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1894 |
Merwan Sheriar Irani born to Sheriar Mundigar Irani and Shireen
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| 1903 |
entered Poona Camp English School – attended for 5 years – won awards in sports – sang prayers in the morning in a melodious voice enjoyed by the neighbors
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| 1904 |
Navjot at age ten
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| 1909 |
began attending St. Vincent high school – started Cosmopolitan Club for boys of different religions – enjoyed poetry of Sir Walter Scott, William Shakespeare, William Wordsworth and Percy Bysshe Shelley – Merwan writing and publishing poetry in English, Persian, Farsi, Urdu, Hindi and Gurarati under the name of Huma
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| 1911 |
graduated St. Vincent High School – began attending Deccan College – formed theatre troupe with school-mates
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| 1912 |
first experienced divine effulgence – began to feel inner urge and sensed some difference in himself
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| 1913 |
Hazrat Babajan called Merwan as he rode his bicycle home from Deccan College. She embraced him and he was drawn to her “as steel to a magnet.” He began to visit her every night, sit with her, massage her feet, talk with her.
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| 1914 |
Babajan kissed Merwan and he lost all consciousness of the three bodies and the three worlds. He went home after she kissed him and that night he became conscious only of being the Ocean of Consciousness. For three days he lay on his bed completely unconscious of the illusory world, his eyes vacant
For nine months he did not eat or sleep but moved around automatically. He experienced the state of eternal bliss and the five masters continued to pull him back to ordinary consciousness. The struggle was excruciating agony and he would knock his head on the stone in his room to relieve the intense inner pain
In this time of wandering about automatically he would go off on trips where he found the masters who were pulling on his consciousness.
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| 1915 |
April visits Narayan Maharaj, converse in private
then visits Tajudin Baba who calls out “Parvadigar
December sent by Babajan to Shirdi to meet Sai Baba.
From there he was directed by Sai Baba inwardly to go to the Kandoba temple nearby and was greeted with the rock of Upasani Maharaj who was staying in the temple. Meherwan spent time coming to Maharaj and then going home to Poona and then returning to Maharaj.
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| 1916 |
In Poona he sat nightly with Babajan , going once a month to Sai Baba and training with Maharaj.
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| 1917 |
Merwan’s brother got him a job with a traveling theatrical company; his father later employed him in his toddy shop.
He was under Maharaj’s active guidance for seven years as he struggled to return to normal human consciousness while still experiencing continuously his super-consciousness.
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| 1918 |
With his first disciple, Behramji opens a toddy shop in Kasba Peth area; builds temple to Upasni Maharaj; a number of others begin to attach themselves to him and call him Merwan Seth
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| 1921 |
July to December—six months at Sakori (the new seat of Maharaj) continuously with Maharaj; Maharaj declares Merwan as Sadguru and then as Avatar, directs selected ones of his disciples to attach themselves now to Merwan.
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| 1922 |
January to May:returned to Poona and stayed in the Jhopdi (10X6 foot hut) on Ferguson Rd. where many of his old friends would come join him to sing and talk of God. He visited Kasba Peth every Thursday. It was here that Sayid Saheb began calling him Meher Baba
May: leaves with 45 followers (22 Hindus, 12 Muslims, 11 Zoroastrians) to walk to Bombay – set up Manzil-e-Meem
Hazrt Gilori Shah goes to Arangaon village and insists his disciples agree to bury him on the spot where he draws a circle on the ground.
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| 1923 |
March: closes Manzil-e-Meem after 10 months; moves to Kushru Quarters (Gulmai’s family residence) in Ahmednagar; May: takes followers 6 miles south to repair abandoned military camp – 13 followers agree to stay with him under more austere demanding conditions
May - November: takes 11 followers on austere tour to Agra, Karachi, Quetta, Ahmedabad, Gujarat followed by 62 mile walk to Navsari.
November: wanders incognito with Gustaji and Behramji fasting severely; returns to Poona and then to Bombay Irani Mansions #24
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| 1924 |
February: takes 8 followers to Persia but cuts tour short due to illness and returns to India; takes a few disciples to Nepal but are refused entry; sends disciples home and wanders alone for some days
March: with core mandali settle at Meherabad; initiates gamela yoga hard labor phase.
Mehera, her mother Daulat, and two other women join the group as cloistered nuns in the old post office building; Col. Irani begins propaganda against Baba.
June – December: goes with core men disciples to Bombay, Karachi, Quetta then to Madras, Ooty, Calcutta, Hardwar, Rishikesh, Baroda, Goa, etc. bowing to 5,000 pilgrims and lepers.
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