He is physically present..

This picture has a story behind it. The full picture shows Baba posed in front of a studio back-drop, sitting in a wicker chair. It is a full-length picture showing Him from head to feet clad in His much-repaired chappals.

Eruch's mother Gaimai had a print of the original picture in her home at Nagpur. Dr C D Deshmukh, who also lived in Nagpur and had recently come to Baba, came on a visit and asked her for a picture of Baba. He picked this one, I believe, from the many pictures she had hanging on her walls. Gaimai, ever generous, gave him the picture.

She then had a dream in which Beloved Baba came to her and asked her why she had sent Him from her home. She woke very agitated and upset, not knowing what she had done. When Baba visited her, He asked specifically where that picture had gone and when told that C D Deshmukh had asked for it, told Gaimai to get the picture back. She immediately obeyed Baba and got it back. The meaning of her dream, therefore, became clear.

The picture was placed in their home in Poona, Bindra House. Baba prayed in front of this picture and told the family that He was physically present in this picture (the one they had, not all prints of it) and that when they prayed in front of it, they were praying to His physical form.

The picture is much-treasured, and hangs in Manu's room at Meherazad. If you are in Meherazad and ask Manu to show it to you, she will. The print was damaged by water when Bindra House was pulled down, but was lovingly restored by an American Baba lover whose name I have forgotten.

The photographer who took the picture was from Ahmednagar, and we had another print of this at the family home in 'Nagar, Akbar Press (also now demolished and gone). His son recognised his father's work and told my mum Roshan Kerawalla that he had the original print, which he could find and give her, if she wished. My mum immediately asked him for it, and the original print now hangs upstairs in the house at Meherabad, Huma House. But none is so special as the one He missed and got back, and in which He promised us that He would be physically present!