, in adopting Meher Baba as their personal Master.  Although Meher Baba visited Australia twice (1956 and 1958), the movement’s growth in Australia occurred mostly during the 60s and 70s – much as was the case in the USA and Europe.  Those who became interested at this time, and their adult children, still constitute the bulk of Australian Baba lovers.  Today there are up to 500 Australians who would call themselves ‘Baba lovers.’  Additionally, there are many hundreds who have a partial interest or involvement.

 

The main Australian centre is Avatar’s Abode.  This 100-acre property is situated at Woombye on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.  It is held in perpetuity for Meher Baba and is administered by the Avatar’s Abode Trust.  Meher Baba named the property during his stay there (3 to 6 June 1958).  He said: “Avatar’s Abode is to become one of the great places of pilgrimage in the world”.  This property features buildings and historic items associated with Meher Baba’s life.  It has family and bunk accommodation available to followers, forest walks, private residences, a library, a reception building and a performance hall.  It also includes a bookstore operated by Meher Baba Foundation Australia.  This Foundation is concerned with initiating and supporting publications and projects related to Meher Baba.

 

Another important centre is Meher House in Beacon Hill, Sydney.  This sandstone residence was built in the early 1950s for Meher Baba’s visit in August 1956.

 

Approximately 100 Meher Baba followers live close to Avatar’s Abode or in the surrounding Sunshine Coast region.  Elsewhere in Australia, only Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane have sizeable Baba groups.  Smaller clusters of followers can be found in Canberra, Perth, Adelaide, the Gold Coast, Tasmania, North Queensland and the north coast of NSW.

 

A variety of regular meetings and events are held at Avatar’s Abode and Meher House, most notably the annual Anniversary celebrations of Meher Baba’s visits.  At Avatar’s Abode, this event draws crowds of up to 300 people per day.  Both on the Sunshine Coast and around Australia, Baba lovers hold regular meetings in their homes to enjoy and express their relationship with Meher Baba or to organise particular projects.  There are also a small number of broadly ‘New Age’ groups who draw on aspects of Meher Baba’s teachings.

 

 

Contacts:

Avatar’s Abode Trust, PO Box 184, Woombye Q 4559

Meher Baba Foundation Australia, PO Box 22, Woombye Q 4559

 

 

This article has been submitted to the publishers of Religious Bodies in Australia - A Comprehensive Guide for inclusion in the revised edition of that book, due late 2006, and has been reproduced here with their kind permission.