Conversations about Meher Baba

Feb 13, 2022 Late Night Chat with Jeff Wolverton, special guest: Jimmy Khan, live on Zoom

We have some informal chat after every arti, the "post-arti party"! But twice a week, Jeff Wolverton joins us for some serious mining of the spiritual depths. Join us for spontaneous chat, more readings, songs, quotes, you never know what treasures will be uncovered! Topic: Jimmy Khan’s meetings with BabaDear folks of Baba, There are very few among us now who had the great fortune to meet Baba. Many of them first met Baba as children, and this is the case with Jimmy Khan, who along with his mother, Khorshed, met Baba in Guruprasad, a large palatial bungalow in Pune, in 1961. Jimmy was seventeen at the time. His mother had heard of Baba from Roda Mistry, who was one of the Dadachanjis, a large extended family devoted to Baba since the 1930s. Roda had reached out to Khorshed in kindness after Khorshed's husband had died, leaving her with three children. After his first meeting with Baba, Jimmy had the rare good fortune to be with Him many times, sometimes on intimate occasions at Guruprasad and also once in Meherazad. He will share how his life with Baba unfolded over the years and how Baba took such intimate and personal care of him and his mother. Jimmy always welcomes questions. This will be a special glimpse of Baba through the eyes of a young boy as he entered young adulthood.In His love, JeffTo join the email list for Jeff's 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

Feb 6, 2022 Late Night Chat with Jeff Wolverton, special guest: Ron Maytan, live on Zoom

We have some informal chat after every arti, the "post-arti party"! But twice a week, Jeff Wolverton joins us for some serious mining of the spiritual depths. Join us for spontaneous chat, more readings, songs, quotes, you never know what treasures will be uncovered! Special guest: Ron Maytan coming to Baba storyDear folks of Baba, Baba as the Divine Fisherman must take the greatest delight in casting out His line and waiting until that moment when He can gently reel us in! Our special guest is Ron Maytan who has a most extraordinary story of coming to Baba. Growing up in Montreal, Canada, his story unfolds as a young altar boy in the Catholic Church innocently praying to see God. This is the beginning of a most amazing journey that leads him to Baba’s intimate presence again and again until … Ron and his wife Mary have been Baba lovers for close to fifty years and have been to India and to the Center here Myrtle Beach many times over the years. Their children grew up with Baba from birth and later attended the Youth Sahavas throughout their teenage years where they met their future partners in life. Ron has worked most of his adult life with autistic kids and Mary has been a professor at one of the universities in Montreal.Come and hear a most touching Baba story sprinkled with unexpected humor!In His love, JeffTo join the email list for Jeff's 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

Jan 23, 2022 Late Night Chat with Jeff Wolverton, topic: Faith in Baba, live on Zoom

We have some informal chat after every arti, the "post-arti party"! But twice a week, Jeff Wolverton joins us for some serious mining of the spiritual depths. Join us for spontaneous chat, more readings, songs, quotes, you never know what treasures will be uncovered! Dear folks of Baba,The topic: What does faith in Baba mean to you? Baba has said, "One of the most important qualifications for the aspirant is faith. There are three kinds of faith: faith in oneself, faith in the Master, and faith in life.” How much is your faith tied up in getting what you want in a particular situation, or are you able to accept any outcome from Baba? How unconditional is your faith in Baba? Baba has said, "It is faith in each other that facilitates a free give-and-take of love, a free sharing of work and its results.” How much faith do you have in your fellow beings? Do you sometimes find that when you fall short of your Ideals that your faith in yourself is shaken or undermined? Trusting Baba that things will go the way we want—isn't this trust in Him actually conditional? How often do you think, because I have Baba in my life, nothing “disturbing" will happen to me, and then it does. Why didn’t Baba intervene? How do you deal with that ? Do you sometimes get a glimpse that Baba’s loving wisdom is behind everything that happens? Do you have an overarching faith that Baba is in charge and that all is for the best, and yet sometimes have doubts about everyday situations? Does your faith in life waver when you see those who behave unjustly seemingly get away with it? A child is praying for a sunny day for his championship baseball game while at the same time a farmer nearby is praying for rain to save his dying corn crop. Whose prayers should Baba answer? Can we, or should we, ask Baba for things or should we have complete faith that Baba will provide? What have the mandali said about this? Was there something you prayed for fervently and didn’t get, and years later you found that you were actually being protected by Baba?.These profound words of Albert Einstein, written right after World War II, are worth pondering even today: “I think the most important question facing humanity is: ‘Is the universe a friendly place?’ This is the first and most basic question all people must answer for themselves. For if we decide that the universe is an unfriendly place, then we will use our technology, our scientific discoveries and our natural resources to achieve safety and power by creating bigger walls to keep out the unfriendliness and bigger weapons to destroy all that which is unfriendly, and I believe that we are getting to a place where technology is powerful enough that we may completely isolate or destroy ourselves as well in this process. If we decide that the universe is neither friendly nor unfriendly and that God is essentially ‘playing dice with the universe’, then we are simply victims to the random toss of the dice, and our lives have no real purpose or meaning. But if we decide that the universe is a friendly place, then we will use our technology, our scientific discoveries and our natural resources to create tools and models for understanding the universe. Because power and safety will come through undertanding its workings and its motives. God does not play dice with the universe.”In His love, JeffTo join the email list for Jeff's 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

