A song was sung and Baba asked them to accompany him to the dhuni, where he was to distribute prasad to the Kup Bhalwani villagers, and also to the sahavas group and mandali. Baba advised them to be very careful not to miss taking prasad from his hands and losing such a valuable opportunity. This was said because some in the morning had been so absorbed in seeing the Meherabad Hill compound, they had lingered behind and missed going inside the Tomb.
At 2:40 P.M., standing under a tree near the well, some distance from the dhuni, Baba began the distribution.1 Yeshwant Rao handed him the prasad which he first gave to the women villagers, then to the men of the village, and finally to the sahavas group and mandali. While distributing prasad, Baba was in a serious mood and urged the sahavas men to eat it then and there, and not to take it home with them. Each man was given two laddoos. To Gustadji, Baba gave three, and touched his head. By 3:10 P.M., he had finished and instructed the group to have tea and then come inside the hall.
After the distribution, when Baba was on his way back to the hall, he saw several poor persons sitting underneath a tree by the roadside. Carrying the basket of leftover sweets to them, Baba gave each three laddoos. Some of the poor were blind, others were disabled and weak.
At 3:25 P.M., the sahavas group gathered in the hall. Baba was in an exceptionally good mood. As they came in, he was pacing very quickly back and forth in the hall from one side to the other, sometimes stopping by a window on the south side for a moment before resuming his pacing. Then he sat down, but he seemed in a pensive mood, oblivious of his surroundings. "His fingers danced," Age observed, "and their dance produced a silent song which touched the hearts of all present. The atmosphere turned serious, and the Wine became muted."
By 3:45, the hall was full, and bhajan singing began. Rustom Kaka had brought a singer from Ahmednagar, and although Baba seemed pleased with the music, he was in a strange mood. He explained a few of the lines from the song, but his "mind" seemed more in the Ocean than on its surface.
Suddenly, at 4:30 P.M., he asked, "Would you permit me to leave for Meherazad now?"
In one voice they shouted, "NO!" This made Baba smile and he appeared to become more interested.
Footnotes
- 1.The location where prasad was distributed was near Padri's workshop, in which he kept his tools and equipment for the maintenance of Meherabad property.