Chapter 36: Interested In Remaining Disinterested
1962Page 4,802 of 5,444
One Saturday, out of curiosity, a Christian Seventh-Day Adventist came to meet Baba at Guruprasad. The man asked Baba to give a discourse, but Baba replied, "How can I do that? Jesus said not to work on the Sabbath, and for me this is work." But he did explain a few things to the person.
During the first week of June 1962, Baba began having continuous headaches and pain in the cervical region of his neck. Goher asked if she could go to Bombay on the morning train, consult Ginde and return in the evening. Baba permitted her to go. At their meeting, Ginde suggested taking X-rays of the cervical region of the spine. When Goher returned to Guruprasad, this was done on 6 June, and Dr. Dikshit was consulted. The X-rays were then sent to Ginde. Examining them, he discovered that Baba had cervical spondylosis and a few of the disks were eroded. He suggested a metal traction collar to stretch the neck so it would not press on the nerves.
Baba permitted Dr. Ginde to come to Poona and take a cast of his neck so that the collar could be made. This was done, and Baba was made to wear it for a couple of hours each day while lying in bed. While wearing the collar, Baba could not move his head or even open his mouth. It was extremely uncomfortable. After three months of wearing the metal traction collar, it was replaced by a soft collar, which Baba wore off and on for the rest of his life.
Because of this distressing neck condition, Baba announced in the middle of June that he was curtailing the November darshan program from seven days to four days, and all in the East and West were informed through Mani's Family Letter (dated 22 June) and a Life Circular .
Pendu was brought back to Guruprasad from the hospital on 6 June. He had been particularly close to Vishnu and had not been told of his demise until he returned. On the 8th, Meherdas suddenly left Guruprasad for his home in Hamirpur, without informing anyone. After this, although he would come to Baba during public functions, he never again resided with Baba and the mandali.
On 16 June, Koduri Krishna Rao came to Guruprasad and invited Baba and the Westerners who would be coming in November to the unveiling of the life-sized bronze statue of Baba he had commissioned for the Mehersthan Center. Baba said that would not be possible, but he permitted Shantadevi and Adi to attend the ceremony.
On another casual outing, Baba visited Bapusaheb Shinde's shoe store. Shinde had replenished his stock after much of it had been nearly ruined in the flood.
On Sunday, the 24th of June, a celebrated singer from Poona named Hirabai Barodekar, and her sister Saraswatibai Ranay, gave a musical performance before Baba.
Baba was to visit K. K. Ramakrishnan's house in Kirkee that morning, and Eruch suggested he postpone it. Baba did not wish to cancel the visit and left with a few of the mandali. Baba kept Ramakrishnan so preoccupied in conversation that Eruch had to prepare the tea. Baba returned to Guruprasad after an hour. Later, Gajwani arrived from Bombay, and the Khilnanis arrived from Ahmednagar. Judge Khilnani had recently been transferred to a court in Ahmednagar.
Khilnani returned to Guruprasad with his wife, Girja, on Sunday, 1 July 1962. Bal Natu was also present. Baba came into the mandali's room at about 9:30 A.M. He seemed preoccupied, in a serious mood.
"I had no sleep last night," he stated. "My whole body is still aching."