What Amartithi Means to Me
Meher Mount
AVATAR MEHER BABA standing outside His Tomb Shrine (Samadhi) in Upper Meherabad, India, in September 1954. Photographer: Panday. (Source: (c) Meher Nazar Publications. Used with permission.)
Amartithi — January 31st — marks the day in 1969 when Avatar Meher Baba dropped His physical form. Followers around the world gather to celebrate this day. Why? Here is a sample of personal reasons given by some of Meher Baba’s followers.
Amartithi is important to me because it is the day that Avatar Meher Baba dropped His physical body to live eternally in the hearts of His lovers.
The night before He dropped His Body, Meher Baba repeatedly told His close ones, “I am not this body. I am not this body.”
The One Reality of the Avatar is, as Meher Baba said: “I am that same Ancient One whose past is worshipped and remembered, whose presence is ignored and forgotten, and whose future (advent) is anticipated with great fervor and longing.”
He is always present. He was present for me on the fourth Amartithi, January 31, 1973. On that day, 51 years ago, I recognized Baba’s silent words as Absolute Truth. I knew in my heart that as the source of those silent words Meher Baba Himself is the Source of Truth and the Ocean of Love.
~ Jim Whedon
Amartithi means eternal life. All Meher Baba’s lovers and followers around the globe celebrate January 31st each year. I celebrate because Meher Baba is the manifestation of Divine Love, Truth and Reality.
~ Mahmoud Ajang
Amartithi means the eternal date. Meher Baba told His disciples before He dropped His body that He will start giving Darshan and will not stop. Of course, His disciples did not understand what He meant, but from that day onward He has been giving Darshan continuously.
Moreover, He said that after dropping His body He lives eternally in the hearts of His lovers and He is more accessible than He has ever been.
It is the day that never ends. It also means that death is a day of celebration and not mourning. It marks the successful completion of His Avataric work which He had come to do.
In essence, celebrating Amartithi is the celebration of the eternal Self in all. Meher Baba’s last statement before dropping the body was, “I am not this body,” and Amartithi is the celebration of this truth.
~ Nima Ghaemi
For me Amartithi provides a real opportunity to remember Meher Baba. While the day marks the end of His Physical Advent, it honors the beginning of His Universal Advent. As has been said, “He is so much more available now.”
~ Rick Lawton
We celebrate and remember Meher Baba’s Amartithi to acknowledge that God incarnated once again in human form to regain our attention to His Infinite Love for humanity.
~ Ron Lansing
Amartithi, in my life, means the emancipation of the Avatar from the state He explained as being the formless and infinite become enformed and finite in a (gorgeous) male human form (my paraphrase).
Amartithi represents the shedding of the veil He places upon Himself while trekking the earth in a male human form. His veil is now shed, and His Darshan becomes available to all, anywhere, at any time, if they sincerely long and beg to have it.
Amartithi denotes His return to the formless, Infinite state. It’s the state in which His omnipresence, guidance, and oversight become more readily evident to the average seeker. What greater thing can conceivably be celebrated?
~ Anonymous
Amartithi is important to me because God the Universal Father who eternally exists is giving Darshan in sleeping or resting form. He is guiding us on how to become one with God by leading a real life.
~ Meher Mohan Bojja
The Eternal Date Amartithi is special, because Meher Baba chose that date to drop His physical body. Baba broke external links to foster the development of internal links within each of us. The intensity of Baba's suffering for humanity is unimaginable. The least we can do on this day is to remember Him and His messages to deeply connect with His teachings, emphasizing love, forgiveness, service to others and unity of all life.
Universal Brotherhood. The world is in chaos these days as humanity is lacking empathy, understanding, kindness, forgiveness and love regardless of backgrounds and beliefs. The Bible says “Love thy neighbor." Teachings from Hindu Upanishads with a Sanskrit phrase 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam' meaning "World is One Family". Baba said “….The breaking of my silence will reveal to mankind the universal oneness of God, which will bring about the universal brotherhood of man. My silence had to be. “ (Lord Meher 4551)
Amartithi reflects Global Gathering and Unity – a reflection of Universal Brotherhood as it brings together lovers of Meher Baba from around the world, symbolizing unity and the universal aspects of His message. Whether at His Samadhi or being there in spirit, I celebrate this day to be part of that multitude to experience the 'Divine One' in many.
