I BOW DOWN TO MY OWN SELF THAT I SEE IN YOU

 
My brother Edward and I were making motion picture films of people intimate with Meher Baba who could give first hand accounts of what Baba had said and done with them. When we were in Poona, Baba's brother Jal [S. Irani] told us that Baba had often asked him to bring lepers to Him because He had work to do with them. We asked Jal to show us how Baba would do this work and what Baba said while Jal was present....

On June 8, 1971 loaded down with movie camera and video tape equipment, we went to the colony where the lepers were being treated for their disease and began filming Jal telling stories of Baba's work with the lepers. Here Jal pointed out two lepers that he had previously taken to Meher Baba and with whom Baba did work.

Jal told us how Baba would bow down to the lepers, wash their feet and how He poured His Divine Love on them. Then Jal showed us how Baba embraced the lepers. Jal continued embracing these people for the next two days with all his heart. This was the outer work that Jal could see Baba doing. Baba explained that His inner work with the lepers would have the effect of eliminating the disease or greatly reducing it for humanity.

When Jal brought the lepers to Baba, Baba would often say to them: "I bow down to my own self that I see in you. God is equally in you as He is in me but the difference is you are unconscious of your Godhood, while I am fully conscious of it, but I will help you." Baba called them "beautiful souls in ugly cages" and said many other things to them.

Baba revealed the Truth of these statements to Jal, and He gave Jal the experience of that Truth even while we were filming him there in the colony. We were unaware of this until years later when Jal told us what he was experiencing while we were video taping and filming him embracing the lepers.

At the conclusion of the video tape that we made of these deeply stirring scenes, the lepers all began to shout joyfully, "Jai Baba!" in spontaneous response and praise of Meher Baba.