One exception to “visitors” was an eccentric Irishman, named Dennis Kirkpatrick. He was a tall man in his late fifties. His father had been a prominent civil surgeon in a Poona hospital. Kirkpatrick was well-educated and had stayed on in India after its independence. He had held a post as a secretary and a rector in a church, but had fallen on hard times. He was now living hand-to-mouth alone, and resembled a beggar. He was about to be evicted from a small, ramshackle room next to Guruprasad where he had been staying, because he could not pay the rent. Because the landlord had shut off the water to his room, Kirkpatrick would walk to Guruprasad every day, collect water in a small brass bucket and carry it back to his room in the blazing hot sun. Baba noticed him and instructed Meherjee to help him financially. Baba remarked that he was like a mast.
Kirkpatrick saw Baba several times during Baba’s residence at Guruprasad. Baba would ask him, “Are you happy?” Sitting on his knees, the Irishman would silently gaze up at Baba and nod.
One day Baba asked Kirkpatrick, “Do you have everything you need?” Kirkpatrick said that he did. Baba turned to Meherjee and directed him to continue to give him a monthly allowance.
Meherjee made a face of disapproval. Seeing his expression, Baba corrected him, “Say yes, happily; otherwise, don’t agree! You have no idea what you were to gain in this. I will pay him, don’t think about it!”
Meherjee protested, “But Baba, I did not say no.”
Baba corrected him again, “You have so much money, yet you think even this small amount is too much. I did not ask it for Kirkpatrick’s benefit. I am giving you the opportunity of serving me; you don’t realize it.”
Meherjee handed Kirkpatrick the amount and began seeing to his welfare.*
-www.lordmeher.org, p5222
Apr/May, 1966; Guruprasad
*Footnote in LM: The monthly stipend from Meherjee on Baba’s behalf continued until Kirkpatrick died in 1973.
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“Always be in readiness to serve the cause of humanity. Select the kind of work you are qualified to do by your individual aptitude and abilities. And whatever service you can render must faithfully be carried out.”
(Sparks from Meher Baba, p15)