Growing up with Meher Baba (Page 4 of 10)

The gardens at Meherazad were quite beautiful even though they were really just beginning. Mehera was working on them, and the girls [women Mandali] were putting in all the new plants. (They didn’t look like they do now; now they are dynamite!) I also remember we had a place to take a shower that was a little fold-up kind of tub made out of rubberized canvas, and it folded flat. You put the sides up and sat cross-legged in it and they gave you big buckets of hot water with a scoop, and you would pour the water over your head. Well, I was in the middle of my first bath there when all of a sudden someone came to the door and said, “Baba wants you to come right away and take some pictures.” Here I was with soap all over me — it was the fastest dousing and jumping into my clothes you ever saw.

Meher Baba at Meherazad in 1948 with (from left) Murshida Ivy Duce, Mehera, Goher, Mani and Charmian.

I need to backtrack a little to tell the rest of this story. When we left the United States, Mother had looked for something that she could bring to Baba and the girls. She thought that would be a nice thing to do. So she had ordered silk scarves, sight unseen, because they were small and folded flat, but when they came they were really gaudy. She was very displeased about it, but they were actually all right — all except one of them: she didn’t like that scarf at all. It had very flashy bright colours, and she was hoping to replace it before we got to see Baba. But at the last minute she couldn’t find any other silk scarves, so she decided to go ahead and give it to Him. I mean, you always brought everything to Baba Himself; then He would distribute it to the others. Since there wasn’t time to get a new scarf, she brought this one to Him thinking that people’s tastes vary and maybe someone will like it.

Now, when I came out of the tub, there was Baba and all the girls, all dressed up with these silk scarves on their heads. Each one had a scarf wrapped in a different Indian style, but Baba had wrapped two around His head in a style they used in Arabia. And when He removed the first scarf we could see clearly that underneath He was wearing the scarf that Mother just hated. She thought this was absolutely incredible! Then, of course, Baba removed the scarf and gave it to Mother to keep. She used to say that Baba made this scarf beautiful for her. He made it so that she would want it, and she kept the scarf with her always. In fact it hung on the wall of our Center for many years. I saw it just the other day. It is a beautiful scarf, just beautiful, because Baba touched it.

In the middle of this gathering, Norina told Baba that Ivy had some beautiful hats and He should see them. So she sent Mother to get the hats, and she came back with all of them, and they tried some on and they were spectacular. They also brought out a couple of my hats, such as a very sweet white one that had a little rose on it. I had also brought a white one with a bow, and Baba put it on His head and said I could keep this with me but not wear it. I liked that hat, and they both stayed with me in my closet and are still with me today.

Inayat Khan brought the Sufi message to the western world. He was a skilled veena player and toured the United States attracting spiritual students.

I should go back and talk about what we saw as the reason for going to India to meet Meher Baba in the first place. Murshida Rabia Martin had been Inayat Khan’s successor. Inayat Khan had brought the Sufi message to the Western world from India in 1910 and died in 1927. Fifteen years later, in 1942, Norina Matchabelli and Elizabeth Patterson came to San Francisco looking at sites for an American centre for Baba and Norina gave a public lecture. Murshida attended that lecture and it was here she first heard about Meher Baba. She spent the next three years gathering as much information as she could about Baba and began corresponding with Him. She was deeply affected by her internal experience of Baba and in 1945 she traveled to the East where she spent several months with Norina and Elizabeth in New York and Myrtle Beach. She became convinced that at the very least, Meher Baba was a Perfect Master and the Qutub-e-Irshad, the hub of the wheel, the central figure among the Perfect Masters, charged with carrying out God’s plan for creation. She also believed that Meher Baba might be the Avatar.

Once Murshida Martin had that conviction, she wanted to meet Baba and place the Sufi Order in His hands. She contacted Baron Von Frankenberg in Australia who had a small Sufi group there, and she suggested, since she was in her mid-seventies and not as strong as she used to be, that perhaps he would like to send a representative, one of his young men, to help her with her voyage to meet Meher Baba. So he sent Francis Brabazon (refer to August 2002 issue of Glow International for a detailed account on Francis Brabazon).

Francis arrived in the United States, in San Francisco, in 1946. But about this time Murshida Martin became ill, subsequently passing away. Before she died she asked Murshida Duce to take over the Sufi Order and we went to see Meher Baba to carry out her mission. Francis and I became very close friends and he returned to Australia several months after we got back from meeting Baba.

Francis’ own first meeting with Meher Baba was in Myrtle Beach at the time when Baba arrived for that Sahavas. Francis had been waiting all this time, for years, just to meet Baba — waiting with bated breath. You never saw anybody more thrilled than he was when he went to meet Him. Francis had bought all new clothes to meet Him, and he was so excited. He went in and Baba said, “Now I have two Francises — Francis of Assisi and Francis Brabazon.” It was very sweet.

I recall that when Francis first went in, he sat down on the couch with Baba in front of him. He couldn’t get enough of Him. He was drinking Him in with his eyes. Francis was so nervous. Baba said, “Francis, sit back, relax! If you want to sneeze, I want to sneeze. If you want to cough, I want to cough.” And, of course, that is true, because God is in you and therefore God feels what you feel. So Francis began to settle back and relax and then, of course, Baba dropped His bombshell on him. Baba asked Francis, would he do what He told him? And Francis said, “Yes, Baba.” And Baba said, “I want you to take the fastest means you can, right away, and go back to Australia.” Francis hadn’t been in His presence for more than a few minutes. Almost as Baba said it, Francis leapt up to go out of the room, and Baba said, “Not yet Francis.”

Francis got a reprieve of a few days, and then he took off on a bus and train headed to New Orleans and the only ship that could get back to Australia by July 10, the date Baba had specified for Francis and which was the beginning of Baba’s “Full Free Life.” Francis got back to Australia in time and thus fulfilled his Master’s wish.