MOST OF ALL HE LOVED HUMANITY

 
Talking of Donkin reminds me of a little bird we found one day when Baba was with us. He was back from His mast work for a short time. This day there was a strong wind blowing, and it was shaking the branches on the trees in our compound.

Suddenly, a little bird fell from its nest on a very slender branch. We could not reach the nest to put it back, so we decided to keep it. At that point Dr. Donkin came to another room in the house to talk to Mani about The Wayfarers, so I called Mani and told her to ask Dr. Donkin what we should feed this bird, which was a baby golden oriole. "Just a worm or two," Donkin told Mani. We were very pleased to hear that it would be so easy to feed.

The long and the short of it is that a worm or two was not enough at all! We dug up buckets of worms for this bird, and had our sweeper dig them up, too. We had brought up many birds before, but never one that could eat so many worms. And Baba would feed it with His own hands. So as soon as He stepped into the room, even when we had just fed it, this bird would cry louder than ever for food!

"Why aren't you feeding it? Why have you let it get so hungry?" Baba would ask us.

"But we just fed it, Baba," we would explain.

"Then it's not enough," Baba said, and He would feed it Himself. This baby bird was very fortunate to be fed with Baba's own hand.

It grew up to be a lovely golden oriole. And when it was completely grown and had practiced flying around inside the house, Baba said, "Now we must set it free in the garden so it can fly in the open air."

One afternoon we carefully checked to see that there were no crows about, and we brought this bird outside. Baba took it in His hands, and then let it go. Up into the trees it flew, while Baba watched with a smile. Baba was so happy to see this bird happy and free. How much Baba loved birds. He loved animals, too, but most of all He loved humanity.

Someone, perhaps it was a reporter in the early days when Baba visited England, asked Baba whether He had ever been in love. "Yes," Baba replied, "I am always in love with humanity."