It is through the practical and material that Baba brings us to the spiritual. Baba never likes brooding, nor does he want us to be too concerned over the world's problems. They are his business. It is sufficient to know that life itself is the opportunity for "The Religion of Life." One close follower of Baba's had written concerning her brooding about those who do not dare to sacrifice for truth, and in answer to her letter, Norina wrote, "What does one lose in serving for some time the Divine Theme? Have you the impression that this world is not well-organized to make this Ascent to Oneness come through? I find in this same ideal of life that you call mental and material, a great good, so as to say, a chance, to live in spirit. What do we need to make our own self be more spiritually understanding and able to express the spirit in life as it is? We can only venture in every moment of life to experience the supreme Existence through Love."

Some years earlier, Nadine Tolstoy, in a letter to A.  ——  expressed a very beautiful thought. ". . . Your dear letter touched my heart as it came from the heart where so much is hidden. That is always Baba's great influence, to bring out the treasures that lie dormant in the heart and to inspire one toward their enfoldment in life and through life. So truth and pure beauty lure the heart toward perfection and inspire one to go through all its stages of real cognizance and self-discipline and greater understanding."

By the tenth of August, Baba was planning to return to Meherabad. In a letter to Will Backett dated August 10, 1947, from Satara, I wrote: "At the end of this month we return to Meherabad and Pimpalgaon, after being away 16 months. Baba has just left by car for Hyderabad State to contact advanced souls. (August 10 to 16.) Baba looks tired. He has tremendous work on now and fasting with it—it is too much. He is 54 or 55 now but still he goes on working. He asked us all what love was, and I said, 'Trying to please you.' He was telling us that so often loving him meant extra suffering for him that he often did not want to hear the word 'love.' Really he was bringing home the truth to all of us that we must love him as he wants to be loved and not as we want to love him,—to be ready to obey him in everything, and never to leave him. Of all his disciples you and Mary come as near as any to the love Baba wants. You both desire nothing other than to love Baba for love's sake and you love Baba without thought of self, in your service. Such love Baba wants and then our love is no burden."