The men protested that they had not broken his order. Baba insisted, "I told all to retire to your rooms.
Rustom and Faredoon even went outside!"
"We had to piddle," they pleaded. "How could we go to sleep?"
Baba explained, "When I give you an order you should follow it literally.
I told you to go to bed. You should have first gone to your room, lain on your beds for five minutes, and then gone outside to attend to your needs. That would have been following the order literally. Never, never do anything contrary to my orders. Remember that. Don't forget."
They promised that they would do so next time and were pardoned.
In demanding obedience in such apparently unimportant matters, the Master was creating in each man a firm tendency toward absolute obedience to his orders — whatever they may be — so their intellects would gradually become nil and their egos would be crushed. During this period, Baba eased the men's complaints with this explanation:
If you do not develop the habit of instantaneous obedience to my words, how will you be able to obey me when I decide to give you that which is real? It is for your own good that I order you to do this or that. Remember when the time comes for the Gift to be given you might miss that too! I am telling you because of that, for that moment is only a split second. If you miss that, then it is finished. That time won't come again.
You will not be able to think at that time. You must be prepared to jump when I say, "Jump!" Otherwise, you will miss it. This is the reason why I am teaching you to obey me. Whenever I call you, drop everything and come. Whatever I tell you to do, do it without question — without thinking.
One day Baba told his uncle Masaji, "Keep these leftovers from my lunch; if I am hungry later, I may eat them." For some days Masaji obeyed the order, but Baba did not call for them even once.
One day Masaji gave the food to Adi Sr. The Master, who had been upstairs in his room, suddenly came down to the kitchen and told him, "I am hungry; bring the leftovers." Masaji was taken aback and could not say a word.
"What is the matter?"