with his own hands, he fed us. He would make morsels with his hands and would put it in our mouths. This is how one day we had our food.

In the middle of Christian year 1928, Hazrat Babajan had come to Meherabad to see Baba. Baba was standing 700 meters distance from her, just in front of Hazrat Babajan. Everybody would come to have Hazrat Babajan's darshan, beginning with the men. Then it was time for the children who were in the school to go to have darshan. And so for three or four minutes, we were cheek-to-cheek with Babajan. Babajan would put her cheeks next to theirs, but she wouldn't do that to any of the elder men. She only did it to all the children in Prem Ashram. She would take their faces and put their cheeks next to hers, and then after a while, she would let go. Then darshan finished, and Babajan started back on her way to Poona. We returned to Meher Ashram.

Then there was a time when I used to read Baba Tahir's book of poetry. He was in Mt. Elband, where there was a lot of snow and ice, but he was in love with his Divine Beloved, with his God, and he wouldn't pay attention to anything else. And it was such that in the middle of winter, all the snow and ice around him had melted, and spring flowers had grown around him.

I couldn't believe that. I would say, "How is that possible for one who has spiritual love? Can this affect the body?" That is a power, a love, that exists in the spirit of man and in his soul. That is when the soul is working its way towards perfection; it has nothing to do with the body. I thought that the soul is separate and the physical body is separate, until that experience that I had in the winter that I told you about in Yazd. That was when I felt that I was going to die, and I started to cry because I hadn't seen Baba after having left Meher Ashram. When warmth all of a sudden started to be created in me, I realized that this spiritual love affects the externals also.

Now, how did that happen?

My sister was ill and every four weeks in winter and in summer — every season — would go 24 kilometers away to Yazd. (We lived 24 kilometers away from Yazd). Every four weeks I would go to get medicine for my sister and I would come back. One of these days it had snowed a whole lot. I started out for Yazd before dawn to go and get medicine for my sister. After about six kilometers, a very big storm started blowing opposite to my direction. It was so strong that I could hardly walk a step. There was a donkey along with me which I had put my things on. My clothes were quite warm and quite sufficient, but in spite of them, the cold still affected me tremendously.

After twelve kilometers, I could not take another step, and I was not able to walk anymore. Near there was the house of Khodadad and Khodayar Toos. They also had been with me in Baba's school. So I thought to myself that since it is such a big storm, maybe I will go to their house for a little while. I noticed that I could not walk any longer, so I started to mount the donkey. But the donkey couldn't go any farther either. I myself, sitting on top of the donkey, felt like a statue made out of ice. Deep to my marrows, I was very cold, and very chiled. It was such that I would breathe maybe once every minute — my respiration had slowed that much. My chest could no longer bear the breathing anymore.

Then all of a sudden, I remembered that yes, Baba had promised me that I would see him again, that I would be able to go and visit him and have his darshan again. And I thought, "Now, here I'm dying." This made me very sad, and I started to cry. Until then, I was not thinking of Baba. But all of a sudden I started to think of Baba and the fact that he had promised me that I would be able to go and see him, and I would be able to go and have his darshan. It was then that, all of a sudden, without my volition, I started to cry. This crying sprang out of the depth of my heart.

Right then it felt as if a big container of hot water had been poured on my head, and it oozed out of my feet, Just in that stage where I was almost frozen, and ice was all over my face, sweat started to appear on my brow. I would wipe off the storm and the snow