On the 19th, Baba went to Aurangabad at 7:00 A.M. with Eruch and Kaka Baria. Baba brought a high mast known as Mabood back to Khuldabad with him at 10:30 A.M. Baba gave him a bath, cut his hair and fed him. When Baba lovingly passed his hand over the man and patted his back, the mast cried out, "There is intense burning! ... You have set me on fire! ... I'm on fire!" Baba calmed him; then he bathed and fed him. Later that same evening, before the mast was driven back to Aurangabad in Elizabeth's car, Kaka asked him where he had been. The mast replied, "I have come to Allah's darbar [God's court] and have eaten my food at his palace."
Baba and the women left Khuldabad at four-thirty in the morning on Saturday, 20 May 1939 and reached Toka at 7:15 A.M. Baba showed the Western women the place where his ashram had been in 1928. Then, when the bus became stuck, Baba and the women waded across the Toka River, hand in hand. The bus had to be pulled out of the mud by bullocks. They stopped at noon for lunch at the Ghodnadi dak bungalow, and reached Lonavla at eight that night, where they stayed at Noor Mohammed's bungalow at Walvan, as arranged by Ghani.1
Baba took the women around Lonavla, showing them Indravan Lake and Elphinstone Point. Near Walvan Lake, Baba pointed to a spot where he would come from Poona with his boyhood friends to play marbles and fly kites.
Adi Sr. arrived for a day on the 22nd to see Baba. He had been in Bombay for a month with Gulmai, who had undergone an operation. Pendu, Vishnu and Adi Jr. arrived from Belgaum that day and also saw Baba.
Baba left for nearby Talegaon on 23 May 1939, with Chanji as his only companion. They visited Amina and Abdulla Jaffer, Ramjoo's sister and her husband, who along with others lovingly took Baba's darshan. There he met his lovers for darshan. Something happened that disturbed Baba, and he ordered Amina that so long as she lived, she should never take his darshan again by bowing to his feet! After eating lunch served by her and her relatives, Baba and Chanji returned to Lonavla in the evening.
Visitors from Poona, Bombay, Belgaum, and also a few of the mandali from Meherabad, came to Lonavla on 24 May 1939 to see Baba. Baba had sent a message to Sadashiv Patil and Buasaheb in Poona particularly to come to Lonavla.
Footnotes
- 1.Baba and the mandali had stayed here before, in 1926.