24/06/2020
ERUCH BEHRAMSHAW JESSAWALA (Eruch)
Eruch B. Jessawala, primary interpreter of Baba’s signs and gestures, as the “Tongue of God” was well known for his deep understanding of Baba’s life and work and hundreds of seekers came to hear him speak of Baba.
Eruch Behramshaw Jessawala (October 13, 1916 – August 31, 2001), born in Bombay, India, was a close disciple of the silent Indian master Meher Baba, and one of His mandali. Eruch was also the primary interpreter of Meher Baba’s alphabet board, and later his unique sign language.
Eruch was born in Bombay to Zoroastrian parents, Beheram and Gaimai Jessawala. His father Beheram was an engineer with a high post in the Indian government in Nagpur, the capital of central provinces at that time. Due to constant relocations of his father, Eruch was placed in an orthodox Zoroastrian boarding school in Nasik, India at the age of 6. When his father eventually bought an estate, Eruch was transferred to a Catholic school at the age of 8 where he excelled as a student, eventually planning to study engineering like his father.
Due to family pressures, Eruch married his cousin Khorshed Damania on 25th may 1945, at Ahmednagar, which was attended by Meher Baba but according to Baba’s orders, soon after the wedding, he joined Baba permanently and never lived with his wife.
Eruch’s wife Khorshed became involved with Gangaram Mirchandani, who claimed to be a guru. Mirchandani was the same "bogus saint" who had sent three of his followers to confront Baba at Ashiana in Bombay in 1957. Baba forbade Khorshed from visiting Bindra House and also wished that the four Akbar Press families not get involved with this so-called guru.
According to Eruch the first time he remembered meeting Meher Baba was in 1925 at the age of nine on a trip with his family to Ahmednagar.