[Tavern-Talk] Trust Talk - Trust Objects and Purposes: Accommodations - Part One

[Tavern-Talk]

This is the fifth article in the Trust Objects and Purposes series. It 
will give an account of the development of housing for pilgrims. You can 
view the other articles, which are listed on the bottom of the page at: 
http://www.ambppct.org/trust/development-plan.php

The second Object of the Trust Deed calls for "The shelter or 
accommodation for visitors staying temporarily."

Trust Objects and Purposes: Pilgrim Accommodations - Part One

Soon after I heard about Meher Baba, I visited the Myrtle Beach Center. 
There I met Lyn and Phyllis Ott, whose company I enjoyed immensely. A 
year later I got a phone call from Phyllis saying that James Cox was 
looking for an architect to design a building at Meherabad for pilgrim 
accommodation. She asked if I was interested, and I said yes. James 
contacted me and strongly suggested that I travel with him to India in 
order to see the prospective site and get a feel for the area. That was 
in September 1974, and from the very first, I loved the look and 
atmosphere of Meherabad.

At first, Baba's mandali were a bit nervous about the building project. 
They didn't know me, so they invited me to stay at Lower Meherabad to 
design the building under their watchful eyes. I was given Pendu's old 
room to stay in, and they provided me with some borrowed T-squares and 
triangles with which to work. At that time, pilgrims were only allowed 
to stay four days a week at Meherabad. I was allowed to stay seven days 
a week and I worked there continuously for about six weeks.

The site selected for the new pilgrim accommodation building was in 
Lower Meherabad, which was originally a military camp that had been 
vacated after World War I. In the beginning, when this property was 
acquired at auction for Baba's use, there were only a few run-down 
buildings that remained standing. However, one stone building 12 feet 
wide by 20 feet long, which had been the post office, was in relatively 
sound condition. It was situated between the Ahmednagar-Arangaon Road 
and the railroad tracks, next to the path that leads to Meherabad Hill. 
This was the first place Baba and the mandali stayed when they came to 
Meherabad in 1923. On the east side of the road, there was a large 
dilapidated building which had been the Army Mess Quarters. It contained 
two large halls and two small rooms with adjoining baths. The floor was 
stone; it had a tile roof, and the outside walls were constructed of 
earth. On both sides, there was a veranda that ran the length of the 
building. This building was repaired by the mandali and served as their 
living quarters.

A growing number of people were coming to stay at Meherabad, and in 1925 
two more structures were erected to house them. A thirty-foot- square 
temporary structure had to be built to house the men mandali because the 
post office was now reserved as quarters for the women. Baba named the 
dwelling in which the men mandali lived "Makan-e-Khas," which means 
"House of the Chosen Ones." A dharmshala, or rest house, was needed for 
the pilgrims who started to come at this time. A temporary structure was 
built near the old well for this purpose and was named "Upasni Serai," 
after Upasni Maharaj. These buildings were subsequently pulled down 
under Baba's orders.

When I arrived in 1974, Padri was involved in several construction 
projects. He built a new building, comprised of four simple rooms, which 
now houses the Post Office, two storerooms, and the Labor Office. He 
built the Pilgrims' Kitchen, which is now the Trustees' Office, and he 
built the godown (storeroom) across from Mandali Hall.

 From the time that I arrived in Meherabad, I felt very drawn to Padri 
and spent a lot of personal time with him. Padri and I would have tea 
every morning in his kitchen in Meherabad Hall. It was the newly built 
Pilgrims' Kitchen, now the Trustees' Office, with its beautiful arches, 
lofted ceiling, and tiled roof that inspired my design for the Meher 
Pilgrim Centre. Padri had designed and built it using carpenters and 
masons from Arangaon. Really speaking, the Pilgrim Centre is just an 
expanded version of that building, with interior courtyards.
 
In the process of finding an appropriate style and a realistic approach 
to building at Meherabad, I moved from trying to design a building that 
was original, to designing a building that would take advantage of the 
skills of the local artisans, as Padri had done. I have continued to 
take that approach, because using essentially the same materials and 
building methods has helped to maintain the feeling that was here 
originally.

