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Meher Baba 20th century
Meher Baba in Nasik, India 1937
Name:	Merwan Sheriar Irani
Birth:	February 25, 1894 (Pune, India)
Death:	January 31, 1969 (Meherazad, India)
School/tradition:	Sufi, Vedanta, Mystic
Main interests:	Religion, Metaphysics, Aesthetics, Ethics
Influences:	Hazrat Babajan, Upasni Maharaj
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Meher Baba, born Merwan Sheriar Irani (February 25, 1894 – January 31, 1969), was an Indian guru of Persian descent. Educated at the St. Vincent's High School in Pune, India, as well as Deccan College, he led a normal school life, showing no particular inclination toward spiritual matters. At the age of 19, a short contact with an old Muslim holy woman Hazrat Babajan marked the beginning of his spiritual awakening. Baba was hailed as " Parvardigar" (God as the Almighty Sustainer) by the Indian fakir Sai Baba of Shirdi in 1915. ^[1] He received help from three more spiritual masters, including Upasni Maharaj, who he said revealed to him his spiritual identity as " The Ancient One" in 1921.

Baba lived and traveled in company with a circle of close disciples (" mandali" ), both men and women, from whom he demanded absolute obedience. He and the mandali voluntarily assumed a life of extreme simplicity. From 1925 to the end of his life, Baba remained silent, communicating with an alphabet board or by gesture. Baba spent long periods in seclusion, often fasting, but he would intersperse these periods with wide-ranging travels, public gatherings, and works of charity, including working with lepers, the poor, and the mad. He gave many discourses, which have been collected by his followers.

In 1931 he made the first of many visits to the West. During these travels, a number of western mandali joined him. In the 1940s, along with selected mandali, he traveled incognito about India, in what he called " The New Life." On February 10, 1954, Baba declared that he was the Avatar (an incarnation of God). ^[2]

After two automobile accidents, one in the U.S.A. in 1952 and one in India in 1956, his capacity to walk became seriously limited. In 1962 many western followers were invited to meet his Indian mandali in a series of meetings called The East-West Gathering. In 1966, Baba addressed the spreading problem of drug misuse in the West, discrediting its alleged spiritual benefits. After a year of being completely confined to a wheelchair, Meher Baba died on January 31, 1969. Meher Baba's samadhi (tomb-shrine) in Meherabad (outside Ahmednagar, India) has become a place of pilgrimage.

Contents [hide] · 1 Early life o 1.1 Silence o 1.2 First contacts with the West o 1.3 The Discourses · 2 1940s o 2.1 Work with 'masts' o 2.2 The New Life · 3 1950s o 3.1 Automobile accident in the U.S.A. o 3.2 Highest of the High Declaration o 3.3 Automobile accident in India · 4 1960s o 4.1 Seclusion and East-West Gathering o 4.2 Position on drug use o 4.3 Final Seclusion and Amartithi o 4.4 Last Darshan · 5 Metaphysics o 5.1 Sanskaras o 5.2 The Avatar · 6 Followers of Meher Baba · 7 References · 8 Bibliography o 8.1 Books by Meher Baba o 8.2 Books fully about Meher Baba o 8.3 Books about Meher Baba and other subjects · 9 External links o 9.1 Biography and teachings o 9.2 Web portals o 9.3 Videos online o 9.4 Photos online o 9.5 Centers and places of pilgrimage o 9.6 Miscellaneous

Early life

Meher Baba was born in Pune, India. His given name was Merwan Sheriar Irani. He was the second son of his father Sheriar Mundegar Irani, a Persian Zoroastrian who had been a wandering Sufi dervish before settling in Pune, and Sheriar's young wife, Shireen, who called him her " most beautiful child." His schoolmates nicknamed the charismatic and sometimes mischievous youngster " Electricity." As a boy he formed The Cosmopolitan Club amongst his best friends, a club dedicated to remaining informed in world affairs and giving money to charity — money often raised by the boys betting at the horse races. Merwan had a sonorous singing voice and was an accomplished multi-instrumentalist and poet. Fluent in half a dozen languages, he was especially fond of Hafez's Persian poetry, but also of Shakespeare and Shelley. He was known for his lightning wit and universal knowledge, embracing both commerce and the arts. He claimed that all major established religions are essentially different beads on the same string, quoting freely from those traditions.

In his youth, Merwan had no mystical inclinations or experiences, but was more interested in sports, especially cricket. At the age of 19, however, while bicycling home from Deccan College in Pune, he met a very old Muslim woman, a spiritual master named Hazrat Babajan, who kissed him on the forehead. Shortly after this, he also had direct contact with four other spiritual figures in India, who he later said were among the five " Perfect Masters" of the age, Tajuddin Baba of Nagpur, Narayan Maharaj of Kedgaon, Sai Baba of Shirdi, and Upasni Maharaj of Sakori. ^[3]

Meher Baba explained that Hazrat Babajan was a " Perfect Master, " whose kiss unveiled him spiritually to his state of God-consciousness or God-realization. Subsequently, he reportedly went without food or drink for nine months, frequently beating his head against a stone to maintain contact with the physical world. Later he contacted the sadgurus Sai Baba of Shirdi and Upasni Maharaj of Sakori, who he said helped him to integrate this experience with normal consciousness, thus enabling him to function in the world without diminishing his experience of God-realization.

After living for seven years in Sakori with Upasni Maharaj, Merwan started to attract a following of his own. His early followers gave him the name " Meher Baba, " or Compassionate Father.

In 1922, Meher Baba and his followers established " Manzil-e-Meem" (House of the Master) in Bombay. Baba demanded strict discipline and obedience from his disciples and spent this period in meditation and fasting. After a year, Baba and his disciples moved to an area a few miles outside Ahmednagar, which he called " Meherabad" (Meher flourishing). This ashram would become the center for his work. In 1924, Meher Baba created a resident school at Meherabad, which he called the " Prem Ashram" (" prem" means " love" ). The school was free and open to all castes. The school drew multi-denominational students from around India and Iran. ^[4]

Silence

From July 10, 1925 until his death in 1969, Meher Baba was silent. He communicated first by using an alphabet board, and later by hand gestures which were interpreted and spoken out by one of his mandali (devoted disciples), usually by his disciple Eruch Jessawala.

Meher Baba said that his silence was not undertaken as a spiritual exercise, nor as a vow of silence, but undertaken and maintained solely in connection with his universal work.

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