Mani (Telling stories to the women):

 

Baba used to go to Upasni Maharaj, she was very upset about it naturally and she had so many aspirations for her son. She always considered Baba her first born even though Jamshed was the first child. But she was very young then and when Jamshed was born, when he would be brought to her, mother would turn her face this way, and when the child was brought this side, she would turn her head the other way. So my aunt, my mother’s older sister, adopted the child, took care of the child, Jamshed, brought him up. He always called her "mother," and mother always said that Merwan was her first born, she loved him very much, she was going to send him to the west for education, she had so many aspirations for him. So when all this happened it upset her very much, it pained her very much, she was not going to take it lying down, with Upasni Maharaj taking away her son as it were.

 

So she used to go to Upasni Maharaj and they had a good tiff over it you see, and she would tell Maharaj "But the world is full of murders, and they have many sons, why couldn’t you find another boy for your work, to keep him with you? Why did you have to choose my son out of all the sons on earth? Why don’t you go and get yourself another one?"

 

And Baba was there, Merwan, he was still Merwan there, and Maharaj says, "I told him to go, he doesn’t go. See here, Merwan you go home with her, she has a nice girl for you to marry, you go along with her and do business and cheat and lie and do all those things they do out there and go, go have a fine time." And he told mother, "While you’re about it, find me a wife also, find a girl for me too. One for Merwan, one for me. I am your son too."

 

And mother said, "Rubbish, you are no son." But she always had great respect for him. They were always wrangling over Merwan and of course Merwan at that time would do whatever Maharaj told him, but after that Baba didn’t. But once when she was going on the train, she would not leave it like that. Upasni Maharaj would pacify her, they would fight then they would embrace, and all would be well and there would be promises and tears, but after a while when she found that Merwan was still keeping with him and going on there she would go back.

 

Once when she was going on the train, it was traditional to take a flower garland, after all he was a perfect master and she accepted him as a spiritual personality, she would take this garland, but in her mind she knew she was going to have to fight with him when she got back. So as the train was nearing the station where Upasni Maharaj was stationed, she opened the garland from the basket and held it in her hand. Before that my mind was saying all sorts of things about the old man, but when she got down there, she bowed down and put the garland around Upasni Maharaj. Maharaj said, "Fine, fine, wonderful garland of shoes."

 

And she said, "Shoes? These are flowers."

 

And he said, "How much did you abuse me while you had those flowers in your hand?"

 

And mother had to laugh and admit it; therefore she had great respect for Maharaj knowing that he knew. And it used to be the same with Babajan, she would send my granny that’s her mother, sometimes to fight for her, to go and tell Babajan why was Merwan going there so often? He was neglecting home and he was late for supper, and he wouldn’t do this and that, and after all he was her son and Babajan should discourage Merwan from coming and being there so much.

 

So my granny would promise and she would go, and there two old ladies would sit there and change and seeing each other she would forget everything. They would talk in Persian and sing songs, my granny would sing a song and poems and Persian back and forth you see. And she would forget in the end. And just as she was about to go, it was so late, she would suddenly do her duty and she would say, "Oh Babajan, I meant to ask you, my daughter wants to know why you're keeping her son here so much."

 

She smiles and says, "Tell her, 'He's not your son, He's for the whole world. "

 

And she would come home and mother would say, "Did you tell her?"

 

And granny would say, "Oh yes, yes I told her lots you see." It completely melted down.

 

(New speaker)

 

Even mother herself twice went to Babajan and she said, "Tell me when he is going to come home. He is gone for so many days and I don’t know where he has gone."

And Babajan said, "Why do you worry? Why do you worry? "

 

(End)

 

Oh but mother used to say that to Baba when she used to come to Meherabad sometimes and she used to call him Merog just like my father did. It’s Irani for Merwan, Merog, just like Sheriar would be Sherog; I would be Manija, which was my real name. So she would say, "But Merog, you say you are God. At least what you really mean is that you're like God, or you've realized God, all right then you don't need to do all this. Why do you keep silence? Why don't you make these tiffs of girls and boys do that instead, it’s for them that you’re doing. Why do you fast, why don't you make them fast?"

 

And Baba would always smile. But once, which is very rare for Baba, He would never give such indications, once he said very lightly, even pointing at one of them, "Even if she kept silence all her life, it would not be equivalent to one day's silence of mine." And pointed to another, "Even if he kept fasting all his life, one day's fasting that I do would not be equivalent to that." And lightly just passed it off and then went on.

 

And the other day when there were men here I was talking about no matter how much Baba disguised Himself, disguised in the sense that He would have dark glasses on or scarves or things like that, we have noticed so often that people would turn round and look at Baba, even if they were in a hurry going on the station their necks would be turned right round to see till Baba was out of sight. They had a sort of puzzled look on their foreheads like they couldn't quite make it out but something had drawn them.

 

Even in the New Life when Baba had that robe on, Kafni, He and Eruch were right out and walking in the front and a little distance away was Mehera, myself, Dr Goher and Meheru, four of us, and we would see these people pass by and they would be chatting and arguing like they do in India, very loudly, and suddenly as Baba would stride by, He used to walk very fast, it was before any of those accidents, fast but not in a hurry, it would be fast when you saw the distance He had already crossed because He was here, and before you knew it, He just moved so swiftly, and  suddenly all that stopped and people would turn around and look at Baba until He had gone. Even though those kafnied ones before Baba had gone by before, there were no heads turned because it was natural to see someone in a long robe. But where it was Baba they would turn. And as I was saying, the mandali who were with Baba in the New Life, they wore these long kafnis because Baba told them to. I mean for us the Nothing was Everything because the Nothing was dictated or directed by Baba. That was the only significance it had. Kafni were nothing to the mandali, we were not Sanyasis or anything, but because Baba said to do it we did it, they did it, we didn’t have kafnis on.

 

But the funny part it was wintertime, is that it was very, very cold. Up in the north it was wintertime yes, and it was so cold we couldn’t button our clothes; I mean you just couldn’t get the button into the buttonhole. And so one day, when the mandali had to go out and beg for alms, go out and get the food, in that chatti that they had, they had to wear their kafnis, but that didn’t keep them from wearing their woolies. So they wore wooly over wooly inside you know, and a coat over it, whatever they had brought with them. By that time, if one was portly like Kaka was, and Dr. Nilkanth was, they were both hefty strong people, they wore their woolies and their coats over it and they looked very strong. They didn’t seam to need food, even if they begged for it. So when they would go out into these towns and villages, not villages mind you, I’m talking towns, and they would go out, it was their turn to go out, and the householders some of them would look at them and the more educated ones would say, "Good Lord, you look like wrestlers and you don’t look as if you are starving. Go out and earn, go out and work. Surely you can work but you are begging for."

 

But on the other hand when we were going through some small village and Baba and Eruch would be there first, and a little distance away we were there, and Baba. And at ten o'clock about or at half past nine, we would start at a very unearthly hour in the morning and the first things the mandali had to do, and we would see them by kerosene lamp when we got up, preparing the food for the other animals. And Baba was very meticulous about that, each animal had to be seen to very carefully so that they barely had time before starting with Baba, after seeing to Baba's things, all of us did, they barely had time to snatch a cup of very quickly made not so good cup of tea, sometimes even missing that to be on time to leave. So by nine o’clock we would be very hungry, pretty hungry for lunchtime as it were. We would walk mile after mile and then Baba would talk to Eruch and say, "We're hungry now. Let’s go and ask for something." This would be bakri, the Indian bread made on the hands from millet so he would go detour just to some _____, Baba would not be there, He would still be on the road, and Eruch would go and go to some hut and ask for alms. And these villagers, if someone was there making bread on that skillet, we have an iron skillet on which that is cooked, and she would say, "Please wait, please wait, it will be ready right now." And she would give it piping hot, put that cordas that is vegetable, hot vegetable or chutney on it and, and give it. Or sometimes she’d say, "Please just wait, I haven't flour in the house but I will get it from my neighbour." And she would rush to her neighbours, get the flour, quickly make the bread that would be about 15-20 minutes, and give it like that. And it made me think how blessed are they really these poor and so-called uneducated who gave it without knowing, without thinking and it is a very old traditional custom among the Hindu race that whenever a Sadhu or a spiritual aspirant or somebody like that comes to your house, never deny him, for you never know who will one day come to your door. It may be Ram in exile.

 

How often we have seen in these times that the people who ask for alms are often scoundrels probably or people just making a profession of it, but some are sincere no doubt, some real. But without exception they have to know so that the time when the Avatar came to their door they gave it with such love. Baba would enjoy. He would give each of us little pieces with His hand, never has anything tasted more delicious. Maybe it was the cold, maybe it was sitting with Baba, maybe it was that we were hungry, maybe it was all the love that was put in by these poor women who gave it.

