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

[Tavern-Talk]

This is the sixth article in the Trust Objects and Purposes series. This 
article discusses how the housing needs of pilgrims from around the 
world have been met over the years. You can view the previous articles, 
which are listed on the bottom of the page, at: 
http://www.ambppct.org/trust/development-plan.php


Trust Objects and Purposes: Pilgrim Accommodations - Part Two

Standing by His tomb-shrine on Meherabad Hill in 1958, Meher Baba told 
His followers, "When I leave this body, it will have its rest in the 
Tomb on this Hill. After 70 years this Hill will turn into a place of 
world pilgrimage where lovers of God, philosophers and celebrities will 
come to pay homage to the Tomb. How fortunate you all are that you are 
here in my living presence and that you could come up the Hill with me."

Now, forty-nine years later, people journey here from all over the globe 
on pilgrimage to take Baba's darshan in the Tomb.

Where do these people stay if they want to spend a night, a week, a 
month in the divine atmosphere of Meherabad? Foreseeing every need as 
always, when the Trust Deed was drawn up in 1959 Beloved Baba gave as 
the second object: providing "shelter or accommodation for visitors 
staying temporarily".

Up until the morning of January 31st, 1969, the only humans staying at 
Meherabad were those expressly allowed by Baba. At noon that same day, 
Beloved Baba dropped His body in Meherazad, and by evening the gates of 
Meherabad's seclusion burst wide open: anyone in the world could come to 
the Tomb to pay their respects to Baba's form lying in the crypt. 
Suddenly Meherabad had pilgrims.

Over the next few years, most of Baba's Indian lovers came without fail 
for Amartithi, the anniversary of that time. To accommodate them over 
the three-day Amartithi observance, every available room in lower 
Meherabad would be opened, and temporary tents would spring up all over 
the property. But after the crowds would leave on 2nd February, 
Meherabad would quietly slip back to its rural serenity.

During those early 1970s, a small number of intrepid pilgrims from 
overseas began showing up at Meherabad and Meherazad. At first they 
stayed with Sarosh and Villoo at their home, or in hotels in Ahmednagar. 
Dr. Goher would occasionally show up at the Daulat Hotel to see whether 
the Irani proprietress was taking good care of "Baba's children". Once 
during a cold winter, after inspecting the place and finding it wanting, 
she brought blankets to give the Baba-lovers staying there. Across the 
street from the hotel was the Trust Office, in what was then still 
called "Khushru Quarters", where one went to Adi K. Irani (Adi Sr.) to 
"register" one's arrival by filling out the required forms for the 
police, a service Adi provided so that Baba-lovers would not have to go 
to the police station.

When the mandali trustees discovered that this small trickle of pilgrims 
was not going to slow down or stop, they put their heads together and 
came up with a plan for accommodating pilgrims at lower Meherabad: a 
maximum of 12 people could go to Meherabad from Monday to Friday, and 
stay in one or other of the old buildings there. Padri was "host" to 
these "loonies" (as he called them), and near Baba's Jhopri, he oversaw 
construction of a charming one-room dining room of his design (whose 
arched verandah was an inspiration later on for the design of the 
Pilgrim Centre.) You would sign up for this Meherabad stay with Adi or 
his assistant, and later with Mani or her assistant.

Those four nights at Meherabad in the 1970s gave many people a taste of 
the simple life lived by Beloved Baba and the mandali at Meherabad. 
Kerosene lanterns provided the only light, and the food was vegetarian: 
rice, dal, a vegetable and chappatis. Rano Gayley took it upon herself 
to provide plates and other necessary items for the pilgrims' use.

At night as you came down the hill after Arti, the stars leapt out from 
the deep dark sky, and when the train roared by you could see the bright 
orange glow of the coal-fires stoking its steam engine. In the glare of 
day you'd see 3 or 4 buses at the most trundling down the road, weaving 
in and out of bullock carts, bicycles, an occasional pony-drawn tonga 
and women in bright saris striding along balancing brass water vessels 
on their heads.

