Meher Baba In The Great Seclusion, part 6 of 11

 
The following day, June 22nd, Meher Baba entered the cabin-enclosure exactly at 5:35 P.M. I.S.T., and Meherazad, which is normally a quiet spot surrounded by extensive fields and open spaces from all sides, turned into a deep jungle of peace and quietude, occasionally disturbed only by the rustle of trees and whistles of birds. With all that Baba used to remind all concerned from time to time through Kaka against disturbing the peace in any way. The "Nimboris" (fruit of the "Neem" tree) falling occasionally on the roof of the cabin gave so much cause for him to complain that Kaka once had to climb over the tree with a long stick to clear away all the fruit from it.

As he was the only person selected by Baba to attend upon him, Kaka had necessarily to play many roles. He was thus carpenter, coolie, electrician, engineer, gardener, orderly, mason, messenger, plumber, superintendent and sweeper all rolled into one. At first he was supposed to work only between the hours of 5 in the morning and 9 at night, but within a few days, Baba would ring for him at any odd hour of the day or night, if for nothing else, than to warn him to see that no disturbance of any kind took place.

Against his normal sleep of about an hour or half every night, Baba hardly slept for more than a few minutes at a stretch since he entered into the seclusion. Often he did not get even a wink of sleep throughout the nights.

Some of those who kept watch at night in addition to the regular watchman, often heard inexplicable sounds and weird noises. All that could be guessed at was the direction from which such sounds emanated. For example, while at watch, Meherjee heard someone breathing in the bathroom near the cabin one night at about 10:30. He at once opened the door of the bathroom but could see no one there although he could yet hear the heavy breathing inside the apparently vacant room and which continued until Meherjee began to hear Baba's own heavy breathing from the cabin itself. The sound from the bathroom then ceased instantly. Meherjee thereafter continued to hear Baba's heavy breathing for about 45 minutes, when Meherjee suddenly heard heavy footsteps inside the cabin. Almost simultaneously he heard as if Baba was getting up from the bed and the heavy footsteps ceased to be audible.

On June 26th, twenty-one poor people (not beggars) were sent for. They were very carefully selected from amongst the needy irrespective of caste or community. Baba allowed each one of them to go to him inside the enclosure one by one, washed their feet and presented ten rupees to each. On 29th, seven mad and Mast type of people were brought to Baba when he clipped their hair, bathed them, dressed them in new clothes and sent them back with a present of a packet of sweets to each. A very interesting account of these and such further activities carried out by Baba during certain intervals in the course of the seclusion, is included in William Donkin's latest book The Work of Meher Baba with Advanced Souls, Sadhus, the Mad and the Poor.