For Baba's entertainment in Ingohta, Laxmichand Paliwal arranged a game of staffs one day. To play the game, two parties swing long sticks, striking at one another forcefully, trying to overstep the boundary of the opposite party. It is quite an intense game, with the danger of serious injury to any careless contender.
On Sunday, 23 November 1952, on their way to Meherastana near Mahewa, Keshav Nigam told Baba, "A Muslim friend of mine conducts an orphanage. He wishes, if it pleases you, for you to pay a visit to his institution."
Baba agreed on one condition: "After washing and laying my head on the children's feet, I will give them prasad; but they should remain absolutely quiet and not move when I take their darshan."
Keshav accepted and made the necessary arrangements in the orphanage. When Baba arrived, six or seven boys were brought before him. Baba began by washing the feet of the first lad. But when he tried to bow down to him, the boy suddenly stepped back.
Baba was noticeably peeved and commented, "When the boy pulled back his feet, had my head touched the ground, this world would have gone to hell."
However, Baba did lay his head on the other children's feet and gave them about 20 rupees each as prasad. Baba handed the entire amount to the orphanage manager, who it turned out was greedy and kept the money for himself.
They left. Baba said his work was spoiled and that he would not visit any more villages in the district. Pukar and Adarsh Khare began to weep. On the way, Baba had the car stopped and he got out. Pukar spread his coat on the ground, and Baba sat on it under a tamarind tree.
He told Keshav and Pukar, "It did not go well. It is an unlucky happening and bodes ill for the orphanage and the village. The only remedy to free them from bad luck is for me to bow down and give prasad of Rs.14 to fourteen handsome and intelligent orphan boys under fourteen years old, the moment I reach Meherastana."
Keshav and Pukar agreed, although Pukar was skeptical about locating enough boys of that description in a village as small as Mahewa, with a population of only 400.
Further on, their journey was delayed by a collapsed makeshift bridge. While the work of repairing the bridge was going on, Baba pointed to a young village boy and told Pukar to speak with him. Asked his age, the boy replied, "Fourteen."
Baba looked very happy and gestured, "This is a good sign."
He blessed the boy and later remarked, "Someday, he will become a saint!"
Keshav and a few others did their best to locate the number of boys required, and fourteen of the correct age were eventually found. Thus, on arriving in Meherastana, this was the first activity Baba performed.
Keshav Nigam and his brother Mukundlal had had a very good mud hut built in a clearing on a hilltop outside the village of Mahewa, which was christened, Meherastana (Meher's Threshold). Baba liked the place and its scenery very much. It was there that, for the first time, Keshav read out to Baba his long poem " Meher Chalisa ," which he had composed two years before.1
Footnotes
- 1.Chalisa means forty. Keshav's poem consists of 40 couplets in praise of Baba.