Conversations about Meher Baba

Late Night Chat with Jeff W: Baba’s Unveiling of Divine Love, Mar 9, 2025 live on Baba Zoom

Topic: Baba’s Unveiling of Divine LoveDear folks of Baba, I once asked Darwin Shaw, one of Baba’s Western mandali, “What is the biggest mistake Baba lovers are making?” Without a trace of criticalness, he said, “They think of themselves as small, and they remain small! Think BIG! Think outside of even the conventional spiritual box.” Baba encouraged this also, even using the word “BIG” in capital letters. Darwin would impress upon us that we are embodiments of Divine Love right now, rather than thinking that we will attain this only in some distant future. On an overcast day, we say the sun isn’t out. But it is there in full glory. The clouds are just blocking it. And in the same way, the clouds covering our consciousness are blocking the stupendous sight of the Divine Love within us right now!Back in the early-1980s in the old Pilgrim Center, Baba gave me a metaphorical vision of this dynamic with His unfailing sense of humor. I see before me a man sitting on a chair with a faucet or spigot in his hands. Behind him is the infinite ocean of Divine Love which is ceaselessly striking against him with full force! But by the time the ocean passes through him, all that he offers from his little spigot is a few miserly drops! Where did all the love go! What Baba implied in this vision was that by the time the inner ocean of Divine Love passes through the countless layers of our ego and personality self, all that comes out is severely limited: the ocean is reduced to a mere stream, at most a river, or with some people only a few measly drops! I found with Baba’s mandali that His love came through them with few obstructions, few impediments, and we received their love to the extent that we were receptive. Baba would often say that we have to get out of the way. We are the cloud cover blocking the sun! It is not that our love has to grow really, for it is already fully developed and present, and merely has to be unveiled and expressed. I find this dynamic supremely hopeful, a different paradigm from what people normally think about love.How to unblock the sun of Divine Love within us? There are so many ways that Baba has given. Foremost, as Eruch would share, is to focus on Baba’s personality in any way, shape or form. Baba has said that even though His form is illusory, it contains the Reality, and as we focus on His form the clouds of consciousness automatically, though gradually, dissolve in His divine presence. In whatever way we focus on Him--His presence, His personality, His life, serving His cause of Love, saying His name--the Divine Love that He is and which is our very soul can flow through us.How does this help us? If we think that we are embodiments of Divine Love right nowrather than sometime in the distant future, then we are not only asserting the truth of our being, but we are honoring our own Soul. Our Soul will never agree that Divine Love is only a future attainment. And not to be in alignment with our Soul can create a deep, unnecessary disharmony within our inner life. Darwin would stress that the proper use of the intellect is to unfailingly assert that Baba with His Divine Love is always with us in every moment. Although we might not be aware of it, to think otherwise is profoundly disheartening and pulls down our spirits.How can we help in channeling the Divine Love within us? Darwin used to say, “Don’t think of yourself as a base of operations. Think of yourself as a conduit.” In this way, we are less apt to obstruct or impede the flow of Divine Love when we think of ourselves as a vehicle, with love flowing through us rather than coming from us as most people think. This can result in what Darwin encouraged in us, “High self-esteem without egoism.” With all their love, the mandali did not radiate a sense of self-importance.Do you feel at the innermost level that you embody Baba’s Divine Love, even if you are only sometimes aware of it? In what ways do you observe that you are obstructing the flow of this love? Can you see Darwin’s distinction of thinking of ourselves as a conduit rather than as a base of operations? Can you see how that impedes the flow of love through us? Do you spend too much time dwelling on the past and the future and are unavailable to this love within that is in the present?I once quoted Baba’s words to Meherwan Jessawala, one of the mandali, “Live more and more in the present which is ever-beautiful and stretches away beyond the limits of the past and the future.” I asked him what these words meant to him. He replied, “You won’t find Baba in the past or the future. You will only find Him in the present.” In His love, JeffTo join the email list for Late Night Chats, contact AngelaThis event was recorded live. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

