"So what?" Gustadji said. "That would have been better than being insulted!"
Baba continued goading Gustadji and at the same time demanding that Eruch interpret his gestures. Finally, Eruch got so exasperated he told Gustadji, "Pardon me; henceforth I will never call you dumb again."
But this was not the end of their confrontation. Baba continued to encourage Gustadji to keep on talking, and he went on making more and more signs which Eruch not only had to "listen" to, but also interpret and repeat. At last Eruch got so fed up with Baba siding with Gustadji, that he exploded in sheer anger and said something disrespectful to Baba.
After a little while, Baba asked, "Do you know how much you have pained me?"
Eruch had cooled down and answered, "I did not mean it. Others have used much stronger language than I did. You did not feel so pained then."
"You have no idea how much you have shocked my heart! Listen to this story and you will realize why I feel so deeply hurt."
Baba then recounted:
A woman in a village once cohabitated with a man who was not her husband, and the people came to know of it. It was the custom then to punish such a crime by making the adulteress sit in a circle. Every villager would then pick up a stone and strike her.
The woman was made to sit in the town square and the villagers began stoning her one by one. When the woman's daughter's turn came, she could not bring herself to stone her own mother. Instead, she picked up a rose and threw it at her.
But the rose wounded the woman much more than all the stones combined, because it came from her daughter, one whom she dearly loved and had raised so tenderly.
Similarly, others' "stones" do not hurt me as deeply as your rose.
After his mast contacts, Baba went to a small railway station near Calcutta on the night of 1 April, to proceed via the mail train to Hardwar. The station was crowded, and to get seats in third class with all their baggage was impossible. So it was decided that Baba, with Eruch, should travel with the baggage by first class, and Gustadji, Chhagan, Kaka and Baidul by third class. Eruch was serving as Baba's personal attendant then and so was to be by his side at all times. Gustadji conveyed, "I will help by loading the luggage in the compartment," and so he too was taken with Baba into first class.