Chacha, Part 2

 
[The Satara mast ashram happened in 1947.] This mast ashram perhaps stands a head high above others because Baidul, either by some stroke of fortune, or by Baba's inner help, succeeded in bringing Chacha of Ajmer, the great seventh plane majzoob, to Satara. He stayed in the ashram for about five weeks, and it seemed as if Baba's whole attitude to his mandali, and to the world at large, was dependent upon his work with Chacha. There was no doubt that, when Chacha was responsive and easy, Baba was supremely happy, and, indeed, there is nothing that makes Baba so really happy as a first-rate mast in a first-rate mood.

A perfect Master is one who is not only spiritually perfect, but one, also, who so loves mankind that he becomes by his own will perfectly a man, and enjoys and suffers as a man does. When Baba is working with a good mast he becomes so engrossed that, for the time being, he utterly forgets his meals, his sleep, his clothes, his mandali, and, it seems, the whole wide world. The mandali, though they are glad to share these moments of manifest happiness, are often amazed at the relentless energy with which he pursues his work. At such times Baba presses the throttle hard down to the floorboard, without regard for the damage that he might do to the intricate machinery of his physical frame.

Such, then, was Baba's way of life when Chacha was in Satara, and he told Baidul that, for this work, Chacha was as good as a hundred ordinary masts. What the work was that Baba did during those strangely silent hours, when those coming in and out of the ashram would lift themselves forward on to their toes, and talk in hushed voices, I do not know, for he would not tell us the reasons for those long sessions behind closed doors. He must, nevertheless, have done some labour that called for immense and protracted concentration, for he would emerge from almost every meeting, pale, and apparently exhausted, his clothes often drenched in perspiration out of all proportion to the heat of the day....

On 10th July [1947], Baba pronounced his work with Chacha to be complete, and he was sent back to Ajmer. Ali Shah began also to be unwell in various small ways, so that Baba found his work with him difficult. Towards the end of July, therefore, Ali Shah was sent back to Ahmadnagar, and with his departure the Satara Mast Ashram came to an end.