True spiritual mastery is achieved through complete self-emptying and devotion.
"Becoming the sandals worn on the Master's feet"
Avatar Meher Baba Ki Jai
Donald Eugene Stevens
American; editor of Baba's works including God Speaks
Donald Eugene Stevens was one of Meher Baba's most significant Western disciples, uniquely positioned to bridge Eastern spiritual wisdom with Western intellectual rigor. Born on January 14, 1919, on a small homestead in Imlay, Nevada, Don was the youngest of three sons. The family moved to California when Don was five, and his father died when Don was only seven; his mother raised the boys with a strong emphasis on work ethic and education.
After graduating from Johns Hopkins University in 1940 as a research chemist, Don built a successful career in the international oil industry. His spiritual seeking led him to Universal Sufism, introduced to the West by Hazrat Inayat Khan, where his teacher was Murshida Rabia Martin. This Sufi connection would prove pivotalโit was through this lineage that Don would eventually come to Meher Baba.
In 1952, Don met Meher Baba for the first time in New York. Baba immediately recognized something special in this young American professional, calling him 'my spiritual son' and describing him as having an 'almost perfect balance of head and heart.' This description captured Don's unique ability to combine intellectual precision with deep devotionโqualities that would make him invaluable in preserving and presenting Baba's teachings to the Western world.
Baba entrusted Don with momentous literary responsibilities. Along with Ivy Duce, he served as editor of 'God Speaks,' Baba's magnum opus on cosmology and the spiritual path. He re-edited 'Discourses' to make them more accessible to Western seekers, and served as editor and narrator of 'Listen, Humanity,' which included nine discourses by Baba along with Don's firsthand account of the 1955 Four Languages Sahavas at Meherabad. Baba also tasked him with overseeing translations of these works into European languages and various Indian languages.
Don's work extended beyond publishing. He helped create a new Sufi Charter with democratic principles that Baba declared relevant to all Sufis everywhere. He assisted Murshida Ivy Duce for seventeen years at Baba's request. After relocating to Europe in the late 1960s, with residences in London and France, he continued leading focused spiritual study groups in both locations as well as the USA, following Baba's New Life and Companionship model.
One of Don's most remarkable assignments came when Baba sent him with Eruch to film various holy sites in India. Years later, Eruch discovered that these were the identical places Baba had repeatedly visited in profound meditation without explaining whyโBaba had imbued these sites with powerful spiritual energy for future pilgrims. This revelation inspired Don to organize five India pilgrimages between 2004 and 2009, as well as a European pilgrimage in 2006 to sites including Avila, Assisi, and the great mosque-cathedral of Cordoba.
After returning from his 2004 India pilgrimage with an illness, Don had a profound realization. His pilgrimage work was fulfilling Baba's 1932 Paramount newsreel message filmed in Londonโthat he came to revivify existing great religions and gather them 'like beads on one string.' This insight led him to establish the 'Beads on One String Foundation' to continue this pilgrimage work after his passing.
Don Stevens devoted over sixty years to preserving and sharing Meher Baba's words with the world. He was particularly concerned with maintaining the integrity of Baba's carefully dictated messages, warning against the tendency toward oversimplification that could lead to fundamentalism. He passed away on April 26, 2011, in London, having served as a wise, generous, and tireless companion and mentor to countless seekers.
โMy spiritual son
โ How Baba referred to Don Stevens (as reported by TrustMeher)
โAlmost perfect balance of head and heart
โ Baba's description of Don's unique quality (as reported by TrustMeher)
โYou say he is your boy, but I say he is my boy!
โ To Ivy Duce, at Don's first meeting with Baba, New York, July 1952
โYou are very old, Don, ages old! And you are bound. And you will be bound and you will go on getting bound age after age. Age after age, the same bindings will be created, you'll try to free yourself and in so doing, get re-bound. But once you are liberated completely, then you will realize that there was no binding at all. It was just imagination, a dream; you were seeing and experiencing only a dream.
โ To Don Stevens during the 1956 visit to America
โDon, we have been together since the dawn of time.
โ New York, 19 July 1952, at Don's first meeting with Baba in Ivy Duce's apartment. Right after telling Ivy that Don was his boy, Baba made a pun on Don's name.
โIntellectual knowledge backed fully by feelings is intellectual conviction.
โ Scarsdale, New York, 20 July 1952. Baba dictated this at one point during a morning meeting with Don, Ivy and Charmian about the Sufi charter.
โDon, say all this so loudly that the fishes in the ocean can hear you! Start [from] the beginning. Baba cannot hear, it must be the fog!
โ San Francisco, 5 August 1956. Announcing a large gathering in India for the following year, Baba had already had Dana Field repeat his plans loudly enough for Mars to hear, and then turned to Don.
โDon, if you had been just one more day late, I would have canceled your entire visit.
โ Meherazad, 27 December 1959. Don and Alain Youell arrived days after the date Baba had fixed, held up by Don's oil business meetings in Paris and a difficult journey.
โAs the Avatar, I have many responsibilities and duties of course, but of them all there is none that touches me more deeply than bowing down to and washing the feet of the lepers. They are like beautiful birds caught in an ugly cage.
โ January 1960, in the car back to Meherazad after Baba had washed the feet of two lepers at Meherabad. Baba turned around from the front seat to say this to Don.
โDon, you have ruined my day! โฆ Don't worry. Let's have a good time.
โ Meherazad, 18 February 1962. Don had taken Eruch out for a walk, and the Ahmednagar bhajan group arrived before they returned. Baba scolded Eruch, turned on Don, and seconds later snapped his fingers and pardoned him.
โNot at all, Don. When you are breathed in [by God], you are in effect stored in exactly your present situation until creation is breathed out again. Then, when some planetary system has reached the proper stage of development, you are reincarnated and proceed with your involution from the point where you had left off [before Mahapralaya].
โ Meherazad, 28 November 1964. Baba had asked Don whether he knew what Mahapralaya was, and Don joked that he would hate to have this lifetime's hard effort wiped out in it.
โDuring my manifestation and for some time after I drop my body, the high road of all roads of inner development is love. โฆ As I must provide for my lovers for the hundreds of years until I come again, it is necessary therefore that I make provisions now for their use during that period of time. For this, it will be necessary that they use a secondary route. One of the very best of these is that of meditation, and that is why I have given out these extensive discourses on meditation. However, do not mistake me, because meanwhile โ during my lifetime and for some time afterwards โ it is a distraction and waste of an individual's time and energies to use meditation.
โ Meherazad, mid-1960s. While re-editing the Discourses, Don noticed how much they say about meditation, though Baba had almost never given anyone a meditation, and on his next visit he asked Baba why.
Baba sent Don with Eruch to film various holy sites in India. Years later, Eruch discovered these were identical places Baba had repeatedly visited in profound meditation without explaining why. Baba had imbued these sites with powerful spiritual energy for future pilgrims.
After returning from his 2004 India pilgrimage with illness, Don had a revelation that his pilgrimage work fulfilled Baba's 1932 Paramount newsreel messageโthat Baba came to revivify existing great religions and gather them 'like beads on one string.' This inspired him to establish the Beads on One String Foundation.
God Speaks
Meher Baba's magnum opus on cosmology and the spiritual path; Don served as editor alongside Ivy Duce
Role: Editor (with Ivy Duce)
Discourses
Collection of Meher Baba's spiritual discourses; Don re-edited to make them more accessible to Western seekers
Role: Re-edited for Western seekers
Listen, Humanity
Nine discourses by Meher Baba with Don's firsthand account of the 1955 Four Languages Sahavas at Meherabad
Role: Editor and narrator