Editing Meher Baba (section)

==Wider influence==
His legacy includes the Avatar Meher Baba Charitable Trust he established in India, and a handful of centers for information and pilgrimage. He has influenced [[pop culture]] creators and introduced the common phrase "Don't worry; be happy". This was used in [[Bobby McFerrin]]'s hit 1988 song [[Don't Worry, Be Happy|of the same name]]. Among his followers were well-known musicians such as [[Melanie Safka]] and [[Pete Townshend]], as well as journalists including [[Tom Hopkinson|Sir Tom Hopkinson]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|last1=Anthony|first1=Dick|title=Religious Movements in Contemporary America|last2=Robbins|first2=Thomas|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=1975|isbn=978-1-4008-6884-1|location=United States of America|pages=479–514|chapter=The Meher Baba Movement: Its Affect on Post-Adolescent Social Alienation|doi=10.1515/9781400868841}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last1=Hopkinson|first1=Tom|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1124575231|title=The Silent Messenger: The Life and Work of Meher Baba|last2=Hopkinson|first2=Dorothy|publisher=Gollancz|year=1974|isbn=978-1-78904-057-9|location=Winchester, UK|pages=|oclc=1124575231|access-date=15 December 2020|archive-date=20 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220220034724/http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1124575231|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1971, Meher Baba's following in the United States was estimated at 7,000. Some commentators have suggested that the size of the movement has been underestimated due to the rarity of proselytising by Meher Baba's followers, and that in 1975, the movement was larger than the more visible [[Hare Krishna movement]].<ref name=":2" />

Meher Baba was accepted as the leader of a Sufi organization based in California which he renamed [[Sufism Reoriented Sanctuary|Sufism Reoriented]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=October 1, 2023 |title=Meher Baba {{!}} Sufism Reoriented |url=https://www.sufismreoriented.org/meherbaba}}</ref> Meher Baba's Sufi influence is said to have drawn from [[Sai Baba of Shirdi]], whom Meher Baba designated as a ''[[Qutb]]''.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Srinivas |first=Smriti |date=May 1999 |title=The Brahmin and the fakir: Suburban religiosity in the cult of Shirdi Sai baba |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13537909908580865 |journal=Journal of Contemporary Religion |volume=14 |issue=2 |pages=245–261 |doi=10.1080/13537909908580865 |issn=1353-7903 |via=}}</ref> However, some commentators have asserted that Meher Baba's interpretation of Sufism shared very few similarities with the [[Sufi Movement]] apart from [[universalism]] and anti-dogmatism.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Sedgwick|first=Mark|title=Western Sufism: From the Abbasids to the New Age|publisher=Oxford Scholarship Online|date= 2016|isbn=9780199977642|location=Online|pages=|chapter=Conclusion|quote=One branch of the Sufi Movement retained the word "Sufi" in its title, but joined the Meher Baba movement, which had nothing in common with the Sufi Movement other than universalism and anti-dogmatism.}}</ref>