The online biography of Avatar Meher Baba is an updated continuation of Bhau Kalchuri’s biography of Avatar Meher Baba published in print by Hermes Reiter between 1986 and 2001. It represents an outstanding amount of research and careful work by many contributors, yet it is not a perfect record of Meher Baba’s life and words. It does not purport to be such, but given that the subject is the Avatar, the presumption by the reader is that it represents the very truth of Baba’s divine life.
The day will come when the text of Lord Meher is rigorously cross-referenced to all available primary source material, footnotes supplied, and a more reliable text is produced.
Is this a big deal? Well, that depends. For some years now, excerpted material from the online edition has appeared on social media and elsewhere, which potentially could represent a literary earthquake. One such quote is the following:
“At the time of Muhammad, the Arab tribesmen were very sensuous, and it was not considered bad or illegal to live with several wives. If Muhammad had not married like Jesus and had advocated celibacy, or if he had imposed absolute continence, it would have produced inevitably dangerous reactions. Few people would have followed his teachings and fewer still would have been attracted to such an ideal. Muhammad had six wives, but he had no physical contact with them.” pg. 1617, online edition.
Now, anyone who has the slightest knowledge of Shia Islam will go cross-eyed at the assertion that Muhammad and his first wife Khadija did not give birth to Fatima, who gave birth to Hassan and Hossein and the lineage of the Imams who define Shia Islam.
The historical record asserts that the Prophet and Khadija gave birth to Fatima, who by Ali gave birth to Hassan and Hossein. No one in 1,400 years has ever disputed this. That is, until now, according to Lord Meher.
So, how to think about this?
If Meher Baba had made such a remark, it would not have gone unnoticed and unchallenged, at the time, as to its veracity. This would obviously have been a big deal, a colossal big deal. But there is zero literary or oral record, apart from this assertion just quoted, that Meher Baba ever said any such thing. No reference to the subject appears anywhere else.
It is not possible that such a statement by Baba would not have generated a huge debate. Where is the record of that debate?
Moreover, if one uses the search engine supplied by Lord Meher to find out what else Baba had to say about the Prophet, one finds this:
“Muhammad enjoined marrying four wives, though he himself had seven. He had children. But were I to marry a woman and have children, our people [Indians] would say it does not behoove me and it is not true spirituality. If we tell them about Muhammad having seven wives and children, they would answer “You cannot reach that state; he was the last Prophet!” Those who love me truly never care for such things. This all is an indication of the spiritual downfall of the East.” pg. 3385, online edition.
So, this clearly contradicts the previous Lord Meher quote averring that the Prophet had no “physical contact” with his wives.
The online biography of Avatar Meher Baba is a hugely demanding project, and requires great resources to work out the wrinkles.
Another example:
The online edition of Lord Meher is frequently quoted to support Israel in its present genocide of Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon with the following entry:
“On the following day, 5 June, war broke out in the Middle East, with Syria and Egypt fighting against Israel. It was called the “Six Day War,” because the Israeli Army was victorious within six days. Most significant was that the city of Jerusalem was united under Israeli rule.
Baba followed news of the war in the newspaper and radio and seemed pleased at the way Israel faced the situation single-handedly. He commented, “A little tiny country like this, and see how it explodes and destroys the enemy. What courage it has!”” pg. 5272, online edition.
What else did Baba have to say about Israeli genocidal ethnonationalism? Well, that is not recorded in Lord Meher. But his views on genocidal ethnonationalism are well documented elsewhere, in “Listen Humanity”, for example:
“Ethics in time of war can only be judged by the degree to which they reflect the divine
plan. In war there are two kinds of forces operative: (1) those which make for love, justice,
harmony, and the well being of all mankind, and (2) those which work in alliance with narrow racial and national loyalties towards the selfish exploitation of others.
He who would wage war must search his heart and make sure that the ends for which he
is fighting are a reflection of the divine plan. His actions will be justified only if they help to lead humanity to spiritual brotherhood cemented by an inviolable sense of the unity of all human beings, regardless of class, color, nationality, race, religion, or creed.”
In summary, Lord Meher is a work in progress that must surmount Islamophobia to accurately represent what the Avatar of the Age really had to say about what his advent is all about.
