Although Audrey had always had a fear of heights, she recalled that she had a feeling of perfect safety whenever traveling with Baba. She had gotten dysentery and Baba ordered her to fast for a day, with the exception of one tangerine. She was completely normal by the next day.
The men mandali (and Quentin), who were sent in advance by bus, had rented four houseboats for the stay. The women had no idea how cold it would be in Kashmir. They were under the impression that April, a summer month in India, would be comfortable, and had sent all their warm clothing in trunks from Bombay to Colombo, from where (according to the original plan) they were to proceed to China. Srinagar was freezing and they had to purchase woolen clothing. Baba instructed them not to buy anything else. Elizabeth had wanted to make other purchases, but she obeyed Baba's wish.
Baba took them by bus to various sights in Srinagar and gave spiritual discourses. Topics included the different types of agents, evolution and involution, and how the first circle was formed. A few interesting excerpts:
[Agents can be both physical and invisible.] Physical agents are more powerful than invisible ones. The agent in Rawalpindi has 700 invisible agents working for him. Each section of the world has a chief agent. The one in Rawalpindi is a saint known by everyone in the city. He is middle-aged and wears no clothes. He is on the fifth plane and knows everything I have done up to the fifth, but he cannot go beyond it [see my workings above his station]. Some agents are known, others live unknown but have helpers around them. Before one agent dies, he trains another to take his place.
Someone asked, "Do agents make mistakes?"
Baba responded, " Sometimes, as they have to work so quickly, but it happens rarely. How do the agents work? This is most interesting. The agents in the body have minds. They are not Perfect, but they are powerful. Those agents without form have no connection with other agents because they have not undergone the process of evolution, but they too are powerful. They have no mind, no desire and no form, but are spirits and are like sparks. One who gets Illumination can see them ... There are so many. They have no mind and yet can hear and see, because they feel. Whatever they see and hear through feeling they pass it on to the Unconscious Ocean ... That message cannot go into the Ocean because it is non-personal, so the message goes to the Perfect Master. Everything these millions of agents hear and see goes to the Perfect Masters. I receive billions of messages every day, but I only deal with the important ones myself. Jesus only once explained about agents. Certain animals have insight, intuition and inspiration, but as they are not yet fully conscious they cannot grasp it. Dogs can see spirits and agents, but not being fully conscious, they do not know what they are. Kangaroos can see wonderful sights and colors, but not being fully conscious they do not grasp it. Animals do not feel in the same way as human beings feel. They don't love each other, but they have passion in full force. Even their attraction for their children is not love or feeling. Some animals eat their children. They have only attachments due to passion existing ... Very soon people on earth will be smaller and have big heads. In 150 years from now people will fly with their own [individual] machines. One of the inventions will be when one can shoot another at a distance of 1000 miles away. Man will talk less but read each other's thoughts. The movies will undergo great changes. Actors when they act and feel, that feeling will be felt intellectually by the audience ... Do you know how many times after my having become realized I came down in the world again as Avatar with you all? Innumerable times. Only in the last cycle 5,329 times, and one more now in 450 years. The universe never finishes. The end will be in the 5330 times ... In the seven stages of evolution there are 8,400,000 main stages of changing forms. This is all in the book I wrote in Meherabad which will be given to the world when I speak.
Evenings were spent in his room, where they listened to both Indian and Western recordings. Baba would intermittently explain the meaning of different lyrics when they had spiritual significance. One night when they were sitting around a blazing campfire, one of the Westerners asked Baba, "How do you know who you are — that you are the Source of all?"
Baba answered, "I knew it before everything. I came from my own Self. One cannot know Existence until one exists in that Existence."
He also said, "None can intellectually know my infinite self as I am unfathomable. And so to know me as I am one has to realize me. So don't ask questions, just listen."
On 19 April Baba took them on an outing by houseboat to Dal Lake, about four miles from Srinagar. They had tea and sandwiches on the way in the boat. With the Himalayas in the background, the mountainous scenery was spectacular, but it was cold and damp. Riding in the lake boat, all had to put on coats and got under blankets to keep warm. Wherever they had been, there had been unusually cool weather for April due to rains.
Baba commented about it, "I have turned the key."
Observing how miserable the ladies were, and to get their minds off the weather and get their blood circulating, Baba had the boat stop by land. All got off and Baba ran up and down a lawn with everyone. He was full of fun and energy, and this playful time improved their mood. On the morning of Thursday, 20 April 1933, Baba took the group to the Chashma Shahi Garden (which he had visited in 1930), and in the afternoon to Harvan Village in two buses and a car.