"The moon was low, a silver sickle on a field of blue..."

Your Friday photo is in honor of the East-West Gathering in 1962…

This untitled poem by Francis Brabazon, a close Australian disciple of Avatar Meher Baba, is one of many poems in his 50-page poetic description of Meher Baba’s East-West Gathering. This photo of the new moon over Meher Mount was taken by guest caretaker and photographer Juan Mendez.

“The moon was low
a silver sickle on a field of blue
when I met you”

— Francis Brabazon

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The moon was low
a silver sickle on a field of blue
when I met you
and loved you with a love I could not know
would break my heart.
All I knew was that I would go
with you to world’s end,
for I was your shadow.

The night was clear
your eyes were the stars within two drops of dew
when I met you
and loved you with a love that had no fear
though it broke my heart.
All I knew was I had to bear
journey to world’s end
should you so choose to steer.

Meher, my love. Meher, my love.

~Francis Brabazon, Poet and Close Disciple

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“The Moon Was Low” Set to Music

Musician Adrienne Shamszad wrote the music to this poem and performs it on her album Love without Fear. Click on the last song “The Moon Was Low”: https://adrienneshamszad.com/product/love-you-without-fear-ep/

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East-West Gathering

The East-West Gathering was held from November 1-4, 1962 in Pune, India, bringing together thousands of Eastern followers and about 160 Western devotees who came at Meher Baba’s invitation. Meher Baba emphasized themes of Divine Love, oneness, and the soul's long spiritual journey. Meher Baba asked Francis Brabazon to write about the event, which resulted in Brabazon’ s poetic account of the four days.

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Source
Francis Brabazon, The East-West Gathering, pg. 28. (Beacon Hill, New South Wales, Australia: Meher House Publications). ©Copyright Avatar’s Abode Trust.

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"Why should I fear? When was I less by dying?"

Your Friday photo…

On a walk with friends on the deer trail near the old well in 2020, volunteer Margaret Magnus took this photo of a charred Coast Live Oak. “As we paused to view what remained of the tree, we began to fantasize about what the burned tree trunk represented,” she remembered.

“The right side looked like angel’s wings with the left side representing a hand reaching toward the heavens with the support and encouragement of an angel.”

In thinking about the angelic nature of this burned and dying tree, the following from the Sufi poet Rumi seemed appropriate.

“I died as a mineral and became a plant,
I died as plant and rose to animal,
I died as animal and I was Man.
Why should I fear? When was I less by dying?
Yet once more I shall die as Man, to soar
With angels blest; but even from angelhood
I must pass on: all except God doth perish.
When I have sacrificed my angel-soul,
I shall become what no mind e’er conceived.
Oh, let me not exist! for Non-existence
Proclaims in organ tones, ‘To Him we shall return.’”

— Jalal al-Din Rumi (1207-1273), Transalted A.J. Arberry

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Jalāl al-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī, also known as Rumi, was a 13th century poet and Islamic scholar who was born in Afghanistan and wrote poetry in multiple languages, particularly Farsi. Avatar Meher Baba enjoyed listening to Rumi's poetry and praised him as one of the greatest minds of all mystical and spiritual literature.

This is a beautiful passage from Rumi's Mathnawi, one of the most celebrated pieces of mystical poetry in the Sufi tradition. The poem traces the soul's evolutionary journey through different states of being — from mineral to plant to animal to human, and ultimately beyond human form toward union with the Divine.

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Possible Source
Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī, The Mathnawí of Jalálu’ddín Rúmí, ed. and trans. Reynold A. Nicholson, Book III (London: E. J. W. Gibb Memorial/New York: Cambridge University Press, 1926), vv. 3901–3906.

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"Love needs to flow, and it needs someplace to flow to..."

Your Friday photo…

Avatar Meher Baba said of His work contacting masts in India, "the God of love meets the God-intoxicated." This 1936 photo is of Avatar Meher Baba (right) and Mohammed the mast (left) embracing.

