THUS HAVE I HEARD

One of Baba's closest disciples, a young Mohammedan, told us the following story of an early conversation with Baba:

He had been seeing Baba about once a week over a period of months, feeling more and more drawn to him as he felt more and more deeply the impact of Baba 's love and sensed the intimations of Baba's divine nature. One day they travelled together by rail from Poona, where Baba was then living, to Bombay, where he had something to attend to. On the way Baba suddenly turned to him and said, in a vein which seems strange to those of us who came to know Baba later, yet deeply significant for all of those in any way associated with him:

"I have many powers, and can help you in many ways. For example, I can prosper you in your business, harmonize your relationships, give you health and strength—and I will grant you any request of that nature which you may ask—but let me tell you, first, that the best thing for you to do would be to ask nothing, to leave everything to me, and to promise to obey me in whatever I command."

The young Mohammedan of course chose to obey Baba 's orders, and up to the time of the telling of the story, in 1937, in spite of many passing tests and trials and tribulations, he had not regretted it.

The incident reminds one of what Aurobindo Ghose wrote in his precious little book, "The Yoga and Its Objects": To those who demand from Him, God gives what they demand, but to those who give themselves and demand nothing, He gives everything that they might otherwise have asked or needed, and, in addition, He gives Himself and the spontaneous boons of His love."

While we were at breakfast at Bhandardara one morning in December, 1936, Kaka, one of Baba's closest disciples, was speaking earnestly in Gujarati to Adi, Baba's youngest brother.

"I hope we shall soon be able to understand you when you speak in the Indian dialects," one of the Westerners remarked.

"Kaka was telling me how he met Baba through Upasni Maharaj," Adi replied, and he repeated Kaka's narrative in English.

Kaka had been visiting both Upasni Maharaj and Narayan Maharaj for two or three days at a time over a period of a year. Then, in 1927, he heard about Baba. He had never seen him, nor had he even seen a photograph of him, yet somehow he felt drawn to him and thought he would like to meet him.