Explore every episode of the podcast Conversations about Meher Baba

Sahavas for Everyone. First and third Wed of the month.

Sneak peek of his chapter in "Love with Beloved Meher Baba": "Life is a beautiful and exciting adventure with Baba. Instead of waiting for what seems like an eternity to open a gift that pleases the senses only for a short time, it seems to speed up the time factor on my homeward journey toward God-Realization and make the journey so enjoyable and tolerable that I don't kind waiting, not matter how long it takes. I feel God is present with me both on the journey and welcoming me home to every eternal present moment, always beckoning me, where I am, to come home to His embrace and accept His Divine Love, Power, Knowledge and Grace as my own. I receive every gift until all wanting subsides and until the only gift I wish to keep is the Love I live to give."

Hosted by Laurent Weichberger in SC

This event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

Topic: “Not Too Near, Not Too Far”: Relating to Others

Dear folks of Baba,

In the late 1930s and into the mid-40s, Baba was working with a large group of Eastern and Western women on the hill at Upper Meherabad. At one point when He was with Helen Dahm, an artist from Switzerland, she complained to Him about her difficulties and discomfort in being around so many others. She was a loner type, but He did not humor her and said of this Advent that--“The Path is through people.” We know when He came as Buddha, He advocated setting aside periods of time in isolation to meditate on the Divine. What is asked of us today is quite different. Baba is emphasizing a family feeling for each other, to be as brothers and sisters in His love. From His last message on the alphabet board, Baba went so far to say that we would “realize Truth by being bound to each other with internal links.” This is extraordinary! He is not only encouraging us to be bound to Him, but bound to each other.

Baba gave a valuable hint on how to relate to others that keeps our love flowing. Back in the 1930s, Baba gave an order to His men mandali in regard to women: “Not too near, not too far.” I have found that this order is of immense and invaluable help in relating to others. I witnessed over the years how Baba’s mandali embodied the truth of these words in relating so intimately to all of us when we were with them. Its deeper meaning became clearer to me as I discussed with the mandali what our relationship with others should be. As I wrote in one of the recent emails, Darwin Shaw would tell us that we are embodiments of Baba’s Ocean of Divine Love right now, not just in the future. And even though this ocean is striking us with its full force every moment, by the time it passes through all of the layers of our ego and personality with its likes and dislikes, this ocean is often reduced to a mere stream, at most a river. There is little love left to offer to others.

However, from the mandali I learned that there is a way of making the most of the love coming through us. The heart is our primary vehicle for expressing love, and if it is shut down, the flow of love is blocked. Therefore, it is supremely important to keep the heart open and flowing, and that is where Baba’s injunction, “Not too near, not too far,” is extremely valuable. If, for example, we are confronted with a person with a prickly personality, we have to be careful not to bring our heart too near, otherwise they may lash out and cause our heart to shut down, and so the flow of love, which is what we are here to express, is blocked. This is not done for self-protection but for safeguarding the flow of our love. Thus, it is important to position ourself by withdrawing inwardly a certain distance which allows the person to be their prickly self without causing our heart to shut down. Even in the course of a conversation, we may have to withdraw at times when sharp or sarcastic remarks are likely to happen. The whole aim is to keep the love flowing toward the other person, because if we don’t flow out with love to others (this can be done invisibly), we diminish ourselves by that much. Our life becomes smaller.

The same is true if our heart is too distant; others don’t know how to relate to us and so they keep their love at a distance, and we miss out on the joy of the “give and take” of love with others. However, if a person is especially abusive or even dangerous, we may have to love them from a great distance, from afar. Baba’s simple advice is an invaluable guideline in relating to others which enables our love to continue flowing and maintaining, as Baba has encouraged, our internal links with others. Tuning into our intuition moment-to-moment is our best guide in this process. Of course, when our heart is deeply broken as in a divorce or the death of a loved one, the heart may shut down for years, and that usually requires a different method altogether to get the love flowing again.

How do see your heart responding in situations with others? Do you sometimes come too close to them and frequently get your heart hurt? Do you play it safe and keep a distance, but then lose some of the intimacy with others? What kinds of behavior from others do you find that shuts down your heart? Are you particularly sensitive to such things as sarcasm or indifference or a superior air expressed by others? What type of treatment from others hurts your heart? How do you deal with these subtle and problematic situations?

Baba has said, “How can you realize My Infinite Presence If you shrink from me in those who hurt you and welcome Me only in those who please you.”

In His love, Jeff

To join the email list for Late Night Chats, contact Angela

This event was recorded live. Please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net.

We have some informal chat after every arti, the "post-arti party"! But once a week, Jeff Wolverton joins us for some serious mining of the spiritual depths. Join us for conversation, more readings, songs, quotes - you never know what treasures will be uncovered!

Topic: Expressing Our Love in Illusion

Dear folks of Baba,

Baba has said that Creation is all an illusion, a zero, a complete nothing, a statement which I think was initially a shock to most of us, and we were faced with an overwhelming dilemma—what do we do with the love He has placed in our hearts if everything is an illusion? Early on, during my first couple of weeks of coming to Baba back in my college days, I woke up one morning and saw that all of life was an illusion. It was horrible, bleak and meaningless, for I had no place to express the love that was in my heart. How could I invest in something that was a total fake? I wandered around for three days with the most dreary and empty prospect before me. Thankfully, on the third morning, Baba conveyed this to me, “Even though all life is an illusion, it is always worthy of your most loving attention.” That bridged for me what seemed to be two impossible realms: the world of love and the realm of Illusion. Didn’t Baba Himself give His most loving attention to everything in this, His illusory world? For us, Love is first mirrored imperfectly in the world of Illusion before it is mirrored perfectly in Baba. He has said, “I am the Divine Beloved worthy of being loved because I am love. He who loves me because of this will be blessed with unlimited sight and will see Me as I am.”

I remember discussing this subject one day with Darwin Shaw. It was his conviction that love, the love in us right now, was in fact here before Creation, and that we are always free to express love if we would only rise above our attachment to the opposites, especially our likes and dislikes. As Baba has said, Creation is a predestined drama for each of us, from the most gaseous state to our final realization of God. In our discussions, Darwin and I likened Creation to a black-and-white film, and through love we can add a magnificent array of colors to it. In every moment, we are free to express the love that Baba gives us through His grace! That is, we are not passive victims of a predestined drama; we can add rich and beautiful colors to every moment! With our love, we have a glorious part to play in His creation. We have the potential to love unconditionally; it is our birthright.

Besides your love for Beloved Baba, where do you find the most attractive and compelling place to pour your love into? Where does your love most naturally and wholeheartedly flow? Baba has said, “I can say with divine authority that I experience eternally and consciously and continually being One with you all and One in you all. Any worship or obeisance done to any deity, animate or inanimate, to any saint, guru, yogi or advanced souls eventually comes to me. By offering pure, unadulterated love to anyone and anything, you will be loving me.” If we rise above our likes and dislikes, the floodgates of our pure hearts can always be opened to everyone and everything. Creation is a vast field we can pour our hearts into if we wish. What unexpected fields of love have opened up for you over the years with Baba? What are some of your passions that Baba has awakened in you? Do you sometimes experience a dilemma between loving Baba and loving others? How have you dealt with that? What difficulties do you experience in expressing love to others, especially when they resist what you have to give? Do you find that there are circumstances where it’s better to radiate love silently rather than expressing it outwardly?

“To penetrate into the essence of all being and significance and to release the fragrance of that inner attainment for the guidance and benefit of others, by expressing in the world of forms--truth, love, purity and beauty--this is the sole game which has any intrinsic and absolute worth. All other happenings, incidents and attainments can, in themselves, have no lasting importance.”

Meher Baba

In His love, Jeff

To join the email list for Late Night Chats, contact Angela

This event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

Arsenio Rodriguez had many short visits to Meherabad/Meherazad in the 70s and 90s because his employer sent him to India frequently. He said Eruch once greeted him, saying "Are you coming or going?" Tonight Arsenio will share some stories of his times with the mandali.

Hosted by Betty Lowman in CA

This event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

Celebrating Meher Baba's Declaration as the Highest of the High in Hamirpur.

Guest speakers who met Pukar either in Hamirpur, at the Maine Mela, 8-10 August 1975, in Athens Maine, or who connected with Pukar on 2.5 month journey in the USA

To date, the following interviews have been completed and are now available for your listening pleasure in the Babazoom recordings:

Dr Richard Leveton, on tour with Pukar in Hamirpur, November,1972

Ron Greenstein, on tour with Pukar in Hamirpur, February 1973

Allen Ray Powell, on tour with Pukar in Hamirpur, February 1974, your host for the Maine Mela, August 1975

Irwin Luck, on tour with Pukar in the US, Maine to Florida, August 1975

Arsenio Rodriguez, hosted Pukar in San Juan Puerto Rico, September, 1975

Gil Alvarado toured with Pukar in Hamirpur in 1971, his interview is forthcoming

Hosted by A R Powell in CA

This event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

Every other Monday, Merwan will come and tell his Baba stories! He has a lot to share and tells the stories well, so be sure to listen to the whole series!

There will be time for questions after every session.

Hosted by Prakash Dheram in NJ

This event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

Sahavas for Everyone. First and third Wed of the month.

"Faith" (from Twelve Ways of Realizing Me) by Meher Baba. ❤

Love to all no exceptions! ❤

Jai Baba!

