TOTALLY HELPLESS

 
On Sunday, January 1st, 1950, Baba wished all his companions a "Happy New Life!" Everyone was given a piece of Christmas cake, and at two o'clock that afternoon they left Moradabad, walking in procession. The cavalcade now consisted of a caravan, two tongas and one bullock cart. Pendu drove the caravan, Donkin and Baidul the tongas, and Sadashiv the bullock cart. Baba and the companions trudged along, all the luggage piled into the caravan, tongas and cart. After covering four miles, the caravan halted in a garden for the night.

The companions were lying in the open garden in the pitch dark. As the rain shower began, they hurriedly rolled up their bedding, and shouldering it ran in search of a place of shelter. There was no shelter. Aloba fell down when his feet got entwined in the cord tied to the animals. Sadashiv rebuked him, saying, "Why are you looking at me? Pick up your bedding. Did you write 'yes' just to stare at me? This is the New Life!"

They stowed their bedding rolls underneath the tongas and bullock cart in an effort to keep them dry, and themselves sat in the most miserable discomfort in the pouring rain. Their bedding got soaked in spite of their efforts. On the first day of the New Life of helplessness, "Indra's rain" rendered them totally helpless. Baba was inside a small tent, but it had holes in it and leaked, so he also got drenched.

It was a sleepless, miserable night. They left the garden at eight o'clock on the morning of January 2nd. After walking five miles, Baba sent Eruch out to beg. He brought loaves of bread, a piece of which Baba distributed to each one. The women fed grass to the donkeys, and after covering a further five miles they arrived at the village of Haryana, where they stayed in a mango grove.