A curious encounter occurred before leaving Hyderabad. Eruch visited the police commissioner’s office and submitted a letter stating that Meher Baba intended to travel by foot from Hyderabad to Ahmednagar and requesting the police to inform other officials along their way, so that the group would not be stopped and unnecessarily inconvenienced for verification of their identity by the local police.
The commissioner, S. N. Reddy, invited Eruch to his house for tea, and Eruch, surprised by the invitation, accepted.
At his residence, Police Commissioner Reddy left the room and returned with an old framed photograph. It was the photograph of Baba as a young boy with his high school cricket team. Reddy said he was a member of the team and said, “Tell Baba that I always remember him from our school days.” The necessary documents were promptly prepared and sent out. From then on, not only were Baba and his men allowed to travel freely in every town in the area, but also in every obscure outpost the local police had been informed not to stop them.
The 30th October 1951, Baba sat in seclusion for half an hour in a Muslim dargah in Gulbarga, and thereafter contacted a saint and a mast.
Baba wished to give money as “love-gifts” to 101 needy families in Warangal, and he sent Eruch in advance to contact the headman of the village. The headman owned a shop, and opposite his was another shop. Unbeknownst to Eruch, there was a bitter rivalry between the two shopkeepers. As Eruch approached the headman’s shop, the other shopkeeper called him over and asked what he wanted.
Eruch explained his purpose and the second shopkeeper told him, “There is no necessity of meeting Him. I will arrange everything.” He then drew up a list of 101 families who had once been farm owners but, as their land had been confiscated by the government, were now on meager government pensions of Rs.20 to 25 per month. The shopkeeper handed the list to his servant, who accompanied Eruch to distribute passes among the listed families.
Meanwhile, the headman came to know of the matter and, out of spite, informed the police. Two constables came to where Eruch was distributing tickets. One constable, noticing that Eruch was poorly dressed and unshaven, arrogantly demanded, “Come over here. What are you doing?”
“Be civil,” Eruch replied. “I am not a thief. You are a public servant. Why behave in such an insolent manner?”
The policeman said, “Come with us to the police station; our inspector wants to speak with you.”
I have no time,” Eruch answered. “Send your chief here. I have not broken any law. If he will not come, I will see him after finishing my work.”
So both constables returned to the police station.
While Eruch was on his way to the second shop with the head person of each needy family, a police inspector with the two constables confronted him. The headman, pointing to Eruch, told the inspector, “He’s the ruffian!”
Eruch then began to understand, and going to the second shopkeeper asked him, “What’s going on here? Is there some enmity between you and the headman?”
“That is true, but it is not my fault,” the man replied. “Though I do not do anything to provoke him, he is jealous of me.”
Eruch asked, “Then would you have any objection if our program is carried out at his house? My elder brother would first come to your shop, and then distribute his love-gifts to the families selected at the headman’s house.”
The shopkeeper said, “I would not mind at all. I only wish that your work be done.” Eruch complimented him for his cooperation and approached the headman.
The police inspector intervened and asked Eruch, “What is going on?”
Eruch said, “You will come to know.”
He then requested that the headman set aside a room for the work, and a room was put at his disposal. Baba came from Gulbarga that same day with Pendu, Gustadji and Baidul. Without his identity being disclosed to the local people, Baba began his work with the poor of this village. One by one they stood in line, and touching the feet of the person representing each family, Baba handed each Rs.50.
The program had a harmonious ending. The headman felt ashamed that he had tried to stop Eruch and repented for his behavior. After the program, Eruch asked the police officer, “Have you anything further to ask?”
The inspector said, “I apologize. All these complications arose because of the rivalry between the two shopkeepers.”
Because of the political unrest in the Hyderabad area at that time, and to avoid any trouble along the way, the police had been informed in advance of Baba’s foot journey. Eruch asked the inspector, “Have you had any special circular from your commissioner regarding the movements of Meher Baba in the area?”
“As a matter of fact, yes, we have received it.”
It was Meher Baba who distributed the love-gifts; but please do not tell anyone,” Eruch revealed.
The police inspector took it as his good fortune to have been able to see Baba from a distance.
Baba spelled out, “They are those intimate ones who all along and even now are prepared to sacrifice their all in all for Me. The one who gives his life to Me, who listens to Me and is ready to obey Me, who does not ask for any kind of reward, nor care for the result, whether he is ruined or he prospers, who takes My pleasure as his pleasure, but at the same time whose intimacy I also feel, such a one is a mandali member.”
