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Photograph: Bhaiya Panday More information on Meher Baba is available at AvatarMeherBaba.org Article written by Gabriella Tal for the Chapel Hill News: Meher Baba is known to many as the "Avatar of the Age". He was born as Merwan Irani in 1894 in Pune, India and died in 1969. He began a relationship with his first of five spiritual teachers (masters) at the age of 18. This first master was a woman named Hazrat Babajan who lived to be 120 years of age. Through the help of his masters, Merwan became "unveiled" as to his true purpose and began to draw around him, his disciples or inner circle of "Mandali". They gave him the name Meher Baba, meaning "compassionate father." Over the years, there were many stages to Baba's work: He is well known for his work with the God-intoxicated (masts) - those who have become mad with love for God and lost track of their earthly way. He also is known for his keeping of silence for 44 years which he said he did for the good of humanity. From 1925 until the day of his death in 1969, Meher Baba did not utter a sound -- this in spite of the fact that he was in two serious automobile accidents which left him in great physical pain. One of these accidents was in the United States. Baba said he was destined to spill his blood on American soil. Indeed, we still bear witness to the effect of his legacy upon this land. His North American Spiritual Center is in North Myrtle Beach, SC. Meher Baba felt the world had enough of religions, empty rites and words. He said the book we were to read was the book of the heart and that he had come "not to teach, but to awaken" suffering humanity and give them a push towards the reality of God. The following excerpt from the essay "Purification Of The Heart", identifies the work of the Avatar: . . . The Avatar comes down for the sake of love, and his main work for humanity is to establish himself, his love, in each heart. He works to remove the sanskaric obstacles keeping each heart from awakening and feeling his love, for these sanskaric obstacles are what cause people to resist him. His work is the purifying process for each heart, and only when a heart is sufficiently purified can he become established in that heart, for it then has the capacity to feel the love of God. Through the experience of divine love, the way toward the Truth opens. When the Avatar has established himself in each heart, the world will totally change, for humanity will then proceed toward the light of Truth and the path toward God will open within each heart. When each human heart feels his love, his presence, it will be his manifestation to the world. . . . 1932 Meher Baba's Message to the Public: "I have not come to establish any cult, society or organization, nor even to establish a new religion. The religion I will give teaches the knowledge of the One behind the many. The book which I shall make people read is the book of the heart, which holds the key to the mystery of life. As for ritual, I shall teach humanity to discriminate, express and live it rather than utter it. I shall bring about a happy blending of the head and heart. . . . . . . . No spiritual Master brings religion to the world in the form it eventually assumes. His very presence is a blessing and radiates spirituality. He imparts it to others by personal contact. The so-called religions are an effort to commemorate that association with a great spiritual Master, and to preserve his atmosphere and influence . . . . The living spirit being absent, religions or organizations gradually lose their glamour. The result is a mental revolt against the established order. Something more substantial and practical is required which expresses the life of the spirit. . . . . . . . The West looks at things only from the standpoint of reason and logic, and is skeptical about things which baffle the intellect. Intellect is the lowest form of understanding and is simply developed by reading, hearing, reasoning and logic. These processes create an illusion of knowledge. . A higher state of understanding is permanent illumination, through which the illumined one experiences and sees all things as they are. In this state, one feels in harmony with everyone and everything, and realizes the divinity in every phase of life, and is able to impart happiness to others. Once this state is attained, one attends to all duties and material affairs, and yet feels mentally detached from the world. This is true renunciation. The last and highest state of understanding is the merging of the soul into the Limitless Ocean of infinite bliss, knowledge and power. The Perfect One who has himself attained his freedom can make thousands perfect like himself. I intend bringing about a great spiritual revival in the near future, utilizing the tremendous amount of energy possessed by America for this purpose. Such a spiritual outpouring as I visualize usually takes place at the beginning or end of a cycle and only a Perfect One, who has reached the CHRIST state of consciousness, can make such a universal appeal. . . . . . . .It will be one of my greatest miracles to bring together and blend the realistic West with the idealistic East; and the West at the zenith of its material and intellectual attainment and the East at the height of its spiritual manifestation in the shape of the Avatar will meet without shaming or looking down upon each other. . I repeat, materialism and spirituality must go hand in hand. The balance of head and heart must be maintained; the head for discrimination, the heart for feeling, whereby it is possible to realize infinite consciousness in art, science, nature and in every phase of life. " More information on Meher Baba is available at AvatarMeherBaba.org