“I will be with you all who gather for My birthday to celebrate My being among you. I am wherever My lovers are. I give my love blessing to each of my lovers.”
— Avatar Meher Baba
AVATAR MEHER BABA in Andhra, India, in 1954. (Colorized by Jim Kirkpatrick) Courtesy of Meher Nazar Publications, Ahmednagar, India.
On February 25th, Avatar Meher Baba’s birthday is celebrated at Meher Baba centers, gatherings, in homes, and in hearts around the world.
In honor of Meher Baba’s Birthday, here’s a delightful story shared by Mani S. Irani, Meher Baba’s sister and close disciple, in the Family Letters in 1963. In her letter, Mani is referring to long-time disciple Feram Workingboxwala.
The excerpt from the Family Letters:
Feramroj, an old Baba-lover who is one of the main pillars that sustains Baba’s office at Ahmednagar, is a thin man whose looks belie his age and whose serious demeanour fails to hide his inexhaustible store of wit.
One of Adi’s* helpmates for years, he always has his nose to the grindstone of Baba-work. On Baba’s Birthday this year [1963], the deluge of telegrams and cables to Baba came from all over the world and lasted for nearly a week!
This has been too much for the small and meagerly staffed Telegraph Office [T.O.] at Ahmednagar, and an extra rush of work for Feram who was kept legging it to the T.O. all day long for confirmation or correction of the speedily deciphered contents, or to check the accuracy of the reply-paid forms.
Feram’s note to Meherazad** spoke volumes and I can't help reproducing it here:
"My dear Eruch***, the local T.O. is in a hustle and bustle, as also, I hear, the Poona T.O. Even Bombay is wondering who Meher Baba is, because for an individual this rush of cables and telegrams is unprecedented.
“The local T.O. is hard pressed and the clerk told me that for the last few days they are dealing only with ‘Meher Baba’. So much the better, as their sanskaras+ will be lessened.
“Even with my over-growth of hair on the chin, I was sirred and stooled (meaning I was addressed as 'Sir' and offered a stool to sit on, which is a rare honour for a shirt-pant-sandalled individual as I am). But I am not flattered because I have had no rest! However I look forward to better days."
“I have come to sow the seed of love in your hearts, so that in spite of all superficial diversity which your life in illusion must experience and endure, the feeling of oneness through love is brought about amongst all the nations, creeds, sects and castes of the world.”
— Avatar Meher Baba
Notes
*Adi K. Irani (also known as Adi Sr.) was Meher Baba’ secretary. **Meherazad, India, was Meher Baba’s final home. He lived there with His mandali, close men and women disciples. ***Eruch B. Jessawala was one of Meher Baba’s closest disciples and primary translator of Meher Baba’s gestures and use of the alphabet board. +Sanskaras: (Vedanta) Impressions. Also impressions which are left on the soul as memories from former past lives, and which determine one’s desires and actions in the present lifetime.
Sources
Bhau Kalchuri, Lord Meher: The Biography of the Avatar of the Age Meher Baba, Online Edition, pg. 5263, accessed February 18, 2025. (c)Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust.
Mani S. Irani, 82 Family Letters to the Western Family of Lovers and Followers of Meher Baba, page 160. (Myrtle Beach, SC: Sheriar Press, Inc.) (c) Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust, Ahmednagar, India.
February 25th marks the birthday of Avatar Meher Baba, born Merwan Sheriar Irani in Poona (now Pune), India on February 25, 1894. Every year on this auspicious day, followers of Meher Baba gather to celebrate His Advent.
This birthday message was given by Meher Baba for His 75th birthday in a family letter dated January 26, 1969, just days before He — the deathless one — dropped His physical form on January 31, 1969.
On January 31, 1969, Avatar Meher Baba — God in human form — dropped His physical form. Even though, in hindsight, Meher Baba had given hints to His close disciples (mandali) that He would leave His body, they were surprised and grief stricken.
This story takes place soon after Meher Baba dropped His body, and the mandali were dealing with their heartache. Mani S. Irani, Meher Baba’s sister, shares an incident that helped her with her grief.
Sixty years ago, from November 1 - 4, 1962, Avatar Meher Baba’s momentous East-West Gathering was held at Guru Prasad in Pune (formerly Poona) India.
