you dear ones of Baba here today, to receive His darshan, and to receive His love. We all bow down to your love for Baba! Jai Baba!"

"Jai Baba." (Is it JA or JI? I keep thinking). Then Eruch tells us that many years ago, Baba had composed an Arti, in Gujarati for all His close ones. Now the women mandali, grouping themselves in the archway beyond Baba's chair, softly sing this beautiful song (alas—no music for it has been written down). Eruch reads the English translation:

O God, command that the fire of our ignorance be extinguished

Your lovers yearn for you to bestow upon them the light of faith

O Murshid Meher Baba! We your lovers lay our heads at your feet

O Meher Baba you have made yourself perfectly aware of your Godhood

You are the Lord of Lords, you are the Beloved and the lover in one

Being the torrent of infinite knowledge you are the ocean of oneness

O Master bestow upon us, the wayfarers, the knowledge of Ezad

The only one worthy of worship

For you, O Paramatma, are omniscient and are divine knowledge itself

Give us to drink of this cup of God's love that we become intoxicated

O Saki, we offer our lives in sacrifice to you!

Give us this drop!

Only if you steer our ship, while in mid ocean, can we remain afloat

Meher Baba, the captain of our ship, you are our protector.

Just as Baba always, before beginning darshan, would ask everyone to feel at home, so Eruch too invites us to be at ease in Guruprasad — even in the crowded hall — to forget everything and just be with our Baba. Then he said on the first darshan, he had only a tiny list of announcements — now it is a whole sheet!

After a few points on shopping, reporting illness, etc., he says "Baba would feel concerned and want you all back at your hotels at 10 P.M.; that is the time Baba gave all his lovers who came for darshan. Be in Baba's company — that's what he would want you to do."

Eruch continued: "Baba cannot be absent. His presence is ever felt by us. I call it an appointment with God. It fills our hearts with joy. It is a great privilege for all of us that God has allowed us to come to him even after be left his form. Don't be mindful of the vacant seat — He completed His work. He has (just) pulled off His coat. He is here. Pour out your love. In His form, He not only rested, but worked. What was His work? We can't know the many facets of it. But one was to take upon Himself the suffering of mankind.

"After he had completed his universal work, he permitted us to touch the seat, but during the months be was doing the work, in His compassion, He would not permit us to touch it . . .it would have probably been harmful because the burden of the suffering of humanity was borne by Him while He used that seat when He was doing His universal work . . . the seat has its own significance, and it has become a sign-post for all Baba lovers who knew of Baba's last seclusion work."

Address given by Francis Brabazon at Guruprasad, Poona during the Darshan days, 1969:

JAI BABA!

I am amazed and filled with joy to discover that the Beloved I have been serving for many years is truly a very mighty Beloved.

Of course, I have known all along that