HOW TO USE THE WEBSITE
HOW TO FIND A TALK
Mandali Hall Talks is a free archival library available to all, containing over 2,500 talks from dozens of speakers: resident and non-resident mandali, close lovers from India, the UK, the USA, Australia and Europe. In addition, there is a music section with samadhi tunes, artis, prayers, pilgrim performances, plays, concerts and studio recordings. This “How to use the website” section contains tutorials that guide you through the website’s sections to find speakers, videos, music, and transcriptions that you may be looking for.
There is a Search block just below the lower right corner of the banner image on every major section that probes every page of the website for the words that you type in.
The website has seven major sections:
Audio: Over 2,500 talks
Video: Also available on our youTube channel
Collections: Hundreds of hours of unedited talks across 5 major collections
Music: Live recordings from the Samadhi, Meherazad and Guruprasad
Podcast: Subscribe to receive a new talk delivered everyday
Projects: A summary of ongoing projects undertaken by our volunteers
About: Our history, make a donation, materials acquisition
The website features an AUDIO section organized alphabetically by the first name of the speaker with impromptu talks, discussions and questions and answer sessions. There are dozens of speakers, all of whom meet, lived with, and followed Meher Baba implicitly, dedicating their lives to HIm. The Audio tutorial below tells you how to get to a speaker’s recorded talks.
These talks were recorded on a variety of amateur and professional equipment using the various audio recording standards available at the time.
The VIDEO section has a selection of Indian, Australian and American speakers relating their experiences with Meher Baba, recounting their relationships with mandali and close lovers of the Avatar, and relating historical and biographical information about Baba and his close ones. These video can be played from the video section or access from the Mandali Hall Talks’ youTube channel.
The COLLECTIONS section is home to five major collections representing many hundreds of hours of recordings made over the years in Mandali Hall and elsewhere by Andy Muir, Dara Irani, David Fenster, and others. These are unedited recordings and feature full length talks, interviews and discussions with many of Baba’s mandali, from which a large number of much shorter talks have been gleaned.
The MUSIC section features live performances from Meherabad, Meherazad, Guruprasad and at meetings and sahavases in various locations through the world. There is music from the Samadhi, from Mandali Hall and the Great Darshan at Guruprasad and studio recorded music from Baba’s many minstrels.
The PODCAST page lets you subscribe to receive a new talk from our library on a daily basis.
The PROJECTS section gives an overview of the ongoing projects we are working on, e.g. Transcribing, Noise Reduction, and Cataloging and Curating. These projects are undertaken by volunteers and represent service opportunities for those interested in working for Baba’s cause.
The CONTACT page contains contact information, how to make a donation to support this work and a plea for website visitors to gift their media materials to us for freely sharing with all who wish to know about Meher Baba.
TUTORIALS: Below are a series of step-by-step tutorials for each section on how to navigate the website; how its organized; what’s available for a given talk or speaker and how to accomplish all that as easily as possible.
TUTORIALS
AUDIO - LISTEN TO A TALK
DEFINITION
The speakers are arranged alphabetically by first name on the “AUDIO” page. You can scroll down the page to review all the speakers in the library. Individual speakers have their name, face, and the number of talks in their section.
ORGANIZATION
Clicking on a speaker takes you to their section. A speaker’s section is organized by the date of their talks. In addition to the date, each tile has the location of the recording and the number of talks for that particular date. Hovering over a speaker’s date tile, you can see if some or all of their talks for that date have been transcribed so you can read along as you listen to their talk.
NAVIGATION
Clicking on a date tile takes you to a list of mp3’s where you can listen to their talks for that date.
TRANSCRIPTION
The talks that have been transcribed verbatim will be listed below an image of the speaker. To access a verbatim transcription, clicking on a bolded talk title will open a pdf of that talk. Once the transcription is open, navigate back to the list of mp3’s and click on a title to play the recording as you read the pdf.
PRESENTATION
For example, let’s say you want to listen to a talk by Adi K. Irani.
1.) From the website’s cover page, click AUDIO.
2.) Click on the tile for Adi K. Irani.
3.) That click takes you to a page with all of Adi K. Irani’s talks, organized by the date, with a brief text intro.
4.) Hovering over one of Adi’s date tiles (example: 1970 - May, Meher Baba Bookstore, Pasadena, CA, USA) reveals a caption that tells you verbatim transcripts are available.
5.) Clicking on the date tile (above), takes you to all the mp3 recordings of Adi (below) available for that date and place.
6.) You can read-along-as-you-listen to one of Adi’s talks, by clicking on the appropriate transcription title bolded in red below Adi’s photo.
7.) Clicking “Adi Away” opens a pdf transcription of Adi’s talk on your computer.
8.) Return to Adi’s recordings and click the title to start to play the mp3 of the first talk, “Adi Away”.
To listen to a talk, navigate:
1. From this page, by clicking on or touching a speaker’s name tile to see an Overview of that speaker’s talks, organized by date.
2. Once at the Overview of a speaker’s talks (organized by date), click on or touch a date tile to see a List of Talks for that date.
3. Once at the List of Talks:
- Stream a talk by clicking or touching the title.
- Download a talk by selecting the title and right clicking “Download linked file as…”
For Example: To access one of Adi K. Irani’s talks: mandalihall.org/speakers > mandalihall.org/adi-years > mandalihall.org/adi-k-irani-pasadena
Path: Name tile [Adi K. Irani] > Overview by date [of Adi’s talks] > Stream or Download mp3’s [of Adi’s talks]
ELABORATION
Click here for a printable, fuller visual step-by-step pdf tutorial for how to find a speaker and a specific talk, and if that talk has a verbatim transcript.
VIDEO - VIEW A TALK