 

I always think that before the phase began where Baba told us to give His name to the people, the gift of His name. Jut give freely, generously, whoever, wherever, just give it to them. Whether they can catch it or not, some might you see. Before that there was that period where we had to let absolutely nobody know who Baba was when He was with us. Now we were quite a large party during the bus tours that we made, the Blue Bus tours as we called it in 1938. And sometimes Elizabeth Patterson was driving, sometimes Dr. Donkin was driving or Eruch was driving, but during those times we would stop by at these small dak bungalows or guesthouses or hotels or lodging places just for the night and then we would rush away. But there we did not have any chance to call Baba "Baba" because someone might hear. During that time we had not to tell anyone who Baba was and not to say "Baba" because then somebody might guess. It was holding His name in before opening the gate and letting it out.

 

So during that time when we would get down to some hotel, Norina would call Baba, "Baboolie" so just to be sure, to be safe and endearingly. And Nadine, that’s Countess Tolstoy, she would call Baba in the Russian style "Babushka" and each one would do something. And I shall never forget this time when we were in Bangalore, we had gotten down for the evening and we were at this lodging place and the land lady and we were all sitting down to lunch and she was serving it, a nice plump homely landlady, we liked her very much, she came in and personally wanted to serve us. We were all us women sitting and Baba was at the head of the table and there was one girl who had come from Persia with her mother, that is Baidul's family. Baidul had just come and joined us in the ashram, and this girl was about ten. She had had Typhoid so she had cropped her hair so she looked like a boy.

 

Now Baba means to a father, to a mother you say "ba" just ba is mother, to a friend is "baba," brother is "baba," often a beggar on the street will say, "baba, please give me one paisa" or you ask directions from someone and say, "baba where is this road." So friend, brother, father, also a baby if it’s a boy is called baba. A mother will say to her governess, "take the boy walking," or something like that. So anyway, there we were at this table having our lunch and Baba was at the head of the table and the landlady comes waddling in with a plate and she said, "Baba, will you have a patty?" She was serving lentil patties you see, "Will you have a patty?" And the moment she said, "Baba" you should have seen everybody, it was as if we were all frozen. I still remember Elizabeth with her fork here, just at her mouth, everybody was just eating, somebody with a spoon here, it was as if a still fell. And then suddenly all together, everyone remembered that she was addressing the little girl who she thought was a boy and asking the boy if he wanted. And that relief, you could have heard that sigh around the table and everybody started eating again. So what I mean to say is this was just to illustrate, there were many incidents like that to illustrate how strictly we were not to mention Baba or to say who Baba was, and if anything like that happened it scared everybody out of their wits.

 

So when we were in Mysore that was in 1936 and for a time Baba and some of the mandali and some of the women, we were very few then, the Westerners had not joined us yet, and I had an ear operation, a mastoid operation, I was very ill then and had to be rushed to the hospital. There Baba used to come every day to the hospital, twice a day in the morning and in the afternoon He would come to see me. They would peel some fruits and put in my mouth when I had just begun to eat things like that. But the real thing is, what I really want to say I mean, is the nurses, it was a hospital run only by women. It was a missionary hospital, Western missionaries, I think they were English or Irish, I’m not sure, I think they were English, beautiful people. They had started this hospital and all the staff were women, including compounder and doctors and all the nurses were women so that only an old gardener wasn’t.

 

So all these little nurses the moment Baba came, after two or three days we realized that whenever Baba came they always had some excuse to come in and out of my room, in and out of my room. Naja was there with me, Naja was looking after me, she was there day and night, she was put in charge, she was in the ward with me and she thought it was very odd. We didn’t see these nurses at all at any other time. But when the time would come that Baba would be there, one nurse would come in to talk with the other nurse and it turned out that they all wanted to come in to see Baba. But you see we did say Baba then, we talked about Baba but not Meher Baba or who Baba was. And then they would say, "What, Baba has not come today?"

 

And we'd say, "No, He's not coming in the afternoons anymore, He's only coming once a day in the mornings."

 

"Oh."

 

So I'd say, "Why do you ask?"

 

And they'd say, "Oh we like so much when Baba is here. You know, the silent one."

So we just didn't bring up the subject because we didn't want to continue.

 

(New speaker)

 

They would ask, "Why doesn’t He speak?"

