On 11 October 1933, a woman visitor asked Baba, "When a person is surrounded on all sides by untoward circumstances and difficulties, without any avenue of escape, would he or she be justified in doing something which would ordinarily be termed undesirable or indecent?"
Baba answered:
It is justifiable for a person in such circumstances to do anything, provided there is no personal self-interest or pleasure involved. For example, if in order to pick up a silver coin from a pile of excrement, a person soils his hand and then washes it, he cannot be blamed for doing so. He dirties his hand with a certain purpose in mind and washes it after his objective is achieved. It is no sin.
Here is another example: Suppose a man is facing adverse circumstances on all sides — his family is starving and one member is on his deathbed. The man has no wherewithal to provide nourishment or medicine for his dying relative and is quite helpless. In this case, if the man has to resort to undesirable or even illicit means to save the life of another, without any thought for himself or his own happiness, he is justified in doing so! He is forced to do it out of selfless motives to save the lives of others.
In brief, this means that however wicked an action may seem to be, it should not be judged on the basis of the world's standards of morality, but purely on the underlying motives. This is the spiritual point of view or standard of judgment, however shocking or absurd it may seem to the worldly minded.
Lieutenant Commander A. B. B. James also saw Baba on the morning of 11 October. When he arrived, he seemed depressed and confused. He looked like a broken, unhappy man as his child was seriously ill, and it caused him and his wife tremendous suffering. Baba had promised him the previous year that the child would recover and their story had been given wide publicity in the newspapers. The fact that Baba's assurance had remained unfulfilled added to the couple's worries. The man's friends and relatives had criticized his faith and devotion to Meher Baba. Commander James had grown desperate and was on the verge of suicide.
Baba pacified him and promised that the child would be cured in another six months; thus James would be relieved of his anxieties.