A Pictorial Walk Up Seclusion Hill and Back.

Starting out from the little stile gate, back of Meherazad

I am going to be away from Meherazad (and Meherabad and India) for around ten weeks, and was feeling really down about leaving.  To cheer me up I took my new Experia phone with me on my morning walk up Seclusion Hill and took some pictures.  Then I thought, I could share the walk with my readers, so here are the pictures... 



Gabriel (or Gabby as he is fondly known) is our youngest dog. He is the embodiment of "Don't worry, be happy". Despite having only three legs he is always cheerful and loving and happy! Also always hungry. Some days he comes up Seclusion Hill with me, but this day he sat by the stile, and refused to climb. He cheers us up with his affection and his funny antics - his cute pose is to lie on his back and wriggle about! How can anyone resist that??

Our 3-legged ray of sunshine, Gabriel, refuses to walk further!



View of Seclusion Hill from the path

It was a clear and cool morning, with the dew sparkling on the grass which made it look like a silver carpet.  However, there is only on picture where I was able to capture that, and this one isn't it.  The hill looks beautiful and so lush and green, totally unlike it was in Baba's time... 



A few steps closer to the Hill now.

The next few pictures are views as I approach the Hill. 


Almost identical to the one above, isn't it?  But every step brings us closer.  It is like lifetimes.. if you learn nothing then the next life is almost the same as the one before, to quote Richard Bach in my favourite book of all time, Jonathan Livingstone Seagull. 

 

The picture below is taken halfway up the path from Meherazad to Seclusion Hill.

Nearly at the gate to the path up Seclusion Hill

A view of Khandoba AHill from the gate, with the sun rising.

 

The bunds look almost silver because of the dew drops!

Just outside the gate, a shaft of sunlight illuminates the grass while casting shadows over the surrounding trees.  On mornings like these Meherazad and the surroundings are like a fairy wonderland, with light, birdsong, scents and the wetness of the grass all combining to make it a very special time.  It is, of course, Baba's presence that permeates it all, keeps it all so beautiful, pristine and serene.  Thank You Baba!

The path gets harder to climb up...



Rather like the spiritual path, as Baba explained.

The path turns upwards again, and I'm nearly at the top...

 When I climbed the Hill with Eruch and Meherwan, I loved hearing them describe the times they went up with Beloved Baba.  How Baba compared the climb up Seclusion Hill to the spiritual path is detailed in another blog post previously, so I will not repeat the whole story.  But as the climb goes on, it gets harder and harder and from my experience (limited and meagre as it is) of this life-path of mine (which could be termed spiritual, I suppose) you need strong legs and lungs to keep going. A good heart helps too, otherwise your BP will shoot through the roof.  My daily climb is my morning meditation, my time with Baba, remembering Him and thanking Him for bringing me here and keeping me here all these years.  I usually say my prayers at the top..seen in the picture below.

The summit is in sight - but it is still a hard climb away..

Just before the summit, Baba's bench, where He rested.

There was a time when we used to sit on the seat and Eruch and/or Meherwan would give us chana and seeng - dried chickpeas and peanuts mixed with puffed rice, just before we made the final effort to get to the very top!  Now I come on my own and rarely sit there. I am happier on the top, saying my morning prayers and remembering Baba.  Daily prayer, "Baba, let me live with Your Name on my lips and Your Damaan in my hands and die with Your name on my lips and Your Damaan in my hands." Amen.

The seat itself - where Eruch, Meherwan, I and others have rested too..

Here is a really clear view of Baba's couch.  He used to sit there so that He was out of the drafts (Baba didn't like wind or drafts) when He stayed on the Hill for His Seclusion work.  There is only one person still alive who was with Baba and the mandali at the time, and he is a 94 years old farmer named Sampati.  He helped Donkin make the original path and carried water up for Baba's use.

 

Not taking time out at the seat, I climb up and take a few pictures of the views around the Hill.  See how green it all is?  Well, we have only had 18 inches of rain this year, so it is going to be hard in months to come.  All this land will be brown and dry, and there is going to be great hardship for all, including us residents at Meherazad. What looks like water is actually mist, but it does add a really special something to the pictures.



A panoramic view from the top..




And another one..

And another!!! It's so green right now, but hardly any rain..

On the walk down..lovely colours..

 Climbing down again, I looked over the treetops and saw the lovely pale green of the grass all lit up by the gentle sunlight.  Here it is for you all to share with me. This year there is an infestation of 'congress grass', a particularly toxic and virulent weed, on the Hill.  All these years we have managed to avoid this invasion, but this year with the drought, the seeds must have flown on the breeze and also been taken up by the cattle who graze there, on their hooves. 

