Instantly, Merwan felt that he was the very same Merciful One to which the passage referred. He looked at Buddha's picture and felt within: "I am the Buddha."
But he asked himself, "Am I really the Buddha?" and his inner voice assured him with conviction: "Yes, Merwan, you are!"1
Seated watching the burning corpses at the cremation grounds, one night Merwan asked Ramnath, "My friend, since you are so interested in Buddhism, why don't you go to Rangoon where you can learn much more?" Ramnath always took Merwan's advice to heart, and soon after, he traveled alone all the way to Rangoon in Burma, although he was only sixteen.
Falling critically ill in Burma, Ramnath returned to Poona and was admitted to Sassoon Hospital, where Merwan would visit him every day. Ramnath told him, "I returned to Poona only to see you, Merwan." After a few days, during one of Merwan's visits, the young man died with his head on his friend's lap. Unknowingly, Ramnath left his mortal body on the lap of his beloved Lord Buddha.
From his youth, Merwan was characterized as being an extremely compassionate individual. For example, he devised a plan to spend the savings of the Cosmopolitan Club to help the poor in Poona. A committee of seventeen boys was formed to manage this work and christened "The Secret Seventeen" (because the work was to be done inconspicuously, without any fanfare or publicity). Merwan's rich friends also contributed to the club's funds. A cashbox was made and its key kept with Merwan. This money was used to help some poor family or disabled person and, occasionally, to take a destitute person to the hospital. If no donations were received in a certain week, Merwan himself, at the sacrifice of his own needs or wants, would donate money. Thus the committee was able to carry on its charitable work.
Another incident illustrates Merwan's uncommon kindness as a young man. One morning he and Baily were passing through Sachapir Street in the Camp area. Merwan was on an important errand and both were in a hurry when Merwan's eyes fell on a derelict lying by the roadside, groaning. Most boys would have hurried on their way even more quickly, but not Merwan, who stopped to inquire about the man's identity, under whose treatment he was, what complaints he had, and so on. The man explained his illness and said that he was taking medicine from a municipal charitable dispensary.
Footnotes
- 1.The name Meher can also mean mercy.