The crowd became unruly and Baba left for Ashiana, where the women mandali were waiting for him.1 The next day, 9 June 1958, Baba sent for Savak Kotwal. Savak's health had suffered another setback, and he requested that Baba allow him to stay in Bombay until he felt better, to which Baba agreed. Bhau now did the nightwatch alone, which he continued for several years.
While in Bombay, Eruch's cousin, Dorab Satha, 29, also had a brief meeting with Baba.
About the problem of sex, as Baba had explained many times to the mandali, he told Dorab: "A person's body, however handsome or beautiful on the outside, eventually becomes riddled with disease-causing bacteria, pus, et cetera. Beauty is only skin-deep. So why run after someone only for the sake of sex?"
On the 9th, Baba sent this telegram to his lovers in America, Europe and Australia: "Arrived India with all you lovers in my heart. Inform all."
In a subsequent letter to them, Baba stated, "The only place that can hold me is the heart. Keep me close with you — I am always there."
On the 10th, Baba left Bombay with the mandali in three cars. Baba was driven to Poona where he stayed at Dadi Kerawala's quarters in Ganeshkhind Garden. As soon as he arrived, he found Vishnu and Ramakrishnan waiting for him, but their presence upset him. He took Vishnu severely to task, asking why he had left Meherabad without his permission. Vishnu kept quiet, and Baba instructed both men to go stand under a tree. Vishnu had, in fact, been summoned and had come accordingly. After a while, Baba called them inside and discussed details of a meeting he wished to hold at Meherabad on 10 July.
When Baba returned to India from the West, Sorabji Siganporia had not been present at the airport to receive him. He was in Kashmir at the time.
Baba called him to Poona and asked, "Did you enjoy Kashmir?"
"Very much, Baba," he said.
"Can you visualize all the sights you saw in Kashmir here now?"
"Not really."
"Nothing is lasting," Baba emphasized to him, "everything is ephemeral. The enjoyment you had in Kashmir, you do not have here because it was not permanent; it was transitory. God alone is eternal; all else is perishable. So keep me always in your thoughts and in the future don't miss such an opportunity again."
Footnotes
- 1.The women mandali (driven by Homa), and Bhau and Waman had come to Bombay on 6 June 1958.