( Dastoor )

Born : 12th January, 1891 - British India

Died : 20th January, 1976 - Meherabad, India

Buried / Interred : Men's Cemetery, Lower Meherabad, India

Married : Jerbi Dastur

Children : (F) Mehera(u) b.1921 d.1966, (F) Jalu b.1929, (F) Gulu b.1926 & (M) Ratan

The family lived on Upper Meherabad, along with Mansari Desai.

Zoroastrian

Nationality : Indian

Kaikobad repeated Meher Baba's name - 100,000 per day.

Meher Baba said, at the November 1955 Eastern Sahavas at Meherabad:

“I love Kaikobad [ one of the resident mandali ] and often bow down to him. Whenever I go out on mast tours or for other congregations I ask Kaikobad to lay his hand on my head and bless me. Recently at Satara he wept and protested, but I told him to continue to obey me to the point of kicking me should I ask him to do so.

"Kaikobad has been with me for twelve years. He has his family. They are staying on Meherabad hill.* He has dedicated everything to me and I have accepted him. He belongs to the Parsi [ Zoroastrian ] priest class, and hence he is also called Dastoor, which means 'a priest'. And he is a real priest. He sees Baba as Baba is to be seen, and he takes Baba's blessing as blessings are to be taken.

"He has also been silently repeating Baba's name one hundred thousand times every twenty-four hours all these years. He had the first glimpse of Divinity at Meherabad in 1946. Again on August 31, 1953, he experienced at Dehra Dun such bliss that he was on the point of dropping his body. Now he says he can see glimpses of my reality whenever he wishes.

"At such moments he sees even a dark room lit up with such brilliance that compared with it the brilliance of the sun is nothing. Then in that light he sees me. That is no miracle performed by me. I cannot do that myself. I know only one thing, that I am everywhere and in everything.

"Despite all that, Kaikobad has yet to realize God. He is on the path, and he has to go on and on. He often tells me that he is enjoying my grace, and I always tell him—and I mean it—that it is his love for me that gives him the wonderful experiences of the path. Even though glimpses, his experiences give him deep bliss and the unshakable conviction that I am his master. Therefore he will carry out any of my orders promptly and cheerfully.

"Kaikobad," Baba gestured as he looked towards the back of the audience, "stand up."

A slim, gentle-faced man stood up about two thirds of the way back in the hall.

"Is not what I have said true?" Baba queried.

"Yes, Baba, everything you have said is exactly true," Kaikobad replied, and looking for a moment at Baba to see if anything further was demanded of him, he sat down again.

—from Listen, Humanity, ed. D. E. Stevens, chap. 2

Courtesy of Kendra Crossen Burroughs

Kaikobad Dastur - 1971 - The Oral History Archive Project - Irwin Luck Interview Series

                                          Courtesy of  Los Angeles Meher Baba Center

Men's Cemetery, Lower Meherabad, India