MEHER BABA PRAYERS SANS REFERENCE TO MEHER BABA
By M Rama Rao

Asian Tribune

Jan 3 2009
Thailand

Meherabad (Ahmednagar, India), 03February (Asiantribune.com):
The annual congregation of Meher Baba followers is just over. And
Meherabad, the venue for the gathering has returned to its old sleepy
ways. It will come alive once again later this month when the birthday
of Meher Baba is celebrated on February 25.

The birthday is generally a low key affair for reasons unclear.

‘No huge turnout is expected’, say the local residents but they
are unanimous that ‘new comers’ are dominating the gatherings these
days. New comer is a euphemism for neo-converts to the Meher Baba path.

But Meher Baba did not propound a new religion or new creed, according
to V.S Kalchuri, (Bhau to every one), the chairman of the Trust that
overseas the assets created in and around Meherabad

Interestingly, the prayers Meher Baba followers recite every day also
don’t carry Meher Baba’s name. These prayers are given by Baba himself
in the fifties and are recited at every gathering of his followers and
every time a function like Amartithi (Baba’s death anniversary) is held

Says Bhau ‘ Meher Baba gave two prayers – one a Universal Prayer
addressed to God, the Almighty, and the other Prayer of Repentance
for the daily inability to live up to God’s wish. Both prayers were
recited in his presence by his devotees when he was alive’.

Why there is no reference to Meher Baba, the Avatar as he himself
proclaimed? The question appears to puzzle many followers of Meher
Baba. Old as well as new, whose number is swelling. And it was put
to Bhau at the post-Amartithi gathering in Meherabad itself.

He began his reply saying "It (the doubt) is an important question".

According to him, the Universal Prayer to the Parvardigar is an ode
to the attributes of God in all his manifestations, his non-duality,
his status as preserver and protector and all other infinite attributes
God is known to have been associated with.

The Repentance Prayer, likewise, is an earnest appeal of the seeker to
the God for forgiveness for his constant failures to think, speak and
act in the way God wants us to live, speak and act without backbiting
others, without a lustful thought and without speaking a lie.

"You are right both prayers don’t refer to any one particular
Avatar. But then where is the need when the Avatar himself had dictated
the prayer", asked Bhau.

In the same breath, the lone surviving Mandali (Baba’s close circle
who lived with him) member pointed out that reference to Meher Baba
comes prominently in a small prayer, Baba had given to his Mandali.

Like the other two prayers, this prayer is addressed to the God. Where
it differs is in its direct appeal to God to help the seeker to hold
fast to Baba’s daman. It urges the Almighty to help the ‘seeker’
in loving god ‘more and more and still yet more’.

Why this special stress on ‘love’?

‘Because God is absolutely independent. The only way to approach God
is through love, constant repetition of His name and invocation of
His Mercy’, according to Lord Meher, the biography of Meher Baba.

So much so, why ‘conversions’ to Meher Baba path as they say.

I put this question to a group of Armenians who had come to attend
the Amartithi. They are all Christians. And in fact they are proud
to be Christians.

Armenians are found in Armenia as also Iran which is their second
home. ‘In a way we hold dual citizenship as some of us are born in
Iran’, said Joseph, a software expert, who leads the group of Armenian
Baba lovers in Teheran.

‘Where did Baba ask us to give up our religion’, he put a counter
question to me. Not knowing the answer, I posed the very question to
people of other nationalities besides Indians.

According to them, Meher Baba did not advice anyone to give up his or
her faith, religion or religious practices. What all he said was he
is the Avatar and to love him and to repeat his name would suffice. ‘I
am God .100 per cent. So, there is nothing beside me. Therefore think
only of me and constantly repeat my name every second, every moment. If
it becomes natural in your sub-consciousness, automatically it will
come out during moments of difficulty to help and save you’.

‘There is no Sadhana greater than love. There is no law higher than
love. And there is no goal beyond love. God and love are identical’,
remarks Mohsen Khatami, quoting Meher Baba. A broadcaster by profession
and temperament, Mohsen relocated himself from Iran to India some
years ago. He presently stays in Meherabad and spends his days glued
to Internet.

How did he hear about Meher Baba, I asked Joseph. I was also keen to
know how and why he accepted Meher Baba. For the first question he
gave a direct reply. He heard about Baba from his friends and learnt
more about the new god through books. For the second question, he
offered no direct reply. Like fellow Meher Baba lovers, he said it
was an intense internal feeling.

