AN UNFORGETTABLE JOY

 
As I saw it, some of the happiest hours of Meher Baba's work in Pimpalgaon [Meherazad] were spent with the masts, the selfless lovers of God, as Baba called them.

Then there were times when Baba was not occupied with mast work and seclusions and He would call different members of the mandali from Meherabad and other places to Meherazad to discuss and make plans.

In between the interviews, Baba would sometimes come over to our side of the compound. There would be frantic calling and we would come running from the vegetable garden, the kitchen, the workroom or even the chicken pen to the main room.

There we would see Baba pacing up and down at a terrific rate, His hands behind His back, deep in some unfathomable work, apparently quite oblivious of our arrival, but quick to mark who was absent. There we stood in silence. We felt, in some indescribable way, linked to His work.

A few minutes later, Baba would motion all to go back to our work, and He would return to His interviews. These interruptions were precious moments, always to be treasured by us.

Work permitting, Baba would sometimes sit with us all for a short while after supper and the time would be spent listening to recordings of the beautiful spiritual songs composed to words from the poems of Hafiz, Kabir or Shams-e-Tabriz (Master of Rumi). Baba would translate for the benefit of the Westerners the Urdu or Persian meaning of each couplet into English.

Another time, Baba would ask one of the group to read aloud passages from the lives of St. Francis of Assisi, St. Theresa or Meister Eckhart — Baba interrupting from time to time to make some point clearer to us all. The memory of these evenings will ever remain an unforgettable joy.