Hosted by Laurent Weichberger in SC

This event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

Nick will tell stories he heard from the Mandali, in the context of trying to live a life of the spirit. Questions and comments welcome!

Hosted by Diana Goodheart in NC

This event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

Jai Baba dear Baba Family,

Join me for a session on Beloved Baba's Love and Humour in our lives. Come share your funny stories of Baba's mischievous humour in your life or other humour stories of Beloved Baba. Baba loved Humour and time and again insisted on its importance. Let's all laugh with Baba and each other and entrust our life's stress and worries to HIM. ❤

Hosted by Roshani Shenazz in Mumbai

This event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

We have some informal chat after every arti, the "post-arti party"! But once a week, Jeff Wolverton joins us for some serious mining of the spiritual depths. Join us for conversation, more readings, songs, quotes - you never know what treasures will be uncovered!

Topic: Transformative Moments with Baba

Dear Folks of Baba,

For many of us, our most transformative moment was the moment we came to Baba, and the description of this moment is often the most touching. However, there are also many other pivotal and instructive moments in our life with Baba that are also invaluable to share. They take many unique forms: sudden insights or flashes of intuition that have served as course corrections to how we live our life, inner experiences or dreams that have opened a door to a deeper relationship with Baba, a moment in which we were given a fleeting glimpse of the soul. We may have received from Baba an unfailing way to access His presence in the course of our day. There are also exchanges with one of the mandali or someone in our daily life that have provided guidance at a critical time. For some of us, there have been moments in the tomb or in Baba’s bedroom at the Myrtle Beach Center in which something was communicated by Him that touched us deeply.

Not all transformative moments need necessarily be positive on the surface. Sometimes realizing how selfish we’ve been may be an invaluable turning point in our lives. We may have put too much emphasis on work, for example, that caused us to not give enough attention to a loved one and we lose them. We may have bottomed out on alcohol which drove us to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting that began a real change in our lives. You may have suddenly felt within to turn away from a self-centered habit of being. Baba has said, “A new line in the divine picture is sketched only when some individual takes life forcefully in his hands, breaks up the old patterns and insists on creating something new by his own inner vision.”

What moments in your life have you found to be transforming? What were the circumstances and events leading up to these moments? How have these changes played out in your life? Did they create an instant change and have the results unfolded over time. We will all definitely benefit from hearing your awakening moments.

“When pure love is first received as a gift of the Master, it becomes lodged in the consciousness of the aspirant like a seed in favorable soil, and in the course of time the seed develops into a plant and then into a full-grown tree.”

Meher Baba

In His love, Jeff

To join the email list for Late Night Chats, contact Angela

This event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

Sahavas for Everyone. First and third Wed of the month.

"Desperation" (from Twelve Ways of Realizing Me) by Meher Baba. ❤

Love to all no exceptions! ❤

Jai Baba!

Hosted by Laurent Weichberger in SC

This event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

We have some informal chat after every arti, the "post-arti party"! But once a week, Jeff Wolverton joins us for some serious mining of the spiritual depths. Join us for conversation, more readings, songs, quotes - you never know what treasures will be uncovered!

Topic: Telling Others About Baba

Dear folks of Baba,

This topic has again come up and it bears delving into a second time. Some of my most awkward moments in this life have been when I’ve been asked by someone suddenly, “Who is that person on the locket you’re wearing?” Sometimes my words come out spontaneously and surprise me by how apt they are in meeting the situation. But at other times, I am lost at what to say, especially when it is someone I know. One of the easiest moments of sharing about Baba is on an airplane with someone next to me I will most likely never see again!

We probably all have struggled to explain who Baba is to those who haven’t heard of Him, and we have also had to face being around family, neighbors or people at work who we fear might strongly disapprove of our life with Baba. These situations are often challenging in their own way. How do you deal with these? Do you say directly who Baba says He is, or do you skirt around the issue by referring to Baba as a spiritual master from India or deflect the question by talking about His teachings instead? Do you have a usual way of introducing Baba or do you often have to use your intuition each time in assessing the situation? Baba has said, “Your job is to bring My name to the ear of a person, and My job is to bring it from ear to heart.” You may feel relieved that He has discouraged “proselytizing” which often puts people off. I’ve heard a wide range of approaches to sharing Baba, and they are all valid. I’ve never heard a fellow Baba lover say, “Mind your own business!” when that is exactly what one might fantasize sometimes. Explaining Baba to others can definitely be a challenge, and in some cases, there can be a natural fear of being rejected or even scorned. There is also a resistance to sharing with others something so sacred in this profane world. Do you feel pressure from Baba to tell others about Him?

It can be difficult and even alienating when family or colleagues or people in our neighborhood express their outright disapproval of our following Baba. How can we explain that we had no choice; it was our destiny. In some cases, the Baba-lover may become an outcast, the black sheep of the family, and are never really accepted. This can definitely be very hurtful and even lonely sometimes, especially when there are no Baba-lovers or spiritually aware people where one lives. Some have chosen to go completely within in their life with Baba to avoid being hurt or disapproved of. Others have joined meditation and religious groups, spiritual centers and yoga classes to find like-minded people who are more likely to understand them. Joining zoom meetings has been a godsend for those who find themselves cut off from family and friends. Have you had to deal with alienating circumstances and what have you done?

I think most of us try to say things about Baba that we feel will resonate with others, and when their attention drifts, we tend to re-adjust, like making a wrong turn and our GPS has to recalibrate. Sometimes even that doesn’t work. When the Bombay group had a booth at a large city-wide fair, they contacted Baba at Meherazad for help in answering the question, “Who is Meher Baba?” He replied through Eruch, “He is the One who provokes that question in you: the Being of all beings.” I have found if I offer this response, I often have to wait until later in the conversation because this answer is so unusual and seemingly esoteric.

It is only natural to want to share what is most precious to our heart, and yet it might be better to wait until we feel there is a real receptivity in others.. Francis Brabazon , one of the intimate mandali, once recommended to first become friends with others before telling them about Baba. I think it will be informative and helpful to hear what others have done in these examples. Some of their methods might be directly applicable to our own situation.

In His love with the help of friends, Jeff

To join the email list for Late Night Chats, contact Angela

This event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

Nick will tell stories he heard from the Mandali, in the context of trying to live a life of the spirit. Questions and comments welcome!

Hosted by Diana Goodheart in NC

This event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

We have some informal chat after every arti, the "post-arti party"! But once a week, Jeff Wolverton joins us for some serious mining of the spiritual depths. Join us for conversation, more readings, songs, quotes - you never know what treasures will be uncovered!

Topic: The Supreme Value of the Master’s Prayer

Dear folks of Baba,

I was not brought up in any religion, and so the experience of reciting prayers was something foreign to me and has required a great adjustment on my part over the years. Given my nature, I had to find a way to mean every word of the prayer, to somehow find a place within me where each word resonated and was comprehended in some way. This was not easy for me. Most of the words were beyond me entirely. I had the seemingly impossible task of making them have meaning in me (I couldn’t bear reciting the prayer from rote) and so the prayers became a huge struggle and uphill climb and initially not something I looked forward to. I would feel this reaction, even though afterwards I would always feel uplifted and expansive with love in my heart!

Baba composed the Master’s Prayer just after the New Life, on August 14th, 1953, and He participated in the prayer numerous times. In His later years, He would have Eruch read out the prayer faster and faster because Baba’s failing health prevented Him from standing for any length of time. On one occasion at Baba’s insistence, Eruch found himself reading the prayer at breakneck speed, and the image of a train madly racing past all the stations without stopping suddenly flashed through his mind and he burst out laughing. Baba was not happy with this and said pointedly, “You don’t know what I have endure to participate in these prayers for all of humanity! They are for all posterity. Whenever anyone recites these prayers, they will be helped spiritually because of My personal participation. It has nothing to do with how quickly you read the prayer or how much feeling you read it with or anything of that sort. All that matters is My having participated in the prayers. Any time anyone repeats these prayers, I am there with them, and they will be helped spiritually.” Baba said that even if we say the prayers “mechanically”, we are benefitted.

On another occasion, Baba revealed to Don Stevens (who was involved in the editing of God Speaks and Listen Humanity): "You must understand that whenever Baba gives out words for his lovers to use and read, he attaches a spiritual energy to them--something like an atomic spiritual bomb. ... Then, when one reads those words, even if he does not understand even one word of what he reads, a part of spiritual energy will be absorbed by that person. And this energy will be very important for that person in his spiritual progress."

At various times, Eruch shared with us in Mandali Hall the immense value of reciting the Master’s Prayer. Paraphrasing what he said, Eruch likened it to climbing a mountain. In progressing up the mountain there are switchbacks (paths) that are cut into the steep slope to make the climb gradual as it would be impossible to go straight up. What if a person were to go back and forth, thinking they were going higher but unwittingly were stuck at the same elevation and not going higher? A rut would be created. This is the inherent tendency of the mind. It gets stuck in a rut thinking all the time that it is going higher! Why? Because the mind wants to bring the Infinite down. It wants a finite truth. It wants all of life to be under the finite dome of the intellect. But the Master’s Prayer is a complete contradiction of that. Everything in the Master’s Prayer is infinite, superlative: “unlimited, unfathomable, beyond imagination and conception, eternal.” This is a blow to the mind! With the recitation of each divine attribute, its finite dome keeps getting shattered to pieces, and we are lifted consciously or unconsciously above the finite.

