In the dazzling lights of the hall, Baba looked divinely beautiful in his white robe with his hair falling to his shoulders — a figure that captivated the hearts of all.
Baba's instructions were that visitors were not to ask questions and should leave after a handshake with him. But there were many who were so enthralled and felt so intoxicated that they would not leave. Their words of wonder echoed throughout the room:
"If Christ were alive today, he would look like him."
"What a divine glow on his face!"
"He does not seem to belong to this world."
"Can any man be so beautiful!"
"He is the living Christ!"
"How marvelous is his divine attraction."
"I feel like looking at him forever!"
"My eyes are dazzled by his beauty."
"I just cannot leave."
"For the first time in my life, I have seen divinity!"
␞"What a sweet face!
"How holy is his divine purity!"
"Nothing can be said about him. My tongue is stuck."
"How electrifying was his touch! I felt a shock pass through me."
"My God! I was senseless."
"What is happening to my heart?"
"Oh, how wonderful is his form."
"What brilliance! What beauty! What a smile!"
"I am amazed!"
It took two hours for Baba to shake each person's hand. The following message was then read out:
Since arriving in America, I have been asked many times what solution I have brought for the social problems now confronting you — what did I have to offer that would solve the problems of unemployment, prohibition and crime that would eliminate the strife between individuals and nations, and pour a healing balm of peace upon a troubled world?
The answer has been so simple that it has been difficult to grasp.
The root of all our difficulties, individual and social, is self-interest. It is [self-interest], for example, which causes corruptible politicians to accept bribes and betray the interests of those whom they have been elected to serve; which causes bootleggers for their own profit to break a law designed, whether wisely or not, to help the nation as a whole; which causes people to connive for their own pleasure in the breaking of that law, thus causing disrespect for law in general and increasing crime tremendously; which causes the exploitation of the great masses of humanity by individuals or groups of individuals seeking personal gain; [it is self-interest] which impedes the progress of civilization by shelving inventions which would contribute to the welfare of humanity at large, simply because their use would mean the scrapping of present inferior equipment; which, when people are starving, causes the wanton destruction of large quantities of food, simply in order to maintain the market prices; which causes the hoarding of large sums of gold when the welfare of the world demands its circulation.