Conversations about Meher Baba

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

Late Night Chat with Jeff Wolverton: guilt, shame and remorse, Feb 16, 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: Guilt, Shame and RemorseDear folks of Baba, For most Baba lovers, regret about many things they’ve done in their past naturally casts a shadow over their present moment. And often it is with their present consciousness that they judge themselves, which isn’t really fair, because they have grown since then and they probably wouldn’t do such things with what they know now! And in condemning themselves they bring a feeling of unworthiness upon themselves. There is a simple quote by Thomas Leonard which says, “Give up all hope…of a better past!” How does this state of regret persist? It is often because we try to resolve our past wrongs, shortcomings, failings, etc. with our mind. But the mind is too superficial; it doesn’t take one deeper than guilt. Guilt lacks the depth to fathom the root causes of our weaknesses. Guilt’s method is like clipping off the tops of weeds, which doesn’t get at the root, and so the weed sprouts anew. I find if I feel guilty, and it persists for days, I am likely going to do the selfish thing again! And guilt invites shame, which is not really an emotion but a mental attitude. It is a self-judgment about how bad we are or have been. The only thing that wipes away our weaknesses and bypasses guilt and shame is remorse.Remorse is of the heart, and if we are going to change our behavior, it is at the heart level. We feel the sting of remorse for having been weak or selfish, and then we turn to our heart—which is backed by our soul--to give us the strength and courage to change our behavior. Guilt and shame are really two subtle forms of self-preoccupation, but remorse, even sometimes in magnifying its intensity, aims to make a selfless change in ourselves. It can burn up our selfish tendencies. Once when I asked Eruch, one of Baba’s most intimate mandali, how he experienced Baba’s forgiveness, he said, “Most people, when they do something unkind and selfish, make a plea to God to be forgiven. They persist until they feel some relief. This is what is conventionally done. But with Baba, when you do something unkind and selfish, the remorse you feel for having done this is the sign that you’ve already been forgiven.” As long as we feel no remorse and go on justifying our unkind behavior, there is no room for Baba to forgive. Baba has said, “Sincere repentance does not mean perpetuating grief for the wrongs, but in resolving in the future to avoid those deeds which call forth remorse.” As I gathered from Darwin, he recommended taking ample time feeling as deeply as possible any wrong we have done and imagine it flowing energetically to Baba. He would say, “The deeper the feeling, the deeper the healing.” How have you experienced Baba’s forgiveness in your own life? What wrongs have you done in the past that still persist as guilt and shame today? What methods with Baba have been successful in freeing yourself from past selfishness? Has the empathy you feel today in relation to others helped to soften the self-condemnation you may have felt about your past? Baba has said that His method with us is, “Two steps forward, one step back.” When asked why one step back, Baba replied that it annihilates our pride of progress as we go along. What do you do when events that happen during your day or week trigger past regretful experiences? How do you bring Baba into the picture?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

Meher Roshani Foundation - an interview with Roshani Shenazz, Feb 15, 2025 live on Baba Zoom

We will talk about Meher Roshani Foundation and its ever-growing humanitarian Baba-inspired projects! Roshani Shenazz in Mumbai is a force of nature, and her work is blossoming wider and wider. Join us for a fantastic conversation.Interviewed by Angela Lee Chen in Myrtle Beach 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