the man in the child found his reason growing sharp and active at the same time, but ever placed at the feet of the Beloved. Baba never discouraged, questioning or even doubting, but always subjected them to the bidding of the questioner exalting the richness of love and its position far above that of the intellect.

The Sun Hat

Once I was walking with Baba and a few others with the sun hat on my head, to which I was an addict. I could hardly expose my head to the sun even for some seconds without the fear of getting sunstroke. It was the best cork hat that I had bought, then valued at Rs. 30., when a cheap hat was available for Rs. 4., or 5. As we were passing by a thickly grown thorny cactus hedge called "livadung" (the species which is extinct in Maharashtra today) on the right side of the road leading to Bhamburda Causeway, Baba in a peremptory expectation of my obedience to him, suddenly ordered me to throw away the hat in the midst of the cactus hedge. Overcoming a passing flash of a momentous anxiety of being deprived of a useful and expensive hat, I promptly lifted it overhead and quickly flung it over the top of the hedge into the thick of the cactus and heaved a sigh of relief for having proved equal to the moment in obedience. Baba expressed satisfaction and we continued to walk.

Hot Cocoa

The cooking entrusted to Bapu, the simple man of a Brahmin family, proved unsuccessful. He was ill versed in making good tea or cocoa, much less food, except unsalted pasty rice and dal insoluble in gravy. I felt distressed to find the same old inconvenience continued in the matter of giving good meals to Meher Baba, but I could be of little use. One Sunday morning, I decided to offer Baba a good drink of cocoa. On the previous day I purchased a thermos bottle for Rs. 6. and before leaving the college for the zhopdi I prepared the drink, and carried the thermos on my cycle. While getting down from the cycle near the zhopdi and lifting the thermos of the cycle to take it to Baba, the thermos dashed against the bar and broke and the liquid began dripping out. Baba admonished me for bringing the cocoa and spending for the new thermos without asking him, and warned that in future I should not spend anything for him without asking him. However, he permitted the liquid to be strained through a clean white cloth and drank a part of it thus easing my dual anxiety of displeasing him and giving him some drink of hot cocoa.

Momentary Gaze

Once, while walking with Baba and two other companions on an early morning from the zhopdi to Meher Baba's parent's house in the Cantonment, we arrived at the back side of Dorabji’s shop, where Baba suddenly stopped and began gazing at something with head slightly tilted downwards with no apparent object to look at. Some seconds passed by, and Baba lifting his gaze, resumed walking and remarked that he was looking at the sight of living bodies getting born and dying in quick succession. I did not venture to ask anything more about it and neither was he disposed to say anything more.

Broken Promise

I had a fellow student in Deccan College. We both lived in the same room in the hostel. In fact we had been together in school also. I took him to Baba a few times and he willingly used to accompany me, when I asked him. However on a Sunday morning, he refused because those were the preparation days for the First Year Arts examination