(July 1956) It was difficult at times to follow Baba’s orders. On one plane flight, Adi had trouble keeping awake, and Baba teased him about it. The light above Baba’s seat was kept burning all night to keep Adi awake. Baba later commented, “I was doing a lot of work during the flight.”
During other plane trips, Meherjee was one of the main scapegoats of Baba’s taunts. Baba’s work for and through Meherjee involved many lessons in personal humiliation. For example, on one occasion, although it had been announced that the plane was to land in a certain place at a certain time, a few minutes later, Baba would direct Meherjee to go and ask the stewardess when they would be landing. After another ten minutes, Baba told him to go and ask again. This happened several more times and Meherjee said, “Baba, she will wonder if we are mad or have come from the jungle!” However, Baba had his own reasons and told him to ask, and the woman would always smile, give a courteous reply and not be annoyed at all.
Once during another plane flight everyone was sleeping after dinner. The stewardesses were also tired and were dozing at the rear of the plane. Baba instructed Meherjee, “Go and ask our stewardess when I will get breakfast.”
“But she is resting,” Meherjee said.
“Wake her up and ask her.” Meherjee had to obey. Smiling, the young lady said that breakfast would be served in the morning. When he returned and told Baba, Baba gestured, “I am feeling hungry. Get me something to eat now.” Meherjee had to go back and wake up the lady again, and she gave him some cereal and coffee. Baba hardly touched it, just crumbling a little of the food between his fingers. And Meherjee was further embarrassed to have to return the tray like that – practically untouched.
In the middle of the night, Baba would tell the mandali to go to the stewardess and ask when she was going to wake them up and when they were going to arrive at their destination. “But, Baba, she is sleeping,” they would say. “Call her!” they were ordered.
“Miss, miss, our boss wants to know when we will get to Los Angeles,” for example. Surprisingly, the mandali found that the stewardesses were never angry about it. Baba had his own reasons for doing this. By waking someone up, he was giving the blessing of his contact to that person. Such was the manner in which he did his inner work.
Lord Meher, Bhau Kalchuri, Original Publication, Vol. 14, pp. 5047 – 5048.