Lessons in Obedience at Manzil-e-Meem

This month marks the 103rd anniversary of the establishment of Baba’s first ashram in Bombay, India. After years of work by the Perfect Masters to awaken Him to meet His destiny, Merwan was proclaimed as the “Adi Shakti” and “Parvardigar” by Upasani Maharaj and Sai Baba respectively. And He gathered His very first disciples.

One of their first tasks was to find a property to house an ashram. After an intense search, a bungalow was found in the Dadar district of Bombay and the terms were settled for the rent to be three hundred and fifty rupees per year. Work started immediately to partition the house into smaller rooms with whitewashed gunny cloths stretched on wooden frames for the early men disciples who were called to live with the Master.

On June 7th, 1922, Meher Baba and the group moved into the house. On that very first day, different names were suggested for the ashram, but Meher Baba decided that it should be called “Manzil-e-Meem” – the House of the Master. This period at the Manzil lasted for ten months with the ashram winding down completely on April 19th, 1923. From here, Baba went to Arangaon, at Gulmai’s request, to establish what would become Meherabad.

Before this period, Baba’s relationship with the mandali was one that existed between good friends (some of them were indeed His friends). At the Manzil, we see the buds of Meher Baba’s ministry start to bloom in more ways than one. The first ashram was a foreshadowing of greater themes that were to come in His advent and work with His disciples. His bringing together, in a melting pot setting, of various men from different religious, cultural, socio-economic and marital backgrounds jumps across as the first glimpse into the work He would continue to do expansively over the next several decades of His life. Under His supervision, these men had to follow His orders despite their own petty differences in order to please Him.

The men were given seven orders that applied to all of them without exception. Some of the orders were: implicit obedience, abstinence from alcohol and sex except with their wives (if they were married, Baba let them go home for an allotted time), to eat vegetarian food, to be present at the building from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m, under no circumstance were they to give up Baba’s company unless ordered to leave Him. Twenty-eight orders followed later in their stay at the Manzil. Each man had to sign an agreement to follow these and any other orders given by the Master.

During the week, some of the men were employed in either government jobs, factories or private companies. They worked all day and returned to the Manzil at 7 p.m. Others worked at the Manzil under Baba’s orders doing cooking, making tea, or general household work. A big assignment at the Manzil was given by Baba to some of His disciples: compiling and writing the biography of Upsani Maharaj in Hindi, Gujarati and Marathi. A Publishing company called Circle & Company was established at the Manzil which worked until the last day to publish the books.

This was the first time that Baba laid stress on implicitly following His orders. It was also the mandali’s first experience with following apparently insignificant orders that did not make any sense, and dealing with Baba’s temper. During this period, Adi K. Irani called Meher Baba “the roaring lion,” emphasizing that Baba exhibited some jalali traits while training His early disciples.

Whenever Baba called, the man in question had to come immediately. If he was shaving, he had no time to wash his face off, if he was standing in attention he could not move unless he was dismissed. Each day brought several orders that affected their regular habits of eating, sleeping, bathing or enjoyment. Baba left no free time for them to do anything.

In October of 1922, Baba issued orders for all to awake at 4 a.m. and tend to their ablutions. From 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. they had to repeat God’s name of their choice (depending on their religion) and choose a seating position to do so. Baba explained the sacredness of the hour: It was during this time that Baba received the experience of Truth from Babajan and Upasani Maharaj and it would also be during those wee hours that He would give realization to His circle.

No reading was allowed. Even reading a billboard or a sign while passing by on a train or a tonga was prohibited! Another peculiar order was that if they ran into someone they knew, they could not converse with that person. This put Sarosh and Adi in a big pickle. When Sarosh ran into an old school friend on his way back to the Manzil from work, he had to ignore his friend. The friend screamed at him and rebuked him, but Sarosh continued to ignore him. Later, Baba allowed Sarosh to write to the friend inviting him to the Manzil.

A similar incident happened to Adi K Irani who was eighteen years old at the time and travelling to college every day on a local train. Adi says, “While on my way, I was ordered to keep notes of all the important thoughts I got and all the persons I came in contact with. Such a huge task, how to do that? It was a disciplinary training to do this on a ten mile ride every day.” Like Sarosh he ran into a friend on the train and had to ignore him much to his embarrassment. But a harder challenge lay ahead of him. “Another time, a school friend of mine came especially from Persia to see me at the Manzil. I saw him at the gate but ignored him and did not respond to his call.” Adi continues to narrate that he ran up to Baba and asked Baba if he could see his friend. “Baba gets so irritated and says, ‘you have no right to ask me this question.’” The friend waited and waited at the gate and eventually left. When he returned home, he wrote Adi a nasty letter which Adi read but was asked by Baba to “tear it up into pieces and throw it away.”

Padri shares another incident when Baba gave an instruction one night at 8:30 p.m. to the mandali to disperse to bed. “Five minutes later, Baba rings the gong again. Baba stands there and asks, ‘What were you doing?’ One man said, ‘washing my face.’ Another says, ‘I went to the WC.’ Another says, ‘I was talking to someone.’ Baba replies, ‘Why are you not in bed? When I give you any order you follow it literally. Go straight to bed. Lie on your bed for five minutes. Then go to the bathroom!’”

To ease their complaints about such absolute obedience, Baba explained, “If you do not develop the habit of instantaneous obedience to my words, how will you be able to obey me when I decide to give you that which is real? …You will not be able to think at that time! You must be prepared to jump when I say, ‘jump’! Otherwise, you will miss it!”

At the Manzil, Baba started giving spiritual discourses about the inner and outer life, divine love, the Avatar’s circle and His own workings. He was indeed coming into His perfect state and the mandali got a glimpse of it.

Once a Muslim maulvi, who had been praying at a nearby mosque, saw a divine light emanating from the building that was the Manzil. His experience was so strong that he came to the Manzil and was told about Baba. That night after dinner, the mandali asked why strangers could see Baba’s divinity while His own circle members were kept in the dark. Baba answered, “What happens when you place a kerosene lamp on the floor? It sheds light all around, but the area which is closer to it – encircling its base – is always dark. So it is with you who are closest to me. What is the use of experiences and seeing the light? One day I will give you the real light and you will be out of the darkness forever! Wouldn’t you rather have that?”

References:
Lord Meher, by Bhau Kalchuri, Vol. 2, pp.380- 503
“Talk on Manzil-e-Meem,” by Cyrus Khambatta from Mumbai