Meher Baba | |
|---|---|
 Meher Baba in 1945 | |
| Born | Merwan Sheriar Irani (1894-02-25)25 February 1894 Pune,Bombay Presidency, British India |
| Died | 31 January 1969(1969-01-31) (aged 74) |
| Other names | The Awakener |
| Philosophical work | |
| Main interests | |
| Notable works | |
| Website | avatarmeherbabatrust |
| Signature | |
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Meher Baba (bornMerwan Sheriar Irani; 25 February 1894 – 31 January 1969) was an Indianspiritual master who said he was theAvatar, or the total manifestation of God in human form.[1][2][3] A spiritual figure of the 20th century,[4][5] he had a following of hundreds of thousands of people, mostly in India, with a smaller number of followers in North America, Europe, South America, and Australia.[2][6][7]
MeherBaba'smap of consciousness has been described as "a unique amalgam ofSufi,Vedic, andYogic terminology".[8] He taught that the goal of all beings was to become conscious of their owndivinity, and to realise the oneness ofGod.[2][9]
At the age of 19, Meher Baba began a seven-year period ofspiritual transformation, during which he had encounters withHazrat Babajan,Upasni Maharaj,Sai Baba of Shirdi,Tajuddin Baba, andNarayan Maharaj. In 1925, he began a 44-year period of silence, during which he communicated first using an alphabet board and by 1954 entirely through hand gestures using an interpreter.[9] Meher Baba died on 31 January 1969 and was entombed atMeherabad. His tomb, or "samadhi", has become a place of pilgrimage for his followers, often known as "Baba lovers".[6]
Meher Baba's teachings concerned the nature and purpose of life. He described thephenomenal world as illusory, and taught that the universe is imagination. He taught that God alone exists, and each soul is God passing through imagination in order to realise its own divinity.[10] He advised followers wishing to attain God-realisation, emphasizing love and selfless-service.[11] His other teachings included discussion ofPerfect Masters, the Avatar, spiritual aspirants, and the various stages of the spiritual path, which he termedinvolution.God Speaks andDiscourses are regarded as among his most important written works.[12][13]
For decades he declined to speak and later refrained from communicating via written language. This practice has remained a topic of discussion among some of his followers.[14][15]
His legacy includes the Avatar Meher Baba Charitable Trust he established in India, and a handful of centers for information and pilgrimage. He has influencedpop culture creators and introduced the slogan "Don't worry; be happy". This was used inBobby McFerrin's hit 1988 songof the same name. Among his followers were well-known musicians such asMelanie Safka andPete Townshend, as well as journalists includingSir Tom Hopkinson.[16][17]
In 1971, Meher Baba's following in the United States was estimated at 7,000 people. Some commentators have suggested that the size of the movement has been underestimated due to the rarity of proselytising by Meher Baba's followers, and that in 1975, the movement was larger than the more visibleHare Krishna movement.[16]
Meher Baba was accepted as the leader of a Sufi organization based in California which he renamedSufism Reoriented.[18] Meher Baba's Sufi influence is said to have drawn fromSai Baba of Shirdi, whom Meher Baba designated as aQutb.[19] However, some commentators have asserted that Meher Baba's interpretation of Sufism shared very few similarities with theSufi Movement apart fromuniversalism and anti-dogmatism.[20]
Meher Baba was born toIraniZoroastrian parents in 1894 inPune, India (formerly Poona).[21][22] He was named Merwan Sheriar Irani, the second son of Sheriar Irani and Shireen Irani. Sheriar Irani was a Persian Zoroastrian fromKhorramshahr who had spent years wandering in search of spiritual experiences before settling inPune.[23]
As a boy, Baba formed the Cosmopolitan Club, which was dedicated to remaining informed on world affairs and donating money to charity.[24] He was a multi-instrumentalist and poet. Fluent in several languages, he was fond of the poetry ofHafez,William Shakespeare, andPercy Bysshe Shelley.[25][26][27]