Eruch then asked, “Does one have the right to call himself one of the mandali if he himself feels intimate with you, regardless of the period of his connection with you, whether one year or 30 years?”
“Only if you find Me intimate with him,” Baba replied, adding, “Take Elcha (Mistry) of Dehra dun. I feel absolutely free with him, but if he is not prepared to sacrifice all, then he is not in the mandali.”
Eruch asked for a more clear-cut definition, asserting that only those whom Baba felt to be in the mandali were so, and no one had the right to assert that he was in the mandali. Baba replied, “The feeling should be present on both sides.”
Baba asked Harish Chander Kochar, “Are you in the mandali?” Kochar replied that he felt at home with Baba, and Baba stated, “This is true. I also feel at home with you, but are you prepared to sacrifice all for me willingly? Are you prepared to do any day what I tell you without hesitation, even if I ask you to cut your daughter Raj’s throat? Will you do that?” Kochar said yes, and Baba assured him, “Then you are in the mandali.”
Baba concluded, “Intimacy on both sides is absolutely necessary. On one side, I must accept him as one of the mandali, and on the mandali’s part honesty is needed.”
While showing them the room he would sleep in during His seclusion at Meherazad (Pendu’s room), Baba asked Eruch to narrate an incident that had taken place at the time. According to Eruch, he was on guard that night when Baba was inside the room. He had orders not to open the door unless Baba clapped, and if He did clap to come immediately. Eruch was sitting outside with a lantern and a flashlight. At 2:00 A.M., he saw a snake, trying to slide under Baba’s door. Eruch pinned its tail with his flashlight. Just then, Baba clapped. Had Eruch obeyed Baba’s orders and opened the door immediately, the snake would have entered the room. So Eruch waited until the snake slid away. He then entered the room, and Baba asked the reason for the delay. Eruch told him, and he simply smiled.
“But,” added Baba, “I always say when there are conflicting orders, always obey the first order.”
It happened when Baba first moved to Satara. Baba had sent for Meherjee’s car from Bombay, which his driver was bringing.
Some distance from Satara the car met with an accident, and the driver was seriously injured and rushed to the hospital in nearby Wai. When the news reached Satara, Eruch hurriedly dressed, while Baba started distributing sweets to the mandali. Baba called Eruch to receive the prasad, but he retorted, “Am I to eat sweetmeats when that poor fellow is dying there?” Baba kept quiet and simply handed him his portion.
After Eruch’s departure, Baba remarked to the other mandali: “Such sentiments should have no place before my orders. What value has they against My wish? My pleasure is something different, and it is a great thing to remember it. Can anyone be as mindful of others as I am? Everything is in My hands, and all is well if my wish is carried out.”
When Eruch and Pendu arrived at the hospital they found that the driver had been well looked after.
In 1956, once, Eruch had been sent to Ganeshpuri in Gujarat to convey Baba’s message to Saint Nityanand, and also to Bombay to deliver the same message to Mangharam Mirchandani, a bogus saint. Mirchandani had come to India from Pakistan after Partition and was thought to be a saint, but he was deceiving innocent people. He had been the chief speaker during a recent celebration of Baba’s birthday in Bombay. But when Eruch conveyed Baba’s message — to the effect that “All advanced souls are Baba’s beloved children, the rivers flowing into the Ocean which He is” — Mirchandani reacted angrily and began vilifying Baba terribly. When Eruch reported this, however, Baba was not upset by the abuse of this so-called saint. He had his own reasons for contacting Mirchandani.
Once, in a darshan Program Eruch was interpreting Baba’s gestures, a beautiful lady came before Baba, seeing most beautiful lady Eruch had unwanted feeling, Baba asked Eruch is she not Beautiful? Eruch was caught behind. Baba stopped the lady and said; this is My Beauty all over you see. This physical beauty will fade away by time but My beauty is eternal.
On another occasion, darshan program was on and one Major tried to put forth his wife near Baba out of turn. Eruch pushed her and she fell on someone nearby. Major got angry and stared Eruch in anger. Baba immediately ordered Eruch to go to Major and bed an excuse for his mistake. Major cooled down but boasted others that Baba’s disciple has asked him for forgiveness. After the program referring the said incident Baba discoursed, “Ego is hydra headed, if one head another comes up.”
