Baba inquired "How's your hip today?" and this time I had the presence of mind to ask Baba about His hip. With His hand, He made His characteristic "so-so" gesture. Then He questioned Jeanne Shaw at length about her heart attack. "How long before the Sahavas did it happen?" Jeanne told Him "Four days." Baba seemed very pleased that she had been brave enough to come. He told Ella to hold on tight to His daaman, actually knotting it up in His hands as an illustration. "And this is for all of us," I thought. I will never forget that gesture. "You all say I look well," Baba said, "But I carry this whole burden."

Another group of women entered and each was greeted lovingly by Baba; then still another group came in from another hotel. I could hear Mani whispering their names excitedly to Mehera as each one stepped forward, for both had been corresponding with many whom they had never met till now. I too was seeing many friends for the first time in several years—Margaret Craske, Kitty Davy, Elizabeth Patterson, Jeanne Shaw, Jane Haynes, Enid Corfe, Carrie Ben Shammai from Israel, Anita Vieillard from Paris; and then the Australian women stepped forward, some of whom I had corresponded with but never met; it was fun to tie up names with faces. It was a brightly-dressed throng of about sixty women from the West, all in their best, who gathered around Baba.

All our hearts concentrating on Him and His return of that love seemed to fill the room with an actual radiance of peace. What a long-awaited moment—to see our dear Master again, and here—in His homeland of India! He felt at home—and somehow I think we all felt "at home" too, especially together as we were now, with His precious dear family of Eastern women.

Baba broke the silence that had fallen after all had embraced Him. "Tomorrow there will be discourses. Anita has to be serious!" We all chuckled. "It's something new—about 'The Four Journeys.' A new book of discourses is coming out. I am giving it to Dennis O'Brien, an Australian, to publish—not to Ivy! Ivy has too much on her mind!"

Baba kept twitting Ivy about all her problems, but she took it with good humor. I recalled how Baba had sent us notice that we were here strictly for His Sahavas or company, not for help in our personal affairs. Mani had quoted His message (as given out by Adi Sr.) in one of her October letters:

"Avatar Meher Baba wants me to draw the attention of all His lovers, visiting Him from different parts of the world, to the fact that they should