On the 21st at Meherazad, Baba met Nusserwan, Meherjee Mama, Pilamai, Ramjoo and Kaka Chinchorkar.
Dada T. L. Vaswani, 78, was a former college professor of English and history who had renounced all to serve humanity. He was called Sadhu Vaswani and had established and was running the Saint Mira High School in Poona. There was a longstanding invitation from him to Baba to visit the school. Not to disappoint his "beloved child," as Baba would call him, Baba agreed to go and a date was fixed.
As with the Sakori program, news spread among his lovers in India, and most who had come for the Sakori program (and others) from Andhra, Hamirpur, Dehra Dun, Delhi, Bombay and Simla gathered in Poona for this occasion. The Sakhares and Gadekars arranged for their food.
Baba cautioned the Meherazad mandali to be always with him during the Poona program, and he kept repeating this warning for days prior to going. At 6:30 A.M. on Sunday, 23 March 1957, Baba, accompanied by Eruch, Bhau, Kumar and Aloba left Meherazad for Poona in Meherjee's car. Goldney had returned from Bombay the day before with his Ford, and he left half an hour earlier with Gustadji, Keshav Nigam and Kishan Singh. Baba's lovers had assembled at the Poona train station and received their heart's true Beloved with loud acclamations when his car arrived at 9:45 A.M. The crowd of 1,500 persons was so thick that Mona Sakhare got caught in the middle. Nothing remained hidden from Baba. He sent the mandali to extricate her, and with the utmost difficulty they managed to bring her to Baba's car. Baba expressed his love for her and caressed her face as the throng formed into a procession.
Meherdas of Hamirpur started singing " Hari [Lord] Baba, Hari Baba! Meher Baba, Hari, Hari! "
Joyous singing and shouts of "Jai Avatar Meher Baba!" accompanied Baba's car as it slowly made its way through the crowd in a procession toward Saint Mira High School.1 The car was decorated with garlands, and in the vanguard of the parade a band was playing. Vaswani received Baba at the door of the school and embraced him tightly. Tears rolled down his cheeks as he led Baba to a private room, where he sat with him for a while. Baba comforted him and was then carried in a chair to the school's Sanctuary Hall, where he was seated on the dais. Vaswani sat on his right and Irene Conybeare was given a chair opposite them with some others.
Footnotes
- 1.Bhau got out of the car, and it was then that he met Krishna Nair and heard his story of climbing up a mountain to commit suicide, as detailed before.