Eruch explains Baba's gestures. At first Baba had used slates and pencils,—He had two persons on each side, one to offer the slate, one to clean it, for example when answering questions at a Darshan. Then perhaps because of the screeching chalk, Baba discarded slates, and used to point to letters on the headlines of the newspaper, a tedious way. Then Vishnu thought of an ingenious idea,—letters in rows, with numbers, exclamation marks. So he made Baba's first alphabet board. When Gandhi met Baba, he observed Baba's board. He too began observing silence, once a week.

Baba's fingers moved so fast on the alphabet board the mandali had to have trained eyes—their eyes had to travel all over the board at once. Baba used Hindi, Gujarati Marathi, English and so forth; the disciple had to read all of it in the English alphabet. After many years' silence, Baba said "I'm so fed up with My Silence."

"On October 7th, 1954, Baba said He was going to discard the board. We were so happy and nonplussed, thinking He might break His Silence. . .and also, "How will He communicate with us?"

Mani then observed some lovers keep silence without gestures, or board, or writing, like Dr. Goher's father. She imitated him delightfully. She continued: "Baba found His silence most difficult when His lovers were keeping silence too. His silence did not bother us. His gestures were so graceful, so smooth, bright, light like butterflies. Only recently when His neck bothered Him, He used letters.

"When the July 10th Silence was kept by the mandali, idiotic things happened—like talking to a crow. Disciples went on with their silence, even if they slipped. Once a Mast asked Dr. Nilu 'How come you are silent?' Nilu replied, 'But today we're not to talk!' At one time we all had to observe one month's silence. Katie's father some-how thought it was alright to talk out of the side of his mouth, through clenched teeth,—like a general in the army!" Mani imitated his grunts hilariously. "Baba didn't know of it until it was over; He enjoyed it very much, but later told us, 'Don't you observe silence like Katie's father.'

"Katie had to deal with servants, she used gestures, and talked through her nose." Mani called Katie to the mike; Katie 'talked' and Mani acted the servant. Mani said, "We had to control ourselves. Baba laughed, and said 'Katie can talk through the nose but not through the mouth."'

Eruch: "So that's how some observed silence around Baba on the 10th of July! Everything was so silent except the barking of the dogs, the braying of the asses. There was no communication except by gestures. It was a very painful day for Baba when we were on silence. But some mandali were given silence for long periods. Dowlat Mai, Mehera's mother, kept silent for over 20 years, until she dropped the body. It was by Baba's orders. Her life was absolutely devoted to Baba's cause. She was blessed to have a daughter who was Baba's beloved and Baba was her Beloved.

"Then there was Gustadji—a very good companion, who was silent. On the Mast tours, or work with the poor, the saints, we could manage Baba being incognito, though His personality was so unique, magnetic, people asked 'who is that person?' And we had to say 'He is our elder brother.' But Gustadji's silence was not so subtle, it would attract people's attention. I had to read his fingers. We had to deal with two silent personalities."

Mani spoke: "It was silence in the midst of activity, not in the cloister. Gustadji, Dowlat Mai, they were not told to lock themselves up, but to keep silence in the midst of activities." Eruch continues: "Baba must have had some reason for giving them silence."

"Baba discarded His alphabet board on 7th October, 1954. He became very expressive, communicating more freely than before. It was Baba's grace that we carried on;—only because He was Infinite Patience personified could we interpret His gestures. It was very difficult. We misinterpreted gestures very often, and He repeated them lovingly with patience.

"Only through His Silence can I have some idea of His greatness, forgiveness, com-passion, if at all I can gauge, from the human level, He was so extraordinary."

Now we were shown Baba's alphabet, Mani makes the finger letters: For the letter R; Adi's brother Rustom played cricket. R=the sign of playing cricket. S was just the opposite sign from R. Baba very