Meher Baba

It’s ironic that of all people, it was Paul who told me about him.
Born as Merwari Sheriar Irani in Poona, into a Parsi family he attended the Christian High School and Deccan College.
His masters in his spiritual awakening were Hazrat Babajan, Shirdi Sai Baba and Upasni Maharaj. In the 1920s he found a spiritual community in Ahmednagar which supported schools, hospitals and public service projects. He came to be known among his disciples as Meher baba.
He visted the west for the first time in 1931 which led to the establishment of two places of pilgrimage- Meher Spiritual Center, in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, U.S.A., and Avatar's Abode, near Brisbane, Australia.
In India he worked with the poor, lepers and the ‘masts’. He was well known in the West for the opposition to the use of LSD and other drugs to gain spiritual experiences.
Sometime in between he became silent and never uttered a word and then for 44 years he communicated by writing on an alphabet board and through hand gestures which also led to two important books, God Speaks and Discourses.
Baba said,

Solitude is a fount of healing which makes my life worth living. Talking is often a torment for me, and I need many days of silence to recover from the futility of words.
~Letter, May 30, 1957.

He left his body in 1969, and his Samadhi lies in Ahmednagar. It is said that for a period of 100 years entering his Samadhi will be equal to meeting him in person. He said that after 70 years his Samadhi will be the most frequented place of pilgrimage in the world.