Afterwards, Baba visited several homes.1 In each house, according to the custom of the area, seven women, balancing on their heads pitchers of water with a burning light placed on top, received Baba.
At Hiralal's home, a qawaal named Amardan sang. The atmosphere was so surcharged with love that many of those gathered wept as never before in their lives. After visiting homes, Baba rode in the car through the village. A few women were waiting with arti trays in their hands, and Baba had the car stopped so as not to disappoint them. Thereafter, he walked through the village and gave a number of other women the chance to perform his arti. The sky seemed to rock with the villagers' simple loving refrain, " Aa-eeyai [Come] Avatar Meher Baba Prabhu!"
That same day, 5 February 1954, Baba left Nauranga at 5:00 P.M. for the village of Rath, and the Nauranga villagers burst into tears at his departure. How glorious is the Wine and how precious! Even after austerities and penances of births and births, only a drop of it can be had! But within each drop is hidden the Ocean!
While traveling from village to village, the workers and organizers of the tour would accompany the mandali, and hence in Hamirpur, Keshav, Pukar and others were continuously with Baba. The group arrived in Rath in the evening and Baba was lovingly received by Gaya Prasad Khare, Gauri Shankar Vaidya and others. Khare had arranged for Baba and the group to stay in a dharamshala together, about which Baba was not pleased. He had indicated earlier that he wished to spend the nights quietly secluded in an enclosed place. There was confusion the whole night about what to do to meet Baba's preference. Bhau's nephew, Virendra Singh, had joined the group and had a terrible stomachache. Throughout the night he was moaning and groaning, which further disturbed Baba.
Baba called the mandali and severely rebuked them:
"This is the way you attend to me like a flower? I had cautioned you often, but you ignore what I say and are unmindful."
He continued,
"I am going to make one thing clear to you today. Everyone has been given a duty, and Pendu is the controller. So you must all give him your fullest cooperation. Here it is all right, but if the same thing happens in Andhra, it will be a huge mess. Forty people will be with me, and I, with my independent nature, give independent orders. And if you all don't do what I order and simultaneously don't cooperate with Pendu, he will be helpless [in managing matters]."
Footnotes
- 1.Homes visited in Nauranga included those of Babu Ramprasad, Hiralal, Janak Singh, Mungalal, Dillipati Sunar, Lal Diwan, Badri Prasad and Sidh Gopal Lodhi.