Non-Indians are no longer allowed access to this area which was developed by Meher Baba over a hundred years ago. A dozen or so foreigners many of whom who have lived here for decades were summarily ordered to leave their residences- and not return. Foreigners in general may no longer visit Lower Meherabad at all, except on specially guided tours twice weekly. Administrative offices staffed by foreigners may no longer serve as such; historic sites associated with Meher Baba’s life may not be visited except by official government supervision on guided tours as noted; the hospital serving pilgrims to Avatar Meher Baba’s Samadhi may not serve foreigners. The theatre sponsoring musical and theatrical works may no longer include foreign participation; dining facilities must no longer serve foreigners. In short, no former administrative, housing, dining, medical or historic site may be accessed by foreigners except on a supervised, controlled and limited basis.
All of this is stated to be due to the national security needs of the government of India with respect to the military vehicle testing facility.
All of this notwithstanding that Lower Meherabad has never posed a problem to VRDE, that Meherabad was established decades before VRDE; that lower Meherabad provides essential services to pilgrims to Avatar Meher Baba’s Samadhi, which is situated at Upper Meherabad; that Lower Meherabad is an historic site as the principal place associated with the work of Avatar Meher Baba and which, by the way, has always included foreigners.
Evidently, as this draconian order is a matter of Indian national security, it may not be appealed.
Herein lies the real reason for this power play by prime minister Modi’s government: Avatar Meher Baba is an Indian of Persian Zoroastrian heritage who claims to be the Avatar of the Age. The term avatar is a Sanskrit word meaning incarnation of God. Meher Baba has a considerable foreign following, especially from the US, Britain and Australia, Europe and more recently Asia. But he is not a Hindu, yet refers to himself as the Avatar, the Buddha, the Christ, the Prophet, of our time. He declares that he is the Universal Avatar of this cycle of time at the end of the Kali Yuga. And he does not endorse religious chauvinism of any kind; his message is completely non-sectarian and does not encourage rite and ritual. There are no priests with hands extended for a fat offering. His life and message demonstrate the purest iconoclasm.
All of this is terribly annoying to the jingoistic Hindutva government of Narendra Modi which has demonstrated the most strident aversion to non-Hindu faiths, including Islam and Christianity, and to foreigners in general. It is no doubt that Meher Baba’s very close connection to Britain, America and Australia in addition to the claim to be a non-Hindu Avatar that has so annoyed Modi’s chauvinism.
This recent attack on Meher Baba’s institutional legacy is not the first. It is at least the third in a series of actions to compromise the Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust. The first was was the recent demand that the Trust fire the three foreign nationals serving on its board of trustees; the second was the government’s recent refusal to renew the Trust’s license to receive foreign donations to support its charitable projects. The third action is the one under discussion, and which clearly represents a violent escalation of intent against the activities and existence of Avatar Meher Baba’s legacy.
