[Tavern-Talk] HEART TALK - Letters between Beloved Baba and Dr. Ghani: Introduction

[Tavern-talk]

HEART TALK – Letters between Beloved Baba and Dr. Ghani: Introduction

We now return to the correspondence between Baba and Dr Ghani which we 
began posting in 2005. Those posted in that series were from Baba’s 
early letters to Ghani and Ramjoo and were in Baba’s handwriting; those 
in this series are later ones and were either typed or hand-written by 
mandali members at Baba’s instruction or written by Ghani to Baba. Many 
are signed or initialed by Baba.

The original Heart Talk introduction, along with a few extra snippets, 
is repeated below. Most of the information is derived from Dr. Ghani’s 
“Twenty Years with Meher Baba” published in the Meher Baba Journal 1940. 
The rest comes from informal chats with mandali members.

Dr Abdul Ghani, known as DOCTOR, was born in the same year as Baba and 
lived near Him as a child in Dastur Meher Road. They were playmates and 
friends from childhood to college, with a deep attachment forming 
between them early in their lives, hence the term “langoti friends”’ 
which Baba uses to refer to their friendship in some of these letters. A 
langote is a diaper (or for adults a loincloth) and in this context 
means a bosom friend since infancy.

Baba and Ghani went to school and college together and on leaving Deccan 
College, Ghani joined the Medical College Of Poona, but left without 
graduating, and instead studied homeopathy, obtaining the Calcutta 
degree of L.H.M.S.

He was a practicing homeopath in Mumbai when in 1920, after of lapse of 
almost 6 years, he again met Baba in Poona at a friend's home (Munshi 
Abdur Rahim, one of Baba's early mandali). Not knowing Baba’s status, 
Ghani embraced Him very chummily as his long-separated friend and Baba 
responded in a like manner.

Dr. Ghani quickly became aware that his old friend was now regarded with 
great reverence and respect. Baba slowly reeled him in, resulting in Dr. 
Ghani's attitude towards Baba changing completely from levity to 
seriousness. He slowly came to accept Baba and decided to follow Baba's 
advice and instructions implicitly, so when Baba advised him to dust and 
sweep his dispensary in Mumbai himself for six months, he did, thus 
sweeping his medical practice clean out of existence! He joined Baba at 
Manzil-e-Meem and later settled in Lonavla, still frequently joining 
Baba at Meherabad, for tours or wherever He was.

He married, had several children and struggled constantly to manage 
expenses. Later he settled in Poona, where he lived for many years.

So Doctor was Baba's chum, and had the special privilege of always 
having access to Baba, who enjoyed his humour, wit and intelligence and 
who gave him a latitude not enjoyed by most of the mandali. Baba took 
him along on the first part of the New Life, which he bravely faced 
despite his health and other difficulties. Doctor had a considerable 
intellect and it was he who wrote the Song of the New Life from the 
first couplets given by Baba and to whom Baba gave many explanations 
which later contributed towards the explanations in the Supplement in 
God Speaks. He died in 1951, shortly after returning from the New Life.

===================================

Jai Beloved Baba!
Archives Team
Avatar Meher Baba P.P.C. Trust

Other Heart Talk letters can be selected at:
http://www.ambppct.org/archives/collections/written_materials/correspondence/heart_talk.htm

To learn more about the Avatar Meher Baba Trust Archives go to:
http://www.ambppct.org/archives

Heart Talk, Letter 268, 1 January 2009
Copyright 2009 Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust