NARIMAN WAS ALL LOVE

 
Nariman was all love. A man of great humility and dignity, he was soft-hearted and selfless in his dealings with others. A prayer he wrote shows these qualities clearly:

Teach me my Lord to be sweet and gentle
In all the events of life —
In disappointments
In the thoughtlessness of others
In the insincerity of those I trusted
In the unfaithfulness of those on whom I rely
Let me put myself aside,
To think of the happiness of others
To hide my little pains and heartaches
So that I may be the only one to suffer from them.

Nariman loved Baba with all his heart, but when it came to talking about His Beloved, he was always very reticent. A few years after Baba dropped His body, His lovers were asking some of us to relate our experiences with the God-Man. When Nariman was asked, his reply was, "I met Baba, I fell in love with Him, and I followed Him. That is my experience." During the times Baba stayed with us at Ashiana, Nariman always accompanied Him around Bombay when He was contacting masts. In the early days Nariman sometimes found it embarrassing when someone recognized him or his car while Baba was bowing down to a mast on a crowded footpath, but in later years he no longer cared what anyone thought; all that mattered was pleasing Baba.

In every way Nariman lived up to the meaning of his name: "honest and faithful man." He had been so considerate, especially where I was concerned, always trying to keep me happy. This kind of love is rare. Knowing how much he loved me, I cannot even imagine how much love he had for Beloved Baba. After Baba dropped His body, Nariman used to say that I was his only attachment. He depended on me so much that I thought if I were to die first, it would be very difficult for him to adjust to life without me, especially missing Baba the way he did. I often remembered the birthday poem he had written for me way back in 1940:

Here's to you dear friend, may you
      live a thousand years,
Just to keep things smiling in this
      vale of human tears;
And may I live a thousand too —
      a thousand less a day,
Because I wouldn't care to be on earth
      and hear you'd passed away.

No matter how painful losing him would be, I had always felt it would be best if Nariman died before me, and I knew Baba loved him so much that He would take care of everything. Baba had already arranged for me to stay in Meherazad to adjust to life alone.