It was Baba's love that brought us to India, and it is his love again that now sends us back to the West to make preparation for the next phase of his activity there. So it is "goodbye" to India for the present. We have loved meeting so many of Baba's devotees and close disciples, and feel a very close tie with all who love Baba, and we hope one day to renew that friendship if Baba calls us again to India.
We were greatly touched to welcome so many at the docks who came to see us off and who gave us a hearty farewell.
The twelfth anniversary of Baba's silence was observed privately in Meherabad by the mandali and certain close ones on Saturday, 10 July 1937. For the occasion, only Norina, Elizabeth and Nonny were called from Nasik. Baba permitted a large expenditure of Rs.50 for the mandali's food that day. After a meeting of the Trust's members in the Rahuri Cabin and a brief discussion with the Westerners, the Silence Day program began. Ghani delivered the following speech:
Most Beloved Master Shri Baba, let me at the outset thank you on behalf of the mandali for granting our request to celebrate the twelfth anniversary of your silence which comes today. Let me also thank the representatives of the Western mandali for participating in the function at the cost of such great comfort and convenience.
Today, the 10th of July, we find the mandali in a very happy but reflective mood, if I may say so. The twelfth year of your silence has been very hopeful and full of promise; and more color was added to it by the presence in India of our brothers and sisters in faith from the Western Hemisphere. As things stand today, though the promised and longed for millennium is not in sight, all the same, it has left us undismayed. Your divine wisdom, it seems, has planned it otherwise. We most humbly and willingly abide by your omniscient decision, as you know all too well what is best for every one of us.
The occasion has induced, to an extent, an introspective attitude of mind in me. I should therefore be excused for having the temerity to philosophize on the significance of your silence in your presence and the lessons we unwittingly learned and unlearned as time went on. My interpretation of your silence, as compared and contrasted with similar ordeals by others on the divine path is as follows: