A Visit To Meherabad

Hi all, read my latest story, "A Visit to Meherabad". This story is my memoir of visiting the tomb shrine of the spiritual guru Shri Avatar Meher Baba.

My journey started on Jan 27th. My mother, my brother, my mom's friends, and I had planned the trip together. So our trips were to Shirdi, Grishneshwar Jyotirling, and Meherabad.

I had already visited Shirdi and Grishneshwar Jyotirling once, so Meherabad was a new place to me. We came to know about Meher Baba from one of my mom's friends, who is also a devotee of Meher Baba. She told us about his samadhi located at Meherabad.

On Jan 31st, 1969, Baba left his body and went on for a new spiritual journey. So every year, his Amartithi is celebrated on that day. We were fortunate to participate in the Amartithi event.

Even our train journey from Bangalore to Shirdi was awesome and memorable as well. Because our train journey got delayed by a few hours and the train was slow. As we were 5 people sitting together, all of us were exchanging thoughts throughout the journey. My mom's friend Latha and Mohan Rao were narrating their spiritual experiences, and I was narrating my school time memories.

We reached Kopargaon at midnight, I picked up suitcases, and others picked up the remaining bags. Then we had dinner at a nearby restaurant. Then we reached our rooms because in the morning we had to visit Shirdi Mandir, so we immediately slept. My shoulders were aching very badly, but I took Baba's name, and it eventually reduced. I slept for a few hours.

We woke up in the morning, freshened ourselves, got out of our rooms, and went down to look for a cab to Sai Baba's Mandir. I saw an auto driver a bit near to our rooms, so I ran towards him and asked if he could take us to the Mandir. He agreed, and we sat in the cab. After a few minutes, we reached the Mandir. We gave our footwear outside the Mandir. Then Mohan Rao uncle bought the special passes so that we didn't spend much time waiting in the line. I am grateful to him for doing so. Finally, we entered Sai Baba's Mandir, we stood in the line for 10-15 mins. Luckily, the security person guarding the line saw me and called us to the front for Darshan. I felt so happy and thanked Baba and told him my wishes. We went down and visited his Dwarkamai, and we also saw the tree below which he used to meditate. Later we took the Prasad and vibhuti. Then we did a bit of shopping as there were shops near the temple. I bought new watches for myself, my brother bought a book, my mom bought a Triangular dhoop. Latha aunty and Rao uncle also bought a few items for themselves. Then we went to our rooms again, picked up our bags and suitcases, as we embarked on the journey to Grishneshwar Jyotirling.

It took us about an hour or two, and we reached there. We went to the temple, Mohan uncle bought us passes by which we performed Abhishekam to the lingam. We felt so fortunate to perform the Abhishekam. Then we did the Parikrama of the Mandir and left the Mandir with Mahadev's blessings.

Finally, it was time to embark on the journey to Meherabad. We reached Meherabad during the evening, Mohan uncle had booked us a homestay as he knew a person in the place. Even that person is a great Bhakt of Meher Baba, so he told us a little about Baba. He also told us that a program is scheduled for 4 days from 28th Jan to 31st Jan. As we reached there on 30th Jan, he told us we could see the program by going to Baba's Samadhi, so we had some snacks and went to the place.

Meher Baba's Samadhi is located on a hill. In this program, many people participated and exhibited their talent. A few sang, few danced, and few spoke. The program was a refresher and gave us peace. After the program got over, around 11 pm we visited his samadhi and gained beloved Baba's blessings. Then we reached the homestay till 11 am, we left the homestay after 11:15 am and went to the samadhi to participate in the other programs.

We met my mom's friend Shanti, the previous night, she too accompanied us in the morning. Shanti Aunty had already reached Meherabad a few days before us as she was interested to serve the devotees of Baba. Now too she participates in events related to Baba and his devotees.

So we enjoyed the program for half an hour, then from 12 pm to 12:15 pm all of us had to maintain silence as it is said that Baba left his body at this time. So during these 15 minutes, I meditated, I could feel Baba's blessings upon me, I experienced things which I can't explain in words. I was happy that Meher Baba blessed me. Later the Meher Dhun was played and Aarti was played. Then all of us went for lunch, then we returned to the homestay, and Mohan uncle booked our flight to Bangalore.

We left Meherabad around 5 pm and reached Pune airport at 7:30 pm. The plane arrived at 9 pm, and we reached Bangalore by 12 am.

I wish we visit Meherabad again and spend some more time with beloved Baba.

A few quotes by Meher Baba:

"When nothing upsets you, you are at the beginning of the path, when you desire nothing, you are halfway on the path, when nothing becomes everything you are perfected."

"The Finding of God is the coming of one's own self."

Jay Avatar Meher Baba