The following explanation of Avatar Meher Baba’s love for masts is from Befitting a Fortunate Slave: Meher Baba's Eruch by Davana Brown. Eruch Jessawala (1916-2001) was one of Meher Baba’s closest disciples who often interpreted Baba’s hand gestures and use of the alphabet board. Davana Brown is a resident volunteer at Meherazad and was Eruch’s assistant for 20 years after Meher Baba dropped His physical body.

Thank you to long-time visitor Martha Aubin for suggesting this passage.

“Love needs to flow, and it needs someplace to flow to, and the masts are the channels through which His love flows. ”

— Eruch Jessawala, Close Disciple of Avatar Meher Baba

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One of the most common questions, Davana Brown writes, that came up during pilgrim sessions in Mandali Hall (Meherazad, India) was: “Why did the Avatar go on mast hunts?”

Eruch Jessawala explained about Meher Baba and His travels all over India to make contact with these masts:

“The whole purpose is so beautiful: it is the outpouring of love from the very source of love.

“Love needs to flow, and it needs someplace to flow to, and the masts are the channels through which His love flows.

“He is like a huge reservoir of love that just wants to flow out, and they are the channels most beloved to Him, so He wants to adore them. He wants to worship them, and they want to worship Him.

“He says that He is the slave of the love of His lovers, and these masts are the ones who have become overwhelmed with love for the Lord.

“So He hunts them down and becomes the slave of that love, trying to serve that love. That is what He has told us.”

~Eruch Jessawala, Close Disciple of Meher Baba

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Masts (pronounced ‘must’)

According to Meher Baba, the word mast refers to advanced souls on the spiritual path who have an overwhelming experience of God’s presence and who are not conscious of their worldly surroundings. Totally absorbed in God, they no longer are able to function in the world. They are overcome by an agonizing love for God and are drowned in their ecstasy. Only love can reach them. Meher Baba called them God-intoxicated.

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• Sources
  Davana Brown, Befitting a Fortunate Slave: Meher Baba's Eruch, Volume I: By Your Grace Anything is Possible, pg. 418. (Myrtle Beach: Sheriar Foundation) ©2024 Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust, Ahmednagar, India.

• Bhau Kalchuri, Lord Meher: The Biography of the Avatar of the Age, Meher Baba, Online Edition, pg. 4003, accessed September, 2025. ©Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust, Ahmednagar, India.

• Photo: Avatar Meher Baba with Mohammed the mast in 1939. ©Meher Nazar Publications, Ahmednagar, India. Used with permission.

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"Those who crowd in my path do not know that I am walking alone with you..."

Your Friday photo…

The beauty of sunlight on Baba’s Walkway at Meher Mount is captured by guest caretaker and photographer Juan Mendez. This flagstone pathway is one of the few remaining artifacts from Avatar Meher Baba’s 1956 day at Meher Mount.

The poem by Rabindranath Tagore, a Bengali poet, was suggested by Margaret Magnus.

“Those who are near me do not know that you are nearer to me than they are

Those who speak to me do not know that my heart is full with your unspoken words

Those who crowd in my path do not know that I am walking alone with you

They who love me do not know that their love brings you to my heart.”

— Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)

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Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), also known by his pseudonym Bhanusimha or Gurudev, was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer, and painter of the Bengal Renaissance.

A man of prodigious literary and artistic accomplishments, Tagore played a leading role in Indian cultural renaissance and came to be recognized, along with Mohandas Gandhi, as one of the architects of modern India.

Gitanjali is a collection of poems by Rabindranath Tagore, who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913, for its English translation, Song Offerings.

Gitanjali was written shortly after the deaths of Tagore’s wife, his two daughters, his youngest son, and his father. But as his son Rathindranath noted, “He remained calm and his inward peace was not disturbed by any calamity however painful. Some superhuman sakti [force] gave him the power to resist and rise above misfortunes of the most painful nature.”

