Keki Desai was waiting to meet them at the Dehra Dun station. The Nalavalas, Elcha Mistry, and Burjor and Sheroo Chacha (Freiny Nalavala's sister) were also there, but since it was Baba's strict order that no one should try to see him, they all waited outside the station.1 When Baba was informed, he called them to the waiting room.
Keki Desai had hinted to Keki Nalavala beforehand about Baba's arrival, and he accordingly informed Kaikobad, who had been residing at Manjri Mafi since the 1 st of November.2 In this way Shatrughna Kumar, 38, who was also anxious to meet Baba, learned of his coming.
Kumar's children would take Kaikobad his tea and food because, by Baba's orders, Kaikobad was not allowed to step out of the premises. One day he told Kumar, "You are very fortunate; you are serving God," and showed him Baba's picture. "This is God," he said. From that day on without a break, Kumar began having dreams of Baba as a young man, thin, with a scraggly beard and kerchief tied around his head, but at the time he did know who it was. It was only years later, when he saw a photograph of Baba with the exact likeness, that he realized who had been appearing in his nightly dreams.3
Kaikobad informed Kumar that Baba was coming to the railway station and, because he had done such good work for him, Baba perhaps would like to see him. So Kumar went. At the station, Baba had gone into the first-class waiting room. Kumar opened the door, and though there were several other people around Baba he saw only "an enchanted, alluring figure" reclining on a bench. His heart declared that this was "Mr. God," who had heard his prayer and freed him from jail four years before. The communist and atheist had in that very moment turned into a believer, and in that first gaze acknowledged and accepted Meher Baba as God in human form. He was to keep his head bowed at Baba's feet forever, for Kumar had found his "Mr. God" at last.
Baba asked Keki Nalavala about their lunch; but as he had not been informed in this regard, food had not been arranged in bhiksha. Kumar interjected, "If it be your pleasure, Baba, I can arrange it."
"You will have to give the food as alms. Can you bring it within an hour?" Baba asked.
Footnotes
- 1.Elcha Mistry was Freiny Nalavala's first cousin.
- 2.Manjri Mafi was the village a few miles from Dehra Dun where Baba had arranged for Keki Desai to buy a plot of land to serve as headquarters for Baba's New Life activities.
- 3.The photograph Kumar later saw of Meher Baba was taken at Shah Studio, Ahmednagar, at the beginning of 1927. Kumar would later joke with Kaikobad, saying, "You are my guru, as a guru introduces one to God and you introduced me to Meher Baba."