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triple phase of BABA'S Fiery Free Life, were, as I saw it, the most outstanding events during the period of BABA's working at Pimpalgaon. Of this New Life period, BABA once cryptically said, "It is the beginning of my end and the end of my beginning."

 

MEHER BABA'S different phases of outer activity and work are invariably divided into periods of time, synchronizing with a shifting of place and scene . . . as for example, Manzil [-e] Meem, Toka, Nasik , Meherabad, all bear testimony to this fact, and with this visible change in place, there is, I feel, a change in his inner working. Therefore, it was not unexpected to find BABA, in 1944, after many years of intense activity in Meherabad, making plans to shift elsewhere, and Pimpalgaon, eighteen miles from Meherabad, was the spot BABA chose, taking with him a small group of men and women disciples, the rest staying on in Meherabad. I was among those left in Meherabad but who, on occasion, BABA called to Pimpalgaon.

 

Pimpalgaon, since ages past, has had a spiritual atmosphere, brought to it by the great souls who have lived on the summit of the surrounding hills, that to this day, seems vibrant because of the many pilgrims who yearly come to worship at their shrines.

 

The Center at Pimpalgaon, to which BABA gave the name "Meherazad," lies in a secluded green valley. From the direction of the women's quarters where I stayed, one sees vast stretches of crude, undulating plains, interspersed by deep ravines, known in India as shullas, which are dry, except in monsoon season, when rains pour down the slopes of the hills. Early morn till sunset, one would see the shepherd boys tending their goats and cows on the plains at the foot of the hills. From the direction of the Mandali* quarters, the landscape is completely different, large tracts of poorly cultivated lowland, stretching to the far distant range known as the Western Ghats .

 

The women's quarters stand in a beautiful flower garden, with a variety of shrubs and shady trees and giving color to the whole are the wide-spreading gormors, which when in bloom, are just a concentrated mass of crimson. Still more beautiful, is to look out from the back garden on Tembi Hill (BABA'S Hill) on the summit of which, on a clear day, we could just catch a glimpse of BABA'S cabin.

 

The Mandali quarters are not quite so attractive, having only a bare open compound with huts lined up on one side and with one large, spreading

 

*Close disciples

 

2

 

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