Jan 16, 2022 Late Night Chat with Jeff Wolverton, topic: Being Enough, live on Zoom

We have some informal chat after every arti, the "post-arti party"! But twice a week, Jeff Wolverton joins us for some serious mining of the spiritual depths. Join us for spontaneous chat, more readings, songs, quotes, you never know what treasures will be uncovered! Topic: The challenge of being enoughDear ones of Baba,Two quotes that might be helpful in thinking about this topic:Adi K. Irani, Baba’s secretary said, “The goal is not perfection. It is to be perfectly human.”Here are words of Baba frequently quoted by Eruch: “To be natural is most godly.” He didn’t say to be spiritual is most godly.Some questions to consider:Did you grow up feeling you needed to always be improving, that you were never enough? To what extent did your parents, teachers, peer group give you the feeling that you were always falling short? Is that disapproval sometimes projected onto Baba, feeling that He disapproves of us when we fall short?In school, was education always future-oriented, not purely a present moment undertaking that you enjoyed? Was the focus on some future result, and what we are or know in the present was never enough?Have you found that when you pursue something from the depths of your heart, you naturally improve and develop your talent and capacity in depth, that you felt fulfilled and complete as you went along?Have you discovered that when you pursue something with your mind, you feel you are always falling short, the goal usually ever-receding and ultimately unattainable?Are you haunted by thoughts of having to be more productive, of having to do something more with your life, whether it is in achievement at work, being at the top of your class, acquiring a reputation of excellence in your field, or being an exemplary parent or homemaker?Do you find a tension in yourself between the desire for self-improvement on the one hand and self-acceptance on the other? What effect does this tension have in your heart?Do you feel that Baba’s response to you is based on merit, on being “deserving” of His loving attention?Do you sometimes feel you are not enough for Baba? Not spiritual enough?Is it possible to accept ourself as we are right now, trusting that we are always enough in Baba’s eyes?Enough in His love?!? JeffTo join the email list for Jeff's 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

Jan 9, 2022 Late Night Chat with Jeff Wolverton, Special Guest Angela Lee Chen, live on Zoom

We have some informal chat after every arti, the "post-arti party"! But twice a week, Jeff Wolverton joins us for some serious mining of the spiritual depths. Join us for spontaneous chat, more readings, songs, quotes, you never know what treasures will be uncovered! Dear ones of Baba, Tonight our guest will be our own fairy godmother Angela Lee Chen, whose tireless efforts have made the Babazoom activities available worldwide for us in the midst of a crippling pandemic. This is only the latest of many Baba projects that she has poured her seemingly inexhaustible energy into over the years. She has carried out her work for Baba with an inclusiveness and creativity that has touched so many hearts. And she’s had to do this with her husband Cliff’s drumbeat going on incessantly in the background, no small achievement! As always, she is open to any questions from all of us. This should be fun. Baba chose the perfect person to help us through the pandemic with Baba as our daily focus and remembrance. Among her many projects, Angela has written beautifully in her book, Standing Out, about her spiritual journey from Kenya where she grew up to her times in China and finally to the United States. In her past number of years she has lived here in Myrtle Beach where, in her always-engaging way, she has brought the Baba community together in fun-loving and Baba-filled activities that are open everyone. In His love, JeffTo join the email list for Jeff's 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

