Establishment of the Meherabad Ashram
25th January 1925 through 2nd April 1925,
folios 37-44
[Please note that folios #38 & #40 are blank numbered pages and not included.]
With this installment we move into a new section of the Combined Diary. Whereas the earlier pages were based on the accounts of Padri, folios 37 through 44 are derived from the diary of Gargaram Limbaji Pawar. Moreover, Baba’s activities at this juncture underwent a fundamental shift. While in the later months of 1924 He had been shifting station and traveling about continuously, from later January 1925 on through the next two years, Meherabad became His seat and the focal point of His activities. Indeed, January 1925 marks the beginning of the first great flowering of the Meherabad ashram and the first germination of some of its most significant institutions.
After the introductory material, the first main page of text [folio 41] of this week’s selection provides an overview of Baba’s activities from the end of January through February. We witness the rapid expansion of Meherabad activities at ground level. For example, we hear how He first draws the Mang and Mahar boys to Him through singing bhajans and distributing sweets, then starts a school for boys, [which eventually led later to the Prem Asham.] Many different threads evolve simultaneously. The final week of March was a landmark passage in Meherabad history, witnessing the formal inauguration of the Meher Hospital on 21st March and the opening of the Hazrat Babajan School (for the poor boys of Arangaon) at about the same time. Folio 44 closes with a brief account of “Ram-navini” or the celebration of Ram’s birthday.