Baba then mentioned the increasing awareness of his work and love for him throughout the world, especially among college students in America. And he asked about Suhas, Ginde's son, who was a student at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) and whom Baba had seen before Suhas left for America the previous year.

When Ginde returned to Bombay, he wrote to Eruch describing how he had found Baba's condition:

Beloved Baba looked a picture of radiant health with bright shining eyes, rosy cheeks, exuding joy and happiness. He did not seem to have much pain in his neck, and his movements were relatively free and spontaneous. His gait was strong, I have never seen him walk like that before; one stretch and back along the verandah was enough to make me breathe heavily. It was really a unique and thrilling experience.

But with the mandali, Baba did not always appear as radiant as Ginde had found him. This is why Baba had recently said that those who come to see him see more of his divinity than his humanity, while those who live continuously with him see more of his humanity. During the last years of his life, for the most part, Baba was restless both day and night, but outsiders would always find him as bright and fresh as a lotus flower.

Baba's casual remark, about later not being able to walk so fast, came back to the mandali a few weeks later when Baba strained a muscle in his back, which made movement painful. But although his back pain considerably slowed down his pace, Baba continued the daily walks on the verandah until it became too painful even to take one step.

In 1964, Ben Hayman had sent Baba (by air freight) a sturdy wheelchair from America, and Baba had used it throughout the past two summers at Guruprasad. The wheelchair was again unpacked for his use.

For the back pain, a folk remedy was tried: ghee was smeared on banana leaves and then plastered on Baba's back. It was an uncomfortable treatment (more so in the hot weather), but Baba did not stop it. Besides this, in the evening while wearing his sadra or a cloth, Baba would lie down and have a hot clothing iron passed over his back by Pendu. Afterwards, Eruch rubbed in some liniment to soothe the muscles, and then wrapped an elastic waistband around Baba to give support to his back.