Jan 2, 2022 Late Night Chat with Jeff Wolverton, Special Guest Sue Chapman, live on Zoom

We have some informal chat after every arti, the "post-arti party"! But twice a week, Jeff Wolverton joins us for some serious mining of the spiritual depths. Join us for spontaneous chat, more readings, songs, quotes, you never know what treasures will be uncovered! " I think one of Baba’s favorite pastimes is His game of how He catches us in His net.There are so many ways that He does this, each perfectly suited to the type of fish He is hauling in. Some people’s stories are miraculous, some humorous, some very poignant, especially if we’ve beenrescued from the depths of despair. Our guest tonight, Sue Chapman, was taken by complete surprise, an amazing story of how cleverly Baba orchestrates things in His game of love! Just to say a few words about her: Sue is from England and came to Baba back in the 1970s.Over the last many decades, she has been very active, dedicated to the community of Baba lovers there and their work of making Baba available to others. Sue is on the Center here in Myrtle Beach right now and has been so kind to share her story.Wishing you a heart full of Baba as you enter the NewYear, " JeffTo join the email list for Jeff's 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

Dec 19, 2021 Late Night Chat with Jeff Wolverton, Focus: why is injustice unpunished?, live on Zoom

We have some informal chat after every arti, the "post-arti party"! But twice a week, Jeff Wolverton joins us for some serious mining of the spiritual depths. Join us for spontaneous chat, more readings, songs, quotes, you never know what treasures will be uncovered! Topic: Why does evil seem to go unpunished?Dear Folks of Baba, Here is an email written by Dinku Daruvala, one of the chat attendees, that brings up one of the most fundamental questions that we are faced with in our lives with Baba:"The night before your last chat, as I lay in bed, I started talking Baba, asking Him my perennial question about WHY it’s the innocent who always have to suffer for the misdeeds of others, specially of those in power. My focus was on the virus, brought about, in my way of thinking, to teach the world to shape up, wake up, stop abusing the planet, live with love for one another, treat and resp all life and the planet itself, and it’s the governments that are causing all the chaos with their machinations and manipulations of people and situations. So why are they not punished, why do they get away with things while the rest of us have to suffer for their wrong doings, their sins? And I heard Baba’s words in my mind, “There is no right or wrong, no Sins and Sinners. “. So then why? Is it the collective sanskaras of the world? How do we overcome it? How does the world wake up and change for the better, to live as He would have us live? Because, no matter what befalls us, we don’t seem to learn our lessons and continue in the same manner, collecting more sankaras along the way. Is there no hope?"Sorry for the ramblings, but would appreciate your inputs on this if possible, as this thought always troubles me and I can’t find the answers. If there is no right and no wrong, no such thing as sin and sinner, then what is there?"Why does apparent evil seem to go unpunished in this world? If our answer is merely intellectual or even only intuitive, it will probably not satisfy our heart. Spiritual history tells us that this question has to be answered experientially, from the depths of us, and that is usually through great suffering and tears.Some questions to ask ourselves:What keeps Baba from flooding the whole world with His love? With His infinite power, could He not easily change our situation?Why isn’t the world learning from its sufferings and the impact of its negative behavior?Why can’t we enjoy a pleasant and comfortable life and at the same time wake up from this dream of Creation and experience our divine nature, the universal love within, to merge with Baba? Bhau Kalchuri used to say, “Sometimes it takes a nightmare to wake us up from a pleasant dream.”What is the positive effect of the outer disturbance in the world, its apparent evils and injustices? For many, it drags them down to experience the worst qualities in themselves. Does it not, for some, force them to go deeper within themselves in order to find the higher ground of the Soul?The period of human history we are in is called the Kali Yuga, the winter of the world. What would happen if we eliminated winter from the cycle of seasons? What would it do to the balance of nature?The perspective of time: On a personal level, someone may go through a very painful divorce which they suffer with for years, and yet many years later they often say it was the best thing that ever happened to them: they came to realize that they took their spouse for granted and let their work consume them so much that they lost the closeness with their own children. Through this painful experience, they woke up to their own self-centeredness.Are injustice, betrayal and suffering tools that Baba uses to wake us up? Could injustice be really a higher form of justice that we can’t see?Just as a person who is an addict may have to bottom out, hit rock bottom, before they call out for help and connect with their higher power, could it be the same for the collective?What are some of the positive outcomes of the pandemic? Do you think that humanity has suffered enough to avoid creating future suffering? Do you see signs of awakening around you in spite of what the news might convey?Why should things get better or improve according to our way of thinking?Are we being asked to develop that quality which can accept "what is", to accept the unacceptable, to accept everything as Baba’s love, even when it appears outright cruel and unjust? Is there a loving wisdom behind all that happens which we fail to see?What does it mean to accept God’s love?How innocent are the innocent?The Serenity Prayer comes to mind.In His love, JeffThis 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

