… Shun those [false] masters who are like multi-colored electric signs that flash on and off, brightening the dark sky of your world for a moment and leaving you in darkness again.
… All that frightens and confuses you and grips you with despair is your own shadow. When the Sun of Love manifests in its glory and all faces are turned toward that Radiance, all shadows will have disappeared — even the memory of them will have vanished!
… I am the Sun which is hidden by the shadow of your self. Cease thinking that you are your shadow, and you will find that the Sun which I am is your own Reality.
– Meher Baba [February 1966, Lord Meher pp. 5208-5209]
… Age marveled at the scene: “As the darkness of night is dispelled by dawn’s rising sun, so also was this glittering mansion illumined by Baba’s presence. Whatever light was shining from the crystal chandeliers was not light but darkness. Even the sun’s brilliant light is darkness compared to the true Light of the Awakener!”
[Lord Meher, p. 1433]
करार लूट लिया बे-करार छोड़ गए
बहार ले गए याद-ए-बहार छोड़ गए
हमारी चश्म-ए-हज़ीं का न कुछ ख्याल किया
वो उम्र भर के लिए अश्क़-बार छोड़ गए
वो आ रहे हैं, वो आयेंगे, आ रहे होंगे
शब-ए-फ़िराक में यह कह के सुबह की मैंने कि
सहर क़रीब है तारों का हाल क्या होगा
सहर क़रीब है तारों का हाल क्या होगा
सहर क़रीब है, क़रीब है
ऐ चलने वाले और ज़रा दो कदम सही ले अब तो
सहर क़रीब है, क़रीब है
सहर क़रीब है तारों का हाल क्या होगा
ऐ शमा सुबह होती है, रोती है किस लिए, ले
अब तो सहर क़रीब है, क़रीब है
सहर क़रीब है तारों का हाल क्या होगा
अब इंतज़ार के मारों का हाल क्या होगा
उनको आना था ना आये लौट कर
अब इंतज़ार के मारों का हाल क्या होगा
गर इरादा नहीं था आने का
फायदा इस क़दर बहाने का
अब इंतज़ार के मारों का हाल क्या होगा
तेरी निगाह ने ज़ालिम कभी ये सोचा है
तेरी निगाह ने ज़ालिम कभी ये सोचा है
किसी के दिल में रही और किसी के पार गयी
तेरी निगाह ने ज़ालिम कभी ये सोचा है
करूँ तारीफ क्या तेरी नज़र की
के लाखों कर दिए घायल जिधर गयी
ज़ालिम कभी ये सोचा है
तेरी निगाह ने ज़ालिम कभी ये सोचा है
तेरी निगाह के मारों का हाल क्या होगा
मुकाबला है तेरे हुस्न का बहारों से
मुकाबला है तेरे हुस्न का बहारों से
मुकाबला है मुकाबला है मुकाबला है
मुकाबला है मुकाबला है मुकाबला है
आइना उठा लाये और अक़्स से ये बोले, कि अब
मुकाबला है, मुकाबला है, मुकाबला है
तबस्सुम ज़ेर-ए-लब है आईना मत-ए-मुकाबिल है
तमाशा दीद भी है सामने कातिल के कातिल हैं,
अब मुकाबला है, मुकाबला है, मुकाबला है
बराबर खफा हो बराबर मनाये
न तुम बाज़ आओ न हम बाज़ आएं
मुकाबला है, मुकाबला है, मुकाबला है
उधर ज़ुल्फ़ों में कंघी हो रही है, ख़म निकलता है
इधर रग रग से खिंच खिंच कर हमारा दम निकलता है
इलाही ख़ैर हो उलझन पे उलझन पड़ती जाती है
न उनका ख़म निकलता है न मेरा दम निकलता है
अब मुकाबला है, मुकाबला है, मुकाबला है
मुकाबला है, मुकाबला है
मुकाबला है तेरे हुस्न का बहारों से
न जाने आज बहारों का हाल क्या होगा
न जाने आज बहारों का हाल क्या होगा
क्या होगा क्या होगा क्या होगा
नक़ाब उनका उलटना तो चाहता हूँ मगर
नक़ाब उनका उलटना तो चाहता हूँ मगर
नक़ाब उनका उनका उनका
मेरा क्या है गुलशन-ए-बहर में
मैं रहा तो क्या न रहा तो क्या, रहे
नक़ाब उनका उनका उनका
यूँ देख तो ले पहले जो होगा सो देखेंगे
ऐ दस्त-ए-तलब बढ़कर सरका दे नक़ाब उनका उनका
नक़ाब उनका उनका उनका
महफ़िल में तो हैं लेकिन घूँघट किये बैठे हैं
अल्लाह रे शरम उनकी अल्लाह रे हिजाब उनका
वो क्यों न करें पर्दा रुख उनका नकाब उनका उनका उनका
नक़ाब उनका उनका उनका
नक़ाब उनका उलटना तो चाहता हूँ मगर
