The House of the Gatekeepers

When Meher Baba visited the Center for the first time in 1952, Elizabeth Patterson asked Him if He wanted her to move onto the Center property that she had spent so many years preparing for Him. “No,” He replied, “Not until I tell you to.”[i]

Baba specified that, when the time came, Elizabeth should build a house near His own. Elizabeth asked whether that wouldn’t take away from His seclusion and privacy. Baba answered: “You will be my gatekeeper.”[ii] Eight years later, in 1960, He sent the message that it was time to build.

Elizabeth immediately got to work designing a house for herself and Kitty Davy, another of Baba’s dear Western disciples asked by Him to tend to the Center. She hired Truman Moore, who had constructed Baba’s house, to build on just the spot that Baba had indicated. Kitty wrote that “the long-awaited dream of Elizabeth and myself to move to the Center was about to be fulfilled.”[iii] Elizabeth wrote, “It will be a joy to build.”[iv]

From the very beginning, the house was on the minds of Baba’s women Mandali in India who frequently and lovingly corresponded with their Western sisters on the Center. Mani described a conversation she and Rano had regarding names for the house. Mani thought of “Meherana,” meaning “Meher Come,” the deepest wish of Elizabeth, Kitty, and all the other lovers waiting breathlessly on the Center for His return. Rano thought of “Dilruba,” the Persian name that Baba had given to His dear and stalwart Elizabeth. It meant “Stealer of Hearts,” and it stuck.[v]

Like every building on the Center, Dilruba was constructed with meticulous care. The walls were painted light colors to offset the shadows of the lush oceanside trees. The furniture was refinished to match. Bathroom after bathroom was added to account for the lovers who would live at Dilruba over the years and all those who would visit. And, finally, it was ready.

Soon after Kitty and Elizabeth moved into Dilruba, Mani wrote of the women Mandali’s experience from India: “It seemed to me we could smell the scent of the pinewood, see the glimmer on the lake water, and catch a crimson glimpse of the cardinal as I did on my first morning at the Center—and stepped into Dilruba to greet all His stolen hearts.”[vi]

Elizabeth sent a black-and-white photograph of Dilruba to India along with one of the bricks that had been used to build it. Mehera lovingly kept the photograph. Mani wrote of “the sample of Dilruba’s complexion, of that softly blushing pink,” and said that “Beloved Baba touched it…”[vii] Elizabeth wrote in a letter to Jane Haynes: “I really feel that the house has been blessed by Baba when He touched the brick sample.”[viii]

Years passed, and the sweet, indefinable presence of the house only grew. It was a place where Baba’s dear lovers remembered Him constantly: where Elizabeth tended ceaselessly and devotedly to the business of the Center, where Kitty bustled with busy cheer, every day and every night for decades.

And of course, the atmosphere was not only for them. After Baba dropped His body in 1969, countless young seekers came to the Center to learn more about Him. They arrived at Dilruba’s doorstep, and there were Kitty and Elizabeth and other dear Western disciples of Meher Baba. As Buz Connor, who was one of those young seekers, puts it: “When they were telling the stories about Baba it was just one person removed, it was like being there … what people received was a sense of Baba.” Even after Kitty and Elizabeth passed, the hospitality and work that they embodied remained: in community teas in Dilruba’s dining room; in talks about Baba in the living room; in bedrooms converted to offices where Center workers still attend to business as Elizabeth always did.

While Baba may never have set foot in the home that He asked Elizabeth to build near His own, many of those arriving on its doorstep over the next six decades have still found Him dwelling there.

[i] Love Alone Prevails, by Kitty Davy, p. 563
[ii] Love Alone Prevails, p. 563
[iii] Love Alone Prevails, p. 563
[iv] Letters of Love, compiled & edited by Jane Barry Haynes, p. 160
[v] Letters of Love, p. 165
[vi] Letters of Love, p.185
[vii] Letters of Love, p. 187
[viii] Letters of Love, p. 189