We continue our scrapbook of memories of BABA . . . please send us those you may feel like sharing . . . His Treasure “increases when shared with others!”

“During the three wondrous days when BABA was receiving some hundreds of people at our apartment, it was a remarkable experience to watch His dynamic change of mood and tempo every passing minute. The people came from all sorts of places and all walks of life, for their two or three minutes with BABA. It seemed as if some were almost dead, but they walked out transfigured and newly alive. Some smiled, some wept heartbreakingly.

“BABA asked for a bowl of fruit to stand beside His couch, and this He would dispense with a divine smile to the people who came, a grape or a cherry, to impart His divine love, His prasad*. The heat was terrific and He had not slept for many nights, and was most uncomfortable in his leg-cast, but after the first two or three interviews, He beamed: ‘You see, so much love has revived me.’

“The first afternoon, much to the latter’s astonishment, He spelled on His board, ‘You know J . . . B . . . has been saying for some time, When are we going to have tea?’

“When BABA pulls a joke He looks so hilarious with a sort of Olympian glee, that you just feel He has said the funniest thing in the world. Once He looked at me with this infinite mirth in His eyes while I was saying something; and I not only felt like a child prattling about its toys, but I thought how different the Masters silent laughter was from any other on earth, because it is so innocent and yet comprehensive, untinged with self. When we offered Him the refreshing mineral water known as ‘Seven-Up,’ He held His good arm over His head in a cute gesture and merrily dashed off on the board: ‘I’m seven-up already.” Such a light moment with our Beloved was as heart-expanding as sharing His more serious anecdotes, such as when he stopped interviewing for a few minutes one day, and calling in some of the older devotees, related the following story . . . on His alphabet-board, of course:

“King Janaka, who was Sita’s father and Rama’s father-in-law, was a great Master. A poor aspirant, learning of this, walked hundreds of miles across the

____________

*Prasad: Gift from the Master.