Gitanjali was his inner search for peace and a reaffirmation of his faith in his Jivan devata — described by Tagore as the “Lord of Life” symbolizing the guiding Divine presence in human existence.

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Sources

• Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali. He translated the poems into English himself. https://www.consolatio.com/ 

• ”Rabindranath Tagore,” Poetry Foundation, accessed September 18, 2025.

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"In the shadows, where sunlight fades..."

Your Friday photo…

“It was a misty day at Meher Mount when I was at Baba’s Tree. I took a peek inside the hollow trunk of the tree and saw these mushrooms growing. They inspired me to take a photograph,” said guest caretaker and photographer Juan Mendez. “I really appreciate the colors. It’s one of my favorite photos.”

Below is a poetic expression and then a scientific discussion of the symbiotic relationship between fungi and Coast Live Oaks, such as Baba’s Tree.

“In the shadows, where sunlight fades,
Beneath the canopy, in twilight glades,
Fungi weave their hidden lore,
Whispers of the forest floor.

Mushrooms sprout in clustered clumps,
Fairy rings and delicate bumps,
Caps of color, stems so slight,
A symphony in muted light.

Mycelium threads through soil so deep,
A network vast, in silent keep,
Connecting roots, a secret dance,
Of life and death in balanced chance.

On fallen logs, they find their stage,
Breaking down the wood of age,
Shelf fungi, with their layered grace,
Decomposers in a timeless race.

In damp and dark, spores take flight,
Invisible travelers, day and night,
Seeking places to call their own,
A kingdom where the strange is known.

From truffles hidden underground,
To molds where bread is sometimes found,
Yeasts that make the dough arise,
Fungi’s forms are nature’s prize.

Some bring healing, some cause woe,
Penicillin’s life-saving glow,
While others, toxic, bring a blight,
In nature’s balance, wrong and right.

Fairy-tale fungi, glowing bright,
Bioluminescent in the night,
Guiding footsteps with their gleam,
Like something from a distant dream.

A world unseen, yet ever near,
Fungi thrive, year after year,
Silent stewards of decay,
Turning death to life each day.

In the forest, in the field,
In every corner, secrets yield,
Fungi whisper, unseen, unheard,
Nature’s quiet, wondrous word.”

— Vinaya Joseph, Poet

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Fungi

A fungus can be any of the 144,000 known species of the kingdom Fungi, which includes yeasts, rusts, mildews, molds, and mushrooms.

Together with bacteria, fungi are responsible for breaking down organic matter and releasing carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and phosphorus into the soil and the atmosphere. Fungi serve as nature's primary decomposers recycling essential nutrients back into ecosystems.

Coast Live Oaks — such as Baba’s Tree — and fungi have a symbiotic relationship. The fungi are more efficient than oak roots at extracting water and nutrients from soil. They also produce protective chemicals against harmful bacteria and insects. In return, the oak provides carbohydrates to the fungi, food the fungi cannot produce itself.

Another critical function of fungi is erosion control. Fungi form connections underground from oak tree to oak tree and to other plants in the community.

As the oak tree grows, different species of fungi live with it. Also, more species live with it as it grows. On an old oak tree, there may be 250 species living in symbiosis with the oak. Also, as the season changes from winter to spring, for example, the dominant species of fungi living on the oak change.

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Sources

• “Mystical Fungi” by Vinaya Joseph on PoemHunter.com .

• “California Native Oaks and Mycorrhiza: The Growth and Ecology of California Native Oak Trees,” Las Pilitas Nursey, accessed September 18, 2025.

• “Fungus", Britannica, accessed September 18, 2025.

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"...the solid mountain of our true nature stays where it's always been."

Your Friday photo…

One late summer evening, photographer and guest caretaker Juan Mendez took this photo of the Topa Topa Bluffs as seen from Meher Mount. Long-time volunteer Sam L. Ervin suggested these words from the Sufi poet Rumi.

“There are many winds full of anger, and lust and greed. They move the rubbish around, but the solid mountain of our true nature stays where it’s always been.”

— Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī

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Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī, also known as Rumi, was a 13th century poet and Islamic scholar. Avatar Meher Baba enjoyed listening to Rumi's poetry and praised him as one of the greatest minds of all mystical and spiritual literature.

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Source
Coleman Barks, “Feeling the Shoulder of the Lion: Poetry and Teaching Stories of Rumi,” p.91, Shambhala Publications, 2000. (Selections from Rumi’s epic poem, Mathnawi.)

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"My grace is always there..." - Avatar Meher Baba

Your Friday photo…

Photographer Juan Mendez captured this image of a fox drinking from a bird bath at Meher Mount. On Sulphur Mountain, birds and animals of all sizes visit because they are thirsty and looking for water.

The following story of thirst and Meher Baba’s grace is from Befitting a Fortunate Slave: Meher Baba's Eruch by Davana Brown. Eruch Jessawala (1916-2001) was one of Meher Baba’s closest disciples and often interpreted Baba’s hand gestures and use of the alphabet board. Davana Brown is a resident volunteer at Meherazad and was Eruch’s assistant.

“My grace is always there; it is like a torrential river that is ever flowing. If you are thirsty you go to the river.”

— Avatar Meher Baba

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It was not unusual for the theme of grace to be discussed during pilgrim sessions in Mandali Hall (Meherazad, India) or around Eruch's table at the Meher Baba Trust Office (Ahmednagar, India) during teatime musings, Davana Brown writes.

The topic was talked about from every imaginable perspective. Eruch Jessawala responded:

“You are asking me, how do you receive His grace. For that you need the container. The thing is, we are all longing and begging for His grace asking. 'When will Your grace descend on us that we can love You and see You as You really are?'

“But Baba says, 'My grace is always there; it is like a torrential river that is ever flowing. If you are thirsty you go to the river. What is there to stop you? But the trouble is, in order that you should have the full advantage for receiving My grace, you need to have the container to hold it. And that vessel is your thirst. Without thirst there is no way out.'

“Grace needs the container, and suffering and His remembrance increase our thirst, which helps to shape the container.”

~Eruch Jessawala, Close Disciple of Meher Baba

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Source
Davana Brown, Befitting a Fortunate Slave: Meher Baba's Eruch, Volume I: By Your Grace Anything is Possible, pg. 303. (Myrtle Beach: Sheriar Foundation) ©2024 Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust, Ahmednagar, India.

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"Look well therefore to this day..."

Your Friday photo…

This scenic photo by guest caretaker Juan Mendez perfectly captures a late summer day at Meher Mount looking toward Baba's Tree and Avatar's Point. Clouds cover the Heritage Valley below with the South Mountain ridge peeking above them. The Santa Monica Mountains appear much farther in the distance.

“Look well therefore to this day;
Such is the salutation to the ever-new dawn!”

— Attributed to Kālidāsa

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Look to this day:
For it is life, the very life of life.
In its brief course
Lie all the verities and realities of your existence.
The bliss of growth,
The glory of action,
The splendor of achievement
Are but experiences of time.

For yesterday is but a dream
And tomorrow is only a vision;
And today well lived, makes
Yesterday a dream of happiness
And every tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look well therefore to this day;
Such is the salutation to the ever-new dawn!

~Attributed to Kālidāsa

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This poem is widely attributed to Kālidāsa, a renowned 4th-5th century Indian poet and dramatist considered one of the greatest Indian writers of any epoch. His plays and poetry written in Sanskrit are primarily based on the Hindu Puranas.

However, there's an important caveat about the poem's authenticity. The specific poem "Look to This Day" is likely a modern adaptation or paraphrase inspired by Kālidāsa's themes.

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"It whispers to the flowers all, kissing the shining dew..."

Your Friday photo…

This lovely photo of a bee among the lilies at Meher Mount was taken by guest caretaker and photographer Juan Mendez. The poem is by Mani S. Irani, Avatar Meher Baba’s sister and close disciple.