His spiritual transformation began when he was 19 years old and lasted for seven years.[28][29] At 19, he metHazrat Babajan, an elderly Muslim saint. He was cycling past a tree that she had made her abode, when she called to him. When he approached her, she kissed him on the forehead, causing him to enter a nine-month-long trance which he described as "divine bliss", with a lack of consciousness of his body.[30][31] Babajan predicted that he would become a spiritual leader.[32] He then encounteredUpasni Maharaj, who he later said helped him to integrate his mystical experiences with ordinary consciousness, thus enabling him to function in the world without diminishing his experience of God-realisation.[33][34]
Over the next several years, he encountered other spiritual figures, namelyTajuddin Baba,Narayan Maharaj, andSai Baba of Shirdi, who, along with Babajan and Upasni Maharaj, Baba later said were the five "Perfect Masters" of the age.[35][36] By early 1922, at the age of 27, Baba began gathering his own disciples.[37] They gave him the nameMeher Baba, which means "compassionate father".[38]
In 1922, Meher Baba and his followers established Manzil-e-Meem (House of the Master) inMumbai. There, Baba commenced his practice of demanding strict discipline and obedience from his disciples.[39] A year later, Baba and hismandali moved to an area a few miles outsideAhmednagar which he namedMeherabad.[40] Thisashram would become the center for his work. During the 1920s, Meher Baba opened a school, hospital, and dispensary at Meherabad, all of which were free and open to allcastes and faiths.[41]
From 10 July 1925 until the end of his life, Meher Baba maintained silence.[42][43][44] He now communicated first through chalk and slate, then by an alphabet board, and later via a unique repertoire of gestures.[45] On 1 December 1926, he wrote his last message, and began relying on an alphabet board.[46][47] With hismandali (circle of disciples), he spent long periods in seclusion, during which he often fasted. He also traveled widely, held public gatherings, and engaged in works of charity withlepers and the poor.[48]
Beginning in 1931, Meher Baba made the first of many visits to the West. Throughout that decade, Meher Baba began a period of world travel and took several trips to Europe and the United States. It was during this period that he established contact with his first close group of Western disciples.[49] He traveled on a Persian passport, as he had given up writing, as well as speaking, and would not sign the forms required by the British government of India.[50]
On his first trip to England in 1931, he traveled on theSS Rajputana, at the same time asMahatma Gandhi, who was sailing to the secondRound Table Conference inLondon. Baba and Gandhi met three times on board. One of these exchanges lasted for three hours.[51] The British press publicized these meetings,[52] but an aide to Gandhi said, "You may say emphatically that Gandhi never asked Meher Baba for help or for spiritual or other advice."[53][54][55]
In the West, Meher Baba met with a number of celebrities and artists, includingGary Cooper,Charles Laughton,Tallulah Bankhead,Boris Karloff,Tom Mix,Maurice Chevalier, andErnst Lubitsch.[56] On 1 June 1932,Mary Pickford andDouglas Fairbanks, Jr. held a reception for Baba atPickfair at which he delivered a message toHollywood.[57] As a result, saysRobert S. Ellwood, Meher Baba emerged as "one of the enthusiasms of the '30s".[58]
In 1934, after announcing that he would break his self-imposed silence in theHollywood Bowl, Baba changed his plans abruptly, boarded theRMSEmpress of Canada, and sailed to Hong Kong without explanation. TheAssociated Press reported that "Baba had decided to postpone the word-fast-breaking until next February because 'conditions are not yet ripe'."[59] He returned to England in 1936,[60] but did not return to the United States again until the early 1950s.[61]
In the late 1930s, Meher Baba invited a group of Western women to join him in India, where he arranged a series of trips throughout India andBritish Ceylon that became known as the Blue Bus Tours. When the tour returned home, many newspapers treated their journey as an occasion for scandal.[62]Time magazine's 1936 review ofGod Is My Adventure describes the US's fascination with the "long-haired, silky-mustached Parsee named Shri Sadgaru [sic] Meher Baba" four years earlier.[63]
