Samadhi of Meher Baba - Interment

Interment

On the 31st of January, 1969 at 12:15 in the afternoon after having his favorite poet Hafiz's couplets recited, Meher Baba died. His body was brought to the samadhi at Upper Meherabad by an ambulance from Meherazad and was interred on February 7, 1969. The ambulance had been sent by Dr. Brieseman from Booth Hospital. Afterwards, the ambulance itself died; it went out of commission and had to be replaced. The trip it made to Meherabad was its last. The stretcher which carried Baba's body is still preserved in his tin seclusion cabin on the hill. During those seven days, in compliance with Meher Baba's wish, Cole Porter's song Begin the Beguine was played repeatedly on a record player. During this time people came from all over India and a few from the west to take darshan and to see his physical form for one last time. During these seven days Mecca was flooded and closed for this exact period of Meher Baba's darshan after he dropped his physical form. All India Radio mistakenly announced Baba's passing as 10:00 P.M. on the 31st (his actual time of death was 12:15 P.M.). The next day, announcements were made on the radio several times during the day and BBC also broadcast the news. True to Meher Baba's words he gave darshan in a reclining position during the summer of 1969 in what became known as The Last Darshan.