"
A strange pastime, I thought, for a non-eating saint!
"Tell me, Mother, from your own lips-do you live without food?"
"That is true." She was silent for a few moments; her next remark
showed that she had been struggling with mental arithmetic. "From
the age of twelve years four months down to my present age of
sixty-eight--a period of over fifty-six years--I have not eaten
food or taken liquids."
"Are you never tempted to eat?"
"If I felt a craving for food, I would have to eat." Simply yet
regally she stated this axiomatic truth, one known too well by a
world revolving around three meals a day!
"But you do eat something!" My tone held a note of remonstrance.
"Of course!" She smiled in swift understanding.
"Your nourishment derives from the finer energies of the air and
sunlight, {FN46-7} and from the cosmic power which recharges your
body through the medulla oblongata."
"Baba knows." Again she acquiesced, her manner soothing and
unemphatic.
"Mother, please tell me about your early life. It holds a deep
interest for all of India, and even for our brothers and sisters
beyond the seas."
Giri Bala put aside her habitual reserve, relaxing into a conversational
mood.
"So be it." Her voice was low and firm. "I was born in these forest
regions. My childhood was unremarkable save that I was possessed
by an insatiable appetite. I had been betrothed in early years.
"'Child,' my mother often warned me, 'try to control your greed.
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