I am well pleased with your work among destitute and abandoned children. By serving the abandoned, you are really serving Jesus Christ, because he was also abandoned by all, even by his own apostles. The emblem of abandonment is the cross. Hence, to serve the abandoned is to serve the Christ — and I am he, undoubtedly.
I am with you in your work, as I am myself in you. Difficulties, lack of sympathy, and hostile opposition will be there in your work, but I will help you. You have my blessing and love.
The cross of Christ is also the symbol of sacrifice. Hence I say that you should sacrifice your whole self and plunge yourself unreservedly into the work of helping the destitute children. By sacrificing your everything, you will find All.
The priest was so happy to receive this spontaneous message from Baba, he asked permission to publish it in his quarterly journal Basic Education . Baba agreed and made him repeat the message (which had been taken down). This he did, except for the last sentence of the first paragraph, at which Baba stated, "You have left out the most significant part," and Baba repeated: "I am he, undoubtedly."
On a previous occasion a month before (on 4 April), Baba had commented about Jesus to the mandali:
Jesus sometimes used to tell his disciples things which they could not understand at all. But despite all that, they stuck to him wholeheartedly and followed him till the very end, because they understood this much, that the working of the God-Man was a subject far beyond human understanding.
It is the same with me. Sometimes, I say things which you are at a total loss to understand. This is the last cycle of cycles, so I observe silence that it may bear fruit. I will speak only one Word. Innumerable such cycles have gone by, and innumerable are the times I have descended. It is not for the first time that I am observing silence. Such observance, and the subsequent breaking of the silence, is an occurrence in eternity from time to time.
When an atom is split, a great amount of energy is released. Similarly, when my silence is broken and I utter the Word, infinite wisdom will be released. When an atom bomb strikes the Earth, great upheaval takes place in the form of vast devastation. Similarly, when that Word will strike the universe, great upheaval will occur in the form of material destruction; but, above all, there will also occur a tremendous spiritual upliftment.