Institute for Applied Meditation on the Heart

The Original Intention for the Abode of the Message in New Lebanon, NY.

by Puran Khan Bair, M.S. and A.B.D in Computer Science Senior representative of Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan

In his seminars in New York City and Philadelphia in 1974, Pir Vilayat spoke often about the need for a rural community to gather his followers together. He said he had received a revelation about a coming time when the planet would become so hot that most crops would fail. He said he had visions of flames and it so moved him that he felt compelled to act. He urged us to find land where we could do our own farming and survive the coming ecological crisis.

The phrase he received was, "The murshid must feed his mureeds" and so he named this project "The Promised Land." His advice was to look for a thousand acres or more where we could have three growing seasons a year.

Another part of his inspiration, that was especially interesting to me, was that the Promised Land would be a community of people dedicated to our spiritual path, where we could learn and practice living by our ideals.

Since 1968 I had been living in Philadelphia in an urban commune that I started with seven others. It began as an experiment in non-violent living and to support draft resisters during the Vietnam war. After I received initiation from Pir Vilayat in 1971, at age 27, I transformed the commune into a "khanqua," a residential center for spiritual study and practice, which I led. Starting from four of us who had met Pir Vilayat that year, our khanqua expanded as we bought three houses in a row along Baring Street that held twenty people in total. They all became initiates, as did others who were attracted and moved nearby. We had two successful businesses that employed some of the initiates: a whole-wheat bakery and retail store, and a mailing service that was used by six non-profit peace organizations in Philadelphia.

The khanqua offered three meditation classes a week and frequent classes through the Free University catalog of the University of Pennsylvania. The excitement we felt about the Sufi Message attracted many dedicated people who received initiation from Pir or myself and went on to become important contributors to the Sufi Order:

Blanchefleur Preston, whom I married in 1971, (now Blanchefleur Macher)

Vakil and Reza Kuner, leaders of the bakery and later of the Rescue Network of the Brotherhood branch of the Sufi and Maharaji, who all became prominent members of the rural community,

Saraswati and Prajapati O'Neill - later became Directors of the rural community and leaders of the Universal Worship organization,

Atum O'Kane - became an interim successor to Pir Vilayat, Yaqin Barr - became secretary to Pir Vilayat in Paris Shams Kairys - wrote a biography of Pir Vilayat

Although I was interested in hearing Pir Vilayat speak about the Promised Land project, I assumed he wanted me to continue doing what I was doing -- leading the largest center of the Sufi Order in America, his organization.

In December 1974, Pir asked me specifically to join the project, as Taj and I would be the only Khalifs in the initial group of residents. He gave me the assignment of developing an internal economic system for the community that would encourage cooperation instead of competition. He called it the Credit System, and over the next few months I sketched out the principles of financial sharing that we would follow.

Deciding to move from our home to the projected rural community was a serious matter for my wife, Blanchefleur, and I. We had one son of age two, and she was pregnant with our second son. I was working at the best job I have ever had, as a computer scientist at Burroughs Corporation in their Advanced Projects Division. I had a child support payment to my ex-wife, Nancy, for our daughter, Christina, that was half of my salary. And the Sufi community in Philadelphia was thriving. Moving to the rural community would mean very primitive living conditions for some years, with no income.

Vakil Kuner and I labored over the decision for several months. We discussed the implications of the guidance that Pir was receiving: the need to keep our families safe from the disaster he predicted, plus the chance to create a much greater khanqua, versus the very difficult practical considerations of moving. However, our compelling desire to do as Pir asked of us won out.

I was part of a committee to search for the land and so I made several road trips, with Maharaji, to Tennessee, North Carolina and West Virginia. The search committee came to a consensus on buying a very large plot of land, more than 1000 acres, in North Carolina. It was flat, with no buildings, and it cost about $100,000, as I remember. It would have the required three growing seasons, and would be like a blank canvas for building the structures and homes for our community. It was quite remote, about five hours drive from a large city.

Then one of the members of the search committee who was living in California, received a message from a man named Wavy Gravy, who was part of the "Merry Pranksters" of Ken Keysey's community. He heard we were looking for land and he had a friend living at "West family" in New Lebanon, NY who knew of a site next to his. Maharaji and I were sent to look at it.

What we found was an old Shaker village that was started in 1782 and became the headquarters of the Shaker movement by 1787. There were six buildings, including three apartment buildings, a single home, a factory and a large barn. This had been a working community where the Shakers built their famous furniture and also produced dried herbs and other products. The Shakers had sold the site several decades earlier to a couple who ran a Shaker-like summer camp for kids, but who were now retired. The village was abandoned and vacant.

The village, called "South Family," comprised 600 acres, but only a small part was cleared and level enough to be farmed. It faced north, with a mountain on the south side, so the farmable land would not be sunny much of the day. The buildings were of the 1850 era, not insulated, without central heating or plumbing, and needing extensive repair. The existence of the buildings was undesirable to those in the search committee who wanted to plan and build their own, efficient village. The most negative factor was the cost: $350,000, an amount that seemed impossibly large for our resources.

The Shakers are a Christian sect known for ecstatic worship and fervor. Their founder, Mother Ann Lee, was believed to be the second-coming of Christ.

I reported all of this to the search committee, who were then even more certain of their choice in North Carolina. The New Lebanon site did not satisfy any of Pir's criteria since its farmland was small, cold, with limited sun and only one growing season. And the buildings were antiques, not of the innovative design we envisioned.

Pir Vilayat said he preferred the New Lebanon site, but he faced opposition from almost all of the members of the search committee, who had been inspired by his earlier vision of building and farming. Then Pir announced that in his meditation, the original Shaker leaders asked us to take over their work and their sacred site. The search committee was unmoved and only Taj and I held out for New Lebanon.

Over a period of weeks, with more input from Pir Vilayat, opinions began to turn. The vision that Pir was presenting now was different: he renamed the project "The Abode of the Message." Instead of being primarily a farming community, Pir was now asking us to create a seminar and retreat center to teach Sufism to the public. The residential community would demonstrate the Sufi teachings by living together in keeping with our spiritual ideals. New Lebanon is two to three hours from either New York City or Boston. A robust offering of spiritual programs together with a welcoming community of teachers and participants in a beautiful setting would be very attractive to city dwellers. This was our new mission.

I sold my house, Marahaji drove the moving van and Blanchefleur and I followed by car. We had not closed on the purchase of South Family yet, but we had closed on the sale of our home. So we were the first inhabitants of The Abode of the Message, in May 1975.

To finance the purchase, we were able to get a ballon mortgage from the seller. We made an initial payment of $50,000 with a commitment to pay the remainder of the total price in five years. I contributed $20,000 which was the entirety of the resources of Blanchefleur and I. The deal was negotiated by Arif Rechtschaffen and I don't know what was the source of the rest of the initial payment.

The Kuners brought the bakery from our Philadelphia community which employed six members of the Abode. I started a computer business with Vakil Kuner. Other Abode residents started a VW repair shop and a children's school.

The property was held by a non-profit, New York corporation that was incorporated by a lawyer in our community named Musouwwir. He informed me that the laws of New York required a non-profit to have at least three members of the board and that the three board members chosen were Pir Vilayat, Taj Inayat and me.

Sometime in the first year of the Abode, the only three remaining Shaker women came to visit us from Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village in Maine. They told us that the Shakers had a prophecy that before they all died out there would be another spiritual group that would take over their work, and they had determined that we were that group. We had their blessing on our use of their sacred site and for the transmission of their spiritual work, as Pir Vilayat had said.

@ Copyright 2022, Puran Bair