Meher Baba: An Artful Silence

Abstract

Although silence is often associated with spirituality, not much is known about why spiritual leaders acquire silence or the impact their silence has on their followers. I study the texts that discuss the forty-four-year silence of the Indian mystic Meher Baba and argue that Baba’s silence transformed him into a myth. I conduct a close textual analysis of Baba’s explanations of why he chose silence as well as the accounts of people who personally interacted with Baba to understand what his silence meant to them. Four themes emerged from my investigation: the intimate nature of Baba’s silence, the appeal of a silent God, Baba’s reliance on interpretations that allowed him to transcend textual and temporal limitations, and the legacy created by his mysterious silence. My study concludes that Baba’s influence challenges our reliance on words for persuasion and points to the enthymematic qualities of an artful silence.