In the 1930s and 1940s, Meher Baba worked withmasts, or those "intoxicated with God".[64] According to Baba, these individuals are disabled by their enchanting experience of the higher spiritualplanes. Although outwardly masts may appear irrational or insane, Baba claimed that their spiritual status was elevated, and that by meeting with them he helped them to progress spiritually while enlisting their aid in his spiritual work.[65] One of these masts, Mohammed, lived at Meher Baba's encampment at Meherabad until his death in 2003.[66]
During his journey in 1946, Meher Baba went toSehwan Sharif to meet aSufi saint and descendant ofLal Shahbaz Qalandar,Murshid Nadir Ali Shah, whom Baba referred to as an advancedpilgrim.[67]
In 1949, Baba began a period that he called the New Life. Following a series of questions on their readiness to obey even the most difficult of his requests, Baba selected twenty companions to join him in a life of complete "hopelessness and helplessness".[68]
He made provisions for those dependent on him, after which he and his companions otherwise gave up nearly all property and financial responsibilities. They traveled around India incognito while begging for food and carrying out Baba's instructions according to a strict set of conditions, including acceptance of any circumstance and consistent good cheer in the face of any difficulty. Companions who failed to comply were sent away.[69]
Concerning the New Life, Meher Baba wrote:
This New Life is endless, and even after my physical death it will be kept alive by those who live the life of complete renunciation of falsehood, lies, hatred, anger, greed and lust; and who, to accomplish all this, do no lustful actions, do no harm to anyone, do no backbiting, do not seek material possessions or power, who accept no homage, neither covet honor nor shun disgrace, and fear no one and nothing; by those who rely wholly and solely on God, and who love God purely for the sake of loving; who believe in the lovers of God and in the reality of Manifestation, and yet do not expect any spiritual or material reward; who do not let go the hand of Truth, and who, without being upset by calamities, bravely and wholeheartedly face all hardships with one hundred percent cheerfulness, and give no importance to caste, creed and religious ceremonies. This New Life will live by itself eternally, even if there is no one to live it.[70]
Meher Baba ended the New Life in February 1952[71] and once again began a round of public appearances throughout India and the West.[72]
After being injured as a passenger in two serious automobile accidents, one nearPrague, Oklahoma in the United States in 1952,[73] and one in India in 1956, Meher Baba's ability to walk became limited.[74][75]
In the 1950s, Baba established two centers outside of India, namely theMeher Spiritual Center inMyrtle Beach, South Carolina in the United States and Avatar's Abode nearBrisbane, Australia. He inaugurated the Meher Spiritual Center in April 1952. On 24 May 1952, en route from the Meher Spiritual Center to Meher Mount inOjai, California, the car in which he was a passenger was struck head-on nearPrague, Oklahoma. He and his companions were thrown from the vehicle and injured. Baba's leg was severely broken and he sustained facial injuries including a broken nose. The injured were treated at Prague Memorial Hospital, after which they returned to Myrtle Beach to recuperate.[76] While recuperating at Youpon Dunes, a home owned by Elizabeth Patterson, he worked on the charter for a group of Sufis, which he namedSufism Reoriented.[77]
In August 1953, inDehradun, Meher Baba began dictating his major book,God Speaks, The Theme of Creation and Its Purpose.[78] He dedicated this book "To theUniverse — the Illusion that sustains Reality". In September 1954, Meher Baba gave a men-onlysahavas at Meherabad that later became known as the Three Incredible Weeks.[79] During this time Baba issued a declaration, "Meher Baba's Call", wherein he once again affirmed his Avatarhood "irrespective of the doubts and convictions" of others.[80] At the end of this sahavas, Meher Baba gave the completed manuscript of his bookGod Speaks to two members of Sufism Reoriented, Ludwig H. Dimpfl and Don E. Stevens, for editing and publication in America.[81] The book was published byDodd, Mead and Company the following year.
