Bill Reading

Bill Reading

1968 : Seclusion Hill, Meherazad, India - Meher Baba was in seclusion at this time in one of the cabins behind Bill. Image rendition by Anthony Zois.

Born : 1947

Died : 27^th July, 2018 - Gosford, New South Wales, Australia ( 71 y.o. )

AUSTRALIAN

ARTIST & PHOTOGRAPHER

In Australia, a young artist named William Reading, 19, first heard of Meher Baba in 1966. After reading all the literature he could find about Baba, he eventually went to Bill Le Page's meetings and saw some films of Baba. Soon afterwards he became friends with a young Englishman, who had ridden a bicycle from England across Europe and Asia to Australia. Through his new friend, Reading was inspired to get his first job after leaving art school and to travel to India in the hopes of seeing Baba, even though he was advised that Baba was in strict seclusion.

Reading left Australia in April 1968 and traveled overland through Asia to India.

The Trust Compound, Ahmednagar, India : Phographed by Bill Reading

Continued..

After spending a few weeks in Bombay trying to learn the basics of the tabla, and then traveling to Poona, where he met Jalbhai, he arrived in Ahmednagar on 5 August 1968 and went to Adi's office. Adi urged him to write a note to Baba, and Reading went back to his hotel and wrote the following:

Dear Baba,

My name is William Reading and I have traveled from Sydney, Australia, where I met Bill Le Page and saw some films of you. I do not know if you are God but the works that I have read of yours appear to me to be the unquestionable truth, and I would very much like to see you.

Bill's note was read to Baba on 7 August, and Baba sent a reply that he was pleased to read his letter. Eruch wrote:

... Baba wants you to take him with you in your heart for he is already with you. He sends his love to you and wants you to keep happy. He wants you to remember him always so that you will be able to love him and serve him all the more.

Baba's love will be with William.

Reading wrote another note asking to see Baba, and Baba replied in a similar manner as above. This went on for a few days. While delivering another note to Adi to pass on to Baba, he spent some time talking to Donkin, who looked at him and declared, "You are the new humanity!"

Lord Meher : p.5342-3

Meherazad area, photographed by Bill. Courtesy of Glow Int. magazine - Spring 2017 p21

Meherazad, India - Photographed by Bill Reading

Continued..

On 7 August, Donkin, perhaps feeling sympathetic toward the young man, suggested they drive out to Seclusion Hill on the sly, where Reading might catch a glimpse of Baba through a pair of Donkin's binoculars. Although he failed to catch a glimpse of Baba from either of the two hills behind Meherazad, as he peered through the binoculars straining to see Baba, inwardly he beseeched Baba that he yearned for something to assure himself that "Baba was truly God in human form."

As they walked over to Seclusion Hill the sky became overcast and a light shower of rain began to fall, producing a rainbow. By the time they were halfway up the side of Seclusion Hill the rainbow had slowly moved until one end was on the roofs of Meherazad. Reading was elated at what he took to be Baba's reply to his inner longings. As he later recounted: "It was a very subtle and beautiful way of confirming his divinity to me. In fact, everything there, the people at the Trust offices in Ahmednagar and out at Meherabad, including the weather, seemed to exist only to respond to Baba's wish."

Lord Meher : p.5342-3

William Donkin on Khandoba Hill near Meherazad, India. Photographed by Bill Reading.

Rainbow over Khandoba Hill near Meherazad, India - Photographed by Bill Reading

1968 continued...

Don had lent him a copy of The Wayfarers, and on the 8^th Reading sketched Baba's portrait from the photograph on the frontispiece and sent it to Baba the next day to see. Baba looked through the sketch pad and returned it to him after he had signed the drawing on the side ( see the drawing below ). Baba sent a message to Reading to fill the sketch pad with drawings of him and remarked to the mandali: "It is not necessary for William to see me, as my having signed his drawing is tantamount to his having had my darshan."

On 10 August, Bill Reading rode a bicycle to Meherabad, where he was given a tour by Padri and was introduced to Mohammed Mast. Padri coaxed the mast into shaking hands with Reading and, in his words, "The instant we touched hands a sensation not unlike a mild electric shock — minus the jolt and corresponding discomfort — swept through my body."

Lord Meher : p.5344

This is the drawing that Baba signed on the side of the page.

Continued...

Reading further recalled, "After I took some photographs of Mohammed, Padri suggested a cup of tea, which he served in his room. While talking to Padri the sensation of Baba's 'presence' came over me. Tears welled up in my eyes and I started to weep. Baba's presence seemed to emanate from Padri and his sincere and simple life."

After listening to Padri talk about Baba over tea, Reading's emotional state calmed and they took a walk up the hill, because Padri wanted to show him Upper Meherabad and Baba's Tomb. In Reading's words, "There is one other event that to this day I am very glad I did, although I don't fully understand why ... The place seemed deserted as Padri left me alone in Baba's Tomb to attend to some chore. I walked around looking at the mural on the ceiling when I suddenly felt a strong urge to get into the crypt. I clambered down the end near the entrance to the Tomb and crouched down up the other end. And I thought of Baba and what it would be like when his body would be placed here. After five minutes or so, I climbed out and went outside to see where Padri had gone."

