Mestre was in such a way that even to tell us something, if we had made a mistake, he had care. It once happened to me to do something that wasn’t quite right and he backed me up. After the event he said, “You was mistaken and I want you to understand why.” Then he would explain the reason.
Every leader has a lot of authority, but he didn’t exercise this authority with anybody, neither with adults nor with children. He was everybody’s friend and I never saw him loosing his temper, and I lived in his house for years.
There were times that we would have every day from 25 to 30 people at the house of Mestre. It would get worse during weekends, like a leisure area and people didn’t tire of going out there with their families, in that joy, in that love. When there was a party Mestre liked to see everyone happy; he liked to see everyone having fun. He wasn’t only a devotee and he didn’t want to be only a saint: He wanted the person to feel good as he liked to feel good himself. If someone strummed a guitar he wanted the person to play for him to listen, and it was about any kind of music, not just hymns.
He was the joy of the children. People would give candy for him (bonbon, these city things) and this way he would have his pockets full. On Sundays he would sit down and to every kid who arrived he would give those candies away. Oh! He was a friend of all the children and everybody wanted to go there. I always tell and admire that in the time of my uncle even the dogs, upon their arrival, would remain there. I tired of seeing dogs arriving with their owners and when they had to leave they didn’t want to go. “Leave the dog here, I’ll take care of him”, my uncle would say. He was a magnet to attract people.
Once I had some doubtful thoughts regarding his person and, when we both drank the Daime, Mestre said,
“Have you been around criticizing my acts?”
In that moment, when he said that, I reminded of all that I had thought. And he said,
“You see my son… The way I like you, which are my blood, I like the whole world; everyone in the same measure”
When he said “everyone equal”, we were on top of a stand, having strong visions. There was a crowd and the invisible ones passed a ruler over people’s head, making everyone even.
“You are going to forgive me, because I’ll never again have these thoughts about you”
“Look, I am working for everything here to be like this…”
Then the people were transformed into sheep’s, everything pretty white, everything pretty tamed. Whenever a head moved, the others would move as well. All humble, all like lambs.
In the next morning he said,
“How about it?”
“Look, once again you are going to forgive me, because I didn’t know it right”
“That’s it. You’re doubting me…”
I admire that love, that force, that power, that dedication; everybody’s father.