what internal work I am doing while playing cards. In the world many people play cards, but the playing of cards here is quite different. It is because it is God playing cards.” Sometimes Baba would give us some talks in the afternoon or He would sit in front of our room quietly moving His fingers, immersed in His internal working. At 3 p.m. Baba would return to His room. Only on some exceptional days would He return to the meeting hall at 4 or 5 p.m. After Baba left us we would talk to the mandali or go for short walks and after dinner hear lengthy conversations between Eruch and Harry late during the silent night of Meherazad. We had to talk only in whispers lest we disturb Baba. I remember one day a tap had been inadvertently left open and the noise of the splashing water was enough for the night watchman near Baba to be sent to enquire about so much noise.

Some of their experiences that mandali told us on the first day of our stay are of interest:

One of the mandali before joining Baba roamed at large as a "Naga Sadhu" (dervish). Baba says that there are very few genuine "sadhus." Most of them are rogues camouflaged by the ochre robes which "sanyasis" and "sadhus" wear. This mandali member did not differ much from Baba's definition of a false "sanyasi." He said he enjoyed that life as people bowed to him, garlanded him and fed him all the delicacies they could afford. He said he had a very inflated ego. On his rambles he reached Satara and heard that Meher Baba was living there at that time. He went to see Baba but was not permitted by the mandali to enter the gates of the compound as Baba was in seclusion and would not meet anyone. He sat outside the gate determined to see Baba. It soon started raining heavily and he was drenched, but he did not budge. He waited outside the gates for eight hours and at 3 p.m. Baba called him and gave him darshan. Baba asked him to mend his ways and give up posing as a saint. He soon changed his mode of living and joined Baba.

Another mandali member was interested from childhood in visiting tombs of great saints. He met Tajuddin Baba, one of Baba's Sadgurus, at Nagpur, who told him, “All will be well with you." He used to visit Babajan, another of Meher Baba's Sadgurus, often at Poona. He would never say anything to Her. One day She said to him, "You visit me so often but you have never asked for anything." He replied, "You are the ocean and I am but a traveler, and have come to drink water from that ocean." He had the good fortune of also meeting Narayan Maharaj, the third of Meher Baba's Sadguru, who made him sit near Him. Lastly he met Upasni