Once Baba found Rano on deck and asked her why she was there. Rano explained that the cabin was stuffy and she needed fresh air.
Baba scolded her, "Unless I direct you otherwise, do not step out of your cabin."
Rano returned, but after that incident Baba permitted her to walk on the deck for two hours each day, but she had to be accompanied by Norina.
Traveling on the same ship was Ramchandra Gadekar, the son of the humble cobbler who was deeply connected with the Master. Gadekar had won a government scholarship to study education at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Actually, Baba had informed Gadekar in advance that he would be traveling to France on the Strathnaver , but he had instructed Gadekar not to tell anyone. So when Gadekar's wife Gunatai and their two children saw him off in Bombay, they were delighted to see Baba and the mandali on board.
To Gunatai, Baba remarked, "Do not worry. I am with your husband."
Another fortunate fellow traveler was the young dancer Audrey Williams, an acquaintance of Margaret Craske's, who had not seen Baba since 1933 in India. Audrey had joined the dance company called De Basil Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo and was returning there from Australia. Being in Baba's presence again, she recalled, "one still had this feeling of eternal happiness." But this was to be Audrey's last meeting with Baba.1
The ship docked at Aden at three in the afternoon on Wednesday, 4 August 1937.
At one point, Baba observed, "Suffering is the keynote to spiritual life. Sadgurus and the Avatar never avoid suffering, either their own or their mandali, by doing miracles. They suffer themselves and let their mandali suffer too!"
He used the example of the women mandali who had been cooped up in their cabins for so many days. Just when Baba had arranged to bring them out to a secluded area of the deck and they were enjoying a few moments of the cool sea breeze, a sandstorm began blowing making remaining on deck impossible.
During the voyage, on Saturday, 7 August 1937, Baba explained to the Westerners about performing selfless service:
God as God alone is not consciously man, and man as man alone is not consciously God. Only the God-Man is consciously both God and man; so the God-Man is both Lord and the servant of the universe.
Footnotes
- 1.In a letter dated 7 November 1938, Baba explained to Delia: "Shirin [Audrey] is still mine and will one day, when she has exhausted all maya has to teach her, come back to me of her own free will. Like many others, she has work to do for me in the world. Nothing can snap the 'golden thread' that love has woven between them and me. It may retreat almost to a weakening point but it will not snap. So force nothing. I know my own and where each of them is, and when I need them near me, I will call them and they will come."