ChaptersChapter 19Page 2,847

Chapter 19: The New Life

1949Page 2,847 of 5,444
On seeing the caravan, they ran toward the women companions, excitedly asking where they were heading. Learning they were on their way to Hardwar, they asked, "Are you going all the way on foot?" Mani replied that was their intention. Hearing this, the villagers hurried home to assemble a bundle of clothes to accompany them. After this incident, Baba ordered the four women inside the caravan, out of sight.
An eleven-mile walk that morning brought them to Rehati about two o'clock in the afternoon, where they halted in a mango orchard. Kaka prepared food; Ghani and Gustadji went for begging. Local villagers gathered, and some of the village women declared that they had come for the darshan of the women going to Hardwar on foot.
In Sarnath, Baba had remarked, "During the foot journey, we will be honored and insulted both, but we must remain unaffected in either case."
The former seemed to be coming true, for in Rehati the four women were the subject of great respect.
During one halt, as Mani interpreted his gestures, Baba asked one of the village women how she felt physically. She replied that she felt like dancing before him, but she had so many aches and pains that wasn't possible.
Baba had some homeopathic medicine brought from Baidul and offered it to her. Looking at the tiny globules, the woman laughed, "I have so much pain, how could these small pills help me?" Baba gave her a few, telling her to swallow them. She did so and within a few minutes was executing a few twirls for Baba.
Again the companions were up very early at 3:00 A.M. on Thursday, 15 December 1949, but it was seven o'clock before all preparations to start were complete. Leaving Rehati, they covered four miles before halting under some trees near a village. Here the village children gathered about Baba and gave a drill exhibition of physical exercises. Ghani was sent ahead to intimate Adi and Babadas of the estimated time of the group's arrival. After a short rest, at about one o'clock in the afternoon, they came to a river where they rested again. Kaka prepared tea for all. The white horse somehow got excited and shied, and Don had difficulty bringing it under control.
Walking several miles, they arrived in Jaunpur at four in the afternoon. They went straight to the town, but could not find any of the three companions who had been sent in advance. As elsewhere, the caravan was a strange sight for the people of Jaunpur, and a crowd was beginning to gather, when Adi, Ghani and Babadas arrived in a tonga. Baba rejected the first spot he was shown, so Ghani led him and the entire caravan to another spot two miles away. It was almost dark by the time they reached there and Baba approved it. They were to stay there for the next five days.
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