Sahavas for Everyone: Anne Haug, Mar 5, 2025 live on Baba Zoom

Sahavas for Everyone. First and third Wednesday of the month.Please join us with special guest Anne Haug."My work for the last 15 years has been facilitating the self-inquiry model of Byron Katie to support the dismantling of stressful thoughts through her systematic and methodical process called The Work."We know from Baba that this world is an illusion — a dream — whose purpose is for our awakening, and I continually find self-inquiry to bring me and those I work with closer to Baba, closer to our true Self. I have shared this process on Baba Zoom through an introduction as well as a series of 18 tutorials, weaving Baba’s words with The Work."Since my retirement a few years ago, I have delved into Jungian studies and most recently psychological types, which inform a deeper understanding of life in illusion. Most recently I have been in a study group on Infinite Intelligence and find that my experience in self-inquiry enlivens those studies. My passion is to live and share Baba’s love and truth through these accessible modalities to more deeply embrace the Path of Love." ~ A.H.Avatar Meher Baba is in each one of us. And His Love is the focus of this gathering. Open discussion with each session having a topic or theme. Hosted by Laurent Weichberger in SC. This event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

Nick Principe ”Sharing Baba’s Kindness,” Mar 3, 2025, live on Baba Zoom

Nick will tell stories he heard from the Mandali, in the context of trying to live a life of the spirit. Special Baba's Birthday edition! Questions and comments welcome!Hosted by Diana Goodheart in NCThis event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

Late Night Chat with Jeff W: Self-forgetfulness, Baba Remembrance, Mar 2, 2025 live on Baba Zoom

Over the years, many Baba lovers have shared with me that they find that their work in the world takes them away from their focus on Baba. Hours go by preoccupied with mundane details at work that they feel have nothing to do with their spiritual life and only contributes to the bottom line of the companies they work for. They have barely any time to remember Baba until after work. This same scenario goes on year after year. Mine was the opposite problem as I will describe, but an exchange with Eruch throws light on this whole subject.Back in the mid-1970s before I began working at the Center, a buddy of mine and I were working together as house painters. Much of our painting work was in Briarcliffe Acres, an upscale residential area just north of the Center. Back then, I would describe myself as a Baba remembrance machine; I would say “Baba, Baba, Baba...” inwardly--with each brush stroke, while sanding, caulking, cutting in windows and baseboards, all with Baba’s name. We worked together for six months, and then we went to India. One day while at Meherazad, we were sitting just outside Mandali Hall on a bench with Eruch. My buddy asked, “Eruch, I work as a house painter, and sometimes hours go by and I haven’t even thought of Baba. He is the most important Being in the world, and He has asked us to make Him our constant companion, and I’m often not even remembering Him! What can I do about that?” Eruch replied in his very casual way, “In the beginning, it’s important to remember Baba, to repeat His name, see the movies, go where Baba has been and read all the Baba literature. But in time it becomes important to forget yourself. When you forget yourself, Baba can then live through you. You’re not aware of it, but He is living through you. So, lose yourself in your painting.” He went on to say, “Get wholeheartedly lost in your activities, and when you come out of that absorption, remember Baba—that is, when you remember to remember, remember Him!”In that moment, I felt the undeniable truth of Eruch’s words; they were indelibly imprinted in the core of my being: “When you forget yourself, Baba can then live through you.” That was a turning point for me in my life with Baba, because I had become a bit rigid in remembering Him all the time. I had lost the playfulness that had always been a part of me since childhood, the spontaneous enthusiasm of my college days, the genuine fun in life that I experienced over the years. Since that brief, life-changing conversation with Eruch, I have found that self-forgetfulness and remembrance of Baba make a vital and complementary dynamic in my inner life. So, this is how I translate Eruch’s words into my life: when I get into something, such as volleyball or music or gardening, I lose myself. Baba, as Eruch said, can then live through me even though I am not aware of it. And after the activity, I remember Him. So, it’s an alternating between Baba remembrance and self-forgetfulness. I found, when it was all Baba remembrance, I would become a little stiff and unnatural, and if it’s all self-forgetfulness, that also can sometimes become unbalanced. Self-forgetfulness and Baba remembrance work beautifully and harmoniously together for me. That awareness freed me up to do a lot of things on the Center that might not technically be considered “Baba.” Baba liked games, skits, jokes, movies and spontaneous gatherings, because in them we forget ourselves. Like gardening–-you can lose yourself among the flowers and hours fly by. It’s heavenly. I asked Margaret Craske’s dancers, most of whom were deeply devoted to Baba, if they remembered Him out on the stage in the midst of their performances. This was ballet at its highest level at the time. They all said that they remembered Baba before their performances, and then lost themselves in their dancing on stage. Afterwards, they would dedicate their performance to Baba. They had all tried at one time to remember Him during their performances, but they confessed that it took away from their total absorption in the dance.Have you faced this dilemma in your own life, of getting into things so deeply that you forget Baba and then feeling that you are letting Him down? Will what Eruch said make a difference in your approach to, say, your computer work, which can absorb your attention for hours? Does self-forgetfulness change the way you approach what you normally think of as unspiritual? Do you resolve this challenge by keeping Baba always there in the background while you focus on the practical details of life in the foreground? Do you sometimes find that you overdo getting into things and forget Baba, like watching football all day on Sunday? In His love, JeffTo be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

