The rest of the lovers and devotees arrived from Ahmednagar, Poona, Bombay, Nagpur, Saoner, Delhi, Dehra Dun, Nasik and Karachi, and a few from other places.
Calling each man to him, Baba embraced and caressed him lovingly, releasing his Breeze of Joy in his heart. Adi Sr. introduced some to Baba as they came forward. There was a ban on touching Baba's feet, but Minoo Kharas' brother Adel was unaware of it and bowed down to Baba. Baba did the same to him, but was furious that Minoo had not made his brother aware of the conditions of the New Life.
Then, as Baba wished, all gathered in the meeting hall at seven o'clock, and the doors were shut.1 Vishnu did not close the gate as fast as he should have, because he saw Gustadji walking toward the hall. Meanwhile, two uninvited men slipped inside, approached Baba and touched his feet. Baba in turn bowed to each of them three times.
After they were escorted out, Baba became even more upset.
He scolded Vishnu, "Even if you had seen God approaching the gate, you should have closed the door and not waited for Him to enter."
Baba immediately caught himself and admitted, "I suddenly became angry, which is not good."
Baba ordered one of the men to slap him, which the man did, but lightly. Baba was not pleased and asked the same of Minoo Kharas (a former policeman), who slapped Baba so hard his cheek turned red. Baba appreciated Minoo's obedience and embraced him.
Baba took his chair inside the hall and declared, "For some hours, I and my companions have entered the Old Life. Plans One, One-B, One-C and Two have now ended. Consequently, I will not accept money from those in Plans One-B and One-C."
Baba asked God's forgiveness for not being able to live the New Life, adopted a year ago, as he wanted. He himself forgave all the New Life companions for not being able to live up to the New Life conditions as he wanted and, in turn, asked the companions to forgive him, which they did.
Don then read Baba's Sermon:
Being just now in the Old Life for these few hours, I will tell you what I feel to be the established divine facts:
Essentially, we are all One. The feeling of our being otherwise is due to ignorance. Soul desires consciousness to know itself; but in its progress towards the Goal, which it cannot realize independently of creation, it must undergo the experience which it gathers as the individualized ego, and which is all imagination. Thus, it is faced at the outset with ignorance instead of Knowledge.
Dual forms and illusionary creations are the outcome of ignorance. Birth and death, happiness and misery, virtue and sin, good and bad — all are equally the manifestation of the same ignorance. You were never born and will never die; you never suffered and will never suffer; you ever were and ever will be, as separateness exists only in imagination.
Soul undergoes experience through innumerable forms such as being king and beggar, rich and poor, tall and short, strong and weak, beautiful and ugly, of killing and being killed.
Footnotes
- 1.The hall was the former stables where Baba had established a mast ashram in 1946.