Part 1

 
In 1970, when two of Meher Baba's close disciples, Adi K. Irani and Meherjee Karkaria, visited the Baba group in Miami, I spoke to each of them separately about repeating Baba's name constantly. Adi just shrugged and said we shouldn't try to repeat Baba's name while performing other duties. When we are free from pressing obligations, however, we should repeat Baba's name.

Meherjee, on the other hand, said that the repetition goes on of its own volition after you reach a certain point. You don't have to do anything. It just keeps flowing. That's what I wanted to hear, and I went at it with renewed vigor.

Meher Baba tells us, of course, that if we take His name at the moment of death, we will come to Him. He added that we should practice thinking of Him and repeating His name so we won't forget to do so at the critical time. That is enough reason for us to endeavor to keep remembering Baba and saying His name.

Like most Baba-lovers who visited Meherabad in the early '90s, I was inspired by Kaikobad, the disciple of Meher Baba who had been repeating Baba's name 100,000 times a day since 1943, when Meher Baba directed him to do so. In the book Listen, Humanity, my good friend Don Stevens tells of seeing Kaikobad in 1955 at a meeting Meher Baba held for His male followers at Meherabad.

With Eruch Jessawala interpreting Meher Baba's gestures and speaking out the words, Baba told the group:

"I love Kaikobad and often bow down to him. Whenever I go out on mast tours ... I ask Kaikobad to lay his hand on my head and bless me. Recently at Satara he wept and protested, but I told him to continue to obey me to the point of kicking me should I ask him to do so.

"Kaikobad has been with me for twelve years. He has his family. They are staying on Meherabad Hill. He has dedicated everything to me and I have accepted him. He belongs to the Parsi (Zoroastrian) priest class, and hence he is also called Dastoor, which means 'a priest.' And he is a real priest. He sees Baba as Baba is to be seen, and he takes Baba's blessing as blessings are to be taken. He has also been repeating Baba's name one hundred thousand times every 24 hours all these years. He had the first glimpse of Divinity at Meherabad in 1946. Again on August 31, 1953, he experienced at Dehra Dun such bliss that he was on the point of dropping his body. Now he says he can see glimpses of my reality whenever he wishes.

 

FOOTPRINTS IN THE SAND, pp. 52-53
1977 © Oceanic Press