IF SOMEHOW I COULD TOUCH HIS HAND

 
I have already mentioned G.L.V. a prominent artist of my town who died in 1983. He too took part in the [1958] sahavas. He was not an atheist, but in 1957 when we met, he was not quite sure whether he ought to believe in Meher Baba or not. He believed in Goddess Durga and Saraswati with great devotion and often undertook fasts. When once he was with us in Meherabad, the first thing he sighted was the seven coloured flag flying from a high mast.

"What is that?" he asked me.

"That's Baba's flag. The Avataric flag of this age having all the seven colours in it."

"All the colours! Bah! That makes me very happy. Baba is an artist like me. Only He, as you say, is the Supreme artist. This is the artistic flag — perfect artist's flag!"

"Baba is artist for artists, scientist for scientists, and everything else for everybody else," I said. "He says that He is everything and everybeing."

During the sahavas as we lined up for Baba's Darshan, G.L.V. whispered to me, "If somehow I could touch His hand, I am sure I will get inspiration to do artistic works much better."

"Let's see," I said. The normal procedure was that we were to go up to Baba, bow down at His feet, then embrace Him, and move forward for others to do the same. But to my pleasure, I saw that the moment G.L.V. approached Baba, the God-Man with a knowing smile purposely extended His hand toward G.L.V. and shook his hand warmly, thus fulfilling his desire of touching Baba's hands.

Afterwards G.L.V. often proudly remembered how Baba had shaken hands with him to give him better artistic power. Indeed there was a visible improvement in his artistic performance after the sahavas touch and he later on did a lot of fine paintings including many portraits of Baba Himself.