Meher Baba was a Persian born in India who became a spiritual Master, and late in his life (1954 at age 60) publicly declared that he is the Avatar of this Age.
Educated at St. Vincent's High School in Pune, India, as well as at Deccan College, he led a normal school life, showing no particular inclination toward spiritual matters. At the age of 19, during his first year of college, a short contact with an old Muslim holy woman Hazrat Babajan marked what he said was the beginning of his spiritual awakening. In 1915, at the age of 22, he was hailed as "Parvardigar" (Sufi for 'God as the Almighty Sustainer') by the Indian fakir Sai Baba of Shirdi. He received help from three more spiritual masters, including Upasni Maharaj, who he said revealed to him his spiritual identity as "The Ancient One" in 1921.
Meher Baba lived and traveled in company with a circle of close disciples whom he termed his "mandali" (Sanskrit for 'circle'), both men and women from whom he demanded absolute obedience. He and his mandali voluntarily assumed a life of extreme simplicity. From 1925 to the end of his life, Meher Baba remained silent, communicating by means of an alphabet board or by gesture. Meher Baba spent long periods in seclusion, often fasting, but he would intersperse these periods with wide-ranging travels, public gatherings, and works of charity, including working with lepers, the poor, and the mad. He gave many discourses, which have been collected by his followers.
In 1931 he made the first of many visits to the West. During these travels, a number of western mandali joined him. In the 1940s, along with selected mandali, he traveled incognito about India in what he called "The New Life." On February 10, 1954, Meher Baba declared that he was the Avatar (an incarnation of God).
After two automobile accidents, one in the United States in 1952 and one in India in 1956, his capacity to walk became seriously limited. In 1962 many western followers were invited to meet his Indian mandali in a series of meetings called The East-West Gathering. In 1966, Meher Baba addressed the spreading problem of drug misuse in the West, discrediting its alleged spiritual benefits. After a year of being completely confined to a wheelchair, Meher Baba died on January 31, 1969. His samadhi (tomb-shrine) in Meherabad, India has since become a place of international pilgrimage.
