Baba remarked, "I sent all those who could not obey me away from the sahavas in America, but I will allow these three to remain."
Robert Rouse noticed that Baba was asking each one to obey in the exact area they were most sensitive about, so he hoped that Baba would pass him by.
But just as he thought this, Baba turned to him and asked, "Would you obey me if I asked you to cut Lorna's [his wife's] throat?"
Almost sobbing, for Robert loved Lorna very much, he answered, "Yes."
Baba similarly asked Bernard Bruford, fifteen, "Would you go to school naked if I asked you?"
Being a teenage boy, this was a particular area of embarrassment for Bernard. He replied it would be difficult to do so. Baba let it pass.
Baba asked Cynthia Adams, fourteen, the same question and she replied, "I don't know," although in fact she was sure she could not. Baba let it pass.
Several of the others, some of them newcomers, were asked the same question. One woman, deeply distressed, stood up and said she would not cut her children's throats, claiming, "It would be too cruel." Baba nodded and motioned for her to sit down. All the attendees remembered this as a very serious session with Baba, in which they each looked at the real meaning of obedience and whether they were truly capable of it.
Adolphus, the man standing in front who had not raised his hand, was also very upset and wanted to leave immediately, but Baba would not hear of it.
Baba said "I am not asking you to obey Me now, I am asking you to stay as a favor to Me."
The man left Baba's presence thinking, "Ah, I've had a victory!" But once outside, he stopped and thought: All my life I've run away from things. So he came back inside to Baba and begged to be allowed to obey. Baba agreed and forgave him.
Baba called for a ten-minute break, instructing the group to go outside and mull over their interpretation of Baba's request for obedience. When the attendees returned, the atmosphere was distinctly calmer as every person resolved to do his or her best. The discourse on obedience was continued, with the four types of obedience explained (that of a soldier, a paid servant, a slave and a lover of God).1
Footnotes
- 1.See p. 4224