A lottery was proposed to decide to whom the Master should give it. All the tickets were sold to followers and it was decided that the drawing should be held during a picnic at the village of Chinchwad, outside Poona.
Baba met his followers there on Saturday, 25 March, and in the evening the lottery was held. Khodu won the new bicycle. But the Master then gave a strange order. Khodu's old bicycle was taken in exchange, and Baba ordered it to be broken into pieces and thrown into a nearby well. Shortly after this, Baba asked Khodu if he felt uneasy about his bicycle being destroyed and thrown away. Khodu expressed no regret; however, the other men could not understand why this order had been given, since Khodu's bicycle was still in reasonably good condition.
After Baba returned from Chinchwad, Baily informed him that while Baba was away he had inadvertently fallen into the well near the hut, but was miraculously rescued from drowning by a stranger. When Baily was questioned what time the incident had occurred, the other men found out that it had happened at the exact hour when the pieces of Khodu's bicycle were being thrown into a well! The men then realized why the Master had given such a strange order, and later he explained, "Instead of allowing Baily to drown, I sank Khodu's bicycle in the well.
It was simply an exchange of gross mediums."1
During April 1922, Baba broached the subject of moving to Bombay and forewarned that those men who wished to accompany him should break all connections with their families. Ramjoo was intent on joining, so Baba ordered him to dispose of his cloth shop. He told Ramjoo, "You need not worry about anything.
Along with your spiritual progress, I will make certain that you and your family do not suffer materially. Remember, the whole world is imagination! Its value is insignificant. It is even less than a dream!"
Ramjoo tried to sell his business, but failed. So the Master told him, "Whomsoever you happen to meet, first say to them that your shop is not yet sold."
Ramjoo had recently discontinued all his political and social activities without explanation. So when he met his acquaintances and relatives by greeting them with the strange statement: "My shop is not yet sold," they thought him quite mad.
Footnotes
- 1.After Meher Baba dropped his body, Pimpri-Chinchwad became the center of the Indian automobile manufacturing industry and one of the largest industrial areas in Asia.