As he noted in his diary, "What a pitiable plight of the poor occupants of Baba's cabin! Terrible to the extreme. One would prefer the real storm of the sea and the consequent seasickness and giddiness to this terrible storm of words and temperaments as experienced in his cabin."
Swami Vivekananda can be said to have done the first "spiritual spade work" in the West, when he established his American headquarters in New York City in 1895, only a year after Meher Baba was born. Vivekananda referred to New York as "the head, hand, and purse of the country." As one author put it: "The great, sophisticated, polyglot metropolis was indeed a wellspring of new ideas; it was creative and enterprising; it was the center of all the arts; it was rich, generous, and throbbing with vitality; everything was there."
On Friday, 6 November 1931, the Roma passed the Statue of Liberty and sailed into New York City harbor at two in the afternoon, docking at the West 57 th Street pier. But two hours passed before Baba and the men were allowed to disembark. An insolent immigration officer kicked up a row on board ship, unnecessarily delaying their disembarkation. He was dissatisfied with the answers given by Meredith to his questions, and suspected something suspicious about Baba's silence and alphabet board. He kept detaining Baba and the group with questions and even tried to read the board himself, but could not.
He asked Baba directly, "You have come to teach people in America without speaking? With this board? How foolish! Who gave you this silly idea?"
Baba spelled out in reply, "I have come not to teach, but to awaken."
In reply, the man laughed loudly, and Baba remarked to Chanji, "He laughs at this now, but I will show him. Poor, ignorant soul. I pity him!"
The officer then warned them, "I cannot let you pass unless someone in New York stands surety for you." Baba's trip to America had not been widely publicized and not many knew of Baba's coming. Except for three persons waiting for Baba at the dock (who were prevented from boarding the ship), there was no one present to intervene on Baba's behalf. It was an awkward situation, but it was the Master's game. Baba remained serene and calm as he meekly submitted to the interrogation by the insulting immigration agent.
Suddenly, an officer of the ship dressed in white appeared on the scene, and asked the immigration agent, "Why do you detain these men when all the other passengers have left the ship?"