Baba’s words held particular significance for a new lover from Calcutta named Panchu Gopal Nandi, 45, a devout Hindu who was a divisional engineer. After a very difficult ordeal, his wife died a year and a half ago, and Nandi turned to God to show him the way. A friend lent him God Speaks, and later he contacted the local Meher Center. When his turn came that day to have Baba’s darshan and touch Baba’s feet, he recalled:
I gazed and gazed and gazed at his radiant, exquisitely handsome and compassionate face with an unusually broad forehead. I forgot the time and the place. It appeared to me as if I was seeing the sunrise. My eyes got dazzled and I lowered them to his feet. I glanced at the sole of his foot which was partly pointing toward me. I looked intently at it to find out if there were signs of lotus, conch shell, flag, et cetera, which I had read Lord Krishna had. Since such an opportunity would never come to me again, I was struggling to look at the partly exposed surface of Meher Baba’s sole, when he immediately turned the full surface of it toward me so that I could have a better view. He had read my thoughts. Even then, I could not see any signs; but signs or no signs, this little incident convinced me that nothing passes unnoticed, unheeded and uncared-for by him, the omniscient and ever-merciful One.
During the period after the death of my loving wife, and before my coming in contact with Meher Baba, my life was dry and wretched, completely shattered to pieces and devoid of all values, or any sense of beauty and joy.
I shunned society. I became completely aloof and distant from all. Inside, I was dying every moment. But after I came in contact with Baba, a complete metamorphosis took place in my life. The dark despair left me entirely and was replaced by his loving, sweet remembrance.
-www.lordmeher.org, p4981
May, 1963; Guruprasad