Meher Baba copyright 1987 Charlie Mills

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1266THE WEST LEARNS TO SING1931

After a semester of Harvard graduate school, Milo was given $1000 by the playwright Thornton Wilder to "go where I pleased and come back a man ... to go 'where I willed.' I went, beyond all foreseeing. On April Fool's Day, 1930, I arrived at Meredith Starr's in North Devon, in a typical tumult. There my real life took shape, and all previous and future experience became merely illustrative."

Milo spent a year and a half in Devon teaching for two terms at a small private boys' school. In the summer of 1931, Meredith sent Milo to America to contact certain interested people and tell them about Meher Baba and his intended visit to England that fall.

It was Milo who had first told Watson about Baba. He had also met a devoted couple named Malcolm B. Schloss and his companion Jean (Adriel) at a farm in Hancock, New Hampshire owned by Catharine Gardner.  Milo told Malcolm and Jean about Baba and his coming visit to the West. Malcolm and Jean had been thinking of starting a spiritual retreat — "where people could come from time to time with the view to discovering their inner resources in an atmosphere of silence and meditation."  They were interested and eager to go to England to meet Baba and experience Meredith's retreat, but financial circumstances prevented them. However, they wrote letters to Meredith, which he showed to Baba who smiled and remarked, "They are mine. It is essential that they meet me."

With the help of friends (and an anonymous gift from Watson), Malcolm and Jean had managed to save enough money to travel to England in October 1931. But they received a cable from Meredith informing them not to come, and that Baba was going to America and they were to be his hosts. Therefore, when Watson returned from meeting Baba, Jean and Malcolm were preparing for Baba's visit. Forty miles outside of New York City on the banks of the Croton River, they found a place for Baba and his group to stay. It was called the Harmon Retreat, and over 350 devout souls were informed about the Master's coming. Jean and Malcolm took up this activity with great enthusiasm, and regular correspondence began with Meredith concerning Baba's visit.

Meanwhile Kitty and Zilla arrived in Devonshire at nine that night and saw Baba for a few minutes.

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