On this voyage, Baba's cabin on the lower deck was comfortable, quiet and secluded as desired and he ate in his room. As soon as the ship reached open sea, Baba began chalking out a schedule for the Westerners' stay in Nasik, and drew up a list of individual duties for each person.
A fellow passenger, J. Turner of the Associated Press (and Reuters), who had met Baba in Bombay four years before, saw Chanji and asked him where Meher Baba was. At first Chanji tried to put him off and told him Baba was in Nasik, but then Baba agreed to permit Turner a brief meeting to pay his respects and shake Baba's hand on the morning of the 13th, provided he did not disclose Baba's presence on board the ship to any of the other passengers.
Baba would take a morning and evening stroll, and the ship passed Aden as he was standing on the deck late in the afternoon of 19 November.
The following day, Baba expounded on his work at the Rahuri ashram:
It is all a game of consciousness, directing the spiritual consciousness of the God-intoxicated [masts] toward material consciousness by my physical service to them, and uplifting the material consciousness of others to God-consciousness by my spiritual guidance to them. Thus, my infinite consciousness works two ways. This present activity at the Rahuri ashram is my latest external activity before I speak.
I have called the Westerners to India to see and share in my work. They are to be trained in a spirituality made practical, and, although it will not be a crown of thorns for them, it won't be a bed of roses, either. Spirituality has its inherent difficulties, but my love and guidance will render it smooth and easy for them.
So to make others render service, I myself have to serve.... To guide, instruct and help humanity, I have to come down to their level of understanding and consciousness, and it is here that I am generally misunderstood. But even if I am misunderstood, my coming down to normal consciousness to help mankind does not in any way interfere or undermine my infinite state.
For example, a graduate who has a M.A. degree comes down to the level of a student whom he teaches the alphabet to by writing the letters of the alphabet himself. It does not mean that he has ceased to hold a M.A. because he writes the alphabet.