Meherabad is a rural town in India where Meher Baba’s Samadhi, the Meher Pilgrim Retreat, charitable establishments, residences and other facilities for pilgrims are located.
This is a follow-up post to The Most Peaceful Place To Visit In Rural India.
In my last post I wrote about how wonderful it is staying at the MPR (Meher Pilgrim Retreat) located in Meherabad. In this post, I will show you the surroundings.
Meherabad is a very small town but you will find everything you need there. You will see lots of walking paths and open fields, you will see the typical trucks, motor-bikes and rickshaws on the streets, you will find various fruit and vegetable markets off the main road, and lots of animals roaming around including cows, goats, pigs, dogs, water buffalos and even deer.
Meherabad, apart from the beautiful MPR and Samadhi also has a bookshop, a coffee shop, an internet cafe with Indian trinkets and clothing and snacks, another shop where you can find any essentials and more snacks, the old Pilgrim Center, a medical dispensary, a school, a museum, an ATM, the Meher theater where movies and plays take place, and a few more things.
For some reason when you take photos of Indian people they pose and become very serious even though they are very joyful people. I wanted to get her smiling so I took this candid photo of her.
There is a free bus service available almost every day that can take you from the MPR to Ahmednagar a few miles away. This way you can get away from the peace and quiet of the MPR (if you so desire) to go do some shopping, have a bite to eat, and buy some Indian sweets. This would be the place to go to bring home gifts.
To get from the MPR to the main road you have to cross the railroad tracks. It is almost like a game to see if the gate will be closed or open. Trains come by almost every hour and because of safety issues they close the gate maybe 10 minutes before they know a train will come. I don’t know how they know.
So the “game” is that when you approach the railroad you might be stuck waiting on one side for 10 minutes, or 5 minutes, or zero minutes if you get lucky and the gate is open.
They are actually currently building a traffic bridge that will go over the tracks.
This cow was not happy with me taking her picture. I kinda felt bad for disturbing her peace.
Every now and then you might encounter some very interesting sights like this man carrying a torch running barefoot on the main road. We were told he was doing it for Durga.
Durga is the principle form of the Goddess, also known as Devi and Shakti in Hinduism. Durga the mahashakti, the form and formless, is the root cause of creation, preservation and annihilation. source
Sometimes it is nice to get to the place where no tourists go. Where you can see the locals do their own thing and experience their true hospitality. Have you ever spent time in the rural areas of a foreign country?
A New Life Wandering 
I am totally enthralled by this place. Feeling a pull… 🙂
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If you have the time and means, don’t pass the opportunity 🙂
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This place sounds nice….in which state is this located?
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It’s really nice! It’s in Maharashtra about 2 hrs from Pune.
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Thanks….????
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Loved the Ape at the end there. This is my rural foreign country for the last two and a half years: Italy 😀 I could do worse. Even though everywhere is good for something. Lovely images!
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Italy is a wonderland to me. How amazing that you live in the rural area of it. Where?
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South of Tuscany, the ancient Etruscan land of Maremma. Nothing but farms around, a WWF Nature Reserve and a few wonderful old towns. Oh, and terme Saturnia quite close too. 🙂
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Sounds really wonderful 🙂
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Seriously beautiful place, and stunning photos! This brought back many memories for me of time I spent in rural India and Nepal, such happy times! 😀
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Indeed happy times!
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I remember we used to have a small photograph of Meher Baba in our home…. and once even i crossed this village two years but could never visit. Your post has now inspired me to visit it one day.
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Interesting that you were close by but couldn’t visit. Maybe now or soon is the time 🙂
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Glad you got to experience the ‘other side’ of India – it can sometimes get one thinking about all the wastefullness we see around us and appreciate small joys in life.
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“Sometimes it is nice to get to the place where no tourists go. Where you can see the locals do their own thing and experience their true hospitality.” I think this is the best way to travel 😀 , Photos taken are very normal for any Indian town , but so stunning and I realize its so beautiful through these here. Thanks for making it so beautiful. And if you are ever ever planning to visit North East India , contact me and do visit my local village and you will love it 😀 ,
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Don’t want to brag about my story, but I hope you are tempted to visit reading this 😀 https://whatsinmyheadandheartnow.wordpress.com/2015/07/11/a-place-where-google-map-has-not-reached-yet-but-is-the-most-awesome-place-on-earth/
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Thank you for the compliment, glad you liked the photos. And thank you for the invite to your village 🙂
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