Jimmy and his wife Roda requested that Baba perform the navjot (sacred thread ceremony, usually done by a Zoroastrian priest) of their three sons…Monday morning, 16 May 1960, was fixed for the occasion, and on that day lovers from Bombay, Poona and other places assembled in Guruprasad. With his own hands, Baba handed each of the three lads a sadra and kusti (thread), as this message from him was read by Eruch in English and Soman in Marathi:
May Ahuramazda, Zoroaster, Meher Baba free you from the superfluous binding of shariat and help you to lead a life of good thoughts, good words and good deeds, and bestow on you the grace of loving Baba. I have given you this emblem of superficial binding to make you free from this binding and give you the real binding of love.
Unless you free yourselves from the bindings of ceremonies and begin to love God as He should be loved, you can never, never know the Truth.
Baba was not always so willing to participate in such religious ceremonies. On another occasion, a wealthy man beseeched him to perform his child’s confirmation ceremony. Baba replied, “I have come to do away with all these dogmas and rituals, so how can I take part in it?”
-www.lordmeher.org, p4682
May, 1960; Guruprasad