|
Baba’s contact with Masts
in Hyderabad and Secunderabad
Mast work or contact with masts assumed a very significant
portion of Baba’s work in this Avataric advent. The following material
is extracted from the classic source of Baba’s work with masts: "The
Wayfarers" edited by William Donkin, Shariar Press, ISBN 0-913078-65-4.
For a detailed account on masts and Baba’s work with them, refer the above
book.
Baba stayed in Hyderabad (Deccan) from 10th March 1945 until 6th September
1945. He contacted masts all over Hyderabad state ( now called Andhra Pradesh),
and also in Hyderabad city. Baba has contacted more masts in Hyderabad
than in any other city of India. (See footnote of pp 248 of The Wayfarers)
Who is a Mast?
Masts are God-intoxicated souls. They are intoxicated by Divine Love.
Their external behaviour often is like that of an insane or mad person.
The glimpses of divinity that they get are accompanied by a joy that breaks
through any type of sordid composure. One state of unbalanced exaltation
is replaced by another state of unbalanced exaltation. A mast may be on
any plane of consciousness. Some masts get stuck on the inner planes. They
are over powered by the onflow of grace and love, and get into a state
of divine stupor. They are entirely absorbed in the "beautific vision."
The principal sensation of a mast is this permanent enjoyment of divine
intoxication. The creation is full of bliss and the mast enjoys this bliss
and thereby becomes intoxicated to an almost unlimited extent, virtually
consuming him and absorbing him and thereby making the world around him
vanish. Absorbed in God, such a person is continually absorbed in thinking
about God, and with that comes like a bolt of pure love consuming him further
in a state of divine intoxication.
Masts do not suffer from what may be called a disease. They are in a
state of mental disorder because their minds are overcome by such intense
spiritual energies that are far too much for them, forcing them to lose
contact with the world, shed normal human habits and customs, and civilized
society and live in a state of spiritual splendour but physical squalor.
How does it happen that some men and women become masts?
There are those who have become masts whose minds have become unbalanced
through unceasing dwelling upon thoughts of God so that they neglect all
normal human requirements. There are those whose minds have become unbalanced
by sudden contact with a highly advanced spiritual being. There are those
who have sought spiritual experience and have met a crisis from which they
do not recover. What characterizes all masts is their concentration upon
the love of God. (pp 2031 Lord Meher Vol. 6)
Significance of Baba’s mast-contact:
Baba, by His contact with masts, gives effective guidance and a spiritual
push. He initiates masts into a greater clarity and lucidity of consciousness,
into a deeper ecstasy, a purer and more expansive love, and into a truer
stronger creativity of response. Baba draws them out of the "self-sufficiency
state" of being absorbed in the Divine Love to a state of rendering true
service to others who are in need of spiritual help. A mast can therefore
be a more effective agent for spiritual work than the most able
persons of the gross world. The mast mind is also often used directly by
Baba as medium for sending his spiritual help to different parts of the
world.
Baba’s mast contacts in Hyderabad:
Here are the details of mast work done by Baba in Hyderabad city during
1938 and 1945. Most of the contacts were made during 1945. The table is
sorted on mast name.
|
Mast
|
Description
|
Date of contact
|
| Abdulla |
A moderate mast who wanders about, |
1945 August 10 |
| Abkari
(Captain) |
A very good mast. he is tall old man of dark
complexion who wears dark glasses and is dressed like a lascar ( a seaman)
in blue cotton clothes. He carries a tin about, and hits it with a rat-tat-tat-tat
like a drum; his talk is not understood by ordinary mortals and sounds
nonsensical. He sleeps in a Nawab’s house. At Baba’s second contact, he
asked to be taken for a ride in the car (Adi’s car), and he himself directed,
by sweeps of the arm, which way to go. He went first to certain house and
walked inside it, causing a flutter among the zenana ladies, and was then
driven to Secunderabad station. Finally. from the station, he was driven
back to Hyderabad, to a certain shrine there, where he was left. |
1945 March 18
1945 Sept 3 |
| Abliwala Baba |
Near the Charminar; no further record. |
1945 April 7 |
| Abdul Qadir |
A moderate mast who sits behind the railing
of the verandah of an old house in Rikabganj. |
1945 August 7 |
| Ali Shah |
Of Ahmednagar.
Brought to Hyderabad; stayed till 1st May 1945.
Brought to Hyderabad; stayed till 25th June 1945.