Dec 12, 2021 Late Night Chat with Jeff Wolverton, Focus: feeling of Belonging, live on Zoom

We have some informal chat after every arti, the "post-arti party"! But twice a week, Jeff Wolverton joins us for some serious mining of the spiritual depths. Join us for spontaneous chat, more readings, songs, quotes, you never know what treasures will be uncovered! Topic: The FEELING of BELONGINGDear loving folks of Baba, There is in us the imperative need to feel we belong. Initially it is to our family, and then it evolves to our neighborhood perhaps, maybe our ethnic group, our country, etc. And along the way we invariably meet with disappointments, because we encounter others who exclude us, who make us feel we don’t belong or even who don’t want us to belong. What are the ways that Baba helps us overcome this disappointment? Can we experience a belonging in all situations through Baba? He has said several things that are helpful: “To have loved one soul is like adding its life to your own. Your life is, as it were, multiplied and you virtually live in two centers. If you love the whole world you vicariously live in the whole world …""You can own the world without being attached to it, so long as you do not allow yourself to be owned by any part of it.”Eruch echoed this last statement when he would say from time to time in Mandali Hall: “This whole world is yours, but you have to claim it. Through love, you incorporate what is outside of you into your own being.” For example, as I see it, if we love birds and we learn their names, their habits, where they nest and what they feed on, and we love going out and observing them, soon we will find them flying around inside of us. We have incorporated them into our being, and our being expands through this inclusive love.We have all been in situations where we don’t feel we belong. What causes us to feel this way?What can we do to remedy this?The mandali gave us such a feeling of belonging, to them and to Baba.How can we continue that feeling of belonging?What part does acceptance of others play in this? Often we seek to belong in a situation or with a group of people, but we wind up sometimes feeling excluded. Are we approaching it all backwards? What if we extend a belonging to all others? What will we experience? Krishnamurti, whom Baba referred to as a saint, once said, “If you want to be loved, just love. When you love, you are no longer inquiring whether or not someone loves you." In extending an inclusiveness to someone, does it have to be expressed externally? What if the person is abusive or takes advantage of us? Is it possible to be inwardly inclusive while at the same time keeping an external distance, especially if the person is not open to changing their behavior?If you know you belong to Baba, does that make it easier for you to feel you belong to the whole world, given that the whole world belongs to Baba?If you exclude others, will that affect your own feeling of belonging?If we are sincerely dedicated, as we see it, to the spiritual well-being of others in each situation, then we will naturally feel that we belong in every situation.These are quite a few questions that several of us came up with others on this topic.What do you have to say? In His inquiring love, JeffTo join the email list for Jeff's 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

Dec 5, 2021 Late Night Chat with Jeff Wolverton, special guest: Sevn McAuley, live on Zoom

