Original Lord Meher

Here is a link to the original typed version of Lord Meher.

It takes up in 1937. It is handy when comparing it to later versions. It was found on Hermes Reiter's computer after he died. He was the American editor of the 1986 first published print version. This manuscript is prior to his editing, but after the editing of David Fenster in the early 80s.

There is yet an earlier version, hand written by the author Bhau Kalchuri in Hindi, which is in the possession of the Kalchuri family in India. They have chosen not to make scans of it available.

The full history of the making of Lord Meher is long and complex, and is a continuing story.

See my earlier post How Lord Meher Came About.

I will write more about it eventually. I have sworn privacy to one witness and am waiting for that person to die before sharing that person's emails confirming what more there is to say.

A complete carbon copy of the original typed version given to Hermes Reiter for editing in 1985 is in the archives of Rick Chapman in California.

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The full list of versions (each different) goes as follows:

1. Bhau's original hand-written Hindi manuscript in 19 notebooks. In the possession of the Kalchuri Family in India and never made public.
2. The worked up typed English language manuscript by Feram Workingboxwalla with additions and corrections inserted and compiled by David Fenster. Scans of what was discovered of it in a storage room in America in 2014 can be found here. 
3.  A carbon copy of the complete and unspoiled version of the above is in the archives of Rick Chapman in California. 
4.  A computer-typed manuscript of the same, found on Hermes Reiter's computer after he died, linked to at top of this post. The keyboarding was done by Sufism Reoriented. Mild changes.
5. The 1986 20 volume set, published in English in America, copyrighted in 1986 and came out serially over 15 years. 
6. The 2002 online edition, which is 6,748 files which I can share with anyone but is too large to post online.
7. A 2005 Indian printing, with some major changes. 
8. The ongoing 2013 online version that appears now on the internet, that is redacted monthly. First appeared two months after the author's death, spearheaded by his son-in-law David Fenster. Drastic and constant changes, with both good corrections and grave new inaccuracies. Available online here.
9. A four part downloadable PDF version of one version of the Fenster online ongoing version, available to download at the Trust Online Library. 
10. There is one other uncompleted version in Hindi in India. Only two volumes ever published.
11.  A claimed online reconstitution of the original English version as edited by Hermes Reiter, that has as yet not materialized.

So there are at least 11 versions of Lord Meher, none of them exactly the same.

One day, when the smoke clears, scholarly biographical work can begin, using extant diaries, letters, and so forth, that is cited. No cited biography of Meher Baba has even been written. There is currently no way to systematically 'fact-check' the events in any of these biographies. The world is still in an early stage of gathering together the facts of Baba's life, and the process will never be complete or perfect.