At first I did sketch-drawings roughly to scale. I showed them to the 
mandali, who were greatly relieved because the style was in harmony with 
the surrounding buildings. On my way back to the States, I stopped in 
Bombay and showed the sketches to Arnavaz and Rano.

In 1975, back in the States, I made a model to send to India. I spent a 
lot of time making this very detailed model, even to the point of using 
little sticks representing roof members. Since I had no intention of 
returning to India, I packed the model in a large box and sent it to 
Meherabad with some pilgrims.

After receiving the model and the drawings of the Meher Pilgrim Centre, 
the mandali hired a contractor to do the work. However, the contract for 
the building was what is called an "item rate" contract. It only called 
for the quantities and rates for plaster, stone, and brickwork, etc., 
and did not insure that the building conform to the drawings. James Cox 
had told me that if I wanted the building to resemble my drawings, I 
would have to come back to India and supervise the construction. I 
returned to India believing it would take about a year to finish the 
building, but in actuality it took four years. However at the end of 
those four years, I no longer wanted to leave India.

The skills of the local workers were definitely up to the task of 
constructing the Meher Pilgrim Centre. One major challenge, however, was 
figuring out how to build uniformly and efficiently the brick arches 
which were called for in the plan. To do so, I designed collapsible 
metal forms which were used to support the construction of the arches, 
and this was how the 110 arches in the Pilgrim Centre were built. We 
used the same forms 25 years later in building the Meher Pilgrim Retreat.

The Pilgrim Centre was designed to accommodate fifty-six people in rooms 
housing one to eight. The interior of the dining hall and surrounding 
verandas of the Pilgrim Centre are decorated by seventeen permanently 
mounted paintings of Meher Baba's life by Phyllis and Lyn Ott. Two 
stained-glass windows by Judy Ernst adorn the east and west walls of the 
dining hall.  On Francis Brabazon's advice, I added the semi-circular 
clerestory windows on the north and south walls. On either side of the 
dining hall are the men's and women's bedrooms overlooking the courtyards.

The next buildings constructed for accommodations were the hostels. The 
original plan was to build four hostels to be used only for Amartithi. 
We built four plinths (foundations) because that was as many buildings 
as the land reserved for that purpose would allow. At first, tents were 
placed on the plinths; then permanent toilets and baths were 
constructed. Later, the walls were built, and cloth was used as roofing; 
eventually corrugated cement roofs were put in place. The idea was to 
build these accommodations as cheaply as possible. To that end, the 
walls were built with local stone held together with lime mortar. We 
began making the mortar using the original lime-mortar mill, in which a 
bullock pulled a big wheel around a circular trough, grinding and mixing 
limestone, sand, and water. Later, in place of a bullock we used a 
diesel-driven machine. The roofs of the hostels are constructed of thin, 
self-supporting corrugated cement sheets bolted together. We made a 
truss-like support to hold the sheets in place as they were bolted 
together and secured to the walls. After completing the first two 
hostels, we realized that since people were starting to come year-round, 
we would need to provide full-time accommodations for them. So, the 
design of Hostel D was modified to include a kitchen, cupboards, 
separate rooms, a veranda, etc.

Before we built Hostel D, the Dharmshala was rebuilt to be used for 
pilgrim accommodation and staff quarters. The Dharmshala was often used 
to accommodate the overflow of pilgrims staying at the Meher Pilgrim 
Centre. It was originally the Army Mess Quarters building, which was a 
temporary structure. The foundation consisted simply of rocks placed 
directly on the ground. It was a military # 720-type building, 
designating that it was designed to last 720 days. The mandali had torn 
one section of it down and covered it with cement sheets prior to my 
involvement. Later, we were forced to tear down almost the entire 
remainder of the building. In reconstructing it, I tried to retain the 
original look of the building by replicating the sloped roof, and using 
the original clay tiles and roof beams and the original doors and 
windows. The dimensions of the rebuilt Dharmshala are pretty much the 
same as the original building, as is the layout of the rooms, but 
unfortunately we lost the "funky" character of the original structure.

For Amartithi accommodation, tents are erected by a private contractor, 
but toilets and baths are our responsibility. There are now over four 
hundred of them. At first they were simply plinths with holes in them; 
we used cloth barriers for privacy. Later, brick toilets and baths were 
constructed on the plinths. More and more were built over the years to 
provide for the ever-increasing crowds.