नक़ाब उनका उलटना तो चाहता हूँ मगर
बिगड़ गए तो नज़ारों का हाल क्या होगा
मज़ाक-ए-दीद ही ‘सहबा’ अगर बदल जाए
तो ज़िन्दगी की बहारों का हाल क्या होगा
सहर क़रीब है तारों का हाल क्या होगा …
Sehar Karib Hai Taron Ka Hal Kya Ho Ga
by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
https://youtu.be/Y5NlhKLBP0U
by Ustad Mubarak Ali Ustad Fateh Ali Qawwal
https://youtu.be/EE0u7jF7hnw
by Agha Bashir Qawwal
https://youtu.be/8UTYD2qQVj4
June 1932,
… On Wednesday, 1 June 1932, Cath Gardner and Max and Lillian Wardall arrived. Baba visited Metro Goldwyn Mayer Film Studios the same day, accompanied again by Lal Chand Mehra, and watched the actor Lewis Stone perform. Baba met Virginia Bruce and saw the sets of Mata Hari, in which Greta Garbo had just finished starring. They also met the Austrian-American director Josef Von Sternberg, 38, who was directing Marlene Dietrich in The Blonde Venus. Baba did not care much for Marlene (who had a reputation for being extremely egotistical) but he liked Von Sternberg, who was highly impressed by his meeting. (After a few more films with Von Sternberg, Dietrich became the most famous film star in the world.)
Baba met several other movie stars in Hollywood during his visit, including Boris Karloff, John Gilbert, Florence Vidor, Johnny Mack Brown, and Cary Grant (who was also appearing in Blonde Venus).
Some of these actors and actresses met Baba later in the evening of 1 June, when Hollywood’s leading, most glamorous couple — Douglas Fairbanks, 49, and Mary Pickford, 40 — invited Baba to Pickfair, their 22-room mansion at 1143 Summit Drive, for a reception with a few others from the film industry. Marc Jones drove Baba, Meredith, Margaret, Priscilla and Quentin to Beverly Hills at eight o’clock that night.
The mandali followed in another car, with Norina and Elizabeth.
When they left India, each of the men mandali had been allowed to bring only two flimsy dress suits and one pair of shoes, which they had to wear continually. Baba would often change his attire, and for the reception at Pickfair, Baba wore a stylish Palm Beach suit. In contrast, the mandali looked like paupers. Apart from their poorly tailored suits, the sole of one of Adi Jr.’s shoes had come apart and was flapping up and down when he walked. Baba, however, refused to let him purchase a new pair, so Adi tied a string around his shoe to hold the heel in place. Crowds of celebrities dressed in formal attire mingled throughout Pickfair mansion while Adi sat huddled in a corner, embarrassed, trying to hide his worn-out shoe with the string tied around it.
Among those invited to the reception were Cecil B. DeMille, Cary Grant, Gary Cooper, Charles Farrell, Lottie Pickford (Mary’s sister), and a woman who wrote Mary Pickford’s screenplays. Countess Dentice di Frasso was also present. Baba stayed at the reception for two and a half hours. Mary Pickford greeted Baba at the door of the mansion and led him to the spacious hall.
Age marveled at the scene: “As the darkness of night is dispelled by dawn’s rising sun, so also was this glittering mansion illumined by Baba’s presence. Whatever light was shining from the crystal chandeliers was not light but darkness. Even the sun’s brilliant light is darkness compared to the true Light of the Awakener!”
