was back to normal, and I brushed Meherjee aside and went running up the steps. When I stepped through the door, I felt again that same wave of love that I had felt in Myrtle Beach in the Lagoon Cabin, only so much stronger that I stopped in my tracks. I couldn’t move; my legs froze. Baba looked at me and He smiled. He put out His arms like this: "Come on!" I went running into His arms and burst into tears. And in that moment of feeling those arms around me, I knew for the first time in my life that I was completely safe and completely loved and completely accepted. There would never be another Being in the world from Whom I would get such total acceptance, such total love. And I realized that all my life I had felt that I had never had a home, that I lived out of a suitcase. I was the middle child in my family and I did not feel loved. I thought I had brought myself up. In that moment in Baba's arms, I realized that He had brought me up, that it had always been Him Who had taken care of me, and that He always would. There was absolutely no doubt about it. No matter what happened to me for the rest of my life, I was safe and He would be there.

When I stepped back from Baba, there were tears in His eyes. I don't know what it meant. He sat there and He looked at me and I stood there and looked at Him, and He just nodded. Then He said, "Do you have any questions?" I thought, Nope! I had only been there five minutes, and that was more than I thought I was ever going to get. I felt if there was anything that He wanted me to know, He would tell me; there was no necessity for asking Him any questions. Besides, I had known people who had asked Baba for advice and He had given it, and they had not followed it — and there was the trouble. So I wasn't going to risk it. It just wasn't necessary. If He knew everything there was to know about me, if I had a need to know anything, He'd tell me in His own good time.

Baba started calling the mandali. (The women mandali had been in Mehera's room which had a louvered door on it so they had watched my meeting with Baba.) He called them all out to meet me. Up to that point, I hadn't even noticed who else was in the room, but Eruch had been there acting as the interpreter and Goher had been standing behind Baba's chair. Baba didn't ask me how I had gotten there, He simply said, "Did you read the family letter?"

I thought, "He's going to throw me out of here." I didn't care; I had had more than I thought I'd ever get. I said, "Yes, Baba, I did read it."

"What did it say?"

"Well, You said that people shouldn't come a great distance or at great expense, because

You might give another opportunity."

"And you came anyway?"

"Yes, Baba."

"It's alright. I'm glad you came. Now, what are you going to do when you leave here?"

I didn't quite understand the question and I said, "I'm going back to work, I guess."

"No, I mean this afternoon."

"Well, Baba, I had intended to rush back to Bombay tonight and get a flight back to New York but Air India has informed me there is no flight. And there isn't another one for five days. So I guess I'll just sit in the hotel and wait."

"No sightseeing?"