The most recent building for pilgrim accommodation is the Meher Pilgrim 
Retreat. The contractor for the Retreat, Mr. Vaibhau Joshi, has been 
involved in construction work for the Trust for 25 years. Through the 
medium of this work he has become a Baba lover and deserves a lot of the 
credit for the high standard of construction in the Pilgrim Retreat. His 
motivation has evolved over the years from succeeding as a businessman 
to doing the work for Baba. His high standards, inspired by his love for 
Baba, have filtered down to those who work for him; consequently, there 
was quality work done at every level.

In designing the Meher Pilgrim Retreat, we had as advisors the people 
who had managed the Pilgrim Centre for twenty-five years. There were 
lots of meetings and feedback from them that helped to determine the 
final design. The new building has two large wings, a women's and a 
men's. Laid out in the form of a "C" facing Baba's Tomb, each wing has 
two floors, with twenty-four bedrooms on each, accommodating a total of 
two hundred pilgrims. There are singles, doubles, triples, and rooms for 
four. There are eight bathrooms in each wing, four per floor. Each floor 
ends in a reading room, whose east walls have bay windows through which 
one can look out across the fields toward the crown of Meherabad Hill. A 
third major part of the building centers around the dining hall, a 
large, high-roofed room designed to allow for several smaller areas for 
eating and conversation. Sixteen large mural paintings are mounted on 
the upper walls, and another large full-length portrait of Baba stands 
above the entrance.

Outside the glassed-in east veranda of the dining hall is a courtyard 
that contains the old hand-pump used by the mandali in the 1920s to pump 
water from the original well to the old tank near the compound at Upper 
Meherabad, as well as a marble statue of Baba with Mohammed the mast. To 
the west of the hall is the tile garden, a small outdoor area with stone 
benches and tables, a rosewood and neem tree, and the magnificent new 
tile wall. Overlooking the garden is a large terrace and the music room. 
Another terrace extends to the other side of the dining hall.

Of course, the greatest demands for accommodation come at Amartithi. A 
new set of 100 toilets and 150 baths was constructed down the hill from 
the Samadhi towards Arangaon, called the "New Site". There are a number 
of buildings there that during most of the year are used to store 
paraphernalia, (tarpaulins, buckets, etc.) for use during Amartithi. 
When Indian pilgrims arrive in busloads, they bring firewood and food 
supplies with them. The materials stored in the building are emptied out 
and tents are set up in the area to provide shelter for 4000 people. In 
a few years the "Pilgrim Education Site" (near the Meher Pilgrim 
Retreat), will be built up similarly. Small plinths 18 feet by 50 feet 
have been constructed there with steel frame roofs. Tent covering 
material (silver-lined plastic) will be used to cover them. The tent 
coverings can be put on in a few minutes. Pilgrims staying there will be 
able to walk to the Samadhi across the top of the bund.

In the early '70s the first of a series of Master Plans was created in 
order to outline future development at Meherabad. Throughout the years, 
the Master Plan has expanded to cover an ever-larger area around 
Meherabad. If Meherabad is to become the largest center of pilgrimage in 
the world, as Baba said it would, the Trust needs to provide enough 
space to accommodate huge numbers of pilgrims. Before any construction 
begins, the Trust has to receive government approval of its building 
plans. It's necessary to explain to the government that the Trust's work 
is for the benefit of the public in general, not just for a particular 
religious group. This is an issue in India because of religious 
differences, most especially the Hindu-Muslim divide. The government 
recognizes the value of spiritual ashrams as long as they are not 
restricted to serving a specific group to the exclusion of others. Of 
course, Baba's "beads-on-one-string" paradigm fits this goal perfectly.

In achieving government approval of the Trust's building plans, Bhau's 
service has been vital. His work entails accompanying officials to the 
building sites, summarizing what has been accomplished to date, and 
providing insight into how new buildings will fulfill public charitable 
needs. Through his untiring efforts as well as the continuing efforts of 
those Trust workers devoted to providing housing and infrastructure, the 
Trust object of accommodation is being fulfilled.

In His Service,
Ted Judson

The next article will be part two of the pilgrim accommodation series 
and will discuss the evolution of pilgrim registration.