Padri later said to Don he was touched by the young man's sincerity.

Lord Meher : p.5344

This photo was taken by Bill Reading as he rode his bicylcle to Meherabad, India

INDIA 1968 : MOHAMMED THE MAST - Photographed by Bill Reading

1968 continued...

On the 10^th, Baba sent William Reading instructions not to travel to Nepal but to return home to Australia, which he did, although the bus ride back to Poona was a tearful departure for him. In Reading's words, "I felt like I was leaving my true home." He left Ahmednagar around 12 August 1968 and had his 21st birthday a few days later. Reading continued to write more notes to Baba through Adi until he arrived back at his parents' home in Sydney.

Bill Reading also sent another drawing of Baba holding the world in his arms, to which Baba sent this reply through Adi, "Baba liked it, but not as much as the first drawing ..."

Lord Meher : p.5345

Letters to God

Letters_to_God_Reading.pdf

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Bill Reading Dies with Meher Baba in his Heart

Ross Keating

Why should Baba lovers fear death for Beloved Baba is to be found on both sides of the line that divides so-called life and death.

There is certainly no reason to “rage, rage against the dying of the light”.

According to Meher Baba we have undergone thousands of births and deaths while all the time He remains our real “Preserver and Protector”.

This body, as Baba says, is nothing more than a concretisation or externalisation formed from the mould of the consolidated impressions stored in our individual minds.

And it has a use-by date determined by these impressions.
And yet as Francis Brabazon has written, with each person who dies “a whole world dies with him”.

And Bill Reading was a world who circled in his own unique orbit.

Bill was the last of the Readings. He left no remaining family.

He had only a few select friends whom he valued and they all felt privileged to know and spend time with him.

His nature was that of a recluse and he was true to his nature. His closest friend was Zita whom he knew for eighteen years.

Zita is not a follower of Meher Baba but she told me that Bill treated her like “Baba treated Mehera”.

Zita felt that Bill was the best friend “a girl could ever have”.

She said that they had a lot of happy and fun-filled times together; and often, when she was anxious or distraught about something, she said, Bill had a great calming influence on her.

She said that Bill never made any advances on her, that their relationship was totally platonic.

Even Bill, described their relationship to me, in his characteristic straight voice, “pure, not a whisper of sex – it’s great when you can transcend sex”.

Bill was a noble soul. You could see that in his face and demeanour and the way he handled death.

When Jen and I visited him in Gosford hospital about a week or so before he passed away of terminal cancer we couldn’t help but notice his fine features.

He had a well-trimmed beard and his eyes were alive and when he talked they sparkled; and if he wished to stress a point his face and eyes became animated.

He was very clear that he was totally in Baba’s hands and was not afraid of death and really wanted Baba to take him sooner than later.

He didn’t want to, as he said, “end up non-compos and hanging around for death”. He felt that Baba might want him for something.

Soon after talking with Bill you got the impression that he was a very intelligent man, quick to notice things, articulate, self-contained, and intuitively perceptive.

All the things that make an artist.

One of his drawings so moved Baba in 1968 that Baba signed it and gave it back to him with the message: “It is not necessary for William [Bill] to see Me, [as Baba was in strict seclusion at the time] as My having signed his drawing is tantamount to his having My darshan”.

Bill’s Meher Baba story is a moving one. He told me that after he had read Baba’s writing in the mid-sixties, he said to himself, “What am I doing in Australia when the Christ is in India”.

He knew Baba was in seclusion at the time so he didn’t write about visiting Him, just in case he got a refusal, but instead just set off for India “to see what happens”.

One of Baba’s mandali, Dr William Donkin, befriended him and told others that Bill was a distant cousin of his from Australia and helped him at least make it to Seclusion Hill to try and see Baba at Meherazad – (see attached story for Bill’s own account of this time).

It is interesting to note that Donkin saw Bill as the beginning of “the new humanity”.

When Bill last related this story to me he highlighted the point that when he was in Ahmednagar in ’68 and initially sent some written messages to Baba, via Adi K., he felt dissatisfied with them. This, he said, prompted him to do a drawing for Baba and so he stayed up most of the night sketching Baba’s face and then the next morning gave it to Adi K. to send to Baba.

As mentioned above, Baba was moved by the drawing. Bill then said to me, after further reflecting on this incident, that the messages he sent to Baba were “from the head, but the drawing was from the heart”. And added, “Baba could not really respond to my messages but because my drawing was from the heart Baba could respond”.

It reminded me of Baba saying that He is “the slave of the love of His lovers”.

Bill finally passed away on Wednesday, 27^th July 2018 at approximately 11.00am in Gosford Hospital at the age of 71.

Zita was at his side and long-time friend Keith Manning was also present. Zita said that when she arrived Bill was already unconscious and barely breathing.

She remembered that Bill told her to whisper Baba’s name into his ear when he was about to die.

She wasn’t even sure if Bill was aware of her presence or even if he could hear her, but she played a Baba song to Bill from her phone, “Meher Baba / The Mast Song” which repeats Baba’s name and she saw a tear fall down Bill’s cheek – he had heard his Beloved’s name, and moments later he left his body.

Courtesy of Ross & Jenny Keating

Kids in Ahmednagar, India - Photographed by Bill Reading