Just thought I would share this since some people seem to be wanting to read it. The following is the "Baba version" of my previous blog posting about my recent experience with terrorism in Mumbai. Its going to go in some kinda Marathi magazine for Indian Baba-lovers. It's written for an Indian Baba-lover audience so if the Baba references get to heavy for you, just refer back to the original at the post below. And enjoy this nice chicken graphic above that I took in Ahmednagar if you are feeling in any way depressed. These particular paintings of chickens always cheers me up, plus, I figured it was time to get back to posting something wacky instead of only stuff on the attacks. :) Enjoy.
Jai Baba from Meherabad everyone!
I'm writing to tell my story of my recent brush with the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, something that Baba obviously wanted me to be a part of, but luckily wanted me to escape as well! It's been a difficult time, but as we all know, Baba's work is mysterious, and perhaps it is his words now coming true, that things must get worse before they get better. I've written a blog about my experience. You can read it at www.vicablog.com. But below is my account written more for a Baba-lover audience. ☺
To tell you a little about myself, my name is Michael Files. I am a young Baba-lover, 26 years old, from the community of the Avatar Meher Baba Spiritual Center in Myrtle Beach, SC, USA, an incredibly beautiful place with beautiful lakes, a beautiful beach, cabins in the virgin woodland, and the all-pervading presence of the infinite power, knowledge, and bliss of the Ancient One! A place that Meher Baba called his "home in the West," and a place he visited and blessed with his presence many times during his advent, stating that one day it would be a great center of pilgrimage for the world. ☺It has always been my great blessing to be born into a loving Baba family. This is something that Baba has called one of the greatest blessings there is in the universe. I guess I must have done something right in my past lives! ☺ My parents were always committed to bringing my siblings and I to the place where Baba did the great majority of his universal work, to the holy ground of his home here in Meherabad. I've been coming since I was a seven-year old boy and lost count of how many visits it has been to the place I consider my true home.
Currently, I've been living in India for the past 4 months. Three of those months were spent in Meherabad, but the past month was spent in Mumbai, where I had recently moved to take a great opportunity, clearly set-up by Baba, to do some work with a very famous art gallery. Through the meeting of a new friend who turned out to be a fellow Baba-lover, I was introduced to a chance opportunity to have some work in my field, art. Then, magically, Baba put the pieces in place for me to be able to live in Mumbai for free. Baba's hand was clearly in it all, and I could see that he clearly wanted me to be in Mumbai for a while.
As it turned out, I ended up spending a lot of time in South Mumbai, sometimes traveling with my gallery to the Taj Hotel or the Oberoi Hotel: going to panel discussions on contemporary art, or meetings with international contingents about upcoming art fairs around the world, very exciting stuff! But more often than not, the place I would visit the most in South Mumbai was Leopold's Café. It's a place that is owned by Baba-lovers, and has a beautiful poster of Baba over-hanging the cash register for all to see. So of course I liked to sit there and have a meal and look at Baba's beautiful face.
As it turned out, I was in Leopold's on the night of the 26th, the night the terrorists attacked Mumbai. I was there only half an hour before the attacks began, and Leopold's was one of the places the terrorists targeted, shooting automatic rifles into the crowd and killing many. I had been thinking of sitting down and having a meal as I often do, but my friend had sent me a text message to join her around the corner at a different restaurant instead for dinner, so I thought, OK, I'll skip Leopold's tonight. Looking back, I guess Baba didn't want me leave this body just yet!
As it turned out the restaurant where I ate was right next to the Taj Hotel, a place called Indigo Deli, and once again, a place the terrorists could have easily targeted. We were directly next to the Taj, a place full of upscale westerners including Americans, just the sort of people the terrorists had seemed to be after. But again Baba didn't seem to want me to go. I was there in the restaurant at 9:30pm when we heard the first reports of the terrorists shooting outside, and before long we became aware that the city was under attack, mostly right outside our door! So at one point the police locked us inside the restaurant, closing the steel curtains for protection, and didn't let us out until the next morning. We had to spend the night inside, getting any sleep we could in the booths of the restaurant.
