An Extraordinary Pilgrimage

First visits to the Center are always memorable. Whether they elicit awe, surprise, tears, or a deep sense of returning home, there definitely is a subtle string of magic that runs through these visits. And yet each story is different. Inimitable. One of my favorite parts of working at the Center is to witness and vicariously experience this authenticity of experience. And more often than not, in these exchanges, I receive more than I give.

In late spring of this year, I received a rare phone call to make a reservation for an Indian family in Hindi. Glad to help, I complied. Mrs. Vijay Kapil and her husband, A.R. Kapil were visiting their daughter in Oregon. I learned that they hailed from Delhi, India, and had been with Baba for decades. We navigated possible reservation dates depending on their son-in-law’s availability to travel with them and talked about cabin placements to accommodate the mobility challenges that came with Vijay being quite elderly. In the repeated phone conversations I had with Vijay, one thing was clear: she was determined to come. In all her might, without inconveniencing anyone, her humble attempt was to not leave America without taking Baba’s darshan at His home.

The day after they arrived, I met them at their cabin to show them around. Vijay received me with a deep embrace as if she were meeting someone she had known forever. “Baba said that He had chosen His close followers for this advent in the time of His last advent of Mohamed. I feel like I know everyone here,” she said. That assertion of familiarity and lack of separation not only broke the ice, but set the tone for what was to follow: an immense dive into His ocean of love.

We drove to the Barn where she told me how it all began. “My husband’s brother, Dr. Hakumat Rai Kapil, first came to Baba in 1950. It was during the New Life. He was desperately looking for a guru. He had read that Baba claimed to be the Highest of the High. At the time, Baba was in Dehradun, so he decided to show up at His doorstep. To protect himself from the heavy downpour that night, Hakumat stood under an awning, determined to see Baba at any cost. Despite His seclusion, Baba clapped and asked a Mandali member about the young man waiting to see Him. He instructed the Mandali to give him dry clothing before allowing for His darshan. As soon as he saw Baba, he knew that He was God in Human form. His search had ended, and so had our whole family’s.”

In keeping with Baba’s orders, Hakumat attended to his family. In the 1960s Baba invited seven people to observe a twenty-one day fast only on tea. Hakumat was one of them. It was through him that Vijay heard of Baba. She had been observing fasts on Monday that were dedicated to Lord Shiva. Every week she prayed to be able to have Baba’s darshan. One night, she dreamed of several feet of snow, and then a sculpture of Lord Shiva rose from it. She knew that this was related to her upcoming meeting with Baba.

In 1962, fifteen people from their family were invited to the East-West gathering. The memories of the event are still fresh in her mind. She remembers that the Easterners were allowed to see Baba during the afternoon hours. “Even though we saw Him for three hours every day, my heart was never full.” Does she still recall the clarity of that image? “Absolutely. My eyes see Him clearly, even today.”

On an impulse, I decided that it would be a shame if Vijay did not see the Guesthouse. Her close contact with Baba had surely involved a reverential interaction with the Mandali. When I took her to the Guesthouse, tears instantly welled in her eyes like she had found a lost treasure. One could see that there could be no greater pilgrimage that she might have embarked on. All of her hardship in getting here and her deep desire to fulfill this impossible dream culminated in this one experience.

In that moment, every object touched by Baba and the Mandali became a means for a momentary union between the lover and the Beloved. Not a dry ritual, but a true flash of grace. I followed her outside where she touched flowers that grew from His soil and hugged trees that Baba might have touched. “People had told me how wonderful the Center in Myrtle Beach was, but descriptive words do not do justice, one just has to experience it to really know it. I have felt real happiness and bliss here.”

On her return to India, Vijay reflected that she had never dreamed of coming to Meher Center before coming to America but since she arrived in America there was nothing else that she wanted more. Now, she believes that her trip to the USA was successful because of this pilgrimage. “It is no ordinary Center. He is still present in Myrtle Beach.”