To return to our first evening at Nasik on Christmas ... after Kaka's speech was finished, Baba took us over to the different buildings of the Meher Retreat. This consisted of the main house (Freni, our hostess, had shifted with her family to a small cottage in the compound), plus the bungalow of twelve rooms, built to accommodate the majority of us.

Allotting to each one his or her separate room, a luxury never repeated during the many, many years we were in India, Baba observed our reactions to the special comforts provided, knowing full well the time would come when he would be taking them all away again for the simplicity and austerity of the Meherabad Ashram. If Baba did, from time to time, give us a treat or extra comfort, he liked us to be appreciative and responsive, not indifferent and negative. He had so often to deny himself the pleasure of giving us things we liked in order to teach us control or non-attachment. Others recall times in Meherabad when bananas and oranges would remain in the kitchen until they had to be thrown out―and Baba would see them there—but no mention would he make of their distribution; gifts, no doubt, from devotees, for fruit was rare in the early ashram days.

Baba explained his reasons for the apparent luxury in Nasik: "I would so like you all to live a simple life in India, then resume your habitual life in the West and not be affected by either one. I do not make you sleep on the floor now. Why do I arrange all these comforts for you? Because it would affect the body and react on the mind and make it difficult for me to impart truth through the mind. Drastic changes would have a reaction on the mind and the body. I will gradually withdraw these comforts from you, then again return them to you."

Baba also explained his type of Centre or Ashram: The Centre has nothing in common with the accepted notions concerning ashrams or spiritual retreats, or the strict, dry, rigid discipline usually governing them. Its special feature lies in its having my personal living guidance.

"In short, I will personally guide each of you according to the aptitude, mentality and capability of each. I want all who are dear to me to pass through certain experiences that are necessary."

The Nasik Ashram was of short duration, only seven months. The period was rich, however, in the many spiritual discourses Baba gave the group. In Nasik Baba allowed his discourses to be taken down in shorthand, later to be typed and copies distributed to each. In Meherabad, this was not done.