He then rapidly strode out the west door, not allowing the party to linger to look at the exquisite paintings and statues, one of which was the Pieta statue of the Madonna and Christ sculptured by della Robbia (the model for Norina's role in the play The Miracle ).
Afterward Baba went to visit Capitoline Hill, the Forum and the Colosseum, into which he went for a few minutes. Later, he directed that he be driven twice around Benito Mussolini's office.1
Baba had asked Norina to arrange for interviews that afternoon, since she had lived with her husband in Rome when he was the ambassador prior to the Russian revolution. Unfortunately, she had not been in Italy for the last several years and had lost touch with even the closest of friends. For her to call people on the telephone and persuade them to come and meet an Indian Spiritual Master was next to impossible on such short notice. Norina made a list of 32 persons whom she thought worthy to meet Baba and submitted it to him before making the appointments.
Baba glanced at it and crossed off all but three. They were a Russian army officer, a simple, good-hearted Italian and a worldly young professor of philosophy. Norina had no trouble convincing the first two to come; their meetings with Baba proved to be cordial and beneficial to them, but the professor's attitude was defiantly negative. Norina once described this young philosopher's meeting with Meher Baba:
After hearing my enthusiastic description over the telephone of a Perfect Master, he decidedly refused to accept the privilege of a visit with the "suspectful man." When I suggested that, for his own sake, he be a more courageous adventurer in the search for Truth, he agreed to come.
At the Hotel Elyseé at 2:00 P.M., he stood in the presence of, as he so ironically qualified Baba before meeting him, "your phenomenal man." His attitude was arrogant and critical. He coldly viewed Baba, sizing him up as if taking notes for a newspaper article.
Baba, in his unparalleled simplicity, affably invited him to sit down. The young erudite at once started the mental attack. He provoked and examined Baba's "knowledge" from the cold, intellectual standpoint of erudition, asking question after question. To this most complicated cross-examination, Baba replied with such clear wisdom and in plain, concise, almost lapidaric sentences that I, who was the translator, felt like divine Gospel was coming alive!
Footnotes
- 1.Mussolini was the fascist prime minister and dictator who led Italy into World War II.