The Beloved’s Fragrance

Last week while listening to Eruch Jessawala speak about Baba’s fragrance at His tomb and-other places where Baba spent time, I marveled at Eruch’s ability to weave Baba’s words together and build upon them so beautifully and be able to do simply what Master storytellers do with years of practiced craftsmanship –create an image and a feeling in the mind of the listener that brings home a message far more lasting than any philosophical theories possibly can and evoke questions greater than any intellectual nudging can.

In this audio, the image I took home was not something I had ever imagined – that of His lovers being police dogs. Baba said, “What do the police do to track down a criminal? They use dogs which smell out the criminal by first bringing the dogs to the site of the crime. Similarly, your coming here is like a preparation to catch the stealer of your hearts. I steal the hearts of mankind and if you want to track Me down, you must come to the site where I have spent so much time.

“Sometimes the dogs lose the scent and the police bring them again to the site. Likewise, you must come again and again till you are certain that you have My scent and are not likely to lose it.” [1]

While we use the term so often, Eruch invoked the question in me of what is the Beloved Baba’s fragrance? I know it as the instinctive sigh of relief that one feels at the recognition of His fragrance. It is an overpowering sense of relaxation, as if one were traveling for hours, days, years and lifetimes to come to the destination. Can His fragrance ever be defined within the plain dimensions of words? Only an attempt can be made in all humility.

One cannot ignore the sensory aspect of His scent. People have often asked what Baba smelled like. Different recollections arise but with a common thread of the delicacy of love and a subtle floral, featherlike touch of an empowering possession that was like no other. Scents have an unusual way of living in memory. They resurface, albeit suddenly at the sight, mention or even the thought of the wearer of the fragrance. Larry Karrasch who saw Meher Baba as a child thought it was a special cologne that Baba wore. “When he embraced Baba he would bury his nose into Baba’s neck and smell this fragrance. But it was only after returning home from the 1962 East-West gathering…that he finally associated this fragrance as actually emanating from Baba himself. Larry described it as a combination of roses, gardenias, and lilium (a type of daylily), and in later years when these flowers were placed together in the Lagoon Cabin, Larry told his wife, Rita, that their fragrance was just like Baba’s scent.”[2]

Like many who smelled Him or others who may have liked to smell Him, they seek that trail, the trail of a fragrance that was Him. After Larry’s mother, Annarosa, died in 1994, he inherited many Baba treasures from her. “Baba’s pink coat had been sealed up in a plastic bag since the late 1960s. When Larry and Rita opened the bag to check on the condition of the coat, this distinctive fragrance was released. Larry immediately said to Rita, ‘Quick, smell this—this is what Baba’s fragrance was like.”’[3]

Baba’s fragrance supersedes the senses. It ties in directly with His presence. In seeking His fragrance, the lover seeks only but His presence. Whether that is to walk on the ground that He walked on, bow down to places He sat in or slept in or touch ordinary objects that were made sacred by the purity of their contact with His physical form. His fragrance thus becomes the means to feel His presence and remember Him.

In a letter from the Archives and Museum Committee of the Avatar Meher Baba Trust, Meheru Irani and Bhau Kalchuri write, “When Beloved Baba walked this earth as the beautiful God-Man, He left His imprint in everything and everyone He touched… the dishes that He ate from and the cups that He drank from, the clothes that He wore, the games that He played with… these tangible links to Him come to us today suffused with His fragrance.”[4]

Many remember the tea rose fragrance that Mehera wore. We are told that it was Baba’s favorite as well. It is light, citrusy with warm floral notes of rose and sandalwood. Mehera Arjani shares that Baba’s favorite flower was the native rose called “Gulathi Gulab” in India. It is often called the persian rose too. She says, “He loved the scent and the color, which matched His favorite pink coat.” Upon Baba’s body being placed in the crypt as per His instruction, there was a concern about finding enough flowers to keep His form covered for seven days. That year, all of a sudden all the flower farms in Ahmednagar over flowered with this particular rose. Bagfuls came and kept coming, and Meher Baba’s form was suffused with the fragrance He loved most. [5]

In the Sufi tradition, the rose garden is described as the awareness that occurs when God has taken up residence within the heart. And dwelling there, God makes of the heart a living garden of love.

On July 22nd, 1948 Baba remarked to Kokilla Tiwari, “I am everywhere! “But how can we know it?” she asked. Handing her a fresh rose, Baba stated, “Can you see its fragrance?” Kokila replied she could not see it. “But it does have a fragrance, doesn’t it?” “Yes, certainly.” Baba explained, “As the fragrance is hidden in the rose, in the same way my presence is hidden in every heart — unseen and imperceptible.”[6] [1] The Ancient One, ed. Naosherwan Anzar, pp.125-126
[2] “Baba’s Fragrance, Story told by Larry Karrasch,” kendrasnotebook.blogspot.com
[3] Ibid
[4] “Letter from the Archives and Museum Committee of the Avatar Meher Baba Trust,” by Bhau Kalchuri and Meheru Irani, May 1996, pg. 1
[5] “Old fashioned Roses,” by Mehera Arjani, divine-beloved.blogspot.com
[6] Lord Meher, Online edition, By Bhau Kalchuri, p.2662