Each Baba lover has his or her own way of reciting the Master’s Prayer, and I remember Adi, one of the intimate mandali, once saying to me that he directed the prayer personally to Baba. All the attributes of God in the prayer he attributed to Baba! That was my inclination also, which he confirmed. What is your experience of the prayer? Do you experience an initial resistance, and how do you feel after reciting the prayer? Do you feel that it changes the tenor of your day? Is it a struggle to get started beforehand? Do you prefer doing the prayer alone rather than in a group?

In His love, Jeff

To join the email list for Late Night Chats, contact Angela

This event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

Sahavas for Everyone. First and third Wed of the month.

"Desperation" (from Twelve Ways of Realizing Me) by Meher Baba. ❤

Love to all no exceptions! ❤

Jai Baba!

Hosted by Laurent Weichberger in SC

This event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

We have some informal chat after every arti, the "post-arti party"! But once a week, Jeff Wolverton joins us for some serious mining of the spiritual depths. Join us for conversation, more readings, songs, quotes - you never know what treasures will be uncovered!

The Topic: The Illusion of the Personality Self

Dear folks of Baba,

After a Baba meeting in the home of Darwin and Jeanne Shaw back in 1970, a small group of us were standing around having the usual apple juice and oatmeal cookies that Jeanne would serve us. I was near Darwin, and he looked over at me and said casually in his usual low-key manner, “Jeff, you are not the personality self.” Inside, I went completely blank, stunned, and then I thought: “I am not Jeff? How is it that I am not Jeff?” I had no place in my consciousness to put that! Up until then I had thought that the whole purpose of this life was to get to know myself, to delve deeper and deeper and go on improving and developing myself until I reached the goal! And here, in his casual, unassuming way, Darwin was basically telling me I’ve been barking up the wrong tree altogether! I was in my mid-twenties at the time.

I felt the truth of his words at a deep level within, and I thought to myself: I’ll just file that away for now and see if I evolve into the truth of his words. From time to time, Darwin would say, “The personality self is just a storefront for the soul. We put so much importance on the window displays, dressing them up and changing them with the seasons, when we could go within and enjoy the priceless merchandise!”

Before Darwin’s casual remark to me, it had never occurred to me that I was not my personality self. Imagine someone saying to you that you are not you! The challenge facing me over the next decades was how to create some inner space between my awareness (consciousness) and my personality self in order to realize the truth of his words. Darwin was of great help in encouraging us to think of ourselves not as a base of operations as almost all people do, but rather as a vehicle or conduit. Things are coming through us rather than fromus. This is a monumentally different paradigm for viewing ourselves. It is not the flute that is important to us as listeners, but the music from the musician that comes through the flute. This is actually the basis for the provisional ego that Baba encourages us to cultivate.

When we are viewing our personality self from a standpoint within, we begin to enter into the timeless, spacious realm of our being that most of us enjoyed in very early childhood before the personality was fully developed. And when we view our self as our personality only, we naturally think of others as being merely their personalities, and as a result we fail to connect with their soul, their essence, which is behind and deeper than their personality; our attention is distracted by their window displays. We are relating to others, so to speak, storefront to storefront, not soul to soul.

In a private conversation one day, Eruch said to Dan Ladinsky, who would stay for periods of time at Meherazad, “There has been no Eruch for years. Through His grace, I have become the perfect witness.” In my view, Eruch was no longer seeing through the lens of his personality self but through pure awareness itself. He had surrendered his personality self to Baba. In our efforts at surrendering and giving our life to Baba, we are actually moving toward the experience of letting go of the desires connected with the personality self, tuning into a “state of flow” and allowing Baba to take over.

Are you sometimes able to view your personality self from outside, to witness life flowing through you rather than from you? What situations in your life do you feel yourself as a vehicle, a witness to life unfolding before you? Do you feel an immense inner freedom and relief of not always being the doer, that Baba is somehow orchestrating things for you? Or do you find that in relating to others, you are most impressed by their personalities and miss some of their deeper qualities and Baba within them? Have you observed that in identifying with the personality self, you experience yourself trapped in a subjective bubble and find it difficult to empathize with others?

“I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God sending love letters to the world.”

Mother Teresa

In His love, Jeff

To join the email list for Late Night Chats, contact Angela

This event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

We have some informal chat after every arti, the "post-arti party"! But once a week, Jeff Wolverton joins us for some serious mining of the spiritual depths. Join us for conversation, more readings, songs, quotes - you never know what treasures will be uncovered!

Topic: Baba’s Presence in Our Day

Dear folks of Baba,

One of you suggested this topic and posed this question to ask ourselves: “There are many special places in this world to which folks can travel and experience the gift of Baba’s presence. But what about the places where we live, these places Baba has put us? Where you are, where you live, is there a special time or place you sometimes feel the gift of Baba’s presence? Even though the mind may be rattling away in the background, are there times when Baba brings your heart to center stage? Does His presence at times happen unexpectedly? Do you feel Baba’s presence alone, in group situations, or both? Sometimes Baba’s presence brings a deep feeling of calm and clarity, sometimes longing, joy, tears, sometimes all together. Can you describe Baba’s presence?”

Expanding on this topic, how does Baba show up in your life? What special times and places in your day do you feel Him with you? In opening up to Baba, He enters personally into our lives--wherever we are, at home or work or on vacation—through us, His divine presence seeps into these places, and we and others respond naturally to the atmosphere that is created. When I go to the homes of Baba lovers (as well as others who are focused on the divine), I feel the warmth and expansiveness of His living presence that they have cultivated through their continual loving focus on Him. I have no doubt that these places actually become a repository of His divine impressions that are tangible and can be felt.

We are discussing places here, but are there times of the day that are imbued for you with Baba’s loving presence? Time itself can become inhabited for us by Baba. He has recommended the practice of “dressing our soul with Baba”: the first thing in the morning, at twelve noon, around five o’clock and just before going to bed. Baba has said that with this practice, we will eventually feel His presence throughout the day. There are also the times we devote to the prayers, and spare moments during the day when we “steal away” to Baba. Maybe in the car on the way to work is a time set aside by us to remember Him. Do you find that there are special times that can be reminders of the many ways we infuse our remembrance of Him into our lives so that every day is an adventure with Him? Aren’t those moments wonderful when Baba just shows up spontaneously without any effort on our part?

How do you experience Baba’s presence? What are some of the places in the course of your day that invariably remind you of Him? What special times bring His presence for you? Feel free to describe some of the unique moments and places which you share with Baba.

“It is important for each of us who love Baba to be with Baba. Baba is with us, every second, but it becomes complete when we are with Him.”

Mani, Baba’s sister

In His love, Jeff

To join the email list for Late Night Chats, contact Angela

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Sahavas for Everyone. First and third Wed of the month.

"Humility" (from Twelve Ways of Realizing Me) by Meher Baba. ❤

Love to all no exceptions! ❤

Jai Baba!

Hosted by Laurent Weichberger in SC

This event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

Nick will tell stories he heard from the Mandali, in the context of trying to live a life of the spirit. Special Baba's Birthday edition! Questions and comments welcome!

Hosted by Diana Goodheart in NC

This event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

We have some informal chat after every arti, the "post-arti party"! But once a week, Jeff Wolverton joins us for some serious mining of the spiritual depths. Join us for conversation, more readings, songs, quotes - you never know what treasures will be uncovered!

Topic: The Challenge of Forgiving Others

Dear folks of Baba,

In the past, we have had several sessions on Baba’s forgiveness of us and the challenge of accepting His forgiveness, but we haven’t delved into the struggle involved in our forgiveness of others. Baba has said that there is one thing He cannot give us: harmony among ourselves. We have to give that to Him. And without forgiveness, how can there be harmony? Of course, we all turn to Baba for help in this process because this is one of the foremost ways of pleasing Him: “Without love none can cultivate the noble habit of forgetting and forgiving.” I think it will be invaluable to hear how others have dealt with this monumental effort. Forgiveness is essential for achieving inner harmony, a prerequisite for entering into the divine love within that Baba embodies.

Baba has given many insights to help in this process such as regarding others as Baba in disguise, that others are all forms of Him. That is, to go to the extent of seeing the other person not as a separate being from Him but as Baba Himself. Would we want to withhold our forgiveness from Him? There is the Golden Rule of Jesus, “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” How do we feel when someone continues to condemn us for things we have done? One invaluable insight that Baba has given is: “You forgive a wrong done to you in the same measure in which you love the wrongdoer.” Baba has highlighted the essential need of cultivating love for someone who has wronged us as a requirement for forgiveness. However, when someone has hurt us deeply, we often lose any love we have for them, and so forgiving them is the last thing we feel inclined to do. It can require tremendous work to forgive them. Fortunately, carrying a lack of forgiveness for someone is always a burden to the heart, and that burden carries within it intrinsically the seeds of forgiveness. A loving forgiveness is the only thing that will free us from psychological entanglement. How long are we going to hold on to our lack of forgiveness?

One thing which Baba has said that has helped me are His words, “All differences between one another are merely superficial and cannot affect the love we feel for each other deep down.” I find that the assertion of this truth within keeps love ever in the background and helps to dissolve the unacceptable thought that the love shared with someone is gone; the love is still there but it needs to be felt again. We still love each other even though, because of the hurt or insult we’ve endured, it seems it’s been lost!