As Jean later wrote: “Amidst the tinsel stars [Baba] shone like a resplendent planet … “
Mary had Baba sit on a sofa and she herself sat on the carpet by his feet. The others, too, sat down on the carpet around Baba, and the wine of love began speaking to all hearts. Douglas Fairbanks joined his wife near Baba, who conveyed to him:
The whole universe, whose structure I have created, is my cinema. But just as an audience becomes absorbed in witnessing a drama on the screen and engages their emotions and sways their feelings by its influence, causing them to forget that it is not real — in the same way, the spectators of the world are charmed by this worldly film show, forgetting themselves and taking it to be real!
So I have come to tell them that this worldly cinema in which they are absorbed is not real.
I have come to turn their focus toward Reality. Only God is real, and everything else is a mere motion picture!
Mary Pickford was spiritually inclined and listened intently to Baba’s words. Baba sat with her and others in the motion picture industry for about 40 minutes before dinner. Baba emphasized the impact of films and their value in turning people toward spiritual goals. He stated:
I was particularly glad to come to California because of the opportunity which it afforded to contact those who made or appeared in motion pictures, and I am delighted that this gathering could be arranged tonight.
I do not need to tell you who are engaged in the production and distribution of motion pictures what a power you hold in your hands, nor do I doubt that you are fully alive to the responsibilities which the wielding of that power involves. He who stimulates the imagination of the masses can move them in any direction he chooses, and there is no more powerful an instrument for stimulating their imagination than motion pictures.
People go to the theater to be entertained. If the play is strong, they come away transformed. They surrender their hearts and minds to the author, producer, director and stars, and follow the example which they see portrayed before their eyes more than they themselves realize.
Both the press and the radio influence thought, but both lack the power of visible example, which is the greatest stimulant to action, and which the motion picture offers better now than any other medium.
We find ourselves today in the midst of a worldwide depression which affects everyone, rich and poor alike, and from which all are groping blindly for deliverance. The film companies, the picture theaters and the stars have also suffered from it. If they could help to end the depression, I am sure they would be glad to. How could the motion pictures help in this respect?
First, it must be understood that the depression is not an accident, nor is it purely the result of overproduction and inflation. Those, although the immediate causes, are merely the instruments which were used to bring the depression about. The depression itself was caused by those entrusted with the evolution of humanity. Man has to be stripped of his material possessions in order that he may realize through actual experience that his true base is spiritual and not material.
Then will he be ready to receive the Truth which I have come to bring.
This Truth consists of the knowledge that man, instead of being a limited, separate individual completely bound by the illusion of time, space and customs, is eternal in his nature and infinite in his resources. The world illusion is a dream of his imagining, a play enacted in the theater of his consciousness — a comedy in which he is at once the author, producer, director and star. But his absorption in the role, which he has chosen to enact, has made him forgetful of his true self, and he stumbles now as a creature through the path he has created.
[Man] must be awakened to his true nature. He must see that all material expression depends upon and flows from a spiritual being. Then he will be steadfast and serene under all circumstances. There will be no further need then for the depression and it will disappear.
Now, how can the motion pictures help man attain this realization? The character of the film need not be changed. Love, romance and adventure are themselves fundamental. They should be portrayed as thrillingly, as entertainingly, and as inspiringly as possible. The wider the appeal the better.
What needs to be changed is the emphasis, or stress. For example, courage is a great virtue but it may, if misapplied, become a vice. So it is with love, the mainspring of our lives, which may lead to the heights of Realization or to the depths of despair. No better example can be given of the two polarities of love and their effects than that of Mary Magdalene before and after meeting Jesus.
Between these two extremes are many kinds of love, all of which are good, but some of which are better than others. I use the terms “good” and “better” simply to designate the degrees of liberation which they lead to or confer. Even the love which expresses itself through physical desire is good to the extent that it frees one from the thralldom of personal likes and dislikes, and makes one want to serve the beloved above all other things.
Every human relationship is based on love in one form or another, and endures or dissolves as that love is eternal or temporal in character. Marriage, for example, is happy or unhappy, exalting or degrading, lasting or fleeting according to the love which inspires and sustains it.
Marriages based on sexual attraction alone cannot endure; they lead inevitably to divorce or worse. Marriages, on the other hand, which are based on a mutual desire to serve and inspire, grow continually in richness and in beauty, and are a benediction to all who know of them.
To lead men and women to the heights of Realization, we must help them to overcome fear and greed, anger and passion. These are the result of looking upon the self as a limited, separate, physical entity, having a definite physical beginning and definite physical end, with interests apart from the rest of life, and needing preservation and protection.
