(July 1956) A FRENCH COUPLE, Robert Antoni and his wife Yvonne, age fifty-two, had come from Paris to meet Baba with Andreé Aron. Yvonne had first heard of Baba in Paris in 1940, during a German air raid. She had been visiting a friend when the attack came, and both hurried down into the basement shelter. When the alert was over, the elevators were not functioning, so they had to walk back up to the sixth floor. In doing so, they helped an elderly lady reach her apartment on the fourth floor, and when they arrived at her front door the woman folded her hands saying, “Thank you, Baba.”
“Who is Baba?” Yvonne asked.
At once the woman gave her a small piece of paper on which was printed: “Shri Meher Baba, write to Meherabad, India or to Princess Matchabelli, New York.”
During World War II they were not allowed to write to foreign countries, but in 1945 when the war ended, Yvonne Antoni immediately wrote to Baba and received a reply through Adi in which Baba conveyed: “I know you and have been protecting you.”
When she finally met Baba, Yvonne Antoni recalled: “We proceeded toward a small lounge where Baba was waiting for us, seated on a sofa. When I caught sight of him, I had the impression I was seeing a radiant Being; there was a bright white light in the room.”
Robert Antoni worked with juvenile delinquents and was quite weary of the job. Baba explained to him: “You should not be brought down by them, but on the contrary you should uplift them and look for God in their hearts. As long as the heart speaks, language does not matter. God is in all. He is everywhere. He needs no words or language. He does not listen to the prayers from our mouths but from our hearts. Remain happy always, even in adverse circumstances. If there were no turmoil, you could not test your ability to remain calm. One must try to remain happy always. One must try to make others happy.” After their interview, the Antonis flew back to Paris the same evening.
Lord Meher, 1st. ed., Bhau Kalchuri, Vol. 14, p 4942.