The Doctor Who Treated God

On May 20, at 2:30 p.m., Meher Baba drove in a car toward His inevitable destiny along with His carefully chosen followers: Mehera, Mani, Meheru and Elizabeth. He was traveling from Myrtle Beach to California. But God willed it otherwise. In a few days would be the historic event that He had predicted on May 24, 1932, when He asked Elizabeth to write down the date and keep it along with a wildflower He gave her. Like a Master playwright crafting a perfectly plotted story, Baba used players and events to help bring about the desired results. Thus, granting America what it had long sought: His blood on her soil. One such player was Dr. Ned Burleson of Prague, Oklahoma.

Driving through the Bible Belt in Tennessee, on route to the site of His greatest suffering, Baba and the women saw billboards that said, “Jesus is coming.” Years later, in a letter to David Fenster, Mehera wrote, “It was so lovely to be in the car with Baba and see that sign.”[i]

On May 24, 1952, at 10:15 a.m. Baba’s car met with the fated accident. Thrown out of the car violently, Baba landed in a muddy ditch. Blood flowed from His nose, which was broken; one arm and leg were fractured. At 11 a.m. an ambulance brought Christ to the door of a small clinic owned and run by Dr. Burleson and his wife Julia. Albeit, He was covered in copious amounts of blood mixed with American soil, grass and broken glass.

Elizabeth, who had been doubled over the steering wheel, was the first to be brought inside. But it took no time for the doctor to see that Mehera was the most gravely injured. “I did not expect Mehera to live. She had suffered the worst skull fracture I had ever seen—like an egg shell dropped on the floor,”[ii] said Dr. Burleson. It was nothing short of a miracle that Mehera survived the accident. Meher Baba later said that she bore fifty percent of His suffering in this accident.

While the dedicated doctor was busy working on Mehera, Dr. Goher Irani kept asking him to see Baba. He had no idea who Baba was but went to see Him because of the party’s persistence. From Baba’s appearance he gathered that the extent of injuries was perhaps not so bad. The doctor was wrong. “When I finally got around to attending to Baba, I was surprised to see an individual who was injured as badly as he was still smiling.”[iii]

After Dr. Burleson learned about Baba’s silence, his curiosity was struck with the question of how Baba could elicit such love and devotion from so many fine and educated people. He ascertained, “That quality cannot be forced. Such devotion can only be possible because he deserved it or earned it.”[iv]

Even though Dr. Burleson’s hospital was small, he made excellent arrangements for Baba and the party including calling in a brain specialist for Mehera. Baba had a way with the doctor, on whom He obviously had His nazar. He would call Dr. Burleson to address minor complaints, but when the doctor would come, each time he would find Baba to be smiling and happy despite His serious injuries. This would stay with the doctor for years to come because his connection with Baba was only starting.

As we know, no contact with Baba is meaningless. It was to be that Baba and the doctor would keep in touch. In a letter to Baba on June 3, 1952, Dr. Burleson wrote of the deep impression that Baba’s visit had made on him. “From you and your party we have seen a demonstration of most of the teachings of Christ. Many Americans preach these things, but we have never observed so close an application of them…Such devotion cannot be forced, it can only be obtained by love…”[v]

Baba’s sister Mani, who had minor injuries in the accident, spent intimate time with the Burleson family including the children. Every year thereafter, Dr. Burleson’s wife Julia sent Mani a Christmas card and kept up the contact with her. Before leaving, Baba had gifted the doctor a cigarette case. But that was not all; in 1955, when God Speaks was published, Baba did not forget His devoted doctor. He made sure to send him a signed copy of the book.

Baba had also thoughtfully sent a scarf for Julia Burleson. In a letter acknowledging that scarf, Julia wrote to Ivy Duce, “We feel that in meeting Baba and the rest of you too, we have made some very true friends. I do hope that we can see Baba next summer when he returns.”[vi]

The family’s connection with the Avatar did not end there. The talk above by Michael Burleson, Dr. Ned Burleson’s son, gives us an insight into the aftermath and integration of this Avataric contact.

[i] Glow International, Spring 2022, p.16
[ii] Lord Meher, by Bhau Kalchuri, Vol. Eleven, p.3840
[iii] Ibid
[iv] Lord Meher, by Bhau Kalchuri, Vol. Eleven, p.3841
[v] Lord Meher, by Bhau Kalchuri, Vol. Eleven, p.3854
[vi] Lord Meher, by Bhau Kalchuri, Vol. Eleven, p.3855