 

(End)

 

Yes, I said, "He is very shy."

And, "Why doesn’t He speak?" they would ask Naja and Naja would say....

 

(New speaker)

 

And one patient, she was very beautiful, and her bed was near the window, and when Baba would pass by she would say, "Please tell me who He is."

 

And I would say, "Brother of my patient."

 

And she would say, "He looks so nice and so kind, his eyes are so nice, but why doesn’t he speak?"

 

And I would say, "He is very shy."

 

She said, "I like him very much because whenever he comes I feel nice."

I said, "Yes, but how can I tell you?"

 

(End)

 

Yes, but it was not just an attraction without knowing. There was one nurse, the moment that Baba would sit by my bed on the chair, she would go and bring all the newborn babes one by one of that day without saying anything or without asking anything so Baba wouldn’t have to say anything. She would just put the child on Baba's lap, Baba would smile at it, take its little hands or do something, smile at it, pet it, caress it and she would carry it away. It was with pointedness she would put it down and pick up another one and bring. One day I remember there were about 20 newborns and Baba looked so.... and when she took one away Baba said to me, "Are there anymore?"

 

And I said, "Baba I don’t know if there are anymore." But every newborn she would come and place on Baba's lap, so that even though we never let on who Baba was anything, we have seen and to us it has been, because we could see both sides you see, here and there, it has been very touching.

 

I wanted to say something else first. You know how Baba did so many things when He did anything. Like the time when He throw stone at a tree, if there were twenty birds on it, its not just that one bird would fly away just that one stone thrown twenty birds fly away, all the birds fly away. So because we only see one side of it. So when Baba had anything done we knew it was for each of us individually there was some morally shaking training, learning. It was also for, supposing if Baba went to the pictures with us, it was to each it meant something different, to the crowd that was out there, without their knowing Baba did the work, what He had to do, spiritually whatever else He had to do it was different. So I remember how sometimes when Baba would take us to the pictures and Baba would be sitting there and sometimes up, even if it was in a crowd, if we were not all the time, our eyes were not always focused on the picture and we happened to see Baba's finger moving very, very fast. But sometimes it used to be such a good picture, and we would be so engrossed in it, and really want to know what’s going to happen and what’s going to happen to the heroine and what’s going to happen to the hero, and then Baba would suddenly (clap), "Come on, let's go." And so we would all go, but each one would try to be the last one out of the door so we could try to see what’s on the screen.

 

And I still remember as we were leaving somebody said, "What's happening?" So I rushed back, opened the curtain, saw, and ran back. And yet, if it was a boring picture and you had so much to do at home, and you were thinking this was left and that, and you just sat there and yawned and Baba would sit right through, without moving He would even the advertisements and all sorts of things, we just did not have to get up until it was done.

 

And once I remember, it was early in the morning Baba took us to the pictures. It was in Ahmednagar and Sarosh cinemas were there, so Sarosh would arrange a show at any time, and Baba had decided we would go to a show in the morning. We had to quickly get up and see to the cooking and do everything now so that there would be time, at breakfast time we would be going to the show. And we went there and the film was, Wake Up and Dream, and I wasn't well at the time, but still I felt certain with Baba and we would all enjoy ourselves. Now, it was the most boring, the most confusing, the most silly picture we had ever seen and we sat there in Wake Up and Dream but we just couldn't wake up, we thought it was a nightmare.

 

Right through it we would sit see, and Rano told us that once when they were in France, in Marseille and Baba took them to the pictures, Baba told Rano to explain everything to Him because it was in French. And so she had to tell. And she said that it was such a boring, such a hopeless picture that when she looked around Norina was nodding and Elizabeth was almost snoring and Nadine was half asleep, and every time when she stopped saying something Baba would give her a jab in the ribs "Come on, come on, what’s up next?" There was a very thin crowd and Baba suddenly decided, "Let’s go and see that picture."

