Meher Baba's Silence
Avatar Meher Baba began his silence on Friday, 10th July 1925, at approximately 5:00 AM, at Lower Meherabad, Maharashtra, India. He was staying in the little Jhopdi, a small thatched hut. The history behind Meher Baba's silence and his method of communication has been preserved by his close disciples as an important part of his spiritual work.
The previous day, July 9, 1925, he gave his final verbal instructions to his school managers, the children's parents, and his close disciples. His last discussion covered his general advice to live for others, warnings about the coming world conflicts, and a reminder to always carry a lantern at night to watch for venomous snakes (interestingly a cobra was spotted right after this meeting).
His last spoken statement was: "I have come not to teach, but to awaken."
This later ties into his explanation, "You have been given enough words, it is now time to live them."
This led to Meher Baba adopting his famous "alphabet board" to spell out select messages, having his close disciples speak for him. He made a cryptic comment that soon, the world would communicate through a board like this. Many people have recognized the similarity between his board and our modern touch-tablets.
He eventually dropped the alphabet board also and relied only on hand gestures (not to be mistaken for conventional sign language). His close disciple, Eruch Jessawala, was one of the first to catch onto these hand gestures and became his main interpreter.
Below we can see Meher Baba's fluency with the alphabet board:
Eruch Jessawala interpreting for Meher Baba can be seen above; all of the Mandali (Meher Baba's close disciples) became adept at interpreting his gestures. In the next clip, Eruch is narrating Meher Baba's message to the Dutch film maker, Louis van Gesteren, about potential harm of the reckless use of narcotics on the spiritual path. In this clip, Meher Baba is using his own, self-created hand gestures.
Meher Baba's silence and his original way of communicating is a defining feature of his work. From a simple, surface view, we can understand the emphasis on living spiritual virtues, not merely parroting words or preaching philosophies that are not put into action.
