Baba led the Westerners and the Sakori group to his Jhopdi, Table Cabin and dhuni. When they came to the dhuni, Vishnu narrated the incident of how the villagers had approached Baba for rain during a drought in the 1920s, and how after lighting the dhuni the rain had started.
Baba remarked, "People call it a miracle, but it was only a coincidence. I will perform only one miracle — when I utter the Word. It will be my one real miracle!"
Sending for Bhau, Baba addressed the group: "I will tell you about him. He loves me so much that even in his sleep, he shouts, 'Baba, Baba!' But he does not know it. He has left his wife and children behind and is [has] an M.A. But he is an absolute fool!"
After several other stories about life in the former Meherabad Ashram were narrated, Baba took the Western men back up Meherabad Hill. He stopped on the way and gathered the men around him under a tree, tossing stones for them to catch.1 As they continued up the hill, several times Baba bent down and picked up a couple of stones, which he threw into the fields. (Fred Marks, Max and Charles Purdom ran to collect them, but it was difficult to distinguish the ones thrown by Baba from the other rocks lying about. Max found one and gave it to Fred Marks.) The Westerners would lag behind as Baba's pace was rapid, so he would stop, letting them catch up, and then proceed again. Along the way, he motioned to the Sakori women not to hurry.
Reaching the hill, Baba showed Godavri Mai, Jiji and the other kanyas the Westerners' quarters, his Tomb and other spots, and remarked to Godavri, "I will come to Sakori with them all [the Westerners] one day soon."
When Baba walked into the Tomb, there was a dead sparrow lying on the stone floor.
Baba gently took it in his hand, spelling on the board, "Lucky sparrow."
Baba then gathered the men around him in the west room (museum) of the Meher Retreat building. Eruch was in lower Meherabad for some work, and until he came, Adi Sr. read the alphabet board. Baba began by dictating:
Be perfectly natural and frank with me. I am your Master but also your friend. I am one of you, and one with you. I will come to see you every day between now and the 27th, unless the rains make the roads impassable, or unless I catch cold from one of you! I will explain many things about the spiritual path and Realization, and about my work and what you can do to help in it.
Footnotes
- 1.Max Hafliger was one of the lucky ones to catch a stone thrown by Baba. He put it in his pocket and carried it with him for the rest of his life.