After a few days, Baba asked how the exercise was going. Some were having trouble. He urged them to continue to try, stating:
"The difficulty in realizing God lies in its infinite simplicity. Your difficulty is not your fault and you need not worry about it. It happens because your mind has been accustomed for ages to continually thinking and holding you in its command. If you cannot do so, I will help you. But I want you to try without straining, keeping yourself relaxed.
"Don't concentrate. Concentration produces ecstasy and trance and spiritual experience. Making the mind blank produces peace. It makes it possible for one to enter the Path.
"It is similar to climbing a mountain. When you reach the foot, before you start your ascent, you lay down your burden. When the mind becomes relaxed there is a tendency to doze. We must make the mind a blank consciously and at will.
"After all," he said with a smile, "I did not bring you all the way to India to show you the sights!"
Explaining further about the mind, Baba said,
"The whole creation is the result of the thinking mind. Mind binds you and mind liberates you — binds you to desires and liberates you from the same."
Two days passed in the Master's intimate company and before Baba departed from Bhandardara for Nasik on 19 December, he explained to the group:
"Every one of you has to help in my work according to your individual capacity; and the extent to which you will remain in the world will be determined by the kind of work which you are destined to perform. I will teach you how to move in the world, yet be at all times in inward communion with me as the Infinite Being. As part of your training you will have to experience both the comforts of Nasik and the discomforts of Rahuri and Meherabad, and be detached from each."
Baba concluded, "Don't worry. And don't hurry!"
He then left in the Pontiac at 1:00 P.M. with Bhagirath and the driver.
The Westerners left Bhandardara on the 22 nd and were taken to Meher Retreat in Nasik. The building where they were to stay was called Sarzat (Destiny). It had been constructed behind the main bungalow (called the Manzil [Abode]). It was a rectangular structure with twelve rooms, each furnished with a box-spring bed, dresser, cupboard, writing table and chair, an electric light and other conveniences.