THE FULL MEASURE OF HIS LOVE

 
The next morning [Sep, 1987] in Mandali Hall Mani talked about being in the hospital in Mysore where she had an emergency ear-operation in 1936. In the days after her surgery Baba came every day and tenderly fed her drops of soup from a teaspoon at first, then later tiny pieces of apple until she was well enough to eat.

Naja stayed in Mani's room to look after her. As Baba wished His identity kept secret, Naja and Mani were told not to tell anyone who He was. Even then the nurses were greatly drawn to Baba without knowing why.

A nurse asked one morning "Who is this Baba?"

Naja replied, "The patient's brother."

"And why doesn't He speak?" persisted the nurse.

"Oh, He's very shy!" said Naja.

Every morning as Baba's car pulled up, it seemed that all the nurses would be on the landing in order to have a glimpse of Him coming up the stairs. Then again they would come into Mani's room whenever He was there, on some pretext or another, just to see Baba.

One nurse popped in, her eyes on Him, asking "Is my thermometer here?"

Naja said to Mani in her resounding "stage whisper": "She never takes your temperature so how could she leave the thermometer here?"

Nurse Rose, who worked in the nursery, would come pitter-patter into the room with each of the day's newborn babies. Without a word she would hold it out before Baba. He would silently take the baby on His lap and "talk" to it in gestures and smiles, taking quite a bit of time with each one. This went on every day while Naja and Mani looked on.

One day Mani counted twelve newborn babies that Nurse Rose brought to Baba one after another. So many were brought that Mani and Naja began to feel very impatient and thought there would be little time left for them to spend with Baba.

But He expressed no impatience whatever, and gave the full measure of His love and attention to each of these fortunate babies.