PART FOUR: FORMAL AND INFORMAL FUNCTIONS AT AMRAOTI .

Between the 20th and 24th of December, 1952, there were more than three times the expected number of formal and informal functions during the five days of BABA'S visit in and around the city of Amraoti, an important educational centre of Madhya Pradesh, previously known as the Central Provinces of India. On the way there BABA spent nearly two hours that first morning after leaving the station in seeking out and contacting the great mast who lives on the outskirts of Badnera, which is on the road to Amraoti. Besides giving darshan to the masses BABA accepted all invitations to the homes of individual devotees, educational institutions, and to the University of Amraoti.

There is in Amraoti a middle-aged woman named Tai Maharaj, who is revered as a Saint, more particularly by the local womenfolk. When she invited BABA to her temple earlier that same day, more than five hundred of her devotees were present there to receive him. Tai Maharaj's love for GOD caused her openhearted recognition of BABA, whom she received with tears of joy, declaring to all around her, "The Avatar has come to me." During the half hour that BABA and his men were there, Tai Maharaj would not leave BABA for a moment and most of the time remained seated at BABA's feet. Although all her devotees present paid their respects to BABA one by one, Tai Maharaj sat in adoration of him all the time. Just as BABA was about to leave she requested him to step into the inner precincts of the temple. When BABA did so, she questioningly pointed to the dazzlingly ornamented little figure of Lord Krishna. BABA at once responded smilingly with gestures implying, "Yes, I am in there."

Some such silent drama also took place in the first kirtan (musical exposition) which was held before BABA on December 23rd by Jairam Bua, another well-known saint of Amraoti. Very few in the gathering that day probably noticed that consciously or unconsciously the saint had questioned BABA'S silence, therefore not all could catch the true significance of an apparently random remark that BABA made to Jairam Bua at the close of that kirtan, "In spite of my silence, l speak with all the tongues of the world."

In the evening when he motored to the Leper Colony which is situated about five miles from Amraoti, BABA moved about freely among the lepers. Led by the enthusiastic organizer-supervisor of this temple of service, BABA, followed by his men, spent over half an hour in examining the locale of