“It whispers to the flowers all
Kissing the shining dew
Says words that every flower knows,
Oh Baba Loves me too. ”

— Mani S. Irani

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Meher Baba’s Love

There dwells in a desolate countryside
On a far off lovely hill,
Its head turned up to the wide
Blue sky,
A yellow daffodil.

As it sways with joy in the gentle
Breeze.
It sings a song or two,
Which hold the sweetest words
On Earth.
Oh Baba, I, too, love you.

Around a pink rose in my garden
Hovers a bumble bee.
From rose to rose it dances wild in sheerest
Ecstasy.

It whispers to the flowers all
Kissing the shining dew
Says words that every flower knows,
Oh Baba Loves me too.

~Mani S. Irani

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Source: Poems to Avatar Meher Baba, an Avatar Meher Baba Trust eBook, pg. 89. ©1985 Manifestation Inc., North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

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"Love is the cleanser that wipes the mirror bright..." - Avatar Meher Baba

Your Friday photo…

Artist and photographer Natalie Farsi took this photo at Baba’s Tree on a recent visit to Meher Mount. She calls it “Mirroring Divine Presence.” The quote from Avatar Meher Baba is shared by frequent visitor Martha Aubin.

“Love is the cleanser that wipes the mirror bright and enables you to behold with increasing clarity the indivisible Entity that permeates all life.”

— Avatar Meher Baba

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I place these mirrors in wild landscapes, framing and shape-shifting the living world in ways that invite another way of seeing and connecting.

The series explores thresholds between the seen and unseen, the human and more-than-human.

Through this visual alchemy — presence, reflection, and transformation — the mirror opens a gateway into the liminal realm, where perception shifts and new ways of seeing and transcending can emerge.

Here, the mirror rests in the gnarled branches of Baba’s Tree so the old can reflect the new — illuminating past, present, and future. The volcanic interior of the Earth, held within the obsidian mirror, gazes back at itself, capturing young leaves and rays of light from ever-present sources.

~Natalie Farsi, Photographer

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Source

Meher Baba, Life at Its Best, edited by Ivy O. Duce, pg. 49, (Walnut Creek, CA: Sufism Reoriented) ©1957 by Sufism Reoriented, Inc.

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"The only Real Surrender is that in which poise is undisturbed" - Avatar Meher Baba

Your Friday photo is in honor of National Relaxation Day…

This view from a bench along the Old Well Road at Meher Mount was taken by visitor Stephanie Ervin.

“The only Real Surrender is that in which poise is undisturbed by adverse circumstance, and the individual, amidst every kind of hardship, is resigned with perfect calm to the will of God. ”

— Avatar Meher Baba

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Source

Meher Baba, Discourses, Sixth Edition, Volume I, pg. 2 (Myrtle Beach, SC: Sheriar Foundation) ©2007 Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust, Ahmednagar, India.

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"The sun does not shine for a few trees and flowers..."

Your Friday photo…

This photo of two ground squirrels enjoying the warmth of the sun at Meher Mount was taken by guest caretaker Juan Mendez in August 2024.

Ground Squirrels generally live in parts of Washington, Oregon, California, and Baja California and are often seen at Meher Mount.

Some of the animals that call Meher Mount home stay out of the sun during the day, but bask in the sun in the evening to warm themselves.

“The sun does not shine for a few trees and flowers, but for the wide world’s joy.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

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Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) was a Congregational minister whose oratorical skill and social concern made him an influential Protestant spokesman in his time. He was an abolitionist and worked with the women's suffrage movement in the United States. He often used metaphors of nature to convey moral and spiritual lessons about universal love.

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"It's just leaves and branches. It shouldn't be that quiet."

Your Friday photo is in honor of Tree of Fire, a documentary of Baba's Tree…

A consistent theme for visitors to Baba’s Tree at Meher Mount is the silence they experience at the tree.

