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Listening to the Silence. True stories of a healing love from the Spiritual realms by Nan Umrigar. Published in 2010 by Yogi Impressions Books Private Limited, 1711, Centre 1, World Trade Centre, Cuffe Parade, Bombay 400005. Pp: xiii + 252. Price: Rs 350.

After touching several hearts with her first book Sounds of Silence, Nan Umrigar is back with Listening to the Silence, a sequel. Umrigar’s Sounds of Silence is a remarkable chronicle of her communications with her 19-year-old son Karl who died in May 1979 after a tragic accident at the Mahalaxmi Race Course in Bombay. In 1996 Umrigar translated her incorporeal experiences into a book (self-published) which went on to become an unofficial bestseller. Umrigar began searching for answers that could help her deal with her profound grief. As she put it, "On May 3 he passed into the spirit world, and the silence of a great grief fell upon my soul.” Inconsolable for a few years Umrigar mourned Karl’s demise before curiosity in the afterlife pushed her into seeking out mediums who would help her establish contact with her son. 

In Bombay some of the mediums included Prabhavati Rishi and her husband V. D. Joshi (who had trained with the flamboyant spiritualist Sir Arthur Conan Doyle), the late Khorshed Bhavnagri, and Phiroze Wadia and his wife Ernawaz. Umrigar’s initial contact was with Bhavnagri who herself had received miraculous communications through the medium of automatic writing from her sons Vispi and Ratoo who were both killed in a car accident in 1980 (and which formed the basis for her book The Laws of the Spirit World). Umrigar learnt automatic writing from Bhavnagri and after repeated attempts finally made contact with Karl and his spiritual master Meher Baba in the spirit world. Karl gave his mother fantastic details of the world beyond and told his mother that he had been taken under the wing of Meher Baba whom he called God. Her journey that started alone has now been joined by countless others whose pain and sadness have been washed away by the healing love of Meher Baba. As Umrigar puts it, "Sounds of Silence became a signpost: This way to Meher Baba.” Karl’s loving messages from the spirit world have helped many others to find their own answers through the grace of the Master with Umrigar as the medium. Some celebrities who contacted Umrigar include Yash Birla and Rhea Pillai. The latter was told by Karl that she would fall in love with a man called ‘Moon.’ (Nargis Dutt’s pet name for her son Sanjay Dutt, whom she called her ‘moonchild).’ Later, when Sanjay Dutt was rearrested on a drug charge, Karl reassured Rhea that he would be granted bail.

For the uninitiated, Meher Baba, born Merwan Sheriar Irani in Poona in 1894, was a mystic and spiritual master who declared publicly in 1954 that he was the Avatar of the Age. From July 10, 1925 till his mahasamadhi on January 31, 1969 he maintained silence, communicating by means of an alphabet board or by unique hand gestures. Meher Baba was associated with the five Perfect Masters of the age: Hazrat Babajan (whose kiss on his forehead started him on his spiritual journey); Hazrat Tajuddin Baba of Nagpur; Narayan Maharaj of Khedgaon; Upasni Maharaj (who threw a stone which hit him on the exact spot where Babajan had kissed him and with which his consciousness started returning to the gross world); and Sai Baba of Shirdi, the Qutub-e-Irshad, the head of the five Perfect Masters. It is said that Merwan met Sai Baba and prostrated himself at the sadguru’s feet. Sai Baba uttered just one word, "Parvar-digar,” and in that instant conferred infinite power on him. Merwan came to be called Meher Baba by his followers and after initially starting out in Bombay, moved his mandali a few miles outside Ahmednagar, calling the place Meherabad. He is buried here and thousands of devotees throng to his tomb and many miracles have been attributed to prayers made at the shrine. Baba worked with disciples in India, Europe and America and ministered to the needs of the poor of India through free schools, dispensaries and shelters. His life was devoted not so much to teaching but to awakening humanity to the unifying message of love. 

Sounds of Silence was about Umrigar’s journey towards reconnecting with her son. In Listening to the Silence she shares with the reader many astonishing and endearing stories of other people’s experiences. In fact, most have been written by the people themselves and their narrations reveal their wondrous experiences when they opened their hearts to the Master. The book is full of stories, each testifying to Baba’s love and reach. One such narration is by Adi Gandhy, a childhood friend of Karl. Gandhy’s friend, Zaraius Dastur, a senior pilot with an airline, was arrested on a charge of carrying drugs. He had been given Sounds of Silence by another common friend and the book changed the course of his life. The most striking of a series of instances was when the likeness of Jesus, Mother Teresa and Meher Baba appeared on the wall of his prison cell. When after four months of incarceration his bail hearing came up in the High Court, Karl sent a message to Dastur’s daughter: "The man responsible for putting him in will be responsible for getting him out.” And so it turned out. The man who had framed him, confessed, and Dastur was given the benefit of the doubt and released on bail — something unheard of in a drug charge.

Then there is the story of George Chapman, a channeling trance medium from Wales who claimed to be controlled by the spirit of Dr William Lang, an ophthalmic surgeon who died in 1937. Chapman was a ‘spirit surgeon’ who through ‘absent healing’ cured Umrigar’s three-year-old grandson Zahan of a low platelet count.  

Meher Baba loved cricket, and Shireen Lala, Polly Umrigar’s daughter, narrates how her father received a message from Baba just before the 1959 tour of England. (In fact the entire team had sought his blessings before leaving for the tour.) Polly was told (verbally through Baba’s messenger), that even though he had not been made captain he would perform very well on the tour. (Prophetic words: he hit a number of centuries on that tour.) Meher Castellino (ex Miss India), who had modeled with Nan Umrigar at a Tata Textiles show way back in 1961, found that her life changed after reading Sounds of Silence. Having lost her husband and mother, her world had all but collapsed. She read the book, contacted Umrigar and learned to cope with Meher Baba’s help and love. 

There is also a lesson for those who believe in other Perfect Masters. All Masters are co-related and joined in harmony but take different forms and names to help the human mind relate to them. This is necessary until a human mind transcends the domain of duality and realizes unity. In a message from Meher Baba through Karl, Rupam Nangia who was torn between her loyalty for Sai Baba of Shirdi and Meher Baba was told: "Concentrate upon your own self, Rupam, for I reside within you. I am you and you are me. So when you ask who your real master is, know that it is both you and me.” This indeed is the essence of all spiritual teaching: man is part of God, but has not realized it. It is the feeling of separateness created by man’s ego that prevents him from being a divine being. It is this dilemma of duality we all have to overcome. 

Listening to the Silence is not just about people’s stories. Umrigar shares with us her understanding of the evolution of consciousness, life and death, karma, compassion and love and the onward journey of the soul. A second book rarely has all the supremacies of the first but Listening to the Silence is a worthy sequel — an appealing continuation for those who have read Sounds of Silence, and a good introduction for the new reader. This touching book holds a mirror to all the lives touched by the healing powers of Meher Baba. It is said that when the disciple is ready the Master will appear. In a similar vein, certain books come to you when you are ready to read them. One suspects that Umrigar’s books fall in this category.                  BAKHTIAR K. DADABHOY