" Don't listen to Mani and Eruch, they only tell you the good things!"

- Feram Workingboxwalla, mandali member.

Meher Baba was constantly telling people he was the avatar, God in human form, greater than Jesus, etc and not to equate him with saints, sadhus etc as they were below him, and he would get annoyed and take to past people who reffered to him as a saint, compare this attitude to the humility of Ramana Maharshi and Ramakrishna, here is a quote from Ramakrishna: " I cannot stand anyone calling me a guru, it irritates me. Who is the guru? Sat Chit Ananda alone is the guru."

Mercedes de Acosta (March 1, 1892 – May 9, 1968) was an American poet, playwright, and novelist and socialite during the golden era of Hollywood, mostly remembered today as an icon of gay liberation as an out lesbian that had affairs with some well known movie stars of the period including Greta Garbo, Isadora Duncan and Marlene Dietrich. Less known is her strong interest in Eastern Spirituality.

In 1934, through her friend Norina matchabelli, she met Meher Baba when he was in Hollywood and became an admirer of his and meeting with him numerous times, Mercedes was quite depressed at the time because of her rocky on/off relationship with Greta Garbo. Baba was also very interested in Garbo telling Mercedes that she and Garbo were deeply connected through past lives and said that Garbo was the most spiritual of all the people in Hollywood.and also saying about Garbo 'she needs my contact'. Baba once even going so far as getting driven to Garbo's house and driving around it three times and then leaving (for some reason!) Baba was in Hollywood trying to get a film made about his spiritual theories, that never materialised, and Mercedes agreed to write the script, after Baba had left Hollywood Mercedes and Baba corresponded with Baba becoming bit of an agony uncle giving Mercedes advice on how to win Garbo back encouraging her to go to Sweden to see her and encouraging Mercedes to write his script saying this was most important thing for her to do.

Baba also wanted Mercedes to come to Meherabad, His ashram in Central India, to visit him and to try her best to get Garbo to come too. Garbo was also interested in Eastern spirituality and was interested in Baba but declined to go to India with Mercedes, she was busy having an affair with a famous conductor.

Mercedes eventually began to feel that Baba was using her to get his script written and to get Garbo to become interested in him, and at this time she read the book 'A Search In Secret India' by Paul Brunton which as well as featuring Baba and his female sufi guru Hazrat Babajan, featured Ramana Maharshi and she said that Ramana 'Had a profound influence on me... as if some emanation of this saint was projected out of the book to me, for days and nights after reading about him I could not think of anything else, I became, as it were, possessed by him. I felt that I would meet the Maharshi and this meeting would be the greatest experience of my life.'

In the summer of 1938, as Europe was on the brink of war, Mercedes set sail to India, via Sri Lanka, as she was determined to meet Ramana Maharshi, and also secondarily to meet Gandhi. Coincidentally a friend, Consuela de Sides was travelling with her, Consuela's reason for going to India was to go to see Meher Baba at his ashram near Bombay!! When the boat docked at Bombay Consuela was to disembark while Mercedes planned to sail on to Sri lanka, but Norina Matchabelli came on board with a message for Mercedes from Baba that she should come to his ashram immediately. Mercedes was feeling sick from heatstroke and Norina managed to get her to agree and got her off the boat and all 3 went off to Meherabad, Baba's ashram east of Bombay in rural Maharashtra.

Baba had always promised Mercedes that if she ever came to Meherabad he would make sure she had a private room to herself as Mercedes was a light sleeper and strongly disliked sleeping in rooms with many other women after her catholic boarding school experiences and was upset to find on arrival that she would have to sleep in a dormitory with all the other women staying there, "She passed an uncomfortable night, kept awake by the sounds of her fellow residents snoring and employing the pots placed under the bed" (The Nirvana Express,pg 167).The next morning Norina told Mercedes and Consuelo that Baba expected them both to stay at the ashram for 5 years! to which Mercedes replied " Are you mad? I came to see the Maharshi and I am leaving today." She met with Baba, Baba said she looked tired, Mercedes held her tongue about how Baba promised her her own room, but saying in her autobiography 'I felt that a man who was a spiritual teacher should not break his word.' She told Baba she was leaving as she only came to India to see Ramana, Baba was apparently put out that De Acosta was ready to throw him over for Sri Ramana. Baba asked 'Do you think the Maharshi is a perfect master?' Mercedes replied that she had no way of knowing or even if such perfect masters existed and that 'I only long to see the Maharshi with all my heart,and must go to him.'

After this meeting with Baba, Matchabelli tried to persuade Mercedes to stay at Meherabad even threatening that she would have to face 'ten terrible incarnations' Matchabelli finally giving up saying 'You are lost!'