~Anonymous
Avatar Meher Baba is Infinite Eternal God as man. To celebrate and commemorate the Amartithi date is to express our imperfect, human love for Him and to get closer to His grand Perfect Infinite Divine Love.
~ Scott & Nancy Lesniewski
To me, Amartithi is a celebration of the eternal aspect of Meher Baba and the Divine.
Amartithi is a way to celebrate the end of Meher Baba's physical suffering during His lifetime, which was significant, and also the release of His spirit from that human trapping. Amartithi feels to me like a way to spend time with death in a peaceful way. It's an acknowledgment of what was lost, but it doesn't feel sad, it feels cleansing.
I feel that Amartithi is a festive day to pay tribute to Meher Baba and all that He was and did during His lifetime. It includes everything that happened during the course of his lifetime, all the messages he shared, the spiritual work he did, and how all of that affects us and what that means to us.
~ Stephanie Ervin
Amartithi is that time of the year when the Lord's grace and wine of love flows and fills our beings and makes us oblivious of the whole world and its worries. At this time there is only one thought which is of the Lord almighty Avatar Meher Baba.
~Meher Bala Malik
Amartithi is one of the most sacred days for me. It is a day of saying thank you to Meher Baba for coming and touching so many lives, including mine. It is more of a remembrance and a thanking than a celebration to me.
To have sat in the crowds and experienced His silence at noon at Meherabad on the 31st of January is profound. It is hard to describe the feeling that penetrates deep into a pilgrim’s heart.
I can’t exactly say why it is so important to me. It just is, and I strongly feel that the day must be observed even if we are not at Meherabad or a Meher Baba center.
~ Roy Hayes
For me Amartithi is the most important beautiful manifestation of His Love. At the moment of silence, I feel an outburst, an explosion, an overwhelmingly huge wave of His love presence and being. It always makes me cry.
~ Dagmar Lai
It is the day that I must overcome my sadness and accept the fact that Meher Baba is no longer here in physical form, but He is here with me in my heart, eternally.
– Dale Waters
In the Jewish religion we honor the dead by lighting a candle called a “Yahrzeit Candle” and remember the loved one who has passed. So of course I would want to Honor the passing of Dear Baba and recognize when He left us in the physical form He came inside our hearts to inhabit us always.
~Terri Levine
I celebrate Amartithi to commemorate the completion of Meher Baba's work to 100% of His satisfaction. To me, Amartithi is the day that Meher Baba got to go back Home after enduring unimaginable suffering in His work for Creation. For me, in addition to being a day to celebrate Baba's “homecoming," it is a day of reflection; a day to feel not just gratitude, but profound thanks, for all that Meher Baba has given and for all that He has taken away.
~Anonymous
In his role as the Avatar, Meher Baba suffered for His Creation. Even when His universal work was complete, He continued to suffer until He dropped His physical form to live in the hearts of His lovers forever.
~ Anonymous
I celebrate Amartithi because Meher Baba no longer had to undergo physical limitations. He is free from the gross world for 700 years of bliss!
~ Gerry Seeley
Meher Baba had completed His universal work and knew that the nuclear age was properly guided by His life and works. The sacrifices to come would awaken humanity to the coming Christ, and there would be further understanding that there is no separation of anything in the universe since it is only a single aspect of His Divine Love.
~ Theodore Ryan
To me, Amartithi celebrates the work Meher Baba completed to His satisfaction for the world and the release from His physical form.
What a wonderful thing! I want to cheer and dance in the streets! Meher Baba is free from that worn out body at last!
I would love to have met him physically, but He lives within my heart forever. I don’t feel He’s gone. He’s always here, form or not. Do I cry? No, I cheer!
~ Cherie Plumlee
This day is one of celebration. From the Discourses, chapter titled The Avatar: It marks the culmination of a “life supremely lived, of a love unmixed with desire, a power unused, except for others, a peace untroubled by ambition, a knowledge undimmed by illusion...”
~ Philip Hocking
난 바바를 사랑해, 나는 그리고 사랑하는 걸 잊어. 내가 바바를 만나면 그래. 그렇게 모두를 사랑하게 될거야. 그리고 amarthiti는 그런 사랑의 축제일거야. 아. 아무 것도 바라지 않아. 근데 난 바바의 사랑을 받은 많은 사람과 만나고 싶어. 그리고 그 사랑을 간직하고 싶어. 그리고 나의 나라로 돌아가서 이 사랑을 더욱 격렬하게 나누고 싶어
I love Baba, I forget and love. Amartithi is such a festival of love. I want to meet many people who received Meher Baba’s love. And I want to keep that love. I want to return to my country and share this love even more passionately.
