"No, Baba, haven't the boys got them?"

I had handed them to the concierge for checking on arrival and I, in a hurry and bustle, forgot them, although Baba had left such details to me to see after. Impulsively I suggested rushing back to the hotel. A stupid idea when the train was due to start in five minutes.

Baba, calm as always, gave orders for the luggage to be taken off the train and returned to the hotel. After a pause, Baba spelt out on his board, "We will have lunch and then take a gondola and go on the canal. I can do more work here. We will take the night train to Paris.'

Wires had to he sent to Ruano in Paris to cancel and rearrange interviews. No rebuke! No lecture! These were our "infant" days with Baba and his love forebore the hurt.

Another time we were together with Baba in Venice, about twelve of us. It was Baba's last day with us before returning to India. He called us together and said, “I want you all to keep near me today." He repeated this order three times.

Well, Baba arranged that we should meet him at the Lido, just outside Venice, at 11 a.m. Some of us were returning to England the next day, so we had packing, etc., to attend to. Eleven o'clock came. Nobody turned up at the Lido except Baba and those accompanying him. I arrived twenty minutes late, having been to Thomas Cook's for mail and tickets. I remember dawdling. Why, I don't know. Baba appeared annoyed, got up and left me behind to tell the rest of the group, when they did turn up, to come straight back to the hotel.

A few minutes later, the remainder of the group, arrived. They had gone for a last swim, thinking there would be time and Baba would not mind!

There was no lunch at the hotel that day. Instead, Baba called us all to his room and told us what he thought of our thoughtlessness and lack of obedience and finished by saying, “The East want to sit at my feet, but the West want me to sit at their feet. I will leave the West. I will do my work in the East." (Baba did not return for two years).

We were all terribly upset, but Baba uses the moment and, through such a crisis, brings us to a fresh awareness of his love and ultimate forgiveness. And who can see Baba so sad, so disappointed in us and not want spontaneously to follow his advice and instructions implicitly?