Ominous Symbolism

Here is a piece of ominous symbolism.

Throughout history bells were used to call people. Ancient Chinese summoned their servants with a gong. Churches have for ages summoned their congregations with a bell. When there were emergencies in the small towns of America, they would call people together by ringing a bell. Even Baba had a gong that he used to summon his disciples. But at the Meher Center, after tea on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, at 4:45 sharp, the ring the bell beside the watchman's cabin to inform community people to leave the Center.

The gesture is emblematic of the Center's sense of, 'Go away. We don't want ye deplorables.' As the Center isolates its mind from influence and offers nothing to the outer world either.

The early Christian cult of the fist century was based on inclusion, calling people to the good word. The symbolism of bells in their church steeples came to mean, 'come here to the house of the lord.'

Baba himself was much more in tune with the Christian ethos of calling -- as in his message 'The Call.' His name for the Center was "Abode of one and all."

The Meher Center has co-opted Christian symbols, the house, the bell, and inverted them. The Bell now means, leave Baba's house and go to your own.

Obviously it would be impractical for the Center not to have hours. Even churches have hours. But it is in the inversion of the use of the bell as a symbol that is disconcerting, and I think betrays a very negative trend among Baba lovers.