“Almost all are puzzled by Baba’s New Life…”
Meher Mount
“This New Life will live by itself eternally even if there is no one to live it.” — Avatar Meher Baba [1]
Avatar Meher Baba embarked on a phase of His work known as the New Life on October 16, 1949.
“Baba ends His Old Life of cherished hopes and multifarious activities, and with a few companions begins His New Life of complete renunciation and absolute helplessness…,” Meher Baba declared. [2]
Meher Baba and His 20 companions, including four women, wandered from place to place begging for food. While begging Meher Baba wore a green turban and a white kafni (robe) and walked barefooted. He had an ochre-colored satchel and carried a brass pot in the right hand. [3]
THE NEW LIFE CARAVAN. This blue wooden caravan, pulled by bullocks, was used for a short time as a sleeping compartment by the women on the New Life. (Photo: (c)Meher Nazar Publications)
Almost All Are Puzzled by Meher Baba’s New Life
“While almost all are puzzled by Baba’s New Life, they are also fascinated by it,” said Bal Natu, a close follower of Meher Baba.
Bal Natu continues in his book Glimpses of the God-Man Meher Baba, Vol. 2. [4]
“Baba's New Life has an indescribable charm of its own; there is something gloriously splendid about it, however incomprehensible it may seem.
“Baba's external activities during this phase — long journeys on foot, at times begging with a begging bowl, wearing a loin cloth and a kafni, sweeping out His rooms, washing His clothes, offering prayers and serving the poor have an austere grandeur about them. In a way, they demonstrate a simple way of living — a life of self-effacement.
“Baba's New Life had a specific context in His Avataric mission, and the various external activities were like the scaffoldings erected to accomplish His spiritual work of awakening the heart of humanity.
“Thus the sublime significance of Baba's New Life is immediately lost if the external activities are given undue importance. However, the New Life as a whole will ever remain as a guiding star for the sincere seeker, but no one can imitate or institutionalize Baba's New Life.”
AVATAR MEHER BABA (center) begging during the New Life on November 25, 1949, in Benares, India. To the left is Adi K. Irani, Meher Baba’s secretary and close disciple. (Photo: (c) Meher Nazar Publications)
This Is the Life of Helplessness and Hopelessness
“…Through the medium of the companions, Baba demonstrated to the world how the New Life is meant to be led,” explained Bhau Kalchuri, a close disicple.
Bhau Kalchuri continues in his book, Meher Baba’s New Life. [5]
“The meaning of the New Life is the renunciation of all longings and all desires, toward which all efforts should be directed.
“It is a life where continuous effort is made to honor truth, love and faith, the very breath of life, and to gain freedom from lust, greed, anger, selfishness, envy, and hypocrisy. This is the life of helplessness and hopelessness.
AVATAR MEHER BABA being given bhiksha (alms) by Keki Nalavala in Dhera Dun, India, on March 1, 1950, during the New Life. Photographer: Burjor Chacha. (Photo: (c)Meher Nazar Publications)
“Helplessness means to become impervious to the above-mentioned undesirable traits. For instance, it is natural to become angry when abused, but in following Baba’s conditions, we have to become so ‘helplessly’ dedicated to showing love that that anger cannot prevail in us.
“The life of helplessness is really a life of strength, because in true helplessness, we become so completely insensitive to all of our undesirable traits that there is no place for them in us.
“When there is no place for these traits, we become strong —incomparably strong. Ordinary helplessness, in contrast, which occurs when what we want and desire is frustrated in some way, is a form of weakness.
“The life of hopelessness requires us to remain free from all hopes and desires. Hopes and desires are extremely limiting because they enmesh us even more in the morass of illusion, and where there is hope, there is also disillusionment.
“One who is devoid of all hopes and desires has no master. The life of hopelessness is truly a pure life, wherein one’s only desire is to embrace life without bondage.
“To gain this life of inner hopelessness, there must be the desire to be one with God, and this desire must be so strong that all other desires are dissolved in it!
Not Possible without Love for God
“To live the life of helplessness and hopelessness is not possible without love for God, because love for God uproots all undesirable traits, as well as all hopes.
AVATAR MEHER BABA praying for forgiveness before bowing to the New Life companions. They are in Mahabaleshwar, India, on February 12, 1951. At the side is close disciple Eruch Jessawala. Photographer: Faredoon Driver, known as Padri. (Photo: (c)Meher Nazar Publications)
“In reality, the New Life is the life of the seeker totally dependent on God’s Wish, in which Illusion is recognized as Illusion, and the seeker makes every effort to achieve union with God.
“The New Life is truly endless and shall remain endless, because to embrace Truth is the goal of everyone. The aim of the New Life is to experience Illusion as Illusion, which is fulfilled when the state of complete helplessness and hopelessness is achieved so naturally that there is not even the thought of its achievement!
“Inner renunciation is acquired naturally by living the New Life, in which attachment to God and detachment from the world are grounded in love for God.
“The New Life is the life of freedom from illusory bondage, where unfailing effort is made to be united with God — and through this determined life there is the possibility of arriving at the threshold of Truth.”
Footnotes
[1] Bhau Kalchuri, Lord Meher: The Biography of the Avatar of the Age Meher Baba, Online Edition, pg. 2882, accessed October 14, 2023. ©1979 by Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust.
[2] Naosherwan Anzar, Meher Baba: From Boyhood to Godhood (Hamilton, NJ: Beloved Archives), pg. 432. ©2021 by Beloved Archives.
[3] Naosherwan Anzar, “Meher Baba’s New Life,” Beloved Archives website, accessed October 14, 2023.
[4] Bal Natu, Glimpses of the God-Man Meher Baba, Vol. 2, Jan 1949-Jan 1952. (Bombay, India; Meher House Publications) pp. 397-399. ©1979 by Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust. Used with permission.
[5] Bhau Kalchuri, Meher Baba’s New Life (Pune, India: K. Joshi & Company), pp. 274-275. ©2008 Bhau Kalchuri. Used with permission.