JAMSHED  NUSSERWANJEE  R. MEHTA

Born : 7th January, 1886 -  Karachi, Sind, British India

Died : 1st August 1953 - Pakistan

He was the Mayor of Karachi during the 1930s and transformed it.

POLITICIAN

PAKISTANI

The following text on this page is from Lord Meher On-Line.

1929

On the night of 21 September, the ship arrived in Karachi. Baba and the mandali were met by Pilamai, Baba's maternal aunt Banu Masi, and Merwan and Homi, her two sons who had been at the Meher Ashram school. The most distinguished among the few others waiting to receive them was the President of the Municipal Corporation of Karachi, Jamshed N. R. Mehta. Pilamai invited Baba to her house and he went there at 11:30 P.M., accompanied by Buasaheb and Vishnu.

** There are no known images of Banu Masi & her boys - Merwan & Homi.

Baba met with people until two in the morning, giving a discourse on divine love to Jamshed Mehta, 43, and praising the selfless service he was doing in Karachi to assist the downtrodden classes and lepers. Baba then stated:

Real worship is within — inside the heart — not in the outward muttering of words. To enter the spiritual path, one has to go beyond religious ceremonies. One cannot grasp Truth through the intellect, but, at present, people are averse to know even an iota of it!

All the disorder of the world is due to the mind. He who conquers it, conquers everything and is a real hero.

Baba and the mandali were driven back to the ship in the morning on Sunday,

22 September 1929, and they left Karachi the same day, amidst a loving farewell. During Baba's brief visit, Jamshed Mehta established a closeness with Baba and was to become a significant contact. He was a friend of Mahatma Gandhi and it was through Mehta's influence that Gandhi eventually came to meet Meher Baba.

Click on the images to see their names and enlarge.

On Thursday, 30 April 1931, Jamshed Mehta, the mayor of Karachi, came to see Baba. Baba praised his sincere efforts and sympathetic treatment of the poor and needy, and admired his selfless service in other areas, as well. Baba explained to him:

I am very pleased with your sincere work and selfless service, particularly in the cause of the really poor and needy. You render it with a sense of renunciation, even at the cost of sacrificing your own interests. I know all about your activities in the cause of service to others, and they are unique and most praiseworthy. You are sincere and selfless as very few persons in the world in your position could be.

In spite of all these sincere humanitarian efforts in the cause of service to others, God-realization is far, far away. The ego will not die so easily. It is most difficult for the ego to disappear, and disappear it must before God-realization is possible.

Even in the noblest aspirants and the sincerest workers for the good of humanity, the thought that "I did this" or "I have done that" exists. Although they might not say this openly to others, the thought persists in their minds. This very thought that "I have done this service" is so destructive that it nullifies all the service rendered and robs it of all value and worth.

Jamshed Mehta was highly impressed with Baba's explanation and his heart accepted the truth of the Master's words. To Mehta's surprise, Baba visited the slums of Karachi and Manora with him that evening.

SLUMS OF KARACHI

10TH JULY 1931

The mayor of Karachi, Jamshed Mehta, again came to see Baba. He told Baba that he found himself surrounded by difficulties with no immediate solution. Baba stated:

That is not bad news; that is very good news! You are lucky to have so many hardships. The fact is there are no hardships, because everything in the world is one big zero! I see and experience this every moment.

Once tested by the Avatar or Sadguru, the devotee will feel as if he is about to die! It is terrible; this path of God is the harshest and most insurmountable thing possible. Still, don't worry and don't lose hope. Good times are ahead and after these difficulties, quietude and comfort await you.

Terrible suffering is the sign of happiness and peace to come.

Great heat denotes the coming of rain. Great suffering and intense sorrow indicate that happiness is about to dawn. Anything beyond your capacity will necessarily change your capacity, because so long as everything is within your limits, you don't know what is beyond them. And everything concerning God and God-realization is beyond limit! So in this way, great suffering and being plagued with terrible problems are beneficial.

People pray to me to solve their difficulties, saying that they love me, but there is a vast difference between love and prayer. In Persian, to pray means to beg, to want, to desire something — even the blessings of God. But when a person really loves, he gives himself over to his Beloved completely. This is true love. In that, there is no begging, no wanting, and no room for desires. Only the longing to unite with the Beloved remains.

Love means the renunciation of the self; prayer means selfishness, no matter how high the prayer may be. So there is a vast difference between the two!

Baba decided to remain in Karachi for several days, during which time Jamshed Mehta and Chanji's relatives, including Nariman, had several occasions to be in his intimate company. Baba also visited his aunt Banu Masi's home and discussed family matters with her. Her son Homi wanted to stay with Baba at Meherabad, and Baba had directed him to remind him about it. When Homi brought up the subject, Baba, however, advised him to seek employment, earn money and manage his household affairs, and in this way he would be serving Baba.

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21ST AUGUST 1931

In Karachi, Pilamai had a long talk with Baba, expressing her desire to join the ashram. Baba assigned Jamshed Mehta the work of obtaining visas for himself, Chanji, and Agha Ali, Rustom was also to accompany Baba to England, but he had still not been informed about it. 

On Saturday, 22 August 1931, Mehta informed Baba that Mahatma Gandhi might also be traveling to England, but it was looking extremely doubtful at this stage.

Baba replied, "If I go to England, I will take Gandhi with me. You simply expedite the passport work."

The next day, Baba repeated the same thing about Gandhi.

In September, a Round Table Conference was scheduled to take place in London about India's independence, but it was uncertain whether Mahatma Gandhi would attend. At the last moment, he agreed and, when it was announced that he would be sailing to England on the SS Rajputana, Chanji and Mehta grasped the significance of Baba's earlier comments, and Chanji realized why they had not been able to travel on the earlier ship.

About his trip, Mahatma Gandhi told newspaper reporters, "I must go to London with God as my only guide."

The visa work continued. The British authorities had endorsed Baba's passport with a visa on 25 July, but Mehta was informed that Baba would be required to sign a "guarantee" (perhaps in relation to Ali, who was a minor). Even Mehta with all his influence as mayor of Karachi found it impossible to convince the British authorities to issue all the documents to Meher Baba without his signature.

At last, Baba consented to sign, but before doing so, he remarked ominously, "The British government is compelling me to sign its own death warrant!

This will be the end of the British Empire in India."

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8TH SEPTEMBER 1931

Meanwhile Jamshed Mehta, who was an acquaintance of Gandhi (and a Baba lover), cabled Gandhi on board the ship, strongly urging him to meet Meher Baba. At nine o'clock on Tuesday, 8 September, Mahatma Gandhi came to Baba's cabin with his secretary Mahadev Desai. After Gandhi was introduced, he looked at Baba and said, "I have read much about you and wanted to see you one day when God willed it; but I never expected it to be so soon."

Baba expressed how happy he was to meet him and dictated from his alphabet board:

"Do you have the time to stay?"

"Yes, I have come to sit and listen," Gandhi replied.

Gandhi talked about meeting Upasni Maharaj at Sakori, and Baba explained to him in detail about Maharaj and Babajan. Baba ended by dictating, "Upasni Maharaj is my Master and a Perfect Sadguru."

Referring to Jamshed Mehta, Gandhi remarked, "He is the most honorable person in Karachi. He is most worthy. I will telegram him tonight that I have seen you, Baba Saheb, and will ask him why he did not inform me earlier so that I could have spared more time to meet with you. When will such a time come again?

 10TH OCTOBER 1932 - Yeravda Central Prison, Poona

Gandhi wrote a long letter to Chanji. The following is a small part of it.

In short, I am a student of Baba's ideas. I saw Baba [after] having received a wire from Jamshed Mehta, whom I regard as a pure soul. I am always in search of bhaktas [lovers] of God and, thinking that Baba was one, I met him.

18-19TH SEPTEMBER 1941

Chanji met Gandhi again on the 18th and 19th of September, and then came to Panchgani. After going through the distorted reports, Gandhi wrote to Chanji:

With reference to the alleged interview with Mirabehn, and reported by Rom Landau, you may announce to the curious that it was not Meher Baba who sought me out on the SS Rajputana, but I who sought him out in his cabin, and it was I who used to go frequently to his cabin. And this I did for the love of Jamshed Mehta, who had cabled to me that Babaji was a fellow passenger with me, and that I should seek him out and try to understand him.  And, as you were Baba's interpreter of the alphabetical plate through which he held converse with the world, you know the spiritual nature of our conversation.

I had further invited Baba to meet me in London during the time I was there.

There was no question of Masterhood and discipleship. I have never felt like being [a] disciple to anybody in a spiritual way, though I am still, and have always been, in search of a guru, as I hold every seeker of God should be.

Yours sincerely,
Mohandas Gandhi

1955

Meher Baba recalled a certain event from 1931.

Now I will relate something which has just come to my mind. When I went to England for the first time many years ago, Gandhiji was on the same boat with me. He was a good soul, and there was none like him. No one's heart was as beautiful as his. The mayor of Karachi, Jamshed Mehta, wired Gandhi that he should meet me. One day Gandhi knocked on my cabin. With him was his secretary, Mahadev Desai. With me were Rustom and Chanji.

The door was opened, and Gandhi walked in. He said, "Baba, because I received a telegram from Jamshed Mehta, I have come. I would not have come on my own. I will see you for five minutes and then go away." I asked him to sit down. I was using the alphabet board then, and during his first visit, he stayed with me for three hours.