“When I would go under Baba’s Tree, I would feel like it was much quieter than it had any right to be,” remembered former caretaker Billy Goodrum.

“There are no walls. It’s just leaves and branches. It shouldn't be that quiet.”

This photo of Baba’s Tree taken in 2014 by visitor Stephanie Ervin shows some of the leaves and branches of the tree’s giant canopy.

“There are no walls. It’s just leaves and branches. It shouldn’t be that quiet.”

— Billy Goodrum, Resident Caretaker, 2019-2002

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“One thing that Meher Baba says is things that are real are given and received in silence,” said former caretaker Pamela Goodrum.

“For us, Baba’s Tree was a place of extraordinary silence.

“A place where you could go and you could really listen and hear something — a voice or something that you might not be able to hear otherwise anywhere else. And for some that might be Meher Baba, and for others that might be something else.”

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Tree of Fire: A Story of Love and Resilience

Billy and Pamela Goodrum were resident caretakers at Meher Mount from 1999 to 2002. These comments are from their interview for the upcoming documentary about Baba’s Tree.

Tree of Fire is the journey of a seemingly ordinary oak tree blessed by the presence of Avatar Meher Baba. For decades, Baba’s Tree fulfills its role of inspiring others. Then one night it is felled by fire and high winds. Its very existence is threatened.

Through the tree’s own resilience and love, it is transformed by fire to emerge even more powerful in radiating Meher Baba’s love.

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"It makes that instant of Meher Baba at Baba's Tree particularly intimate and private."

Your Friday photo celebrates Avatar Meher Baba’s visit to Meher Mount on August 2, 1956…

“What I find particularly interesting about Meher Baba’s interaction with Baba’s Tree at Meher Mount is that there are no photos of Him under the tree," noted guest caretaker and board member Agnes Montano.

“To me, it makes that instant of Meher Baba at Baba’s Tree so particularly intimate and private.”

Over the years, guests have placed photos of Meher Baba under the tree in remembrance of Him.

In 2017, Wayne Myers and a friend visited. “We brought flowers and arranged them around the heart rock [marking the spot where Meher Baba sat] with one of my ‘travel Baba photos.’ It was just a spontaneous touch,” he remembered.

“To me, that makes that instant of Meher Baba at Baba’s Tree so particularly intimate and private.”

— Agnes Montano, Guest Caretaker & Board Member

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Agnes Montano’s comments are from her film interview for the documentary, Tree of Fire: A Story of Love and Resilience:

“I’ve always been intrigued by the fact that on August 2, 1956, when Meher Baba was at Meher Mount, there were people taking photos. They were filming Him. But no photos of Him under Baba’s Tree.

“Throughout His presence on earth, Meher Baba had many interactions with trees. I have a whole collection of photos of Meher Baba with trees where He’s climbed on the tree, leaned on it, touched the leaves… but then here at Meher Mount, there’s no image of that moment.

“Meher Baba went under Baba’s Tree and had such a private moment.  He asked everyone else to stay away, and He was there alone. He left such a gift there.

“I see people visiting who have never heard about Meher Baba and all of a sudden, they just show up at Meher Mount because they feel that they need to be there.

“So, the presence of Meher Baba is calling people. It’s like a beacon calling people, almost like a lighthouse.”

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"It was like seeing a champion boxer just beaten and bloody on the ground..."

Your Friday photo is in honor of Baba’s Tree…

The comments from Ron Holsey, board vice president and guest caretaker, are from his interview for the feature documentary on Baba’s Tree — Tree of Fire: A Story of Love and Resilience.

This photo was taken by Margaret Magnus, producer of Tree of Fire, after the 2017 Thomas Fire and high winds felled Baba’s Tree. This picture shows a major section of the trunk lying on the ground after it broke off.

“The first time that I saw the tree after the fire, it was this grand majestic, strong living being that had been just decimated and was suffering.

“It was like seeing a champion boxer just beaten and bloody on the ground. It was this towering giant that had been felled. It was heartbreaking.