On 30 September 1954, Meher Baba gave his Final Declaration message.[82]
In October 1954, Meher Baba discarded his alphabet board and began using a unique set of hand gestures to communicate, which he used for the rest of his life.[83]
On 2 December 1956, outsideSatara, India, the car in which Meher Baba was riding lost control and a second serious automobile accident occurred. Baba suffered a fracturedpelvis and other severe injuries. Nilu, one of Baba'smandali, was killed.[84] This collision seriously incapacitated Baba. Despite his physicians' predictions, Baba began to walk again, but from that point was inconstant pain and had limited mobility. During his trip to the West in 1958, he often needed to be carried from venue to venue.[85]
In 1956, during his fifth visit to the United States, Baba stayed at New York'sHotel Delmonico before traveling to the Meher Spiritual Center atMyrtle Beach, South Carolina. In July he traveled toWashington, D.C., and received friends and disciples at the home of Ivy Duce,[86] wife of James Terry Duce, the vice-president of theArabian American Oil Company.[87] He then traveled to Meher Mount atOjai, California before proceeding to Australia. His final visits to the United States and Australia were made in 1958.[88]
In 1962, Baba held one of his last public functions, a mass meeting in India called the East-West Gathering. At these meetings, at which his Western followers were invited to meet his Indian disciples, Baba gavedarshan to many thousands, despite the physical strain this caused him.[89][90] Despite deteriorating health, he continued what he called his "Universal Work", which includedfasting andseclusion, until his death on 31 January 1969. Hissamadhi inMeherabad, India, has become a place of internationalpilgrimage.[91] In the mid-1960s Baba became concerned with the drug culture in the West and began correspondences with several Western academics, includingTimothy Leary andRichard Alpert, in which he discouraged the use ofhallucinogenic drugs for spiritual purposes.[92] In 1966, Baba's responses to questions on drugs were published in a pamphlet titledGod in a Pill? Meher Baba stated that drug use was spiritually damaging and that if enlightenment were possible through drugs then "God is not worthy of being God".[93] Meher Baba instructed his young Western disciples to spread this message; in doing so, they increased awareness of Meher Baba's teachings. In an interview with Frederick Chapman, aHarvard graduate andFulbright scholar who met Meher Baba during a year of study in India, Baba describedLSD as "harmful physically, mentally, and spiritually" and warned that "[its continued use] leads to madness or death".[94] Baba lovers in the United States, Europe, and Australia initiated ananti-drug campaign during this period. Though some contend that this campaign was mostly futile, it attracted new followers to Meher Baba.[95] Furthermore, some of Baba's views entered intoacademic debate on the merits and dangers ofhallucinogens.[96]
From the East-West Gathering of 1962 onward, Meher Baba's health deteriorated. Despite the physical toll it took on his body, he continued to undergo periods of seclusion and fasting.[97] In late July 1968, Baba stated that he had completed a particularly taxing period of seclusion and noted that his work was "completed 100% to my satisfaction".[98] He was by then using a wheelchair. Within a few months, his condition had worsened and he was bedridden, wracked bymuscle spasms without clear medical origin. Despite the care of several physicians, the spasms worsened. On 31 January 1969, at 12:15 p.m., he died after a violent spasm wracked his body.[99] He conveyed by his last gestures, "Do not forget that I am God."[100] In time, his devotees called the anniversary of his deathAmartithi (deathless day). Meher Baba's body was placed at hissamadhi at Meherabad, covered with roses and cooled by ice. His body was kept available to the public for one week before its final burial.[101] Prior to his death, Meher Baba had made extensive preparations for a publicdarshan program to be held inPune. His mandali decided to proceed with the arrangements despite the absence of the host. Several thousand attended this "Last Darshan", including many hundreds from the United States, Europe, and Australia.[102]
From 10 July 1925, until his death in 1969, Meher Baba was silent.[42][43][103] He communicated first by using an alphabet board and later by unique hand gestures which were interpreted and spoken out by one of his mandali, often Eruch Jessawala.[104] Meher Baba said that his silence was not undertaken as aspiritual exercise but solely in connection with his universal work.
