At about 3:00 P.M. in the afternoon, an unusual event occurred at Meherazad. A large, black-faced monkey with long limbs appeared. No one knew where it had come from. It was spotted sitting on the branch of the gulmohar tree by the main house, just as Baba entered his room after leaving the hall. The women thought it must be an exile from its pack, and each excitedly suggested tactics to drive the monkey away. One wanted to shoo him away lest his commotion disturb Baba. Another said to leave him alone, and he would just go away by himself. Another thought he might be hungry, and suggested giving him bananas. Some were afraid the monkey might attack if anyone went too near to him, and warned they should keep at a good distance so as not to frighten him. First bananas were cautiously placed on the roof of the house so as not to scare the monkey. But the monkey gnashed its teeth and furiously shook the tree branches, treating with contempt any similar friendly gesture. Seeing this, the women decided to leave it alone, and they ignored the monkey and went inside.
The monkey was quiet and things seemed fine for about an hour, but then it suddenly became wild. Leaping onto the main house, it jumped with speed and force from one roof to another, breaking several tiles and sending them falling. Then the monkey leapt down from the topmost point of the house with a tremendous crash, and was heard screeching outside Baba's room. Baba was resting at the time; Bhau and Goher were with him. Thinking that the ceiling was about to crash down on them, to protect Baba, Goher quickly covered his body with her own, and repeated his name.
After this, the men joined in an effort to drive the monkey away, chasing him around and around the compound, shouting and waving bamboo rods, brooms, clubs and umbrellas, as the monkey dodged from treetop to treetop, and from roof to roof. A little before sunset, the monkey stopped its antics and stalked off toward Pimpalgaon Village, where it was later learned it settled down quietly for over a month before vanishing as suddenly as he had appeared.
Baba commented about this episode: "The havoc played by the monkey on the roof of my room on the very day I decided to lengthen the seclusion is deeply significant to my work, and is connected with that which is to happen after 21 May."1
Footnotes
- 1.Two mornings prior to Baba's arrival in Poona in April 1968, a similar-looking large black-faced monkey visited Baba House and settled on the roof of Baba's room in the rear of the house. The monkey sat there for quite a long while, munching on fruits from nearby trees, then left, not to be seen again. The Zoroastrian new year for 1968, starting in March, was symbolized as the year of the monkey, which was indicative of great world trouble and chaos.