True Devotion

Robert and Lorna Rouse in 2002

It was either December 1993 or January 1994 when I first visited Avatar's Abode with Sylvia, whom I would later marry. We had just finished a ten day Vipassana meditation retreat at Pomona and thought we'd try to find the Abode as it was not far away. We drove in fairly early in the morning and there was nobody about but it felt like the Garden of Eden. 

Unknowingly, we waited outside Baba's house for someone to arrive. That someone turned out to be Lorna Rouse, who was surprised to find a couple of people on the property at such an early hour. As John Grant describes it in his book "Practical Spirituality", this is what happened back in August of 1958 as described by Robert Rouse: 

At 1:00 p.m. we gathered at the house to say farewell to Baba. He called Robert and Lorna Rouse to see Him privately. He said that He was going now and Robert was to come to Sydney with Him. He told Lorna that He was going away now and to look after His house. He gave her the key and said that after He left, His house was to be locked up and everyone was to go right away from it, and be nowhere near it.

By this Baba meant those attending the Sahavas at the time were to keep away from it. Long term, it was intended as a place of pilgrimage. So here was Lorna, almost thirty five years later, still looking after His house. Baba had allowed the Rouses to live at Avatar's Abode after his departure. When we met her, she was bringing flowers to place in Baba's room. Lorna was the very first Baba person that Sylvia and I met. 

It was only through reading John Grant's book that we become aware of Baba's visit to Queensland is 1958. Sylvia had come across the book in The University of Western Sydney's library. I've written in detail about how the two of us came to Baba (see below):

Lorna died on the 19th February, 2004. I'm fairly sure that Robert outlived his wife. Here are some more photos of Lorna taken from this site.

Lorna when young

Photo taken by Rada Rouse in mid 70's

Rada was the daughter who Lorna was pregnant with when Baba visited Australia in 1956, so she must be around 64 years old now. Anyway, in this post I'm just commemorating Lorna and her devoted service to Baba over the years following his return to India.

Links Across Lifetimes

Figure 1

I watched a short video of Filis Federick talking about the links the Avatar makes with people during his advent. Don Stevens, she said, had been told by Baba that the Avatar decides in his current advent who will meet him in his next. These links are most important in the spiritual advancement of individuals. 

This got me thinking about my own links to the Avatar. Initially, I came to Baba via his book, God Speaks. It was Don Steven's book, Listen Humanity, that led me to Avatar's Abode. Figure 1 shows that I was then amongst the "people who have heard of Baba via the Internet, books or contact with people who know about Baba". 

On my first visit to Avatar's Abode, I met Lorna Rouse who, again referencing Figure 1, was one of those people who "have met Baba in his physical form" and was a member of his outer circle who had been allowed by Baba to live at Avatar's Abode. Lorna met Baba in 1958 and it was about forty years later that I met her. After this I met several other people at Avatar's Abode who had met Baba. I should say that throughout this "voyage of discovery" I was accompanied by my wife at the time. We had met in late 1992 and separated in early 2000.

I was with my wife when we travelled to Meherabad in the late 90's. The first person we met at the Pilgrim Centre in Ahmednagar was Bhau Kalchuri who was working in the garden and smilingly met us as we approached. Naturally, we assumed he was the gardener. Little did we know at that moment that he was Baba's gardener whose business it was to plant Baba seeds around the world. A year or so later Bhau visited Singapore and we were fortunate to meet him there for a few hours on his way back to Meherabad. Thus the first person we met was a member of Baba's inner circle.

I consider myself to be most blessed to have had these contacts and all that I can hope for is that these links may lead me to meet the Avatar in person during his next advent. Of course, that's up to the Avatar. You can find out more about Fillis Federick (second from the left in Figure 2) and other Baba lovers by visiting this site.

Figure 2