As far as correspondence is concerned, all the letter writing would go through Ali Akbar Shapurzaman,* and he would read it for Baba. The letter which has significance for me which was exchanged with Baba, concerns itself with the time when we had just translated the first Baba book into Persian. The police in Tehran were after me because of that, and they asked me to go to court. So I went for the trial, and I took the book, and they would study that book, and we should come back in a week. So I returned after a week, but there was no answer. And they asked me to come after another week. So I went back after another week and they told me, "Well, you have a little book with us, and it doesn't cost more than fifteen rials, so if you can forego that fifteen rials, then you are free to go."

So I wrote to Baba, and I asked him that since they have taken a lot of my time and they have made me go here and there that I should sue them; I asked Baba whether this was a good idea or not. But Ali Akbar wrote back: "No, you shouldn't do such. Members of the government are like sleeping lions, and if you play with their tails, they will wake up. Let them sleep, don't trouble them, don't bother them." Baba had dictated this letter, and Ali Akbar had sent it to me.

Before I got to know or see Baba, another incident happened to me. I used to work with tractors in lands which were around Shiraz. There were a few people who were against me, and I didn't know this. One day, a fight started between us, and these two who were fighting with me were really very strong and big. One of them picked me up from the ground and threw me down, like you do a lamb. I had long hair then, and he took my hair and started to bang my head against the ground. He would tell me, "You are not Moslem, you are Zoroastrian, and therefore we must kill you."

I had heard from my mother that whenever you are helpless, and there is nobody around to help you, you should ask for help from God and the saints and prophets. In the beginning as I would plead with him to let me go, the wouldn't listen, and he would continue to bang my head on the ground. But I saw that none of my pleas were effective, so I said, "Well, it doesn't hurt to do what my mother asked; and I started to call on all the names of all the prophets and saints, and God, and Muhammed and Zarathustra and all the holy people. But it had no effect, and I was very disappointed. I thought, "God, prophets and the saints were supposed to help us in these times, they don't pay any attention to me; they aren't helping me."

So all of a sudden I started thinking maybe there is one whom I should have called on, that I haven't called, and either I have to call his name as well as the others, or he himself alone is the only one whom I should have called. I remembered the name of Meher Baba, though I had just only heard Baba's name. But as soon as I started to think of Baba, I had such strength in me that I got out from behind this big man and threw him aside. The strange thing was, when I got up, the two others who the minute before were after my blood to kill me, started to have fondness and love for me. The other man who was ordering this one to beat and kill me also stopped and said, "Let him go, let him go."

But I couldn't believe how it could be that this man in India could help me, while God and the saints and the prophets couldn't do anything. Today I know who Baba is, and I realize that when Baba says that he is God, I know that it was Baba who had come to my help. After that incident, I started to look for Baba, to try to find him. And hopefully, I pray that I might succeed in this search.

I think the way I feel about myself, is that I am like a little puppet in front of Baba, and that he plays with me and he makes me dance the way that he wants. Of myself, I have no powers, and if I have done anything, or if I have given Baba's message to anyone, it has been Baba's spiritual hand which has guided mine to do so. Of myself, I have done nothing, I've been like a puppet. Jai Baba.

*Known also as Aloba