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

THE MASTS OF INDIA 159Viramgam and other places, reaching Rajkot on 19 November, where he contacted 150 poor people,and Ahmedabad on 21 November, where he contacted 140 sadhus. At all these places masts werecontacted. Then back in Meherazad before the end of the year.The series of mast tours lasted, with intervals, for nearly nine years, from December 1940covering over 75,000 miles. On these tours, the object was to contact masts of every kind in allparts of India; they were seldom brought to Baba, he went to them, and no ashrams weremaintained. In addition to masts, Baba sought out sadhus, who are spiritually advanced but arerarely God-conscious, and faqirs, who practise forms of yoga and among whom are manypretenders. His main concern, however, was with masts.There is a question to be dealt with before the subject is left. Why are masts so often found infilth, sometimes living in latrines? Baba's answer is:"When the mind does not pay attention to the body, the body naturally survives and looks afteritself... a sort of automatic attraction takes place which causes a man who is indifferent tocleanliness to be attracted to ... dirty surroundings. He does not purposely choose an unclean place,but tends to gravitate towards it for he is himself quite indifferent to either cleanliness or dirt. Thisdirtiness does not affect their health'."(The Wayfarers, p.34)An example of this was one of the last masts to be contacted, named Keshav. He lived in a publicurinal near the railway station in Poona, and was a revered figure in that city. Dr Donkin says thatmany of those who respected him tried in vain to get him to live in their houses. He chose to live infilth because of the self-sufficiency of his God-intoxication, not because he was insane, thoughfrom the normal point of view he was utterly mad. With some persuasion Keshav was got to leavehis urinal to be brought to Baba's bungalow in the city. When invited to be given a hot bath byBaba he vehemently refused. 'I am like your son', he said, 'I won't let you touch my feet.' Hedemanded that the jeep should take him away, and Baba agreed to this being done. For an hourBaba and his men stood around the jeep when he had got into it, trying to induce him to allow Babato wash his feet. At last he agreed to Baba pouring water on his feet as he sat there. Keshav thenbecame immediately docile and let Baba do with him as he wished. Baba fed him, and Keshavasked for a coat and one rupee, which Baba