"Right side up!" - Avatar Meher Baba
Meher Mount
Your Friday photo is in honor of Silence Day, today July 10th, and the silence Avatar Meher Baba observed for 44 years of His incarnation.
The following excerpt is from a family letter sent on September 10, 1966, by Mani S. Irani, Meher Baba's sister and close disciple, to His Western followers. This photo of Meher Baba was taken in Meherazad, India, in 1949, by close disciple Faredoon (Pardi) Driver.
“Illustrating for us the completeness of the transformation that will take place in the world after He breaks His silence, Baba cupped His left hand loosely over His right as though He were holding a big ball, then with a deft movement brought his right hand over His left [hand] in an absolute turnover of the imaginary ball’s position.
’Upside down,’ one of us interpreted. With a half-smile Baba gestured, ‘Right side up.!’”
The last they [Meher Baba's disciples] heard of His beautiful voice was on the eve [July 9, 1925] of His Silence when He said to them: “Hear well my voice; you will not hear it for a long time.”
That was four hundred and ninety-four months ago.
Recently the Beloved has been telling us not so much of the close-at-hand breaking of His Silence, but of the monumental change that will come about on earth when He does so.
One morning while we were sitting at breakfast with Baba, and a humming bird was hovering before a window-pane in ecstasy of its own reflection, we got to talking of His Silence.
Illustrating for us the completeness of the transformation that will take place in the world after He breaks His Silence, Baba cupped His left hand loosely over His right as though He were holding a big ball, and then with a deft movement brought His right hand over His left in an absolute turnover of the imaginary ball's position.
“Upside down”, one of us interpreted. With a half-smile Baba gestured “Right side up!”
~Mani S. Irani, Family Letter, September 10, 1966
Sources
Manija Sheriar Irani, 82 Family Letters to the Western Family of Lovers and Followers of Meher Baba, pp. 263-264, “Family Letter Seventy: 10 September 1966.” (North Myrtle Beach, SC, Sheriar Press) ©1976 Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust, Ahilyanagar, India.
Photograph: Faredoon (Padri) Driver, Meherazad, India, 1949, MSI Collection. Used with permission.
About Manija S. Irani
Manija (Mani) S. Irani (1918-1996) was Avatar Meher Baba’s younger sister, joining Baba’s ashram at the age of thirteen. Mani lived her life completely surrendering to His will. She was chairman of the Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust from 1973 until her passing in 1996.
FREE eBOOK - Why Meher Baba Observed Silence
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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