ONLY HE COULD DO IT

 
One can smile at Norina's naivete about whom to bring to Baba, but it is interesting to note, first, Baba gave in to her whims, and second how lucky these people were to meet Him, ready or not! Sometimes He refused, for example, in India, she begged Baba to meet Krishnamurti (he once was acclaimed as Avatar of the Age by the Theosophists, a position he wisely repudiated). Baba said, "Leave him alone, he is on the fifth plane and will stay there until he dies."

It was she who told me Einstein met Baba (the mandali have no record of this meeting). His daughter Maria had been drawn to her in her role of the Madonna. She said Einstein remarked, "All I know is nothing compared to what Baba knows."

She introduced a very well-known Italian philosopher to Baba. He literally entered talking about God, God this and God that, spouting metaphysics. Suddenly Baba threw His alphabet board into a corner of the room and the man stopped talking instantly. Tears came into his eyes. Silently he experienced Baba's real darshan — an overwhelming wave of divine love. He bowed to Baba as he left, apologized and said, "Now I know what Divine Love is."

One day at Winstead, Connecticut, where Elizabeth and Norina had established a summer retreat, she told us a mother and daughter would visit us. This is the mother's story: she was five months pregnant and was driving herself and a woman friend, a well-known opera singer, over the Alps to Rome, to meet Baba. There was a bad accident and the friend was killed. Overcome with guilt and remorse, the woman met Baba, who told her, only He could do it, but He would switch the soul of her unborn child with the soul of her friend. Her daughter was thus her old friend.