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they could become totally free from their household duties only at night. The meeting also began to be larger day-by-day. It was monsoon and on rainy days it became difficult to accommodate the audience. Next portion of Dela could accommodate all even during rains but that portion was not made available for night meeting on account of a few fundamentalists who objected to the night attendance of ladies. Santbal tried to explain with the aid of scriptres that there was nothing wrong in night meetings and the ladies attending the same but it was of no avail. There were in all 18 members of the Managing Committee for the Dela. Out of them 14 were in favour of sparing the Dela for night meeting and also for allowing ladies to attend the same. Only 4 persons were against. Youth insisted that the majority view must be carried out. However, Santbal took the stand that so long as even a single member objected, he would not give his sermons in that portion of the Dela during night time. However, the ladies were firm in their resolve. They organised themselves and eighty-five of them were prepared to go on fast till the remaining portion of the Dela was spared for night meetings. This was all subject to the approval of the Saint. When the ladies met him for his approval, he explained to them that the course which they wanted to adopt was not in larger interest of the community because the ill-will created in the minds of some, however, wrong it might be, would linger on even after he left the place at the end of the Chaturmas. He also explained that it would not matter if he dropped his night sermons as the two nuns were already there for the whole Chaturmas.
The ladies refrained from going on fasts but the young persons of the community felt that it would be wrong if the whole Chaturmas went on without night sermons of the Saint. They, therefore, mobilised support and called a larger meeting of the Jains and non-Jains and resolved to collect funds and to find out a larger space elsewhere. This they could do at the compound of
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