Mentioning Mohammed in a humorous vein, Baba stated: "Mohammed's imaginary wife was to have come tomorrow. When he asked if she was coming we said, 'Yes, but she has fasted for a month and is very weak and ill. If you want we can bring her to you on a stretcher.' And he said, 'No, no, keep her and feed her well on ghee [clarified butter] and when she is well and fat bring her.' So again it is prolonged."
All had a good laugh at this amusing incident.
Kaka Baria arrived at night with a mast from Bombay. Baba indicated he was one of the three genuine masts of Bombay (along with Tipu Baba and a sanyasi saint). Baba bathed him, but sent him back the next day, since there was no space to keep him at Meherabad, and the mast also did not wish to stay.1 Chhagan would also bring mad persons and masts to Baba to be bathed, some of whom were kept at Meherabad. Of the mandali, only Kaka, Chhagan and Vishnu saw Baba. (Baba had, however, called Padri and Murli for a few days from Bangalore and gave them certain instructions.)
From his seclusion, Baba began visiting the women mandali twice a week in September, on Sundays and Thursdays.
He went to their quarters at 1:00 P.M. on Sunday, 1 September, and remarked, "The war has entered the second phase."
Pendu had been instructed through Vishnu to build another bathroom for Baba's personal use in the mast ashram compound, as Baba wanted to shift the mad up the hill. Baba was working with the masts within the barbed wire compound of the Maternity Hospital, but he would not show himself as long as Pendu was within the vicinity. He therefore directed that Pendu only work on the two days when he went to see the women.
The mad and a few masts who had been kept in the Family Quarters in Arangaon were shifted up to the mast ashram on the 2nd. Baba indicated he wished to work with them for a month before sending them away. It also seemed to coincide once again with activities related to the war, as from the end of August 1940 to the first week in September, London was being heavily bombed by the Germans.
The women were mostly looking after the animals, which were still kept on Meherabad Hill in the "zoo."
Footnotes
- 1.Chanji speculated that the mast was not of the type that Baba wished to work with at the time.