~ Hong Sunghceol
To celebrate Amartithi, I keep silence with other Meher Baba lovers throughout the world for 15 minutes on the night of January 30. During that time, I feel His presence there at the Tomb, and also remember the day He died.
I was in Santa Barbara, living with other Baba Lovers then. I was so upset I went to walk on the beach. It was a full-moon night, and I watched the moon rise over the mountains. His presence was very strong that night and for days afterward.
~ Leslie Tejada
I celebrate Amartithi because I found out about Meher Baba around 9:00 p.m. on January 30th in New York City, virtually about the same time He passed in India.
Amartithi marks the moment in 1969 when Meher Baba dropped His body and woke me up. My life has not been the same since. Whereas I used to live in a world of pain and anger, now I feel the sweetness of love.
~ Michael Childs
Amartithi literary means Eternal Date. God is always there and so this date will always be remembered Eternally. What makes this date special is that God Himself took form as a human being to awaken humanity to the Eternal Truth, the real purpose of life, and the message of love. He is our Real Beloved. To me, at His Samadhi in Meherabad, I feel His loving presence.
~Vijay Bhalekar
In our local Meher Baba community, we have a tradition of continuously repeating Meher Baba’s name for the 24 hours before noon on January 31st. People sign up for one hour opportunities to do this in their own way, in their own homes.
Amartithi is such an opportunity to deepen our love and connection with the Avatar, the God Man, our Companion and Real Friend.
Amartithi continues to reveal His divinity through our heart connections in Him and with each other. That is what I honor and celebrate on this day: our oneness in Him.
His work for all of humanity, the world and all its creatures, plants and oceans alike, is also exemplified by the final surrender of His physical form, broken in Love’s sacrifice for His creation. Such a beautiful time to unite in gratitude for all that Meher Baba has done and continues to do.
~Susan Smith
अवतार मेहर बाबा की जय
Hail Meher Baba's incarnation.
~ Pradip Singane
Amartithi literally means Eternal Date. An eternal date with our Beloved Lord God Meher Baba. He dropped His Beautiful Form to live eternally in our hearts.
Each year more and more devotees from near and far rush to take His Darshan and hold Him close. I have been fortunate to be present at almost every Amartithi in Meherabad. It is such a special date for His lovers marking His constant remembrance in our hearts. A true gift from Him.
Year after year, I have looked forward to being in the presence of all His lovers, all there to sing and celebrate His divine being and receive His loving grace.
~ Havovi Dadachanji
What is Meher Baba doing “through endless time” now that His Divine form rests in the Samadhi? Why do we so meaningfully honor the Eternal Date with 15 minutes of Silence on Amartithi? Meher Baba gives the answer.
The Eternal Date = The Eternal Gift.
"Through endless time God's greatest gift is continuously given in silence." — Avatar Meher Baba, The Ancient One
~ Wayne Myers
It is important to contemplate on things Divine in nature. It is the cause of transformation.
What does it mean? I don’t know. This much I can say, it is eternity reflected in this moment. Why? Because Divinity has taken human form again, come again in the world of form.
An important date to sit and contemplate the enormity of this happening because of love. Truth cannot be spoken. So we sit again, ready once again (just like Him) to participate.
~ Anonymous
Contributors
Thank you to everyone who sent their comments: Cherie Plumlee, Dagmar Lai, Dale Waters, Gerry Seely, Havovi Dadachanji, Hong Sungcheol, Jim Whedon, Leslie Tejada, Mahmoud Ajang, Meher Bala Malik, Meher Mohan Bojja, Michael Childs, Nima Ghaemi, Philip Hocking, Rick Lawton, Ron Lansing, Roy Hayes, Scott & Nancy Lesniewski, Stephanie Ervin, Susan Smith, Theodore Ryan, Vijay Bhalekar, Wayne Myers, and six anonymous contributors. Also leaving comments on social media: Facebook: Ville Bamboat, Sheila Marie Berns, Steven Goodman, Elena Golden Heron, Chandnii Ranii Joshi, Kristine Zalewski, Rathor Yash, Vijay Bhalekar, Terri Levine, Pradip Singane. Instagram: Lisa Greenstein, Karan Attri, Andrea, and Zubin Mistry.