living there were Kitty, Rano, Irene, Norina, Elizabeth and Nadine.

In December, 1938, started the famous tours with His disciples in a blue bus specially built for these trips. On the second tour, they stayed seven months in Bangalore, Mysore where Baba laid the foundation stone for the first Universal Spiritual Centre. The group then toured till 1941 and were in Ajmer when Norina and Elizabeth and Nadine were sent hack to America. The rest of about thirty disciples returned to Meherabad and that was the beginning of the very austere regime. The group was divided into threes and were not permitted to speak to each other or enter eachothers’ rooms. Food was cut down to a minimum and Baba started to withdraw from the women, spending very little time with them. No one was allowed to embrace Him except Mani and Mehera. In 1944, Baba divided the group into two. He moved to Meherazad with Mehera. Mani, Meheru, and Margaret, alternating with Kitty, Rano and Naja. All the others were left at Meherabad. They only saw Him when they were summoned to go the cinema. He made tours from Pimpalgaon with this small group. In 1946, Margaret and Irene were sent back to Europe and all the groups were dispersed to different places and were told to keep their destination secret from the others. This applied also to the men. No one was allowed to communicate with Baba; only Mehera, Mani and Mehru stayed with Him.

In 1947, this phase ended with the arrival of Norina and Elizabeth. They met Baba at Satara and most of the women were re-summoned to Meherabad — also the men to their own quarters. These moves synchronized with the freedom of India, August 14th, 1947 — from British rule.

In order to rebuild Pimpalgaon to make room for myself and Jean, Baba and the small group moved to a bungalow in Ahmednagar. In January 1947, He distributed grain and cloth to 4,000 poor in Ahmednagar. He also started to go to Bombay to contact masts and found two brothers and seven sisters —all of whom with one exception were God-intoxicated.

On February 9th, 1948, Baba's visit to Allabad coincided with one of the great days of the Ardha Kumbha Mela — the day known as Ainavasici. the day of the new moon, when the sadhus bathe at the confluence of the two sacred rivers— the Jumna and the Ganges. This visit was three days before the ashes of Ghandi were immersed in the waters. Baba and His men went to the fair grounds. It was said that 30,000 sadhus were present, apart from about two million people.

From 7 to 10 a.m.. Baba contacted 4,000 sadhus. He said there were among them only about seven advanced souls. Baba said that He had worked seven years with boys, seven years with men and seven years with women and now He was concentrating on this universal work.

July 25th. We got more information of early days from Khorshed (Gulmai's niece). She and all her family were followers of Upasni Maharaj, Baba's second Master. One day, Maharaj told his mandali they should follow Baba. He said Baba had enough power in His little finger to set the universe aflame. Khorshed met Baba when she was only twelve and loved Him from then on, She was in the first group of women to be with Him, which included Mehera and Naja. They lived in a very primitive thatched hut but in Nasik they saw little of Baba. Later they were put to cook and from 2-6 p.m., Mehera and Khorshed made 1,000 chapatis. Whole families followed Baba and all seemed wholeheartedly devoted to Him. She said at one time during the war, they had to chant the names of God from 5-6 every morning, then, after a five minute interval, they had to meditate for an hour.

Sometimes they were with Baba at the cinema at 5:30 am., usually seeing a three-hour program. This was for Baba's work. At this period, He found fault with everything and called them "second-hand furniture”. He said: "Women can't keep quiet about anything, even when they are God-realized."

At another time, Margaret had to read aloud for hours at any time of the day. She also went through quite a time having to write a short story each day. He told them: "If you don’t want to be old before your time, be cheerful in deed, word and thought, and in