TO SERVE THEM IS REAL SERVICE

After his return from France, Baba was occupied in his mast and mad work in lower Meherabad. On Sunday, December 19th (1937), Dhake came to see Baba at Meherabad. Baba came down the Hill and, after discussing certain matters with Pendu and Dhake, he got up and walked hurriedly to the Mast Ashram. Masaji handed him a broom. Baba rolled up his sleeves and pants and went directly to the inmates’ toilets. (1) He removed the pot from inside, carried it a distance, emptied it in a pit, scoured it with a broom and poured disinfectant in it. Baba then put the pot back, saw that the toilet area was sanitary, and left for the bathing room, where Mast Mohammed was being coaxed into taking a bath. To humor him, this time Mohammed only relented after he was
promised another voyage to Europe in one month. Dr. Ghani, who was witnessing all this with the others, quipped, “Baba is so energetic – I feel tired just watching him!”

Baba replied, “I enjoy being active in this way. I like to clean the toilets of the God-mad and bathe and feed them, much more than when I am bowed down to by my disciples, or have the arti done before me.

“Are not these souls helpless? To serve them is real service. To feed them is real philanthropy. To look after them is real humanitarianism, and to keep them pleased is really pleasing God!”

(1)  There were no flush toilets or septic tanks, only a tin pot inside a makeshift stall. Normally, the servants would clean them for the men and women mandali, but Baba would often clean them for the masts and mad.

Lord Meher, Original Publication, Bhau Kalchuri, Vol. 7, pp. 2243 – 2245.