He ends with saying how much they want Baba to come: "... for apart from the benefit to ourselves, we believe that a country which a Perfect Master has not touched with his sacred feet is a dead country; that the coming to a country by such a Blessed One is a sowing of a seed in that country, which will eventually make it living and civilized in a real sense. We want Baba to come but we want that coming to be the real thing — for it to be from his own compassion arising in his own dearest heart, not from our asking ..."
Mani concluded her letter:
There is little I can add to this. I sent [Francis] a cable: "Baba extremely happy with accurate understanding. He now announces his decision of real coming to Australia for five days. Inform everybody." (This may not be word accurate as I am writing from memory, but it is nearly so.)
As soon as Francis received this clarification, he stepped up the pace of his final building work at Beacon Hill, a suburb twelve miles on the north side of Sydney. Here, four years earlier, Francis had decided to erect a sandstone center especially for Baba's use. Despite his "quarrel" with Ena Lemmon, Francis had been secretly hoping all along that Baba would one day visit Australia. At what he had originally envisaged as a base for his Sufi organization, Francis created designs for an elaborate "training center" for devotees of Meher Baba, which he submitted to the local Shire Council. The construction work had for years been the main occupation of the early Sydney followers, with Francis himself living in austere conditions on site in a tiny "cave cabin." Other early Australian Baba lovers resided part of their time in packing cases or any other available structures close to the on-going construction, in order to help. Thus Francis' attitude to Ena's invitation was only stern because he wanted to be absolutely sure that Baba was coming of his own choice and not on account of his secret wish.
Baba later named Francis' center Meher House, and it remains one of the two main Baba centers in Australia. It occupied a large, elevated block of coastal scrubland, rich in pungent wildflowers.1 In those days, this was the bushy outskirts of Sydney, still full of snakes and other wildlife. The site commanded sweeping views over Sydney Harbor, being the only hill in northern Sydney.2
Footnotes
- 1.Later, Francis sold off sections of the block to fund his own and others' travels to India. Thus, as years went by, the house became surrounded by suburban sprawl. (Bill Le Page's daughter Jenny explained: "The selling of two of the four original blocks of land was directed by Baba in the 1960s when Francis was living in India. It funded the finishing of the walls in Baba's room. Nothing was done with Meher House that was not approved by Baba through Bill writing and asking Francis and Francis asking Baba. The balance of the money from selling the land was put aside to be used as Baba directed at a later date.")
- 2.Beacon Hill is a historic site marked with a monument, as it was on this hill that a beacon was placed to guide the First Fleet into Sydney Harbor. Earlier, as the only high point in the area, it had been a place of spiritual importance to the aboriginal people, who left ceremonial engravings here and nearby.