HE HADN'T FORGOTTEN HIM

 
This incident occurred during Meher Baba's first tour of Andhra in 1953. We were staying outside of town in a government rest house. The mandali were staying in a nearby building and at the time I am speaking of, only Baba and I were in his quarters. It was early in the morning, before the darshan program began for the day, and Baba wanted a bath.

I looked everywhere but I couldn't find a big vessel for heating the water in. I also couldn't find any kindling to make a fire. There was nothing in or around the house. Baba was waiting and I was becoming desperate, how could I arrange for Baba's bath?

I found some old newspaper or something of that sort and I lit it on fire and held a small lota of water over it, hoping to get a little water at least lukewarm for Baba in this way. Obviously this was not a very efficient method, but I didn't know what else I could do.

Just at that moment, as I was trying to warm the water, I saw someone approaching from a distance. It was a man with a big brass pot on his head. I went out to intercept him since it was my duty to see that no one disturbed Baba's privacy. I stopped him and asked him, "Why have you come here? What do you want?"

It turned out that the man was one of the local Baba lovers. He was a poor man, and not at all a prominent man in the community or in the work connected with Baba. I asked him what he wanted and he explained that he had brought some hot water for Baba in case he wanted to bathe.

I was wonderstruck at how timely this man's intervention was — Baba had just expressed the wish to have a bath and within minutes this man appeared with a large pot of hot water on his head. Not only that, but I learned later, he had come from quite a distance carrying the water. No one had told him to bring the water, he had just felt prompted to do it.

I thanked the man sincerely, as you can imagine, since this hot water had come just at the right moment and I sent him home and then immediately took the hot water in to Baba so he could have his bath. At the time I was deeply impressed that the man had brought hot water at precisely the moment Baba wanted it, but I thanked the man and forgot all about it.

Years later, when the Avatar Meher Baba Trust Deed was being drawn up, Baba named the various beneficiaries of the Trust. Most of these people were well known to us. They were those who had surrendered their all to Baba and, being perfect in every detail, Baba was now seeing to their needs in the event that he dropped his body.

As I said, we were familiar with all of the beneficiaries, but suddenly Baba added a name that surprised us. It was the name of this poor man from Andhra who had brought the hot water so many years before. He was one of the only two Baba lovers from all of Andhra to be named as beneficiaries.

See how the Lord is. I had thanked the man and forgotten all about him. Baba hadn't thanked the man because he had been inside the house when the hot water had arrived, but he hadn't forgotten him. Man thanks and forgets. The Lord does not always thank, but remembers.