“Be on the spot in time, look after and supervise all work personally, in short do your duties well,”
folios #2v226-2v231, April 17, 1927 (Part One).
Among the visitors was the Chintami family with a young mother and child who were both ill. Baba pointed out that once before she had nearly died as a result of failing to carry out his instructions and here she was again suffering the consequences of committing the same mistake.
He conveyed: “Either not to ask the advice of a saint at all or if once asked, one must act strictly in accordance to the advice. For breaking the words of a Personality whom one bows down to and considers as God-Realized entails the person to a very severe punishment, though it is never known how it happens. One cannot imagine the serious consequences. That’s why I warn you.”
During the afternoon meeting with the mandali the discussion returned again to the observation of “many more striking facts” in the life of Ramakrishna which “strangely” coincided with Baba’s life and activities.
Talking about sanskaras, Baba indicated: “Small children, owing to their innocence, were more out of the grasp of Sanskaras and hence easily susceptible to spiritual training as they got spiritual impressions very easily and thus could be led to the Path equally easily.” Adults on the other hand were “hard nuts to crack.”
Noticing that Pesu was dozing, Baba remarked that Pesu’s carefree mind resembled that of Napoleon who used to sleep on horseback. Baba also joked that one day he was going to “give a good thrashing” to Adi on account of his loose tongue even if it were to result in a stint in jail.
By evening Baba was again suffering from “stiff neck and straining nerves” and he retired immediately after arti was recited at 8:30.
To the mandali’s surprise Baba appeared in the Makan early in the morning and he “seemed to be on the warpath.” He immediately questioned Chanji why Dhakay and Nisal had not yet come from Ahmednagar and whether or not he had personally supervised the morning’s sweeping and cleaning of the school. He was dissatisfied with the performance of school authorities in carrying out their duties. Someone should replace Dhakay; however only a few days previously the same situation had arisen and “none was found more fit for the post” and none came forward to volunteer.
A combination of praise and chastisement continued. Baba recognized that Dhakay and Chanji felt the weight of their responsibilities and did not purposely avoid their duties. One’s own conscience was the “best judge” of whether one did one’s duties properly. Errors were human and mistakes did happen, yet one should try one’s best.
“Be on the spot in time, look after and supervise all work personally, in short do your duties well. If in spite of all this any mistake happens, it will be overlooked or pardoned, but even if I ‘speak’ to you harshly about such mistakes, you should not take it to heart. It is enough if your own conscience tells you that you have done your best.”
Eventually the “storm” came to an end with Dhakay continuing as Principal and Chanji remaining as his assistant.