Dhuni (Meher Baba) - Overview

Overview

Meher Baba's Dhuni was first lit on November 10, 1925, when some villagers approached Meher Baba about a severe drought that threatened their crops. Baba told them to return home and ordered his mandali to build a Dhuni. Within minutes of its lighting, rain began to fall. In later years, Meher Baba invited His followers to throw attachments, symbolized by sandalwood sticks, into the fire. By Meher Baba’s order, the Dhuni continues to be lit on the 12th of each month at sunset at Lower Meherabad, Ahmednagar, India. Baba instructed one of his close disciples to ensure that this Dhuni be lit on the twelfth of every month. According to The Master's Glossary, the Dhuni fire symbolizes the purifying inner fire of Divine Love.

The modified Dhuni fire ritual observed by Meher Baba was nearly the only, if not only, bona fide religious ritual that Meher Baba performed during his lifetime. It is still performed on the 12th of each month, in accordance with conventions established by Baba, near the Meher Pilgrim Center in Lower Meherabad, and is one of the important focal points of the Amartithi celebration in January of each year which attracts up to 30,000 pilgrims annually in India. Because he generally discouraged placing what he often perceived to be undue emphasis on rituals for their own sake, Meher Baba's Dhuni ritual has attained a unique status among activities at his centers in India and around the world.