(3) That Baba should prescribe the procedure in laying the idol. His wish as to how we should all conduct ourselves?
(4) That after installation, how regular conduct of worship is to be done and the manner of daily conduct and its running.
Yours affectionately, P. Ramalingeshwara Rao
The following is Eruch's reply:
Meherazad Ahmednagar 1 February 1963
My dear brother,
Your letter of 19th January was forwarded to me by dear brother Adi for being read out to beloved Baba and for reply to you.
In spite of Baba's ban for a full year on the flow of correspondence to and from him, and despite his present phase of seclusion, he permitted me to read out your letter to him, for it was from one who has endeared himself to him as "Baba's P. A. [Personal Assistant]!"
Without beating about the bush, I will attempt to answer your queries according to indications as gathered by me from Baba. As a matter of fact, your long letter can be replied in a short sentence by asking you simply to read Meher Pukar [a Hindi periodical] — the January-February 1962 issue, pages 27 to 31. However, I will reply to your four points as requested by you in your letter which, on the whole, seems based mainly on your questioning one of the eight messages of beloved Baba that he has given for the opening of Mehersthan on 28 February 1963. This message reads as follows:
"Tear away the curtain of set ceremonies and rituals and you will find that I am the Worshiped, the Worship and the Worshiper."
(1) Your first query is: Whether rituals are to be totally avoided?
In reply to this query I must tell you, dear brother, that Meher Baba as the Avatar of the Age wants you to believe that he does not want the true worship of his lovers to be entwined by rites and ceremonies of yagna and homa-havan [sacred fire rituals] or any other forms of ritual. Baba does not want his lovers to ever offer their prayer to him padded by any sort of formal practice or set customs. Any ceremony on which the rust of past ages of formal observance has long since set in, should never be entertained in his House of Worship.
Baba often stressed that he has come again as the Avatar of this Age to cut clean through the thongs which restrict the voice of true worship to God to the point of strangulation.