At Meher Baba’s invitation, several thousand Easterners and about 160 Westerners answered the call to receive Meher Baba’s darshan andbe in His company.
On September 20, 1962, “a circular was sent to all in India, Pakistan, Europe, America and Australia who would be attending the November East-West Gathering, informing them of certain last-minute instructions for their visit.
“The lovers were told that: ...they should come with the sole idea of enjoying Baba's presence collectively, and NOT hope or want to ask for any individual personal attention or guidance from him regarding any matter concerning themselves, or their families and friends, or in connection with Baba work or group and center activities. No question should be asked, spiritual or otherwise.
“Baba says that this November gathering will be uniquely different from any of the past sahavases or darshans, and he therefore stresses that any expectations other than just being in his presence would be an intrusion into the atmosphere that Baba desires, and would cause the person thus intruding to lose the real benefit of being in Baba's presence.”
Bif Soper, a long-time resident volunteer in Meherabad, India, the home of Meher Baba's Tomb Shrine, shared the following perspective on thanking Meher Baba based on personal conversations with Meherwan Jessawala (1930-2016). Meherwan and his entire family were deeply devoted to Meher Baba starting in the mid-1920s.
"Just love Me and remember Me."
After reading Bif's story, Wayne Myers, one of Meher Mount's communications editors, sent this passage from Lord Meher online (pg. 4184) regarding an exchange between Meher Baba and Hoshang Bharucha in 1957.
It’s All Right for You to Thank Him
Sam Ervin, a long-time volunteer for Meher Mount, sent the following based on an interchange involving Mani S. Irani (1918-1996), Meher Baba’s sister. When she was 13-years-old, Mani went to live with the women disciples in Meher Baba’s ashram.
A group of talented and creative artists have come together to offer two heartfelt and inspiring music videos — “Open Up the Door” and “Dhun” — in celebration of the 2020 anniversary of Avatar Meher Baba’s 1956 visit to Meher Mount.
If the early, rave reviews are any indication, you might just feel like singing along or grabbing a box of tissues.
Meher Baba gave up the use of the alphabet board completely on October 7, 1954 and continued to communicate using only gestures.
As Francis Brabazon (a disciple from Australia) explains, Meher Baba “communicated by signs, gestures and expression… this was the most eloquent way of all — for he was the master of expression and the perfection of mime.
The mandali and many others who have shared their stories of meeting and being with Meher Baba say they never felt He was silent. “Such flowing gestures that while you were listening [sic] to His gestures, you really never felt that Baba was silent,” said Mani S. Irani, Meher Baba’s sister and interpreter of His gestures.
The following is an excerpt from a letter sent to Meher Baba's Western followers describing Christmas 1961 with Meher Baba. It was written by Mani S. Irani, a close disciple and sister of Avatar Meher Baba. All the Family Letters were approved by Meher Baba and written at His wish.
This Christmas prayer was in a greeting card that was amidst others heaped on the dining table, along with a pile of cables that expressed the love of many of Baba's western family and greeted the Beloved as He came in to breakfast on that Birthday morn.
Thirty-five years ago, in September 1982, Meher Mount co-founder and lifetime caretaker Agnes Baron took her first and only trip to India to meet with Meher Baba’s mandali (close disciples) regarding the future of Meher Mount.
She wanted the mandali’s advice on what to do with Meher Mount. At the time of her trip, Meher Mount was in her name, and she was wrestling with what to do with the property in the future. She had told Meher Baba in 1952 that she would keep Meher Mount for Him through “hell, fire and damnation.”
Mani S. Irani (1918-1996), the sister of Avatar Meher Baba, was His second-closest woman disciple, joining Baba's ashram at the age of thirteen.
In those early years, Meher Baba traveled repeatedly for His work, always with chosen members of the mandali joining Him. The stress of the continual shifting of plans and places, required the mandali to become more detached from the world and to focus on Him.
In response to her life of training and being with Meher Baba, Mani wrote the following poem sometime in the 1940s.
In honor of "Get Caught Reading" month in May 2015, Meher Mount asked for reading recommendations related to Avatar Meher Baba. Margaret Magnus chose The Real Treasure: Life of A Resident with Avatar Meher Baba’s Mandali, by Rustom B. Falahati.She selected the passage on "Divine Will and Free Will" as an example of a "treasure" contained in the series.