The journalist in me pressed him. But failed to make him open up. And
many others at Meherabad. It appears that Meher Baba had told them
not to speak about one’s experience. Why? ‘It is possible we could be
misunderstood, or not understood at all. More over an experience is
some thing personal to be cherished and not distributed as a sweet’,
remarked a Baba lover, who said, he had not seen Baba but came into
Baba-fold as a ‘long lost lover’ some seven years ago.

Muncher and Ferozie Wadia (Manuchehr and Firuzeh to go by their
original Parsi names) have no such reservations. Both have survived
a nightmarish experience in Mumbai on the day of their 14th wedding
anniversary on November 26.

About it in their own words.

‘A friend of ours who works for the Taj gave us a free night in the
Palace wing on the 6th floor of the Taj Mahal Hotel. We were to get a
sea facing suite but the person who was to check out was delayed. Our
room then was a pool facing room facing the back (in the end it proved
to be lucky as the sea facing rooms were badly gutted)

‘We checked into the room after a heavy lunch at the Thai
Pavillion. … For dinner we were toying between going down to the
Shamiana (Coffee shop) and just staying in the room and ordering
room service. We decided to stay back as we were quite exhausted
after the walk and were feeling lazy too. We opened a bottle of wine
and were listening to music. A short while later we got a SMS from
a friend telling us to be careful as there was some shooting going
on at Colaba. We switched on the TV and saw reports of a shoot out
at Leopold cafe. Within minutes the cable TV went off.

‘We then heard gunshots in our own hotel on our floor. At first we
thought they were fire crackers. Later we realised they were gun shots
which were being fired quite close to our room on our floor. By this
time friends had also started to call us and alert us about the shoot
out going on in our hotel. The shooting went on for two to three hours
on our floor. We kept moving from the bathroom to the balcony. Our
friends kept calling us and updating us ….. Friends were calling us
from all over the world and praying for us. Friends were also sending
various prayers ranging from Sai Baba, Meher Baba and the Koran &
Bible. Reciting these prayers is what calmed us down and gave us hope.

‘At about three in the morning the fire started spreading towards our
room. We moved ourselves to the balcony as the thick black smoke was
filling up in our room and it was becoming very difficult to breathe
and keep our eyes open. The gunshots were still being fired from our
floor, the fire was spreading, we tried to break the windows and were
contemplating on jumping out of the window. When we looked down there
were no ledges. We could hear people screaming out for help and we
could see the fire burning in many rooms and on the terrace on the
opposite side. This was one of the worst things we saw that night
and felt terribly helpless too.

‘On hearing us trying to break open the grills with our bare hands a
man standing near the poolside spoke to us. Muncher asked him if he
was speaking to us and he said that he was speaking to everybody. He
instructed us to open our room door and run towards the left till we
reach the fire exit. We did just that! (What really seems a mystery
is how we heard this man’s voice through all the screams, firing and
blasts that were heard simultaneously?)

‘While we were running I could not see Muncher who was a foot
away from me, the smoke was so thick. Luckily the corridor lights
were on and we found the fire exit after about a hundred meters .We
started running down the stairs, in spite of gunshots being fired in
the background. When we reached the second floor the staircase was
blocked by huge steel cupboard and metal chairs stacked up. On the
right was a door leading out to an open terrace which had AC ducts
and pipes. We were not too sure about going out in the open.

‘When we tried to move the blockage we saw some bodies that may have
just been killed as the blood was still oozing out. So we changed our
minds and ran out. Luckily the army guards standing across the road
pointed out to a metal ladder which we climbed down and ran across
the road, after which we were safe. ….We are glad to be back and
grateful to god for answering all the prayers of our friends and even
people we had never met before’.

I caught up with Muncher when she was about to leave for Dubai. And
asked her whether she visited Meherabad.

She replied that they had visited Meherabad a week after 26/11 and
offered their prayers at Meher Baba’s tomb.

How and when did she hear about Meher Baba? She gave full credit
to Leopold Café (the café too was targeted by terrorists) owners,
who are her friends. ‘She (the lady owner) was away in Chennai but
she remained in touch with us on phone and SMS. She asked us to just
keep saying Meher Baba. Meher Baba and this we did

Who was that person who guided them from his pool side post? It seems
no body knows that person’s identity. In fact, there are doubts as
to whether any one could be at the poolside at that time and even if
there was one, how could he make himself heard by the family on the
sixth floor.

‘O dear it was all nothing but a miracle,’ said Muncher as she
signed off.

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