I was relaxed that night, somehow I knew that Baba was keeping me safe. I could just feel it in my heart, somehow I just knew. Even with all the crazy reports of mayhem and death happening so close by to us that we were receiving by our cell phones all night, I somehow knew we would be OK. I remember thinking at one point, "What are you up to Baba? I guess it's time for some shaking of the world!" Although I wasn't afraid, when I was finally able to leave the next morning I felt a great sense of sadness. I was walking out into the middle of the war-zone. Military and police were everywhere, traffic was extremely light for Mumbai, I didn't look, but just around the corner a battle was still raging inside the Taj hotel, and people were still dying. Actually, I didn't think too much about it all until I got back to Meherabad.
I can't tell you all, my fellow Baba-lovers, how wonderful it is to be back in Meherabad after being a part of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. I don't think any of us forget how lucky we are for every moment we get to spend in this holy ground, but returning here after being a part of those grisly events, it really makes me aware of how lucky I am.
Actually, I feel so grateful that Baba put me so close to these terrible events, because being in his presence after the proximity to such madness, hate, and death makes it all the sweeter to be in his home again, and makes me realize with such depth how all that matters is him, and all that is is him! I haven't been this happy in months! How ironic is that!
It seems that Baba's hand was very close in these events. Perhaps some of you have seen the picture in the media of Baba on the back of the car parked in front of Leopold's, bullet holes marking the car all around Baba's face?
The picture was featured on the cover of The New York Times, which of course has a huge distribution, bringing Baba's image to millions in this time of great sadness and confusion. Another piece of video footage of the restaurant had the camera stopping on Baba's poster, and was repeatedly shown around the world on different news channels over and over again. In the midst of this madness Baba seems to be saying, "It's bad, but I'm here, and I always will be." Baba seems to be ramping up his work of clearing the world of its falsehood by bringing the worst on first. Its all Baba's work, the despair and the joy of the world, the destruction and the preservation. I suppose its all his work of clearing us out of our old ways.
This past Tuesday I was lucky to be able to hear Meherwan Jessawalla tell stories of time with Baba, and reflect on these events in Mumbai in Mandali Hall at Meherazad. Coincidentally, it was the anniversary of the terrible car accident Meher Baba and his mandali suffered in Satara, India of 1953, an event Meher Baba foretold as a terrible personal tragedy he would have to suffer in order to alleviate the suffering of the world by taking that suffering upon himself. It was wonderful to be a part of this, to hear how Baba works in mysterious, and some times horrible ways to bring out the best in us, and to help us on our spiritual path.
Other stories have unfolded too of Baba's presence on this night of terror. Meherwan had heard a story of a couple preparing to be married that very night on the ground floor of the hotel, who happened to be on the 14th floor of the hotel when gathering smoke forced them to make a decision to try and escape. They made a call to a friend who was a Baba-lover pleading for any advice on what they should do. The reply came, "take Meher Baba's name! You will find a way!" They managed to escape miraculously, shouting Meher Baba's name as bullets missed them by inches, and managing to find an escape from the building that later they were told never physically existed.
So Baba's work continues even as he is out of the body. He seems determined to shake us from our slumber! The Awakener will not stop his mission of rousing the world from its spiritual sleep! And yet he keeps his eyes on his close ones. I for one can tell you that from my perspective I feel strangely more at peace than I have in a good while, for I feel Baba's presence so strongly in my life now. How humbling to know that Baba's nazar was on me that day. Strange that this terrible event would make me feel his love so strong, but how could I not when he put me so close but kept me so safe. Things seem simple now. Its as if Baba did it all for me. Its as if he said, "look Michael, Mumbai is exciting, Mumbai is hectic, but it is illusion, take time to appreciate what is real, I alone." Sometimes we get so easily caught up in the world, but its always just as simple as holding on to his damaan, and trying to love him more and more.
For those of you who made it through this post, here is your reward: A crazy statue of Ghandi from Ahmednagar town. You deserve it! Enjoy.
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1 comments:
Jai Baba !
Nice post !
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