JOURNEY OUT OF DARKNESS

 
We have a cable from India, Phyllis announced. "It just came."

"From India?" I was stunned.

"Do you want me to read it?"

"Well, of course!"

"It says, 'Your letters made me happy. You can come to see me next year in May, but not now. My love blessings, Meher Baba. "'

I could hardly believe it. We had received a response directly from the Avatar! He was definitely going to see us.

"We have to wait almost a year?" Phyllis said disappointedly. "I had thought, was hoping, we would be going right away."

"Yes, but just think, we are actually going to see God-Personified. He has accepted us."

That night we went to tell the Rileys the fantastic news of our cable from Meher Baba.

"Didn't I tell you He would be willing to see you?" Yvonne said delightedly.

Tom said, "You see, if you're meant to see the Avatar, even the fact that He is in seclusion cannot stand in the way. Next May, 1965, that's when Baba has announced, He will give another mass darshan to all his lovers, East and West. Perhaps we can all go to that."

We were becoming increasingly consolidated with the Rileys. They were intent on their budding dream. They envisioned a communal center for Meher Baba to be established in Woodstock. Yvonne talked continually about what she referred to as the 'back-to-the-land' movement. She was always talking about fruit trees and gardens. They took us one day to see an old farmhouse for sale in Bearsville, which they thought might become a communal homesteading center. In the rear of the property was an old bam which Tom thought could be turned into a Baba meeting hall. I felt I was being swept along in a direction I wasn't sure I wanted us to be going in. "Maybe Baba doesn't want that," I said to Tom.

It was then that Tom and Yvonne decided they should write to Baba and lay out the whole plan for His approval. I didn't know, but I did not really believe that Meher Baba would approve of such a plan.

Finally a letter came from Meher Baba's secretary, Adi K. Irani, in response to their letter. Baba said that He liked and approved the plan, but "shelve the whole idea until you see me next."

Phyllis was especially happy at this, because it meant that we were going to see the Avatar, and that was what mattered most, just to see Him. Never mind the Simmons Farm in Bearsville. I could feel Meher Baba guiding us, ever so gently.

Baba contacted Fred and Ella Winterfeldt in New York, and suggested to them they come to Woodstock to see what we were accomplishing as a little Baba nucleus. Fred and Ella were seen as Baba's key disciples in New York City where they held the now-famous Monday night meetings, and where many people came to learn of Baba for the first time. To Phyllis' and my amazement, it seemed that Meher Baba was especially concerned with all of us in Woodstock.