Saroj Sahai from Lucknow came with her sons, Shachindra and Mehernath. She informed Baba that her husband, Shivendra, had been unable to come because he could not take off from work.
Baba assured her, "I will call Shivendra; don't worry."
Shivendra's hobby was sculpting, and he had made a colored bust of Baba, which Saroj had brought. Baba expressed his pleasure with it.1
Saroj's two boys, whom Baba had nicknamed Poopu and Tootu , said, "Baba, we have come to fly kites and play marbles with you."
Baba replied, "I would have liked to play with you, but now there are so many on my chest!"
The boys said, "Make them run away!"
"That you can do," Baba gestured, "but now there is no time to play."
A young woman named Ramjanki had also come from Lucknow, but against the wishes of her family. She was an intrepid girl who was determined to follow the dictates of her heart. For years, she longed for Baba's darshan. Her parents lived in Allahabad, but they had no faith in Baba's divinity. Ramjanki had done her utmost to attend the 1958 sahavas at Meherabad. She had written Baba, who had arranged for her to make the trip with Saroj Sahai's father, G. S. Srivastava, but the girl's parents forbade it. Then, after her marriage in Lucknow, unknown to her family, she had managed to come to see Baba in Poona in 1963 with a relative.
This time, in order to slip away from Lucknow, she had gone to her parents' home in Allahabad. Two days later she received a telegram from her husband, requesting her to return to Lucknow. She wired back that she could not come because her mother was ill with an attack of cholera. Receiving her telegram, her husband came to Allahabad and her mother had to pretend she was ill. Telling Ramjanki to remain in Allahabad for a few more days, the husband returned to Lucknow. It was impossible to persuade her parents to allow her to travel to Baba, so, telling them she was going to visit a relative's home, she instead came to Poona.
Not liking that Ramjanki had lied, Baba corrected her, "Why do you behave like this? I am always with you. If you are forbidden to come, don't come!" And Baba repeated, "I am with you always!"2
Footnotes
- 1.The small head-study that Shivendra made is now kept in the Blue Bus at Meherazad.
- 2.Subsequently, Baba ordered Shivendra Sahai to contact Ramjanki's husband and tell him about Baba.