In reply, Manek pleaded, "Baba, it is all your game. If you say a great burden is on you, it is because you have created it."
Pleased by his reply, Baba gestured, "You have understood in one minute what these people [the mandali] have not understood in 40 years!"
Baba asked Manek about the local Center and its activities, commenting, "Whatever I have said will come true. The Ahmednagar Center will one day be one of the biggest in the world. You will have to work hard and will be kept very busy."
Later, Baba ate a normal breakfast and lunch. That day he did not suffer any major spasmodic jolts, just two or three minor ones. The sensation was similar to that experienced when someone accidentally touches a live electric wire.
About his body's convulsions, Baba finally explained, "It is because I am accelerating in order to complete my work soon."
Nevertheless, Adi was instructed to phone Dr. Ginde in Bombay that day and ask him to come to Ahmednagar as soon as possible for a quick visit, rather than waiting until February. Ginde said he would come on 1 February.
According to Baba's instructions, Bhau would write short notes to his family in Ahmednagar almost daily (sometimes twice a day), conveying Baba's orders or messages. On Wednesday, 29 January 1969, he wrote his family:
Beloved Baba's condition is very bad and there is no sign of improvement. Yesterday we were all frightened. But he is God and his health is in his hands. He is giving us an opportunity of serving him.
For several months, messages had been exchanged about Mehernath and Sheela's future. Even in such a critical condition, Baba was ever thoughtful of his lovers' practical concerns, and the following afternoon, 30 January, Baba dictated his decision about the children's future. Sheela was to study to be an ayurvedic physician and Mehernath to major in science when he entered college.1
Baba explained, "By becoming a doctor, Baby [Sheela] will be serving me. I will always be with her."
Baba assured Bhau funds would be provided for their education and maintenance.
During these final months, Baba had also been dictating lines to Bhau to be incorporated into ghazals.
On the evening of the 29th, he dictated this line in Hindi, and told Bhau to write a ghazal based on its theme: "What will we do with our lives now, when You have gone away?"
Footnotes
- 1.Mehernath studied law and became an attorney.