Baba returned to Bangalore with Jalbhai and Chanji (Tukaram driving) to see the dentist on the 18th. Whenever Baba went to Bangalore, he would stop at the town of Kengeri and drink water from a well near the railway station famous for its medicinal properties. He went to the Anand Bhavan lodge, but finding it unsuitable (tiny room, bedbugs, smelly communal toilet) they moved to the similarly named Shastri Anand Bhavan , where they had stayed on a previous visit. In the evening Baba took a walk around the public maidan (commons).
Baba went to the dentist's the next morning and was fitted with a set of dentures (or new bridges). That evening, they went to a film ( Accent on Youth ) at the New Imperial Talkies. On the 20th, on the way back, Baba stopped and purchased cookies to distribute to some poor children who flocked around him. Before returning to Mysore, they crossed a bridge and visited Srirangapatnam Island in the Kaveri River, where Baba saw the ruins of Tipu Sultan's fortress and other monuments
On Saturday, 21 March, when Mehendarge received news of his brother's demise, he wept. Baba consoled him and said:
This life, body and death are all maya, and to weep over the death of someone is ignorance. Remember, maya does not mean this world and its affairs. The illusion that this world and everything in it is real — and of feeling happy or unhappy over certain conditions — is maya.
See how maya charms and deceives humans and how she entwines herself around them! Daily thousands die. Recently in America many died due to floods. In the war in Abyssinia [Ethiopia], so many were killed.1 The earthquake in Quetta alone killed 30,000 people! But though these thousands and thousands perished, you did not feel upset for them — those thousands of men, women and children who were healthy and strong, who were expected to live a long life and had various hopes, plans and ambitions.
Compared to them, your brother was old, unfit and suffering much. And for him, your tears are useless. He is free from his suffering. You should be glad!
In mid-March 1936, Baba began suffering from stomach pains and was in much discomfort. Chhagan, who knew some ayurvedic treatments, gave Baba a metal ring to wear; but the next day when his finger became swollen Baba removed it.
Footnotes
- 1.When Ramjoo's fourteen-year-old son Baggu saw the horrific photographs of the Italian campaign in Abyssinia, published in the Illustrated Weekly of India, he asked Baba how long the war would go on. Baba spelled on the board, "It will not stop," which Baggu understood to mean that humanity was in store for more suffering before it turned towards God. (A. R. Ramjoo, Meherabad the Hill of Celestial Light.)