Despite millions of learned pundits and thousands of wise men, Only God understands His own way of working. Wonderful is Your creation, O God! Wonderful is Your game! You poured jasmine oil on the head of a shrew.
Sometimes Babajan mentioned different saints or Masters and would remark particularly about Tajuddin Baba, whom she referred to with the utmost respect as Taj — meaning crown of the Kingdom. "Taj is my Khalifa [successor, supreme ruler]," she would say. "What Taj gives, he gets from me."
On 17 August 1925 at midnight, Babajan suddenly exclaimed, "My poor fakir Taj has gone." No one could understand what she meant, but the next morning when the newspapers carried the story of Tajuddin Baba's demise in Nagpur, people grasped the significance of her utterance.1
Babajan resided continuously on the streets of Poona for almost 26 years, during which time thousands of hearts were wounded by the arrow of her glance. Every day around her flame, the moths hovered and burned, and, in January 1914, her flame kissed the Light of the Age, unveiling young Merwan Irani. Babajan had traveled to Poona from the Punjab so many years before for this supreme mission. With tears in her eyes, she would utter, "One day my son will come ... He will shake the world!" No one had any idea what she meant.
Her seat under the neem tree was just a few streets away from Merwan's home. Often she would see him pass by, but she waited years before she embraced him. People would see her weeping, and when they inquired why, she would reply, "I weep out of love for my son." This statement was astonishing, because it was inconceivable for the old fakir to have given birth to a child. Age will soon witness their reunion.
On 18 September 1931, one of Babajan's fingers was operated on at Sassoon Hospital, but afterward she did not appear to be recovering. Three days later, at 4:27 P.M. on 21 September, when Babajan's beloved son was far away in a foreign land diffusing the rays of his Wine, Hazrat Babajan completed her divine mission and departed from this material plane.
It is believed that Babajan's physical presence on Earth lasted between 130 to 141 years. People were speechless when they learned that the ancient woman had died. Tears flowed throughout Poona and gloom hung over the city as if clouds had become her shroud.
Footnotes
- 1.It is not known whether Babajan and Tajuddin Baba ever met.