RDS in Patna
Our regular bi-monthly RDS took place in Patna during the second week of December. I arrived one day late, and when I reached there I noticed that the atmosphere was very serious. … Seeing the seriousness in everyone’s demeanor, I asked one senior dádá what the matter was. He laughed and said, “You will find out tomorrow.” The next morning I discovered that Bábá had started reviewing the sixteen points of the workers. He was asking whoever came in front of him whether they were following this rule or that rule, and that was very embarrassing for the workers, especially since it didn’t matter to Bábá if márgiis were present or not in those meetings. I should point out here that up until then the sixteen points as a system didn’t exist. The rules existed—we knew that we should meditate four times a day, take half bath before sádhaná, meals, and sleep, and fast on ekadashi—but it hadn’t been systematized, nor had Bábá placed so much emphasis on the rules as he was doing now in this RDS. We used to fast, for example, but we weren’t so strict about it. Sometimes we would take a lassi on fasting days, or fruits, and sometimes we wouldn’t bother to fast at all. And Bábá never enforced it. But now everything had changed. He had decided to systematize all the rules and give them a fixed form. He still hadn’t settled on the final format when I arrived, and he wouldn’t for several days more. Sometimes it was fifteen points, sometimes seventeen. Only after some deliberation did he settle on the final division into sixteen points. But in the meantime he was checking each of the workers, to see if they were following the various rules that he had given over the years. …Read the story
— An ácárya, Patna, Ácárya Nityashuddhánanda Avadhúta, “Samarpan: At the Feet of the Master”, “Bábá is Arrested”