We have some informal chat after every arti, the "post-arti party"! But twice a week, Jeff Wolverton joins us for some serious mining of the spiritual depths. Join us for spontaneous chat, more readings, songs, quotes, you never know what treasures will be uncovered! Topic: Sevn McAuley on Don StevensDear folks of Baba, Tonight we have as our guest Sevn Mccauly. He was one from the younger generation who spent so much time with Don Stevens, one of the mandali. He accompanied Don to his many Baba meetings in this country, in Europe and in India and has many first hand stories of being with him. He has a wealth of stories of Don sharing his intimate times with Meher Baba and his practices of living for Him and remembering Him throughout the day. Sevn lives in Asheville, North Carolina, and is married to Huma and has two lovely daughters who are growing up in Baba’s love. He is open to answering any questions about what he has gathered in his own life with Baba and his times with Don Stevens. It’s rare to hear from one of our younger generation of Baba. Due to working full time now with the Center open again, I am thinking of discontinuing the Tuesday night chats except on the occasion of special guests or an additional topic that would be fun and valuable to explore. In His love, Jeff To join the email list for Jeff's 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

Nov 28, 2021 Late Night Chat with Jeff Wolverton, topic: the provisional ego, live on Zoom

We have some informal chat after every arti, the "post-arti party"! But twice a week, Jeff Wolverton joins us for some serious mining of the spiritual depths. Join us for spontaneous chat, more readings, songs, quotes, you never know what treasures will be uncovered! Topic: Living the Provisional Ego: a colossal challenge!Dear folks of Baba, We are in over our heads with this topic. But it’s where we’re heading ultimately. How do we get there? What are the intermediate steps? Your perspectives are wholeheartedly invited.First, an invaluable quote by Baba on the "provisional ego” (provisional meaning temporary, a substitute arranged for the time being only):"Think of me in everything you do. Eat, dance, but forget yourself in the action and think of me instead. This is union through action. The less you think of yourself and the more you think of Baba, the sooner the ego goes and Baba remains. When you — ego — go entirely, I am one with you. So bit by bit, you have to go. Today your nose, tomorrow your ears, then your eyes, your hands, everything."Think of me when you eat, sleep, see and hear. Enjoy everything, but think it is all Baba. Baba enjoys it. Baba is eating it. Sleep soundly in Baba, and when you wake up remember it is Baba getting up. Keep this one thought constantly with you. If you do wrong, then think it is Baba doing wrong. If you get a pain, think it is Baba getting a pain. Then it will be all the time Baba ... Try to forget yourself and do all for Baba. Let it be Baba all the time!" It might be said that the provisional ego is the last train stop in Creation. It usually begins as an exercise, but ultimately the truth behind the provisional ego needs to be revealed in us through experience. That is, the provisional ego is useful as a concept, but it has to eventually become a reality. One day we will realize that all along it has been Baba living what we have always claimed as our life! It really is Baba who gets up in the morning, not us. In watching a movie, for example, we may find ourselves identifying with one of the characters so that when that character is in danger, we feel we are in danger, when they succeed, we succeed, when they fall in love we fall in love. In the end, when the credits come up, we know that it was all a projection on our part. We get so identified with the character in the movie that we become that character for the time being. But Baba has said that It has never been us. He is the One who plays all the roles. That is, it is Baba who is living the life we see on the screen before us, and we are projecting our consciousness on to Him, and claiming that we are the one who is living this life! This is our colossal mistake. In lifetime after lifetime, we identify with the character before us and are pulled into the whole illusion of Creation. What we are being asked to do is to remain fully aware of Creation, but not identify with anything in it. Or put in another way, to be aware that everything and everyone is Baba. Such a detachment, Baba says, is not sterile or passive, but is a state of flowing and dynamic responsiveness to life characterized by a loving spontaneity that always leaves our consciousness free! In this way, love is finally liberated from being bound by Creation and can express itself in each moment as it wishes, unrestrained by what our personality wants. Baba has said that we are really infinite, but we identify with the mind, and instantly we become a person. If we didn’t do this, we would remain the Infinite that we really are. All this is a very tall tall order from Baba. Bit by bit “we” have to go. I know we all sometimes feel in certain moments Baba working through us or eclipsing us in a particular situation. We may feel Him watching us. And now it all has to be reversed, little by little, so that it is us watching Him live what we formerly called “our" life. The mandali have said that people are just playing their roles. They are not really their roles; it is really Baba in disguise. Yikes, what a huge challenge! This is an unfathomable topic that is truly ongoing. In His love, JeffTo join the email list for Jeff's 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