Khilnani said, "He has chickenpox."
"Who looks after him?"
"I do."
"Then why did you embrace me when you are
nursing a chickenpox patient? If I catch the disease, what will happen? Why didn't you think about this?"
"You are God, how can you catch
chickenpox?" Khilnani asked.
"I am God, and also man. I eat, drink and do
everything an ordinary man does. Why doesn't that thought sink into
your thick skull? Now I have to embrace so many people. Instead of
giving them my love I will be giving them chickenpox!"
When the couple said that Raj had been given some
homeopathic doses, Baba commented, "Homeopathy is a perfect
science, but to administer it properly requires a perfect dispenser,
which is difficult to find."
Vinod and Raj attended a convent school, where
they heard many stories about Jesus. Vinod became confused and once
asked Baba, "You say you are God, but in school the nuns say Jesus
Christ is God. Who is the real God?"
Baba answered, "Jesus was ; I am !"
Vinod recalls, "I was satisfied with
Baba's simple and clear answer and was never confused
again."
A music program was held at Guruprasad on Sunday
morning, 22 May 1960. Madhukar M. Golwalkar, a celebrated musician with All India Radio in Poona, gave a wonderful performance on the sarangi (an Indian string instrument played with a bow),
accompanied by a tabla-virtuoso, Chandrakant Kamat, 27.
Afterwards, Baba remarked to the audience,
"If at four o'clock this morning someone had played such tunes
on the sarangi accompanied by such fine tabla-playing, I would have been
so pleased with him that, who knows, perhaps by my grace I would have
given him God-realization!"
To the musicians, he remarked, "By playing
the sarangi you have made me happy, and Baba is not easily pleased. Today, you have really pleased me much."
The following day, Baba repeated an earlier message to some visitors,
"Let your heart be pure. Do not act outwardly what you are not
inwardly.
"Be absolutely honest. God is infinite
honesty. Do not pose as being pious, because God is everywhere. God
cannot be fooled — so why pose as something you are not?
"I do not want anything else from you but
the gift of your obedience. Give me that and you will free yourself from
the bondage of ignorance."
Adi and Rhoda Dubash, their 13-year-old son
Merwan, and Adi and Dolly Arjani from Karachi had been staying in Poona
since 14 May. Baba did not take much notice of Rhoda for several days
and an avalanche of depressing thoughts overcame her. "Perhaps he
doesn't love me anymore?" she fretted.
One day Baba was handing out ice cream, saying
something witty to each one. Rhoda thought that Baba would surely speak
with her that day, but when her turn came he dished out her ice cream
and looked away without saying a word. She felt miserable and tears
welled up in her eyes.
The next day Baba called her and, without
offering any explanation, embraced her with so much love that all her
clouds of worry were dissipated! Rhoda realized that Baba had been
acting that way purposely to uproot such thoughts from her mind.
The Dubashes were staying with relatives in a
congested area of Poona. They would bicycle to Guruprasad and return
home for lunch, and afterwards Adi and Merwan would cycle back to
Guruprasad. On the afternoon of the 22nd, on the way back to Guruprasad,
they were cycling through a small street when a car suddenly came from
the opposite direction at high speed and narrowly missed hitting Merwan. An old man walking by saw what happened and exclaimed, "God saved
him!"
On reaching Guruprasad, as they stepped into the
side room where Baba was seated, Baba turned immediately to Adi and
asked, "How does Merwan ride his bicycle?"
Adi mentioned that
the boy had just escaped a serious accident.
Baba became very serious
and looking annoyed said to Merwan, "Don't you think I have
anything better to do than to keep my nazar on you?!"
From that day on, Baba forbade Merwan from
cycling while in India. After Baba retired that afternoon, the mandali
and others in the room mentioned that for the past week Baba had been
asking everyone if they knew how Merwan rode his bicycle.
"Does he
ride carefully?" Baba wanted to know. "Is he rash? ... Does he
drive fast?"
Now they understood the reason for Baba's
concern.
Deshmukh arranged for a well-known sculptor of Poona named Naresh
Mansing Dhondphale to visit Guruprasad, and the artist had then done a
large head study of Baba. He returned with the sculpture on 23 May to
show Baba and the mandali. Baba graciously agreed to sit for him (on 12
June), so that he could make some final adjustments to his work.1
Meanwhile, Deshmukh became most anxious about
Baba's health. Daily he recounted to Baba the merits of taking
nutritious food and plenty of fruit. Once he bought 25 oranges from a sidewalk vendor. They were small and dried up, but inexpensive. He took them to Guruprasad and told Baba, "I have brought oranges for you; no one else should eat them."
Footnotes
- 1.Naresh Dhondphale was originally from Nagpur, which is probably how Deshmukh knew him.