Thinking that this hair was also Baba's, Irene would
collect it, too, but wondered why Baba slept in two places. This went on for a
number of days, after which she discovered she had been carefully collecting
Kaka's hair.
Many other Europeans came to Cannes to see Baba and spend
two or three days in his company. On Tuesday, 17 August 1937, Alfredo and
Consuelo Sides arrived from Paris for a brief stay. That day, Kaka again gave a
brief but memorable speech — in English, which he barely spoke. He
exhorted those gathered:
Now I want to talk general for East and West. Lesson
for everybody. I want to talk about our Master order. When Master passes order
it must be obeyed. Never mind if you like it or not. There should be no discuss. When you follow the Master every desire must be left — because somebody
wanted good food, somebody wanted good bed, somebody wanted to go swimming,
somebody wanted to go shopping. Then what use living with Master? Go
holiday!
If you want Master you must listen him without discuss. You never knows [how] Master work. All desire must be left. Never demand
anything except Master order ... That's why I always request Baba circle
disciples, when you contact with Shri Meher Baba, should be left all desire and
be content. This is my last lecture.
On the night of 19 August, Hedi and Walter Mertens
arrived, along with their daughter Annakatharina.1
Baba welcomed
them, stating, "Remain here for three weeks. Banish all thoughts of the
outside and breathe in my atmosphere. Think of me alone and leave everything to
me, for I am the source of everything."
The next day, a Parisian named Roger Vieillard, 30, came
to see Baba, and took Baba out for a drive along the seacoast.
Vieillard was an
artist and an international tennis champion, and about one of his upcoming
matches, Baba remarked to him on 22 August,, "Whether you win or lose, it
is immaterial, because you are winning my love!
He wished to marry Anita
de Caro (also an artist) and Baba approved of their engagement. Roger became
devoted to the Master, and he and Anita were married a year and a half
later.
Unlike in Nasik, Baba gave few spiritual explanations or
discourses to the group in Cannes. Those women living at Villa Caldana —
Mehera, Mani, Naja, Khorshed, Soonamasi, Walu, Norina, Elizabeth, Rano and Kitty
— spent the day taking walks and playing games in the garden. Kitty was
giving Mani shorthand and typing lessons; Mehera was practicing the piano;
Andrée Aron gave
dressmaking lessons to the Eastern women; and Elizabeth and Irene did the
grocery shopping.2
From ten in the morning until noon Baba would go to Capo
di Monte to meet visitors for interviews. Sometimes he would walk there, and at
times Elizabeth drove him and Irene would ride along. He would return to Villa
Caldana for lunch and go back to Capo di Monte at three to meet with the mandali
or more visitors, and then return for supper at 5:30. In the evenings, Baba
would play Ping-Pong or charades, and several times he took the women out for
drives in the countryside.
One day Baba called Roger and Alfredo and instructed them
to go to Nice and find a particular Englishman who was a vegetarian and bring
him back to Cannes.
Footnotes
- 1.A week later the Mertenses' adopted son Arend Fuhrmann arrived from Zurich.
- 2.Andrée was later briefly married to Roger Vivier, who became the most famous shoe designer in the world.