It is important to point out that our forgiveness doesn’t have to be done externally with the person. Sometimes someone may be especially abusive and keeping a distance is required. Or the person may no longer be living, as in the case of a parent who has passed on. Fortunately, forgiveness can be done within and doesn’t require the physical presence of the other person. Sometimes, it is simply enough to just be in readiness to forgive if the other person is not at the point of being willing to work on the issue.

One of the Christian mystics, Thomas a Kempis, wrote, “If you knew all, you would forgive all.” If we are able to empathize with the circumstances that someone has had to experience in their lives, we would have the understanding that would help in forgiving them. Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, “If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.”

What methods have worked for you? Can you give an example to illustrate this without revealing names? Is there an ongoing situation that still burdens you? What if the person continues their inappropriate behavior and are not likely to ever change? What do you do in that situation? Do you have an example in which speaking with the other person has helped? Or even confronting the person about their disturbing behavior has worked? Does it help in forgiving someone to remember when you yourself have been guilty of the same behavior in the past?

In His love, Jeff

To join the email list for Late Night Chats, contact Angela

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As part of the Baba Zoom celebration for its fifth anniversary, Angela Lee Chen spoke about Community: what benefits it brings, and how to strengthen it.

(For the entire celebration of Baba Zoom's birthday, see https://youtu.be/1cfuwimpNw4)

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Topic: Baba’s Unveiling of Divine Love

Dear folks of Baba,

I once asked Darwin Shaw, one of Baba’s Western mandali, “What is the biggest mistake Baba lovers are making?” Without a trace of criticalness, he said, “They think of themselves as small, and they remain small! Think BIG! Think outside of even the conventional spiritual box.” Baba encouraged this also, even using the word “BIG” in capital letters. Darwin would impress upon us that we are embodiments of Divine Love right now, rather than thinking that we will attain this only in some distant future. On an overcast day, we say the sun isn’t out. But it is there in full glory. The clouds are just blocking it. And in the same way, the clouds covering our consciousness are blocking the stupendous sight of the Divine Love within us right now!

Back in the early-1980s in the old Pilgrim Center, Baba gave me a metaphorical vision of this dynamic with His unfailing sense of humor. I see before me a man sitting on a chair with a faucet or spigot in his hands. Behind him is the infinite ocean of Divine Love which is ceaselessly striking against him with full force! But by the time the ocean passes through him, all that he offers from his little spigot is a few miserly drops! Where did all the love go! What Baba implied in this vision was that by the time the inner ocean of Divine Love passes through the countless layers of our ego and personality self, all that comes out is severely limited: the ocean is reduced to a mere stream, at most a river, or with some people only a few measly drops! I found with Baba’s mandali that His love came through them with few obstructions, few impediments, and we received their love to the extent that we were receptive. Baba would often say that we have to get out of the way. We are the cloud cover blocking the sun! It is not that our love has to grow really, for it is already fully developed and present, and merely has to be unveiled and expressed. I find this dynamic supremely hopeful, a different paradigm from what people normally think about love.

How to unblock the sun of Divine Love within us? There are so many ways that Baba has given. Foremost, as Eruch would share, is to focus on Baba’s personality in any way, shape or form. Baba has said that even though His form is illusory, it contains the Reality, and as we focus on His form the clouds of consciousness automatically, though gradually, dissolve in His divine presence. In whatever way we focus on Him--His presence, His personality, His life, serving His cause of Love, saying His name--the Divine Love that He is and which is our very soul can flow through us.

How does this help us? If we think that we are embodiments of Divine Love right nowrather than sometime in the distant future, then we are not only asserting the truth of our being, but we are honoring our own Soul. Our Soul will never agree that Divine Love is only a future attainment. And not to be in alignment with our Soul can create a deep, unnecessary disharmony within our inner life. Darwin would stress that the proper use of the intellect is to unfailingly assert that Baba with His Divine Love is always with us in every moment. Although we might not be aware of it, to think otherwise is profoundly disheartening and pulls down our spirits.

How can we help in channeling the Divine Love within us? Darwin used to say, “Don’t think of yourself as a base of operations. Think of yourself as a conduit.” In this way, we are less apt to obstruct or impede the flow of Divine Love when we think of ourselves as a vehicle, with love flowing through us rather than coming from us as most people think. This can result in what Darwin encouraged in us, “High self-esteem without egoism.” With all their love, the mandali did not radiate a sense of self-importance.

Do you feel at the innermost level that you embody Baba’s Divine Love, even if you are only sometimes aware of it? In what ways do you observe that you are obstructing the flow of this love? Can you see Darwin’s distinction of thinking of ourselves as a conduit rather than as a base of operations? Can you see how that impedes the flow of love through us? Do you spend too much time dwelling on the past and the future and are unavailable to this love within that is in the present?

I once quoted Baba’s words to Meherwan Jessawala, one of the mandali, “Live more and more in the present which is ever-beautiful and stretches away beyond the limits of the past and the future.” I asked him what these words meant to him. He replied, “You won’t find Baba in the past or the future. You will only find Him in the present.”

In His love, Jeff

To join the email list for Late Night Chats, contact Angela

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Sahavas for Everyone. First and third Wednesday of the month.

Please join us with special guest Anne Haug.

"My work for the last 15 years has been facilitating the self-inquiry model of Byron Katie to support the dismantling of stressful thoughts through her systematic and methodical process called The Work.

"We know from Baba that this world is an illusion — a dream — whose purpose is for our awakening, and I continually find self-inquiry to bring me and those I work with closer to Baba, closer to our true Self. I have shared this process on Baba Zoom through an introduction as well as a series of 18 tutorials, weaving Baba’s words with The Work.

"Since my retirement a few years ago, I have delved into Jungian studies and most recently psychological types, which inform a deeper understanding of life in illusion. Most recently I have been in a study group on Infinite Intelligence and find that my experience in self-inquiry enlivens those studies. My passion is to live and share Baba’s love and truth through these accessible modalities to more deeply embrace the Path of Love." ~ A.H.

Avatar Meher Baba is in each one of us. And His Love is the focus of this gathering. Open discussion with each session having a topic or theme. Hosted by Laurent Weichberger in SC.

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Nick will tell stories he heard from the Mandali, in the context of trying to live a life of the spirit. Special Baba's Birthday edition! Questions and comments welcome!

Hosted by Diana Goodheart in NC

This event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

Over the years, many Baba lovers have shared with me that they find that their work in the world takes them away from their focus on Baba. Hours go by preoccupied with mundane details at work that they feel have nothing to do with their spiritual life and only contributes to the bottom line of the companies they work for. They have barely any time to remember Baba until after work. This same scenario goes on year after year. Mine was the opposite problem as I will describe, but an exchange with Eruch throws light on this whole subject.

Back in the mid-1970s before I began working at the Center, a buddy of mine and I were working together as house painters. Much of our painting work was in Briarcliffe Acres, an upscale residential area just north of the Center. Back then, I would describe myself as a Baba remembrance machine; I would say “Baba, Baba, Baba...” inwardly--with each brush stroke, while sanding, caulking, cutting in windows and baseboards, all with Baba’s name. We worked together for six months, and then we went to India.

One day while at Meherazad, we were sitting just outside Mandali Hall on a bench with Eruch. My buddy asked, “Eruch, I work as a house painter, and sometimes hours go by and I haven’t even thought of Baba. He is the most important Being in the world, and He has asked us to make Him our constant companion, and I’m often not even remembering Him! What can I do about that?” Eruch replied in his very casual way, “In the beginning, it’s important to remember Baba, to repeat His name, see the movies, go where Baba has been and read all the Baba literature. But in time it becomes important to forget yourself. When you forget yourself, Baba can then live through you. You’re not aware of it, but He is living through you. So, lose yourself in your painting.” He went on to say, “Get wholeheartedly lost in your activities, and when you come out of that absorption, remember Baba—that is, when you remember to remember, remember Him!”

In that moment, I felt the undeniable truth of Eruch’s words; they were indelibly imprinted in the core of my being: “When you forget yourself, Baba can then live through you.” That was a turning point for me in my life with Baba, because I had become a bit rigid in remembering Him all the time. I had lost the playfulness that had always been a part of me since childhood, the spontaneous enthusiasm of my college days, the genuine fun in life that I experienced over the years. Since that brief, life-changing conversation with Eruch, I have found that self-forgetfulness and remembrance of Baba make a vital and complementary dynamic in my inner life.

So, this is how I translate Eruch’s words into my life: when I get into something, such as volleyball or music or gardening, I lose myself. Baba, as Eruch said, can then live through me even though I am not aware of it. And after the activity, I remember Him. So, it’s an alternating between Baba remembrance and self-forgetfulness. I found, when it was all Baba remembrance, I would become a little stiff and unnatural, and if it’s all self-forgetfulness, that also can sometimes become unbalanced. Self-forgetfulness and Baba remembrance work beautifully and harmoniously together for me. That awareness freed me up to do a lot of things on the Center that might not technically be considered “Baba.” Baba liked games, skits, jokes, movies and spontaneous gatherings, because in them we forget ourselves. Like gardening–-you can lose yourself among the flowers and hours fly by. It’s heavenly.