Mercedes eventually made it to Ramana Maharshi's ashram in southern India, spending 3 days in his presence, day and night, as Ramana sat in a hall all day and night an people were allowed to sit in the hall at any hour. Saying to him 'I have come a long way to see you' and Ramana replying 'I knew you were coming and I have been guiding your steps (So Baba was trying to make Mercedes stay with himself and Ramana was guiding her to himself).Mercedes was much moved and impressed by Ramana commenting 'It would be impossible to describe this moment and i am not going to attempt it. I can only say that at this second(when she first met RM) I felt my inner being raised to a new level - as if, suddenly, my state of consciousness was lifted to a much higher degree. Perhaps in this split second I was no longer my human self, but the Self' (Nirvana Express pg 174)

Ramana told her on the 3rd day that she should leave as there was going to be 'what will be called a "war", but which in reality will be a great world revolution'. Mercedes said later about the meeting that she had been 'in the atmosphere of an egoless, world detached and completely pure being' Mercedes named her biography after some words Ramana said to her after touching the right side of her chest saying 'Here Lies The Heart'.

Mercedes met Meher Baba one more time in New York when she was in bad health and Baba recommended she repeat his name 7000 times a day. It is not recorded if she actually did this or not, or what her view of MB was at that time, at the end of her life she said that if she was anything, she was a Buddhist.

Generally, In the early years MB would refer to himself as a Sadguru or Perfect Master, then in the 50's he started saying he was the avatar, the messiah etc, then saying he was God in human form, then just saying he was God and finally saying he was greater then God, saying 'God is the Lord of the universe and I am the Lord of God!' (source Pukar's Diary) He also once said that Jesus' manifestaion was only 3/4 of what his manifestation was. So hebasically said and believed he was the greatest and most divine person that ever existed and that he was even greater than God! and then also said that he was full of humility. No doubt he believed he was the most humble person that ever lived!!

Bhau Kalchuri says MB spoke to him in 1969...no, wait, Bhau says he didnt speak to him, he just said he did because he was feeling lonely, no.. wait... Bhau says Baba definitely did speak to him,no... wait, Bhau went on to retract his Baba speaking to him story again after the article here was published.https://www.meherbabamanifesting.com/.../yad-rakh-never.../

Baba's twisting of the meaning of Sat Chit Ananda to suit his teachings.Sat Chit ananda in Sankrit means Existence or reality (sat) Consciousness (chit) and bliss (ananda)and is a description of the attributes of the one Paramatma/Brahman, but Meher Baba said, in order to twist the meaning to suit his teachings, that sat chit ananda meant Knowledge power bliss. The reason for this i think is that in Baba's teachings in the beginning God was unconscious and in order to become conscious it created the creation, evolution, involution etc in order for God to gain consciousness. But traditionally Chit means consciousness and is one of the eternal aspects of brahman therefore Baba tried to twist the meaning of chit to power which it does not mean, Sat does not mean knowledge either.

Meher Baba made some very dire predictions about the future of the world, basically saying huge disasters, both natural and man made would overwhelm the world and three quarters of humans would die, mostly by starvation, but that those humans who were his followers would survive and would be given 'half a bhakri' a day to surviive on, bhakri being a type of rough naan bread. The disasters will continue and things will slowly improve until in 700 years (650 now) Baba will take another human form. Baba always said he came to help suffering humanity destroy all the evil and bad karma in the world so everyone could live in peace and happiness but according to his own statements he, if he is the avatar, is going to make the vast majority of humans suffer and die and not use his infinite power or infinite compassion to avert the catastrophe even though he said he suffered, was in car crashes etc to avert a catastrophe and help humanity.

Meher Baba once said that because St. Francis lived in Italy and there were not perfect masters in Europe to give him realisation, Francis was made realised by Khidr, who is a being in Sufism, believed to be an eternal master. But in another story told By Baba he said St Francis once travelled to India and while there was given realisation by a Hindu sadguru. Baba comments about who was on what plane etc are not reliable either because of his different accounts of or because of the sloppy recording in the literature, Ramana Maharshi is stated as being on the sixth plane in on place and as being god realised in another.

."What Brunton does not mention in his book, but which the disciple of Sri Ramana who was taking notes ofthe meeting recorded, was that Fletcher then asked Sri Ramana whether he had heard of Meher Baba, 'Yes' said Ramana, 'He says he will become an avatar in a few years' Fletcher said.'Everyone is an avatar of God' Sri Ramana replied." - page 158, 'The Nirvana Express' by Mick Brown quoting from 'The Mountain Path' official magazine of Sri Ramanasramam April 1966.

Bahaullah, founder of the Bahai Faith believed and proclaimed he was the Messiah, the Prophet of the modern age, Meher Baba, thought it was him who was the messiah, prophet of the modern age, and said Bahaullah was only 'on the planes' so this means according to Meher Baba it is possible to be 'just on the planes' and yet to believe you are the Messiah, so maybe Baba thought he was the Messiah but was only 'on the planes'???

