PLAYING WITH BABA

 
In June 1982 my family and I wanted to stay at Meherabad for a few days. But as the dharamshala was then under construction, there appeared to be no place for us. We were told we could stay at "Krishi Bhavan" (Farmers' Educational Center) but that it had no toilets and no water facilities; it was just a big hall, around 50 feet by 30 feet.

As our only wish was to be near Meher Baba's Samadhi, we were delighted with this offer. We wanted to bathe in Baba's presence and for this we were quite willing to do without all conveniences.

So my family, including my daughter with her two children — her four year old son, Meher, and one year old daughter, Manija — came to Meherabad. Every morning we would attend morning arti and prayers at 7:00 at the Tomb. We would all walk up the hill in the early morning but one day my daughter didn't come with us as Meher was still sleeping. She waited until 6:30 but when he still didn't awake, she came up the hill with Manija.

After the prayers and arti, I asked my daughter where Meher was, and she said that she had left him all alone in the hall. She had bolted and locked the door from the outside and, leaving him in a deep sleep, she had come up the hill.

As it was now nearing 7:30 and a train had already rumbled by the hall, I felt it quite likely that Meher would have awakened by now. I was upset because Meher tends to cry if he wakes up and doesn't find anybody near him. I envisioned him, scared and lonely, in the big empty hall and I scolded my daughter for leaving him like that and told her to go down right away and see if Meher was all right.

She rushed down the hill, but as she neared, she was astonished to see though the window that Meher seemed to be in an extraordinarily jubilant mood.

When Meher saw her, he started dancing and called out as if he were talking to someone else in the room, "My mother has come! My mother has come!"

No sooner did she unbolt the door than Meher rushed to her and told her in great excitement that he had been playing with Baba. He pointed to the photo of Meher Baba which was displayed there and said, "This Meher Baba came (out of the photo) and played with me."

When the rest of us heard this story we asked him why he wasn't afraid of being alone in such a big hall and he replied, "Baba was with me, playing all the while. I was very happy and did not cry."

And indeed he was in an especially happy and excited mood for the rest of the day. In the afternoon we went to Meherazad and Meher asked us to tell his story of playing with Baba to the mandali.

Because my daughter could only think of attending Baba's arti that morning, Baba Himself came to babysit the child she left behind.