Baba then consoled her, "Suicide is not the solution. It only entails rebirth with the same problems all over again. The only solution is God-realization — to see God in everything. Everything is easy then. Promise me that you will put this revolver away and never again think of suicide."
Feeling his compassion, Mercedes promised. She then told Baba about her friend, the movie actress Greta Garbo, whom she loved dearly.
Baba commented, "You both were husband and wife in a past life in Italy. That is why there is such love between you."
Mercedes said, "This explains why Greta said, when she first met me, 'Oh, I have been looking for you.' "
Baba added, "She was a yogi in a previous life and died suddenly. She has latent yogic powers in her in this life, too, but no spiritual elevation. She both suffers and enjoys simultaneously. She will be in the pangs of such agony one day that she may commit suicide. She needs my contact. If she sees me, all this will change."
Mercedes was happy meeting Baba and presented him with a phonograph (record player). After she left the room, Baba sent her a handkerchief via Adi Sr. as a New Year's gift and directed her never to give it away. She said that she would always sleep with it under her pillow, but wondered why Baba would think she would part with it. She telephoned Norina the next day and asked the same thing. Baba responded that he had given these instructions as she may have been tempted to give it to Greta Garbo.1
Mercedes invited Baba to tea at her house. Baba had declined many invitations but, for her, he consented. When the group drove to Mercedes' beautiful home (on 6 January 1935), as soon as Baba stepped inside, he marched straight up to the top floor and proceeded to open every closet and cupboard in the house, ending up in the kitchen. There stood the cook, a woman with an irritable disposition whom Mercedes kept on because she was so good at her job. Beaming with a smile, Baba gently patted the cook on the shoulder and then sat down for tea.
As Baba was ready to depart, Mercedes and her friends assembled on the porch while the cook peered through the screen door. Baba suddenly went back up the steps, shook the cook's hand and returned to the car.
Footnotes
- 1.Coincidentally, Mercedes' deceased older sister Rita had been married to Graham Phelps Stokes' uncle, W. E. Stokes. Rita had also been friends with Isabella Stewart Gardner, a relative of Catharine Gardner.