Editing Meher Baba (section)

==Silence==
From 10 July 1925, until his death in 1969, Meher Baba was silent.<ref name="Religion, Macmillan Publishing Company 1995, p. 346"/><ref name="Haynes 1989 p. 2"/><ref>Kalchuri (1986) p. 738 "Meher Baba had observed silence three times before, but the silence beginning July 10th, 1925, was to last until the end of his life."</ref> He communicated first by using an alphabet board and later by unique hand gestures which were interpreted and spoken out by one of his mandali, often Eruch Jessawala.<ref name="purdom52">Purdom (1964) p. 52</ref> Meher Baba said that his silence was not undertaken as a [[Spiritual practice|spiritual exercise]] but solely in connection with his universal work.

{{blockquote|Man's inability to live God's words makes the [[Avatar]]'s teaching a mockery. Instead of practicing the compassion he taught, man has waged wars in his name. Instead of living the [[humility]], purity, and [[truth]] of his words, man has given way to [[hatred]], [[greed]], and [[violence]]. Because man has been deaf to the principles and [[precept]]s laid down by God in the past, in this present [[Avatar]]ic form, I observe silence.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ambppct.org/messages.php#u_message |title=The Universal Message |author=Meher Baba |publisher=Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust |access-date=16 December 2013 |archive-date=8 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180708051427/http://ambppct.org/messages.php#u_message |url-status=dead }}</ref>}}

[[File:Pointingalphabet.jpg|thumb|From 1925 until 1954 Meher Baba communicated by pointing to letters on an alphabet board.]]

Meher Baba often signaled the moment "that he would 'break' his silence by speaking the 'Word' in every heart, thereby giving a spiritual push forward to all living things".<ref>Haynes (1989) p. 66</ref>

{{blockquote|When I break My Silence, the impact of My Love will be universal and all life in creation will know, feel and receive of it. It will help every individual to break himself free from his own bondage in his own way. I am the [[Divine]] Beloved who loves you more than you can ever love yourself. The breaking of My Silence will help you to help yourself in knowing your real Self.<ref>{{cite book|last=Ullman|first=Robert|author2=Judyth Reichenberg-Ullman|title=Mystics, Masters, Saints, and Sages|publisher=RedWheel / Weiser|year=2001|isbn=1-57324-507-0|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781573245074|page= 125}}.</ref>}}

Meher Baba asserted that the breaking of his silence would be a defining event in the spiritual [[evolution]] of the world.

{{blockquote|When I speak that Word, I shall lay the foundation for that which is to take place during the next seven hundred years.<ref name="Haynes 1989 p.67">Haynes (1989) p. 67</ref>}}

On many occasions Meher Baba promised to break his silence with an audible word before he died,<ref>Purdom (1964), p. 278</ref> often stating a specific time and place when this would occur,<ref>See for example: Kalchuri (1986), pp. 900, 915, 5648, 5655, 5787, 5807, 6015, 6024, 6027, 6037, 6105, 6061, 6090, 6151, 6166, 6170, 6172, 6206, 6164, 6318, 6319, 6341, 6370,, 6425, 6532, 6548, 6579, etc.</ref> but according to all contemporary accounts, Meher Baba remained silent until his death.<ref>Two close disciples have reported hearing Baba speak or make sounds in the days preceding his death. In 1992, Eruch Jessawala, a close disciple of Meher Baba, recalled that "a few days before Meher Baba dropped his body [...]Meher Baba had covered his mouth with his hand and shouted with great intensity:...'Mmmmmmm!'" [''Glow International'', May 1992, pp. 13-18]. Similarly, Bhau Kalchuri recalled in 2001 "Baba actually spoke two words to Bhau: 'Yad rakh [remember this]!' and then gestured, 'I am not this body!'[...]'Although Baba's voice was feeble,' Bhau recalled, 'the sound was audible and clear, and its intensity and impact very, very forceful. It conveyed so great an impression, that my mind itself neither registered nor questioned the fact that Baba was speaking." [see {{cite book|last= Kalchuri |first=Bhau|title=Lord Meher|publisher=Meher Mownavani Publications|year=2005|edition=Second (India)|volume=8|page=4765}}] although this recollection contradicted his own earlier accounts [see Kalchuri (1986) p. 6710] and Kalchuri later clarified those recollections, saying that actual words had not been spoken [''Glow International'', Spring 2012, p. 3].</ref> His failure to break his silence disappointed some of his followers, while others viewed it as a test of their faith.<ref>Kalchuri (1986) p. 1668</ref> Some of his followers speculate that "the Word" will yet be "spoken" or that Meher Baba broke his silence in a spiritual rather than a physical way.<ref name="Haynes 1989 p.67"/>

For many years Meher Baba asked his followers to undertake austerities on 10 July, the anniversary of the day his silence began, such as keeping silence, fasting, and praying. In his final Silence Day request to his followers in 1968, he asked only that they keep silent.<ref>''Glimpses of the God-Man, Meher Baba'', vol. 6, by Bal Natu, Sheriar Foundation, 1994, p. 77 – "I want all my lovers to observe complete silence for twenty-four hours, from midnight of July 9th to midnight of July 10th, 1968."</ref> Many followers continue to celebrate Silence Day by keeping silence in his honor.