the ashram on the hill. Though Baba was staying at Ahmednagar, the note said we would not see him until August 10th. Then we would go with him to Pimpalgaon. This was our first little test for we had only been asked for three months and it looked as if a month would elapse before seeing him. Our host and hostess, Homai and Meherji, were two charming Persian disciples. They and others gave us a warm-hearted welcome and did everything possible to make our stay pleasant.

All were on some regulations, most of them fasting, but one remarkable group of four women decided to say the Divine Name 1,000,000 times a day. We thought this a complete impossibility. The first day it took them 15 hours (the name had to be said aloud). After that they did it in ten hours. At the end of the first week Baba ordered them to stop and to go into silence for the second week; the third week they fed with their own hands a different poor person every day; the fourth week, they went on fast. One of the women, Dinah, had an extraordinary experience. She became unconscious; and one of the four, a doctor, said she saw all the symptoms of death, the eyes turned up, the heart stopped, and rigor mortis set in. They all called on Baba. Suddenly Dinah came to and wondered what was happening. She said she felt a deep inner peace and ecstatic calm.

Most were inclined to agree with us that Baba in this new impersonal phase was trying to push his disciples away and forcing them to stand on their own feet without his outward prop.

We left from Bombay the evening of July 18th, changing to a local train at 3:30 a.m. All the stations we passed were swarming with refugees, living where they could, in a most pitiable condition of poverty and dirt. We were told the same conditions prevailed in Pakistan. This was the aftermath of freedom from Britain and partition; more people had been killed apparently than in World War II.

At 9:00 a.m. we arrived at Ahmednagar and were met by Adi, Sr. and Kaka. They seemed surprised that we had brought so much luggage, but we explained that we came prepared for any change in plans,―our stay might just as easily be three months or three years. We drove to Meherabad, "The Ashram on the Hill," passing the men's quarters down below. Kitty Davy met us at the gate and we were then introduced to the other women living there. Several I knew from my two previous trips to India in 1933 and 1936-7.