and the leper colony where Baba would bathe one of the lepers. They all assured Baba that after their tea they felt quite ready to keep awake.

Baba conveyed with great feeling that he loved Gadge Maharaj very deeply and that now this meeting had taken place, Gadge Maharaj—who was a truly great saint—would shortly drop his body and come to Baba to enjoy eternal bliss.

It must be noted here that though Baba still continues his silence and though he has discarded the use of his alphabet board his gestures and facial expressions are so clear and vivid that practically no difficulty is encountered in understanding his desires and in following his silent but eloquent discourses.

Continuing his silent conversation with the group sitting before him, he conveyed that they must remember one thing and that was, that all he had declared in his final declaration would certainly come to pass without fail. Here Baba enumerated the main points of his declaration, and added that he wanted his lovers to tell others all he had declared, and to spread his message of Love far and wide.

One of them then remarked, "Baba, when we speak about the destruction of three-fourths of the world, the rich and the intellectuals ridicule us, whereas the poor believe and say emphatically the world will be destroyed."

Baba was greatly amused at this and said through gestures that this intimation brought a sort of relief to the poor and oppressed, in the hope and belief that such destruction in the world would automatically destroy with it their own suffering and poverty. They believed it, not because it came from Baba, but because this circumstances perforce invited such a situation to abet their own selfish motive of relief from them. Baba added that it was only natural for the rich and the intellectuals to ridicule—it was not their fault. "When you, who love Baba and have had such close contact with him, do not understand Baba's final declaration, then it is absurd to expect others to understand or believe it."

Baba then pointed towards the Mandali present and asked each in turn to say truthfully whether he believed what Baba had said about the destruction of the world, about his humiliation and about his death. A number of them frankly admitted that their minds balked at the fact of such things happening now, and found them impossible to believe.