Ocean of Love
Delia DeLeon
Paperback, $10
Pete Townshend of The Who, in his introduction to Ocean of Love, wrote: "At times she seemed almost selfish in her driving commitment. As a composer I tried in vain to echo the endless love song that was her life, and felt embarrassed whenever she became impatient with me. It seems that it was Delia who Meher Baba chided with 'Don't worry, be happy.' Perhaps there are others who worry as much as she, but I doubt it. Her passion, constancy, meticulousness, and enormous anxiety have all blended to produce an endearing eccentricity that enriched my life. The has been possible because her tendency to worry―which she enjoys sharing with her helpers as much as possible―has always been tempered with the most extraordinary and mischievous sense of humor...Meher Baba is the personification of pure love at a magnitude and power unimagined since the advent of Jesus. Reading Delia's story, The Ocean of Love, so carefully told here, is like watching a tiny paper boat being swept away by the force of a massive hurricane."
Delia was the third of The Frivolous Three (Kitty Davy, Margaret Craske and Delia) to pen her memoirs. As each woman was quite different, so too are their books. While Baba ordered Kitty and Margaret to America after living in His ashram in India for many years, Delia’s job was to lead the Baba group in England. Pete Townshend was one who learned of Baba through Delia, and in his introduction to the book he writes “Meher Baba is the personification of pure love at a magnitude and power unimagined since the advent of Jesus. Reading Delia’s story, so carefully told here, is like watching a tiny paper boat being swept away by the force of a massive hurricane.”
The thing that sets Delia’s book apart from all others, is the incredible collection of ultra-personal letters and cards from Baba to His beloved ‘Leyla’ (the Persian name He gave her), that are herein published. Delia was concerned that they might be misinterpreted, so she thought a few words of explanation as to how Baba worked with the first Western disciples might help the letters to be understood in the spirit in which they were written. Mani, Baba’s sister, had said in a letter to her, “Having sown the seed of His love in the hearts chosen for His spiritual universal work, He took such pains to nurture and strengthen the delicate plants in the early stages. He bestowed personal attention on each one according to individual needs until the plants were strong enough to stand on their own and withstand the spiritual buffets that served to help in their tremendous growth and service to Him.” Some excerpts from the great volume of correspondence she received from her Beloved:
“My darling Delia, ...I know you remember and think of me continually and are counting the days when you will meet me again. And you have a permanent place in my heart We’ll have a personal heart-to-heart talk when we meet in Genoa. Till then try to have patience. With my greatest love, BABA. “
“Dearest faithful Leyla, Will you forgive your Beloved if He writes you a birthday letter one month late? He will make up for it by sending you an extra loving thought with each line. You will remember He told you how busy He would be on this tour, and apart from correspondence and work connected with this tour, He has written no letters whatsoever. Now is He forgiven? Write by return and tell Him so or He will mourn, grow thin and haggard and will never be able to take the long tiring journey to the West which He longs to take shortly to see again His beloved Kimco—His heart..”
This is a side of Meher Baba the Avatar, the GodMan, that most of us Johnny-come-latelys find most suprizing. But He was all things to all people, and as Mani has said, “He used different bait for different fish...whatever it took to hook those He needed for His work.”