 

It was the same with animals; Baba must have done work through animals, like the pets, the many, many pets that Baba had. But we would go to see the Zoo. I remember, whenever we travelled, one of the sights Baba always took us to was the Zoo. That’s about most of what we've seen in any place we've been to. We would not do any sightseeing the way other tourists would do, or any shopping. And it was not only a large party, but the hurry! The hurry, the running and the rushing so that literally we ran throughout the Zoo to see the animals. I still remember, Baba would be walking ahead very swiftly with someone, and suppose one of us women got interested in some bird or some python or something and it too half a minute, and we had to run to keep up. And I remember running and looking back and saying, "Katie, look to the right, a beautiful peacock!" and then running along, "Margaret, look to the left, there’s a lovely hippopotamus!" And with us, timing was at a sprint! And when we went to the Taj Mahal, we were forty of us, and every time we tried to look at something we were looking at each other! Nadine had an inspiration, she was looking up. And looking up of course we could see the expanse of that dome and she sang I think Baba's arti there, and we could still hear it. Baba was swiftly striding through; He was doing whatever He had to do. There was no lagging behind, just running behind.

 

Once when we were travelling and we were very hot and tired and we got down at last, we had been travelling through the dusty roads in the sun and the heat, so at last we saw haven you know. There was a cool veranda and a room and now we could just rest. It was quite late in the evening actually, when we say evening we mean 5 o'clock, 6 o'clock. Baba suddenly decided we would go to the movies. It was a place we hadn’t been to before, I forget, but we didn’t have our trunks with us, our clothes we had put in our bedding roll. Now the bedding rolls were wrapped in gunny sacks so they wouldn’t get dusty, and the gunny sacks were tied with tight ropes, so when Baba said, "Alright we'll go to the pictures." The thought of opening, we said, "Oh! Not to open those bedding rolls again!" But we had to get something to wear to the cinemas, so we did it groaning, moaning like those camels do. But once they were out and we had ironed them with a bit of water, it was all done then we were ready, we were happy. And we had our quick supper of bread and butter and things like that and we put on our clothes and the ____ was driving the car then.

 

Now there's a long history of that car, how we got that at all in that car is quite a story. The car would break down now and then, it wouldn’t start, and even Baba, we would all get down and push the car, once in the moonlight I remember. But that’s another story. Anyway, we were happy about going to the pictures, so we all got into the car, and Rano was behind, Rano, myself, and Mehera were in the back and Baba. As we were sitting in the car, the servants of the dak bungalow, they all came to the window. "Your all dressed up, are you going to the cinema?"

 

So from inside we said, "Yes, cinema, we are going to the cinema. Yes, very happy." And the car was starting, and there was not very much time left for the picture to start, but the car wouldn’t start. So Baba says, "Come on," you know, "Start." And the motor would go (vroom vroom vroom) stall. So the moment it stopped, we were going; we didn't say Jai Baba back then. We said, "We're going."

 

They said, "Oh yes!" They were so happy; they came over to the window-- stall. This went on and on for so long that the time for the pictures was over. Here we had gone to so much trouble, opening our beddings and putting on our clothes, instead of resting we had done all that. We were sitting in this small car, all cramped with someplace to go but the car wouldn’t move.

 

And the time was up for the picture, so we all said, "Doesn’t matter, there might be advertisements in the first part of the film. It doesn’t matter if we miss that part." But it went on and on and half the film must have gone on because at that point Baba said, "Get out. No we won’t go."

 

So they're still waiting to wave us goodbye, but we said, "No, we're not going, it’s all right." And what do you think? The car door wouldn’t open. We just couldn’t get out. We were hot and perspiring and by that time we were making faces at them saying, "Pull, pull the door from outside!" And they couldn’t understand, and we said, "We can't get down!" And they couldn’t hear us. Rano, she got so desperate, she is tall and has long legs, she got back and kicked and kicked! And when the door opened we just tumbled out, almost fell out, and the servants and the garden boy they just looked so surprised, they couldn’t figure out what had happened. We never did make them understand. We went in and just threw our clothes off and changed and went to bed. So we'd gone to the pictures you see. Neither had we had this, nor had we had...it’s like the story of the monkey, no bite, no realization. No rest, no pictures.

 

This is the story of one man, Mr. Jeffrey who lives in Karachi; he is the musical director of Radio Pakistan. And he has never met Baba but somehow or another he got interested and always when we had our birthday or silence anniversary celebration he helps us. So this January when Baba, the day Baba dropped His body, 31st January that night after Baba had dropped His body that night He had a dream and in the dream he said that he saw Baba sitting on the chair of his veranda and he said when he saw Baba sitting there he was so happy and he said "Oh Baba, you have come to my house! To my humble house!"

 

So I said, "Stop, stop Mr. Jeffrey, you have never met Baba so how do you know it was Baba?"

