Avatar Meher Baba:

Meher Baba states that He is the Avatar—the first soul that emerged through evolution to unconsciously become man and as man to consciously become God. This One established in the Infinite Bliss, Knowledge, and Power of Self comes periodically to awaken Himself within all illusory forms in which He, in creation, finds Himself bound. Each time the Avatar comes to do His Universal Work He takes a different form. In His mission as the Christ, the One behind the many, He came in historical time as Ram, Zoroaster, Krishna, Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed and, now, Meher Baba—a name given to Him by His early disciples, meaning "compassionate father".

Merwan S. Irani, Baba's given name, was born on February 25, 1894, in Poona, India. His father, Sheriar, was a spiritual seeker who, after years of arduous wanderings, was inwardly informed that it was not his destiny to achieve God-realization; rather, he was to marry and out of that marriage would come one who would become Realized. C. B. Purdom writes in The Godman that "Merwan was born at five o'clock in the morning*…and according to the astrologers, under auspices that indicated His destiny as a Master. There were no marvels associated with his nativity. His was an ordinary birth. " How like the workings of the Master! Years later Baba said: "I shall perform only one miracle—when I speak the One Word—the Divine Word."

The One who has said that He would bring all religions together "like beads on a string " was born in a city containing ancient temples of all the major faiths. It was an appropriate backdrop for the Avatar of the Age who was to state one day:

*Mani, his sister, corrects the time to 5:15 a.m