All expenses — including traveling to India, room, board, books, and uniforms — were to be provided free of charge.
As Rustom was preparing to sail to America, Baba cabled him on 16 April 1928: "Don't worry. Don't bring boys. Return."
No sooner had Rustom received this telegram than three British parents he had contacted agreed to send their sons with him to India. But now, according to Baba's order, Rustom could not take them. He left his address with them, assuring them he would write soon.
One individual who met Rustom in London and assisted him in searching for suitable pupils for the school was Meredith Starr, whom Rustom met at an afternoon tea party he had been invited to. Meredith had been interested in spirituality and Eastern mysticism for many years, and when he saw someone from India in attendance, he went over and spoke with him. Rustom, as instructed, told him about Baba.
Meredith was highly intrigued and expressed his desire to travel to India to meet Baba. Subsequently, it appears, Meredith Starr told others about his meeting with Rustom and about "M. S. Irani, a Master in India." Among those he contacted was the mystical poet John Caldwell-Johnston, 47. Before Rustom left England, he had a strange encounter with Caldwell-Johnston, who Baba later confirmed was an advanced soul. Rustom received a letter one day inviting him to Portsmouth for an appointment, which he had never sought. Intrigued, he traveled there one evening, and met Johnston and his wife at their home at 2 Thurlow Mansions, Clarence Parade. Rustom describes what happened next:
After the usual formalities were over, the gentleman dimmed the light and began to talk as if he were exchanging messages on a wireless apparatus, although he had nothing of the sort about him.1 In a low and impressive tone, Mr. X [Johnston] began to thrill his already stupefied listener with the following words: "I see the Master. It's two o'clock in the morning in India now. (Here he exactly described the Master's seat near the Meher Ashram.) Other Eastern Masters of his [Baba's] stage are not easily accessible and don't like to be disturbed at such an hour, but he seems to be of a very loving nature.
I have just told the Master that __ will not allow the boys to be taken to India. But the Master replied there is no power on Earth that can come in his way; he is not very keen about getting the boys. He wants to lay the spiritual cable between the East and the West. Up to now, the East is looked after by Eastern Masters and the West by Western Masters.2 He wants to join both these sections; and that is the reason why he sent you here. You are carrying with you, without your knowledge, a sort of wireless [radio] connection and it affects all those whom you meet."3
As a gift for Baba, Johnston presented Rustom with an autographed copy of his book The Book of the Beloved , inscribed to Meher Baba as follows:
Footnotes
- 1.Previously, in June 1927, Baba had said there was a man in England who had "tremendous powers, unknown even to his own wife." And in December the same year, Baba had mentioned an advanced soul in London between the fourth and fifth plane, who acted as a "telegraph receiver."
- 2.Caldwell-Johnston was referring to saints, or advanced souls, members of the spiritual hierarchy who lived in Europe and America. With the exception of St. Francis, Perfect Masters are usually found only in the East.
- 3.Ramjoo Abdulla, Sobs and Throbs, (Ramjoo's Diaries, Sufism Reoriented: Walnut Creek, 1979), p. 473–474. John Caldwell-Johnston (1881–1943) was born in Ratnagiri, India, the son of an Irish circuit judge. When he was six, Johnston and a sister traveled to England for their education, where Johnston was enrolled in a public school (Sherborne). After graduating from Oxford in 1905, he married and joined the Home Office.