HE WEPT ALL NIGHT LONG

 
Minoo told me that the most difficult order he had ever received from Meher Baba came at the beginning of the New Life. That order was that Minoo was not to lay eyes on Baba during this period (he had been accepted as one of those who was to remain behind but obey implicitly). If he were to lay eyes on his Master at any time, at any place, he was not to acknowledge Baba in any way. He could not speak his name or speak to him or even look upon him. If this ever happened, he was to immediately leave that place.

Minoo told Baba that he didn't believe that he could ever carry out this order, but Baba said to him, "You must!"....

Many months elapsed, and Minoo, like many others, longed for just a glimpse of his beloved Baba. In the second year of the separation, one day in Delhi near the railroad station, Minoo looked up as he rounded a corner to see none other than Baba standing near the platform with the men disciples. He remembered his order from Baba, and with great difficulty he did not cast his eyes upon Baba but fled from the spot. (As Minoo told me this, one could see his heart breaking anew, though it had been many, many years before.)

Because of the work he had to do in the city, he remained there to spend the night. He chose a hotel that he had known and retired early, trying not to give way to the sorrow in his heart in not being able to even touch or speak to Baba. During the evening, a knock came at his door and someone inquired if he knew where Meher Baba was staying — that he had been told he was in Delhi and wished to see him. Minoo replied that he did not know Baba's whereabouts. He then went to bed and tried to sleep, but he could not. He wept all night long.

The next day he went back to the work Baba had assigned him, and it was not until many months later that Minoo learned an astonishing fact. On the same night that he lay in the hotel, crying for the love of Baba, his beloved Baba lay on a bed in the next room against the same wall that divided them, for Baba had decided for his own reasons to remain overnight in a hotel right next door to the hotel in which Minoo stayed. So all the time he wept, Baba was lying near to him. Again, what a demonstration of love and example of why our faith is so important.