The Meher Baba Association has recently endorsed a project to publish the diaries of one of Baba’s men mandali, who served Him for thirty years.
Born in southwest London in 1911, Dr William Donkin first met Meher Baba in London in 1933.
After qualifying as a doctor in 1939, he was invited by Baba to join Him in India. He was the only English person to live with Meher Baba as a permanent member of the mandali, remaining in India until his death in 1969.
Dr Donkin is most remembered for his wonderful book The Wayfarers, which chronicles Baba's work with masts (the God intoxicated).
 This book came about when Dr Donkin said to Baba that somebody should write an account of this important work.
"Good idea, Don, you do it!" was Baba's
reply.
"But I’ve never written a book in my life" Don said.
"Never mind, you do it!" was Baba's final word on the matter.
Dr Donkin also kept a diary. Written in four volumes of small notebooks.
 He wrote these, probably by paraffin lamp, late at night and after an exhausting day,
when he really should have been grabbing a few hours of much needed sleep.
The diaries begin in 1939 when Donkin arrived in India, aged 28. They span the
years until 1945 and cover the time of Baba’s most intensive mast work and
the entire period of World War II.
A volume, to bear the title ‘Dr Donkin’s Diaries’, is currently in the very early stages
of production. It is our hope that this book, when published, will stand as our
commemoration of this remarkable man.
The diaries reveal that Meher Baba wrote a message to William Donkin in 1944, saying:
“You being in my inner Circle, everything for you is being decided by the Divine Will...”
And in a later entry, from February 1945, Dr Donkin records:
“Baba also told me that I was the luckiest of all the Westerners, having seen so much of Baba during the past years, and that this was due to past connections with Him.”
Above all these diaries show Dr Donkin’s total and absolute devotion to Meher Baba.
Like all of the mandali he was tried and tested in every way, including:
-
Fasting, which he did not like at all.
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Driving the old bus for thousands of miles, which he comments on but hardly ever complains about.
-
Enduring hours of travel in bullock carts, which he loathed.
As well as the hundreds of other daily happenings, designed to tease out every sanskaric twist and knot.
Further details of this project will be posted here in the months to come.
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