The postponement of opening an ashram in Mandla disappointed many people there. Their letters requesting Baba to reconsider came frequently to Bangalore. It was therefore decided to build a small structure on the property in Mandla. For that purpose, Baba sent Pendu, Pappa Jessawala and Homi (Kharmen Masi's son) there. Baba instructed Pendu to build an exact replica of his Tomb on Meherabad Hill. Pendu and Pappa were to look after the construction work for two months and Homi was to cook for them.
"Mandla is my spiritual home of ages ago," Baba remarked. "I am having this small structure built there because of my link with it from the past."1
A few months previously, Baba had explained how "cases" like Freiny in Nasik, caused him to suffer unnecessarily. Among Western disciples, perhaps Delia's sister Minta in England was causing Baba the same sort of trouble, as evidenced in this reply Baba wrote to her on 10 March 1940:
Your last letter "ticked me off" — for tempering or balancing my eternal suffering with eternal bliss, while humanity has to suffer without the joy of infinite bliss and happiness, implying was it fair?
Darling Shalimar, I want you to be always outspoken and free with your Beloved. I know you love, but imperfectly as yet, hence your lack of understanding. The Avatar has to suffer eternally for the world, but added to this is the often unnecessary suffering caused by his dearest and chosen ones, just because they do not understand him or his ways.
This gift of understanding is more precious than any other attribute of love — be it expressed in service or sacrifice. Love can be blind, selfish, greedy, ignorant, but love with understanding can be none of these things. It is the divine fruit of Pure Love, the rarest fruit or flower of the universe. It has been called "the sweetest flower in all the world." Age cannot wither it. It grows more lovely as it casts off its outer garment, disclosing its unseen beauty within.
What a wonderful opportunity to learn that this "love with understanding" is given to those whom the Beloved — himself the epitome of "Perfect Understanding" — calls to live near him. What a tragedy for those who refuse! If they had any understanding of what they had "passed over," their suffering would indeed be unbearable.
Footnotes
- 1.The replica of Baba's Tomb in Mandla was built and later transferred to the Avatar Meher Baba Trust.