Man's inability to live God's words makes theAvatar's teaching a mockery. Instead of practicing the compassion he taught, man has waged wars in his name. Instead of living thehumility, purity, andtruth of his words, man has given way tohatred,greed, andviolence. Because man has been deaf to the principles andprecepts laid down by God in the past, in this presentAvataric form, I observe silence.[105]
Meher Baba often signaled the moment "that he would 'break' his silence by speaking the 'Word' in every heart, thereby giving a spiritual push forward to all living things".[106]
When I break My Silence, the impact of My Love will be universal and all life in creation will know, feel and receive of it. It will help every individual to break himself free from his own bondage in his own way. I am theDivine Beloved who loves you more than you can ever love yourself. The breaking of My Silence will help you to help yourself in knowing your real Self.[107]
Meher Baba asserted that the breaking of his silence would be a defining event in the spiritual evolution of the world.
When I speak that Word, I shall lay the foundation for that which is to take place during the next seven hundred years.[108]
On many occasions Meher Baba promised to break his silence with an audible word before he died,[109] often stating a specific time and place when this would occur,[110] but according to all contemporary accounts, Meher Baba remained silent until his death.[111] His failure to break his silence disappointed some of his followers, while others viewed it as a test of their faith.[112] Some of his followers speculate that "the Word" will yet be "spoken" or that Meher Baba broke his silence in a spiritual rather than a physical way.[108]
For many years Meher Baba asked his followers to undertake austerities on 10 July, the anniversary of the day his silence began, such as keeping silence, fasting, and praying. In his final Silence Day request to his followers in 1968, he asked only that they keep silent.[113] Many followers continue to celebrate Silence Day by keeping silence in his honor.
Meher Baba's teachings can be divided into two interrelated categories: his metaphysics on the nature of the soul and the universe, and practical advice for the spiritual aspirant. Hismetaphysics is mostly found in his principal book on the subject,God Speaks. It contains detailed statements on hiscosmology, the purpose of life, and the progression of the soul. His teachings on the practical spiritual life are mostly contained in theDiscourses, although it also covers many metaphysical areas mirroring or amplifyingGod Speaks.[114]
God Speaks describes the journey of the soul from its original state of unconscious divinity to the ultimate attainment of conscious divinity. The whole journey is a journey of imagination, in which the original indivisible state of God imagines becoming countless individualised souls which he likens to bubbles within an infinite ocean.[115] Each soul, powered by the desire to become conscious, starts its journey in the most rudimentary form of consciousness. This limitation brings the need of a more developed form to advance it towards an increasingly conscious state. Consciousness grows in relation to the impressions each form is capable of gathering.[116]
According to Meher Baba, each soul pursues conscious divinity by evolving; that is, experiencing itself in a succession of imagined forms through seven "kingdoms" of stone/metal, vegetable, worm, fish, bird, animal, and human.[117] The soul identifies itself with each successive form, becoming thus tied to illusion. During this evolution of forms, the power of thought increases, until in human form thought becomes infinite. Although in human form, the soul is capable of conscious divinity, all the impressions that it has gathered during evolution are illusory ones that create a barrier against the soul knowing itself. For this barrier to be overcome, further births in human form are needed in a process known asreincarnation.[118]
The soul will reach a stage where its previously gathered impressions grow thin or weak enough that it enters a final stage calledinvolution. This stage also requires a series of human births, during which the soul begins an inner journey, by which it realises its true identity as God. Baba breaks this inner journey into seven stages he called "planes". The process culminates, at the seventh plane, with God-realisation, at which the goal of life for the soul is reached.[119]
