FOUR MASTS

 
Father was assigned the last room near Baba's tin cabin on Meherabad Hill. (These rooms have since been taken down.) Barbed wire surrounded the compound, and in it were kept four masts: Chatti Baba, a very advanced mast; Shariat Khan, Phulwalla Swami, and Bhaiya. Father had to see to all their needs.

He lived as though he were in seclusion, for he attended to the masts night and day. He woke them up and gave them tea, lunch afternoon tea and dinner in the evening. Sometimes he had to feed them the way one would feed little children. During this time Father had no contact with the outside world.

Baba came daily at 4:00 a.m. from His cabin, so father had to get up at 3:00 a.m. to heat the water in two forty-gallon barrels for the masts' baths. The water had to be tepid. Two boys, Krishna and Narayan, were employed to assist Father, but as they were very young, it was hard to wake them. When they finally got up, they would first light the two big primus stoves.

Then they poured the water into two large tins with a wooden rod between them to facilitate lifting them, put the tins on the stoves, and heated them. Once the water was boiling, the boys would pour it into the two barrels, which would already be three-fourths full of cold water, to make the temperature right for bathing the masts.

Phulwalla Swami was a jalali mast, and he was difficult to handle, but Baba had instilled some power into Father, so that this mast would listen to him. Baba would bathe Phulwalla Swami first, then Shariat Khan, then Bhaiya.

Chatti Baba would be bathed last, and Baidul would assist with him. He would lift a bucket of water and pour it over Chatti Baba; then Beloved Baba would sit with a bucket of water and a mug and pour water over Chatti Baba's feet and wash them, continuing to do so until Chatti Baba looked into His eyes. Only after about one hundred buckets of water would Chatti Baba look into Meher Baba's eyes, and then the bath would be over.

Father would wipe Chatti Baba dry and clothe him in a kafni that Mummy had stitched on her machine. Even with the scarcity of water, Baba insisted on bathing Chatti Baba in this fashion. Once Baba stayed for twenty-one days in seclusion in a room in this mast ashram, but only He knew what spiritual work was being carried out with these masts.

One night Chatti Baba came rushing into Baba's room and started weeping, saying loudly, "Fire has started, fire has started!" Baba embraced him lovingly and calmed him down. Then Baba told Father, "France has fallen." This was during the Second World War, and the following day Father read the news in the early morning newspapers. From this incident he realized that Chatti Baba was the Chargeman of France and the war was being controlled spiritually by Baba Himself.