JOURNEY OUT OF DARKNESS

 
"It's very interesting that Baba asks so many questions, seeing that He knows everything, but His questions bring various points into sharp focus. Baba must want certain things to remain vividly with us."

"Yes, I could almost say my whole interview with Baba was nothing but questions and answers. It enabled me to interact with Him in such a vital way. I felt extremely alive while I was there with Baba. I felt I had come into his rhythm somehow. I thought of asking Baba when exactly you and I should come, but I decided it wouldn't be a good idea to press Baba on that. I think Baba wants it to be left to you to decide when we come.

I said, "Well, at this point I'm really undecided whether we should go in March, as Baba told us originally, or next December, when there will be the Western Darshan. Or maybe we should go at some other date. I don't know."

Phyllis told me, "I had said to Baba earlier, 'To be honest, I don't actually know whether I can follow you or not, because I am Jewish, and you know, Baba, they call you the Messiah, and as you also know, the Jews have had many messiahs."'

"Then Eruch said for Baba, 'Phyllis, Baba wants you to know that Baba is God."'

"He wants you to know." I thought about Baba's words to Phyllis. They seemed so important. I asked her, "Did you reply to that?"

"I said, 'I always knew that God is silent."'

"So, He actually told you, He is God," I said.

"Yes, I think that is why Baba wanted me to meet His brother Jal. He wanted me to hear Jal's story about the scar in the palm of Jal's hand, the experience which convinced Jal that Baba is God."

"What was that experience, the scar on Jal's hand?"

"As soon as I got to Poona and met Jal, he held out his hand showing me the scar in his palm and said, 'Do you see this?' He told me the story of how Baba asked him, 'Can you hold a live coal in your hand?' Jal said he told Baba, 'Yes.' So Baba took a pair of tongs and lifted a hot coal out of a brazier to place it in Jal's open palm. Jal told me he felt nothing at all, but then he fainted. Jal woke up in the hospital in excruciating pain. He told me that was the point at which he knew that Baba is God."

"I see," I said. "You have to be burned in the fire to know that Baba is God."

"Yes, and that reminds me," Phyllis said, "what Baba said to me. He told me, 'Your eyes will weep and weep and weep and your heart will burn and burn and burn, and be consumed. And you will experience the Real."'

"Oh, my God! It's all so terrible, just terrible, this process of 'coming to God'!" I could see, we had gotten in very deep, far too deep now with Baba, perhaps. But there was no way out of the place we had come to, in this astounding journey out of darkness into light.