The self, in fact, is a limitless, indivisible, spiritual essence — eternal in its nature and infinite in its resources. The greatest romance possible in life is to discover this eternal Reality in the midst of infinite change. Once a person has experienced this, one sees oneself in everything that lives. One recognizes all of life as his life, everybody’s interests as his own. The fear of death, the desire for self-preservation, the urge to accumulate substance, the conflict of interests, the anger of thwarted desires are gone. One is no longer bound by the habits of the past, no longer swayed by the hopes of the future. One lives in and enjoys each present moment to the fullest. There is no better medium to portray [this] than motion pictures.
Plays which inspire those who see them to greater understanding, truer feelings, better lives need not necessarily have anything to do with so-called religion. Creed, ritual, dogma, the conventional ideas of heaven and hell, and sin are perversions of the Truth, and confuse and bewilder, rather than clarify and inspire. Real spirituality is best portrayed in stories of pure love, of selfless service, of Truth realized and applied to the most humble circumstances of our daily lives, raying out into manifold expressions, through home and business, school and college, studio and laboratory — evoking everywhere the heights of joy, the purest love, the greatest power — producing everywhere a constant symphony of bliss.
This is the highest practicality. To portray such circumstances on the screen will make people realize that the spiritual life is something to be lived, not talked about, and that it, and it alone, will produce the peace and love and harmony which we seek to establish as the constant of our lives.
After dinner, Baba got up to leave three times, but Mary Pickford would not allow him to go. Finally, when he stood up, all surrounded him. Dictating from his alphabet board, he continued to converse with them while standing. After a few minutes, his roving glance fell on a young lady standing isolated at the far end of the room with her back to him. Baba beckoned for her and when his summons was relayed, she turned her face toward him but remained where she was. She was called again. Slowly coming forward, she stopped at a distance. Norina told her, “Come and shake hands with Baba, child.” The young lady remained reserved, and Elizabeth said to her, “Why are you afraid, dear? Come nearer and meet Baba.”
She asked, “How can I touch him?”
“Why not?” Norina said. “All can meet Baba!”
This brought tears to her eyes, and she asked pitiably, “But I am a sinner! How can I touch a holy being like him?”
Baba then went to her, and passed his hand over her head and shoulders. She started weeping, and Baba gestured to her, “I am the purest of the pure. I can purify the worst sinner. You have understood your mistakes and acknowledged them faithfully in the presence of others, and so you are forgiven. This penance from the depths of your heart is adequate, and you are now cleansed. Now, don’t fear in the least and don’t repeat your past mistakes. I give you my blessings!” The girl continued to sob, and Baba lovingly embraced her. The tears which Baba’s love had drawn from her heart wiped out all her sins.
Those who witnessed this were deeply moved; their hearts overflowed and their eyes also teared. Before departing, Baba again embraced all the guests and putting his hand on the girl’s head, consoled her, “You have received forgiveness for everything! Forget the past and don’t worry at all.” The girl pressed her eyes to Baba’s hand and kissed it.
In their films, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks had depicted scenes of deep human love, but witnessing this sight of pure divine love from Meher Baba was a rare experience indeed. Their hearts were full. “The world receives such a chance only after a lapse of ages,” said Age. “How lucky are those who, knowing the Beloved, hold fast to his feet!”
https://www.lordmeher.org/rev/index.jsp?pageBase=page.jsp&nextPage=1432
February 1966,
… Baba’s 72nd birthday was celebrated in different Centers throughout the world on Friday, 25 February 1966. Each year the celebrations were increasing, and it was truly a springtime for his lovers when they gathered to sing his praises. Like the previous year, in several places in India celebrations commenced 72 days before his birthday and concluded on the 25th.
That year the garden and kitchen servants and messenger boys (who brought the mail and telegrams) asked Baba if they could decorate Meherazad for his birthday, because his lovers and devotees around the world were decorating their Centers. The “Abode of the Beloved” should be decorated too, they reasoned. Baba allowed them to do it and they put their heart into it, covering the ceiling of mandali hall with a canopy of paper flowers and other decorations.
