"I have blessed you with conviction." - Avatar Meher Baba
Eruch Jessawala
The following story is about drilling a well and how it represents faith versus conviction. Eruch Jessawala, one of Meher Baba’s closest disciples, frequently told this story to pilgrims visiting Meher Baba’s home in Meherazad, India.
By Eruch Jessawala
ERUCH JESSAWALA telling a story in Mandali Hall, Meherazad, India, in the 1990s. (Photo: Sam Ervin)
Naturally, there is scarcity of water at Meherabad, and it still continues.
So Adi's brother [Rustom Irani], who was the overall manager there, requested Baba, you see, “Every day there is that talk about the scarcity of water. Cannot something be done with it?”
So Baba says, “Well, try to find out water naturally.”
So Rustom says, 'Who will do that, unless you help us?”
So one day, Baba has the pleasure to take a round over the estate there and the mandali [close disciples] follow Him, and He stops at a place and He shows the place. “But why not try to dig it, well, over here?”
AVATAR MEHER BABA (in the dark coat) with His mandali (close disciples) looking for a well in Lower Meherabad, India. Photographed by Faredoon Driver (Padri) circa 1939. (Source: MSI Collection. Used with permission.)
It was very, a very happy thing for the mandali to do that. Find that Baba Himself has shown the water now, they are sure to get water. So, they put a big stone there and they're very happy and they return. Baba also returns with them. And naturally, you can't go and start digging that same day or a couple of days after. It takes time.
In the meantime, it so happened that the cattle grazes there, the shepherds would come there, somehow or other, the cattle or something, the stone must have rolled here, and there and the position must have changed. We don't know. But in short, when they tried to dig a well there, they dug the well under the stone, but no water was found.
DIGGING A WELL with Avatar Meher Baba (in the dark coat) in Lower Meherabad, India, in mid-1939. Photographed by Faredoon Driver (Padri). (Source: MSI Collection. Used with permission.)
So Baba says, try further, try more, more feet. So they dug, but there was no water. Eventually, they had to give up the idea. So the well remained dry. Nothing but a hole. And there was the same difficulty of water.
A couple of years passed by. All of a sudden a man comes from a village, he prostrates before Baba, and says, “Baba, I’ve come for your intervention”.
AVATAR MEHER BABA with Eruch Jessawala translating Meher Baba’s gestures. (Source: Meher Nazar Publications. Used with permission.)
He [Baba] says, “What's the matter?”
The farmer says, “I have dug a well in my farm to the last farthing, I have spent everything, and still there is no water. I showed to the water diviner, and he showed me the spot. And I tried to dig it. No water is found. There's no money with me. There's not even the farm. The farm itself is mortgaged. Whatever little belongings are there, they're all mortgaged. Nothing is left. I am ruined unless there is divine intervention through you."
So Baba says, “Alright. Do one thing. Just, can you not manage to get five feet more, go more five feet”. So the farmer goes with little hope in his heart and is happy that Baba has given him some guidance.
AVATAR MEHER BABA in Mandali Hall, Lower Meherabad, India, in November 1955, using gestures to communicate. Photographed by Faredoon Driver (Padri). (Source: Meher Nazar Publications. Used with permission.)
No sooner had the man left, and Baba turns to mandali and says, “What have I done? I don't know how it will turn out. Suppose if he doesn't find water, what will he do? He'll go around saying that, “Well, here was Meher Baba, who pointed out. I had mortgaged everything. And then I dug further five feet and nothing was found”.
So every day Baba would tell this to the mandali, and he would say that He did a very bad thing. He shouldn't have said this. What will happen?
Baba says, “It will be bad, because villagers will come over here, and say that we are not wanted persons.” In short, it went on for a week. The mandali got exasperated hearing this repeated complaint from Baba that He ought not to have done this, [that He should not] have given assurance because one never knows whether there will be water underneath or not, and so forth. Well, it was forgotten. To the relief of the mandali. And other activities were being followed as usual.
AVATAR MEHER BABA in Mandali Hall, Lower Meherabad, India in November 1955. Photographed by Panday. (Source: Meher Nazar Publications. Used with permission.)
After two months, it so happened one day, this man comes inside, not only by himself, but with his wife and children, and family and neighbors, and they are very happy. They bring garlands and all that. The very sign of it showed the result is good.
So, he prostrates before Baba and he says that he's very grateful to Baba because of his intervention, because of divine intervention, he got water. He had not to dig even three feet. He got it at three feet depth. And it gushed out, and everything is flourishing now and everything will be okay. And he has come to be grateful to Baba, to thank Baba.
Baba is very happy, pleased. So Baba says, “Well, I'm very happy that your faith has given you water.” And then, people disperse. After they go, Baba says, “Well, look, his faith has given him water, and he thinks that I have helped him to get water, but it's just his faith."
Rustom K. Irani. (Source: Meher Nazar Publications. Used with permission.)
This was heard by Adi’s brother, Rustom, and he was not at all happy. He says, “If a stranger can have faith in you and get water, what about us?
“That means that we did not have any faith? And, there was no water in the well. What's the sense of our living with you? So, it's better that we disband, and we go away from you.”
So Baba points to Rustom and says, “You fool! It's his faith that he got water.
“You are not living with me because of your faith in me. But I have blessed you with conviction.
“Suppose if he had not struck water? His faith would have waivered. He would have given out this rumor that, that there is a pseudo man come there calling himself Ma…, ’Masiya’, or whatever you call it, the helper, the comforter of humankind. And yet nothing happened. His faith would have waivered, he would have had no faith in me. He would have even incited the public, and so forth. Whereas, when I pointed out to you the spot for the well and you dug it and you didn't have water, you didn't care for it, because I had blessed you with conviction in me. So, you are blessed. Because of conviction".
AVATAR MEHER BABA with Eruch Jessawala (seated right) in Mandali Hall, Lower Meherabad, in November 1955. Photographed by Panday. (Source: Meher Nazar Publications. Used with permission.”
Source
"Eruch Jessawala, “24a – Eruch and Meherjee Karkaria,” Recorded 1997, Mandali Hall Talks. Used with permission.
Thank you to Nancy Vasiloff for suggesting this story from Meher Baba’s life for “The Divine Gift of Water” film and the event celebrating the new well and finding drinkable water at Meher Mount.