In 1931, MEHER BABA first toured the West, visiting principally England and America, and it was at this time that he first contacted many of his Western disciples. Since that date he has visited the West many times and twice circled the globe. His most recent visit to the West was during the spring and summer months of 1952, when hundreds of devotees who had been longing for contact with the Master were able to meet him. On May 17th, at "Meher Center-on-the-Lakes," the beautiful Center dedicated to him at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, no less than three hundred people, from all corners of the United States, and even Australia and England, came to have contact with the Master. On May 24th, 1952, while crossing the American continent, the Master was injured in an automobile accident near Prague, Oklahoma, breaking his left leg and left arm and suffering facial injuries. This was the 'personal disaster' so often predicted by him ever since the beginning of his 'New Life' phase, in October, 1949, which he characterized as 'exile' for himself and 'total renunciation' for the few companions with him. In spite of his suffering, however, the Master carried on his appointed task of contacting the hundreds of Western devotees here in New York, London and in Switzerland, before his return to India.

There, on November 15th, he began his 'Fiery Life' period, and during the next four months contacted over two hundred thousand persons in a 'mass darshan' tour of towns and villages. In many places, the whole town would cease every activity; schools, colleges, even the telegraph office and railroad station, were closed for the day as the inhabitants thronged to take the darshan* of their beloved Master.

What is so impressive about BABA, as his close disciples call him, is the Divine Love which radiates from him and permeates through all of his activities. It is through the power of this love, which is utterly selfless, that he awakens in those who come to him a new, deeper and far more beautiful understanding of life and its glorious purpose, which is, he says, for the individual not only to experience GOD, but to become consciously united with Him.

As C. B. Purdom, editor of the English journal Everyman, so aptly said, "It is sufficient to be in his presence to know the Truth. He does not need to speak; he has the power of Truth in him . . . MEHER BABA IS the Master of one knowledge, which is GOD, but that knowledge includes everything else."