 

The Young Adults Sahavasees came and repaired the pathway and also helped pull out a lot of the congress grass, but I keep finding new patches each day, which adds greatly to the time I take to go up and down the Hill twice each morning.  Some days I take so much time weeding, I can only manage one up and down trek.

Aloba's shrine to His Name.  Still there.

Aloba's spot originally, where he had made the first bed and put stones to spell out Baba's Name.  Now it is done often, but still the cows and goats walk over it and destroy the beautiful shrine.  But there are many willing hands to set it right again.  Meheru used to come up to here, and she would offer flowers, then come down again.  Some days she would be going up as I was going down, other days she went later in the day with Janet and Heather or someone else - always a pleasure to meet her on a walk.   

Almost the end of my walk.

 Almost at the end of the path.  It is now quite level and easy to walk.  You can see how it turns gently towards the exit (which is also the entrance). 


What a lovely scene!

Baba's grace and some really hard work has kept the Hill full of trees.  In His time there was only one, right on the top.  Soon the fencing of Meherazad properties will be done then there will be a large-scale afforestation programme to plant some indigenous trees and medicinal plants all around.  It will be a wonderful project for many volunteers for years to come.  I hope very much that I will be one of the first!!  

 Just look at the light in this picture!!  Perfect..

And someday, I will be able to share the sounds, the scents and the feel of the place.  At the rate science is progressing, this is not an improbable dream.

 

The very end of the path, only the turning to the gate left, then you are out and back on your way to Meherazad.  It has been a lovely walk and I look forward to doing it again very soon!!  Actually, I still have a couple of days left, but I needed to get this done before it was too late, and I ran out of time.  

The gate.

The gate...

Looking back on the way I've just come.

Almost at the stile gate now, and looking back on a wonderful walk with Him..

 

Seclusion Hill

I wanted to share this picture of Seclusion Hill taken by Gary last month, because it shows how beautiful the hill looks right now. 

I walk up the hill every morning when I am at Meherazad, and it is my morning meditation.  Once I get to the top (usually just about when the sun is rising) I bow to Baba in the sun, the water of Pimpalgaon Lake, the home at Meherazad and at His Tomb shrine at Meherabad (in the old days before pollution you could see Meherabad Hill in the distance) and say to Him, "Thank You for bringing me here today.  I offer my day to You and ask only that You let me live with Your Name on my lips and Your Damaan in my hands. When my time comes let me die with Your Name on my lips and Your Damaan in my hands."  I can't say when I first started saying this little prayer but it came to me and now it is a heartfelt morning greeting to Beloved Baba.  

Baba must be mindful of my climbing and He has noticed that I do try to remember Him as I climb.  I say this because the last couple of times when my attention drifted from Him to something else and was hooked on this intrusion, I fell!  One time I scraped my knee and the other time I had a very bruised backside.  He has a very effective way of drawing your attention back to what really matters, Him.  I just hope He does not transfer this method of drawing my attention back to remembering Him during the rest of the day, because otherwise I am going to end up very battered and bruised with all the falls - both literal and spiritual - that come from the mind wandering indiscriminately.  

Speaking of falls, Manu Jessawala fell off her perch on 19 December 2011 and got an impacted fracture of her left shoulder.  She is taking a long time recovering, though given her age and her advanced osteoporosis, she is doing really well.  She will be out of her sling in the next few days and slowly getting the arm mobilised again.  We are planning on taking her to the Samadhi on 30 January 2012 morning to take Darshan before the crowds all arrive, Baba willing.  She feels motivated to go, because she says she does not know if she will have another Amartithi to go before she goes to Baba.  I think that is a wise decision, because she does seem to be moving away slowly, her mind getting more and more fuzzy about immediate happenings.  When she sleeps she talks to Him out loud.  That said, she is being a real trouper, bearing what must be terrible pain both in her arm and in her legs, and still keeping cheerful most of the time.  

I recall what Eruch would say, "Mehera, don't get old.  Old age is nothing but trouble."  I agree. I have asked Baba to take me once my oldies are all gone.  Maybe when I am approaching 70.  Three score and ten is enough for anyone.  Baba, are you listening??  

Walking with God, up Seclusion Hill.

As I said in the blog I posted yesterday, there were two dog stories and the tale of walking up Seclusion Hill with Baba. Meherwan says that it was 1955, he was walking with a group of other men and Beloved Baba up Seclusion Hill. In those days the hill was a barren, rocky one and the path was steeper in places than it is now. What follows is Meherwan's narration (as best as I can remember) of that climb with Beloved Baba.

