close assocaation with certain youngsters, spiritually advanced for their age; namely, Abdulla Pakrawan, Ali Akbar, Agha Ali, Pandit and other boys. Baba begins his search in the world for the "perfect boy" and later the "perfect girl," and the gathering of his first European and American disciples. Various close disciples, unfamiliar to westerners, are candidly portrayed: namely, Gustadji, Buasaheb, Chhagan, Padri, Pendu, Vishnu, Raosaheb, Chanji, Kaka Baria, Rustom K. Irani, the Jessawala, Desai and Dadachanji families, and Jamshed Mehta. Of the highest order, the Avatar comes among us as man to do his universal work, and this work must be completed and its purpose achieved before he can release himself from his physical body and return to formless spirit.

As one looks at the world at this time in history, nearly sixty years after the account of what you about to read, one notices significant changes: it is Iran, not Arabia, that has become the outspoken voice of Islam; England is no longer the dominant world power that it once was; India has become the world's greatest democracy; America has become the innovator of ideas and forerunner of trends; technology is communicating events instantly throughout the world; the film industry is bringing the spiritual realms of experience onto screen; the orthodox priest-class is undergoing radical changes and facing challenges from the common man who is seeking beyond religion; the Avatar has shifted the spiritual power from Mecca, Jerusalem and Benares to Meherabad; Meherabad is being established as the central focus of all pilgrimage in the world.

The uniting of Western and Eastern thought, the understanding of each religion as valid, the synthesis of one's mind to adapt to the teachings of Vedant, Buddhism, Christianity and Islamic Sufism is the outcome of the Avatar's work. Since the Avatar's universal work is for the full benefit of mankind to rise in consciousness – pushing the faculty of the human mind beyond the limits of reason to a level of intuition &ndsah; then all that is happening is necessary for the great result of his have come in our midst – his manifestation. To begin to perceive the world as illusion and God as Reality, to begin to realize that one is locked in by one's mind to the phenomena of the universe by an invisible connection of mental impressions that are deeper than any conscious memory or nerve fiber, to begin to understand that after a period of approximately seven to fourteen centuries, this Great Being, the First Soul, returns again with a fresh dispensation of truth and divine love, are preludes toward realizing Meher Baba's great mission – "awaken."

What is necessary to awaken from this cosmic dream and realize that oneself is the dreamer is between the individual and the Master. At times, one must follow the footsteps of the Master to various places he worked in the world to imbibe the necessary impressions to integrate in one's mind and heart what has been newly revealed. The path to God mUst be found and crossed. In his own way, each individual cuts his own path and the path unfolds with each step or flight. My path has zig-zaggedly led me to many of the places where Meher Baba had spent time