In 1956, Eruch, while in Poona received this telegram from Mani: “See Sant Vaswani. Tell him all about Baba and say he is one of Baba’s beloved, precious children.” Accordingly, Eruch met Sadhu Vaswani on the evening and told him about Meher Baba. Sadhu Vaswani was extremely happy to hear that Baba had remembered him and that he had sent His love. He asked Eruch to convey his heartfelt invitation to Baba to visit his school in Poona, and Eruch assured him that he would convey the message to Baba.
Once Gulabdas Panchal of Bombay had an encounter with Self styled saint Mirchandani in Bombay. Gulabdas wrote a letter to Baba. Baba was in seclusion. As directed by Baba Eruch went to Mangharam Mirchandani and asked him if declares himself God then pronounce that “I am the Lord of Universe”. If he (Mirchandani) could say so he (Eruch) will bow down at his feet. Mirchandani tried but instead of taking his name Mirchandani pronounced, “Meher Baba is the Lord of universe.”
On 12th September 1963, Eruch was admitted to Booth Hospital in Ahmednagar, where the following day he underwent surgery for fistula. After a two week stay in the hospital, he returned to Meherazad on 25th September.
In October-1963, Eruch tried his best to dissuade Baba from sending out the circular, because he felt it would be impossible for Baba to give darshan, considering His precarious health. But Baba was adamant and replied, “I will give darshan; I want them to come. Send it.” Eruch obeyed.
The draft was sent to Adi’s office for typing and printing. After it was dispatched, many telegrams and letters began arriving, and Baba would dictate replies. He would often bring up the subject of “the Great Darshan” to be held next summer. One day He punned, “In March, you all march to Poona.”
On one occasion, Eruch pleaded, “Baba, why not just let there be darshan every day? There will not be that mad rush or circumstances which are so oppressive for us all, and naturally it will not be as tiresome for you. When thousands come, the mothers have to stand in the queue for hours in the hot sun holding small babies and fruits that get spoiled by the time they reach you. And all the time, you will be concerned about where will they stay at night, how will they pass the night, how will they return home, will they get seats on the train. Why all this?
“Why not give darshan every day? We will fix the time each day when darshan will be available, and we will not need to bother about their lodging. Let them come every day. It will be so much easier,” Eruch concluded.
Baba replied, “That time will also come. Not now though, but after we come back from Poona. There will be darshan every day, but only after we return.”
On 9th January, 1969, Baba told His brother Adi Jr. “Eruch is My Peter. Peter renounced Jesus but Eruch will not renounce Me.” Eruch loves Me very much. He is My right hand; but obedience is a terrible affair. The apostles of Jesus also knew how difficult it was to obey Him.”
Baba said, “Eruch is with Me, he loves Me, he works for Me wholeheartedly, but even for him it is not easy to obey Me.”
Once Baba said about Eruch “If I ever personally like the company of anyone it is that of Eruch. He is most reliable”.
Baba’s great love for Eruch is reflected in following words:
“Do you know How very important Eruch is for My work. By remaining by My side He serves Me 24 hours a day, keep watch by My side, reads My signs and gestures, looks after My smallest chores & in addition tackles correspondence. Now days I ask Eruch from his free and frank opinion whenever I am in doubt about My dealings with others.”
Meher Baba was silent for 44 years, from 1925 until his passing in 1969. Eruch Jessawala was Meher Baba’s main interpreter, interpreting both his English language alphabet board and later his sign language. Eruch Jessawala also dictated from the alphabet board Meher Baba’s major book God Speaks, wrote the ninth chapter of that book working from a chart by Meher Baba under Baba’s direct supervision, and wrote the book’s conclusion. Eruch’s stories of his life with Meher Baba were also published during his lifetime.
Eruch survived Meher Baba’s death by 32 years, continued to live at Meherazad and worked for the Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust in the trust office in Ahmednagar until his own death in 2001. He continued to be an inspiration for followers and disciples of Meher Baba from the east and west until the end. Eruch was well known for his acute talent for telling stories of Meher Baba’s life, and his books are taken from those accounts.
His literary works include “That is how it works” and “Stories of Life with Meher Baba”
(Source: ambprasarkendra)
ERUCH JESSAWALA, longtime disciple of Avatar Meher Baba, passed away into the embrace of His Divine Beloved, Avatar Meher Baba, at 2:31 in the morning on 31st August, 2001.
