MEHERABAD DIARY Judy Stephens

#160B 9-15 Jan 2013 Jai Meher Baba to you all! Wednesday 9 January 2013. I went up the hill early to take darshan in the Samadhi when the doors opened. One of the residents who also clean Mani's shrine and Baba's Room came to clean before I left. We talked about her schedule during Amartithi. I then went for a power walk before getting my flowers and returning to my room. When I got home I tried the keys I brought from the Page house. Yeah! One of the keys opened the lock on the Amartithi supply trunk. I took everything out and put the trunk back in my car. After breakfast, on the way to the Page house, I stopped at the Trustees office to ask about the white posts. Jal said the post separate the property of a local Baba lover from the Trust land. This same Baba lover has put up the same type of white post along the road for almost a quarter mile. I think he is planning to build. Most of the land along the road (Kedgaon Road) at the bottom of the Samadhi hill is being fenced. I drove to the Page house and put the trunk back. It was too large for my room. I then drove to the MPR and went to the room Debjani is staying in. I gave her a clipboard to use for the Baba Room sign-up sheet. I also scheduled in some of the time slots for a couple of residents who would be helping. I especially block the time from 10:00 AM until 2:00 PM. That is two shifts; the 10:00 to 12:00 noon shift, and the 12:00 noon to 2:00 PM shift. This is the time all the thousands of pilgrims are up the hill for the fifteen minutes of silence beginning at 12:15 PM. I need people who are able to handle a crowd, because Baba's Room is next to the Samadhi and that is where it starts filling up with pilgrims sitting from around 10:30 AM. Thursday 10 January. I went up the hill early to clean Mehera's shrine. I took darshan when the Samadhi doors opened, and then went for a power walk to the MPR and back. I collected my flowers and walked back to my room. Friday 11 January. I went up the hill early to take darshan in the Samadhi when the doors opened. I then went for a power walk to the MPR and back to my room. I am embarrassed to admit I forgot how to work the new DVD with the Apple TV and the remotes. So, I had not been able to do any workouts. I drove to BSNL to have Mr. Bhor connect the Internet to the IPhone 4 my family gave me. I have been using the IPhone 3 my daughter gave me, though she said it was not worth keeping because it keeps dropping the connection. I didn't care because I loved having the IPhone. But, now I have been give the IPhone 4, and it works much better. The person who gave it to me has an IPhone 5. I will keep the IPhone 3 so friends could use it. I then drove the one block to the Trust. Bhauji was having visiting time and I wanted to visit. Just as I was turning into the Trust compound I had to stop. Bhauji was being wheeled in the wheelchair to the Baba Center. Many Baba lovers were walking behind. I think there were too many for his small room. I parked and took my little camera to join everyone. Though there were chairs, I would have had to sit in back, so I sat on the floor in the front. Bhauji was sitting in front and to one side. He had a table in front of him. Since it would be Bhauji's birthday on Sunday, everyone wanted to sing Happy Birthday to Bhau. There were people from several countries and they sang Happy Birthday in their country language. We had Israel, Iran, Russia, Canada, Columbia, USA, Australia, and I think one or two more. Bhauji wanted people to sing, and then he wanted us to dance to the singing. It was a lot of fun, like usual. Rama also sang. I took photos with my IPhone. I took a couple of photos with my small camera. But, the camera said I needed to change the batteries. I had just changed them before going into the Center. The pack of batteries I think were old, because three different times, after one photo I would get a message to change the battery. ---photos of Bhauji It was time for the bus to leave, so everyone said good-bye to Bhauji. I drove to Yash Grand and had some lunch. After taking a nap I decided to try to get the DVD to work. I played around with the different remotes. Finally, the DVD worked! Actually, it was quite easy. I just had to press something I didn't know to press. Next time I'll be able to do a DVD workout. It was too late to do it now. Saturday 12 January. I went up the hill early to clean Mani's shrine before taking darshan in the Samadhi when the doors opened. I then cleaned Baba's Room. I gathered my flowers and walked down the hill to the Jhopdi. I did a quick clean of the Jhopdi and Table House, and then went to my room to get ready for the Tour of Historic Meherabad. My car was being washed, so I rode my green scooter to the MPC. There was one man from the USA waiting for the Tour. We enjoyed going to all the places Baba did his work. We especially enjoyed being at the