I asked Margaret Craske’s dancers, most of whom were deeply devoted to Baba, if they remembered Him out on the stage in the midst of their performances. This was ballet at its highest level at the time. They all said that they remembered Baba before their performances, and then lost themselves in their dancing on stage. Afterwards, they would dedicate their performance to Baba. They had all tried at one time to remember Him during their performances, but they confessed that it took away from their total absorption in the dance.

Have you faced this dilemma in your own life, of getting into things so deeply that you forget Baba and then feeling that you are letting Him down? Will what Eruch said make a difference in your approach to, say, your computer work, which can absorb your attention for hours? Does self-forgetfulness change the way you approach what you normally think of as unspiritual? Do you resolve this challenge by keeping Baba always there in the background while you focus on the practical details of life in the foreground? Do you sometimes find that you overdo getting into things and forget Baba, like watching football all day on Sunday?

In His love, Jeff

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Nick Principe spent much time with the mandali in India in the early 70s and 80s, especially Baba's brother Jal and Eruch. Today Nick will share correspondence and Baba's birthday letters he has saved over the years. Audience questions are welcome.

Hosted by Betty Lowman in CA

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Nick will tell stories he heard from the Mandali, in the context of trying to live a life of the spirit. Special Baba's Birthday edition! Questions and comments welcome!

This event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

We have some informal chat after every arti, the "post-arti party"! But once a week, Jeff Wolverton joins us for some serious mining of the spiritual depths. Join us for conversation, more readings, songs, quotes - you never know what treasures will be uncovered!

Topic: Entertaining Baba on His Birthday

Dear folks of Baba,

As a change of pace, I thought it would be entertaining to entertain Baba as we approach His 131st Birthday by our sharing poetry, stories, songs, jokes, quirky ways of remembering Him, a film clip, artwork—anything and everything but the kitchen sink!

The subject of entertaining Baba reminds me of an incident from my own life that was pivotal in my work here at the Center in Myrtle Beach. Back in the late 1980s or early 1990s, I was just beginning the long and arduous job of cleaning all the windows of the Original and Lakeview Kitchens. Altogether this involves 47 windows, some of which have as many as 12 panes. And then there are the screens! It is a long, often uninspired journey into the realm of cleaning.

Starting at window 47, I had made my way to window number 41, with rags and Windex on the step ladder, when I heard a clear, authoritative voice within say, “Is this work entertaining to Baba?” Without hesitation, I found myself saying, “No!” I thought, Baba has to watch me all day, all of us in fact, and I am approaching this window cleaning with an unenthusiastic check-list mentality: window 41 done, window 40 done, window 39 done… I thought of one of those poor security guards somewhere in a small room in a shopping mall, watching a whole bank of TV monitors aimed out at the extensive parking lots to make sure nothing untoward is happening. What if some shopper were to do a little dance before one of the unseen cameras? Wouldn’t that make the guard's day!

In that moment, I realized that there had to be a better way to clean windows! One of the ways I came up with of entertaining Baba was to get some of the kids on the Center to help, supplying them with rags and Windex, and let them go ahead of me. We would work for a while, and then go into the kitchen and have some treats, maybe juice or ice cream on a hot day, and enjoy ourselves. That would surely delight Baba. Or I might ask someone who needed to talk about something difficult they’re going through, and we would work side by side while delving into the issue. Or other ways included thinking of Baba, His life, singing a song, or doing a super window cleaning job for Him. I learned how to be more resourceful and creative and not let the window cleaning become my usual uninspired routine, and make it more fun for Baba. Now if I can only do my danged taxes in the same spirit!

Here Baba reveals His side of this experience:

“The same theater, the same show, the same actors,

twenty-four hours a day, eternally, and I have to

not only stay awake, but smile and clap.”

In His love, Jeff

To join the email list for Late Night Chats, contact Angela

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Peter gave a Birthday message. He focused first on miracles. Though Beloved Baba never gave great significance to miracles, Peter discusses one major miraculous event that occurs every 700 to 1400 years, the birth of the Avatar. Then Peter explores the meaning of Baba's favorite song, "Begin the Beguine" through the lens of the Avatar taking birth once again, being called to duty by the five perfect masters of the Age.

Hosted by Diana Goodheart in NC

Sue Chapman's Poem:

Beloved’s Birthday (written Feb 8, 2021)

While the world continues to pray in churches, synagogues, and mosques

Performing pujas and rituals in temples, yearning for Your presence,

Imploring Your return as Ram, as Krishna, as Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed

You have already come, so very quietly….

Without fanfare of trumpets, or the sight of archangels or chariots in the sky,

You came in such an ordinary guise, as a brother, as a son, as friend.

You rode your bike around your neighbourhood, attended to your studies, played cricket,

Living in a modest town that did not know the jewel in its midst.

But the Masters of the Age knew You in an instant, recognised your Glory

Acknowledged your descent as Man,

And nurtured the agonising birthing of Your Divinity

In ways even your own mother, for so long, could not.

Answering the longing in our hearts you came, so very quietly

That almost the entire world failed to notice!

You scattered the seeds of your love in countless barren hearts

And stepped away like a trusting gardener, knowing their inevitable flourishing.

Your disguises were the flimsiest of foils,

A beret here, a fez there, a double-breasted suit, brogue shoes.

They might have turned their heads and wondered – who is that?

They might have known your glory, but most passed by unseeing,

And your silence could never cause offence.

Amidst the wildest mysteries of our most gorgeous planet earth

With all its myriad creatures and life forms,

However did it come to pass, that I, you, we are the few

Who, having caught the fragrance of your love on the wind

On this avenue or that, knew, just knew

We must track the source above all else?

And as extraordinary, having found the source

And realised it to be Truth, Beauty, Love Divine

The pinnacle of man’s desire, the goal, the glorious final resting place,

Discovered it was a gift we could not freely share,

And found, with pain, it could be rejected and reviled.

How can we adequately express gratitude to the One

Who, inhabiting eternal knowledge, power and bliss,

Surrendered unto the entrapment of a mere human form

Only to bear innumerable assaults and privations?

What mercy did the world provide, aside of One Supreme Woman,

And a small band of willing slaves?

There is no acknowledgment we few can express,

No Birthday Cake grand enough, no song sweet enough

No words to convey the depth of our thankfulness.

And so we stumble blindly on, surrendering what we can,

Regretting what we can’t, and hoping above all hope

That one day, one day, we will see you as you really are,

And ‘Happy Birthday Baba’ will become every day

You are reborn in me, and I am reborn in You!

This event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

Sahavas for Everyone, with special guest Fereshteh Azad who will share about Avatar Meher Baba, and his relationship with the "Intelligence Notebooks." She will also share about her spiritual journey with Meher Baba. ❤ ❤ ❤

Love to all, no exceptions ❤

Avatar Meher Baba Ki Jai!

Hosted by Laurent Weicheberger in SC

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Every other Monday, Nick will tell stories he heard from the Mandali, in the context of trying to live a life of the spirit. Questions and comments welcome!

Tech host Diana Goodheart in NC

This event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

We have some informal chat after every arti, the "post-arti party"! But once a week, Jeff Wolverton joins us for some serious mining of the spiritual depths. Join us for conversation, more readings, songs, quotes - you never know what treasures will be uncovered!

Topic: Guilt, Shame and Remorse

Dear folks of Baba,

For most Baba lovers, regret about many things they’ve done in their past naturally casts a shadow over their present moment. And often it is with their present consciousness that they judge themselves, which isn’t really fair, because they have grown since then and they probably wouldn’t do such things with what they know now! And in condemning themselves they bring a feeling of unworthiness upon themselves. There is a simple quote by Thomas Leonard which says, “Give up all hope…of a better past!”

How does this state of regret persist? It is often because we try to resolve our past wrongs, shortcomings, failings, etc. with our mind. But the mind is too superficial; it doesn’t take one deeper than guilt. Guilt lacks the depth to fathom the root causes of our weaknesses. Guilt’s method is like clipping off the tops of weeds, which doesn’t get at the root, and so the weed sprouts anew. I find if I feel guilty, and it persists for days, I am likely going to do the selfish thing again! And guilt invites shame, which is not really an emotion but a mental attitude. It is a self-judgment about how bad we are or have been.

The only thing that wipes away our weaknesses and bypasses guilt and shame is remorse.Remorse is of the heart, and if we are going to change our behavior, it is at the heart level. We feel the sting of remorse for having been weak or selfish, and then we turn to our heart—which is backed by our soul--to give us the strength and courage to change our behavior.

Guilt and shame are really two subtle forms of self-preoccupation, but remorse, even sometimes in magnifying its intensity, aims to make a selfless change in ourselves. It can burn up our selfish tendencies. Once when I asked Eruch, one of Baba’s most intimate mandali, how he experienced Baba’s forgiveness, he said, “Most people, when they do something unkind and selfish, make a plea to God to be forgiven. They persist until they feel some relief. This is what is conventionally done. But with Baba, when you do something unkind and selfish, the remorse you feel for having done this is the sign that you’ve already been forgiven.” As long as we feel no remorse and go on justifying our unkind behavior, there is no room for Baba to forgive.

Baba has said, “Sincere repentance does not mean perpetuating grief for the wrongs, but in resolving in the future to avoid those deeds which call forth remorse.” As I gathered from Darwin, he recommended taking ample time feeling as deeply as possible any wrong we have done and imagine it flowing energetically to Baba. He would say, “The deeper the feeling, the deeper the healing.”

