Meher Baba was born in Pune, India, on February 25, 1894. Beginning as a young man in his twenties, he devoted himself throughout his life to a wide range of humanitarian projects. These included model schools for children of all castes and creeds; hospitals and facilities for the poor and the mentally ill; and programs of spiritual training for men and women from the East and the West.
Meher Baba first visited the United States in 1931 at the invitation of Thomas Watson, the scientist who had worked with Alexander Graham Bell in inventing the telephone. During subsequent visits in the 1930s and 1950s, he traveled widely throughout the U.S., meeting and providing spiritual guidance to men and women from all walks of life, including well-known celebrities of the day like Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford. Several gifted American men and women became dedicated disciples and helped establish a universal spiritual center under his guidance in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
While in America, Meher Baba wrote the charter for our organization, which he named Sufism Reoriented.
Since his passing in 1969, Meher Baba's writings have been studied in schools and universities, and his extraordinary life is regarded as a vivid demonstration of the spiritual possibilities of what he called the "New Humanity."