“I had a lot of empathy for tree. I just felt bad that Baba’s Tree tree had to go through that.

“It had been through so much. It had survived one fire already.”

— Ron Holsey, Board Member and Guest Caretaker

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Tree of Fire: A Story of Love and Resilience

Tree of Fire is the journey of a seemingly ordinary oak tree blessed by the presence of Avatar Meher Baba. For decades, Baba’s Tree fulfills its role of inspiring others. Then one night it is felled by fire and high winds. Its very existence is threatened.

Through the tree’s own resilience and love, it is transformed by fire to emerge even more powerful in radiating Meher Baba’s love.

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"...you are Infinite within.” - Avatar Meher Baba

Your Friday photo is in honor of the 100th Anniversary of Avatar Meher Baba’s silence on July 10th of…

On one occasion, Meher Baba said to His followers:

“From today I want everyone to sit silent and alone for five minutes and try to look within. It is not a meditation, it is just a ‘looking within.’ Now, how to do this?

“Sit in a relaxed position — don’t think of anything, not even of Baba. Close the eyes and mentally look within and imagine yourself as Infinite within.

“Let the idea that you are Infinite remain for five minutes.

“How do you imagine yourself Infinite?

“You can imagine the Infinite as sky, ocean or vast emptiness. And let this one thought be in your mind — that you are Infinite within.”

— Avatar Meher Baba

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Why Meher Baba Observed Silence — FREE eBook

Why did Avatar Meher Baba observe silence for 44 years? Was there a spiritual benefit? What is the deeper meaning of His silence?

Why do Meher Baba’s followers observe Silence Day on July 10th every year?

This eBook provides perspectives on Meher Baba’s silence. It’s a collection of stories about Meher Baba’s silence including comments by Him and His close disciples.

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Sources

• Kitty Davy, Love Alone Prevails, pg. 166 (North Myrtle Beach, SC: Sheriar Press, Inc.) 1981 ©Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust, Ahmednagar, India.

• Photo by guest caretaker Juan Mendez of a sunset seen from Meher Mount.

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"I speak more eloquently through gestures and the alphabet board." - Avatar Meher Baba

Your Friday photo is in honor of the 100th Anniversary of Avatar Meher Baba’s silence on July 10th…

This photo of Meher Baba using gestures to communicate was taken in Meherabad, India, in 1949. Courtesy of Meher Nazar Publications.

“...I would say I am not silent, and that I speak more eloquently through gestures and the alphabet board.”

— Avatar Meher Baba

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Meher Baba explained about His silence:

“If you were to ask me why I do not speak, I would say I am not silent, and that I speak more eloquently through gestures and the alphabet board.

“If you were to ask me why I do not talk, I would say, mostly for three reasons. Firstly, I feel that through you all I am talking eternally. 

“Secondly, to relieve the boredom of talking incessantly through your forms, I keep silence in my personal physical form.

“And thirdly, all talk in itself is idle talk. Lectures, messages, statements, discourses of any kind, spiritual or otherwise, imparted through utterances or writings, is just idle talk when not acted upon or lived up to.”

~Avatar Meher Baba

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Why Meher Baba Observed Silence — FREE eBook

Why did Avatar Meher Baba observe silence for 44 years?

Was there a spiritual benefit? What is the deeper meaning of His silence? Why do Meher Baba’s followers observe Silence Day on July 10th every year?

This eBook provides perspectives on Meher Baba’s silence. It’s a collection of stories about Meher Baba’s silence including comments by Him and His close disciples.

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Source

• Bhau Kalchuri, Lord Meher: The Biography of the Avatar of the Age, Meher Baba, Online Edition, pp. 3555-3556, accessed May 23, 2025. ©Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust, Ahmednagar, India.

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"The voice that is heard deep within the soul is my voice..." - Avatar Meher Baba

Your Friday photo is in honor of the 100th Anniversary of Avatar Meher Baba’s silence on July 10th of…

Sitting at Avatar’s Point at Meher Mount provides a moment to be surrounded by silence and listen to the voice within. Photo by guest caretaker and board member Ron Holsey.