How have you experienced Baba’s forgiveness in your own life? What wrongs have you done in the past that still persist as guilt and shame today? What methods with Baba have been successful in freeing yourself from past selfishness? Has the empathy you feel today in relation to others helped to soften the self-condemnation you may have felt about your past? Baba has said that His method with us is, “Two steps forward, one step back.” When asked why one step back, Baba replied that it annihilates our pride of progress as we go along. What do you do when events that happen during your day or week trigger past regretful experiences? How do you bring Baba into the picture?

In His love, Jeff

To join the email list for Late Night Chats, contact Angela

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We will talk about Meher Roshani Foundation and its ever-growing humanitarian Baba-inspired projects!

Roshani Shenazz in Mumbai is a force of nature, and her work is blossoming wider and wider. Join us for a fantastic conversation.

Interviewed by Angela Lee Chen in Myrtle Beach SC

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Dear folks of Baba,

I have heard serious concerns from Baba lovers representing a variety of gender identifications about this overly male dominated world and its poignant lack of empathy and compassion, the feminine qualities. Society has become increasingly impersonal nowadays, and I have often thought in this advent, Baba has emphasized God in human form, the personal, which is desperately needed to counteract the domination of the mind and its impersonal achievements. In some of His previous advents He has directed us to the impersonal, formless manifestations of the Divine, such as Allah, Nirvana, Yezdan and Jehovah, an orientation that I assume was appropriate and necessary during those periods of human history.

The terms masculine and feminine can easily evoke a gender conflict, but Baba asserts that both of these qualities are in each one of us. If our identification with the gender of our body is too strong, that is, if we identify as strictly male, then the feminine qualities in us get repressed. The same is true for the feminine. Baba says when both the masculine and feminine are fully developed in us, we are approaching Realization.

Baba says broadly that the masculine in us "excels in qualities of head and will", and the feminine "in qualities of the heart". Those who balance both qualities in himself or herself will have a more integrated experience of themselves.

Speaking very simplistically, the masculine in us is generally considered assertive and goal-oriented, while the feminine is receptive and relationship-oriented. The masculine, in Baba’s words, relies on the mind with its “sound judgment", “steadfast purpose,” and “will”, and the feminine on the heart with its feelings, empathy and intuitions; they are “capable of intense love,” “devotion" and “any sacrifice”. The masculine in us, in my view, tends to seek Baba in oneself, and the feminine seeks to find Baba in each other. Helen Dahm, the woman who painted the murals in His tomb back in the late 1930s, early 40s, complained to Baba about her emotional discomfort in being among so many other women mandali at Upper Meherabad. She tended to be anti-social, but He told her, “The path is through people.” And in His last message on the alphabet board in October 1954, Baba said that His lovers would “realize the Truth by being bound to each other with internal links.” To me this means that during this period in history Baba is encouraging us to find Him in each other, the feminine and personal, and He would refer to us as His Baba family.

Paradoxically, it is possible for a woman to be very masculine and a man to be quite feminine. Neither gender has a monopoly on the expression of the masculine and the feminine. Baba has said that an effort has to be made to balance these gender qualities within. While seeking this balance, in the case of a man, Baba says it is important that he “tries to understand a woman, not through the eyes of the male, but through an imaginative reaching out toward what the woman feels herself to be, in her own personal experience.” The same is true for women.

Over recent decades, there seem to be two concurrent paths: the traditional stereotypical male and female gender roles alongside growing trends of individual expression.

Could it be that the current questioning and expression of gender today is the soul's attempt to balance the masculine and feminine qualities within?

Have you been affected adversely by the stereotypical definition of your gender? In what ways? How does the societal culture of your country play into the experience of your gender?

Could Baba be making an invaluable distinction between masculine and feminine qualities, rather than the more limiting male and female genders? In that case, is there more room for acceptable overlap—for example, a strong-minded take-charge woman, or a receptive, devotional man? Haven't we already begun loosening the ways we see others? What role does detachment from gender play in balancing out our inner nature?

The mind with all its creations: the development of new inventions, societal hierarchies, the whole digital world and labor-saving devices has not brought us closer to each other. It may be that simple personal love and interest in each other, from heart to heart as Baba has expressed, may be what saves us from the alienation and isolation that is so rampant in the world today. What is needed as an antidote to this growing trend, as Baba has said, is a “fusion” of impersonal love (our sense of duty) and personal love (for those who receive our intimate attention), which He says ultimately culminates in “Divine love.”

In His love, Jeff

Sahavas for Everyone. First and third Wed of the month.

"Peace of Mind" (from Twelve Ways of Realizing Me) by Meher Baba. ❤

Love to all no exceptions! ❤

Jai Baba!

Hosted by Laurent Weichberger in SC

This event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

We have some informal chat after every arti, the "post-arti party"! But once a week, Jeff Wolverton joins us for some serious mining of the spiritual depths. Join us for conversation, more readings, songs, quotes - you never know what treasures will be uncovered!

Dear folks of Baba,

Darwin Shaw, one of Baba’s early Western mandali, used to encourage us to scan our interior heart space to discern our reactions and responses to life. To use an analogy, this is like lifting up the hood of a car to study the internal workings of the engine. What was so invaluable that I gathered from Darwin is we can be pro-active about our inner life. We don’t have to be passive observers. Examining the deeper aspects of the heart can contribute greatly to creating inner harmony within ourselves. This focus on being conscious of our interior is one of the major approaches to Baba, but it is not the only one; there are other equally valid approaches.

The heart is one of our most prized possessions, but have you noticed that it has distinct and subtle layers? One layer of the heart is more superficial, it reacts to life from the standpoint of our conditioning, and the other responds lovingly to life from the deeper realm of the heart. Our reactions come from two sources: our beliefs based on such standards as good and bad, right and wrong, spiritual and unspiritual, loving and unloving, and reactions also come directly from our cravings and from our negative emotions such as greed, anger, fear, vengeance, jealously, hatred, etc. Our loving responses, on the other hand, have their origin in the Soul that is beyond the heart, but which uses the heart as its vehicle. Examples of loving responses are generosity, patience, tolerance, forgiveness, empathy, humor, purity, understanding, enthusiasm and courage. Have you been able to discern the qualitative differences between reactions as opposed to loving responses to life? Can you tune into the differences in vibration and the atmosphere that is created around you when responding to life? Have you noticed that emotion, desires and feelings tend to be excitement-based, and love is more tranquil-based even though it often generates enthusiasm? Have you noticed that reactions often bring you up into your head, sometimes accompanied by unpleasant sensations and an influx of thoughts, whereas in loving responses we tend to remain at the heart level?

Baba has said, “Feelings and emotions are the creation of mind and energy. Love is the creation of the Soul.” Their origins are completely different! As Darwin would say, feelings, desires and emotions come from our conditioning, our sanskaras, whereas love is “impression-less”; it comes into us from the Soul, which is beyond time and space. Our good and bad reactions come from the heart, whereas our loving responses come through the heart from our Soul itself, which is Baba. What makes it so difficult to discern good from love is that they both first make their appearance in the heart, and for this reason, we tend to think that love comes from the heart. However, the heart is like the moon that only reflects the light of the sun. It is not the source of light. That is why Baba says that love comes always as His gift to us.

Victor Hugo, the French novelist, once wrote, “Virtue as in the case of vice [good as in the case of bad], is a calculated action, but love is not calculated. It wells up in the heart and expresses itself spontaneously.” Have you found that good always has some strings attached (a subtle ulterior motive); it is connected with time and usually strives to make an impression, but love expresses itself in the moment and tends to leave the giver and the receiver free from obligation and ideally leaves no residue. You might say, it evaporates as soon as it is expressed.

Given all of this, it is important to keep the heart clear of “strangers” as Baba has said so that it can be a pure vehicle for His love. The trajectory of our life, in Baba’s words, goes “from bad to good to God” (Love). “Love has to spring spontaneously from within and is in no way amenable to any inner or outer force.”

In His love, Jeff

To join the email list for Late Night Chats, contact Angela

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Every other Monday.

Nick will tell stories he heard from the Mandali, in the context of trying to live a life of the spirit. Questions and comments welcome!

Tech host Diana Goodheart in NC

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Dear folks of Baba,

Some of you have expressed the wish to discuss the phenomenon of evil and suffering in this life. It is one of the essential challenging questions facing most caring and empathetic people living in this world: why do people have to suffer pain and be the victims of cruelty? If God is love, why do these things have to happen? Many people during World War II lost their faith in God after witnessing atrocities perpetrated before their very eyes. Such cruelty is not just of the past, but is going on in the world even now. There are explanations that Baba has given and can be inferred from things He has said that will satisfy the mind to some extent, but it is in the deepest heart which has endured much pain and suffering that love, not the mind, answers this question. It is a deeply-felt knowing. All the Masters have said: through great suffering we come to "accept what is", however painful and disagreeable it might be.

What are some of the explanations that Baba has given? He has said, “Evil is a lingering relic of an earlier good." We can infer from Baba’s description of the evolution of consciousness that souls are always coming in from the animal kingdom to become human beings. They arrive, of course, with love, but also with many untamed impulses. What was needed for a tiger to sustain itself is through attacking and devouring other creatures. That same trait when manifested in the human kingdom is considered evil, unacceptable. New souls entering human form, as they act out their dormant animal impressions, are naturally destructive and sometimes even cruel. We, as Baba lovers, were once just in from the animal kingdom ourselves, creating tremendous havoc no doubt! But in the overall context of our evolution and involution, everyone, through the experience of good and evil and our ever-growing love, will one day become Divine.

