Baba replied, "Your son is gold. You may take him with you, but I allow it with a pain in my heart."
Meherjee did not want to leave, but Baba took him aside and consoled him, "Go now. It is my order. I am sending you with my blessing. And remember, even if you leave me, I will never leave you."
Baba then asked Meherjee if he loved him. Meherjee replied, "If I did not love you, how could I wish to remain here?"
Baba explained, "Obedience is higher than love. So carry out what I order you to do. Go now, and remember that I am with you."
Meherjee accepted, and with tears in his eyes accompanied his father home — taking Baba with him in his heart.
Kaka Baria arrived at Meherabad on the morning of 19 December, and again expressed his wish to stay permanently with the Master.
Baba remarked, "Now I think your chappals will fit me."
Kaka was confident that Baba would now keep him in the ashram, believing himself worthy to stay with the Master.
But after two days, just as he was about to retire for the night, Baba asked him, "Why are you going to sleep? Go to Bombay and deliver these copies of The Meher Message to my lovers there."
Kaka had to return. This time, too, he could not find a place in the Garden of Meherabad, but the period of testing was only to prepare him for his permanent stay. The pain and nonfulfillment of his desire were necessary steps for that preparation.
Baba cleaned the boys' latrines on the 19th with Jalbhai.
On Thursday, 20 December 1928, Baba emphasized to the boys, "Everything is in God, but the help of the Sadguru is needed in order to know and experience God."
To illustrate this, Baba narrated the following story:
Once in the jungle, a tigress died after giving birth to a cub. The cub remained hungry, without food or water for days.
A shepherd found it and took pity on it. He reared it among his sheep. The cub grew up thinking it was a sheep. He did not know that he was a tiger.
One day a grown-up tiger saw the cub playing among the flock and was surprised. He went to the cub and did his utmost to persuade it that it was a tiger and not a sheep.