APPREHENDED THE TRUE MESSAGE

 
In the spring of 1932, I read an item in our local newspaper, The Schenectady Gazette, which told about Meher Baba leaving Bombay with a small group of disciples, bound for England and America. He was described as a mystic who was regarded by many as a modern Messiah. It is said that he was keeping silence and that the breaking of his silence, which he intended to do in the West, was very significant for his mission to the world.

This news item aroused my keenest interest. I had been intuitively feeling that the Second Coming of Christ would take place very soon, and I felt that wherever he appeared I would know about it and would somehow get to him. I seriously wondered if Meher Baba could be the One I was looking for. Intuitively, deep within, I felt that he might very well be, and I checked the paper every day for more information about his arrival.

Later on I saw another item in the paper which mentioned Meher Baba's arrival in Dover, England. Each time an item about Meher Baba appeared in the newspaper, I pointed it out to Jeanne, my wife. She was as adventurous as I was, and she shared my interest and enthusiasm in anticipating the possible return of the Christ....

Actually, from the time the first item about Meher Baba appeared, my hopes had been high. I continued to feel intuitively that he was the One, and I found myself reaching out to him in spirit. Then, on the day I read the last item, he came to me in the spirit while I was at work. His presence was unmistakably clear. It was that same familiar presence of Christ that had been a natural part of my life from the time I was a small child.

I seemed to be "taken up in the spirit" with him. I did not actually see him, but his presence thrilled me and confirmed my hope of who he was. There was a sense of timeless closeness to him, of secure intimacy with him. I felt that he was truly the Christ and that I had been born to serve him.

This certainty I felt about Meher Baba can only be explained by the inner rapport I already had with him, for the newspaper story itself, incredibly headlined "Meher Baba May Go into Movies," would not ordinarily inspire one to believe that this was a divine being, much less the Christ himself.

I saw through the media's sensationalized presentation and apprehended the true message — the message I had been longing to receive.