When Baba and the mandali would go to Kaka Shahane's home in the Arangaon Family Quarters every Thursday, they would be served milk tea and bhujias.
On Thursday, 10 June 1926, Baba remarked, "Kaka's bhujias are delicious and we feel happy to eat them, but the real pleasure lies in eating those bhujias made from the flour of sanskaras and fried in the oil of devotion on the fire of love."
The main topic of discussion at the Shahane's that afternoon was the purpose of religion.
Baba stated: "The real meaning of religion is to know God, to see God, and to become one with God. Everything else about religion is an exercise in rites and rituals."
As Ajoba noted in his diary of daily activities, "Baba discoursed upon spiritual subjects for hours together, holding the mandali spellbound with interest and attention."1
Baba then asked everyone to sing, pointing first to Kaka Shahane who was taken by surprise and became nervous. However, all were happily amused to hear the song he stammered through.
A circus came to Ahmednagar and its prize wrestler, Ramamurty, came to Meherabad on the 10th for Baba's darshan. Afterward, Baba consented to let the mandali go see the circus, but Adi Sr. was not able to arrange a bus.
Baba later remarked, "It is for the best. This whole worldly existence is like a circus. If anyone wants to see it in its true form, he will not bother to see this so-called circus. He would find the world a circus!"
But the mandali did not have to forgo an entertaining evening altogether. Baba called them at 8:30 P.M. and ordered each of them to deliver a lecture in whichever language they knew the least! The hilarious results of twisted and mangled sentences on top of each other's discomfort and embarrassment as each struggled to say something delighted all. Baba then departed for the hill.
Two days later, Baba explained to the mandali:
You should realize that the combined happiness and misery of the gross, subtle and mental worlds is only equal to the shadow of a drop of the infinite ocean of bliss! O what supreme bliss! What an inexhaustible treasure of God's beauty!
For the last few months, Babajan has been saying, "My seven months and thirteen days are over!" How deep must be the meaning of that! Perhaps it means that as a child takes nine months to be born, a month and seventeen days are left to complete some of her most important work.
Footnotes
- 1.Chanji was keeping a separate diary of Baba's discourses and explanations.