The negative and evil things in this world often serve the purpose of waking us up. Bhau Kalchuri, one of Baba’s intimate mandali, used to say, “Sometimes it takes a nightmare to wake us up from a pleasant dream.” Through the ups and downs of life, some in the extreme, we are pushed to go deeper, beyond where we are right now. Sometimes very negative things happen to people, but often as a result of what they have done in a past life. For example, Beryl Williams, a long-time Baba lover who grew up in Jamaica and New York City in the 1920s, 30s and 40s, suffered intensely from the prejudice that she frequently faced in being black. In Myrtle Beach where she first met Baba, she asked Him why she was born black in this life. He replied, “Because in the past you were very cruel to black people.” This was not a punishment, but an opportunity to experience the other side of prejudice so that she would be less likely to express it toward others in the future. Much to the shock of others, Bhau would say, “No one is really innocent.” The deeper theme of creation is designed to awaken compassion in us. Many of the sufferings we have endured over the course of countless lifetimes really make us more loving and compassionate.

I have jokingly said that if I had the triune attributes of God—Creator, Preserver and Destroyer—this world would be a veritable junkyard, because I would emphasize creation and preservation and go light on destruction. And what a mess this world would be; vast warehouses would have to be constructed to hold all the things I would preserve! Destruction unfortunately has its place. Winter, with all its damage, cannot be eliminated from the cycle of seasons without upsetting the balance of nature.

Murshida Ivy Duce, the head of Sufism Re-oriented, once asked Baba the most crucial question, “Why should misery perpetually exist on earth in spite of God’s infinite love and mercy?” He replied, “The source of eternal bliss is the Self in all. The cause of perpetual misery is the selfishness of all. As long as satisfaction is derived through selfish pursuits, misery will always exist. Only because of the infinite love and mercy of God can man realize, through the lessons of misery on earth, that inherent in him is the source of infinite bliss, and all suffering is his labor of love to unveil his own infinite Self.”

It all depends on how we view what happens to us on this earth. It can be viewed as a place of horrific injustice (there is ample proof for that), or it can be seen as a place where love is breaking through its limitations to become divine. There is a well-known saying, “Suffering is inevitable. Misery is optional.” It all has to do with how we interpret evil and inflicting suffering on others, but this does not mean we condone these in ourselves.

How do you react when what happens violates your most cherished values and ideals? How does your heart experience the suffering and evil that you witness?

In His Love,

Jeff

To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net.

Nick Principe will share wisdom gained through a lifetime with Baba, and share relevant mandali stories. He will then be open to questions and comments.

Hosted by Diana Goodheart in NC

This event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

Living the Provisional Ego: a colossal challenge!

Dear folks of Baba,

I thought we would re-visit this topic of what Baba referred to as “the provisional ego”, the formation of which is one of the major challenges for us in this advent. Putting the provisional ego into practice is profoundly elusive, but it’s where we’re ultimately heading. How do we get there? What are the intermediate steps? Your perspectives are wholeheartedly invited. First, an invaluable quote by Baba on the "provisional ego” (provisional meaning temporary, a substitute arranged for the time being only):

Think of me in everything you do. Eat, dance, but forget yourself in the action and think of me instead. This is union through action. The less you think of yourself and the more you think of Baba, the sooner the ego goes and Baba remains. When you — ego — go entirely, I am one with you. So, bit by bit, you have to go. Today your nose, tomorrow your ears, then your eyes, your hands, everything.

Think of me when you eat, sleep, see and hear. Enjoy everything, but think it is all Baba. Baba enjoys it. Baba is eating. Sleep soundly in Baba, and when you wake up remember it is Baba getting up. Keep this one thought constantly with you. If you do wrong, then think it is Baba doing wrong. If you get a pain, think it is Baba getting a pain. Then it will be all the time Baba ... Try to forget yourself and do all for Baba. Let it be Baba all the time!

It might be said that the provisional ego is the last train stop in Creation. It usually begins as an exercise, but ultimately the truth behind the provisional ego needs to be revealed in us through experience. That is, the provisional ego is useful as a concept, but it has to eventually become a reality.

One day we will realize that all along it has been Baba living what we have always claimed as our life! It really is Baba who gets up in the morning, not us. In watching a movie, for example, we may find ourselves identifying with one of the characters so that when that character is in danger, we feel we are in danger, when they succeed, we succeed, when they fall in love we fall in love.

In the end, when the credits come up, we know that it was all a projection on our part. We get so identified with the character in the movie that we become that character for the time being. But Baba has said that it has never been us. He is the One who plays all the roles. That is, it is Baba who is living the life we see on the screen before us, and we are projecting our consciousness on to Him, and claiming that we are the one who is living this life! This is our colossal mistake. Eruch once disclosed, “There has been no Eruch for years. Through Baba’s grace, I have become the perfect witness!”

In lifetime after lifetime, we identify with the character before us and are pulled into the whole illusion of Creation. What we are being asked to do is to remain fully aware of Creation, but not identify with anything in it. Or put in another way, to be aware that everything and everyone is Baba. Such a detachment, Baba says, is not sterile or passive, but is a state of flowing and dynamic responsiveness to life characterized by a loving spontaneity that always leaves our consciousness free! In this way, love is finally liberated from being bound by Creation and can express itself in each moment as it wishes, unrestrained by what our personality wants.

Baba has said that we are really infinite, but we identify with the mind, and instantly we become a person. If we didn’t do this, we would remain the Infinite that we really are.

All this is a very tall, tall order from Baba. Bit by bit “we” have to go. I know we all sometimes feel in certain moments Baba working through us or eclipsing us in a particular situation. We may feel Him watching us. And now it all has to be reversed, little by little, so that it is us watching Him live what we formerly called “our" life. The mandali have said that people are just playing their roles. We are not really our roles; we are really Baba in disguise.

This is a huge and revolutionary shift in perception! What a seemingly incomprehensible and unfathomable challenge before us, and fortunately Baba is always there to make the impossible possible.

Kitty Davy would often quote this line from the Bible:

“… I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.”

In His love, Jeff

This event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

Tony Paterniti on his 30 Years with Meher Baba at the United Nations, a talk given on MeherSepas on Saturday, October 5, 2024. Tony’s talk includes Mani’s last spoken words (we think), which were about Baba’s work at the UN—as delivered to Tony by Dr. Goher on the day before Mani's passing.

Tech host Betty Lowman in CA

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Our new twelve part series: Meher Baba and His 12 Ways of Realizing Me,

Today we discuss part 1. Longing.

Sahavas for Everyone. First and third Wed of the month.

Avatar Meher Baba is in each one of us. And His Love is the focus of this gathering. Open discussion with each session having a topic or theme. Hosted by Laurent Weichberger in SC.

Jai Baba!

This event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

We have some informal chat after every arti, the "post-arti party"! But once a week, Jeff Wolverton joins us for some serious mining of the spiritual depths. Join us for conversation, more readings, songs, quotes - you never know what treasures will be uncovered!

Maintaining Poise

Dear folks of Baba,

Baba has written in many places about the importance of poise. It is so difficult to maintain poise in the midst of what is happening in the world today and in our personal life. Yet, as Baba has said, poise is so necessary for expressing love for others and in the world around us. There are many things common to all of us that disturb our poise: each of us has particular issues in ourselves and with others and in outer situations that invariably get a “rise" out of us. Baba seemed to have cleared out most of the triggers that would disturb His mandali, and I was amazed at how accepting and tolerant they could be. The continual self-reference that most of us are addicted to seemed to be relatively absent in the mandali. I always say, as long as Baba can still get a rise out of me through others and circumstances, His work in me is not complete! Some of the most common experiences that disturb the poise of Baba lovers are: witnessing injustice, unkindness, self-serving behavior, double standards, dishonesty, betrayal, feeling unworthy, criticalness of oneself and others, domineering personalities, loud voices, imperviousness to constructive criticism—there are many more examples, for sure! With all of our impossible expectations, most of us struggle to accept life as it is and so we miss opportunities where we can actually change things for the better.

Baba has said, "All these lives you have made a habit of looking [out for] yourself. If the slightest thing goes against your habit, you are upset...What you have been doing always is thinking of yourself; so now you must not think of yourself, but think of others. This is what is called love. But it needs character, poise, perseverance. Poise — what is it? That state of mind where nothing excites you, nothing upsets you. Only [if you have poise] can you help others, then only can you make others happy. That means love. Thinking not of yourself but of others.”

What kind of behavior in yourself or in others do you find most disturbing? What things trigger you the most? How have you worked to rise above reacting and maintain your poise? How has Baba helped in this effort and struggle? Do you find that there are unhealthy situations where the loving response is to avoid them when possible? Do you often resolve some disturbances by steering clear of certain persons or situations? Does that usually work? Do you sometimes write situations off with the thought that it is "all an illusion,” a truth you may know intuitively, but probably not yet experientially?

Through Baba’s grace and through our continuing efforts, we gradually rise above our reactions and attain to a state of poise, which makes our lives more and more balanced and harmonious. The world--do we dare say generously?--offers myriad opportunities now to maintain the poise that Baba speaks of. And most of all, through poise, as Baba says, the love in us can flow out to others and the world more freely and with less impediment.