Nick Principe shares Baba’s Birthday letters from Mandali, Feb 25, 2025

Nick Principe spent much time with the mandali in India in the early 70s and 80s, especially Baba's brother Jal and Eruch. Today Nick will share correspondence and Baba's birthday letters he has saved over the years. Audience questions are welcome.Hosted by Betty Lowman in CAThis event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

Nick Principe ”Sharing Baba’s Kindness,” Feb 24, 2025, live on Baba Zoom

Nick will tell stories he heard from the Mandali, in the context of trying to live a life of the spirit. Special Baba's Birthday edition! Questions and comments welcome!This event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

Late Night Chat with Jeff Wolverton: Entertaining Baba, Feb 23, 2025 live on Baba Zoom

We have some informal chat after every arti, the "post-arti party"! But once a week, Jeff Wolverton joins us for some serious mining of the spiritual depths. Join us for conversation, more readings, songs, quotes - you never know what treasures will be uncovered! Topic: Entertaining Baba on His BirthdayDear folks of Baba, As a change of pace, I thought it would be entertaining to entertain Baba as we approach His 131st Birthday by our sharing poetry, stories, songs, jokes, quirky ways of remembering Him, a film clip, artwork—anything and everything but the kitchen sink! The subject of entertaining Baba reminds me of an incident from my own life that was pivotal in my work here at the Center in Myrtle Beach. Back in the late 1980s or early 1990s, I was just beginning the long and arduous job of cleaning all the windows of the Original and Lakeview Kitchens. Altogether this involves 47 windows, some of which have as many as 12 panes. And then there are the screens! It is a long, often uninspired journey into the realm of cleaning. Starting at window 47, I had made my way to window number 41, with rags and Windex on the step ladder, when I heard a clear, authoritative voice within say, “Is this work entertaining to Baba?” Without hesitation, I found myself saying, “No!” I thought, Baba has to watch me all day, all of us in fact, and I am approaching this window cleaning with an unenthusiastic check-list mentality: window 41 done, window 40 done, window 39 done… I thought of one of those poor security guards somewhere in a small room in a shopping mall, watching a whole bank of TV monitors aimed out at the extensive parking lots to make sure nothing untoward is happening. What if some shopper were to do a little dance before one of the unseen cameras? Wouldn’t that make the guard's day! In that moment, I realized that there had to be a better way to clean windows! One of the ways I came up with of entertaining Baba was to get some of the kids on the Center to help, supplying them with rags and Windex, and let them go ahead of me. We would work for a while, and then go into the kitchen and have some treats, maybe juice or ice cream on a hot day, and enjoy ourselves. That would surely delight Baba. Or I might ask someone who needed to talk about something difficult they’re going through, and we would work side by side while delving into the issue. Or other ways included thinking of Baba, His life, singing a song, or doing a super window cleaning job for Him. I learned how to be more resourceful and creative and not let the window cleaning become my usual uninspired routine, and make it more fun for Baba. Now if I can only do my danged taxes in the same spirit! Here Baba reveals His side of this experience:“The same theater, the same show, the same actors,twenty-four hours a day, eternally, and I have tonot only stay awake, but smile and clap.” In His love, JeffTo join the email list for Late Night Chats, contact AngelaThis event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

