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Alabaster Temples

Alabaster Models of Hindu Temple, Mosque, Church, Pagoda and Agiary commissioned by Meher Baba and used during the Manonash phase of His Work-Curated at Meherabad, MS, India.

http://www.avatarmeher.org/manonash_index/manonash_brief/

1951

Was Deo Kain and Kishan Singh of Delhi were asked to have models of five religious symbols made: a Buddhist temple; a Hindu temple; a Christian church; a Mohammedan mosque; and a Zoroastrian fire-urn (representing the fire-temple). With the assistance of Madan Mohan Agrawal of Agra (who had learned of Baba the previous year from his close friend Keshav Nigam) and Kishan's friend Auri Shankar Verma, the models were carved out of alabaster at Agra and sent to Hyderabad.

LM p. 3005 ( on-line )

Pendu completed the required arrangements on Khojaguda Hill. On 10 October, Baba took the women in the morning to see the cave. On the 13th Pendu, Gustadji, Baidul and Daulat Singh went up to stay there and clean the caves prior to Baba's arrival. Eruch drove them with the luggage and the five religious models. The car was parked near the top of the hill, and the companions went to inspect the site while Eruch locked the car. As Eruch turned away, suddenly the car began rolling back down the hill. Eruch ran after it as fast as he could, but the car was rolling rapidly, twisting and turning and, as Eruch described it, "leaping over small boulders in its path." Eruch was certain it would be smashed, and he was especially worried about the fragile marble models inside the "dickey" (trunk).

Finally, the car stopped in a muddy paddy field. Nearing it, Eruch saw that, except for a broken windshield, no other damage had been done. The models were intact. The car could easily have been badly dented against the rocks and could have fallen into a ditch that was on one side. Later, when the incident was described to Baba, he merely chuckled.

LM p. 3008 ( on-line)

continued...

On Monday, 15 October 1951, Don's car was decorated with flowers, and after bidding the women goodbye, Baba left for the hill at 2:30 P.M. Vishnu, Nilu and a Mohammedan priest accompanied Baba, and Don drove. They reached the top of Khojaguda Hill half an hour later. A prayer was offered, after which Vishnu, Nilu, Don and the priest returned to Hyderabad, leaving Eruch, Pendu, Gustadji, Baidul and Daulat Singh on the hill with Baba. In the evening the sky burst into a rainstorm — tears at the thought of the unimaginable suffering the Beloved would have to pass through during his Manonash.

LM p.3008 ( on-line )

continued...

On the 16th, Baba and his companions fasted on the hill until eight o'clock the following morning. In the dargah of the Muslim saint, all the companions stood silent with Baba as Eruch read the following prayer five times, changing it each time with a different name of God and the Avatar:

O Ahuramazda [Allah, Paramatma, God] in the name of your infinite greatness and in the name of your beloved Self Zoroaster [Muhammad Mustafa, Avatar Krishna, Avatar Buddha, Son Jesus], and in the name of all Prophets [Avatars, Perfect Ones] and saints and your lovers: Meher Baba beseeches you to help him carry out successfully his four months' work beginning from today, the 16th October 1951, and asks you in all humility to have his desire fulfilled and the ultimate object achieved by February 16, 1952.

On this same day, 16 October, the same prayer was being repeated at five of the "holiest" places in India. In accordance with Baba's orders, Meherjee was in a Zoroastrian fire-temple in Udwada; Keki Desai was in Mu'inuddin Chishti's tomb in Ajmer; Was Deo Kain was in Krishna's temple in Mathura; Gaya Prasad Khare was in the Buddha's temple in Sarnath; and Vishwanath Haldankar was in Francis Xavier's church in Goa (Basilica of Bom Jesus). Each man had been ordered to fast and recite the prayer. Likewise, at four separate locations in Hyderabad, Baba had given the same instructions for Nilu to be in a Buddhist temple, Vishnu in a Hindu temple, Kaikobad in a fire-temple, Don in a church and the selected Muslim priest in a mosque. All this was occurring simultaneously as Baba began his seclusion.

LM p.3009 ( on-line )

continued .....

When it was time, Baba had the five alabaster models, representing the five religions, brought into the dargah, and he sat alone inside with them in seclusion from 8:00 P.M. to 3:00 A.M., as the companions kept watch outside.

Two days later, on the 18th, Baba sat from 8:00 A.M. to 3:00 P.M. in his cave on the hill. On the 20th, he sat in seclusion in the Hindu temple below the cave from 6:00 A.M. to 9:00 A.M.

On 22 October, Baba communed in his cave with a high mast named Ghulam Hussein, whom Baidul had brought.  The next day was the final day of Baba's seclusion.

The luggage from Khojaguda Hill was sent to the Kohinoor bungalow at Jubilee Hills on the 24th, with this message from Baba to the men and women companions: "I am well and my work in the cave has been 100 percent successful. Today I will start on a foot journey to Meherazad via Aurangabad."

LM p. 3009 ( on-line )

Meher Baba ordered that the models were to be preserved.