Having had a taste of Meherabad life for four days at a time, naturally 
Baba-lovers wanted more. And there were more and more lovers to want it. 
The trickle had become a stream. In 1976, a Baba-lover from the United 
States, James Cox, set in motion the plan for a bigger building, one 
where all the pilgrims could stay together at Meherabad and for a longer 
time. With the generous help of James and then many other Baba-lovers, 
the Trust constructed the Meher Pilgrim Centre over the next four years, 
by fits and starts as money became available. Finally the bricks and 
mortar walls were up; the teak doors and windows were in place; the iron 
beds were ready. But there wasn't money for sheets or mattresses or 
plates. Coming to know of this, Baba-lovers in Navsari sent huge bolts 
of bright material to be made into bed-sheets, an Andhra lover donated 
stainless steel plates, and so it went on with donations-in-kind until 
the Centre was fully ready.

On 7th June 1980, Mehera turned her own key in the lock on the Pilgrim 
Centre gate, entered the foyer and with Mani garlanded Baba's 
photograph. Then all the mandali came into the dining room for the first 
Pilgrim Centre meal. On 19th June, Padri threw open the gate to a small 
crowd of 17 pilgrims ("Welcome" was the extent of his opening speech) 
and pilgrims began staying in this new building at lower Meherabad. 
Mohammed Mast called it, "Dadacha bungla", "Baba's bungalow."

A following article in this series describes how other accommodations 
sprang up at Meherabad during these years: more permanent structures to 
shelter pilgrims at Amartithi, Hostel D for the accommodation of larger 
groups, almost all from India, who wanted Indian-style food and a 
simpler accommodation, Hostel C for groups who wanted to do their own 
cooking and also for special occasions, and the Dharmshala.

So in the 1980s or '90s, a pilgrim from India or overseas could enjoy at 
stay at Meherabad in one of four places: the Pilgrim Centre, Hostel D, 
the Dharmshala or Hostel C.


This pattern continued up until March 15th, 2006, when the Pilgrim 
Centre closed as a pilgrim accommodation. Three months later, on June 
15th, 2006, Meheru and Meherwan stood in the foyer of a new building for 
pilgrims, the Meher Pilgrim Retreat, and garlanded the same Baba photo 
that Mehera and Mani had garlanded to open the Pilgrim Centre twenty-six 
years before. A message from Bhau, the Trust's chairman and guiding 
force behind the Retreat, welcomed pilgrims into a new era of pilgrim 
stays at Meherabad.

The Retreat, in style and architecture an expanded version of the 
Pilgrim Centre, is the first pilgrim accommodation to be located on 
Meherabad Hill. Its 96 rooms can house 200 people (100 men and 100 
women) at a time. The new building has two large wings for pilgrim 
accommodation, a women's wing and a men's, each with two floors. Each 
floor ends in a reading room, whose east walls are all windows, through 
which one can look out across the fields towards Baba's Samadhi, along 
the crown of Meherabad Hill.

In a third wing stands the dining hall, a large, high-roofed room with 
several smaller areas (both indoors and outdoors) for eating and 
conversation. A number of works of art focused on Baba were created just 
for the Retreat and they warm the building with beauty: two huge murals, 
sixteen mural paintings, a full-length portrait of Baba, two stained 
glass windows, a marble statue of Beloved Baba and Mohammed the Mast, a 
mosaic, woodwork, and 2,145 tiles hand-painted by Baba-lovers around the 
world. Hundreds of large archival photos of Baba ensure that you see His 
lovely form in every room of the building. And from the three roof 
terraces, one can enjoy His creation in a 360-degree panoramic view for 
many miles out across Ahmednagar valley.

Non-Indian pilgrims now complete their registration formalities at the 
Pilgrim Centre instead of the Trust Office in Ahmednagar where Adi Sr. 
began registering pilgrims thirty-seven years back.

So at this writing, between the Retreat, Hostels D and C, and the 
Dharmshala, there is an accommodation style for everyone who wishes to 
stay at Meherabad.

How gracious and compassionate of Beloved Baba to have made this 
provision in the Trust Deed for those who tread the ancient path of 
pilgrimage to His feet.
 
In His Service,
Heather Nadel

The next article will be part three of the pilgrim accommodation series 
and will discuss the accommodation of large groups who come from across 
India and want simpler accommodation.