THE GOD-MAN The Life, Journeys and Work of Meher Baba with an ...

152 THE GOD MANthe area of their contacts and influence with a view to counteracting the panicky state of theirminds."Exceptional cases and circumstances, requiring readjustment of routine lives may becommunicated to me...."When Sir Stafford Cripps came to India bringing the British Government's offer to the Indianpeople of full independence after the war, Baba issued a message to the leaders of all politicalthought throughout India entitled 'Action and Inaction', and another on 'The Need for CreativeLeadership in India', in which he said that if handled with creative leadership, the presence ofconflicting elements in Indian life could be utilized for bringing into existence a rich world culture,which would not only rejuvenate and harmonize Indian life, but give a new tone to the life of thewhole world. Rebellion against continued British rule increased, and during the succeeding yearsof great trial, further messages were issued from time to time, on unity, on the hidden treasure ofthe self, and other themes.During 1943 Baba's mother died at her home. He was then at Mahabaleshwar; receiving thenews at night, he went at once to Poona. Shirinbanoo was sixty-five. She had often stayed with thewomen mandali for weeks at a time. This place, Mahabaleshwar, which has already beenmentioned, was to gain importance in Baba's work, for he often stayed there. A small town, 71miles south of Po on a, on the crest of the Western Ghats, at 4,000-5,000 feet, a favourite British-Indian hill station, with, however, an excessive rainfall.Baba emerged from seclusion in April 1946 when a house was taken at Mahabaleshwar in thegrounds of which a mast ashram was built, and majzoob-Iike or salik-like masts were searched forwith little result; after some months of great toil, a few men of this type and other God-mad men,also some destitute old men, were collected, bathed and cleaned by Baba, and taken care of. Withthe God-mad, Baba would sit alone for long periods. Dr Donkin's record is detailed and remarkable.This continued until May the year after, when Baba, the mandali and masts moved to Satara, asmall historic town, where an ashram was set up in a one-time military camp, and other masts werebrought from far-away places. Among them was an important mast known as Chacha, about whomsomething must be said.Chacha was a Pathan, whose real name was Nur Ali Shah. As were most masts, he was aMuslim, and Baba had first met him in February 1939 at Ajmer in the Aravilla Hills, where he hadestablished a small mast ashram. Chacha lived in a squalid hovel near the shrine of