D.Y. NAFDE : 50 YEARS OF BABA LOVE
By
Dr.J.S.Rathore
Bhau Kalchuri, one of Meher Baba's intimate mandali has mentioned in
his LORD MEHER -THE BIOGRAPHY OF THE AVATAR OF THE AGE
MEHER BABA that the Nafde family is respected all over India for
their profound love for Baba. Dattatreya Yashwant Nafde, affectionately
called `Bhau', his wife Shakuntala Nafde, affectionately called `Tai', and
other family members fully deserve this appreciation. Theirs is a life of
total silent surrender at the feet of their divine beloved Avatar Meher
Baba. Bhau Nafde is the main architect of this
deep spiritual transformation of his family and of all those who came in
his contact. Instructed and blessed by Beloved Baba, Bhau Nafde collected
a small group of devotee-lovers and started Meher Baba Bhopal Centre in
late fifties. He has served the cause of Baba, all these years, with
amazing simplicity and inspiring selflessness.
Mani, Meher Baba's sister and one Baba's women mandali, used to say
that it is Baba who makes the stories, we only tell them. Bhau Nafde's
story is something special made by Baba - simple, straight with no twists
and turns, and which touches the heart. The following is an abridged
account of Bhau Nafde's life and times with Beloved Meher Baba as narrated
by him to Prof. J.S. Rathore.
___________________________
Bhau
Nafde was born to simple middle-class parents on 2nd October 1919. His was
a huge joint family - father, mother, three brothers, three sisters, five
cousin brothers and two cousin sisters. No body in his family was
interested in spiritual matters and the family lived a simple life of a
devout Hindu home. Rituals and religious festivals were dutifully observed
and celebrated. In 1937, Bhau passed his matriculation examination. This
was the time when his elder brother, who was living with a family in
Chindwara, a small town in Central India, fell seriously sick and Bhau
rushed from Jabalpur, to attend and help. The family with whom Bhau's
elder brother was living was deeply devoted to Sadguru Tajuddin Baba, one
of Meher Baba's five
Perfect
Masters. Bhau, who was attending to his sick brother, started living
in Chindwara and was also drawn towards Tajuddin . Soon Bahu got a
government job at Chindwara , which according to him , was e due to the
blessings of Tajuddin Baba.
The family with whom Bhau and his brother were staying was related to
Nana Kher, one of Baba's mandali, whose loving way of greeting `Welcome
Home' at Meherabad has touched the hearts of Baba lovers all over the
world. Nana used to visit his relations at Chindwara quite often and
talked about Meher Baba day in and day out. He told Bhau that Baba is
God-incarnate. He gave Bhau few books to read and Bhau was deeply moved by
The Perfect Master by Charles Purdom and The Wayfarers by
Dr. William Donkin. Bhau recalls that these books convinced him that Meher
Baba is God-incarnate and he told Nana Kher that one day he will surely
have Baba's darshan. Bhau got married in 1945 to Shakuntala and in 1948
was transferred to Jabalpur.
Nana could see the heart of Bhau being lighted by Beloved Baba's grace.
He mentioned about Bhau to Baba and Baba invited Bhau to attend a special
meeting at
Meherabad
between 7th-9th November 1952. This was a unique period of Baba's life. In
February 1952, Baba had concluded the Manonash period of his New Life and
from middle of November Baba was all set to give his first ever public
Darshan in Hamirpur. On 8th November, Baba gave the
Repentance
Prayer at Meherabad and Bhau was a witness to this great event. Bhau
was drowned in the infinite ocean of Beloved Baba's love and resolved that
come what may, he and his family will never miss a Baba sahwas or
darshan.
In 1953, Beloved Baba instructed Bhau Kalchuri and Nana Kher to
undertake a tour of Central India and spread the message of his Truth and
Love. Bhau Kalchuri and Nana arrived in Jabalpur and stayed with Nafdes.
There they received a telegram from Baba to collect Shobha mast from
Katni, a nearby town, and bring the mast to Ahmednagar. Accrodingly , Bahu
and Nana brought Shobha mast from Katni and halted again with Nafdes along
with the mast. Meanwhile, another telegram from Baba informed them that
the mast was no longer needed by Baba and should be taken back to Katni.
Shobha mast was the one with whom Baba had worked at
Meherazad
during his Manonash period. Pankhraj, a devotee-lover of Jabalpur, brought
Shobha from Katni to Ahmednagar on 26th December 1951. Next day the mast
was taken to Meherazad where Baba wanted to give him a bath. The mast
refused this. On 28th, he was brought again to Meherazad and this time he
allowed Baba to bathe him. Baba dressed him with new clothes and he was
then sent back to Katni. This 1953 incident, in which a manonash period
mast was brought from Katni to Bhau Nafde's house and was later sent back,
shows that Baba wanted it to happen that way involving Nafde family.
In 1955, Bhau Nafde participated in a Five-Day Baba Sahwas at
Meherabad. In April 1957, they were asked to attend a one day darshan
programme at Sakori, the sacred seat of Sadguru Upasani Maharaj, one of
Meher Baba's five
Perfect
Masters. There were around 300 devotee -lovers. Baba gave a full
coconut fruit only to Bhau Nafde and Hoshang Bharucha as prasad. Baba
instructed them to keep the fruit with care and worship it in the way they
like. This coconut fruit is Nafde family's most precious treasure.
