Happenings at Beloved Archives
Allan Cohen addressing attendees at the Northeast Gathering in the Darshan Room at Beloved Archives
The Northeast Gathering at Beloved Archives on May 3 and 4, 2025
During his presentations at the Gathering, guest Allan Cohen spoke of his role as a drug evangelist. Allan first learned of Meher Baba in 1964. Soon after, taking LSD while reading Baba’s Discourses and believing that he had reached the sixth plane, he wrote to Kitty Davy, ultimately resulting in a direct response from Meher Baba. At Baba’s urging, Allan gave up his drug use and became an “apostle” in redirecting Americans away from the physical, mental, and spiritual harm of psychedelic drugs. The drug work was deemed so important by Baba that Allan and several other “Baba-boys” dedicated to the same goal remained in constant communication with Him even throughout times of His intense seclusion.
Doug Stalker performing his compositions at the Gathering
The musical guest, Doug Stalker first came to Meher Baba after seeing the “Ancient One” poster in his favorite bookstore in Albany, New York. Interestingly, he has been intimately involved with the Northeast Gathering for Meher Baba almost since its inception in1981. The first Baba meeting that he ever attended turned out to have a main agenda of stuffing and addressing envelopes to advertise the very first Northeast Gathering. For close to 40 years since then, Doug helped to plan and carry out each of the Northeast Gatherings. Doug’s music similarly expresses his devotion to Baba. His compositions are intricate both melodically and lyrically and are deeply heartfelt.
The New Jersey Bhajan Group regaled the audience with bhajans and songs in devotion to the Beloved
The New Jersey Bhajan Group has always been devoted to Avatar Meher Baba, but it is not a formal group. The group started around 2001, when a few Indian Baba families in New Jersey would gather on Saturday evenings and sing bhajans in devotion to Beloved Baba. The members included Sailaja and Prakash Dheram, and Srinivas and Vimala Yeditha. Since Beloved Archives was established in 2011, the members of the NJ Bhajan Group have sung more regularly during Baba programs. More people started joining the group; Shilpa Kalavapudi, Shailaja Mididodda, Meher Bhavana, Kiran Reddy and Meher Akshay Bundellu, and sometimes the Yeditha boys would accompany on the tabla. The group has mostly performed at Beloved Archives, but they have also sung at Baba meetings in New York and Washington DC. At the NE Gathering on May 3, 2025, in addition to the singing of bhajans, Shilpa and Meher Akshay showcased dances and Sailaja and Vimala performed a skit that was performed in Beloved Baba’s presence.
Sailaja and Vimala stage a comic skit that had once been performed in Baba’s presence.
Professor Marashi visits Beloved Archives, April 3, 2025
Afshin Marashi is Professor and Farzaneh Family Chair in Modern Iranian History at the University of Oklahoma. In April 2025 he presented a paper on Meher Baba Between Iran, India, and the World at Princeton University in New Jersey, and later visited Beloved Archives. Professor Marashi’s talk and his interview with Naosherwan Anzar is published in the Summer 2025 issue of Glow International.
"My goal today is to introduce to you to what I have been working on more recently and to sketch out some still disconnected ideas that I hope will become the basis of my next book. This new project will focus on the life and work of a fascinating 20th century figure named Meher Baba."
Professor Marashi during his visit to Beloved Archives