MEHER BABA CENTER OF NORTHEN CALIF. INC

Community > Religious Organisations

Merwan Sheriar Irani, known around the world as Meher Baba, was born on February 25, 1894, in Poona, India. He was the second son of Shireen and Sheriar Irani, who were both of Persian descent, and followed the Zoroastrian faith.

Young Merwan was a happy child, and led a normal and active life. He attended a Jesuit Catholic high school in Poona, and in 1911 he enrolled in Deccan College, also in Poona. As a student, he enjoyed literature and poetry. Some of his favorite authors were Shakespeare, Shelley and Wordsworth, but he was especially fond of the Sufi poet Hafiz.

While he was at Deccan College he came into contact with Hazrat Babajan, an old Muslim woman. Babajan was one of the five Perfect Masters at the time (a select group of individuals responsible, among other duties, for precipitating the descent of God into human form at the beginning of each Avataric Age). It was in 1913 that she gave Merwan God-realization, awakening him to his divine identity as the Avatar of the Age.

Afterward, Merwan’s consciousness began internalizing the state of God-consciousness. While in the intermediate state, he appeared to his family and friends to have been stricken by a form of madness. During this time he was drawn to the other four Perfect Masters, who helped him to regain normal consciousness, while simultaneously remaining God-conscious.

Merwan Irani embarked upon his spiritual work and public life in 1921, at the age of 25. One of the early members of his circle gave him the name Meher Baba, meaning Compassionate Father. Baba’s disciples were called “mandali” (a Marathi word taken from the Sanskrit “mandal” or “circle”) The mandali came from many different classes and religions, creating a very unusual and challenging environment in a caste-conscious and religiously segregated society such as India.

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