Brought to Hyderabad; stayed for three days. |
1945 April 21
1945 June 16
1945 August 21 |
| Allahwala
Murshid |
No further record. |
1945 April 8 |
| Amdu
Mastan |
No further record. |
1945 April 16 |
| Amir Rehman Maulvi |
A good mast, fiftyish, fat who carries a big
stick and wears a sherwani ( along coat much worn by the Muslims
of Hyderabad). He was contacted in Abid Road, one of Hyderabad’s main thoroughfares. |
1945 August 6 |
| Ashaq Mian |
A moderate mast, middle-aged, who sleeps outside
a certain mosque, wanders about the town all day, and is well known. |
1945 March 17 |
| Bhaiwala Mastan |
A young man, perhaps twenty-five years old,
who stays near a mosque in "Mecca Madina" ( a Part of Hyderabad). He is
a moderate mast. |
1945 August 6 |
| Chaman Ali Shah |
An advanced pilgrim, about forty years old,
who stays near a wears a black kafni and keeps per pigeons. He lives on
a plinth near a certain shrine beyond The Arab troops’s barracks. He speaks
aloud to himself in a constantly changing voice, so that an odd passer-by
might think that five or six different men were talking together. When
approached for the last contact with Baba, he was overheard to say, "Merwan
was to come yesterday, but he has come today." He asked Baba’s umbrella.
and was given it.
(N.B.- it is not certain that his name is correctly given.) |
1945 Match
1945 (?) |
| Chaous |
A man with hawa only. He is a Chaous, an Arab
from southern Arabia (Yemen). |
1945 August 11 |
| Chaous
Mastan |
An Arab mast (see note above) ; nothing special. |
1945 April 16 |
| Chunu Mian |
A good mast with a weakness for toddy. He was
kept by a senior officer of the Nizam’s State Forces in his (the officer’s)
house, in a special room . When Baba and his attendants called at the house
to contact the mast, they were asked to wait for a few minutes, and were
then shown up to the mast’s room. Chunu Mian had been neatly dressed by
the officer in a fine sherwani(long coat worn by Muslims), good shoes and
so forth.Each day the mast roamed about Hyderabad, and at the second contact
with Baba, he was run to earth in a toddy shop and was brought to Baba
for contact. If given money, Chunu Mian would give it away at once to someone
else. |
1945 April 13 1945 August 11 |
| Datar Saheb |
No further record |
1945 Feb 23 |
| Ganga Bhai |
A very old man near the shrine of Baba Shrafuddin;
a seeker |
1945 June 10 |
| Ghulam Hussein |
A very high, salik-like mast, a mixture of jalali
and jamali types. he wears good clothes, one of Baba’s group thus referring
to him as "the gentleman mast". he is of moderate height, perhaps fifty
years old, and is so well known and so much revered by all and sundry that
almost all salute him respectfully as they pass. He is allowed to go where
he pleases, even into the zenana quarters of muslim houses, which are normally
never entered by strangers. |
1945 March 18
1945 April 15
1945 August 8
1945 August 11 |
| Gundawala Baba |
No further record |
1945 April 8 |
| Gunu Baba |
No further record |
1945 April 16 |
| Habib Chaous |
An old Arab with hawa; contacted in a graveyard
at Sultan Shahi. He is well known. |
1945 August 11 |
| Hamid Chaous |
A seeker; also an Arab; to be found near the
Mir Alam tank. |
1945 August 8
1945 August 23 |
| Hiralal
Chunilal |
A ragged old man; nothing special. |
1945 August 11 |
| Islam Mastan Chaous |
An Arab seeker with a jolly temperament; he
cracks jokes with everyone always seems happy. He is usually to be found
near the Charminar by day, and sleeps in a cemetery by night. Baba liked
him. |
1945 August 7 |
| Jubbe Shah Mastan |
Nothing special |
1945 June 13 |
| Kala Nawab |
A young man, perhaps with hawa; who wanders
about Hyderabad, having given up worldly ties. |
1945 April 7 |
| Keshwa-nandji Sadhu |
An intimate disciple. For many years he has
sat in the Hindu cremation ground. |
1945 April 15 |
| Khaki Saheb Baba |
An elderly man, of more or less normal consciousness;
an advanced pilgrim. He lives in his own little house opposite the shrine
of Baba Sharafuddin, and spends most of the day in one room of his house. |
1945 June 10
1945 August 8 |
| Lakshman Das Maharaj |
No further record |
1945 April 16 |
| Mai Mastani |
No further record |
1945 April 8 |
| Majzoob Saheb |
No further record |
1945 March 17 |
| Mama Mast |
An old, dried up tiny man, and a good mast,
who cannot walk and who smokes cigars. Some shop keepers look after him. |
1945 March 17
1945 April 8 |
| Maqdum Ali Shah
(Shah Saheb) |
An old man, perhaps 80 years of age, of short
stature, who wears a many colored robe, carries a pair of large iron tongs,
and shouts "Ya Hussein" every now and then. He lives in a little
room beyond the jail, in which he has collected an assortment of odds and
ends, and has several puppies with him. He has a fair and lustrous face.
