He then turned on Raosaheb, scolding him bitterly, "It was you who made Ali run away! You envied him and wished him to leave. You always picked on him and were at constant loggerheads with him. Now that he is gone, you must be feeling pleased. He left because of you — jungli! You have failed to think of my work. You have no idea how much my work suffers because of Ali's absence."
Meanwhile, after the mandali failed many times to bring a suitable boy, on Thursday, 26 December 1929 Baba himself went out in search of one. After visiting different schools and villages in the area, he returned disappointed, not having found a boy he liked.
Frustrated in his search, Baba had a telegram sent to the father of Pandit, the Kashmiri boy he had met in Harvan. The telegram requested that the father send his son to Nasik.
Baba remarked, "If Pandit comes, my work will be done; otherwise, I will have to proceed to Kashmir myself to see him." He added, "Pandit is the link, and by my holding fast to this link, Aga Ali will be able to return from Persia."
Sohrab K. Variava had come to see Baba in Nasik two days before, on the 24th. Baba gave him certain explanations about the spiritual path and the different places on the planes.1 Variava then asked, "For one like you, Baba, where is your home?"
Baba asked in reply, "Have you seen my house? Who can see it? Who is that lucky? The air alone of that place would make you go mad! You would tear off your clothes, throw them away and become stark raving mad — only from feeling its air! The house itself is far, far off."
Meanwhile, the Dewan of Jawhar state, Mr. Gune, had invited the Master to his house.2 Baba, with a few of the men, left by car for Jawhar on Saturday, 28 December 1929 at four in the afternoon. Rustom, who was driving, had to drive through densely forested ghats. Highway robbers hid in the woods and at one point, a band of them tried to stop the car. Rustom refused to stop, accelerating past them and reaching Jawhar safely. Gune received Baba with great reverence and honor, and Baba gave darshan to those at his house.
The next morning on their way back to Nasik, near the village of Dahanu, a girl about twelve years old, carrying a water jug on her head, began to cross the road as their car was approaching.
Footnotes
- 1.Places of the planes may refer to the various sections (or heavens) of the planes. Refer to The Nothing and The Everything, pp. 67–99.
- 2.Gune is pronounced GOO-nay. A dewan is analogous to a modern-day chief minister or governor; the state of Jawhar is now part of Maharashtra. Years later, Baba commented that India would be divided into an even greater number of states.