Sorabji was shocked at the idea and immediately left with his sons. He felt confirmed that whatever the Colonel had said was true. His mind revolted and he began having disparaging thoughts about Baba.
But within two to three months, his mental turmoil lessened and he repented for not surrendering Noshir to Baba. Noshir became even more abnormal. The boy would visit tombs and graveyards and spend the night there. Sorabji arranged his marriage, but the boy's mentality did not change.
Sorabji was later to come to Baba's feet again, and greatly repent for his mistake. The man who was so hostile to Baba in the beginning became a staunch worker in Meher Baba's cause and was the one who, years later, opened the first Meher Baba center in Bombay.1
During this period, because women were not allowed to step inside the Meherabad estate, Baba acceded to the request of some of his local lovers to give darshan in Ahmednagar. On Sunday morning, 6 June 1943, he met the women at a private function held at Khushru Quarters. Perin, Erin and Gool Nagarwalla, local Parsis, had come, as had Sailor Mama's wife Najamai, who was living in Ahmednagar at the time.
On this occasion, Baba explained to them about the difference between principle and practice:
Truth, indeed, is the best principle or rule of life. In practical life, however, while adhering to this noble principle, adjustments are at times essential and justified, especially in cases where such adjustments contribute to the cause of benefit to others.
For example, suppose a person is wrongly convicted of a serious crime like murder. All circumstantial evidence goes against him and the wrongful conviction entails the death penalty. But someone turns up and says something that disproves the serious charge — for example, saying that the accused was, at the time of the crime, actually seen elsewhere or with himself, in other words, at some place other than where the actual action took place. This statement might save the life of a man wrongly accused and convicted to be hanged, and to that end, even if something untrue may have to be said, it is absolutely justified. In that case it is no falsehood at all.
A pious man of straight principles, allowing an innocent man to be thus hanged on circumstantial evidence, when a few words from him might have saved his very life and proved his innocence, is under these circumstances worse than a man of no principles or even a considered vagabond, who has the spontaneous spirit to come forward at such a critical moment and give evidence — even false — that would save the life of an innocent man being sentenced to death.
Footnotes
- 1.The Bombay center started by Sorabji Siganporia is still functioning. Noshir and his wife later stayed at Meherabad for some months.