Mehera was still suffering from the severe results of the accident. It had affected her sight. So one day in Myrtle Beach Baba had taken her and the other women to a small paddock where horses were exercising, because Mehera loved horses. Being so eager to see them, her eyes focused properly for the first time. Margaret, who was with them, said a stallion on the other side of the field, on seeing Baba's car, raced across the field and began climbing the fence, pawing at the window of the car. She said she had rarely seen such a definite recognition of Baba in an animal.

In the following July days Baba gave "darshan" at the home of Ivy Duce on West 67th Street, New York City. It was during one of New York's heat spells and the temperature soared into the 90's. The mandali were upset that there was no air-conditioning. Baba's casts made Him uncomfortable and so they brought buckets of ice and turned fans on them. Baba usually was stripped to the waist.

On the first morning, I brought Him three gardenias tied on a ribbon. I had heard they were His favorite flower. I put them on His head, three for the trinity. One flower dangled over His cheek. I gave Him a kiss, on the left cheek. I had the sensation of "branding" His skin, leaving a deep mark of sanskaras. He smiled at me. Many people met Baba for the first time, many who hadn't made it to Myrtle Beach. The Avatar was giving them a second chance. Yet, still several did not come. At the end of the three days when Baba and a group of us were resting after the last hectic day, I thought sadly of this one and that one who hadn't come. One friend had even gotten ill in the cab. Another one had to work overtime, and so on. Baba, knowing my thoughts, shook His head and said on the board, "All those came whom I wished to come. Do not worry."

Some were surprised they didn't have a private interview. The mandali and a few others were standing around, there was always activity, Baba giving orders, etc. I asked a child of 5, riding piggy back on his father's back, whom he had just met. "God," he said. Another very old lady, Mildred Kyle, told Baba she was 95. "I am the oldest of the old, I am the Ancient One," Baba replied. One girl asked Baba how she could serve others. Baba said, "'Those who really know, know they do not have to do anything." To another couple He said, "They don't know me, but I know them." Baba gave each one a grape from the bowl beside Him. He gave the husband of one disturbed woman seven cherries, and told him to give her one cherry each day for seven days. Subsequently she recovered completely. We brought several mentally ill people to see Baba. One was able to leave the mental hospital only a month or so later and resume her teaching job. Baba says He doesn't "heal." But His mercy is always there. He put His hand on the forehead of one old retired Montessori teacher; never again did she get the headaches that had plagued her, but of which she had never complained.

Another way of Baba's working on a few, for the sake of the many, was His asking for a special boy to take care of Him, during the weeks He was to be in New York. It had to be a boy between the ages of 16 and 18, who was not a Baba lover, and who was strong enough to wheel Him around. Well, everyone got into the act, everyone "dredged up" boys of all sizes and shapes and kinds. Running out of acquaintances, even boys from the street were taken out to Scarsdale to see Baba.

I took two boys from my home in Harlem, a Puerto Rican boy and his Irish buddy. Peto had played in my house, he had looked at Baba's picture and said, "That's God, isn't