TheDiscourses are a collection of explanations that Meher Baba has given on topics that concern the advancement of the spiritual aspirant. These topics include: sanskaras (mental impressions),Maya (the principle of illusion), the nature of the ego,reincarnation,karma, violence and non-violence,meditation, love, discipleship, and God-realisation.[120] His explanations often include stories from the lore of India and the Sufi culture. One such story, the wise man and the ghost, shows the power that superstitious beliefs can have on a person, while another,Majnun and Layla, shows how selfless love, even in human relations, can lead one to discipleship.[121]
Meher Baba's suggestions include putting theory into practice, internally renouncing desires, offering selfless service to humanity or the master, spontaneity, and avoiding actions that bind one to illusion. Rather than lay out moral rules, Baba explains why some actions bind the individual whereas others aid emancipation.[122] Several chapters discuss the mechanisms by which consciousness gets caught up between the opposites of experience, such as pleasure and pain, good and evil, and suggest how to transcend these opposites.[123]
Meher Baba related that there are 56 incarnate God-realised souls onEarth at any given time. Of these souls there are always five who constitute the five Perfect Masters of their era.[124] When one of the five Perfect Masters dies, another God-realised soul immediately replaces him or her.[125]
TheAvatar, according to Baba, is a special Perfect Master, the first soul to achieve God-realisation. This soul, the original Perfect Master, or Ancient One, never ceases to incarnate. Baba indicated that this soul personifies the state of God calledVishnu inHinduism andParvardigar inSufism, i.e. the sustainer or preserver state of God. Baba taught that the Avatar appears on Earth every 700–1400 years and is "brought down" into human form by the five Perfect Masters of the time to aid creation in the endless process of moving toward Godhood. Baba claimed that in other ages this role had been fulfilled byZoroaster,Rama,Krishna,Buddha,Jesus, andMuhammad.[126]
Baba described the Avatar as "a gauge against which man can measure what he is and what he may become. He trues the standard of human values by interpreting them in terms of divinely human life."[127]
Most of Meher Baba's followers accept his claim of avatarhood,[128] and he is said to be "revered by millions around the world as the Avatar of the age and a God-realized being".[94]
Meher Baba's travels and teachings left a legacy of followers and devotees worldwide.[42]
The Avatar Meher Baba Charitable Trust, established by Meher Baba in 1959, maintains his tomb andpilgrimage facilities, as well as a free school and dispensary, acataract clinic, and a veterinary clinic.[129] The Trust follows the charter Meher Baba left for it, but does not act as spiritual authority over groups. Likewise, the Trust does not engage inpropaganda, promotecreeds ordogmas, or seekconverts.[130] Baba discouragedevangelizing, stating, "I need no propaganda or publicity."[131] Rather, he encouraged his followers to "let your life itself be my message of love and truth to others"[132] and to "spread my message of Love and Truth as far and wide as possible".[133] Though some followers of Meher Baba have no establishedrituals, others perform practices such aspujas,aartis, prayers, music, plays, and viewing films of Baba.[134] The primary focus for many followers is living as Meher Baba would approve, such as by abstaining frommarijuana andpsychedelic drugs,[135] and trying to remember God with love.[citation needed]
Gatherings of Baba followers are generally informal. Special effort is made to gather together on Amartithi, the anniversary of Baba's death, and on his birthday. Many Baba followers keep silent on 10 July (Silence Day), observing the request Baba frequently made of his followers during his lifetime.[136]Aarti is performed morning and evening atBaba's samadhi in India. AtMeherabad, his followers maintain Baba's practice of lighting adhuni fire on the 12th of each month.[citation needed]
Meher Baba had gained public attention in the West as early as 1932, due to contacts with celebrities of the time, and from the rather disillusioned account ofPaul Brunton in hisA Search in Secret India (1934).[137][138] Baba received further attention posthumously via various mentions in Western pop-culture.[139]
For example,Pete Townshend ofthe Who became a follower of Baba and dedicated his 1969rock operaTommy to him in thegatefold.[140] The Who's 1971 song "Baba O'Riley" was named in part after Meher Baba,[141] and Townshend recorded several Meher Baba tribute albums andmusic videos includingHappy Birthday,I Am,Who Came First,With Love, andYou Alone Exist.[142]
