Continuing   [from Volume 2 Number 4 Page 24]

Part II—Our Life with Baba in India: The First Trip—l933

Many of you will recall that in my last article I mentioned that Meher Baba, in between his frequent visits to the West, sent for nine of us from England and America, to come to India.

This trip, originally planned for at least six months, lasted only three weeks. As each day and hour is of infinite importance when one is with Baba, I would like to give you an account of this early trip before continuing with our longer stay in the Nasik Ashram.

Outwardly, this first trip to India appeared to be a pleasure trip, but we now know this was not so. Baba has repeatedly told us, he does nothing just for our pleasure. It is always for work that he calls us.

Our itinerary was to go to Kashmir. Later, we were to travel with him to China, stopping at Japan on the way; then to cross the Pacific to California, to be present in the Hollywood Bowl, when he would break his Silence, so he said. This was in 1933.

On that initial trip, we were more like children on a holiday, with our beloved Baba as friend, protector and guide. For instance, one or two of us had taken special dresses along for this occasion among our rather extravagant and unnecessary wardrobes. I mention this en passant, because it shows how little some of us understood, in those early days, what life with a spiritual Master meant, or the real significance of Baba's breaking his Silence.

Needless to say, the parents and relations of some of us did not approve of our going and leaving our work, but that did not keep any of us back. "What a wonderful feeling it must be," I wrote in my diary then, "To be quite free to decide one's own life. It wastes so much energy doing things in the face of opposition!" Yet, what has happened since meeting a Perfect Master? I have made no "plans," no "decisions." Baba has planned everything, from the day I first met Him up to the present time.