Baily returned to Bombay and gave a detailed account of his meeting to Baba. Baba told him to rest — and then return to Navsari and make the request to Desai again.
According to Baily, before he departed, Baba gave Baily a photograph of himself and said, "Give this to Desaiji as my gift and ask him to remember me continuously. He should not be in the least anxious or worried about anything, leaving everything to me and be resigned to me."
Along with the photo, Baba gave Baily instructions of what to say to Sorabji regarding the work, saying with emphasis that corrections, editing and so forth were essential, and that the task was to be accomplished by Sorabji alone. Under any and all conditions and circumstances, Baba emphasized, he wanted the work completed. Not only that, but Baba wanted Desai to arrange the proofreading, binding, printing and publishing of both volumes of the book!
When Baily presented Baba's photograph to Sorabji, a profound change came over him. "For a few moments, he kept staring at Baba's photo. Then, slowly lifting it in both hands, he pressed it to his spectacles and forehead and finally flooded it with kisses. In a voice charged with emotion, he said, 'I wonder why I so strongly and intuitively feel deep within me that I have known Babashree for a very long time, that I have already been introduced to him and that we have an old contact or connection.' "
He agreed to do as "Babashree" requested.
Sorabji began editing the work, during the course of which he had various spiritual experiences. He would write to Baba about some clarification in the manuscript, and no sooner had his letter been posted than Baba's letter containing the answer to his questions would arrive that very day! Rustom was sent to Navsari many times over the course of the next year in this connection.
In fact, Baba even wrote Sorabji Desai to find someone who could render some of the biographical material into English, as Baba had plans "to circulate the book in Europe and America, especially the latter country, which is so very eager to know something more about spiritualism."1
Baba also wished Upasni Maharaj's biography to be published in Urdu as well as in Marathi.
Footnotes
- 1.The English version was apparently never produced.