Baba had taken the men up the hill to show them where He performed much Universal work. As they reached the foot of the hill, Baba began telling them of how the path resembled the lover's journey to the Beloved. He started walking up and explained that at first the lover gets attracted to the path to God by various means, but once there is the longing, the Beloved begins to woo the lover. He encourages him at every step, shows him great love and preference, and praises him to His other disciples. There is a lot of close contact with the Master and the disciple is spell-bound with love and all this attention showered on him. He keeps getting closer and closer, adoring and (presumably) adored.

This continues for a long while, the lover climbing the path with great enthusiasm, because he is always encouraged by the Beloved. Baba gave the comparison of a kite. The lover is the kite, the string of which is held fast by the Beloved. The Beloved is an expert at kite-flying, He knows how much string to let go, and when to pull in on the string, to keep the kite rising. (We'll come back to this allegory from time to time, as Meherwan narrates the story.) To start with, He lets the string go, so the kite rises. But He keeps pulling the string taut so that it does not go slack, or even worse, get cut. The Beloved knows that He must keep hold of the string, because if He lets go, the kite (lover) will be lost forever.

The men and Baba kept on climbing until they came to the first U-turn. This is where the path turns on itself, and appears to go in the reverse direction. At this turn Baba stopped and said, 'This is where the Beloved lets the Lover believe that he has stopped progressing. He does this by starting to ignore the lover. The lover does all he always did and more to get back the attention of his Beloved, but the Beloved does not respond. Not only that, He begins to scorn the lover. The lover comes before the Beloved and waits for a glance, but the Beloved looks right through him as if he did not exist. When he tries to draw the Beloved's attention, he gets angry and disgusted looks, and sometimes rejection. The lover is now distraught, he does not know what he has done, what he has to do, and why the Beloved is treating him so badly. After a long time of this treatment he begins to think, 'Why do I stay here? My presence makes my Beloved unhappy and even angry. I try to please Him, but don't succeed. Instead of staying and being an irritant to my Beloved, it is better that I go back into the world.' So with a heavy heart, and many backward glances - hoping against hope that he'll be recalled - the lover goes back to the world he had left behind to be with his Lord. Baba compares this with letting the string unravel so the kite can go away from the person holding the string.

Baba resumed climbing, and came to the second U-turn. Stopping there He said that the lover now goes back to the life he had left behind, but nothing interests him. Things that brought him pleasure before now seem totally worthless. He tries and tries, but he has lost the urge to live that life again. He becomes desperate, anguished. He does not fit in anymore. The desperation becomes so great that he finally decides that there is nothing left to live for. He decides to end his life, to commit suicide. Thinking on this plan, he tries to find a suitable way to end it all. At that time, Baba says, the Beloved pulls once more on the string of His kite and begins to bring in the lover towards Him. The game is almost over! The lover now has a thought.
'Why, if I am going to kill myself anyway, go back to my Beloved and end my life before Him?' He therefore goes back, heavy-hearted, knowing (so he thinks) that he'll only go back there to die.

Baba said, "Through all this, do you realise that the lover is still climbing? His progress up the path is not stopped, he just does not think that he is progressing. But the Beloved knows, the Beloved keeps him on the path."

But what happens next? Baba climbed further, now going on to the top of Seclusion Hill, and explaining that this is the last part of the path. When the lover approaches the Beloved, there is no rejection. Instead the Beloved welcomes him with open arms. "Where have you been, I've been waiting for you!" the Beloved says to him. The lover is amazed! What is this? His Beloved loves him after all! So he rushes into that embrace that ends the separation, and lover and Beloved unite for all time. He has reached the summit, with the help and company of his Beloved. The kite is now fully reeled in, and at rest.

There was a sequel to this story, which Meherwan related yesterday. (I started the story on 21st November and could not finish it until 23rd November). Baba asked His lovers, "You all are most fortunate that you are making this journey with Me. Look at this hill, it is a desolate place, not really very beautiful, barren. There are many more hills and mountains that are more scenic, more wonderful to climb. But in the future millions will come to this hill and climb it. Why? Not because it is a great hill, but because I, the Avatar of the age, did tremendous Universal work here. The work I did will bring them to the hill to be in the place where I was." He went on to emphasize how immense the good fortune was, for each of them who climbed with Him that day. Meherwan said that between the end of the allegory about the path and the sequel, Baba told them many things, but because it all happened 54 years ago, he has forgotten. But he remembered this, and shared it with Douglas and I, and I now share it with you! Jai Baba!