As he was mulling all this over, Babadas appeared at his door. "Don't bother me!" Khare lashed out. "You are the one who told
me about Meher Baba and put me in this fix! When you can't arrange
his darshan, what is the use in talking about him?"
"You want his darshan?" Babadas asked
with a smile. "I'll arrange it. Come along with me."
"How can you get darshan for me when you
said yourself it has been stopped?" Khare challenged.
"Don't worry about that, just come with
me."
And so on 16 August, Babadas arrived in Meherabad
with Gaya Prasad Khare. Baba permitted Khare to come to his room and see
him for a moment. Baba then instructed him to return to Rath. Khare did
as he was ordered, but that one moment's darshan captured his heart
forever. "After half a minute, Baba gestured for me to leave,"
Khare recalled. "I cannot explain my state after seeing Baba. I lay
down by the side of the road and started weeping."
In a similar manner, two other key men, Todi
Singh Verma of Aligarh and Kishan Singh of Delhi, were also allowed a
brief darshan and then sent away. These two individuals, along with
Daulat Singh, were to prove important links in Meher Baba's work as
events unfolded during the New Life.
Nariman and Meherjee arrived on the night of the
16th. Sarosh, Nariman and Meherjee, being successful businessmen, had
rendered much service to Baba in the past.1 They
were deeply concerned about Baba's decisions to break up the ashrams
and dispose of everything. On the third day of meetings, Wednesday, 17
August 1949, Sarosh was the first to offer to undertake sole
responsibility for maintaining indefinitely all the men and women now
staying with Baba.
Baba smiled, appreciating Sarosh's gesture,
but explained to him, "You have missed the whole point! Don't
you see that the expected sale proceeds of all my properties are
earmarked for those not coming with me? The question of the maintenance
of those who will remain with me after 15 October is neither provided
for nor is to be provided for.
"I and those coming with me are to suffer. We are going to start without any protection, and we will have to go
abegging!"
Nariman and Meherjee expressed their desire to
take over Meherabad and Meherazad, the lands, buildings, et cetera, of
each ashram, because of the sanctity of, and their sentiments for, these
two sacred places. When Baba agreed and explained to them not to
hesitate to resell the properties if and when they received good offers,
Nariman replied, "If it were the question of selling them, we would
not have involved ourselves."
Footnotes
- 1.After returning to India from Iran in 1945, Meherjee had become Nariman's business partner.