“When you close your eyes and take the head as the centre of your being, then you do not feel your body. Do it easily and don't worry if you cannot do it." Nadia said, "I sat with my eyes open yesterday." Baba replied, "If you can look at me in such a concentrated manner that you forget your body, it is best. If you do not close your eyes, look at me, but be so immersed in me that you forget your body. This is very good. I leave it to you.

"What I mean is, I work internally for the world and if you, during that time forget your body and concentrate on Baba, you share the work. My work and I are inseparable, like the rose and its smell. Both are inseparable, but the rose is not the smell, and the smell is not the rose. The thorn and its pricking are inseparable, but the pricking is not the thorn — the thorn is not in the pricking. The smell is in the rose, but the rose is not in the smell."

There followed a long discourse on Creation and its purpose, which ended with Baba saying that "God has power, bliss, light, peace, but he wants to express himself. So to gain consciousness, all this fun has been started — yet in this fun I suffer infinitely." Then in response to a question. "Suffering is essential for the elimination of the ego, just as it was necessary for you to scrub in order to eliminate the stain from my coat."

May 1st, 1937. Baba gave us the following interesting explanations in answer to some of the questions put by the group. Symbolism of the washing of a Perfect Master's feet: "The feet, which are physically the lowest part of the body, are spiritually the highest. Physically, the feet go through everything good and bad, beautiful and ugly, clean and dirty, yet they stay above everything. So, spiritually, the feet of a Perfect Master are above everything in the universe (which is as dust to them).

"When people come to a Perfect Master and touch his feet with their hands they lay the burden of their sanskaras on him ― he collects the sanskaras from all over the universe, just as an ordinary person collects dust on his feet in walking.

"Those who love him deeply and wish to share his burden as much as possible, wash his feet with honey, representing red sanskaras*, milk, representing white sanskaras and place at his feet a cocoanut which represents the mind and symbolizes their complete surrender."

May 4th (before breakfast in the living room at Nasik):

Q. "What is destiny, luck, fate etc?"

*Impressions.