[Tavern-Talk] A Silence Day Story

[Tavern-Talk]

A Silence Day Story

July 10th, Silence Day, has come and gone, as have most of the 1400
people who came to Meherabad to observe it near Beloved Avatar Meher
Baba's Samadhi.  But what a splendid Day it was! People began arriving
at lower Meherabad all night long on the 9th, and as the sky
lightened, heralding an overcast windy day, almost everyone at
Meherabad headed for the tomb, streams of people all in silence
walking up the hill from the Hostels, or across the hill from the
Retreat, or from the homes and staff quarters nearby. People who got
into line, took a rose from the basketful of red roses on the bench
near the Samadhi door, went inside a few at a time, bowed down one by
one. There was no Arti, of course, and all the praying was in silence.
The profound Eternal Silence at the heart of Meherabad seemed to flow
out from the Samadhi like perfume.  A silent crowd sat around it all
the ensuing day into the evening -- pilgrims to His Ocean shore,
drinking in the sea-breezes of Baba's sweet, deeply serene atmosphere.

Mid-morning Meheru came from Meherazad to bow down to Baba there, and
then went down the Hill for a special darshan at Baba's Jhopdi (the
small hut where He started His silence in 1925) and the Table House.
In this she was following in the footsteps of dearest Mehera, who
would always visit these sacred spots on Silence Day. At the small
window grill inside the Jhopdi are two pictures of it from the early
days and pointing to one of them, Meheru smiled and gestured, "I saw
it like that!" The Jhopdi was open for darshan all day too, and scores
of lovers took advantage of this rare chance to enter the tiny room
and pay homage to Baba there.

There were two silent showings of a Baba-film in the theatre, one in
the morning, one in the afternoon. And at meal and tea times, crowds
of pilgrims at Hostel D verandah tables or in the Retreat Dining Hall,
sat together enjoying silent companionship and the unique ambience
served up by the Beloved. (And yes, there was the annual silent
volleyball game!)

What couldn't be seen, but was at the heart of the day, were the
efforts of each one of all those many lovers to uphold Baba's order
(given for the last Silence Day of His advent) to keep total silence
from midnight to midnight of July 10th. It was a continual meditation,
as it was for His lovers everywhere around the world observing
silence. The day before, one of the residents had reminded the woman
who works for him to beware of speaking to the cat on Silence Day by
mistake. She laughed and reassured him, "Oh don't worry about that!
You can talk all you like to animals! You just can't talk to humans!"
(Well, no.... but wouldn't that be easy!)


Mehera was often sad on Silence Day, remembering how much Baba's silence
added to His suffering.

But Mani sometimes related an explanation Baba gave Shireenmai, their
mother, about His silence and His work for the world:
"My favourite memory of Baba and His silence was a little discourse He
gave to Mother, one of those natural, casual, spontaneous sayings of
Baba's that I call the 'simple sermons'.  It was after Toka, at a time
when Baba had been doing a long fast. While He was fasting, of course,
He went on keeping silence as He had been doing for many years.

"Now all this hurt Mother, who loved Him so much, and who knew what a
beautiful voice He had. Why was He doing all this? Why was He
imprisoning His beautiful voice, why was He fasting and wearing out
His beautiful body?

"So she said to Him one day, 'Merog, why should you fast for all these
months? You have become so thin and frail. And why should you observe
silence and lock up your beautiful voice? You say there's nothing for
you to gain from it, and that you're doing it for all these young
chits around you. So why don't you make THEM do it! If it's for their
sake, make them observe silence, make them fast! Why should you do
it?'

"That's when Baba gave us a hint, a glimpse, of the difference when we
do something and when He does it for us. An insight into the dimension
of His silence, His fasting, or whatever He does out of His love for
mankind.

"He said, 'Mother, if the whole world were to fast for the rest of
their lives, it wouldn't equal one day of My fasting. And if the whole
world were to observe silence for the rest of their lives, it wouldn't
equal one hour of My silence.'"



Jai Baba!

(= Heather Nadel
for Tavern Talk
24 July 2008)


-- 
                                   ==== ==== ==== ==== ====

Tavern Talk is the electronic newsletter of the Avatar Meher Baba Trust
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://avatarmeherbaba.org/pipermail/tavern-talk/attachments/20080724/d50bc0ab/attachment.htm