Intuitively, Darwin felt that Baba might be the One he was expecting. Another newspaper article during 1932 announced that Meher Baba had arrived in America and would be staying at a retreat near Harmon for about ten days.
By this time, Darwin had come to feel that Meher Baba was the Returned Christ. He had reached out to Baba inwardly and he felt that Baba actually responded by visiting him in spirit. His feelings about Baba were so strong that he felt like leaving his job and going right away in search of Baba. However, he allowed his feelings to be overruled by his rational thinking. He thought that, since Baba would be there for ten days, he could wait a few days until he would have the Memorial Day holiday off from work.
So, on Memorial Day weekend, Darwin and one of his friends, a 22-year-old neighbor named Donald Holloway, drove to Harmon, about 130 miles away. They soon found the retreat, only to learn that Baba had finished his work there early and gone on to California. This was a deep disappointment. However, the feeling there of Meher Baba's "loving presence" was still very evident. They were welcomed by a few of Baba's followers who were still there, namely Josephine Grabau, her mother Mary Antin, Milo Shattuck, Anita de Caro, Howard Inches and Grace Mann.1 Josephine asked Darwin if he would like to write to Baba. He did, pouring out his heart in a letter, offering his life in Baba's service. Darwin immediately mailed it and returned to the retreat for dinner. Halfway through the meal, he began to feel Baba replying to the letter. Darwin felt a "welling through the heart with unmistakable love ... answering everything in my letter," and tears began falling from his eyes. Although he deeply regretted missing Baba, Darwin was happy that he had found Baba's followers and longed for the day when he could meet the Master in the flesh.
In 1934, therefore, it was truly a joyous occasion when Darwin and Jeanne Shaw, both 26, received a telegram from Norina saying that Meher Baba was on his way to New York City and she had made an appointment for them to meet the Master at his hotel on 12 December. Darwin made all the necessary preparations to take advantage of this opportunity and eagerly awaited the day of Baba's arrival.
Footnotes
- 1.Milo Shattuck had maintained his close connection with Meredith Starr and returned to the Devon retreat in 1934 where he spent six months. Later, he became a landscape gardener and a social worker. He had no further recorded contact with Meher Baba. Milo's mentor, Thomas Watson, likewise drifted away from Baba. In May 1933,Watson wrote Meredith: "Your changed attitude towards Baba is exceedingly interesting for it has been mine almost from the beginning. He made a deep impression on me for about three days when I first met him at East Challacombe, but after that repulsions played about him stronger than attractions. I said nothing to you about it for I blamed my lack of spiritual insight for my feelings toward him. When I met him in Boston [in 1931] all the attractions had vanished. I seemed to sense something wrong." (Mazur, A Romance In Natural History, p. 278.) Mary Antin, too, returned to her Christian-oriented communal friends at Gould Farms in western Massachusetts and sought solace in Anthroposophy. Her daughter Josephine remained a lifelong disciple and married Margaret Starr's brother Kenneth Ross in June 1937. Josephine Ross' book of poetry Songs of a Modern Disciple is dedicated to Meher Baba. Below is a poem Josephine wrote for her mother about Anthroposophy: Go softly, softly with the mind, If you the Highest Truth would find; For all of beauty dwells within Thy soul, nor can the mind begin To climb the mystic mount at last. Beware lest mind should hold thee fast Caught in illusion. Know that He, The Lovely One Who dwells in thee, Is only seen by those who find Their Highest Self beyond the mind.