Nursery Rhymes in Meher’s Time

Meheru R. Irani

Meheru had an audience with Meher Baba both the day before she was born (while still in her mother's womb) and soon after. Her parents were among Baba's closest disciples, having married at his instruction; her mother Freny was the sister of Mehera, Meher Baba’s most beloved disciple. Meheru's first memories are of Baba, as her family lived in the same compound as his women's ashram which was located in Nasik in the early 1930s. Baba would often spend the night at Meheru's house and thus as a small child, she was constantly in and around him and his women disciples. After 1938, she and her sister were called from boarding school to spend all their vacations with Baba wherever he was.

In 1942, Meheru joined the women's ashram. With Mehera and Mani (and later Goher), she accompanied Baba each time he changed his headquarters, and was one of the four women he took with him on the New Life, also going to the USA and Europe with him in 1952. She served Baba and Mehera both, helping Mehera with Baba's personal work, in the garden, with their many pets, and with correspondence, sewing and household arrangements. After Baba passed away in 1969, she continued to serve Mehera until Mehera's passing in 1989.

As good at flower-arranging as she is with hammer and nails, tender-hearted, quick-witted and adventurous, Meheru is a surprise and delight for visitors to the women's side of Meherazad. And her moving stories of Baba's love for Mehera and Mehera's love for Baba are unforgettable, providing a rare glimpse into the secluded world of his closest women disciples.