Memorial Tower. I never fail to witness the amazement the pilgrim feels when they hear the story and see the Tower in its creation stage. It is awesome. When I got home I call Mr. Swapnil, the cell phone repairman. I asked if he would have time to transfer all the information from my IPhone 3 to the IPhone 4 I was given. Yes, he said, come right over. It looked like I would not be getting a nap. That seems to happen a lot lately, so I am just flowing with it instead of fighting time to have a nap. Mr. Swapnil had thought he may have to format the IPhone and it would take about an hour. To my relief, he said the phone did not need it, and he was therefore able to transfer all my phone numbers within a few minutes. I was so glad because I didn't have the energy to go somewhere and come back in one hour. I drove to the Trust compound. Tomorrow is Bhauji's 88th birthday. There is a wonderful program planned. I am dancing with a group of six. Robin Oppenheim arranged the dance and dresses for our number. Katie Pye arranged the program and there will be skits, magic act, singing, and dancing. The whole celebration will be on Webcast. Bhauji had agreed to the celebration only if his Chat people could watch it also. Anyway, at 3:00 PM we met Robin at the Trust and we tried on the long dresses the tailor made. Then Robin taught us the dance we will be doing. That was the only rehearsal we had. We are supposed to also dance to Hindi Bollywood type music. One from our group tried to show us part of the dance, but some of us had to leave because of early Arti and the Dhuni. I gave a couple of pilgrims a ride back to Meherabad. I went to my room and had something to eat. Then drove my car to the Jhopdi once again. The Dhuni is by the Jhopdi and I didn't feel like walking. Before leaving the Trust I was told Bhauji would go to the Samadhi and the Dhuni. It was busy at the Dhuni. Not a large crowd, but enough. I think some also came to be here for Bhauji's birthday celebration. I took some photos of Bhau at the Dhuni as well as some video, all with my IPhone 4. What was really nice was the IPhone 4 has a flash, like a real camera! So I was able to get good photos of Bhauji. ---photos of Bhauji Sunday 13 January. I slept later than usual, in fact I got eight hours of sleep, so I felt rested. I drove to Meherazad and took darshan in Mandali Hall and the Blue Bus before going to the main house. Now that I am not going to Meherazad on Thursdays anymore it feels like such a long time since I was last there. I only go on Sundays and Tuesdays because I have too much to do at Meherabad. I told Kacy how it felt to me. She said I was feeling an absence. Yes, as she said this I realized it was true, that is what the feeling inside of me was, an absence. I missed Meherazad! I go twice a week, but I had been going three times a week. My heart misses going that third day! There were two buses of pilgrims that came. One bus was big and the other was the small bus. We were kept busy. One teenage pilgrim wanted to go up Seclusion Hill, but she was told to be back by 12:15 pm as that is when the bell is rung to board the bus. She didn't have a watch on so I took mine off and put it on her. Then I went to help in Baba's room. When the bell rang to board the bus the pilgrims left Baba's room. I went on the verandah and Shelley had my watch the teenager gave her to give me. The teenager was still sitting on the verandah. She said on her way up Seclusion Hill she was swarmed with flies. She tried to swish them away but they stayed with her. She finally got fed up and turned around and came back down the hill. She said she would try again another time. I told her sometimes when I used to take walks in the late morning the same thing happened to me, not often, but once in a while. I stopped at Yash & Joli for lunch. When I drove to the Trust the gate was shut. All cars had to park outside the compound because of the birthday celebration. The center fountain had a cover on it for a stage. A large screen was made out of a white cloth; this was for the Chat Bhauji would have later in the evening after the main birthday celebration. Bhauji wanted to have the Chat, and there were too many pilgrims to fit into his Chat room. Before Bhauji's birthday program started, in the center area of the compound where motorcycles usually park, there were several long tables serving cake and tea. I had some cake right away, as last year I waited and ended up not getting any. On some things I'm a fast learner. The program started with the men in the Trust Accounting Office, all dressed in suits, came and stood before Bhau, they sang the different religion prayers. A few of us also joined. After the prayers our dance was next. We spread out around the round center stage and began dancing. At the end of our dance we teamed up and removed three of the colorful cloth pods that concealed Rama. Rama, facing Bhauji, then sang some Hindi songs, which we danced to. Then the other performers took the stage. We had a lot of fun. When the program ended, food was put on those long tables. We lined up and had a lot of different dishes. One of them was an Iranian dish that they had been preparing for three days. Following dinner the Webcast was tested. This was the first time it would be done outside and it was not a given it would work. When Bhauji came back out the Chat started. To every persons delight the Webcast worked! The large screen showed those who called in on Skype. It was such a fun evening. I was amazed once again at Bhauji's stamina. Here he is, turning 88 years old, his body is in such poor health, and yet, his presence and love he gives out is staggering. Monday 14 January. I didn't set my alarm to wake up early, yet I woke anyway. So, I got up and walked up the hill. After taking darshan when the Samadhi doors opened, I went for a power walk to the MPR and back home. Since my new IPhone 4 does not have any phone numbers in it, other then the few I had already put, I decided to sit down and start putting them in. But, first I wanted to check and see if John, who gave me his old IPhone 4, had answered my email about whether any apps were on the phone that were not on it from the original factory setting. His email was there and he said he had already set the phone back to the factory setting. With that information I called Mr. Swapnil and asked if he would have time to transfer all the phone numbers from IPhone 3 to IPhone 4. Yes, he said to bring it right in. I quickly hopped in my car and drove to his shop. He took about five minutes to transfer all those numbers. It would have taken me hours to do it by hand. Of course, the Internet connection Mr. Bhor, from BSNL, had set on my phone was removed by what Mr. Swapnil had to do to transfer the phone numbers. I would have to go back to BSNL and have Mr. Bhor once again connect my phone to the Internet. But it would have to wait another day. At 4:00 pm Bif came by to see what the problem was with some of the old video cameras I have. He found problems with most and told me there was a man in Pune who works on cameras. Since I was going on Wednesday I would contact that man and have him look at them. I had Samadhi duty from 5:00 to 7:00 pm. There was a constant stream of pilgrims. It is getting that way more and more often. Baba's love is going out to the world and more hearts are being receptive to it. Tuesday 15 January. I got up early and went up the hill to clean Mani's shrine before the Samadhi doors opened. After taking darshan I went to clean Baba's Room. When I finished, I gathered my flowers and walked back to my room, where I got ready for Meherazad. Just as I got on the main road, I noticed Robin and two of her sons standing in front of Meher Darbar. They were waiting for the Trust bus to take them to Meherazad. I stopped and gave them a ride. It was a good opportunity for Robin and me to talk about Amartithi. Robin is going to help me supervise Baba's Room and so we talked about it. Driving down the Meherazad approach road there were workers who were redoing the speed bumps. The first one had the pipe almost all the way out of the dirt and it was hard to go over. I saw the workers doing the same thing with the second one. I stopped and asked them to wait, as I would talk to Falu. I told them my car could barely go over the pipe. When we got to Meherazad I quickly took darshan in Mandali Hall and the Blue Bus. Just as I was coming out of the Blue Bus I heard the Trust bus coming down the road. I went to the main house and saw Kacy. I told her the problem of the speed bumps and that I needed to talk to Falu. So I walked back to the other side and found Falu. I told him my small car had problems with the speed bumps. He said he would check it out. After Meherazad, Robin, her sons, and I went to lunch at the Yash Grand. On the way I stopped at BSNL to have Mr. Bhor reconnect the Internet on my cell phone. Robin came into his office with me and met him. He is such a helpful man. I had preordered my food, as I didn't have that much time for lunch. Robin had also ordered some chicken dish ahead of time. But the boys wanted to look at the menu. My food and Robin's chicken came as the boys were checking the menu. I was almost finished when there food came. I left shortly. They stayed and were going into the bazaar after lunch. I had Samadhi duty from 5:00 to 7:00 PM. Robin came for darshan and we decided right after Arti I would drive us to my room and get the Amartithi schedule for Baba's Room. I then drove Robin home with the schedule. I would be gone all day Wednesday, and she would have plenty of time to arrange what hours she and others who wanted to be on the schedule would be able to cover. It sure is nice to know someone will be helping me with the supervising each year. In Beloved Baba's sweet love, Judy