At Meherazad, Baba admired van Gasteren's crew's efficiency, commenting, "Louis and his men know their job. I felt happy with Louis, not only because he is an artist, but because he has a good heart. He was impressed very much by my love, as were his two assistants. Louis is a genius in his art. Because of this, and because of his love for me, I cooperated 100 percent and he made the most of this opportunity."
Referring to the filming done under the babul trees, Baba added: "To me, it was like again giving a Sermon on the Mount [as Jesus had done]. In the two days that Louis spent here and at Meherabad, I could see that he came to understand a bit about me, and he expressed his love for me by speech and action. I know that he will try his best to have the film shown all over the world. He worked at it with all his heart, and I cooperated with all my heart. So, this must bear good results."
Years later, van Gasteren wrote:
During the [first] meeting with Meher Baba, I felt as if I had known Baba for a long time. I experienced Baba as my brother, sharing with me a deep feeling of aloneness. In fact, I would have loved just to sit with him without talking, without saying a word, and there would have been communication and an even greater feeling of togetherness. In a way, I felt sorry that I had to ask him questions and explain my intentions. If the crew had not been there, I would have been very pleased just to be in his presence in silence. ...Baba was very cooperative and happened to be very camera conscious. It became clear to me that he really wanted to be filmed and that he kept constantly everything under control, even checking whether the camera was working when filming him.1 Looking back on his experience, van Gasteren's cameraman, Jan de Bont, related: It was quite a remarkable event. Everyone present was undergoing a change the moment [Meher Baba] stepped in the room. I knew very little about him. Shaking his hands and being able to look into his charismatic eyes, I saw a man who really wanted to connect with you. It was very hard to take your eyes away. Even though he spoke through an interpreter, it felt as if he were speaking to every person in the room. Looking through the camera very close at his face you could feel that, [even though] we had met for the first time, he was constantly aware of me. At one point I saw through the lens that there were tears in his eyes. I zoomed in to a close-up to better see and understand. They were real tears, and everyone nearby became emotional as well. He then dried his tears with a white handkerchief and to my surprise handed it to me after the meeting. I kept the handkerchief for years, but unfortunately lost it during one of my many travels. I will never forget his always-smiling, comforting face. The young sound engineer, Peter Brugman, wrote: A memory of filming Meher Baba that really stands out is that of the very strong spiritual power of Meher Baba. I sensed that directly when I first saw him. An old man with fair skin and greying hair, dressed in white, sitting in his white room on white cushions. His eyes had a remarkable power that is difficult to describe: very lively, speaking, open, warm, understanding, encouraging, loving. It was a very strange experience that, although I had never seen it before, it seemed as if I could understand his sign language quite well. It was as if he could communicate with me in a very direct way — as if he could speak directly with my soul. It was really a very strange and deep experience that I have thought about many times in my life. I still feel very privileged to have met him.2 On Sunday, 24 September 1967, the singer Jaipuri Qawaal and his musicians performed for Baba at Meherazad. Baba liked his singing even more than Kachwala's and listened to him for four hours, from 11:15 A.M. to 3:00 P.M., with two breaks for tea. Baba presented each of the six musicians with one of his handkerchiefs. Adi, Padri, Chhagan, Waman and Bhagirath were again allowed to be present.
Footnotes
- 1.Thirty years later in 1997, van Gasteren returned to Meherazad and later the same year released a DVD, titled Beyond Words, containing some of the footage he had taken of Meher Baba. (source of quote: Beyond Words booklet, p. 18.) Van Gasteren's documentary, Nema Aviona za Zagreb, was released in the Netherlands in 2012. Murari released a short documentary about Baba in 1969, titled The Awakener.
- 2.Jan de Bont later became a successful Hollywood producer and director, and Peter Brugman became a renowned Dutch documentary filmmaker.