Criticism

Amiya, upon being queried about this, said, "What happened, exactly, was that by this time in 1966 all Baba workers -- speakers, singers and writers -- lots of invitations were coming to them to grace other centres' programmes, and they were insisting on our being everywhere, and it was a real trouble going from place to place. So many of us had to go. What must have happened, I guess, was that the Jabalpur programme must have suffered. If we had invited speakers and singers from some other centre to our place and then left the place, there wouldn't have been this complaint. But we all just took our bags and baggages on our backs and left to cater to the invitations sent to us from Delhi and Dehra Dun, and Benares and Calcutta and Lucknow and this and that. So what happened was that in consequence Jabalpur suffered."

"I had gone on a walking tour, stopping at villages, holding functions, throughout the night, almost, having scanty sleep and no time to rest even, and it went on and on, and then on the fifth day I returned home. When I returned home, within a few minutes a gentleman came and said, 'AKH, you are expected to give a lecture at Perfect Poetry campus today.' I said 'I've just come back after a five day long tour.' He said, 'We want you, and we won't spare you, because we have already announced.' So again I had to go out to speak, which is itself a story. And then I received this telegram. ' ALL PROGRAMS EXCELLENT OTHER PLACES JABALPUR PROGRAMME HOPELESS."

"When the telegram came, I said to myself that I must have made some mistake. The mistake was I left Jabalpur, and that kept me thinking, 'why should I have left Jabalpur?' But you see, there is no objection shown in this letter about Rajani Kant's going, about Girija Nandan's going. All the objection seems to be about my going away from Jabalpur and Pankhraj's going away from Jabalpur. I couldn't understand. Of course really at that time we were not only very sad, we were doing our very best as far as Baba was concerned. Till today, I am wondering what Baba meant by it. Perhaps Baba wanted to give an emphasis on the point that I should be more concentrated on Jabalpur, because His mast ashram had been here. On the other hand, if all the time you are being praised, you become a spoiled brat. Doing work does not mean loving Baba. 'You concentrate on Me more and love Me more.' Or maybe this was just to get rid of the ego part of thinking that we were good workers. By hurting us it brings us closer to Him, because we forget to love Him."