"If I asked you to sit on the verandah for one year, you would start wondering why. That would make you sink deeper and deeper into thought, and your mind would harass you. Perchance you might have agreed to do it, but then you would have repented, come to trouble, and had millions of thoughts.

"Therefore, I tell you candidly, never try to be friends with us [Masters]; and if you want that friendship, then seek it with your life in the palm of your hand. Otherwise, instead of gain, you will come to ruin. Instead, it is better if you take darshan and offer homage from a distance and depart."

Several years were to pass before Savak was ready to completely surrender to Meher Baba. Baba innocently inquired about Savak's wife Nergiz, without informing Savak that Nergiz had met him at the Talatis'. Baba instructed Savak not to neglect her or their baby daughter.

Rustom Dinyar and Kharmen Masi, 35, had become regular visitors to Meherabad, and Kharmen's sons had stayed in the Meher Ashram school for some time. During this stay in Bombay, Baba visited their house. On that occasion, Baba indicated to Kharmen Masi that he was very hungry. She replied that food was being brought from outside. "I do not like restaurant food," Baba replied. "I only require leftovers — chapatis and dal."

Oddly enough, this was the only food left over in the house. But when Kharmen Masi opened the cupboard to get the food, she found it empty. She looked puzzled, and Baba asked her what was wrong. After Kharmen Masi explained, Baba remarked, "When you were taking a bath, a thief came and ate up all the dal and chapatis. Do you know who that the thief was? He is standing before you!"

Kharmen Masi's eyes welled up with tears and she exclaimed, "O God, strange are Your ways! You ate stale bread and dal from the house of a poor woman like me. How loving you are to someone as unworthy as I. You are the sole support of the poor, Baba!"

Taking her in his embrace, Baba gestured, "You are not poor; you are very rich! What wealth is greater or higher than love? It is because of your love that I have come to your home."

Kharmen Masi's love for the Master was exemplary, and she would later live and travel with the women mandali for two years.