All of the waste material from the iron pans was dumped into a deep soakpit, some distance from their compound. One day it rained heavily, and the pit filled with water. Pappa told Krishna to empty the water from the pit with a bucket tied to a rope. While cleaning it, Krishna slipped and fell into the pit. He shouted to Venkoba Rao, who pulled him out. Baba came by and saw Krishna covered with the filth.
"Why were you cleaning the pit?" he asked.
Krishna said that Pappa had told him to do it.
Baba became upset with Pappa.
"Why did you tell him to clean the pit without my permission?" he asked.
Subsequently, Baba ordered Krishna to bathe sixteen times! He handed Krishna sixteen small stones, with which to count, so he would not make a mistake. After doing as Baba instructed, Krishna told Baba that his skin felt very tight. Baba went to the women's room and brought him some oil to apply to his body.
Baba asked Krishna, "Did you feel bad while cleaning the pit?"
He replied, "No."
Baba spelled out, "You, yourself, are full of unclean matter. Do you realize that? Why do you live in such filth? Don't you feel dirty? Start feeling unclean because of the filth of the desires that cover you from head to toe, and begin to clean them as you have cleaned the pit today."
During this period at Meherabad, Baba commented to the women, "One day I will take you to the place where creation started."
Baba hinted that this spot was at a place in Java.1
But, as Age noted, "Baba's remark could have had another meaning, also: To go to the place where creation began might have meant to bring an end to the whole journey in creation!"
Whatever his meaning, soon after, Baba sent Chanji to Bombay to open an office there. When Chanji arrived, Baba sent instructions for him to gather information about Java, Sumatra, Bali, Kashmir, Iran, Australia and New Zealand. Chanji was told to arrange applications for passports for the mandali who did not have them.
Baba left Meherabad at 2:00 P.M. on Thursday, 13 June 1940 and boarded a 3:30 P.M. passenger train for an undisclosed destination. All thought he was going to the north, and he did not even inform those who were accompanying him (Gustadji, Pendu, Kaka and Savak) where they were going until they had left Meherabad. Their destination was Calcutta, and they arrived there two days later, staying at the Broadway Hotel.
Footnotes
- 1.In 1934, Baba had explained that the "missing link" had emerged out of the jungles in Java, Sumatra and Madhya Pradesh in India.