Returning to mandali hall, Baba distributed toffees and custard apples to all. When he retired to his house, Hoshang accompanied him with the umbrella. On the way, Hoshang said, "Baba, four days of our stay are already over ..." Baba looked at him with love and gave him a kiss.
In the hall the next morning, Monday, 19 October 1959, Baba asked Eruch to read out a few passages from different books. One was a passage by the Perfect Master Sankaracharya on nirvikalp samadhi.1
At the end of it, Baba stated, "All this has been explained in God Speaks. "
Then a passage was read from The Imitation of Christ, by the Christian mystic Thomas à Kempis.2
In the afternoon, during a game of La Risque, Baba remarked, "I am weighed down by the burden of my work, and so I come here to play cards with you in order to get some relief."
On one occasion, Harry Kenmore was sitting outside the hall talking to Padri. He did not know Baba had come back. Baba walked up to where the two were sitting. Kenmore was telling Padri, "It seems the Old Man [his affectionate phrase for Baba] has not been for a walk in ages."
Just then, Baba patted him and motioned, "Come for a walk."
Kenmore was startled to find Baba standing next to him.
During the walk, Baba remarked, "I am infinitely restless today."
Baba had instructed Kenmore to fast that day without water until 8:00 P.M. At 7:00 P.M., Baba composed this poem and sent it to him:
One hour more Then open your tummy's door, And with eatables galore, Your energy restore. With God's name in your heart With maya wage a war, And taking Baba's name Make maya lick the floor!
Baba came to mandali hall at 8:00 A.M., on the 20th, and the above poem was read aloud. Baba also spoke about bliss that day:
A man on the sixth plane of consciousness sees God face to face and experiences bliss.
A man who has realized God and is not a Perfect Master experiences bliss, knowledge and power.
A man who has realized God and who is also a Perfect Master experiences and uses bliss, knowledge and power.
A man on the gross plane can also see God everywhere by the grace of the Avatar of the Age or by the grace of a Perfect Master. Such a man also experiences bliss. But there is a world of difference between his experience and the sublime bliss of the one on the sixth plane. The man on the gross plane has other desires because he still has his mind to worry him. The man on the sixth plane has [only] longing to become one with Beloved God.
Footnotes
- 1.Sankaracharya (788–820) is considered one of the greatest philosophers of the Vedas. He taught that spiritual liberation is achieved not by ritual and rites, but by the eradication of man's ignorance that believes that the illusory multiplicity of the world is real.
- 2.Thomas à Kempis (1379–1471) was a German monk who migrated to the Netherlands.