"Yes, things have been messed up a good deal here by lack of understanding," Baba commented.
"What are you going to do for this 'messed-up' country of ours?"
Baba smiled, spelling out, "It's my country, too."
He then proceeded to explain his mission of coming to the West.
Collins asked, "When you break your silence, how will you do it? By radio?"
"Certainly not by radio," Meredith Starr cried out, horrified at the thought.
"Why not?" Baba asked.
When questioned about America's problems, Baba stated: "America has great energy, but a great deal of it is misdirected. And misdirected energy produces destructive complexes, and these, in turn, produce fear, greed, lust and anger, which result in moral and spiritual decay."
"Is your aim to help us with our spiritual problems or our practical problems?"
Baba responded: "Our spiritual problems are our practical ones!"
"And just how do you intend to help?"
"The help I will give will produce a change of heart in thousands, and right thinking will then automatically result."
"Will that solve the depression problem?"
"It will solve every problem."
"Prohibition?"
"Yes, and the problem behind prohibition. I do not believe in drink, and none of my followers drink. But I know that prohibition should never have been put into effect the way it was."
"All at once?" Collins inquired.
"Yes. Hard liquor should have been barred, but not beer and wine. We might then have had a law that could have been enforced. As it is, we have a law which makes money for dishonest officials and increases vices everywhere."
Continuing, Baba spelled out, "I believe in self-control, not in coercion. Coercion is based on oppression, and results in fear and hatred. Self-control requires courage and may be induced by love. We will do many things for those whom we love which we would not ordinarily do — which we would not ordinarily have the strength of mind and power to do. How many habits have we been able to break through love which we would never have the strength to break without love? And when the love is universal love, all habits which are detrimental, either to the individual or to the social order, will be dissolved in its light.
"It is the same with the economic situation you were asking me about. There is a very close connection between a man's character and his circumstances, between his internal environment of thoughts and desires and his external social environment. 'As within, so without' is the law.