A MIRACLE OF UNBELIEVABLE MIRACLES

 
Many years ago after joining Meher Baba, I believed in Him only 50 percent. One day He told me to bring three lepers to Him. I told Him I would do anything for Him but I would not want to touch lepers because they are contagious. Baba insisted that I should bring the lepers. Then Baba said, "Either obey Me or leave Me." So I obeyed Him, but not very happily.

I went to the market and found three lepers. I told them "You will get money and clothes, and God will serve you if you come with me." I also told them, "Don't touch me. Stay away from me, as you are too contagious."

I brought the lepers to Baba saying, "Here are the three lepers." And then I kept away from them.

Baba was sitting on a chair in a small room with a table, a bucket of water and a tumbler near Him. He told me to send the lepers one by one to step up on the table so He could wash their feet.

I requested and warned Baba, "Please don't touch them as they are contagious."

Then Baba told me, gesturing with His fingers, "But I am the resident and inner motivator of every heart. I am in the ugly and the beautiful. I am in the old and the young. I wash my own feet and bow down my head on my own feet because I am in them."

Still I insisted and warned Him not to touch their feet because they are contagious. Baba gestured with His fingers again saying, "Very soon you will see with your own eyes that I am in the lepers".

Even though Baba said this, I would still not touch the lepers while sending them one by one to stand up on the table. I gave water in the tumbler to Baba to pour on their feet. Baba cleaned their feet and then bowed His head on their feet. I was shocked to witness this scene as it was unbelievable that Baba was doing such things.

So Baba washed the feet of the first two lepers, one by one, while I gave Baba the water, but I was always cautious not to touch them. When Baba was washing the feet of the last leper, I saw the leper in the form of Baba Himself — the leper looked like Baba. Baba then gestured with His fingers and again told me, "Very soon you will see me in the lepers."

I was surprised beyond imagination. "This must be illusion. How could it be true?" I thought so I closed my eyes thinking, "It is illusion, it can't be true!" I opened my eyes and saw Baba gesturing to me, saying, "I told you I am in the lepers."

The third time I opened my eyes, to my surprise Baba again appeared in the form of the leper. Seeing this made me believe and accept Baba as God in human form. It was a true miracle that Baba performed that I could renounce the world and join Him and accept Him as God. It was a miracle of unbelievable miracles.

Then, Irwin, some years ago [1971], you and your brother, Edward, told me that you wanted to film lepers with me while I told the story of what Baba said and did with the lepers when I would bring them to Him. You had brought a video tape and movie cameras and we went in a taxi to the government leper hospital, 10 miles from Poona where many men and women lepers were staying permanently.

I hugged and embraced all the lepers, I saw only Baba in the form of the lepers, so I was embracing Baba for two days. On the third day the lepers came to me saying, 'You must be crazy or a saint because our own relatives come and visit us once a week and stay away from us because we are lepers. You being strangers, embracing us and hugging us is beyond our imagination.'

Then I explained, 'I was not embracing you all in the form of lepers, I was embracing Meher Baba, Avatar, God in the form of lepers.' They accepted my story and took it as a miracle of God.

My love and faith in Meher Baba was so deep at that point that I no longer felt their disease would be contagious to me. For three days I did not change my clothes or take a bath, but on the fourth day I became scared and frightened, as I would NEVER touch the lepers. What made me embrace and hug them for three days without changing my clothes or taking a bath?

On the fifth day Baba came to me in a dream and said, 'Don't be upset or scared, I made you do all these things just to make you believe in Me, that I'm in everything, that I am the resident and inner motivator of every heart'

I take it as a great miracle shown to me by Baba Himself in my lifetime, which has made me renounce the world completely and join Him permanently.