All the belongings of the women mandali, their costly saris, gold ornaments and precious jewels, were surrendered to Baba for disposal. Nothing was left in Meherabad and Meherazad. Everything was sold.
Pendu, being the manager of Meherabad, was extremely busy throughout this period. The burden and pressure to sell everything at lower Meherabad had fallen on his shoulders. In the short period of time at his disposal, he had to sell the lands, dispose of the cows, buffaloes, bullocks, utensils, furniture, and so forth. It was quite difficult to sell about 100 hundred acres of land, even at a low price of Rs.20 to 40 per acre; but by Baba's nazar, Pendu managed to wind up all these dealings in the time Baba wished.1
As Baba had outlined, the money collected was required essentially for the maintenance of the dependents and their families. Therefore, upon hearing about the disposal of things at Meherabad, the Bombay lovers also sold several of their valuables, collecting the sum of Rs.10,000, which was laid at Baba's feet as their contribution. Among them there were women who had contributed their mite by selling off everything they had. Baba accepted this gift with the utmost love, but returned the amounts to the respective lovers as his prasad.
Praising his Bombay lovers, Baba remarked, "Dina Talati not only gave away her everything, but beseeched me to utilize the amount she had been able to save all these years. I know what Kharmen Masi has done, too. She always has had hard times to pass through and can hardly make two ends meet. Truly, she has gone half-hungry and still, surprisingly, was able to send me Rs.400!"
On Monday, 29 August 1949, Keshav Nigam, Sripat Sahai, Babu Ramprasad and Vrindavan Nigam arrived at Meherabad from Hamirpur. At that time, much excited preparation was taking place in Hamirpur for the Master's darshan, as Baba had promised Babadas he would go there. These men had now come to Meherabad to formally invite Baba to visit Hamirpur. How mysterious is the Master's divine game! At Meherabad, hurried preparations were afoot for starting out on the New Life — and in Hamirpur a typhoon was raging for his darshan!
Footnotes
- 1.Because of scanty rainfall and lack of good wells, the land was not very productive, so it was difficult to sell; and the local farmers had very little ready cash in hand to spend. Pendu related that he argued with Baba to keep some of lower Meherabad, also, in addition to the land surrounding the Tomb, and in the end Baba agreed.