Alain Youell*, 21, was an English university student who lived with Don Stevens in The Hague (in the Netherlands). Stevens wrote to Baba about coming to India for his annual Christmas vacation and asked if he could bring Alain along. Baba agreed and fixed their arrival for mid-December. But, subsequently, they were delayed several days by Stevens’ oil business meetings in Paris. After a harrowing journey, involving a torrential rainstorm in Rome, detainment in Karachi and delayed planes, they arrived in Bombay on 26 December 1959. They were driven to Meherazad with Meherjee on the 27th. Baba was quite irritated by their late arrival and stated, “Don, if you had been just one more day late, I would have canceled your entire visit.”
Alain had not been at all interested in Baba. His sole purpose in accompanying Stevens had been “to save Don from a fate worse than death.” He was coming to “check out this strange thing Don had gotten into,” as he was convinced Meher Baba was not all Don believed him to be. When they arrived at Meherazad, Alain surveyed the lonely countryside and concluded that no one would want to live there in the middle of nowhere.
They walked over to the hall, and as they went through the door, Baba came in through the opposite end. When Alain saw Baba, he sat on the ground and burst into tears. Baba went to him and gave him an embrace.
Alain later described how he felt:
I somehow got up. In that infinite second — from seeing Baba or being in his presence, or a culmination of both — I knew exactly that I had come home. I knew exactly who he was. There was absolutely no question in my mind whatsoever.
… One day Baba asked Alain what he wanted to do in life. Don had warned Alain this question would come up. Alain said he was interested in studying languages, so perhaps he would become an interpreter, or maybe an interior designer. When he said he was fascinated by people, Baba, through Eruch, said, “Psychology!
You would make a good psychologist. It will be very hard, but you will be a part of the new psychology. The present-day psychology does not work.” (Baba did not explain what he meant.)
Alain, half-joking, said, “Baba, I just want to be here with my begging bowl before you.”
Baba reacted angrily and pointed out, “You are in the West, and you have to do my work in the West. That is where you are to be.” And he added, “There will be things you will be able to do for me.”
Baba was adamant: “You have come to me and don’t need any ism. You are not to belong to any ism under any circumstances.”
… Another time, he told Alain, “You are one of the last of my old lovers. Now my new lovers will come.”
-www.lordmeher.org, p4619
Dec, 1959; Meherazad
* Alain Youell will be attending AMB Hyderabad Jubilee Hills center Anniversary on 9th Nov, 2014.