The king knew all about this. He once gathered his courtiers around him and, placing before them a valuable pearl, ordered them to break it into pieces with a stone! They were bewildered and thought the king had gone mad to order the destruction of such a valuable gem! Not one of them was willing to obey the king.
Gaznavi then called Ayaz and ordered him to destroy the pearl. Ayaz immediately carried out the order, shattering the pearl to pieces! Gaznavi said, "Ayaz values my word more than the pearl! What value has a gem before my words? He does anything I tell him and respects my commands. He knows nothing other than to treasure and fulfill my orders and keep my pleasure. Because he loves me so much, I love him most of all! In your eyes, the pearl is valuable, but in the eyes of Ayaz, the worth of my words and my pleasure is more!"
After the story, Baba concluded with these remarks:
If you want to be worthy of my love, be like Ayaz! But, at the moment, you are not like Ayaz, but like piyaz [onions]! Because every time I "handle" you, I weep!
Starting in August 1938, the Swiss artist Helen Dahm was painting colorful murals on the inside walls of Meher Baba's crypt. She was absorbed in her work from morning to evening. Although Helen was not a young woman, (she was 60 at the time) out of love, she worked on her back on top of scaffolding to paint the dome's ceiling. Hedi Mertens, also a painter, would assist Helen by mixing her paints; but Helen did the actual painting of the figures.
It was only when Baba ordered Pendu to build a dome over this crypt that everyone came to know this was to be the site of his future tomb. This was the room where Baba had secluded himself in 1927 and where he had the Prem Ashram boys drink from the Cup of his love. It was also where he would spend the night until the Tin Cabin was built on the hill in 1935. All became aware that the "underground pit" was to house his last physical remains, and they regarded this humble structure with added sacredness.
Hedi had left her children behind in Switzerland in her husband Walter's care. Her relatives, perhaps in an effort to get her to come home, once wrote that two of Hedi's young children had a serious case of pneumonia. Norina came into the room as Hedi was reading the letter and took her to Baba, who was informed of the situation. Hedi told Baba that she was not concerned as Baba had taken responsibility for her family.
Baba was pleased by her attitude.
He laughed as he told her, "I can see your children now. They are sitting in lawnchairs underneath a sun umbrella. Their grandmother is with them, and Walter is taking their picture. The youngest one has his finger in his nose."
Three weeks later, Hedi received another letter and in it was a photograph, exactly as Baba had described — the children under a sun umbrella and the youngest with his finger up his nose!
During this period, Baba called Homi Mama Satha, his wife Pilla, and their two daughters, Alu and Dhun, to Meherabad. They had another daughter, Roshan, but she was only a year old and was left at Akbar Press.