Ba's dead
body was cremated alongside the Samadhi, where the ashes of Mahadevbhai
had been deposited. What a coincidence! For, Ba had often said, "I will be
always by the side of Mahadev."
The cremation ceremony lasted rather long, till four o'clock in the afternoon. But
Bapu till the very end sat quietly near the funeral-pyre, in spite of repeated
requests to get up and have some rest. But he did not budge from there, saying
as it were, out of the depths of his whole being, "How can I leave her like
this,—she who was my companion in life for sixty-two long years? Even Ba would
not forgive me for such a lapse."