It's Silence Day at Meherazad...

Meherazad - as it looks today, but photographed by Robin Oppenheimer yesterday

10th July  ..Silence Day all over the world for Baba lovers.  90 years ago on this day Meher Baba started His Silence which is still reverberating in our hearts and lives today.  He speaks in His Silence, and we all have heard Him, or else why would we be observing this day?

Meherazad, Baba's home, goes from mad, mad rush of pilgrims coming to visit His home on 9th July to becoming a place of silence in the space of a few hours.  I woke up this morning remembering that I didn't talk to Baba aloud.  Went and greeted Meherwan Jessawala by joining my hands to him, then got everything ready for his breakfast and went outside to do my turning clockwise exercise and what happens?  Our dearest Gabby, Meherazad's 3-legged dog, does what he tries to do every day, spin with me!!  Without thinking I said "Good morning Gabby!" then had to smack my hand over my mouth for having broken my silence. And it was only 4.55 AM! 

Well!!  Perhaps that's it, and the rest of my Silence Day will pass, well, in silence...it is easy to be silent here.  Since the workers keep silent too (voluntarily) there is none of the usual shouting of instructions, petty squabbles, laughter and joking.  Instead you can hear the birds singing, and boy do they sing loudly!  The coppersmith, the Indian cuckoo, the Indian robin, parrots, crows ...all chorusing away.  Singing His Name, no doubt.  The plants rustle quietly, there is a loud creaking noise as the tin shade next to Eruch's cabin sways in the breeze and someone has just turned the outside tap on full, even though we are in the middle of a severe water shortage...

I went for a walk this morning, around the foot of Seclusion Hill and around the new forest road back to Meherazad.  One of our dogs came with me.  Cissy was so good, she came each time I clapped.  Much better behaviour than when I am talking and call out to her to come!  Seclusion Hill looked beautiful and I wished I could climb it, but I can't right now because my damaged knees can't cope with the climb back down... maybe soon, yes Baba?


Yesterday we had a few hundred pilgrims come and take Darshan at Meherazad, they came from all over India to be with their Beloved at His Samadhi for this most important day of the Avataric advent. 

Pilgrims and volunteers outside Baba's room at Meherazad 9 July 2015. Photo Robin Oppenheimer.

Volunteers taking Darshan at the very end of the pilgrims' visit, 9 July 2015.  Photo by Robin Oppenheimer.

They came and cued for a surprisingly short time, visited with Baba in His bedroom and in Mandali Hall and then came around to greet Meherwan Jessawala who sat in his usual place on the men's side verandah and greeted each with joined hands.  Then they went off to absorb the beauty of the place, many of them lying prone on the benches in the garden and looking up at the leafy tree cover and, beyond that, the blue sky.  It was a happy day, and we Meherazad residents were so grateful to be part of this love feast.  Today the pilgrims are exchanging real things at His feet in Meherabad.. after all, Baba Himself said, "Things that are real are given and received in silence."  Avatar Meher Baba Ki Jai!!!