Divine Love in Action

It is unlikely that one has stayed at Meher Center and not met Jeff Wolverton. It is more unlikely that one has met him and forgotten him. For so many, Jeff Wolverton has been and continues to be an essential and noteworthy figure at the Center.

Like countless children in the Baba world, I remember being a child in India and looking forward, with breathless anticipation, to Jeff’s yearly visits to Meherabad. His playfulness mixed with the profound depth of love was unmissable even to a child’s eye. “Oh please, please could you tell your Baba story one more time?” I would plead with him. And he would oblige, each time. His coming to Baba experience was so remarkable that it could make any mind, even a doubting one, pause in utter awe.

But now, watching him work here at the Center and seeing his role evolve over the years, in the perfect realization of the path destined for him, that story becomes the anchor for both the life leading up to it and as a result of it.

Jeff grew up in an agnostic environment where his family proceeded experientially. His only experience of religion was when he went to visit his grandparents one summer, as a child. While he didn’t have words for it then, what he observed was that his grandmother simply had Jesus’ companionship. “After spending that summer with her, when I went back, I felt that Jesus was watching over me. His presence was very loving, and I enjoyed it. Years passed and I forgot all about it,” says Jeff.

While in college in New York City, in 1968, Jeff was invited to a Baba meeting by a friend on West 57th street at Little Carnegie Hall. “When I arrived, all the women hugged me first and then all the men hugged me. It took about half an hour to just get through the hugs. This was so rare in New York City, it felt like a family reunion,” chuckles Jeff.

After the Baba movie there were three minutes of silence. Not knowing what to do, Jeff stared at the large picture of Baba. “In His eyes was the love that I had suspected was at the core of life. Just then the eyes came to life. I knew He was God and my whole life was meant to be lived for Him.
Baba’s love glances were on everyone, each one meant the world to Him. I thought ‘If they only knew how dearly He loves them.’ Next thing I knew, all of Baba (not just His eyes) was right in front of me. I was lifted out of my chair into the being of God and as I was leaving creation, I saw that creation was just a finite place. I had been to a place beyond memory. I knew right away that He wanted me to serve His people.”

Fast forward half a century, that foresight has come to be. Jeff has lived his life for Meher Baba and is serving His people. His greatest role at the Center has been to keep the personal element of familial connection alive and continue the legacy of Elizabeth, Kitty, Jane.

A core part of Jeff’s belief is that Baba came as a person because the world is getting too impersonal. “The Mandali related to me as I had always known myself. They saw the essence of who I was. I witnessed Eruch year after year and how he related to people. His responses were things that were not even in my vocabulary.”

Not just the Eastern Mandali, Jeff was influenced by many Western Baba stalwarts including Darwin Shaw, Fred and Ella Winterfeldt, and Harry Kenmore. From Harry he learned that all human beings have a current. In most cases, the current going in from the world is stronger than the current going out and that we have to switch the flow to move outwards.

He finds that to awaken this outward current, he has to use something powerful like Baba’s name to transmute the heaviness of the day. “When the current stalls out, then the day becomes ordinary, but when the flow is re-kindled with Baba, the moment becomes timeless—there is a carbonation—life is not flat.”

Being a people person, Jeff finds a natural joy in connecting with people to find out what makes them tick. “These people (Baba’s lovers and those who come to His home) are all familiar to me. It is fascinating to watch them through their stays on Center and through their lives with Baba. I always say that I have a front row seat to seeing divine love in action.”

Whether you see Jeff giving elated children a ride in his golf cart or handing out profound spiritual quotes at chatty refectory lunches, he has joie de vivre that has made some people call him an icon. He does not like that term, nor does he see himself in an assigned spiritual role. “It is simply the giving and receiving of love,” he says.