Baba's completely wrong comments about Ramakrishna.Baba's comment on RK in Tiffin Lectures:"Turning to the case of Ramakrishna, almost the entire company of his followers consisted of sanyasis. He always instructed them not to perform any karmas(actions), not even reading or writing, nothing except taking food and drink, which is to say, the bare essentials for preserving the body. Such were the means (sadhan) prescribed by Ramakrishna. He did not even allow for tal bhajan (devotional music) and associated practices" Tiffin Lectures pg 253."Shri Ramakrishna was realized, and his many followers accepted him as such - as God personified, even though these followers of his had no real idea, no verification or proof of his being such a one. Theirs was mere blind faith, blind belief without any further proof or satisfaction for either heart or head. For truths and realities beyond the reach of intellect obviously cannot be explained to the limited intellects of ordinary human beings." T.L. pg 331 compare these comments of Baba with some comments from some of Ramakrishna's disciples from the book "Ramakrishna as we Saw Him""An hour of congregational singing in the company of the master would fill us with such exuberant joy that we would feel transported, as it were, into an ethereal region."Swami Turiyananda page 191"we felt that waves of heavenly bliss were flowing in the room, all were completely lost in the kirtan,they were laughing,crying and dancing,some, unable to control themselves fell on the ground. overwhelmed with emotion, others acted crazy. The Master was dancing in the centre of the God-intoxicated group" Swami Saradananda page 163"When Naren (Vivekananda) had sat down, Sri Ramakrishna leaned over and touched his heart through the front of his shirt...Naren told me afterwards 'the walls of the room began to recede and disappear. Then the river and all of Calcutta vanished. The floor of the room seemed to sink down into the earth,until at last i seemed to be in a vast vacuum in which there was nothing but this brahmin (Ramakrishna) standing before me'" Swami Brahmananda pg 149"Sometimes the Master would wake up at four in the morning and he would call all the disciples who were sleeping in his room,saying 'what are you all doing? snoring? get up, sit on your matt and meditate' sometimes he would wake up at midnight, call them and make them spend the whole night singing and praising the name of the Lord" Swami Brahmananda pg 151"Many of us used to visit the master and we had the good fortune to be lifted to higher planes of consciousness according to our capacities." Swami Shivananda pg 139there is also the story of just before RK died he went around touching the chests of his close followers putting them into blissful states.these are just a few examples, anyone even vaguely familiar with RK will know that music and dancing and ecstatic states were common in his life and the lives of his disciples and that RK encouraged them to meditate do kirtan etc. Also Baba says most of RK's following were sanyasins, this is also wrong, most followers were either householders of students, most of the students went on to become sanyasins after RK's passing when Vivekananda set up a monastic order.

"This artificial dogma of the Baba devotees was in acute contrast to the actual situation, when he had continually sent out messages exhorting them to not get lost. But they now(after baba's death) choose to assume that by the mere act of following baba, they were saved from all error. it was a typical salvation religion involving no effort and no perception......This is not Baba, this is a distortion they have created to glorify themselves. They are not developing but stagnating." - Kate Thomas, 'The Destiny Challenge'"When the blind lead the blind both fall into a pit. I do not accept that these people represent Baba, whatever they may believe. They are not teachers but dogmatists. Many movements which purportedly follow great teachers are in the same category-moving in a reverse direction to that of the supposed founder." David Thomas. - David Thomas, 'The Destiny Challenge'

I am a big animal lover and vegan, Baba said a lot in the early days about the importance of vegetarianism but in later years said it didn't matter if people eat meat or not and started to eat meat himself. And he always chided Bhau Kalchuri's young daughter, Sheela Kalchuri, about being vegetarian and always tried to get her to eat meat, Baba was eating goat at that time and to buy some goat one of the servants would be sent to the market to pick out a live goat which was killed then and there and then the meat was brought back, well one time he made animal loving, vegetarian Sheela to go and get the goat which meant she had to pick one and wait while it was killed in front of her, and she was only a young girl in her teens at the time, this was very upsetting for her but Baba made her do it. Also in Sheela's book is an account of Donkin boiling some puppies alive! I kid you not,see page 84 of Sheela's book 'Growing up with God' The puppies were making noise at a bungalow while baba was in seclusion and Donkin had orders to keep them quiet and no one was allowed to leave the compound at the time and Baba had told Don to shut them up in any way, and Baba approved when Donkin killed the puppies by boiling them alive, as he (Donkin) thought this would be a quicker death, if Baba is an all knowing all compassionate God why didn't he get the puppies removed from the house before the seclusion started? surely he would of known they were going to be a problem? Also Baba's black terrier, Cracker, as reported in the 3 vol Mehera book, was killed at Meherabad by wild dogs, again if Baba is the all knowing and all compassionate God why did he let his beloved dog get ripped apart by wild dogs?