JOURNEY OUT OF DARKNESS

 
Shortly before Phyllis' departure to catch the Kingston bus to New York and on to Kennedy Airport, Otto called Phyllis. He had learned that Phyllis was on her way to see Meher Baba, a dramatic bit of news. He asked her to deliver a message to Baba. "Please tell Meher Baba that I really need His help."

I myself wasn't sending any message to Baba. I wondered why Otto could not have written a letter of his own. I knew that Otto had fallen out of favor with the Riley family since Tom's trip to India. But what business was it of mine?

When the time came for Phyllis to depart for New York's Kennedy Airport, she went into the bedroom where Leslie was playing on the floor with her blocks. "Leslie, I'm going to India now to see Baba," she said.

I was amazed to hear Leslie say, without looking up from her blocks, "Tell Baba I need him so."

It seemed as if the whole universe had turned into one great heartache of longing for the Avatar, His world-renewing Love and Grace. It was such an agony for me to see Phyllis leave, for how could I know what was going to happen in such a reckless adventure? And then she was gone.

Phyllis was halfway around the world, I knew not where, but planning to be back in Woodstock on Christmas Eve.

On the night after Phyllis left from Kennedy Airport for India, Darwin Shaw called from his home in Schenectady, New York, to ask if Phyllis and I wanted to be included in the Christmas greeting their group had been sending every year to Meher Baba. That's when I told him Phyllis had left for India to see Meher Baba. I expressed to Darwin my serious apprehension that Phyllis was going all that way for nothing.

Then Darwin said in that conservative, unjudgmental way of his, "Well, we'll just have to wait and see, but this is certainly a bit of news."

We hung up. However, in about twenty minutes, Darwin called back to say, "You know, I've been thinking, Phyllis isn't going to know exactly what to do when she arrives in Bombay. And I was also thinking, I have some friends there. If it's all right with you, I could cable them to meet Phyllis at the airport. It might make things a lot easier for her."

"I think that is a wonderful idea," I said.

I was amazed to observe how easily the God-Man could reach back and forth across the world, laying His cables of Divine Love from heart to heart, working through His followers.