With your name on my lips, I began weeping, and somehow the station manager came to me and offered his help. He wired the next station and sent me there by another train. When I arrived, I found Meherwan safe." Baba took Masaji in his embrace and assured him he was always with him. Masaji then returned to Meherabad.
Generally, since Baba had started the journey, he had not been embracing anyone, nor was he allowing anyone to bow down to him and touch his feet. Until this day, only on someone's birthday would he embrace the person concerned.
On the morning of 27 December, Baba was driven in a taxi with Hedi and Walter Mertens to an old palace named Madan Mahal , built on top of a mountain near Jabalpur.
The next morning around eight o'clock, Baba went with the women to Mandla. They stayed at the Circuit House there, and the mandali (Pappa, Eruch, Kaka, Chanji, Jal Kerawalla) stayed in a nearby private bungalow belonging to Mahendra Lal Chowdhary.1
Referring to Mandla, Baba remarked, "Mandla was inhabited in ancient times by great saints, yogis, ascetics, recluses, and tapasvis who performed great penances here. Its earth is soaked in spirituality."2
Baba then visited a popular pilgrimage site, the Sahastradhara Temple on the Narmada River.
While dangling his feet in the water, Baba remarked, "The Avatar sanctifies the waters of any river when he puts his feet in it."
Some people in Mandla came to know about Baba and came for his darshan. Baba refused to give darshan and would not even meet anyone. As the group was returning, a lawyer shouted curses at Baba, and thereafter created strong opposition against him in Mandla. As it was discovered later, the man was suffering with cancer and died shortly thereafter.
December 29 was celebrated as Mehera's birthday that year (according to the Zoroastrian calendar). She got a very special embrace from her Beloved that morning, and then Baba took her and the others on a boat ride. In the evening Baba spent time at the mandali's residence. He was in a very happy mood, and after years, he played a few games of tic-tac-toe with them. He also made these remarks:
Three things have to be eliminated before God-realization: greed, lust and back-biting. The last is the worst and most disastrous. One can overcome greed and even lust, both of which are very difficult to overcome, but the worst - — speaking ill of others, finding faults in others — is the most difficult because it incurs [more] sanskaras of others which is disastrous spiritually
Footnotes
- 1.A Circuit House is a government rest house, meant to accommodate members of the bench of a circuit court (a court that moves from place to place within a particular judicial district).
- 2.A tapasvi is one who does penance.