I'VE GOT TO GET WELL!

 
Another interesting story about my family and the way Baba developed our faith and love has to do with Dara, my second youngest brother, who was born in 1931. Dara developed double pneumonia when he was six months old. In those days there was no treatment for pneumonia except to apply a poultice of antiphlogiston (a paste that was supposed to draw all the congestion from the lungs) to the chest. There was little hope for such a tiny baby to recover.

Baba was in Bombay, this time staying in the family home of Kaka Baria, one of His mandali. Since Baba had not placed any restriction on our visiting Him, we could go at any time, and when we went for His darshan, my mother told Baba that Dara had double pneumonia. As we were taking our leave, Kaka Baria came to us and said, "Do you know what happened? Yesterday Baba, out of the blue, told me, 'Bring antiphlogiston. I want to apply it to my chest. I've got double pneumonia.'"

Kaka Baria knew that Baba did not have double pneumonia, but knowing the unusual ways in which Baba worked and having been trained to obey His every order without question, he brought the salve quickly. Baba, applying it to His chest, said again, "I've got double pneumonia. I've got fever and I've got to get well!" Dara's condition improved rapidly and he recovered. If Kaka Baria had not told us this story, we would not have known how directly Baba had intervened to save Dara's life.