Baba scholar Ward Parks guides us through the first of a six-part series on The Art of Praise as a Path to God. He focuses on how poetry can and has become a path to the Divine. He examines how Francis Brabazon, resident mandali & poet to Meher Baba, used his sonnets and ghazals to give praise to His Beloved. Meher Baba, in turn, hailed Brabazon’s epic devotional Stay with God as second in importance only to God Speaks.

Ward explores the concept of praise and complaint as a spiritual dialogue, wherein the lover suffers the pangs of separation from the Beloved. Ward then reviews different styles of poetry, including examples from Shakespeare, and then wraps up the presentation with a scholarly and spiritual explanation of Brabazon’s Australian Arti.

Video, 1:35:15
Meeting Place, Meher Spiritual Center
October 17, 2025
Meher Center Archives
Uploaded 5/15/2026