COME TO A DECISION

 
Mehernath and Sheela used to call Bhau "Babuji." On this occasion or another, when they came, Pendu began teasing Sheela, saying, "Babuji is mine!"

Reacting upset, Sheela retorted, "No, Babuji is mine!" and she caught hold of Bhau's arm. Baba wanted to know what the commotion was about, and Pendu told him.

Baba remarked to Sheela, "Now I have come to a decision: Babuji is yours and Mehernath is mine."

"No!" Sheela protested. "I want Babuji and Baba both!"

"If you want Babuji, how could you have Baba?"

"Then I want only Baba!"

Smiling, Baba teased, "It has been decided; now don't worry!"

Baba asked Mehernath, "Do you love Babuji or your mother?"

Mehernath said, "I don't know Babuji; I love Ma."

Baba asked Sheela the same question and she replied, "Babuji!"

Baba smiled and remarked, "Now think it over and say it again." Sheela repeated that she loved her father more. Baba asked Mehernath, "And you? What do you say? Whom do you love more?"

He replied, "I love Baba!"

Baba embraced both children, and Mehernath told him, "My birthday is on October 22. Please call me to Meherazad."

Baba gestured, "I will have to call you, because you love me so much!"

Baba then addressed Rama, "I am very pleased with you. You are staying alone with the children and in that way are helping Bhau, who is with me. Thereby you are serving me. Were I to send Bhau away anytime, who would do nightwatch?"

Bhau's family was extremely fortunate to be in Baba's contact, and it is only his compassion that kept them near him. For his own reasons, Baba always kept a few children near him: In the 1920s it was the Prem and Meher Ashram boys; in the 1930s and 1940s Meheru and her brothers and sister, and Savak Kotwal's and Baidul's children; and in the late 1950s and 1960s Sheela and Mehernath Kalchuri.