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Who is Meher Baba?

Many, if not most visitors to this website, feel a deep inner connection to Meher Baba.

For them exploring the “avataric treasures” in Beloved Archives intensifies their love and heartfelt devotion to the most important personage in their lives.

But, if you are just discovering Meher Baba and are curious why there are websites like this one that focus on the physical objects from His life, we invite you to read about Meher Baba’s remarkable life below and then to read the IN GOD'S PRESENCE section of the site.

Meher Baba’s Early Life

“Babajan made me feel what I am. Sai Baba made me know what I am. Upasni Maharaj made me understand what I am.”

In 1913, at the age of 19, Merwan Sheriar Irani’s life took a profound turn.

 

Riding His bicycle home from college in Poona (now Pune), India, He was beckoned to approach a renowned woman Saint He had passed by many times. She kissed Him on the forehead and His consciousness of the daily activities of life dissolved. Merwan became immersed in a state of divine awareness.

          

For the next seven years, Merwan remained under the tutelage of one and then another of the other four perfect masters, whose task was to bring Merwan to full awareness of His divinity, just as John the Baptist had done for Jesus, and other figures had done for Rama, Krishna, Buddha, and Mohamed. Thus in 1922, Merwan began His advent as the Avatar of the current age.

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Merwan, 1907

Meher Baba’s Five Perfect Masters
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Hazrat Babajan

unknown – September 21, 1931

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Narayan Maharaj

May 20, 1885 – September 3, 1945

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Tajuddin Baba

January 27, 1861 – August 17, 1925

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Sai Baba

c. 1838 – October 15, 1918

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Upasni Maharaj

May 15, 1870 – December 24,1941

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Now 27, He began training a group that became His life-long followers, known as His “circle” or mandali. It was these early devotees who began calling Him Meher Baba, which means Compassionate Father.

The Avatar

“I was Rama, I was Krishna, I was this One, I was that One, and now I am Meher Baba.” 

Meher Baba’s Final Declaration, 1954

Avataric periods are like the springtide of creation.

They bring a new release of power, a new awakening of consciousness, a new experience of life — not merely for a few, but for all. Qualities of energy and awareness, which had been used and enjoyed by only a few advanced souls, are made available for all humanity. Life is stepped up to a higher level of consciousness, is geared to a new rate of energy. The transition from sensation to reason was one such step; the transition from reason to intuition will be another.

 

This new influx of the creative impulse takes, through the medium of a divine personality, an incarnation of God in a special sense — the Avatar. This Avatar was the first individual soul to emerge from the evolutionary process as a Sadguru, and He is the only Avatar who has ever manifested or will ever manifest. Through Him God first completed the journey from unconscious divinity to conscious divinity, first unconsciously became man in order consciously to become God. Through Him, periodically, God consciously becomes man for the liberation of mankind.

“The Avatar is always one and the same, because God is always one and the same. The same One comes again and again in different forms, in different ages, with different names”.

From Meher Baba’s Discourses

Beginning in 1923 when Meher Baba completed the initial phase of training His close disciples, He embarked on a remarkably active life.


 For the next 47 years His activities included:

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founding schools for children of mixed castes, an innovation at that time in India;

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world travels, that included trips to Europe, America, and visits to Japan and China;

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aiding spiritual aspirants of every religion (and no religious affiliation) through personal meetings, voluminous correspondence, and large gatherings;

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working intensely with men and women known as masts, individuals who are intensely God-intoxicated or spiritually absorbed to the point that their external behavior may appear eccentric, confused, or even mad to ordinary observers — yet they are inwardly focused on the profundity of spiritual planes of consciousness;

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distributing food, clothing, and cash to tens of thousands of people in need;

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writing major treatises on a wide gamut of spiritual and esoteric topic, including the multi-volume Discourses and His major opus, God Speaks: The Theme of Creation and Its Purpose;

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and hosting both intimate and large gatherings of Eastern and Western devotees seeking to enjoy and benefit from spending time in His presence.

Silence

Remarkably, all these activities and many more were conducted during the 44 years when He maintained verbal silence, first using an alphabet board and later a set of unique hand gestures, interpreted by members of His mandali.

Explaining the reason for His silence, He issued a “Universal Message” in 1958 that was distributed at the 1964-65 World’s Fair in New York. In part the message said,

“I have come not to teach but to awaken.
Understand therefore that I lay down no precepts.”

“Because man has been deaf to the principles and precepts laid down by God in the past, in this present Avataric form I observe Silence. You have asked for and been given enough words — it is now time to live them. To get nearer and nearer to God you have to get further and further away from “I”, “my”, “me”, and “mine”. You have not to renounce anything but your own self. It is as simple as that, though found to be almost impossible. It is possible for you to renounce your limited self by My Grace. I have come to release that Grace.”

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Avatar Meher Baba

Washington, D.C., 1956

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