And he said, "Oh what are you talking? I have seen Baba's photo in your house, I have seen Baba's photo when we have the celebration, I definitely know it was Baba. So when I said to Him that, 'Baba you have come to my house?' Baba spoke to me in pure Urdu and He said, 'Yes, I have come to your house.' So then I said of course in Urdu only, 'But Baba, you were in India just yesterday, how is it today that you are in Pakistan?' And Baba answered that, 'Yes, yesterday I was in India, but today I have spread myself all over the world.'" Of course he didn’t know at that time that Baba had dropped the body and it was two or three days later that we telephoned and told him the news and he said the minute the telephone bell rang and he knew we were calling him on the phone, he felt something within, something within him that here some bad news was going to be given to him. That is all.

 

 

When _____ a Baba lover in _____, that’s near Calcutta, when he came to Meherazad sometime after Baba dropped His body he told us of the dream he had on the 31st. He works on the railway there, a very high post on the railway. He comes home late at night so in the morning when he has to go back he is rather drowsy and very reluctant to start the day, so his wife shook him up and said, "Come on, its time for your tiffin of breakfast." And this tiffin that he takes with him for lunch.

 

So he was sitting there at his dining place and his wife was in the next room preparing the tiffin for him and while he was waiting for it he said, "I must have nodded." sitting like that just sitting like that, he had a minutes dream and he saw that it was Meherazad and Baba was there but much bigger and taller than he has seen Baba physically and Baba was running very, very fast out of Meherazad out of the gate of Meherazad and we women and men mandali were running after him but we were very small. Our heads were normal size but other than that we were like little dolls. And we were running as fast after him trying to get hold of some part of Baba, the sadra or the hand or the finger to stop him from going and ___ said, "Don’t do that, don’t do that, don’t stop him. Its all right, He'll come back, He'll come back!"

 

And he said it aloud and his wife came out and said, "What are you talking about?"

 

And he said, "That’s all right, it was just a dream." He didn’t know then Baba had dropped His body.

 

So when he came he said that and so I said to Mehera, "Baba did not tell us, but He tells us through so many ways, through so many Baba lovers from so many places that He is here. He’ll come back. In some way He will always be there, He will give the indication." That’s what I asked Him when I was playing Begin the Beguine in the crypt near him, when I was alone I said "Baba you will give an indication of what you want us to do, of how you want us to do everything, of what you want us to do." Of course it must have been my imagination but I felt I saw Baba nod, just like that, it was after that I did not imagine that. But the others said they saw Baba open His eyes just for a second. I can quite believe that because for the first four days it was not as if Baba's eyes were closed, it was rather as if Baba had just shut his eyes. As if someone said, "Now shut your eyes" and you do that. It was not like that but He has shut the eyes, not closed, as in sleep, so many felt they saw Him blinking or just opening them once like that. The Begin the Beguine that I played at that time in the tomb is the one I recorded but it is a very old record, it was sent by Fred Marks from England once, it’s sung by Hutch Hutchinson. Allan ___ tells me that Hutch is still living there; he may be able to get me that record, a good one, if so I will make a good tape of it and send it around. That is a beautiful one; we can play it if you like.

 

Meheru honestly I don’t know the story so well. I have not heard it with as much attention as I should have. I have heard the story surely, but not really heard it.

 

When Baba used to join in games it was such fun. Gilli is a little piece of stick that is sharpened on both ends like a pencil, or like a moustache, a waxed moustache, and a danda is a stick that is up to here, a round stick. And you make a hole a hollow in the ground and you place that little gilli across it and put that stick in it danda, and then throw it, because that gives it a lever. And there is a space underneath and you have to see how far it goes, there are only two sides, and the farther you can the better, and when it’s gone there the little stick, the gilli, is resting on the ground but because of the points it is raised from the ground on the ends so that then you have to strike that one end with another stick because when you strike it then it bounced right up. Once its in the air, in that split second you have to strike it as hard as you can, if you miss it that’s fine but if you strike it, the further it goes the better, because from there, to the little hole in the ground you have to count, you have to count but you have to measure with that stick. The counting and the measuring is in the Indian language, Gilli Danda that game. Baba used to measure that so beautifully, so swiftly, we would be on either side of Him you know, "Is He doing it too fast for us to count? Is He cheating?"

 

You know the other party, there would be the party on Baba's side and the party opposite naturally and then the parties would be quarrelling, "No He didn’t! Yes He did! No He didn’t! Yes He did!"

 

 And Baba would end the game, throw away the...and say "Let’s go."

 

Then there would be the seven tiles, the seven tiles you have to pile on top of each other, bits of tiles, Indian stones, set on top of each other, then you have to go some distance away and throw and ordinary tennis ball at it and you must aim to break it. There again there are two sides, and the other side catch it. If they catch it your out, but if you knock over the more stones the better. The other party has to come up and quickly replace those stones so that once it’s back in place they won. Baba's aim was so accurate, He had the most wonderful aim, its no surprise that. We still have the ball we used to play it with.

 

Now Meheru, this is Mehera's sister's daughter. Meheru, she has also been with us for these years, I mentioned her when I was talking about the New Life when we were walking, she was one of the four who was in the New Life.

 

Mehera wants me to tell it, Korshed has told it because she actually met the person and talked to him. It’s the story of a _____. A ____ in India is one who goes around singing Kirtans singing songs of any saints or Sadguru and they give anecdotes, any story applied to him and the sing Bhajans, interspersed they sing Bhajans you see. They are professionals, minstrels or storytellers. It is usually the Kirtan singers, the one they believe in is ______ who they have a great pilgrimage in Maharashtra to Pandharpur where he is worshipped. Thousands go to Pandharpur for the ____; it’s like a ______ as you might say.

 

So this ______ has a friend who believes in Baba, and this ____ felt so strongly that why should his friend worship someone who does not belong to Hindu religion? Why should he go out of his way to worship a Zoroastrian God when we have so many Gods of our own? And so he would have heated discussions with him, and the other one couldn’t answer him so well because he wasn’t such a good speaker, so in the end the person got around to wearing him down and he said, "Now look, if I lose the discussion I will worship Meher Baba, if you lose the discussion you must believe in ____ and the photo of Baba you keep in your house will be removed from there." That is the agreement they got to in the end. And his friend had to agree in the end because he just pestered him and wouldn’t leave him alone.

 

The friend is living in Pune and the ____'s name is _____. So in the end his friend lost the argument after much, he just wasn’t up to it. It was an intellectual discussion you see, he was giving instances of why you should believe in _____ and why he shouldn’t believe in Baba and the friend wasn’t sort of good enough in arguing to be able to win the argument. So he said, "You have lost. Now Baba's photo must be taken out of your house and you must worship ____ and not Baba."

 

Mehera has reminded me of something very delightful to read out. In the last group you will see, and you will see at Meherabad and Meherazad two boys, young men, who we call the Luck brothers because they are Irwin Luck and Edward Luck. They are now at Meherabad because they could stay in Pune only one week. So Meherabad and other places they had come for sightseeing as it were, so they want to spend as much time here as possible, they are biding their time at Meherabad and also helping there at Baba’s tomb and receiving the Western family whenever they visit there. And these are from the strips of paper what used to come in chocolates and things they would send for Baba, and Baba would at least taste some of it because it was sent with love and each package of the chocolate a little slip would come out and it was read to Baba and Mehera had kept them and she asked me to read them out for fun and for love.

One said: “Love to the Silent One, Love to the Eternal One,”

This just says, “The Perfect One,”

Then, “My mind and heart suffer when your love is always with me and I am unable to know it.” This is another one, “I don’t know who I am, but if you are in the mood I am open for any suggestions my Lord.” 

“Baba, you are the Love of my lives.” 

“I bow down to you Baba.”

“Even better than perfection is your lovely Reality.”

“You are everything I could ever wish to be.”

This is very old-fashioned, “I love you.”

“I would love to dine with one sip of your wine.”

“Love me more and more till there is no ego left to be sought.”

“With you by my side, I can’t lose.”

“You make me happy.”

“You are the beautiful bird of paradise come to my doorstep. Holding your magical damaan, I fly away to my Lord’s place, with your grace.”

“My only thought is to please you.”

“Oh love, take me so that I may go so you can come.”

“I never thought of becoming God till I met you, now I cant think of anything else but serving you.” “I am you and you are me.” That’s in quotes and then Irwin says, “If you figure this out I will be most happy.”

“I treasure your love.”

“With being on your side, I have Everything because all else is nothing.”

“The more your love burns me away, the more I desire to come closer into the sweet flame of your love.”

“Your mercy is so tender and knowing beyond all description, your love makes my heart sing.”

“This was in a box of wheat flakes, “Each wheat flake is a flake of my drop love for you. I hope it satisfies the hunger of your heart.”