He is an advanced pilgrim. |
1945 May 17 |
| Miskin Shah |
Near the place of Nizam; nothing special |
1945 April 15 |
| Mast Baba |
No further record |
1945 April 8 |
| Mastani Mai |
For many years has sat in a room near the shrine
of Ujala Shah;a good mastani. |
1945 August 6
1945 Sept 3 |
| Maulvi Abdul Razzack |
A seeker; of no special importance |
1945 April 7 |
| Maulvi Bukhariwala |
A seeker. |
1945 April 7 |
| Maulvi Wahab |
A seeker. |
1945 April 7 |
| Mir Saheb |
A good mast; old, respectably dressed. And now
sometimes in a majzoob-like state and sometimes in salik-like state. He
had previously been completely majzoob-like. He is well-known in Hyderabad,
where he has a quite a number of followers. |
1945 march 17
1945 April 8 |
| Moeinuddin Baba (Nanne Mian) |
A good mast, to whom Baba gave the nick name
Pinjrawala Baba because he sat in a cage-like hovel (pinjra means
a cage). During the day he would roam at large all over the city, and by
nights he would sit in this curious cage. He was always naked and carried
a stick when he walked abroad. |
1945 March 17
1945 August ? |
| Mohammed |
This is "our" Mohammed. He stayed for a few
days with Baba and his party in Hyderabad. During the course of the Bus
tour that began in December 1938. |
1938 December |
| Mohammed Hussein |
Wanders about the city; no further record |
1945 April 7 |
| Mohammed Sharif |
A good mast. He is fattish old man, with a fine
white beard. He wears a dirty hat and carries a bundle of rags under his
arms. A younger, perhaps his son, walks about with him and looks after
him. He was difficult to contact but was eventually found sleeping on a
verandah one night and, was contacted there. |
1945 August 8 |
| Nawab Yaqub Ali |
A moderate mast from a village called Karwan,
who was brought for Baba’s contact and given five rupees. |
1945 August 11 |
| Nuruddin |
A tall and lanky mast who can’t keep clear of
a toddy shop for very long. He was taken in a tonga for Baba’s contact,
and, enroute, having spotted a toddy he insisted on getting down
and refreshing himself. But he is a good mast for all that. |
1945 July
1945 August |
| Patrinwala Mast |
No further record |
1945 April 15 |
| Qadir Mian |
Of no special interest |
1945 Feb 23 |
| Rajiah Mastan |
A good mast, and rather an entertaining fellow.
He is naked except for a loin cloth and a huge dirty turban, has a hole
in his neck, perhaps from an old laryngotomy operation, and he carries
a gigantic bundle of old rags and numerous broken pieces of china plates.
If any one asks him for prasad ( a gift of spiritual significance),
he gives a piece of broken plate.
One day when Baidul and Eruch were in a rickshaw following Baba (who
was in atonga with Nuruddin described above), they spotted Rajiah on the
road, and sat him in their rickshaw. Rajiah disposed himself in the rickshaw
as if he were a king, to the very vocal delight of a crowd of school children
inj the street who surged round the rickshaw shouting and laughing, and
joined in pulling and pushing the rickshaw along the street with their
small and eager hands. Rajiah was taken thus for Baba’s contact, and Baba
and his men throughly enjoyed by the rousing reception by this crowd playful
children. Rajiah too seem to relish being the focus of so much fun. |
1945 August
1945 Sept |
| Rajullah Shah Saheb |
An initiate pilgrim; very well known in Hyderabad |
1945 June 12 |
| Rehmatullah Shah |
No further record |
1945 April 16 |
| Sadhu Upaswala Baba |
A sincere sadhu and a good soul |
1945 April 7 |
| Saiyid Abdul Maulvi |
A seeker; very old, lives in a mosque, and much
revered |
1945 August 7 |
| Saiyid Amiruddin (Chindiwala Baba) |
An old mast and a good one, who collects old
pieces of cloth and rags (Chindi); hence his second name of chindiwala
Baba. |
1945 August 7 |
| Saiyid Jalaluddin |
A moderate mast who wanders about, and was thus
difficult to contact. |
1945 March 18 |
| Saiyid Mehdi Saheb |
No further record |
1945 March 17 |
| Saiyid Moenuddin (Majzoob Mian) |
The spiritual chargeman of Hyderabad; a majzoob-like
mast of sixth plane, and a typical jalali. He is a lame, elderly man who
lives in a woodstall at Fateh Gate in Hyderabad. He sweeps the road with
his hands, is very fond of barfi (a sweetmeat rather like fudge),
and he smokes exclusively an atrocious brand of cheap, local cigarettes.
Be cause of his jalai nature, he was never easy to contact, and at the
first attempt to meet him Baba and his group were repulsed with epithets
and objurgating. The following morning Baidul, while again trying to bring
him for contact, was hit with a stone. Baidul, however, nothing daunting
offered him a cigarette of his favorite brand-which Majzoob Mian accepted-and
he then asked for his equally beloved sweetmeat, barfi. |
|
|
