Baba picked up the creature and remarked, "You can have no idea how fortunate this bird is.1 It will incarnate as a human being in its next birth, but not as an ordinary being [but rather as one who has some inkling of the Path, and possibly even some spiritual attainment]."
On Wednesday, 1 February 1939, Baba left Agra around noon for Delhi. Upon arriving there at four-thirty, they checked into the Regal Hotel . During their weeklong stay, Baba took the women to see the Jama Masjid, the old Fort, the shrine of Emperor Humayun, Laxmi Narayan temple and Hazrat Nizamuddin's shrine.
When Baba took the women to see the Qutub Minar — a stone tower 238 feet high (the highest structure in India at the time) — he climbed up only part of the way and then came down. Mansari thought Baba had continued up and she climbed to the top. The group was about to leave, when Baba noticed Mansari missing. He looked up and saw her waving from the top. Baba motioned her to come down immediately.
When she came, he asked, "Are you mad? Why didn't you follow us down?"
Mansari explained that she thought he had gone up to the top and she wanted to be with him.
Upset, Baba scolded her, "You want to be with me and say you love me! It is so difficult to be with me! So difficult to love me! The Qutub Minar has separated you from me."
On 4 February, Baba held a conference with the women in the afternoon, discussing household affairs and other more pressing matters dealing with his mast work, stating: "Now today's conference is important. Listen carefully; listen seriously and obey willingly. I have a very practical and peculiar work to do in this town. Here, I do not find circumstances suitable for that work. Ajmer will definitely suit, but the following points will help me in that work."
He then outlined certain household arrangements and added: "For ten days in Ajmer, I am going to be Lord, servant, devotee, Master — everything in one. Most peculiar but very particular work — the worshiper, the worshiped, and everything [else]. It is very important, especially seven days before the birthday, from the 11th to the 18th. The last two birthdays, I bowed to the poor. This birthday will be quite different. I will bow, and be bowed to by different beings; therefore, I must be free from butter, bread and shoes!"2
Footnotes
- 1.Baba often remarked that whatever animal he held or touched was pushed through its evolution and entered human form in its next incarnation.
- 2."... butter, bread and shoes" referred to household details. In other words, Baba did not wish to deal with such mundane matters during this period of intense contact with masts.