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A
Precious Opportunity: The Meherabad Young Adult Sahavas 2002
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Almost
fifty years ago, Beloved Baba told His sahavasees at Meherabad:
“For ages and ages I have been with you, nearer to you than
you feel yourself to be. Now you have the opportunity to be with
Me for a week and also to come nearer and nearer to Me for all time.”
Just
last week, from 26 June to 3rd July 2002, taking up His eternal
invitation to come nearer to Him, 62 participants from all over
India and one each from America and Australia gathered for seven
days at Meherabad for the second Meherabad Young Adult Sahavas.
Joining them were 12 Indian volunteers, all of whom had attended
the sahavas last year, and the ten young adult resident-volunteers
who had worked their hearts out all year long planning and arranging
for this event. It was unfortunate that almost all the westerners
had to cancel due to the tensions in the region in June. “Although
it was not the international mix we had planned and hoped for,”
said one of the organizers, “we knew the sahavas was following
Baba’s own plan. And how sweet it was then to be able to accept
everyone from India on the waiting list, including many second-timers
who at first were not accepted due to lack of space.”
*
* *
Beloved Baba has said, “Gatherings and meetings in My name
should be a channel for the expression of My love....” and
to this end the scheduled activities included many avenues of love-expression:
morning and evening Arti, creative workshops, service projects,
discussion groups, and evening programs including a Celebration
show for pilgrims and the community. In addition, there were precious
opportunities to hear the mandali, go on a visit to Meherazad, and
watch Baba films and videos.
A
few lingering images from that memorable week:
*
the long, silent, reverent line of sahavasees at Beloved Baba’s
Samadhi before evening Arti the first day, holding garlands they
had made that afternoon to offer together to Baba;
*
a tea-time talk with Meherwan, Manu, Sam and Roshan sharing their
unique Baba stories and memories of dear Eruch;
*
a sahavasee showing the blisters on his hands that he got from digging
a planting trench during the service project at the Meher Health
Centre in the village: “See my blisters! But I should really
call them badges!”
*
the intensity and focus of the discussion groups talking in Hindi
and English about Baba and relationships, Baba in their daily lives,
God Speaks, God’s humor, personal Baba stories, remembering
Eruch...;
*
Meheru, after watching a very touching video of Mehera in Hostel
C with the sahavasees, turning to the group and spontaneously talking
of Mehera’s love for Baba, her heart-breaking grief when He
dropped His body, and her ongoing obedience and constant remembrance
of Him in the years of separation that followed;
* a small group
gathered away from Hostel C under a tree during rest time,drumming,
singing and dancing from sheer exuberance;
* the sahavasees
crowding around and gleefully singing “We Welcome You!”
(written by Madhusudan for the 1969 Great Darshan) to Baba’s
dear singers Madhusudan and Subhadra as they arrived at Hostel C
from Poona; and
* the response
of the audience to Madhusudan’s concert in Meherabad Hall that
same night, as all joined in singing the songs he sang for Baba
at His sahavases in the very same hall in the 1950s;
* “They
are so innocent!” and other such tender comments heard after
the sahavasees took the children of Meher School on a tour of Baba’s
special buildings at lower Meherabad, then up to the Samadhi for
darshan, and back to the school for a treat of sweets and ice cream;
* Katie, after
cracking everyone up with funny ashram stories, leading the group
in singing the Seven Names of God, under the Tin Shed on the Hill
at the very spot where first the Prem Ashram boys and later the
women mandali had sung it by Baba’s order;
* the creative
chaos of the Art Bay: drawings and painting of Baba in all stages,
a half-formed mosaic for the Archive building, collages and poetry
to Him on walls and tables, created in the art workshops and free-time
sessions; and
* the order
and quiet of the Media Bay where people individually watched Baba
and mandali videos or listened to audio tapes;
* Bal Natu’s
wonderful merriment and openness as he sat in the Meherabad Hall
sharing endearing stories of his times with Baba, as well as a Hafiz
ghazal, and some priceless advice given to the young ones “as
a
friend”;
* a volunteer,
exhausted from late night talks and early morning meetings, silently
asking Baba for strength to help her get up after a ten minute rest
and practice a dance (based on God Speaks!) for the Celebration;
* the goose-bump-raising,
heart-stirring finale of the Celebration when the sahavasees, all
holding hands, spontaneously wound their way up the aisles on both
sides of the theatre, encircling the audience and singing their
own, specially composed song, “Om Meher Baba....”;
* Dr. Goher,
Arnavaz and the other women mandali sitting on Mehera’s porch,
greeting the sahavasees, gently touching their faces, asking their
names, giving little words of encouragement along with Baba buttons,
pouring out love and attention on each one who passed by during
the group’s visit to Meherazad on Meherazad opening day;
* the pindrop
silence during the closing program in the Hall as all watched Baba’s
exquisite beauty in the film “Meher Baba’s Call”,
and, to soft singing afterwards, took darshan at His chair.
And so much
more all rolled into one week: welcoming and closing messages from
Bhauji, sports (cricket, soccer, volleyball), great food, friendly
and loving advice from Jal, friendships formed and friendships
renewed, a ghost scare, a fabulous pottery session, the great success
of the volunteer program (everyone was terrific--working so hard,
caring so much--how could it ever have happened without you all?),
a distinctly Indian sweetness and liveliness that permeated everything,
a Baba puppet show and oh yes, those late night discussions in the
sleeping bays that went on and on and ON, and as always, singing
and singing and SINGING....
---------------
One of the
first mornings at the daily volunteer meeting, a volunteer remarked
with concern, “The people are divided up into groups. They
aren’t mixing together.” Oh dear, I thought to myself,
is it a North/West/South divide? A language divide? Or a city/rural
divide? None of the above. It turned out that the divide was between
those who had been to last year’s Sahavas and those who hadn’t!
On the third day, we heard that the distinction had melted away
by some magical Avataric alchemy, and by the end there was a hostelfull
of exhausted, shiny-eyed Baba-lovers, several of them asking, "Couldn't
it go on longer?"!
All this, of
course, just forms the outer story. A hint of some inner stories
can be gleaned from this sampling of comments sahavasees wrote in
a book for the mandali:
“His sahavas
was a true and beautiful realization of Beloved Baba’s eternal
Love...”
“I am
very thankful to Baba for giving this wonderful opportunity of having
‘sahavas’ with Him... I have realized that the most important
thing that we need today is Love and caring, and that Baba can give
us that. So let’s share it and spread it as much and far as
we can...”
“I liked
it very much. I loved it. I cannot express what it has been in words.
What did I do in my past births to earn the privilege of coming
for this Sahavas?”
* * *
Early on, I
noticed a board in the Art Bay where, under Baba’s “Ancient
One” picture, was posted a poem written by several different
hands. In retrospect, it seems to say it all:
“How can
we describe in words Your beauty O Meher Your face is truth Your
stance holds the ground and us too Your Sahavas is our opportunity...”
[in different
handwriting:]
“to serve You, to love You and drown ourselves in You so that
we become a pearl in Your ocean so that we can shine in Your Love...”
[in different
handwriting:]
“You have reached Your hand to our sahavas and we have held
out a rose to You....”
* * *
AVATAR MEHER
BABA ki JAI!
(-Heather Nadel,
for Tavern Talk
7 July 2002)
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