In India we find people without spiritual authority allowing others to bow down to them. Even one of my old followers [Vibhuti], after many years of contact with me, left me 30 years ago and established an "ashram" at Nasik. You have seen or heard of it as a place of spiritual pilgrimage. He used to tell people: "Meher Baba has made me his chargeman." People paid much homage to him.
The news reached me, and I sent one man to tell him to stop all this display and nonsense and come back to me. He did not listen. He was very happy with his surroundings.
Three years passed and he established a big following, among whom was a very beautiful woman. Theirs was not a proper [legal] marriage and the woman conceived. The police heard of it and the man got frightened. He left Nasik and ran to me. Then I reminded him that he did not come three years before when I called. Now, he should either go back and settle with the police, or stay with me and suffer with leprosy.
There is no mention of this in any of the books, but it is recorded in Chanji's diary.
He stayed with me and he did get leprosy, all the time repenting. I forgave him and instructed him to go out and beg for his food, to be without money and not touch women. I sent him wandering; he was not to stay anywhere and to return after a year. He roamed about for two years and then came back. He was cured of the disease. Now he loves me fully and longs to tell everyone about me.
But all this is a play in illusion. It is all my play. None can fathom me as I really am. I am in everyone and I do everything; simultaneously, I also do nothing.
Be brave. Be happy. I and you all are One; and the Infinite that eternally belongs to me will one day belong to every individual.
Taking the microphone, Deshmukh announced to the crowd, "Today is Maha Shivratri [Hindu festival worshiping Shiva]. Baba is Shankara [Shiva] personified, and we are all his children groping in the darkness of ignorance. He will liberate us from it, so say together, 'Meher Shankaraji ki jai,' " and the pandal reverberated with the call.