Baba smilingly replied, "All right. Your wishes will be fulfilled." Then he added seriously, "But don't forget to come back and sweep my hut!"
Naja said, "I wish to serve you — just give me the chance."
"To serve me is most difficult," Baba replied.
"Continue to remember me, and this will be enough."
But the lady was persistent in her request, so Baba said, "After settling your daughter's marriage in Iran, come to me and I will give you the opportunity of serving me."
Naja was overjoyed with what Baba said, but her husband was bitterly against her going to Iran. She went against his wishes, traveled there and performed the religious ceremonies, and was also successful in arranging her daughter's marriage to an eligible bachelor. But after returning from Iran, because of her high social standing, she did not go to see Baba. Later, she began to suffer fits. She became mentally unstable and morose, and remained in that condition for a period of six months. Doctors administered all kinds of treatments, but to no avail.
Baba was in Bombay at the time. Naja's daughter Freiny, remembering the promise her mother had given about sweeping his hut, wanted to take her to him. The mother, too, wished to see him, but was prevented from doing so by her relatives. Sadly, as a result of her inability to overcome her family's forbiddance, or because of her indifference to Baba's advice, her mental disturbance persisted on and off for several years.
During May 1922, Baba arranged a grand celebration of Upasni Maharaj's 52nd birthday at Sakori. He told his mandali, "All should be prepared to accompany me to Sakori on the 9th.
We will celebrate Maharaj's birthday there and afterward we will march on foot to Bombay."
The mandali had already been informed of the foot journey to Bombay and the proposed one-year stay in the city. Baba had made it explicit that each man would have to divest himself of all worldly responsibilities before joining him. Because there was so much political unrest and agitation in India, Baba said the group might be mistaken for a band of anarchists, and he warned them there might be danger in accompanying him, and stressed the possibility of even being arrested and jailed.1
Many men agreed to join Baba, and even those whom the Master discouraged were obstinate in their resolve to join him.
Footnotes
- 1.Mahatma Gandhi had been sentenced to six years imprisonment for civil disobedience during 1921; the ruling British authorities were determined to prevent anarchy by arresting anyone who was suspected of being a revolutionary.