"When shall we hear your lovely voice, Baba?"
Margaret Magnus
MEHERA J. IRANI (Meher Baba's closest woman disciple) with Avatar Meher Baba in Meherabad, India, in 1938. (Photo: Hedi Mertens, Meher Nazar Publications. Used with permission.)
By Mehera J. Irani*
On 9 July 1925, Baba came to our room. Baba was staying in the Jhopdi [hut] and He had not been coming to see us at all lately.
Now I think it was so that we should get used to not seeing Him so that we should not miss Him too much.
THE JHOPDI in lower Meherabad, India. Avatar Meher Baba began His 44-year silence here on July 10, 1925. (Photo: Hedi Mertens, Meher Nazar Publications. Used with permission.)
He told us, “From tomorrow, 10 July, I will observe silence, and when My work is finished, I’ll talk. You are all to stay cheerful and happy and to take care of your health and to obey My orders.”
By telling us like this, Baba made us feel that this silence was not very serious, in order that we should not feel sad…
From 10 July we heard a new sound; it was the sound of loud claps. “Oh, it must be Baba clapping to draw the attention of the mandali [close disciples],” we realised.
Those first days of keeping silence must have been very difficult for Baba. Baba was outgoing. He loved to talk, to sing, and to laugh, and He was not used to being silent.
Baba had so much work, and He still supervised everything and saw to everything. Nothing was done without consulting Him, so naturally He would want to talk, but He did not. It was very, very difficult for Baba.
It is so natural to laugh, but when the mandali around Him said something funny, Baba could not laugh out. He covered His mouth with a kerchief to remind Himself not to make a sound. Baba put so much strain on Himself.
"THOSE FIRST DAYS of keeping silence must have been very difficult for Baba. Baba was outgoing. He loved to talk, to sing, and to laugh, and He was not used to being silent." ~Mehera J. Irani (Photograph of Avatar Meher Baba in Navsari, India, 1932. Meher Nazar Publications. Used with permission.)
Now at night when I think of darling Baba, I wonder if He sang out loudly in the Jhopdi just before twelve o’clock on 9 July. He loved singing, and He knew that in a few minutes He would no longer be able to sing for the rest of His life.
We took Baba’s silence very lightly at the time. When, at the very first, Baba had told us about it, He had said that when His work was finished He would talk. So we thought, “Oh yes, seven days will pass, and then Baba will talk!”
"WE MISSED His voice, His talking, Baba’s beautiful singing, and His cheerfulness." ~Mehera J. Irani (Photograph: By Faredoon "Padri"Nawrosjee Driver, MSI Collection. Used with permission.)
But seven days went by, and Baba did not talk. And then we waited and waited, and now it was seven months and still Baba was silent.
This was serious to us, and we asked each other, “When will Baba speak?”
We missed His voice, His talking, Baba’s beautiful singing, and His cheerfulness.
One day we asked Baba, “When shall we hear your lovely voice, Baba? When shall we hear You sing and talk again?”
And Baba replied on His slate, “I’ll talk again when I finish My work.”
Baba kept giving us hope so that we would not feel hopeless, but for the next forty-four years Baba kept silence.
Source
Janet Judson, ed., Mehera, pg. 84-85. (East Windsor, NJ, Beloved Books, Naosherwan Anzar, publisher) ©1989 Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust, Ahmednagar India.
*Mehera J. Irani
Mehera J. Irani (1907-1989) was Meher Baba’s closest woman disciple whom Meher Baba called the purest soul in the universe. Meher Baba said she loved Him as He ought to be loved as the Divine Beloved.