rang out: "No suggest! No desires! Just obey!" repeated many times. We laughed and Baba smiled. Kaka, undaunted, continued in somewhat broken English on the subject of marriage, which brought forth more merriment and laughter. Not so with Baba! Ever ready to take the side of the one at a disadvantage (unless, of course, he deliberately wanted to teach you a lesson in humiliation) Baba remarked that it would be wonderful indeed if we could deliver such a speech in Urdu!

While in Nasik Baba arranged for us to take Urdu lessons; Ramjoo, his patience and enthusiasm rivaled by none, was our teacher. Later, in Meherabad, Mani coached some of us in Marathi and Hindi. Alas, we women, even after years of striving, never mastered an Indian language, although Dr. Donkin became fluent in two or three. And why? We wasted the lessons forever arguing the "why" and "wherefore" of each rule or exception to the rule, instead of lapping up the idiom like children do unconsciously! Baba occasionally walked in while Ramjoo was teaching. What pained Baba most was not the babble of all of us talking at once—with Ramjoo ready to tear his hair. No! It was our poor accents, especially with the unnatural double consonants, Dh, Bh, Rh, and so forth. Baba insisted on Ramjoo making us repeat and repeat these strange sounds! I remember no one could pronounce to Baba's satisfaction the simple Urdu word Pir. It looks easy, but it isn't; It’s not peer, nor is it pier. It's just PIR!

Apropos the seriousness of Kaka's advice to us at the Christmas feast, it is interesting to re-read two or three of Baba's orders given in 1949, twelve years later, to those of his Mandali who wished to follow him in his "New Life Phase," 1949-1951; showing clearly the importance of Kaka's advice:

1. "You should NOT suggest anything unless I tell you to do so.
2. You should NOT, under any circumstances, argue with me.
3. You will NOT express any anger to anyone by word or deed, whatever the provocation may be, although you may at times feel anger in your mind.
4. You will NOT criticize anyone's faults either to his face or behind his back.”

I quote here, one of Kaka's six delightful speeches, given about this time and later in Cannes, in the south of France, seven months later. A rare gem, it began:

"Sisters and Brothers:

"Now I want to talk in general for East and West, a lesson or everybody.