Permission from the Mother³²

Here is another incident in Nolini’s life. My dearest friend Debu and I were running a handwritten Bengali magazine. We were joint editors. We were of the same age, perhaps fourteen or fifteen. Now Debu has become a great homeopath.

From time to time we had literary meetings. In those days we used to call our group a debating club. We went to Nolini for the Mother’s permission. We said to Nolini, “You will be the president when we have the meeting.” We tempted him, but it did not work!

Nolini went to the Mother, and the Mother said no. Now, my friend and I also had free access to the Mother. In the evening we spoke to the Mother, and the Mother immediately said yes. We were wonderful boys! We went to Nolini and told him, “The Mother said yes. We are going to have our meeting.” How foolish we were! We got permission from the Mother, but that was not enough. We were eager to show Nolini that we had done it. But instead of getting angry, Nolini said, “I am coming. I will preside.”

Alas! I said, “We have already got our mathematics teacher to be the president.” This fellow was nothing in comparison to Nolini.

Nolini said, “I do not mind. I am coming.”

Nolini did come to our meeting. He changed his mind after the Mother gave us permission.