
December 27, 2024
Meher Baba’s Declaration of Avatarhood
This year marks the 70th anniversary of a momentous year in Meher Baba’s life. In 1954, Baba held the Three Incredible Weeks sahavas, gave his Final Declaration, and gave up the alphabet board. But by far, the most awe-inspiring event of the year was His public declaration of His Avatarhood.
Meher Baba was sixty years old when He publicly declared Himself as the Avatar, but His journey began as a schoolboy named Merwan whose ordained meeting with the Perfect Masters changed the course of His life and humanity.
In 1913, while riding his bike to school, Merwan was called over by the well-known Sadguru Hazarat Babajan. He was drawn to her “like iron drawn to magnet.” In January of 1914, Babajan kissed Merwan on His forehead. She turned to the people around her and said, “This child of mine will, after some years, create a great awakening in the world; He will do immense good to humanity.”[1] Merwan’s awakening into His Avatarhood catapulted from then on. He consequently met Narayan Maharaj, Tajuddin Maharaj and Shirdi Sai Baba in 1915. In Shirdi, Sai Baba looked deep into Merwan’s eyes and uttered aloud, “Parvardigar!” This declaration was followed by Upsani Maharaj’s blow: a stone thrown at Merwan exactly at the spot on His forehead where Babajan had kissed Him.
Over the next few years, Merwan spent intense periods of varying lengths with Upsani Maharaj of Sakori. On His last visit between July to December 1921, Maharaj folded his hands to Merwan and said, “Merwan, you are the Avatar.” This was the first time He was ever called the Avatar. But Merwan did not declare His status to anyone at that moment. His public declaration was still decades away.
At the end of 1921, Maharaj told Gustadji and Behram (Meher Baba’s first disciple whom He nicknamed Bua Saheb), “I have given my charge to Merwan. Your friend is now spiritually perfect. Stick to him and obey him in everything.” [2]Several months later, Merwan was given the name Meher Baba by His followers and was accepted by His followers as a Perfect Master.
The next year, while at Manzil -e-meem, Baba started giving indirect hints about His spiritual status. He explained the role of the Avatar and 120 members of His circle. In the 1920s, He continued to give explanations and discourses to His mandali and to the Prem Ashram boys who called Him Sadguru.
In the 1930s, Baba started to gather His western disciples. Many of them had intense experiences of Him as Christ come again. About his meeting with Baba in 1934, Darwin Shaw narrates, “Baba sat with his legs crossed, and then placed his raised foot just a few inches in front of me. I could scarcely believe my eyes as, looking at His lovely foot; I realized that here was the sacred foot of Christ. Scenes from the New Testament flashed across my mind, and I especially recalled the scene of Mary of Bethany anointing the feet of Jesus with precious ointment and then wiping them with her hair. I was taken by an overwhelming impulse to kiss Baba’s foot, thinking, ‘When would I ever again have the chance to kiss the sacred foot of Christ?’ So, I bent forward and lovingly kissed his foot. A few minutes later, Baba drew me close to Him. I bent my head. Baba lifted it and kissed my forehead.”[3]
In 1937, in a letter to Delia De Leon, Baba wrote, “I know all the present and future and nothing can stop the work that I am here to do. Am I not the Avatar? The world will know it soon and will accept me as such. Be calm, be steady and firm as a rock in your faith and love for me.” [4]Ironically, in the same year, Charles Purdom wrote the first biography of Meher Baba titled The Perfect Master.
Bal Natu believes that the finite mind cannot understand the Avatar’s timing. Just as there was an ordained moment for Babajan to unveil the Infinite consciousness in Merwan, there was also a divinely planned moment for Meher Baba to openly declare His true status. This was in February of 1954 in Hamirpur, a place that Baba called “His heart.”
In a hut in Mahewa, On February 9th, a big pandal was set up for an overnight program of singing of devotional songs. Baba was seated on a gadi while His lovers looked at Him adoringly as He explained the meaning of some songs or made a joke. Bal Natu writes, “It is difficult to capture the divine intimacy or the glorious atmosphere which prevailed that night around Baba. His skin seemed very translucent, glowing with a divinity which He could not contain; yet His personal liveliness, wit and charm made all feel that Baba loved them as individuals on a very human level. This blending of the divine and human is the hallmark of the Avatar.”[5]
At 20 minutes to midnight, Baba asked everyone to wash their faces and hands and be present in ten minutes for the prayers. Baba also washed His hands. Exactly at midnight, the Repentance Prayer was read in many languages. Baba then asked His lovers about how they knew He was God. Many answers arose and they all pleased Baba.
“At about 1:00 A.M., Baba remarked to Keshav, ‘You have no idea what gift you are about to receive at this moment.’
“Then, addressing all those present, Baba continued, ‘…this much I can say in my present good mood, that soon God will make me break my silence, which will mean God manifesting Himself. And, within a short period, humiliation and glorification will come, followed by my violent physical death. I will come back again after 700 years; this much I can say now.’
“Baba’s announcement brought tears to the eyes of some, and, raising his hand after running his finger on the alphabet board, Baba spelled out through Eruch, ‘Avatar Meher Baba ki jai!’ All took up the declaration, repeating it several times.
“This was the first time that Baba himself had spelled on the board “Avatar Meher Baba ki jai.”[6]
In His book God Speaks, published in the following year, 1955, Baba clarified the difference between Sadguru and Avatar. Although they share the same gnosis of “I am God,” the Sadguru works for a limited section of humanity while the Avatar’s work is universal.
Ward Parks, a scholar in Meher Baba literature, explores the subject further by pointing out the importance of the declaration coming after the New Life. “We cannot miss the fact that Baba gave the prayer of repentance during the New Life and participated in it as an ordinary man while renouncing His divine authority. It was after He had veiled Himself as God and became an ordinary man that He declared Himself as that same ancient one who comes again and again as the God Man for the sake of the world. Baba said, ‘the perfect Master acts, while the Avatar becomes.’”
After His declaration Meher Baba stated His status unequivocally until the end of His earthly life. And doesn’t He continue to do so even today? When we hear tales of His manifestation within individual hearts as the Avatar, we cannot miss the resounding Avatar Meher Baba ki jai, as if we were with Him that night in Hamirpur witnessing His declaration for the very first time.
[1] Glimpses of the God Man, by Bal Natu, Vol. 5, p.3
[2] Ibid, p.8
[3] As Only God Can Love, by Darwin Shaw, p.33
[4] Glimpses of the God Man, by Bal Natu, Vol. 5, p.8
[5] Ibid, p.72
[6] Lord Meher, Online edition, by Bhau Kalchuri, p.3451