This section of Mandali Hall Talks includes close ones, devotees and others presenting their perspectives, through the medium of video, on that most extraordinary being, Meher Baba, the Avatar of the Age, the Divine Beloved, and the Master. Among the presenters are those who spent most of their childhood at his feet, e.g. Sheela Kalchuri-Fenster, those who lived most of their adult lives in his love and service, e.g. Bill LePage, those who met him and remained in his love, e.g. Donald Mahler, and those who spent years in close company with Baba’s mandali and circle, e.g. Peter Nordeen and John Page. A common thread through these presentations is a description of what it was like to surrender everything to this individual, the God-Man, and to love, serve and obey him in each and every thing as life unfolded around them. In other videos those who follow Baba relate their experiences with those among the Mandali and other close ones who were instrumental in leading the speakers into a deeper internal contact with the Master.
Sheela Kalchuri Fenster
Four years after her father, Bhau Kalchuri, joined Meher Baba, He called Sheela and her family to live in his near proximity. The Kalchuris had many opportunities to be in the Beloved's presence, and Sheela's first-person account, Growing Up With God, paints a vivid, intimate portrait of life near Meher Baba, from the perspective of a child and teenager.
Sheela Kalchuri-Fenster lived in Meher Baba's physical proximity for twelve years, from the time she was five until Meher Baba dropped His body in 1969, when she was 17. Sheela gives a candid look at life behind the scenes with both the men and women Mandali. It is a tale rich in lessons for us all. Sheela relates stories of her time with Baba in two special Zoom sessions with an Asheville reading group:
Sheela Kalchuri Fenster videos
1. January 21, 2021
2. April 15, 2021
Bill LePage
Bill Le Page is the current chairman of the Avatar's Abode Pty Ltd. In 1954, Meher Baba gave a series of meetings called Three Incredible Weeks. Meher Baba gave darshan to many thousands of people and gave his Final Declaration. Bill was one of the select few Westerners who were invited to this event and he was one of only two men ordered to meditate at midnight in Meher Baba's samadhi in Meherabad, India which has since become a place of international pilgrimage.
Bill returned to India in 1962 for The East-West Gathering where Baba’s Universal Message was read out. In 1967 on his third visit to India, Bill received personal directives from Meher Baba regarding Avatar's Abode's development. His last visit for Meher Baba's darshan was for the famous 1969 Darshan.
Bill covers a variety of spiritual topics in these videos recorded at:
Bill LePage videos
•Meher Center: Summer 2015
•Avatar’s Abode: Fall 2020
Charles Haynes
Charles Haynes gives a wonderful and dynamic talk on Avatar Meher Baba, the Beloved Within.
On October 31, 1962, 144 Westerners arrived in Pune. Baba saw the women and then the men separately. Charles vividly remembers the tremendous anxiety he had about the meeting with Baba. He was deeply concerned that “he wouldn’t be Baba.” It had been four years since Charles had first met Baba in Myrtle Beach at age 8. So much had happened since that time, and Charles felt he had come to know internally what he thought of as “my Baba.” He joked: “I’m sure your Baba is perfectly nice, but I had my own.” He felt he was closer to Baba; he wrote little poems and letters to him, and when walking through the woods he would speak to him. But now they were to meet Baba in the flesh. What if he was not the same one Charles had grown so close to?
The men all lined up on the porch to go in to see Baba, so that Charles was unable to catch a glimpse of his Beloved over the heads of the tallest. Finally he reached the threshold and stepped into the room; simultaneously he saw a hand shoot up above the crowd — “and I knew: it is He, it is He.” The hand and the atmosphere in the room were the same as the inner feeling of walking and talking with Baba. “Then I relaxed and was happy the rest of the time. I knew the inner Baba was the same as the outer Baba.”
Videos:
The Beloved Within
Donald Mahler
Donald Mahler is a celebrated ballet dancer, choreographer, and stage director. As a dancer and later choreographer, Mahler had a long and fruitful partnership with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City that spanned from 1962 to 1986. Today he is mainly active as a director of ballets and is particularly known for his stagings of the works of Antony Tudor.
Donald Mahler gives an account of his contact with Meher Baba. Donald was one of a small group of dancers who had the rare privilege of performing for Meher Baba in the Barn at Meher Spiritual Center in 1956. According to Lord Meher.
Peter Nordeen
Peter Nordeen is a Meher Baba historian, having studied Baba’s life and teachings for over 40 years. Peter was a resident of Meherabad when many of Baba’s old disciples were still alive. From them he had the opportunity to glean many stories of life with the Master.
In 2003, Peter wrote and produced the biographical documentary, God In Human Form: The Life and Work of Avatar Meher Baba. A few years later, he produced the music video, “You Alone Exist.” Peter recently completed a booklet entitled The Tomb-Shrine of Avatar Meher Baba. Peter and wife Debbie continue to stay in Meherabad during the winter, where Peter works on projects in the AMB Trust Archives and also the AMB Trust Publications, as well as helping with historical building preservation.
Peter Nordeen videos
John Page
In early 1969 John founded the Meher Baba Bookstore in Pasadena, California which evolved into the Avatar Meher Baba Center of Southern California. He had the feeling from the beginning that making available Baba's message of love and truth to the minds and hearts of people was crucial. In those days the various mediums for achieving that ideal was through books, posters, pamphlets and records by and about Baba. Of course another medium was through myriads of invited guests who spoke about their lives with Baba.
The more time John spent in Mandali Hall and Meherazad, the more passionate he became about preserving the stories that the mandali told about their lives and experiences with Meher Baba. John tells the story of his friend, Jean Adriel, one of Meher Baba’s early Western disciples and the author of Avatar, an early biography of Baba.
Baba Lang Syne
A fresh take on an ancient classic in honor and remembrance of the original Ancient One Himself, Meher Baba, the Avatar of the age. The One who exists in every heart and hears the song of the heart and not the noise of the mind.
Chris Barker - lyrics, guitar, lead vocal
Ken Richstad - banjo and vocal
Anne Barker - vocal
Video: Baba Lang Syne