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

76 THE GOD-MANon Love, on God, and on the Spiritual Path. He would also be with them during their lessons,and in the intervals he would have them to sit near him and sacred songs would be played onthe gramophone. When the weather got colder in November, Baba decided that Toka was tooinclement for the boys and ordered that the ashram and school should be removed back toMeherabad. At this date the number of boys was 102, of whom 49 were Hindus, 20 Muslims,32 Zoroastrians, and 1 Christian. All the boys, except those in the Prem-Ashram, were given avacation and sent home during the removal. As soon as this decision had been come to, thefather of Ali took away his son for the third time.Within three weeks new huts had been constructed on the old site at Meherabad, and theboys were invited to return, which the majority did; but instead of Ali there came his father insearch of the boy, who had been placed in a school at Bombay, from which he haddisappeared. Ali was not found at Meherabad, but his father was persuaded to allow him tostay if he did turn up. On the following day Ali arrived. Another boy, Ahmed Muhammad,who had been taken away by his parents in August from Toka, also decided to return, andleaving home without money or food he found his way back on foot, taking six days.A change in the curriculum was made, an English course being substituted formatriculation, and the school was renamed Hazrat Babajan English School. Baba continued togive most of his time to the Prem-Ashram boys. To teach humility, for a period of one monthhe cleaned the boys' latrines, allowing only his younger brother to help him. But the days ofthe school were numbered.During the summer of this year, 1928, Rustom K. Irani was sent to England to endeavourto get Western boys to enter the school; but he encountered unexpected difficulties, for no onecould understand why free education in India should be offered to English children, and whenthese difficulties arose Baba sent him a cable telling him to return at once. The outcome ofthis visit was, however, that three English people who had come into contact with Rustom setout for India to stay with Baba, and arrived at Meherabad in June, where they remained, livingunder Baba's direction, until 2 January of next year.In the middle of October sadhu Christian Leik, a Russian, who had lived much in Englandand America and was on his third pilgrimage to India, came to Baba. Leik was a spirituallyminded man, a disciple of Ramakrishna; he used the name 'sadhu' out of respect for sadhuSundar Singh, the Indian Christian mystic and teacher, who visited