HOW MANY SUCH DAUGHTERS DO YOU WANT?

 
The poet, Sulay, first had Baba's darshan in 1944 at the branch of the Theosophical Society in Nagpur. During Baba's visit, His special message "The Dynamics of Love" was read to the gathering. As he heard it, Sulay felt that in the form of Meher Baba he was beholding Love personified. He looked at Baba, and there stretched an eternity between them. At this meeting, everything he had planned to say to Baba vanished from his mind except one personal sorrow.

Sulay had had a daughter about six years old who was extremely dear to him, but she had suddenly passed away. In his first interview he told Baba about the sad and untimely death of his daughter. Baba sympathized with him but casually put a question to him: "How many such daughters do you want?" Sulay felt confused over the question and kept quiet. Baba switched to another subject, and the interview was over.

Some months later Sulay took a position in a school for small children (kindergarten) run by a foreign mission. His duty was to teach fundamental lessons in Hindi. The children were mostly from well-to-do families. In their company, he nearly forgot the sorrow caused by the demise of his little one. One day while he was teaching the lesson, he noticed that the faces of the girls in the class remarkably resembled the countenance of his darling daughter — only the dresses marked a difference. This experience continued for some days as he taught.

Eventually he realized that this was in fulfillment of the question that Baba had put to him. This little incident sowed deep in him the seeds of conviction of Baba's divinity, and he wanted to lead a life dedicated to Baba and His cause.

Later on Sulay had an urge to visit Pandharpur, one of the famous places of pilgrimage in Maharashtra. He commenced this long journey of over a thousand kilometers in his bare feet. During the course of his walk, a certain dream was repeated several times — in it he saw a well by a road and one small hill on the other side. The route of his pilgrimage took him to Ahmednagar, and as he reached this city, he decided to visit Meherabad, for he had not seen it before.

When he approached the ashram, he at once recognized that the well and the hill were identical with those he had seen in his dream. It was thus symbolically revealed to him that the real place of pilgrimage was none other than Meherabad. He was overjoyed to learn that Baba was there, but He was to go into seclusion the next day. Sulay was permitted to meet Him. In an informal audience, Baba conveyed to him: "As you have come to Meherabad there is no need for you to go to Pandharpur or any other place of pilgrimage."

Sulay very gladly accepted Baba's instruction and decided not to proceed to Pandharpur. Some experiences that he had during the journey, including the recurring dream, were instrumental in the flowering of the seed of conviction in his heart — that Meher Baba is the only one to worship and to whom to pray.