In His Love, Jeff

To join the email list for Late Night Chats, contact Angela

This event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

We have some informal chat after every arti, the "post-arti party"! But once a week, Jeff Wolverton joins us for some serious mining of the spiritual depths. Join us for conversation, more readings, songs, quotes - you never know what treasures will be uncovered!

Topic: Major Crises and Baba

Dear folks of Baba,

This topic was suggested by several of you recently: dealing with major crises. In the life of everyone, there are the inevitable ups and downs, and we usually manage to muddle our way through them with Baba and soon are back on an even keel. However, every few years we encounter in our path a major crisis which persists for months or years in spite of all our sincere efforts to give it over to Baba. This might be the death of a near and dear one, a major disaster like the recent hurricane that totally upends our living situation, a romantic break-up that plunges us into profound hurt and self-doubt, the humiliation of being fired from our job, dealing with a persistent addiction in ourselves or our children—crises which cast a shadow over our life that persist despite our continuous focus on Baba.

How have you handled these extreme situations and what helped you move through them most effectively? What methods have worked for you? Has it been of help to go to India or other Baba places for relief and clarity? What painful stages has your heart had to go through in regaining your composure? Why are such situations built in to the fabric of life? Why has Baba designed life for everyone with these serious obstacles, painful situations and setbacks? Have these crises contributed to your inner growth and awakening? Has your faith in Baba sometimes been shaken and have you come through shocking circumstances with a deeper maturity and compassion for yourself and others? Have you learned new and invaluable things about Baba’s presence in your life that could not have been learned in any other way? Would we have the empathy we have today without these painful crises? Has it resulted in a more intimate companionship with Baba? In the case of a natural disaster, people of different political stripes, social standing and opposing religious beliefs sometimes forget their differences in an effort to help one another--a sense of real community emerges for the time being.

Have you noticed that such major crises have had a lasting positive effect in you, drawing you closer to Baba? He has said, “Great suffering and intense sorrow indicate that happiness is about to dawn. Anything beyond your capacity will necessarily change your capacity, because so long as everything is within your limits, you don’t know what is beyond them.”

In His love, Jeff

To join the email list for Late Night Chats, contact Angela

This event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

Irwin will allow Baba to inspire his talk to us today! He will share experiences of his life with Meher Baba, through stories, poetry and his personal correspondence with Meher Baba. Irwin's talks are always wonderfully infused with Meher Baba's Love and Humor.

Hosted by Diana Goodheart in NC

This event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

We have some informal chat after every arti, the "post-arti party"! But once a week, Jeff Wolverton joins us for some serious mining of the spiritual depths. Join us for conversation, more readings, songs, quotes - you never know what treasures will be uncovered!

Dear folks of Baba,

This Sunday is the 117th Anniversary of Mehera’s birth, Baba’s Beloved, whom He referred to as “The purest Soul in the Universe.” Of her, He has said, “She is My very breath without which I cannot live.” “Mehera and I are One.” “Mehera loves Me as I should be loved.” With all this praise from Baba, in meeting her one felt a total absence of self-importance—in her eyes, Baba was all-important, the One she lived for day and night, from her early teenage years until she passed on 82 years later in 1989. For those who met her and spent time with her, she radiated a love that very few of us have ever experienced, a love so heavenly and yet so very personal. Anyone in her presence witnessed her all-loving eyes full of her one-pointed attention and grace. There was no one like her!

Some of Baba’s followers and close ones think that this was her last life in Creation, that in passing she joined Baba forever, and there are others who think of her as His eternal counterpart, that she is with Him each time He comes, as she had once disclosed to one of Baba’s Western women. In this latter view of Mehera, this would mean that, among others, she had been Mary Magdalene in the time of Jesus, Sita in the time of Lord Ram and Radha in the time of Krishna. However one thinks of her, she is the embodiment of the highest love for Baba, ever encouraging us to lay down our lives and all our love at Baba’s feet as she had done. She is the living inspiration of what it means to love our Beloved.

Now on her birthday, we invite anyone to share any experiences they have had of her, either when physically with her or since her passing. What was it like being with her, what are some of the exchanges? Are there any stories from her life that have touched you deeply? How has Mehera’s life and loving example impacted your life in Baba?

In 1967 at Meherazad, Francis Brabazon, one of the resident mandali, wrote this in a poem which was read out to Mehera and Baba by one of the women mandali:

I sing of you, Mehera, belov’d of the Beloved of all mankind.

Before He began the creation the Beloved created you To mirror to Him His love so that He would know it ever anew.

Francis ends with these words:

The Beloved because of a whim, caused the whole creation to be.

In a One-word poem He contained it—you are its melody.

I sing of you, Mehera, belov’d of the Beloved of all mankind.

In His love, Jeff

To join the email list for Late Night Chats, contact Angela

This event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

Sahavas for Everyone. First and third Wed of the month.

Avatar Meher Baba is in each one of us. And His Love is the focus of this gathering. Open discussion with each session having a topic or theme. Hosted by Laurent Weichberger in SC.

Guest today Michelle McKeever

Jai Baba!

This event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

We have some informal chat after every arti, the "post-arti party"! But once a week, Jeff Wolverton joins us for some serious mining of the spiritual depths. Join us for conversation, more readings, songs, quotes - you never know what treasures will be uncovered!

Dear folks of Baba,

I thought to continue with last week’s topic that was rudely interrupted by some octogenarian’s birthday. No really, I want to thank all of you from the bottom of my heart for your very kind words and touching acknowledgement; I couldn’t help thinking during the celebration what love Baba has generated over the entire sweep of a lifetime; how fortunate we are to have the Lord of Creation looking after all of us and participating so personally in our lives!

Here is this Sunday’s topic again:

The Late Night Chat Sunday December 15th 10 pm EST

Topic: Pilgrimages to Baba Places

Dear folks of Baba,

I have just returned from my yearly pilgrimage to Meherabad and Meherazad, where I stayed for nearly six weeks in these two most heavenly places on earth. This isn’t to say that Baba’s presence is not equally everywhere, but there the veil of illusion is infinitely more transparent compared to most other places on the earth. As soon as I come into the environs of Meherabad and Meherazad, my whole being is lightened; you might say my mass of sanskaras (my conditioning) is dissolved to such an extent that I instantly experience the spiritual or the more refined side of myself. Due to Baba’s work in these places, Meherabad and Meherazad are treasure houses of His divine impressions which spontaneously and gradually dissolve our good and bad impressions and fill us with His love.

Eruch used to say that our pilgrimage to Meherabad is “your gift to Baba.” Of course, we all know that it is His gift to us, but it is our gift to Him as well. As early as the 1930s, Baba said, “In the future, Meherabad will be like Jerusalem. For My spiritual work, it is the best place. It will always be the center of My work.” On another occasion, He said, “The whole universe is Mine, but this place is especially Mine.” Meherabad is one of His major hospitals, so to speak, with all the latest equipment and technology to perform the most sophisticated treatments and operations when a doctor’s house visits are not succeeding. His work within us is usually done with an anesthetic, though on rare occasions His surgery can be painful. In either case, we are relieved of spiritual blockages, complexes and other weaknesses often unknown to us, which may have been impeding the flow of our love.

I have found that other places where Baba has been such as the Meher Center, Meher Mount and the Heartland Center also have Baba’s divine impressions and uplifting atmosphere. Also, the places His lovers have dedicated to Him--and their very homes--definitely hold His loving atmosphere. Baba once gave a graphic metaphor about the need for pilgrimages to sacred places, that they are like crime scenes: blood hounds are brought in and given some article of clothing and personal items of the fugitive to smell, and then they set out in all directions, following the scent. But sometimes, when they are too far afield, the dogs lose the scent of the quarry and have to be brought back to the scene of the crime. Likewise, Baba says, when His lovers return from Baba places to their life in the world again, over time they often lose the divine scent and need to be immersed in it again. From time to time, people who haven’t been to the Center in decades admit that they had forgotten the intimacy of Baba’s special loving presence that can be felt here, and they are uplifted in His love.

What have been some of your experiences in being in India, the Meher Center or any of the other places dedicated to Baba? What effect has it had on your inner life with Him? Feel free to share any treasured stories of your pilgrimages.

In His love, Jeff

To join the email list for Late Night Chats, contact Angela

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A lot of folks pre-recorded birthday greetings for Jeff Wolverton, and then we opened the floor to another hour of live participants on Baba Zoom, taking over his Late Night Chat time slot! So much love and gratitude flowed!

If you want to see the *pre-recorded* playlist of greetings, it is here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLW-i-86M1PScV1rmI9ajSeS8ivOf2rsjU

Hosted by Dyan Ullman in CA

This event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

Our guest speaker for the December MAC Baba Zoom program is Raymond Lee. Evie Lindemann will be interviewing Ray, an Asheville resident, about his many years working with audio and video recordings, and his wonderful website, Mandali Hall Talks, at mandalihall.org. Ray has spent hundreds of hours dedicated to recording, editing, and digitizing Baba talks and music, providing a rich resource for the worldwide Baba community. He will share his insights and expertise with us as well as answer questions from viewers.

Jai Meher Baba!

Hosted by Evie Lindemann in NC on behalf of the MAC

Tech hosted by Cheryl Johnson in CA and Diana Goodheart in NC

This event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily