Meanwhile Jamshed Mehta, who was an acquaintance of Gandhi (and a Baba lover), cabled Gandhi on board the ship, strongly urging him to meet Meher Baba. At nine o'clock on Tuesday, 8 September, Mahatma Gandhi came to Baba's cabin with his secretary Mahadev Desai. After Gandhi was introduced, he looked at Baba and said, "I have read much about you and wanted to see you one day when God willed it; but I never expected it to be so soon."
Baba expressed how happy he was to meet him and dictated from his alphabet board: "Do you have the time to stay?"
"Yes, I have come to sit and listen," Gandhi replied.
Gandhi talked about meeting Upasni Maharaj at Sakori, and Baba explained to him in detail about Maharaj and Babajan.
Baba ended by dictating, "Upasni Maharaj is my Master and a Perfect Sadguru."
As previously related, according to Baba's instructions Rustom had sent Gandhi a copy of Upasni Maharaj's biography in 1923. After reading the book and being released from prison, Gandhi went to Sakori to see Maharaj. But Maharaj was not in a welcoming mood that day and abused Gandhi. Upset by Maharaj's abusive language, Gandhi left with a very disturbed impression of the heralded sage of Sakori. The ways of the Masters appear mysterious to the world. Gandhi's connection was with Meher Baba, not Maharaj, and that is why Maharaj scolded him and drove him away.
Baba narrated a summary of his own life and experiences to Gandhi — his attraction to Babajan, Sai Baba's pronouncement, his encounter with Maharaj at the Khandoba Temple, his many visits to Maharaj in Sakori, his terrible suffering during his coming down, the establishment of the ashrams at Meherabad, his many fasts and seclusions, his silence for the last six years, and of his writing a special book.
Their conversation then proceeded, in English and Gujarati:
Gandhi asked, "Where is that book?"
Pointing to a trunk, Baba replied, "In there."1
"Can I read it?" Gandhi asked.
"Have you the time?" Baba dictated.
"Oh, I can find time to read it. Why not? I will definitely read it. Give it to me."
Changing the topic, Baba spelled out, "There is bliss everywhere and nothing else [exists], but people do not know it. It is no use listening to lectures and learning from books. Direct experience of God is needed. The Experience is spontaneous; it is not to be forcibly obtained."
Footnotes
- 1.Although Baba would not permit anyone to read the Book, he would often travel with it. The manuscript pages had been brought on this trip to the West, according to Baba's specific instructions.