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

24 THE GOD-MANto his host; but some time later he went to Bombay to talk with Narayan Maharaj privately. Thelatter gave Kashinath a roll of betel-leaf telling him to masticate it thoroughly, and then observed:'Today you have been so much painted as till now nobody was ever painted.' It was beyondKashinath to grasp the significance of these words. After a short while he went to Sherdi to Sai Baba,his prejudice against him having melted away. After a short time Sai Baba made Kashinath, thenabout forty-two years old, Godrealized, and afterwards brought him down to a little normalconsciousness. Sai Baba told him to go to the Khandoba temple where he lived for four years.Possessed only of a little earthly consciousness, he sometimes acted as a madman. After four yearsSai Baba brought him to the consciousness of the earthly world. Thus at forty-seven years of ageKashinath Govindrao Upasni now called Upasni Maharaj became a Perfect Master.Soon after, Upasni Majaraj left Sherdi and after staying at a number of places went to Sakori, avillage about nine miles from the Chitali railway station, where he stayed for the rest of his life. Hisliving place was small, but he built a large and splendid temple near it. The temple was open toHindus of low as well as high caste, and also to non-Hindus. He generally wore nothing save a loincloth,and his food was as simple as his clothing. His behaviour was often strange. When he died on24 December 1941, at the age of seventy-one, his shrine became a holy place and Sakori is now acentre of pilgrimage.The accusation was made against Upasni Maharaj that he sometimes not only vituperated butseverely beat his followers. The charge can also be levelled against other Sadgurus. Upasni neverasked for money, but when it was offered would take it; he lived in dust and filth.When Upasni Maharaj saw Meher for the first time in the temple of Khandoba, as I have said, heflung a stone at him. This was to help to bring Meher down still further into gross consciousness, toawaken him to this world. The stone hit Meher's head with force, but he did not resent it. He saidafterwards that it made him know that he was 'the Ancient One'. He stayed with Upasni for two days,then returned to Poona. From that day onwards Meher started to revisit Babajan, sitting with herevery night for about an hour. On one occasion she pointed at him and declared, 'This child of minewill shake the world to a great upheaval.'It is no wonder that the members of Meher's family considered him to be weak in the head, not inthe least in a high spiritual state. Almost every day he would go to the Parsi tower of silence and sitthere for hours, or to the jungle beyond, where he would sit knocking his