Since Eruch had stopped driving after the 1956 accident in Udtara, a full-time driver had been hired. Since 1959, a driver named Shaikh had been employed at Meherazad, but in 1966 Shaikh retired and moved back to his family and home in Poona. Another driver named Yusuf was hired. Yusuf became devoted to Baba and actively participated in “dressing-up” Meherazad. Using the car battery (there was no electricity at Meherazad at this time), he rigged up lights around Baba’s picture in mandali hall. A loudspeaker was brought from the village so that in the morning after everyone had called out “Avatar Meher Baba ki jai!” at the stroke of five o’clock, phonograph records were played over the loudspeaker. While Baba was at breakfast, he was regaled with songs from his favorite singer, Begum Akhtar.
Baba remarked that the pain in his neck was “20 percent better” by then, and the pain in his hip joint was also not bothering him as much. Although he was still walking very little, he began doing so with more ease. But due to the neck pain, instead of each of the men mandali receiving an embrace from Baba on his birthday, each received a kiss on the cheek from him.
Besides the birthday message dictated in December, Baba also sent the following messages that year. For the Divya Vani periodical in Hyderabad:
Shun those [false] masters who are like multi-colored electric signs that flash on and off, brightening the dark sky of your world for a moment and leaving you in darkness again.
For the Guide periodical in Raipur:
All that frightens and confuses you and grips you with despair is your own shadow. When the Sun of Love manifests in its glory and all faces are turned toward that Radiance, all shadows will have disappeared — even the memory of them will have vanished!
For a special booklet printed in Tirupathi:
A post to stand erect and firm must have its butt-end sunk well into the ground. Likewise, my lover needs to have the base of his faith deeply embedded in my divinity if he would remain steadfast in his love.
Naosherwan Nalavala had to change the name of his periodical the Spark, because the government informed him that there was already one by that name. From many titles, Baba selected the Glow, and for its debut issue in February 1966, he sent this message:
I am the Sun which is hidden by the shadow of your self. Cease thinking that you are your shadow, and you will find that the Sun which I am is your own Reality.
This telegram was sent to Baba’s Western followers:
I will be present in all hearts gathered in my name for my birthday. I send my love and blessings to you each.
And to air force officers under Wing Commander Sakhare, this telegram was sent:
Beloved Avatar Meher Baba directs me to convey to you … he is always present in all hearts that remember him.
On 24 February 1966, a husband and wife from Andhra paid an unexpected visit to Meherazad. By way of introduction, they brought a letter from the Hyderabad Police Commissioner who had met Baba in December. The couple had previously participated in birthday functions in different Centers in Andhra. They came to Meherazad, reasoning: “If the birthday programs going on everywhere else are so grand, how much more so it must be at the source where Meher Baba resides.”
Baba met the couple and they expressed their surprise and puzzlement to find things so quiet and simple. Eruch told them, “Although Baba is residing at Meherazad, he is actually with all his lovers, presiding at his programs wherever they are held. That is why Baba sent them the message: ‘I shall be present among you all who gather in my love.’ Therefore, you should hurry back to your hometown, so as not to miss being in his presence!” And it was true that at night Baba would often remember the different Centers where programs had been organized in his honor.
Among the birthday greetings, cards and cables was a poem from an American college student at Harvard named Rick Chapman, a friend of Robert Dreyfuss in Boston. Hearing the poem Baba was touched by it and cabled Rick this message on the 27th: “The music of my love singing from your heart made me happy. Let your heartbeats be my song. I send my love to you and Robert.”
On 25 February, Meherjee came to Meherazad. That day Baba cabled Allan Cohen this message: “Your letter received. I know everything. Love alone makes me happy and you have made me happy. When I am your life, every breath is in service to me. I send blessings to you, Rick and Robert.”
Justice Prasanta Bihari Mukharji of Calcutta delivered a talk for Baba’s birthday, a copy of which was sent to Baba. In a telegram to him dated 26 February 1966, Baba stated:
I have heard your words on my uttering of the One Word and I am happy because I am the origin of that Original Word which will be released on the day ordained in the beginningless beginning. My love and blessings to you and yours.
Later in a letter (dated 6 April 1966), Baba through Eruch wrote to Judge Mukharji:
In this very life of yours, you will witness the result of the uttering of the Original Word when I break my silence; till then, I wish you to hold on to my daaman.
http://www.lordmeher.org/rev/index.jsp?pageBase=page.jsp&nextPage=5208
Meher Songs 