Peter Nordeen - Miracles and the law of Karma / Begin the Beguine - Feb 23, 2025, live on Baba Zoom

Peter gave a Birthday message. He focused first on miracles. Though Beloved Baba never gave great significance to miracles, Peter discusses one major miraculous event that occurs every 700 to 1400 years, the birth of the Avatar. Then Peter explores the meaning of Baba's favorite song, "Begin the Beguine" through the lens of the Avatar taking birth once again, being called to duty by the five perfect masters of the Age.Hosted by Diana Goodheart in NCSue Chapman's Poem:Beloved’s Birthday (written Feb 8, 2021)While the world continues to pray in churches, synagogues, and mosquesPerforming pujas and rituals in temples, yearning for Your presence,Imploring Your return as Ram, as Krishna, as Buddha, Jesus, MohammedYou have already come, so very quietly….Without fanfare of trumpets, or the sight of archangels or chariots in the sky,You came in such an ordinary guise, as a brother, as a son, as friend.You rode your bike around your neighbourhood, attended to your studies, played cricket,Living in a modest town that did not know the jewel in its midst.But the Masters of the Age knew You in an instant, recognised your GloryAcknowledged your descent as Man,And nurtured the agonising birthing of Your DivinityIn ways even your own mother, for so long, could not.Answering the longing in our hearts you came, so very quietlyThat almost the entire world failed to notice!You scattered the seeds of your love in countless barren heartsAnd stepped away like a trusting gardener, knowing their inevitable flourishing.Your disguises were the flimsiest of foils,A beret here, a fez there, a double-breasted suit, brogue shoes.They might have turned their heads and wondered – who is that?They might have known your glory, but most passed by unseeing,And your silence could never cause offence.Amidst the wildest mysteries of our most gorgeous planet earthWith all its myriad creatures and life forms,However did it come to pass, that I, you, we are the fewWho, having caught the fragrance of your love on the windOn this avenue or that, knew, just knewWe must track the source above all else?And as extraordinary, having found the sourceAnd realised it to be Truth, Beauty, Love DivineThe pinnacle of man’s desire, the goal, the glorious final resting place,Discovered it was a gift we could not freely share,And found, with pain, it could be rejected and reviled.How can we adequately express gratitude to the OneWho, inhabiting eternal knowledge, power and bliss,Surrendered unto the entrapment of a mere human formOnly to bear innumerable assaults and privations?What mercy did the world provide, aside of One Supreme Woman,And a small band of willing slaves?There is no acknowledgment we few can express,No Birthday Cake grand enough, no song sweet enoughNo words to convey the depth of our thankfulness.And so we stumble blindly on, surrendering what we can,Regretting what we can’t, and hoping above all hopeThat one day, one day, we will see you as you really are,And ‘Happy Birthday Baba’ will become every dayYou are reborn in me, and I am reborn in You!This event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

Sahavas for Everyone: ”Intelligence Notebooks” Fereshteh Azad, Feb 20, 2025 live on Baba Zoom

Sahavas for Everyone, with special guest Fereshteh Azad who will share about Avatar Meher Baba, and his relationship with the "Intelligence Notebooks." She will also share about her spiritual journey with Meher Baba. ❤ ❤ ❤Love to all, no exceptions ❤Avatar Meher Baba Ki Jai!Hosted by Laurent Weicheberger in SCThis event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

”Sharing Baba’s Kindness” - Nick Principe, Feb 17, 2025, live on Baba Zoom

Every other Monday, Nick will tell stories he heard from the Mandali, in the context of trying to live a life of the spirit. Questions and comments welcome!Tech host Diana Goodheart in NCThis event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily