[Tavern-Talk] HEART TALK: William Donkin's Diaries 5

Fri Dec 14 03:14:03 GMT 2007

HEART TALK - Donkin's Diaries: Fifth Installment

10/10/39

Two days ago the remainder of the Mandali from Meherabad arrived,
Padri, Pendu, Dr Ghani, Masa, Mama, and boys, and lots and lots of
luggage, cats, dogs, etc. The house is now quite full. Adi is in
another small bungalow with his sister, about 2 miles off.

Baba talking about war said that Italy would probably join the allies,
at least I think he said this, and he added:  "What you fellows forget
is, what would happen if there was a revolution in Germany. " He also
added that if England declared war on Russia now she would be the
"biggest fool out. "

Baba keeps on repeating how Hitler must go, and Nazism too -
spiritually they are all one, Germany, England, etc, but in Maya, the
Nazis are, he says, gangsters. Baba says he is controlling the war
personally between Sept 21st and Oct 21st, and if there is no peace by
Oct 21st then it will be a long and terrible war, with destruction
everywhere, India being bombed also. If there is peace, there will be
economic upheavals. He says however that the chances of war continuing
are 99%. America, he says, will gradually be drawn in.

Nonny's joints seem a little better, and Chandri has developed pus
under the skin, so she will be in hospital longer yet.

Baba likes the new mast Pasha - he himself calls himself Pasha, or
King, and he bosses all the others about. Mohammed is terrified of
him, because he teases him, and whenever he sees him he runs into the
house at full speed - rather pathetic, but funny too.

Yesterday I went with Byramshaw to a saint's tomb about 2 miles
outside the town, then this morning Baba has just been talking to all
of us about the war. He says first of India that the Viceroy is good,
and it is not England's fault that India is like she is. Congress,
Muslim League and Native States all come to him and say don't listen
to the others, so that there is no unity to produce efficient home
rule. But Baba says that because England wants to appear as champion
of democracy in the eyes of the world, she will give India Dominion
status, and India will have to fight.

He says re the war, that England, France and Italy will win the war,
if America doesn't come in with peace overtures and spoil it all, and
that Hitler and Stalin will have to go, and will be dictated to by
England, France and Italy. He says that Stalin will help Hitler with
arms, money, and men, but will dictate to him what he shall do. But
Stalin will be displaced by the allies in the end, as all dictators must go.

Baba says however that the war will be full of reverses and surprises
- did any of us expect Russia to join Germany?! he said.

He says after war, when England, France, and Italy win, they will make
a democratic Germany and Russia, and will give Danzig and Polish
corridor to Germany. This war, if there is no peace by October 21st,
will cause Baba to speak, and will result in a 50 years peace.

Baba starts to fast on Oct 21st, with 2 cups of tea a day only; and
each of us will fast for a day, taking it in turns. When India is
bombed, Ghani, Ramju, and Padri must stop smoking.

Afghanistan, he says, will be altered much by the war.

17/10/39

Nilu and I were called over to see Nonny last Friday morning 13th Oct
at 5:00 am: She was in heart distress, restless, pale, cold
extremities, blue lips, and had had pain in the abdomen. We gave heart
stimulants. Later in the day we gave oxygen, but she got steadily
worse. Baba was out at the centre site, and returned at 6:50.
Apparently while he was in the car returning he said at 6:40 that
Nonny had died then. But she was still alive when he came in, and he
looked at her very intently then he called Nilu, Rano and myself to
the door, so that we could tell him how she had been. Then suddenly
Norina came running to say she had gone queer. We went quickly to the
bedside, with Baba: she had stopped breathing. Baba pressed the
eyelids to close them with his own fingers, and Nonny gave one deep
sigh, and was finished.

Baba said she had come to him, and that it was the very first time he
had been present at the death of a disciple. Even when his father died
Baba was away in Europe. Baba said she had to die before the 21st Oct,
and that now the war would get very bad, millions will be killed.
During the war he says two more of his circle will die, either two
men, or one woman and one man.

Baba wanted Nonny to be cremated, and he said she would be buried on
the hill at Meherabad, near Baba's Tomb, with the words Nonny, Baba's
Lover, engraved on a monument where her ashes are to be laid.

He said of Nonny that she was one of his greatest lovers. Shortly
before she died she gave 1 1/2 lakhs of rupees to Baba for the Centre scheme.

That night Nilu and I moved Nonny in her bed into a small room alone,
where Kitty placed a lamp, and some burning sandal wood, with flowers,
and a photo of Baba to be laid at her head by Baba's order.

The same evening, Nilu, Rano, and I arranged for cremation to take
place. The Health Officer we found in his office even at 8:00 pm., and
he arranged everything there and then, and was very helpful; no real
formalities like in England.

Next morning Nilu and I dressed the body in a pink silk nightdress,
and wrapped it in a sheet: Rano asked for the head to be covered,
which we did with a handkerchief. Then Norina and others covered the
wrapped body in flowers - very beautiful to look at really. We then
lifted the body on to the stretcher, and by Rano's wish, as the motor
hearse had glass sides, covered the flower covered body with an Indian
coverlet.

We then drove to the cremation ground about 4 miles, on the Mysore
Road, in the country, with hills all round, v. beautiful. A special
wood pyre had been made, just outside the Hindu cremation ground, and
we all helped to carry the stretcher to the pyre. About 30 of us came,
women and men in the bus and other cars. We then put more flowers on
the body, which was then covered with logs of wood. After kindling we
waited some 1/2 hour, and then we returned. Somehow death when Baba is
around doesn't seem to matter. She had a very easy death, and just
seemed to creep out of her body ever so gently: no doubt Baba's work.

Next morning Nilu, Chanji, Elizabeth and I went to collect the ashes:
Adi has taken them in a box to Meherabad, where they are to be buried,
near Baba's own future tomb.

About a week ago Nilu and Pendu went to Belgaum to fetch a mast
[Phulwala Mast] which Vishnu's brother in law [Mr. Haldankar], who
lives there, had found. Baba had asked him to look out for such men.
Nilu and Pendu brought him back in a hired taxi. They had gone in from here.

He disliked coming into the house, as he lived in the forest outside
Belgaum, he has a filthy turban, and very bright eyes indeed: his chin
is very smooth for a man. He looks about 40 years old. He loves
flowers, tobacco, and tea. He drinks everything out of an old tin he
carries with him. Every day Baba covers him with flowers and feeds
him. Baba says he is very advanced, between the fifth and sixth
planes, in which state when in ecstasy their limbs separate from the
body, and this is why they sleep in the forest. He likes Baba to sit
near him, and is now much quieter than when he first came; then he
wanted to go away. Apparently all these masts find it painful coming
to Baba, he is like fire to them, and burns them by his very high
spiritual state.

This mast sleeps in Mohammed's room. To-day another mast has been
brought by Jal and Pendu from Mangalore; a fellow also with bright
eyes, and a huge mop of hair piled on his head.

Baba to-day has a new coat, rather like the one Stalin wears in his pictures.

The opening of the centre has again been postponed till Dec 17th,
because of an extra good crop on the land Baba has bought, and the
past owners, although the land no longer belongs to them, have asked
Baba whether they can be allowed to take the crop in spite of the
delay it causes. Baba is allowing this, and, as he says, it will
create a good impression a
s being a generous gesture.

In two days I go to Mysore with others, and Baba, to see the Dasara
procession - it should be interesting.

===================================

Jai Beloved Baba!
Archives Team
Avatar Meher Baba P.P.C. Trust

Other Heart Talk letters can be selected at:
http://www.ambppct.org/archives/collections/written_materials/correspondence/heart_talk.htm

To learn more about the Avatar Meher Baba Trust Archives go to:
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