In 1957 Nafdes were in Bombay and attended Baba's darshan programme at
Sunderbai Hall. They also attended the day long qawali (Sufi singing)
programme at Ashiana , the home of Nariman & Arnavaz Dadachanji. In
1958, Bhau Nafde attended Five-Day Baba -Sahwas programme (16-26
February), arranged exclusively for his eastern lovers at Meherabad. Later
Bhau was called to attend a day meet at Meherabad on 10 July 1958. This
was the day when Beloved Baba gave his Universal Message to the world and
Bhau was fortunate to witness that. Baba gave copies of Universal Message
to his lovers assembled over there and asked them to disseminate it far
and wide.
Bhau kept in touch with the members of Baba's close mandali
through regular correspondence. Eruch, one of Meher Baba's close mandali,
in one of his letters
expressed Meher Baba's wish that a Baba centre be started at Bhopal. Thus
in September 1959, Bhau Nafde with Shambhulingam, Shirdhonkar, Parkhe and
others started Avatar Meher Baba Centre at Bhopal. This was the period
when Nafde family came in close contact of the Baba group at Hamirpur and
started actively participating in their annual Meher Prem festivals.
The decade of 60s was again a period of intense and exciting Baba
activities for Nafdes. In 1961, they participated in darshan programme at
"Guru Prasad" (name of the palace of Maharani of Baroda, a devotee lover
of Meher Baba) in Poona. In 1962 (1-5 November), they attended the
East-West gathering of Meher lovers at "Guru Prasad." In 1963, Baba
permitted Bhau Nafde to stay for a month in Poona and attend his darshan
programmes at "Guru Prasad". Every day Bhau would reach "Guru Prasad" in
the morning and join again in the afternoon from 3 p.m. onwards. During
this period Bhau was fortunate to participate in a game of cards with
Baba, and to join him in one of the visits to the house of a lover. In
1965, Bhau's father Yeshwantrao Nafde died and Bhau informed Baba about
this. Yeshwantrao Nafde lived separately and never remembered Meher Baba.
Bhau was therefore deeply moved when he received a telegram from Meher
Baba saying : "YESHWANTRAO RESTS HAPPILY IN ME. BE RESIGNED TO DIVINE
WILL. LOVE TO YOU AND FAMILY."
Telegram dated 6.12.1965 sent by Baba to Bhau Nafde
The same year Nafdes attended Baba's darshan programme at "Guru Prasad
" which lasted four days. This was their last live darshan of their divine
Beloved Avatar Meher Baba. Beloved Baba dropped his physical body on 31st
January 1969. His body was kept for darshan in his Samadhi or Tomb-Shrine
from 31 January to 7 February 1969, the day when it was finally interred
at 12.15 p.m. amidst loud cheers of " Avatar Meher Baba Ki Jai." During
this period, Bhau and his entire family assembled at Samadhi to have a
last darshan of the divinely beautiful human form of Beloved Baba. They
received the precious gift of a cloth-piece of Beloved Baba's sadra from
Bhau Kalchuri after Baba's body was interred. Later, Tai Nafde received
the gift of Baba's hair from Mani at Guru Prasad between April-June
1969.
Bhau has many reminiscences of the time that he and his family spent
with Beloved Baba. Recalling a few, Bhau narrated the following :
"All of us were attending Baba's darshan programme at Sundar Bai Hall,
Bombay. Kunda, our daughter, expressed her desire to sing Baba's aarti.
Baba said, " See the time. Its too late now."
A few days later we went to Ashiana to have Baba's darshan and
participate in the Christmas programme. Tai prepared a barfi-cake on which
she had inscribed "Baba Give us Your Love." Baba was very happy to see us
there and said, "You wanted to sing my arati. Sing it now." We were deeply
touched and sang Baba's aarti with great love."
Bhau recalled another cherished memory as follows :
"This happened in Guru Prasad, Poona. We all were there. Baba caressed
Bhau's cheeks with great love and compassion. Then he pointed towards a
coin lying on the floor and said, "Take it with you and treasure it."
On yet another occasion Bhau recalled :
"This happened in Meherabad. Baba had visited Arangaon a day earlier.
Bhau Nafde noticed a shining red spot on the left arm of Baba. He thought
that somebody has lovingly put a paint mark on Baba's hand. Moments after,
he was amazed to see that Baba had asked Eruch to explain that a lover in
Arangaon has hugged him hard in love and left a nail scratch mark on his
arm. Eruch instructed that lovers should take care and should embrace Baba
softly".
Bhau Nafde is 81 and lives in Bhopal with his family immersed in
Beloved Baba's love. Baba love is Baba's special gift to him. As a true
lover, Bhau is not satisfied, and prays to have the intensity of love of
Rano Gayley, Kitty Davy and Arnavaz Dadachanji for Beloved Baba.
Love perhaps is always a story of more and more and still yet
more.
Note by
TrustMeher : This article was written prior to Nafde's passing
away and posted at Meher Baba Bhopal Center website. D.Y.Nafde joined
Meher Baba on 23rd October 2005 at Bhopal. He was 85. This is reproduced
here with due permission of Dr.Chinmaya Rathore from his Bhopal Center
website.
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