“Yet I am never silent. I speak eternally.

The voice that is heard deep within the soul is my voice — the voice of inspiration, of intuition, of guidance.”

— Avatar Meher Baba

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Why Meher Baba Observed Silence — FREE eBook

Why did Avatar Meher Baba observe silence for 44 years? Was there a spiritual benefit? What is the deeper meaning of His silence?

Why do Meher Baba’s followers observe Silence Day on July 10th every year?

This eBook provides perspectives on Meher Baba’s silence. It’s a collection of stories about Meher Baba’s silence including comments by Him and His close disciples.

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Source

• Bhau Kalchuri, Lord Meher: The Biography of the Avatar of the Age, Meher Baba, Online Edition, pg. 1795, accessed May 29, 2025. ©Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust, Ahmednagar, India.

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"The inaudible sound is from heart to heart..."

Your Friday photo is in honor of the 100th Anniversary of Avatar Meher Baba’s silence on July 10th…

“Those who have been in his presence know that Baba communicates through his silence.

What proceeds from him is beyond words, does not need words, could not be contained in them.

The inaudible sound is from heart to heart: silence that penetrates mind and heart.”

— C.B. Purdom, The God-Man

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The God-Man, by C.B. Purdom, is the first authoritative biography of Avatar Meher Baba. It includes Purdom's personal recollections and messages he took down as they were being conveyed by Meher Baba, along with selections from diaries and memories of other witnesses present.

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Why Meher Baba Observed Silence — FREE eBook

Why did Avatar Meher Baba observe silence for 44 years? Was there a spiritual benefit? What is the deeper meaning of His silence?

Why do Meher Baba’s followers observe Silence Day on July 10th every year?

This eBook provides perspectives on Meher Baba’s silence. It’s a collection of stories about Meher Baba’s silence including comments by Him and His close disciples.

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Sources

• C.B. Purdom, The God-Man: The Life, Journey and Work of Meher Baba with an Interpretation of his Silence and Spiritual Teaching, Second Edition, second printing with corrections (2010), Avatar Meher Baba Trust eBook, June 2011, pg. 410. ©1964 C.B. Purdom, ©Meher Spiritual Center, Inc.

• Photo: Avatar Meher Baba, Meherabad, India, 1954 by Darwin Shaw. Courtesy of Meher Nazar Publications.

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"You have asked for and been given enough words..." - Avatar Meher Baba

Your Friday photo is in honor of the 100th Anniversary of Avatar Meher Baba’s silence on July 10th…

In this photo of Meher Baba in India, 1949, He is using the alphabet board to communicate. The photographer is Beheram Sheriar Irani, one of Meher Baba’s brothers; courtesy Meher Nazar Publications.

“You have asked for and been given enough words – it is now time to live them.”

— Avatar Meher Baba

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Meher Baba explained about His silence:

“Man’s inability to live God’s words makes the Avatar’s teaching a mockery. Instead of practicing the compassion he taught, man has waged wars in his name.

“Instead of living the humility, purity, and truth of his words, man has given way to hatred, greed, and violence. 

“Because man has been deaf to the principles and precepts laid down by God in the past, in this present Avataric form, I observe silence.

“You have asked for and been given enough words – it is now time to live them.”

~Avatar Meher Baba

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“Why Meher Baba Observed Silence” — FREE eBook

Why did Avatar Meher Baba observe silence for 44 years? Was there a spiritual benefit? What is the deeper meaning of His silence?

Why do Meher Baba’s followers observe Silence Day on July 10th every year?

This eBook provides perspectives on Meher Baba’s silence. It’s a collection of stories about Meher Baba’s silence including comments by Him and His close disciples.

---

Source

• Avatar Meher Baba, “The Universal Message,” ©Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust, Ahmednagar, India.

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