After the children's session, each adult of the group again had their last personal interview of a few minutes with Baba.
Because Baba was now leaving Melbourne earlier, the afternoon program of interviews for the general public which had been scheduled from 2:00 to 5:00 P.M., was moved forward to 1:00 P.M. At 1:30 Baba dictated these poignant lines to Francis Brabazon:
Die in Baba, Die for Baba Die with Baba, Then you will Live as Baba.
Deny your false self And your real self Asserts itself.
Ask for nothing and You will get everything.
Renounce everything to Such an extent that you Eventually renounce even renunciation.
To love me is to Forget yourself completely.
To know me as I really am Become like a child (in heart) And be as wise as the Man of Wisdom.
A large gathering of mostly friends, relatives and other visitors met Baba. They were taken in one at a time, introduced to Baba and allowed to ask any question they wished. The program ended at 2:30 P.M.
At the Melbourne airport, everyone gathered for a final glimpse of Baba. But it proved not to be the last, for after Baba had boarded the plane and it had taxied down the runway, it had to return, due to engine trouble.
Baba was seated by the window and waved to those behind the barrier.
He quipped, "You see, their love [those at the airport] caused the engine to fail so we had to come back again!"
The plane left Melbourne around 4:30 P.M. and arrived in Sydney at 6:15 P.M., where Baba and the mandali returned to Meher House.1
The next morning, Tuesday, 14 August 1956, as plans had been made to take Baba on an all-day trip to the Blue Mountains, Robert Rouse was sent ahead to make preparations and secure accommodations, but that morning, as Eruch was combing Baba's hair, Baba called Bill Le Page and canceled the trip, informing him that he preferred to stay at Beacon Hill, resting and doing his inner work there.2 However, he did take a short drive in the morning along a section of forest on Wakehurst Parkway and also along the beach at Dee Why — the only occasion Baba visited the beaches so central to Australia's surfing culture.3
Footnotes
- 1.Just a few months after Baba's departure from Melbourne, the city was host to the 1956 Olympics, when thousands gathered from around the world. The same thing had occurred 24 years earlier, when Los Angeles had been the site of the 1932 Summer Olympics, held two months after Baba's departure from that city.
- 2.The Blue Mountains are a pristine forest wilderness with a huge, scenic gorge. Baba expressed some interest in visiting the area, so Francis specifically sent Robert to try to contact someone there. Robert drove all the way to the Blue Mountains, missing out on a good portion of Baba's Sydney visit. Though the trip seemed futile, 20 years later the Blue Mountains became an important area for spiritual groups and centers, and a small Baba group developed there.
- 3.The Wakehurst Parkway route took Baba all along the Bantry Bay engravings — the largest and most significant Aboriginal ceremonial site in the Sydney Basin.