In 1969,Indian filmmakerJagat Murari co-produced theethnographic film on Meher Baba titledThe Awakener. The 35-millimeter, 118 minute found footage film was distributed byFilms Division of India.[143]
In 1970,Melanie Safka (stage name "Melanie") mentioned Baba in the spoken word intro to her song "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)". Listed as a standalone piece entitled "Candles in the Rain", the lyrics are "Meher Baba lives again".[144]Bobby McFerrin's 1988Grammy Award–winning song "Don't Worry, Be Happy" was inspired by Baba's adage, which has appeared on many posters and inspirational cards depicting him.[145]
Various Indian films produced byEdida Nageswara Rao have depicted Meher Baba's images.[146] Works such asSwathi Kiranam (1992) were exclusively filmed at the Meher Baba center inTapeswaram,Andhra Pradesh, depicting life size images of Meher Baba.[147][148]
Elements of Meher Baba'sphilosophy, as well as an unnamed character based upon him, have appeared in the works ofcomic book writer andscreenwriterJ. M. DeMatteis. Works particularly influenced by Baba include DeMatteis' scripts forDoctor Fate and DeMatteis creator-owned comic bookSeekers into the Mystery.[149]The Theme of Creation (2005) was an American documentary film produced, written, edited and directed by Tim Thelen.[150][151]Nagendra Babu played young Meher Baba in the 2009 film Jagadguru Sri Shiridi Saibaba.[152][153]
In 2012, the feature filmNema Aviona za Zagreb premiered in the Netherlands with an exclusive interview with Meher Baba filmed in 1967.[154] In the interview, Baba explains the difference between God-realisation and drug-induced hallucinations[155][156] and the scene plays a pivotal role in the documentary's narrative.[157]
The Visa – A Meher Baba film was produced bySufism Reoriented's American Young Adult Sahavas team in 2018, and stars followers of Meher Baba such as Natasha K. Mehta.[158] Meher Filmworks produces and archives remastered film footage of Meher Baba.[159][160][161]
![Meher Mount Center in Sulphur Mountain, Ojai, California, US[162]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aMeher_mount.jpg)
The most important less Islamic tendencies were represented by Meher Baba, an Indian understood to be an avatar, and by Pak Subuh, an Indonesian guru.
It would be useful, however, to highlight the views of just four major figures of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries – Inayat Khan, Meher Baba, Javad Nurbakhsh, and Robert Frager.
This period ended with the emergence of a number of dynamic spiritual leaders in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo, Gandhi, Meher Baba; this was a period of increasing apperception of Hinduism in the West.
The Baba's tomb at Meherabad is now a centre of pilgrimage. While it has attracted several thousand people in the West since the 1950s, the overwhelming majority of 'Baba lovers' are still to be found in India.
He remained in silence after 1925, made several teaching tours throughout Europe and America and drew a following of many hundreds of thousands worldwide who believed him to be an avatar, the most mature of saints in the Indian terminology.
His elaborate map of consciousness (formulated in the 1930s and 40s), a unique amalgam of Sufi, Vedic, and Yogic terminology, can be found in his Discourses (1967/2002) and God Speaks (1955/2001).
One branch of the Sufi Movement retained the word "Sufi" in its title, but joined the Meher Baba movement, which had nothing in common with the Sufi Movement other than universalism and anti-dogmatism.
At 19 years of age, Meher Baba (nee Merwan Sheriar Irani, 1894–1969) received a kiss on his forehead from the highly venerated Muslim, Hazrat Babajan (alleged to be 122 years old at the time), and then kissed her hands. That evening, he entered an altered state of blissful,electrified consciousness wherein he did not sleep or eat for nine months.
As a youth, he became acquainted with Hazrat Babajan, a Muslim who was said to be one of the five "Perfect Masters", and she predicted that he would become a spiritual leader.
Meher Baba came from aZoroastrian background. He took avow of silence in 1925, claiming to be theavatar for the present age, just likeKrishna,Buddha,Jesus andMuhammad had been in their time and place. Hismessianic teachings are recorded in Paul Brunton's A Search in Secret India (1951/1934).[page needed]
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