Eruch lived one of the extraordinary lives of our time, and his memory will be honored and cherished for ages to come. Indeed, his name is indissolubly linked
with Meher Baba’s, since, as Baba said of him, he played the same role in connection with this Avataric advent as Peter played in the advent of Jesus.
“If ever I personally like the company of anyone,” Baba once said, “it is that of Eruch.” From the time when Eruch came to join Baba on a permanent basis on 1st August 1938 until the Beloved dropped His physical body in 1969, and for more than three decades thereafter, Eruch served in many capacities. His was the voice
more than any other that rendered Baba’s silence into human speech, as he interpreted Baba’s hand gestures or read out from His dictation on the alphabet
board.
As Baba’s closest male companion, Eruch tended to many of His personal needs and helped inestimably in carrying out His wishes in the course of His work. After Baba’s passing away, Eruch welcomed thousands of pilgrims to Meher Baba’s home at Meherazad and helped many to grow in their intimacy with Him. Indeed, the stories that he told and the insights into the ways of the Avatar that he shared in Mandali Hall, Meherazad are one of the priceless legacies of the Advent.
Though (by his own wish) Eruch never played a formal role within the Avatar Meher Baba Trust, he served as an incomparable support during the chairmanships of Mani and Bhau,showing to one and all, through his own example, the real meaning of humility and harmony. Eruch was born in Bombay, India on 13th October 1916 to Zoroastrian parents, Beheram Jessawala (known as “Papa”) and his wife Gaimai.
The first meeting with Baba that Eruch remembered took place at Meherabad in 1925, when he was still a boy of 9. Twelve years later, when Eruch was preparing for a career as an engineer, Baba suddenly called him to Panchgani and asked him, “Will you leave everything and come to be with Me?” “By your
grace anything is possible,” Eruch replied. With those words his fate was sealed. Within months the family mansion and estate in Nagpur had been sold off, and along with his parents and siblings (Manu, Meheru, and Meherwan) Eruch had become a member of Baba’s ashram. Between 1938 and 1942 Eruch accompanied
Baba on the Blue Bus tours (acting as one of the drivers of the Blue Bus), and throughout the decade of the forties was intensively involved with Baba’s work with the masts (or divinely intoxicated). In a memorable episode at Vengurla (on the coast of the Indian Ocean) in 1949, Eruch pulled Baba out of the murky waters of a tidal estuary into which a capsizing fisherman’s dugout canoe had just flung them.
Later Baba told him, “Just as you pulled me out from the waters of this lagoon, someday I will pull you out of the muck of this illusion.”
(From love-remembrances website)
Eruch’s room at Meherazad.
Eruch Jessawala, Meher Baba’s interpreter and friend, lived most of his life in Meherazad in a small room that was made up of the shells of two cabins. These cabins had been erected on nearby Seclusion Hill in 1947 and used by Baba during several periods of seclusion work, culminating with the Manonash Seclusion in 1951. Because it was too windy for Baba’s work up on the hill, the mandali brought both cabins down to Meherazad where Padri combined them into one cabin. Baba finished His seclusion here, then lit a Dhuni right behind the structure. The next day He told Eruch to use the cabin as his room, which he did until his death. He has left a void that no one will ever fill, at least not for the next 700 years. His room has been kept as it was during his life, and today many pilgrims go there to sit and absorb the atmosphere created by one who was Meher Baba’s “most fortunate slave” and His constant companion for so many years.
— Mehera Arjani for Avatar Meher Baba Trust, 26 March 2015
More references on Eruch Jessawala
TAGS: | MEHER BABA’S MANDALI ERUCH JESSAWALA |
References/Images from: Various Lord Meher volumes, discontinued website's ambprasarkendra & love-remembrances, images and dates, stories etc from respective copyright owners websites or publications used with permission - i.e. In His Service, Glow International, MeherBabaTravels, MSI and MNP Collections, from AvatarMeherBabaTrust, BelovedArchives websites and from various other website sources, Books, journal etc. More information where ever available with us like letter scans, stories etc are added. Kindly feel free to Contact us with any updates, photos or corrections etc.
- Adi K. Irani (Adi Sr.)
- Aloba
- Anna Saheb Kale
- Baidul
- Bal Natu
- Bhau Kalchuri
- Dadachanji
- Don Stevens
- Eruch Jessawala
- Francis Brabazon
- Gustadji Hansotia
- Jal S Irani
- Kaikobad Dastur
- Kalemama
- Murli Kale
- Padri
- Pendu
- Ramjoo Abdulla
- William Donkin